How many manufacturers produced the x220 keyboard?

[thinkpad80]

I recently learnt three manufacturers produced the x200/x201 keyboard and there were subtle differences.

How many manufacturers did the x220 keyboard have? Three again?

[axur-delmeria]

I recently learnt three manufacturers produced the x200/x201 keyboard and there were subtle differences.

How many manufacturers did the x220 keyboard have? Three again?

AFAIK, three: NMB, Chicony, and Alps.

[WarMachine]

Hello,

I posted, some days ago, about the keyboard of my newly acquired W520. W520 which has the same keyboard as the X220. I had the impression that my keyboard was phosphorescent. So I opened the laptop to see what I had and the FRU is the one of the NMB. But, strangely, the manufacturer is Liteon. There is next to nothing about Liteon keyboards on **20 laptops (Liteon has produced keyboards for Lenovo but on more recent machines).

You can naturally know the manufacturer of a keyboard by looking under it, but you can also know that by looking at the domes under the keys. And the NMB as red domes (the Liteon too). It's possible that Liteon manufactured keyboard for NMB. So I would say four brands if we consider that Liteon and NMB are different (but technically, you'll have the same keyboard – with perhaps phosphorescent light on Liteon ones – if my eyes don't fool me !).

Have a look here :
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... ps_vs_nmb/

I have all three/four brands and I can confirm what is written. NMB is my prefered, Liteon juste after, and then Chicony. And Alps to finish. You must notice that the feeling with one keyboard can slightly change from a machine to another. On the X220, the keyboard is vey firm, it will be the same on the T400s or T410s. Then comes the W520. And it will be even less firm if it's used on a T420 for example (but not much). It's worse on the T420s (but it's not a problem as I rarely use this machine). That's my feelings with the keyboards, Perhaps other users will feel that differently. But as I use a lot these machines for years too, so I don't think I'm wrong. And the difference is very limited, so users who don't have all these machines and who don't use them often will not necessarily feel that diffence. Again, it's very subtle.

For every of these machines, they remain far more superior to a lot of other laptops (their reputation about the quality of Lenovo's keyboards is not stolen) : I've never used other laptops with kyboards so good (and I have had hundreds of them in my hands).



W.

[kfzhu1229]

As the X220 keyboard is interchangable to models like T420, T520, W520, as well as the 10 generation, is the three manufacturers evenly distributing the keyboards across all of the models?
Or is it much more likely for something like a T520 to have one manufacturer of the keyboard?
I got 6 X220, T520 keyboards altogether and all of them turned out to be the exact same FRU! (And I was able to fix only one of the 6 defective keyboards for now)

[atagunov]

I am not a happy bunny anymore thinkwiki links to https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/pd010629 which until very recently contained a list of xx20 keyboard FRU-s for all of NMB/Chicony/ALP for lots (all of?) keyboard layouts. Unfortunately now that page shows nothing and I haven't taken down a good record of UK layout FRU-s..

Well I have this saved search on ebay: 45n2170, 45n2240 these must be UK NMB and Chicony.. and I didn't want ALPs anyway.. But that was such a nice page to point people to!

..Eureka! http://web.archive.org/web/201912042040 ... s/pd010629 I should donate more to wayback machine! All data is still there nicely preserved! Hmm.. ideally that Thinkwiki page could host a copy.. Does anybody know how to add it there?..

[WarMachine]

I am not a happy bunny anymore thinkwiki links to https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/pd010629 which until very recently contained a list of xx20 keyboard FRU-s for all of NMB/Chicony/ALP for lots (all of?) keyboard layouts. Unfortunately now that page shows nothing and I haven't taken down a good record of UK layout FRU-s..

Well I have this saved search on ebay: 45n2170, 45n2240 these must be UK NMB and Chicony.. and I didn't want ALPs anyway.. But that was such a nice page to point people to!

..Eureka! http://web.archive.org/web/201912042040 ... s/pd010629 I should donate more to wayback machine! All data is still there nicely preserved! Hmm.. ideally that Thinkwiki page could host a copy.. Does anybody know how to add it there?..

Hello,

I thought I was doing something wrong, but I see I'm not the only one who don't find resources anymore on the site of Lenovo. It seems they did a big spring cleaning recently. I saw, weeks ago, a very nice list of all the pieces used in the W520 and this page also is not available anymore (same thing for the W530). Fortunately, I have found the same informations on the HMM (and I had saved at the time some informations in various files). I downloaded them and made a copy on my NASes and various computers. Better be safe than sorry. And I made a screenshot of the keyboards list too, very helpful !

Really annoying, to say the least. It would certainly not cost a lot to Lenovo to maintain a legacy section on its servers for all the resources.

W.

[RealBlackStuff]

This Forum has all the HMMs up till and including the xx40 series.
Just click on the HMM link at the top on every Forum page.
However, since the xx30 series, the partslist has been removed from the HMM and is now separately published with the word frubom or fru_bom in it.
(and these are not stored here).
Examples:
- T430_T430i_fru_bom_20130410.pdf
- T450_frubom_20150127.pdf
Most are PDF listings, which are quite usable.
But I've also seen Excel listings, that are a right mess.

[WarMachine]

This Forum has all the HMMs up till and including the xx40 series.
Just click on the HMM link at the top on every Forum page.
However, since the xx30 series, the partslist has been removed from the HMM and is now separately published with the word frubom or fru_bom in it.
(and these are not stored here).
Examples:
- T430_T430i_fru_bom_20130410.pdf
- T450_frubom_20150127.pdf
Most are PDF listings, which are quite usable.
But I've also seen Excel listings, that are a right mess.

Hello,

Thank you, and yes, that's what I saw.
Nothing dies on the internet !

W.