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Modifying the ThinkPad 13 Gen 1 to unlock its full PCIe potential

August 07, 2024 Modifying the Thinkpad 13 Gen 1 to unlock its full PCIe potential A Few weeks ago i acquired a Thinkpad 13 Gen 1 on ebay, sold by a recycling company, it was listed for parts and with the wrong model name in the title. Math done it only cost about 33 euro shipped so i decided to buy it, as soon as it arrived i plugged it in to check for any signs of life and it immediately turned on, at the time i only checked it out using a usb stick equipped with a live image of linux.

Talking to my friend who took a look at the files she pointed out that the design by Quanta, is not exactly ideal as it would be when correctly implemented for NVMe, as they added extra components required in SATA-only configuration.. We later discovered that the specsheet listed SATA m.2 as the only storage option. So enough talking done, i got to disassembling the laptop and getting down to desolder two capacitors, C224 and C237, and bridging them with some magnet wire, it was kind of difficult but nothing some flux and holding a steady hand can’t fix. Preparing for what should be the final test i once again borrowed an ssd from my main laptop, which runs debian btw, painstakingly reseated the keyboard and booted the machine.

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