Repair thread

[Amlux]

Hi there. Some somewhat annoying and unfortunate news: I am very stupid and spilled a drink on part of my T480 ThinkPad. Everything still works but the keyboard is now completely unresponsive. I've unscrewed the back and unplugged/replugged the keyboard part in as per this video:


But still no luck. So all my data is backed up just to be careful and I've ordered a new keyboard part online which should be here by next Monday. Hopefully this will work, but if the problem extends to the port itself... that might mean I have to get a new ThinkPad and go through the annoying process of transferring my OS. At least it would be a good excuse to finally try this guide from DigDeeper if so...

Using a USB keyboard for now which is enough of a workaround but fairly annoying. So don't be surprised if my activity is a bit lighter for the rest of this week.

Also note that none of this will have an effect on the CyTube being hosted on the 18th. Hopefully everything is resolved by then, but I want to enjoy watching some old favorites with everyone for my birthday one way or another. I spent a lot of yesterday encoding and preparing files for it. So get last votes in because I'll probably finalize choices and start the timer in the next few days!

Anyway, I made an update on my site about this, but I also figured I would make a thread here. Does anyone have experience with ThinkPad repair? Maybe even some advice on this particular issue? Or about restoring/transferring OSes to new hardware? Please do tell!

[Thricegreat]

I have replaced multiple parts of my ThinkPads. And one thing I have noticed is that cheap keyboards on AliExpress do not last long.

[satoridepon]

I'm very sure its just the keyboard but if you have to get a new thinkpad you can probably put the original storage drive into it and it should just work.

[Amlux]

HUZZAH! satoridepon was correct, the problem seems to have been entirely localized to the keyboard. Plugged in a new one and it just werked. All hail the ThinkPad and its glorious accessibility! So glad to not have to swap keyboards from desktop to laptop every time I need to do some shit now.

[malformed_jill]

not repair stuff but more like troubleshooting stuff...
i've been trying to get an ssd work for an old laptop, my toughbook (cf-19 mk2, probably from around 2007), but it always seems to not accept them, coming up with a 0200: Failure Fixed Disk 0 issue whenever i put them in my caddy. on the other hand, my x220 will eat them happily.
i troubleshooted everything and i think it might just be the bios or the motherboard throwing a fit with me, or that i have to get an ssd which it accepts (which i have no idea of, my samsung and hynix ssds don't work). maybe i'll just have to deal with the lack of performance on top of my ULV laptop already as i switch my distro. i'd just wanna ask if anybody else has old tech that they tried shoving an ssd into and if they ran into trouble or not

[vulonkaaz]

i repaired my pan's lid which had like no handle, because i didn't want to buy a new industrial plastic handle i went outside to cut down some dead tree branch and screw it in

IMG_20260908_151731.jpg (69.48 KiB) Viewed 4539 times