This IBM Thinkpad model is a portable computer, with powerful CPU and graphics. The VGA adapter is suited to an external monitor. The built-in screen has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080, also known as FHD, and The IPS technology provides a display that is bright and clear.
After you add the computer and optional CPU upgrade to the cart, proceed to the Accessories page to add a travel router, a floppy drive, a hard drive upgrade or a Dock.
AccessoriesThere is not yet support for the internal WiFi. I use the Mango Travel Router with this laptop to access local WiFi or my phone's hot spot. Mango comes with everything you need to connect to an access point.
Mango Travel Router: $65.00 USD
In the past, I have also used a TP-Link AC750 Wireless Travel Router, an Asus RP-N12 Wireless N300 Range Extender, and a TP-Link Nano Router. I include a folder of URL links to the admin pages of each of these routers to make it easy to set up the first time.
Instructions and details about external WiFi: Travel Routers
The hard drive can be upgraded to a 2 TB drive. Either a hard disk or an SSD is available to upgrade.
This external USB Floppy drive can be used to read and write 720K and 1.44M 3 1/2 inch floppy disks.
USB Floppy Drive: $50.00 USD
The central processing unit (CPU) can be upgraded to the Intel Core i7 for faster processing and graphics.
CPU upgrade: $200.00 USD
If you want to buy a customized version of this computer, fill out an order form and submit it to Blonde Guy. Blonde Guy will review your order and send you an invoice, payable using PayPal or any major credit card. If you prefer to pay by check, note that in the notes field of the order form, and I will e-mail you an invoice payable by check.
Enter the customizations you want on the computer in the notes portion of the order form.
Model: Thinkpad T550
Model number: 20CJ-S08E00
Year introduced: 2015
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
Screen: 15.6 inch Color LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels
RAM: 8 GB
Hard drive: 500 GB SATA
Optional hard/solid state drive: 2000 GB SATA
Optical drive: None
Intel HD Graphics 5500
Intel Pro/1000 PL 10/100/1000 network adapter using MultiMac32 E1000B driver
USB Ports: 3
Audio: Realtec ALC3232 codec
Height: 0.9 inch
Width: 15.0 inches
Depth: 10.2 inches
Weight: 4.93 lbs
Power consumption is 16 Watts, measured with the computer booted to the desktop. This computer consumes less than 1 Watt if it's plugged in, but switched off. When charging a depleted battery, it consumes up to 45 Watts.
The laptop can use any memory left over from 32-bit usage as a RAM drive. For 8 GB RAM models, this RAM drive has 4.7 GB, and is formatted HPFS. For 4 GB models, the RAM drive is not configured. If activated, the RAM drive would have 700 MB.
This laptop boots to the desktop in under 60 seconds. That's important, because suspend/resume does not work. To make up for that, the laptop can do a clean power down when the lid is closed.
There is no ArcaOS support for the bluetooth or fingerprint reader. Support for the internal WiFi is under development at Arca Noae.
The disk is partitioned to provide a bootable operating system volume and a data drive. Space is left for addtional bootable volumes. User data is stored on a separate volume.
This is the layout for the 500 GB HD. The Air-Boot boot manager is installed to select the volume to be started.
| Volume Name | Disk Format | Drive Letter | Volume Size | Disk Name |
| Recovery | FAT16 | X: | 2,000 MB | Internal |
| ArcaOS-H | JFS | H: | 10,001 MB | Internal |
| Data-D | JFS | D: | 100,000 MB | Internal |
This is the layout for a 2 GB SSD.
| Volume Name | Disk Format | Drive Letter | Volume Size | Disk Name |
| ArcaOS-H | JFS | H: | 10,001 MB | 2 TB SSD |
| Data | JFS | D: | 1,903,536 MB | 2 TB SSD |
ArcaOS 5.0.7 (Dec 7, 2021) is the version used for this installation.
This table reports the SysBench 0.9.5 benchmarks for this computer. You can download SysBench 0.9.5 here: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/
| Category | Measurement |
|---|---|
| PM-Graphics-marks | 200 |
| CPU integer-marks | 9271 |
| CPU floating point-marks | 696 |
| DIVE-marks | 8807 |
| File I/O-marks | 133275 |
| Memory-marks | 14614 |
| Simultaneous I/O-marks | 32 |
Each Blonde Guy ArcaOS preloaded computer comes with a standard load of software. This page lists what is in the current pre-load. This list is updated over time to incorporate new essential OS/2 software as well as to keep up to date versions of existing software. When you receive your ArcaOS preloaded computer, you will have Blonde Guy's best installation of the latest OS/2 software.
The recovery USB stick supplied is a bootable ArcaOS USB stick with a backup of the hard drive as delivered. You can boot the machine from USB stick, and perform maintenance functions. The maintenance folder is available on the recovery USB stick. The factory backup is stored in the \Factory directory. The backups are simple zip files. You can use 7z or unzip to extract some or all of the files in a backup.
This section documents what I did to get this computer to work under ArcaOS. It is intended to show what goes into this computer, and also as a guide to the user who wants to build it himself.
The installed BIOS is 1.30 (Sept. 1, 2021) and the EC is 1.09. These are the final BIOS versions for this computer.
I made the following changes to the default BIOS settings. Then I powered the Thinkpad down and up.
After making these changes, I note that my USB thumb drive fails to boot with CRC error. If I set Config->USB->USB 3.0 Mode = Enabled, then booting is fine, but the mouse does not work. I left Config->USB->USB 3.0 Mode = Auto for now, but for booting the stick, change it to Config->USB->USB 3.0 Mode = Enabled.
The Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual says to turn off the internal battery before opening the case, then remove 8 screws and pry 8 tabs to open the entire back of the case. The drive was easily replaced.
I booted the ArcaOS USB stick, and in System Maintenance, I prepared the hard drive using the Suntan Special application prepareSSD. I then restored the Factory build using RestoreVolume.
I installed one bootable volume, H:. The H: drive has a Custom installation that includes developer tools.
Sound is working normally on the laptop. Audio works well, both external speakers and headphones are working. The following modification is needed to enable sound. The Uniaud driver from Arca Noae provides sound through the internal speakers.
Driver=H:\MMOS2\UNIAUD32.SYS /A:1
The VIOP.SYS driver is installed to make DOS Full-Screen work. DOS Window does not work, but Alt-Home from a DOS Full-Screen allows a DOS Window to work.
Using Suntan Special I run sequences ArcaOS50, apps, games, dev and cleanup. This is saved as the Factory image. This is normally what would be supplied on the computer.
If am external monitor, then this is how it will work. The computer is set to the native screen of 1920 x 1080. If your monitor is the same, then nothing needs to be done to switch to and from an external monitor. If the computer monitor is different than 1920 x 1080, then the screen resolution can be adjusted to the optimal values. For example, I tested with a computer monitor with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. When I switch to my external monitor, the computer changes to 1600 x 1200. I enter 1920 x 1200 into the screen applet and reboot for optimum resolution. When I switch to the built in display, the same action is needed.
