The Lenovo Thinkpad T400 is a full sized laptop that has a with powerful CPU, graphics and a DVD Writer. The VGA adapter is suited to an external monitor. The 14.1 inch screen has a screen resolution of 1440 x 900, also known as WXGA+. The internal WiFi adapter works under ArcaOS using XWLAN and GenMac software.
After you add the computer and optional CPU upgrade to the cart, proceed to the Accessories page to add a hard drive upgrade, a USB floppy drive or a travel router.
AccessoriesThe hard drive can be upgraded to a 2 TB drive. Either a hard disk or an SSD is available to upgrade.
An 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
This computer already has a built-in WiFi card. It's a good one, but the OS/2 WiFi software is pretty dated. If you'd rather have an up-to-date unit, this model is recommended. 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
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 T400
Model number: 2767-12U
Year introduced: 2008
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9400 @ 2.53GHz
Screen: 14.1 inch Color LCD, 1440 x 900 pixels
RAM: 8 GB
Hard drive: 320 GB SATA
Optical drive: DVD-RW
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470
USB Ports: 3
Height: 1.3 inch
Width: 13.2 inches
Depth: 10.6 inches
Weight: 4.85 lbs
Power consumption is 43 Watts, measured with the computer booted to the desktop. This computer consumes 1 Watt if it's plugged in, but switched off.
The built-in webcam can be used with WebSee software. WebSee now works with the supplied USB 12.x from Arca Noae.
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. DOS Window does not function, but DOS Full Screen does. Pressing Alt-Home on the DOS Full Screen session converts it to a working DOS Window.
The disk is partitioned to provide a bootable operating system volume and a bootable installer. Space is left for addtional bootable volumes. User data is stored on a separate volume.
This is the layout for a 160 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 |
| ArcaOS-F | JFS | F: | 10,003 MB | 160 GB SATA |
| Recover | None | X: | 2,000 MB | 160 GB SATA |
| Data | JFS | D: | 140,610 MB | 160 GB SATA |
This is the layout for a 2 TB hard drive.
| Volume Name | Disk Format | Drive Letter | Volume Size | Disk Name |
| Maint | FAT16 | X: | 2,000 MB | 2 TB Internal |
| SADUMP | FAT32 | I: | 8,000 MB | 2 TB Internal |
| ArcaOS-F | JFS | F: | 10,001 MB | 2 TB Internal |
| Data | JFS | D: | 1,857,750 MB | 2 TB Internal |
ArcaOS 5.0.6 (Aug 31, 2020) 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 | 109 |
| CPU integer-marks | 4681 |
| CPU floating point-marks | 298 |
| DIVE-marks | 2327 |
| File I/O-marks | 43174 |
| Memory-marks | 4753 |
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 DVD supplied is a bootable ArcaOS DVD with a backup of the hard drive as delivered. You can boot the machine from DVD, and perform maintenance functions. The maintenance folder is available on the recovery DVD. 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 laptop computer is configured to boot ArcaOS.
The T400 has some trouble displaying 1440 x 900 WXGA+ using the Integrated Graphics, but no trouble using the Discrete Graphics.
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.
I made sure the BIOS was updated to the latest version. This may not be necessary, but I did it anyway. The current BIOS revision is 3.36 released on 2012/10/17. Firmware is version 1.6. I updated the BIOS to the current level with the BIOS update CD downloaded from the Lenovo support website.
I made the following changes to the default BIOS settings. Then I powered the Thinkpad down and up.
I bought a 2 TB hard drive and installed it according to instructions in the Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual. The drive can be prepared using the ArcaOS installer.
I installed one bootable volume, F:. The F: drive has a Custom installation with Samba Server included to share files. I made a recovery partition on volume X:. A System Dump partition is now included.
As of ArcaOS 5.0.6, sound is working normally on the laptop. Both UniAud and USB audio are installed and working. ArcaOS now switches between UniAud and USB audio automatically when a USB audio device is attached.
Support for the DOS Window is defective. DOS Full-Screen works normally. Alt-Home from a DOS Full-Screen then allows a DOS Window to work.
The disk driver, OS2AHCI.ADD, needs to have the following parameters or else boot will sometimes fail.
BASEDEV=OS2AHCI.ADD /N /F /V:2
The Thinkpad T400 WiFi already has the Intel 5100 mini-PCIe card. No other standard Lenovo card will work. Furthermore, the card must be Lenovo-approved or the Thinkpad will make an error on power on.
Actually, some Thinkpads come with the Intel 5300 mini-PCIe card. If you get one of those, buy an Intel 5100. Get the hardware maintenance manual, and see how to replace the 5300 with a 5100. One trick not listed in the hardware maintenance manual is that there are three antenna wires for the 5300, but only two for the 5100. I recommend connecting the grey wire to TR1 and the black wire to TR2 and leaving the white wire not connected.
The driver for the Intel 5100 WiFi card is from the GenMU unsupported collection. It works, but sometimes it will drop the connection. There are some special requirements for radio operation. Occasionally, the thinkpad will throw trap 0008.
BIOS has to be set to provide 100 percent power during battery operation. Speedstep must be enabled. The radio must be deactivated on startup by XWLAN, then started by enabling the radio from the XWLAN menu. The SSID appears to be required in the profile.
To use the WiFi, edit the XWLAN settings to deactivate the radio on startup. Using the switch on the front of the laptop, start the laptop with the radio on. Once booted, switch the radio off, then on again. Wait for the WiFi light just below the display to go on. Go to the XWLAN widget, and turn the radio on.
Sobopeep is compatible with Lenovo ThinkPad Advanced Mini-Dock Port Replicator (250410U). ArcaOS cannot dock/undock a running computer. You must shutdown the computer when docking and undocking.
Using Suntan Special I run sequences ArcaOS50, apps, games and cleanup. This is saved as the Factory image. This is normally what would be supplied on the computer.
These are photos of the prototype Sobopeep laptop. While each laptop will differ slightly, I try to resell laptops in good condition.
