snagged one for $60, busted screen AND torn out hinges, guess someone was having a really bad day… honestly, was hoping for just the board to work so I can turn it into a ghetto AiO.

however, everything works - i5-8350u, 8 GB soldered + 1 empty slot, 93÷ battery health, keyboard and touchpad work, unlocked BIOS, super decent condition… I guess I’ll restore it instead.

need to get me a cheap nvme and 8 GB expansion. I reserved a panel for monday (found a basic 250-nit model) and then check if I can repair the panel’s housing or get a replacement.

edit: guess jerboa ate the bottom part of my post… so I’m looking for an alternative panel, preferably one with 300+ nits and/or 8-bit color (stock ones are 250 nit and 6-bit) specifically ones that can be sourced from junkers (people who disassemble laptops to sell parts); ordering new panels from Ali or wherever is not an option for me.

as to the display housing, I’m not sure this would be solid, even if I could glue this together with epoxy or something similar, it seems superflimsy… anyone been down that road?

edit 2: so, apparently this is a well-known issue with T480s specifically; the T480 have plastic display covers whereas T480s have some carbon mix that is layered and is prone to crack if the hinges are too tight.

in other news, covers from T470s and T490s should fit as well, so I have that to fall back on if my epoxy attempt doesn’t succeed.

edit 3: clean and repaste

edit 4: added 8 GB DDR4 3200 (running at 2400) and a 1 TB NVMe. dirt cheap, works fine. only bummer though, the memory runs at single channel. fuck you very much lenovo, this ain’t a $200 budget netbook, you couldn’t spend the extra 13 cents for this!? nope, runs dual channel; the disinfo is from Lenovo UEFI diagnostics and that’s a known issue.

lubed the hinges a bit, don’t want to overdo it. going to get the panel mañana and then attempt the epoxy patch job.

edit 5:

epoxy holds, cured in like 10 minutes. with the lubed hinges it feels solid, doesn’t look like it’s coming off.

the new screen! well, new to me, came off of some unknown donor. was super-scared because of the specs (250 nit, 6-bit) but in use it looks gorgeous, angles are good, colors OK, brightness has a sensible range, no complaints here.

routing them cables, what a chore though… and the antennas on the wifi card, madonn’ - took like half an hour.

as to optics - honestly, looks like shit, especially with the lid closed. but this is a temporary arrangement until I can source a display cover for normal money. some local junker is asking $40 for a “slightly” used cover; by his metric I’m slightly not a teenager. even if it’s an accurate description, I’m not paying that for a piece of plastic.

the final product! everything works, sleeps/wakes, fan turns on rarely… haven’t dicked around with tlp yet, let’s see how it works without it. presently runs debian 12, plasma desktop with flatpak apps.

I’d like again to extend my sincere fuck-yous to lenovo for making this gorgeous thing single-channel only. this is why nobody likes you, you hacks! wrong, as stated above.