I bought “Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Carbon Gen 8 i7” on eBay labelled as being in excellent condition.They say I can’t return it. It crashed the first time I used it. I brought it to Best Buy. It crashed over there also and after a full check up, the computer technician told me the RAM needs to be replaced. As this laptop has what is necessary to run Linux smoothly, I am wondering if the new RAM would be same type as the original. Also, are there any other parts that need to be changed in the future that won’t have the precious “Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Carbon” properties?
At least in the past the laptop manufacturers would sell you a very expensive RAM which had some tweak so that you couldn’t use a regualr cheap one until other chip manufacturers started copying the tweak and you would buy a cheap one from eBay and later aliexpress.
The only thing that has a useful ID as far as we know beyond the CPU is the TPM chip needed for Windows which should be soldered on the motherboard at least for laptops. Of course all the chip components will have some ID internally but it may not be accessible by the OS.
There shouldn’t be anything special that would concern you in replacing broken parts and especially RAM which is something very generic that can stop working anytime.
Thank you, george. I understand Best Buy can replace my defective RAM without destroying the feature that makes it private with whatever RAM they have. You seem to not be concerned about the other parts that may need to be replaced in the future. So, what makes “Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Carbon” so special?
There is nothing special in the parts and at least the chips are made by a very small number of manufacturers if not by only one. If it’s something custom and specific for the device then you can only replace it with the genuine one else it’s not so much important and you can find cheap compatible components.
As I can see online the memory chips are soldered directly on the motherboard so let the repair shop do the work because you’ll probably destroy the machine, Review Update Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
Here is the service manual, Download Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Hardware Maintenance Manual | ManualsLib
As you say, george, the online the memory chips are soldered directly on the motherboard. The “Review Update Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook” you kindly gave me says: “The CPU and RAM are soldered directly to the motherboard and the memory device is an SSD with a proprietary connector. Our test model did not feature a broadband module and consequently, the corresponding PCI Express half-mini slot was empty. It would theoretically be possible to retrofit a UMTS modem but according to the lender, the corresponding antennas would also have to be installed, which unlikely justifies the effort in practice.” Then, I searched “[Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Carbon Gen 8 i7] [Memory chips] vs [computer privacy]” AI says: “Regarding memory, the Gen 8 model supports up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory, which is soldered onto the motherboard. This means users cannot replace or upgrade the memory after purchase”. This is the case for all Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Carbon Generations. I need now to convince “the-tech-recycler” of eBay to accept my return. Thank you for your time and expertise.
Attaching a broadband modem and antennae shouldn’t be difficult.
The memory chips could be bought by some supplier or removed from some other device but there will be quite a manual labour for them to be replaced.
There are many motherboards for sale on the internet and a newer generation one may be able to fit.