Lenovo Thinkpad 11e

[Zema Bus]

I have an old Thinkpad 11e I've had since about 2013, it has an AMD 4 core/4 threads Kabini processor (similar to what was used in the consoles at the time). It's still pretty good, and the power consumption is low even by today's standards. Biggest negative is the small screen size with wide bezels. The cmos battery is dead so I was looking for a replacement. I couldn't find one specific to this model so I opened up the heat shrunk plastic cover to see which battery it actually is. I ordered a replacement, not the same one but it'll work.

Thinkpad_11e_cmos.jpg

Thinkpad_11e_cmos1.jpg

[Grogan]

Lenovo... it just has to be different than any other to make things difficult. Why else would they use that battery when everyone else uses CR2032. I don't like those twisted wires and covering you have to wreck either, I've seen Dell and their ilk do that on desktop computers too (but they were normal CR2032 batteries).

I've got an old IBM thinkpad that I use for a monitor stand now (it's about 2.5 inches high lol). It's a Pentium 133 from 1995... I added 64G of RAM and upgraded it to Windows 98. If I could find the charger it would probably still boot. That thing was $9000 when Dad bought it ("active matrix" display)

Speaking of CMOS batteries, I need to get in and take note of all the settings I've changed on this MSI board so I can change the battery in a controlled manner. It's been a while and I wouldn't remember all the workarounds and shit that I've done. At least you're probably pretty close to defaults on that little laptop.

[Zema Bus]

My replacement is a CR2032

[Grogan]

Does it fit in the casing? (same voltage, so if not size, what's different about the batteries?)

[Zema Bus]

It's slightly thicker, so it would stick up a little higher, and it has a higher capacity so it would last longer. Diameter should be the same.

[Zema Bus]

It fits in the casing though it sits slightly high, it's not by much but that could be a problem when putting the back cover back on since there's not much room for error. Some of that comes from the sticky pad they attached to it, maybe with that removed it would have enough clearance. But I hit a little snag, the connectors are different, just enough to be incompatible. I tried one intended for another Lenovo laptop of the same era (CR2016 battery), and its connector is also shaped differently. All three are electronically compatible, why would they go out of their way to use different connectors, especially from two nearly identical laptops that were in production at the same time? So the search continues. I might just try splicing the wires together.

[Grogan]

Splicing the wires should be OK I'd think.

Lenovo products are highway robbery.

[Zema Bus]

It's working, I have the CR2032 battery spliced in. I just cut and stripped the wires, twisted them together and wrapped them with electrical tape. Not the best way to splice wires but it should be OK for now. I was going to zip-tie them over the electrical tape for a better hold using some mini zip-ties but I couldn't find my stash of zip-ties.

lenovoBatteryReplaced.jpg

[Grogan]

It's not like the wires are going to be under stress, so a twist and tape should be fine.

[Zema Bus]

This notebook has Windows 8 stickers underneath but it came with Windows 7 because nobody wanted Windows 8, but at the time I quickly replaced it along with the original mechanical drive with an SSD and Linux.

[Grogan]

I bought business class notebooks (Acer) like that for people. They do that through "downgrade rights". The license was for Windows 8 or 10 but they shipped with 7.

[Zema Bus]

I upgraded the WiFi card from the original WiFi 4 or 5 to WiFi 7. Pretty cheap and quick upgrade.

Old card:

original_WiFi5_card.jpg

New card:

new_WiFi7_card.jpg

Worked right away.

ThinkPad_with_WiFi7.jpg

[Grogan]

Cool, does it make much difference?

[Zema Bus]

Indeed it does, it flew through its updates compared to before.

[Grogan]

That's a good fix then. On a newer laptop that wouldn't be so easy.

Maybe burst speeds, but you're getting better on your WiFi than my ISP connection provides.

That reminds me, I have a month or so of updates to get caught up on the raspberry pi. I need to get it ready for tomorrow, updates, shows to download etc.