T400s disassembled, documented, found to be full of components
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 10th 2009 11:34AM
posted July 10th 2009 11:34AM
When one of our editors got his hands on the ThinkPad T400s, he saw a serious machine for sane, sober business-types. But as any ambitious Engadget reader knows, purchasing your new laptop is only half the fun. To this end, the kind folks at thinkpads.com have put together a rough and ready guide to upgrading your new Lenovo that includes the low-down on all the technical odds n' sods that you crave. Since that's all out in the open, how about you guys get cranking on some truly insane mods? We'll be eagerly awaiting your tips.
It looks so nice even when torn apart.
My God... it's full of... er... components!
GASP
*SHOCK*
Lenovo/IBM are pretty good about publishing product schematics. I don't know if it's available to the public, but as partners we have access diagrams, specs, part info, etc. In fact, some of the pictures in the article are from these same documents.
Since I also work for a Lenovo partner we have access to them as well. I just see the end results so its hard to tell if they are public or not. I know HP has theres not easy to find on their site, but accessible by the public. I tore a dv9548 all the way apart to swap a CPU. T5450 to a T7700, I consider the effort worth it. Dell and Lenovo's are a little easier to swap since most of the CPU/Cooler on the top side of the board.
Seems Lenovo makes the manuals public. Link to it was in the article.....
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-72739
It's not just partners, everyone can access the service manuals for the thinkpad range, makes a nice change from most companies. Now, if I could just get them to honour the replacement they promised me I could start recommending them to people again!
Oh man I thought this was about a Terminator. Sarah Conner still safe.
Sadly, no.....She got terminated
Terminated by Leukemia maybe...
Just once, I want to see someone tear down one of these things for a blog and find snakes, or gold, or a portal to the Evil Cake Realm of Kipling.
The cake is a lie.
Wow, Jonathan Ive was right when he said that the Macbook Pro is beautiful internally than externally. Even the guys at the PC camp such as this piece of crap Lenovo couldn't get the internals right. It doesn't look like they can match the robustness of Apple's unibody construction.
could you please talk in logical sentences? I read what you said 5 times and I just got more confused. I think you are trying to make fun of this (in an apple fanboy way) but at the same time you might be sarcastic and be saying that the apple unibody is a pain to work with when you are trying to do any sort of repair other then ram or hard drive replacement.
When someone drops and breaks an LCD I can replace it on a Thinkpad in about 30 minutes due to their great break apart documentation (available to anyone), easy to work with modular construction, and...*gasp*...end user parts availability!!!
Now I know Macs are magical and people don't drop them, and even if they did they would bounce and not break. In the rare event that someone drops a piece of kryptonite on the screen and breaks it, try and fix it with out taking it to the apple store and having them tell you "its probally cheaper just to get a brand new one"
@dan2600
please don't feed the apple trolls.
You can keep your bendable aluminum, and I'll keep my magnesium rollcage and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. Thanks.
If I were in the market for another ThinkPad, this would probably get my money. I'll be sticking with my T61 for a while longer though.
the biggest weakness in the Thinkpad's product line is that they just last TOO long...I've got friends (who only do the basics) with T23s that still work great.
Very true. I have two very old ThinkPads, each around 10 years old now probably, and they still work just fine. Sure, they're bulky and loud, but they run! I've only had one issue with my T61 (screen was just too dim to use), but they fixed that in two days.
Dim screen = send it in to a repair shop to have the light bulbs (CCFL backlight tubes) changed out.
Yep - did that and just got it back. Looks much brighter, and gets to full brightness much faster.
looks solidly built, I'm glad lenovo kept up IBMs high standard of quality when taking over the product line.
I'd have to say that although the T400s' engineering is a departure from my Z60t and W500, the standard of quality has remained the same. Good job Lenovo. Now where's my free sample?
It has a weakness at the base of it's neck.
Yeah, *sniff* I still miss my old x41, really regreted that I sold it off... I have never owned a better keyboard - ever. Now, when Thinkpads are finally available in x-series with greater than 1024x768 res and digital video out (what is it with laptop producers and the analog VGA connector) I am relly tempted to go back! And yes, the one thing with Thinkpads is the availability of spare parts if you find yourself in need...
Just bought a Macbook unibody and really misses the end/home, pgdn/pgup buttons and atleast a decent keyboard... If I had the money the T400s would be next on my shopping list!
I wish my pc had components...
I wish Lenovo would come up with a QXGA laptop like the old R-series.