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Thought I could cheap out on a PSU for an old ThinkPad... bad move
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susan_wells9d ago
Did you actually fry the board or just get weird shutdowns and boot loops? I'm curious because I almost made the same mistake with an old T420 and barely caught myself in time. Sometimes those cheap PSUs are fine for basic stuff but really struggle when the machine actually needs some power.
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the_seth9d ago
Wait, did you end up getting a replacement T420 board or just swap the PSU and hope for the best? I had a similar scare with a Dell E6430 where I used a cheap 65w brick instead of the 90w it needed, and it would randomly shut down under any kind of load. I ended up just buying a used OEM 90w charger off eBay for like 15 bucks and that fixed everything (no board damage, luckily). Those old ThinkPads and Latitudes are pretty good at just refusing to boot or giving warnings before letting the magic smoke out, in my experience.
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