Turning X220 into X230 - The Ultimate Frankenpad!

Don't try this at home, kids.

Please note that i am NOT a professional when it comes to hardware. DO NOT regard this video as a guide of any sorts, i might be doing some things terribly wrong and by repeating my mistakes you put your hardware at risk.

Music: KOAN Sound - Sentient

[obfuscated]

You can also install classic keyboards on the X230 at much less effort. That's the cool thing about Pads. They're the easiest family of notebooks to modify!

[j.p.]

I got an X220 just a few weeks after the T480, you have superb taste in computers 👌🏻

[chrisr]

Brilliant! As you say, these still make fantastic linux boxes... and with the extended battery can go all day on the road. I'm very tempted to try this myself.
Thanks.

[FPSAnarchy]

you also need to isolate some pins on the x220 keyboard, the x230 motherboard sends voltage over some for backlight and you might fry your old keyboard

[gabrielgomez]

Although most people don't isolate the pins on the classic keyboard I highly recommend that you do. I didn't, and if it wasn't for quick-acting would have completely fried my keyboard. I caught it early, even though it is still burnt, the keyboard works after I isolated the pings. If i left it running it would have burnt the pins from the inside out. I think it depends on the keyboard model, mine was Chicony I believe. The step is not that difficult and worth the time to avoid frying your board.

[LoveShuffleBlues]

Wait a second.. I've seen your thinkpad in a stickers thread on /g/.. isn't it?

[luclu_]

Is that a hackintosh or a heavily skinned Plasma? o/

Anyway, nice video!

[lucasm]

Just did this on an i5 X220 because I wanted an i7 motherboard, pretty much just have to buy an X230 base and the rest fits just fine.
Not a perfect installation but it works, had to temporarily flash the stock bios in order to flash support for the classic keyboard then reflashed Libreboot.
Much nicer temps and less costly than getting a whole laptop in my case, no i7's in my country.

[Darkshine]

My question is: why go trough the process to buy a x230 motherboard and a x220 laptop when you could just buy an x230 and only swap the keyboard? Expecially since you already have to fiddle around in order to make the keyboard work properly.

[GenePavlovsky]

Nice video, enjoyed it. Little advice - don't use so much thermal paste.

[finhas]

Kinda wonder if the bottom shell of x230 fit with x220. That'll solve the dp hole problem.

[naikkelas]

I wanted to know if I can put x230 board in my x220 tablet. Is this possible. I am from Pakistan

[MikyewiCZ]

Hi everyone, this video is over an year old... but anyway I would like to know if the version of the BIOS is somewhat important?
The latest BIOS for x230 currently is 2.74 - Wolfgang is using version 2.61 in this video.
I would just like to remove the battery whitelist using the method shown in the video, to use batteries from x220.
Can I safely upgrade to the latest BIOS and use this method?
Are there any drawbacks upgrading to latest BIOS on x230?
I read somewhere that on T420 for example, there is BIOS version where if you upgrade to/or beyond you wont be able to flash older BIOS versions anymore.
I dont remember the version of my BIOS but the Embedded Controller version is 1.13
Thanks anyone for response.
And amazing work with this video, it is very helpful with very relaxing vibe to it :-)

EDIT: update - Reading through the release notes of other BIOS versions, after every 2 BIOS versions you can no longer downgrade to lower version because of "security improvement" . Still not sure about the intel ME though...

[tough_stuff]

Great job! I was wandering if you could fit an X230T motherboard in an X220. It's supposed to have a regular display port.

[bobpease]

Hello
I appreciate your advice and I have a question for you.
I have a Samsung Galaxy j2 dash phone, and on my settings, if I long press it .
It says( more options ) but won't access anything, is there a way to open them?

[serverdll]

have my x220 for a long time, i really love my laptop. it is perfect in every way but now 11 years old later it needs a refresh, is it worth to do this?

[rintarouokabe]

Mr. Wolfgang, I just saw this video of yours. My T420s motherboard died, so I thought of copying what you did and replace it with a T430s motherboard. Do I just follow the same instructions you did? If I am not doing photo intensive work, is it still worth it (or should I just shop for a replacement T420s motherboard)? I just use my Thinkpad for the LibreOffice suite, and surfing the 'net.

[СказочнаяРоссия]

Has it become much faster after the upgrade? Benchmarks shows 10-15% difference

[vonhohenzollern]

Hey Wolf, just a quick Q: can you use the same Delta Fan from an x220 on the x230 board? Im just curious 2 know..

[j.p.]

Do you think there's a slim enough mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter that could fill the gap?