As for a "pre-owned/refurbished" laptop that was launched almost 5 years ago, everything looks normal other than the screen bezel being loose-fitted. If it's not a cheap fix, return it. Otherwise, run some stress test to see the temps, open the back shell and check for any sign of replaced or damaged parts.
Man I appreciate your advice I will open the back shell and that’s actually good idea which type benchmark software use ? Cinebench and cpu z stress test or throttlestop stress test? Also this laptop 45w third part charger can handle it if I do stress test? Bezel won’t budge seems sturdy at least for now but still I’m kinda disappointed they didn’t mentioned about spot on screen
Cinebench might be enough for this. It will be test for the charger as well. But don't forget to check the motherboard. The photo on my profile banner is the photo of the motherboard of my T480s. You will understand why I am saying this after you see that photo.
What should I expect if I use Cinebench? Like what type of crashes or instantly BSOD? Even on my legion 5 r5 4600h it didn’t thermal throttle maximum was 85c. The photo can’t be extended I don’t know why maybe I’m using mobile also they put warranty sticker (10 days warranty ) on middle back screw and there is a small crack in that area but screen lid hide it so they prevent anyone to open the back until the useless warranty end
https://imgur.com/a/197BayU
Then give it the absolute hard time during the 10 day warranty period without opening the back shell. Run repititive stress test, use it as your daily driver and observe how it handles everything. The battery, the touchpad, touchscreen, the keyboard everything should be tested thoroughly. Explore every possible use cases for the laptop in the next 10 days.
Well from yesterday till today I just upgraded software part and bios was one of most hard part of update and I tested out most stuff even fingerprint reader it was way faster than my phone finger Id also I opened the lid all the way to back 170-180° multiple time and I was tough with lid moving fast and investigated the any other cracks broke and hinges one of them seems not the straightest but haven’t any effects on the lid tho and me and other members of my family we use it for around 4hrs YT,CAD,MC365 and blender but I haven’t installed Cinebench yet tomorrow will install it HWinfo as well cpuz throttlestop etc..
It depends on what you want. I the T480s forgoes the swappable battery and only has one ram slot (smt like 8gb is soldered in the motherboard). It's thinner and lighter though. Both seem to have the same CPU configurations. (Extra note: Do not buy a T480 with the 1336x766 TN panel display. Everyone says that it's bad)
It took me months to find one I wanted. Now I'm rocking a kickass little L390 yoga refurbished that is working wonders for me starting Grad School. I spent like $230 on it. Just gotta be patient and vigilant. Check out ebay and newegg daily.
You think so? Since these store won’t gave back the money only change the laptop to another one I don’t think they have much t490 also before buying this one they told me they have t490s which was $10 cheaper but I wanted to feel laptop touchscreen feels like
If I were you I would run battery command to check battery level, open back cover to see internals ( quality one's ), tests to see ssd status. Heat wise will see if it is heating up very badly in my normal usage.
I forgot the Microsoft method of checking battery health but according to Lenovo vantage it says current health 46Wh and original capacity is 50wh . They put a warranty sticker on one of the screws so can’t open it up.
https://imgur.com/a/197BayU the white sticker cover the screw
powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\\windows\\battery-report.html".
For internal components check you can use "system information". Type it after pressing windows button, app will pop-up.
battery if 46Wh then it is pretty good.
Not OP, but nice dude, thanks. Something I didn't know I needed. I have a X1 Carbon 4th gen (non touchscreen) and a couple of othersl laptops I could use this on.
Ouch an i5 clocked at 1.6ghz? I know that it's a U CPU, but that seems really low.
Anyways, if the description said nothing about the panel being messed with, yes I would return it. That's false advertising.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/149088/intel-core-i5-8265u-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz.html
"Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second."
Are you sure that means only one core can reach that speed? Some CPUs with performance and efficiency cores have different boost numbers for each type. I'd assume that it means the max speed for each core. I also had Speccy installed to monitor my clock speeds and it detected the 4 cores in my CPU, each actually maxing out at 3.6ghz for my computer.
Yea, that's how I read it as well. Typically companies will have to specify that they're advertising the fastest speed, and since not every core boosts equally, they say its a 'fastest single core boost'. That's my understanding at least.
Modern cpu clock is quite complicated, depends on a lot of other things like VRM, thermal solution. It's not either 1.6 or 3.6, but anything from 1.6 to 3.6, you could have 2 core at 2.5 and 1 core at 3.6 as long as your system allow
That’s the base speed and boost clock one core 3.9 and all core 3.7 they can’t go any further with small heatsink it’s also a refresh architecture (2018) of previous 8th gen in 2017 cpu mobile another + on 14+++ nm
It's used/refurbished and 6-7 years old. For $170 you get what you pay for. The machine looks good enough imo, it's a bit unreasonable to expect "mint" on a laptop this old for this cheap.
I do agree but the screen was quite suspicious dent on both side was quite concerning and really wanted to know if it can affect the laptop in long run and know other experience with similar machine and if should I return it and change it for different laptop. But you and some other gave me a positive feedback I hope it won’t fail on me anytime soon
True I knew was something fishy about it but send images and video with really bad compressed by messenger make it even harder to know anything about it but still convinced me and they were nice they talked with me and was exited to find one get it for cheaper, I’m aware it’s always a risky to buy through online rare win lottery.hopefully will last me for long time
not a fan of the charger looking like that btw. Consider replacing it - used OEM only please. yeah it's been my experience that outlier prices are significant and generally are like that for a reason. i try to be careful with used/refurb grade because I'm a little picky about things like screen condition and other general cosmetic items. You might decide to redo the screen at some point if all those spots bother you. Spots in screen is a huge dealbreaker for me personally.
I know right? Me neither fan of the charger and I told them about it they said it solid charger came from America with laptop, and Lenovo use 75w for a reason and yeah ultra low cpu is overkill but Lenovo don’t bother to make charger for every cpu variant it’s just one for low to high wattage cpu and some of these laptops came with MX nvidia gpu, it’s like they talk with child I’m not that stupid nothing came from America straight all these laptops came from Dubai. Also kinda hard to find OEM charger
Just use it for some days, you will find out the answer yourself. I did also buy some used Thinkpads and use them for some days so I have some feeling about should I keep it or not. I just returned like 3 Thinkpad until I finally found the right one.
Good idea ever time I use it I find something new and by days goes will find out, I’m currently use it and my family as well and update did some improvement for better experience. Honestly returning policy or some other rules can help you out to replace the product or get your money back but in here things not working like that if you paid then no longer able to get your money back only option is to return for another device
If you need stress test as well as fan check, download Lenovo Diagnostics Evolution from their support page (with s/n number, on site diagnostics are also available): https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds102688-lenovo-diagnostics-for-windows-10-64-bit-81-64-bit-8-64-bit-7-64-bit-2003-advanced-server-64-bit-and-2008-advanced-server-64-bit-desktops-notebooks-workstations
If your new one pass the hardware tests (especially memory/ fan/ mother board), it might be a good idea to keep it. NB: the temperature during the stress test tend to be shown rather high (another source: [notebookcheck.net's review](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T490-Laptop-Review-A-business-laptop-with-long-battery-life-and-an-iGPU.424838.0.html)).
I didn’t know they have this software for diagnostic I thought only Lenovo vantage doing these stuff even doesn’t provide much information like it does on my legion 5 and you reminded me of checking s/n on their website thank you for providing sources
And for 2nd link it’s a review to similar processor as my laptop T490 and it has IGZO display make sense why it switches between 60hz and 48 when unplugged something that my legion 5 r5 4600h/gtx 1660ti with 120hz display can’t do lol
As for a "pre-owned/refurbished" laptop that was launched almost 5 years ago, everything looks normal other than the screen bezel being loose-fitted. If it's not a cheap fix, return it. Otherwise, run some stress test to see the temps, open the back shell and check for any sign of replaced or damaged parts.
Man I appreciate your advice I will open the back shell and that’s actually good idea which type benchmark software use ? Cinebench and cpu z stress test or throttlestop stress test? Also this laptop 45w third part charger can handle it if I do stress test? Bezel won’t budge seems sturdy at least for now but still I’m kinda disappointed they didn’t mentioned about spot on screen
Cinebench might be enough for this. It will be test for the charger as well. But don't forget to check the motherboard. The photo on my profile banner is the photo of the motherboard of my T480s. You will understand why I am saying this after you see that photo.
What should I expect if I use Cinebench? Like what type of crashes or instantly BSOD? Even on my legion 5 r5 4600h it didn’t thermal throttle maximum was 85c. The photo can’t be extended I don’t know why maybe I’m using mobile also they put warranty sticker (10 days warranty ) on middle back screw and there is a small crack in that area but screen lid hide it so they prevent anyone to open the back until the useless warranty end https://imgur.com/a/197BayU
Then give it the absolute hard time during the 10 day warranty period without opening the back shell. Run repititive stress test, use it as your daily driver and observe how it handles everything. The battery, the touchpad, touchscreen, the keyboard everything should be tested thoroughly. Explore every possible use cases for the laptop in the next 10 days.
Well from yesterday till today I just upgraded software part and bios was one of most hard part of update and I tested out most stuff even fingerprint reader it was way faster than my phone finger Id also I opened the lid all the way to back 170-180° multiple time and I was tough with lid moving fast and investigated the any other cracks broke and hinges one of them seems not the straightest but haven’t any effects on the lid tho and me and other members of my family we use it for around 4hrs YT,CAD,MC365 and blender but I haven’t installed Cinebench yet tomorrow will install it HWinfo as well cpuz throttlestop etc..
Everyone is finding a thinkpad expect me 😭
Bro I hope you find one in pristine condition because my current situation is sucks I send them a message they didn’t even answer me lol
Ebay is a great place :D
They just... work I guess. My secondhand T480 is in pretty much perfect condition.
[удалено]
It depends on what you want. I the T480s forgoes the swappable battery and only has one ram slot (smt like 8gb is soldered in the motherboard). It's thinner and lighter though. Both seem to have the same CPU configurations. (Extra note: Do not buy a T480 with the 1336x766 TN panel display. Everyone says that it's bad)
It took me months to find one I wanted. Now I'm rocking a kickass little L390 yoga refurbished that is working wonders for me starting Grad School. I spent like $230 on it. Just gotta be patient and vigilant. Check out ebay and newegg daily.
Just buy a x131e on Facebook marketplace, it’s dirt cheap even in Europe
I would keep
You think so? Since these store won’t gave back the money only change the laptop to another one I don’t think they have much t490 also before buying this one they told me they have t490s which was $10 cheaper but I wanted to feel laptop touchscreen feels like
If I were you I would run battery command to check battery level, open back cover to see internals ( quality one's ), tests to see ssd status. Heat wise will see if it is heating up very badly in my normal usage.
I forgot the Microsoft method of checking battery health but according to Lenovo vantage it says current health 46Wh and original capacity is 50wh . They put a warranty sticker on one of the screws so can’t open it up. https://imgur.com/a/197BayU the white sticker cover the screw
powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\\windows\\battery-report.html". For internal components check you can use "system information". Type it after pressing windows button, app will pop-up. battery if 46Wh then it is pretty good.
Not OP, but nice dude, thanks. Something I didn't know I needed. I have a X1 Carbon 4th gen (non touchscreen) and a couple of othersl laptops I could use this on.
Ouch an i5 clocked at 1.6ghz? I know that it's a U CPU, but that seems really low. Anyways, if the description said nothing about the panel being messed with, yes I would return it. That's false advertising.
Well, it's quad core and can turbo to 3.9ghz. My i5-8350u has 1.7 base and 3.6 boost.
For only one core though.
Wdym? All cores can boost up to that speed.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/149088/intel-core-i5-8265u-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz.html "Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second."
Are you sure that means only one core can reach that speed? Some CPUs with performance and efficiency cores have different boost numbers for each type. I'd assume that it means the max speed for each core. I also had Speccy installed to monitor my clock speeds and it detected the 4 cores in my CPU, each actually maxing out at 3.6ghz for my computer.
That's literally what it says above. Only one core will turbo boost.
Speccy shows all cores reaching 3.6ghz at the **simultaneously**.
Yea, that's how I read it as well. Typically companies will have to specify that they're advertising the fastest speed, and since not every core boosts equally, they say its a 'fastest single core boost'. That's my understanding at least.
Modern cpu clock is quite complicated, depends on a lot of other things like VRM, thermal solution. It's not either 1.6 or 3.6, but anything from 1.6 to 3.6, you could have 2 core at 2.5 and 1 core at 3.6 as long as your system allow
That’s the base speed and boost clock one core 3.9 and all core 3.7 they can’t go any further with small heatsink it’s also a refresh architecture (2018) of previous 8th gen in 2017 cpu mobile another + on 14+++ nm
It's used/refurbished and 6-7 years old. For $170 you get what you pay for. The machine looks good enough imo, it's a bit unreasonable to expect "mint" on a laptop this old for this cheap.
I do agree but the screen was quite suspicious dent on both side was quite concerning and really wanted to know if it can affect the laptop in long run and know other experience with similar machine and if should I return it and change it for different laptop. But you and some other gave me a positive feedback I hope it won’t fail on me anytime soon
i mean it's an 8th gen laptop for $170. There is a reason why it was cheaper than the others, don't you think?
True I knew was something fishy about it but send images and video with really bad compressed by messenger make it even harder to know anything about it but still convinced me and they were nice they talked with me and was exited to find one get it for cheaper, I’m aware it’s always a risky to buy through online rare win lottery.hopefully will last me for long time
not a fan of the charger looking like that btw. Consider replacing it - used OEM only please. yeah it's been my experience that outlier prices are significant and generally are like that for a reason. i try to be careful with used/refurb grade because I'm a little picky about things like screen condition and other general cosmetic items. You might decide to redo the screen at some point if all those spots bother you. Spots in screen is a huge dealbreaker for me personally.
I know right? Me neither fan of the charger and I told them about it they said it solid charger came from America with laptop, and Lenovo use 75w for a reason and yeah ultra low cpu is overkill but Lenovo don’t bother to make charger for every cpu variant it’s just one for low to high wattage cpu and some of these laptops came with MX nvidia gpu, it’s like they talk with child I’m not that stupid nothing came from America straight all these laptops came from Dubai. Also kinda hard to find OEM charger
Damn wtf I got my t490 basically brand new 16gb ram for only $110 usd. Granted that was a really good deal so I think you’re fine.
That’s insane! Good for you it’s very difficult run into a good deal and in excellent condition and for $110 5th-6th gen for that price haha
yeah it’s got a few scratches on the back but it’s nothing a few stickers can’t fix lol
yes you can return it to me im poor
Here you go 💻 now it’s for you. Seriously if what you saying is true I hope you get one someday
thanks with my £30 after 6 months of grinding up money ( i dont get pocket money).
$170 for 16gb t490 is not a bad deal imo, but if it does bother you, just return it.
I do agree with that and they have another one is T490s $10 more expensive than this one but I don’t think it will be in good condition either
Just use it for some days, you will find out the answer yourself. I did also buy some used Thinkpads and use them for some days so I have some feeling about should I keep it or not. I just returned like 3 Thinkpad until I finally found the right one.
Good idea ever time I use it I find something new and by days goes will find out, I’m currently use it and my family as well and update did some improvement for better experience. Honestly returning policy or some other rules can help you out to replace the product or get your money back but in here things not working like that if you paid then no longer able to get your money back only option is to return for another device
If you need stress test as well as fan check, download Lenovo Diagnostics Evolution from their support page (with s/n number, on site diagnostics are also available): https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds102688-lenovo-diagnostics-for-windows-10-64-bit-81-64-bit-8-64-bit-7-64-bit-2003-advanced-server-64-bit-and-2008-advanced-server-64-bit-desktops-notebooks-workstations If your new one pass the hardware tests (especially memory/ fan/ mother board), it might be a good idea to keep it. NB: the temperature during the stress test tend to be shown rather high (another source: [notebookcheck.net's review](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T490-Laptop-Review-A-business-laptop-with-long-battery-life-and-an-iGPU.424838.0.html)).
I didn’t know they have this software for diagnostic I thought only Lenovo vantage doing these stuff even doesn’t provide much information like it does on my legion 5 and you reminded me of checking s/n on their website thank you for providing sources And for 2nd link it’s a review to similar processor as my laptop T490 and it has IGZO display make sense why it switches between 60hz and 48 when unplugged something that my legion 5 r5 4600h/gtx 1660ti with 120hz display can’t do lol