Grabbed a #Lenovo #Ideapad C330 (#Chromebook) from my local #ewaste facility, looking to log into certain #Google Workspace accounts without providing a footprint on an actual #PC. And in the future when no longer supported install #Debian on it.
Also: this Chromebook folds to a tablet.

Unfortunately, the battery never fully charges: solid red for a few hours, then blinking red LED. I can get it to boot, but it will stay on for just a few minutes and then dies. Leaving it charging overnight, I was able to get logged in and started the upgrade for #ChromeOS 105.0.5195.134 (32 Bit), got the reboot and then it died. Left it unplugged, and there is no juice at all.
I found replacement batteries for $5 and up on #ebay, $10 plus shipping on gotlaptopparts.com, and stupid prices elsewhere. My concern is that it is not the battery but the circuits that managing charging the battery (which I would consider beyond repair and take back to eddies).

Via https://cros.tech/device/maple/ it looks as this Chromebook will support ChromeOS 143.0.7499.46, so there should still be some life in this device if the power issue is addressed.

Anything I’m missing here/not considering? Worth getting that cheap assed ebay battery and giving it a try?

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maple - Chrome OS Updates

Dam, spoke too soon. This #thinkpad #P70 running #Win11 #LTSC decided to shit the bed overnight. I was using it last night to organize #ROMs, closed lid should have hibernated. Tried to start it up today, get #BIOS test screen and then a quick flash of text, then a black screen. Tried booting into advanced recovery mode, unable to get it to work with the holding the power button 3x, so I try to boot with my win11 LTSC install USB and get the same black screen....

I picked this up a few months back. Intel xeon i7 2.66 with 64 GB RAM, primary storage is a Samsung M2 which is showing up in the boot BIOS and as a boot-able device in the BIOS.

As posted previously, I was having some weird USB issues over the weekend when I was moving ROM collection file to external SSDs for archiving, but I had attributed to the #SSD in the external #USB sleds that was/has now failed. Man, it would bite of the controller chips on this #motherboard are failing.
Thankfully I had already moved all my job hunting notes & stuff to a different laptop, but all the ROM and #hakchi2 stuff is on this #laptop

Just in case, I started the #Lenovo diag mode to confirm hardware was ok when the battery died (I swear I had it plugged in). Now this POS will not even go into Diag mode.

Any thoughts on next steps for getting this Thinkpad booting again?

Any chance I can take the storage out of this and put it in a comparable P70 I have? and it will boot & let me log in?

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SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows/Mac - SD Association

Watch our video on how to use the SD Memory Card Formatter SD Memory Card Formatter 5.0.3 for SD/SDHC/SDXC/SDUC The SD Memory Card Formatter formats SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card and SDUC Memory Card (respectively SD/SDHC/SDXC/SDUC Cards) complying with the SD File System Specification created by the SD Association (SDA). It... Read more »

SD Association
MemTest86 - Wikipedia

Part 4/4 following up on the thread:
The continuing efforts with the #ThinkPad #W510: Though that 32GB tested out fine with #MEMTest86plus v7, that does not mean the #BIOS and other circuitry in a W510 can handle 32GB. Thanks to the local vintage computing group cluing me in that e820 BIOS routines were not tested against 32 GB of physical memory. If wonky, then that could confuse the bootloader – the issues I was running into.

On their suggestion, I replaced the #DIMMs with four (4) 4GB DIMMs totaling 16GB. Ran #MEMTest86+ and they passed.

Reinitiated the #Win11 install, and the install worked! But like the #Win10 #x86 install I had on here previously; #Windows is dog slow on this laptop. It was usable, was able to update the latest patches and such, but painful and not the end user experience I wanted. With only a i7 1.6Ghz processor, this may be the cutoff for usability. Any of the i5 or i7 ThinkPads with >2Ghz processors ran Win11 with minimal issues and certainly not with this slowness I experienced.

So, I have re-thought my plans for this #laptop reinstalling #debian latest and thinking about what to do next for my workbench needs. Need to do some research on which other #Lenovo #thinkpads have #eSATA ports which would have faster processors than this W510.

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Part 2/4
Though this has a 64-bit processor, let me try the Win10 x86 32-bit LTSP installer from 2019: and it worked! The install went fine, but it ran dog slow. I used the native browser to download and then upgraded the #BIOS to the latest for the W510 and everything was noticeably slow. Unfortunately, most of the tools I want to use are 64-bit so this version of Win10 is not really an option.
To test & try to troubleshoot, I installed the latest version of #Debian #Linux. The install went fine, and the user experience was much better than the 32-bit Win10 – no real noticeable slowness. Ok, Linux is an option – but not what I had planned for this laptop. Let me wipe the drive (getting rid of #GRUB) and retry installing Win11 or Win10 LTSP.
Now when I boot with either Win11 or Win10 LTSP #USBs the windows logo flashes and the dreaded black screen with blinking cursor appears. We don’t even get the option to install…. (Ugh!)
Currently I booted into #ShredOS and am wiping the drive as a load test.

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Part 1/4
The continuing efforts with the #ThinkPad #W510:
A nice surprise is this has four (4) #DIMM slots, so I was able to upgrade the memory to 32GB (and tested out fine with #MEMTest86+ ver 7)!

Unfortunately, getting an #OS installed has been problematic. As I mentioned previously, to use this as my #workbench #laptop for testing, #imaging, and #wiping #HardDrives and #SSDs (leveraging that #eSATA port) all the manufacturer and optimal #opensource tools are on #Windows.
I started with the #Win11 LTSP: Booted up fine, initial install was fine – and the initial boot want to a black screen with a blinking cursor.
Ok, let me try #Win10 64-bit LTSP with the same results: Booted up fine, initial install was fine – and the initial boot want to a black screen with a blinking cursor.

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The next #thinkpad on my #workbench is an #E450 – I grabbed this from #ewaste to provide a family member a better laptop. It has a #i5-5200U at 2.2Ghz, and a max 16GB of #DDR3L #RAM so it can/should run #Win11, #linux, or #BSD with ease. The IO is ok, with multiple #USB3 ports, #HDMI, #ethernet and a memory card reader. This is a decent form factor, weight, and would make a decent laptop for someone. Though no docking station capabilities, they removed the port underneath.

There is a big BUT with this laptop though: it keeps freezing, and the video is glitching. Which may be why it went to ewaste…

I upgraded the DDR3L RAM to 16GB, and wiped the 500GB SSD that came with it.
Starting installing #Win11, and I let it install and reboot so I could refill my tea – to come back and the laptop was frozen with a black screen.
I rebooted, and it froze on the initial Win11 change password screen.
I rebooted again, went into the #Lenovo #BIOS #diagnostic tool, and started the full tests. As the test were running, I touched the nub and the video started glitching. Letting the test continue, the laptop froze while testing.

So, is this beyond time & effort to get working – or pull the spare parts and move on from?

(images attached)

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