BlakeBlog

Extending the Life of a Lenovo ThinkPad X200

About six years ago I bought a used Lenovo ThinkPad X200 (machine type 7458) to use as a portable packet station and software defined radio (SDR) for amateur radio. It's been a great little performer, so much so that I started using it for other Windows-specific things as well, like interfacing with my Suunto dive computers, and running target analysis software (OnTarget). It's small and light-weight, making it easy to carry around in the field, and it has a decent battery life. I don't need much CPU power for any of this stuff, so the Centrino CPU performs just fine, and as was typical for ThinkPads manufactured back then the computer is pretty rugged.

However, it was originally running Windows 7, which is getting long in the tooth—Microsoft's mainstream support for Win7 ended in 2015, and extended support ends at the start of 2020. I upgraded it for free to Windows 10 Home when Microsoft was offering that option, but for the last few major releases of Win10 I couldn't successfully install the updates. I was stuck at release 1507, and no matter what I tried I could not upgrade successfully. So, cursing Microsoft, I "paid the Windows tax" by backing up all my data and re-installing Win10 from scratch. While I was at it I decided to replace the internal hard drive, a 160 GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4, with a 250 GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD to make the computer even more immune to shocks and to possibly get better battery life.

Of course, now that it's running the latest version of Win10 and it has a spiffy-fast SSD, the 4 GB of RAM seemed a bit low. Lenovo doesn't certify this particular X200 for anything more than that(1), but folks on the 'net have pointed out that the Intel chipset supports 8 GB. Folks have tried various brands of RAM, trying to get the computer to recognize 8 GB, with varying success. The key seems to be to avoid the high-density RAM kits. I found several folks were successful with a particular kit from Crucial, specifically the CT2KIT51264BF160B, so I ordered one and can confirm that it works just great.

So for $150 I was able to upgrade both the RAM and the hard drive, netting me at least a couple more years of service from this great little workhorse of a laptop.

(1) In fact, Lenovo doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that they ever even made this laptop since they don't even show any driver updates or documentation downloads are available when you search by machine type on their website. Note that you can use your favorite search engine, though, and usually dig up the BIOS update files, which is the only hardware update file you really need from Lenovo—the rest of the X200's hardware seems to be supported just fine by the drivers bundled with Win10.

Icom's IC-T70A: A Worthy Competitor to Yaesu's FT-60R

 I just got my May 2010 issue of QST and saw the ad on the inside front cover for Icom's new IC-V80 and IC-T70A handheld transceivers. With the IC-T70A it looks like Icom has finally come up with a worthy competitor to Yaesu's FT-60R.

It matches the basic functionality of the FT-60R quite nicely, but a couple of key advantages include:

1) An optional Li-Ion battery, while the FT-60R's still stuck with Ni-MH,

2) IP-54 (dust protected, splashing water OK) and MIL-STD 810 protection, while the FT-60R doesn't have an IP rating (Yaesu calls the case construction "water resistant"),

Most importantly, the BP-263 battery case holds six AA batteries and allows the transceiver to transmit at full 5W power. This is an important capability for emergency communications folks, since we have to assume that we aren't going to be able to recharge batteries for extended periods of time. So, we like to see handhelds that can transmit a full 5W signal while running on AA batteries. The recent trend in handhelds, though, has been to make them very small and not worry about full power transmitting while on AA battery power. Yaesu's FT-60R has been the only handheld, dual band transceiver to accomplish this feat until now.

The IC-T70A still uses an SMA antenna connector, just like the FT-60R. I wish they would have used a BNC since it's more rugged, better performing, and there's plenty of room on top of the transceiver for it. According to the specs it burns through battery at about twice the rate of the FT-60R on receive, and about 50% faster on transmit, but Icom claims 10 hours of battery life with the Ni-MH and 13.5 hours with the Li-Ion battery. (Yaesu doesn't provide any battery life claims, but I typically get about six hours of use with my Ni-MH pack.) The IC-T70A is about one-half ounce heavier than the FT-60R with the Ni-MH battery, but it'd be lighter with the Li-Ion battery.

The IC-T70A is currently selling at Ham Radio Outlet for $225, while the FT-60R sells for only $185.

For about $40 more you get a transceiver that's a little more rugged, and that can use a Li-Ion battery for day-to-day use. Of course, the Li-Ion battery (and extra charger) bumps the price up $63 and $69, respectively. That's a lot of money; I might be tempted to stick with the Ni-MH battery until it dies, then upgrade to Li-Ion. (It sure would be nice if you could just buy the IC-T70A with a Li-Ion instead of the stock Ni-MH.) I certainly won't be selling my FT-60R to replace it with an IC-T70A, but it's great that Icom is competing with Yaesu in this area of the market, as competition always improves things.