ThinkPad USB C Charging Cables for Classic Devices: GaN, Powerbanks and more

Today I examine two charging cables that could reduce the number of chargers that need to be carried by a ThinkPad owner. They allow for barrel and rectangular plugs to be used by USB C chargers and powerbanks. Thanks again to Carlos for point these out and for those that have purchased through the Amazon links to fund the purchase of the cables for this video.
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Amazon.com
amzn.to/3Redkzp (Rectangle Style)
amzn.to/3RwkC12 (Barrel Style)
Amazon.ca
amzn.to/3TRJUsy (Rectangle Style)
amzn.to/3TDp9R8 (Barrel Style)

[@zacdavis3637]

Just ordered, thanks for featuring these!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Let me know your experience with them. They are under documented.

[@roikatz]

I use that kind of rectangular cable for a year now and it works great. There is also a smaller adapter for usbc to lenovo ports without the full cable

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Glad to hear it works for you!

[@georgecagle3829]

This is so cool! I need to pick up a few of these cables.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

If you do, let us know how it goes.

[@TechDave]

The battery bank idea for this is a seriously good idea!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

If I ever get one that supports this level of PD, I'm trying it.

[@MrKillswitch88]

The thought comes to mind when power outages become more common place one could charge those power banks and keep laptop or two going without too much of a fuss.

[@mariusbecker1159]

I have both a round tip to usb C cable like in the video and a small usb c- round tip adapter to connect to normal usb c cables. like the round to square tip adapter that exist. Found the latter one to be better, since the normal, longer adapter cable produced some issues when I used it in the past. Maybe the cable ist at fault. Never had any issues with the smaller adapter until now

[@TheWretchedWorld]

Just a heads up, ive done some extensive testing with these and here is some information that may help viewers. These only work properly if you are running a 90w USB C PD adapter or above. The thinkpad sees the charger as a 90w capable one regardless of wattage the usb type c charger it is. if you are running well below 90w i.e 45 - 60 - 65w which are the most common wattage for these types of chargers, the thinkpad will constantly disconnect and reconnect to the charger based on load. It pretty much wont charge. I found this to be the case with all my thinkpads ranging from my t61(igpu) x61 x230 and t530 (quad core). When running with a 100w usb c pd charger they all charge perfectly and using one of these is no different to oem 90w adapter. I have a feeling if they made an adapter cable that was able to trick the thinkpads to think they were running off a 65w oem charger you would be able to get away with a 65w usb c charger. Ive had success running a t530 quad core off a 65w charger under light loads with 0 issues at all so this is the basis to this theory. TLDR 90w usb c charger/power bank or above with these cables and you will have 0 issues

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing and I'll have to keep this in mind for future chargers I test.

[@herrfaust2020]

I had a similar experience with a China-special cable. Tried an Anker 65W and some other brand 65W. Both were IDed as 90W by three different ThinkPads. It was charging the battery okay, although the computer was mostly idling.

[@lk6015]

I recently purchased the USB C Charger, Baseus 100W PD GaN3 Fast Wall Charger Block, 4-Ports [2USB-C + 2USB] to replace a broken charger for my MSI Flip 2in1 laptop. But when I tried to charge my Thinkpad x1 yoga 7 2in1, it doesn't work.

[@aaroncheah2088]

I have the barrel plug version of the same cable but connected to a Baseus Blade 100W power bank. Works great when on the move.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Cool! Glad to hear it.

[@codinginchannel3218]

Hi @aaroncheah2088 do you still use it with your powerbank? Does it ok to charge while the laptop is in use? Thank you

[@ted-b]

Interesting alternatives!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It is. I'm glad they were brought to my attention so I could mess around with them.

[@MegaManNeo]

I have such a thing as angled plug. Still need a good quality 65W charger for the X240 (and Steam Deck and AyaNeo) but these things all feel so expensive.

[@CommodoreFan64]

This is really cool, and I might have to look into this, as I have few older Thinkpads where the batteries have become bunk, and finding one from a reliable source has either become impossible, and just way way too expensive.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

My thoughts as well. One of these cables and a battery bank could be a workaround measure for such machines.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@LaptopRetrospective the only problems I have with this solution is it's something extra to carry around with the battery bank, making it less portable, but if you take the battery out on a lot of older Thinkpads it leaves a big empty space like the X120e that also uses the battery to stabilize the system with the extra feet on the battery pack, but if you leave the battery in there is a rare chance it could swell up, and leak, or explode from old age, and system trying to charge it, along with the annoying amber flashing light trying to tell you the battery is bad.

[@MrKillswitch88]

When all else fails one way to source batteries though not normally preferable to most buyers is buying up unwanted machines on the cheap and getting batteries that way though a huge roll of the dice but when an replacement battery is like $150-250 it becomes an reasonable option.

[@MrKillswitch88]

@@CommodoreFan64 Modern lithium batteries don't leak unlike the old ni-cd with the exception of a thermal runaway. As for weight not a big deal at all as some of us gotten used to carrying books back in school.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@MrKillswitch88 I should have been more specific on when I ment leak, as I was also thinking of some Bios batteries on older systems that can cause a lot of damage. but yeah the main Lithium batteries can become spicy pillows over time. lol!

[@Svetoslav85]

Great cables for some portable chargers on the go. Could someone advise whether x270 can be charged via the USB-C port and whether I can use x13 gen 2 power brick?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Only if that USB C port support Power Delivery.

[@minkworks6143]

Know of any reverse cables converters? That is, using the old barrel adaptor to power a modern usb c thinkpad? I have lots of the old classic barrel adaptors laying around.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Can't say I have.

[@reality_hurtz]

Do you have any thoughts on whether newer Thinkpad P series models like the P5*s and P7*s could be charged with a USB-C adapter? (Assuming one is willing to put up with throttling)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The original power adapters for those machines are greater than 100W so the setup would need to be able to provide the power it needs or it would drain faster than it charges. The computer would also need to support PD of an appropriate level over that port.

[@2DAnimax]

should i use exactly 65w charger(3rd party) or can i use 100W or more watts charger ? is it safe? any usb c cable is capable to charge laptop or should i get 100W cable ?

[@catgirl_eva]

The ThinkPads I usually use all support USB PD, so such a cable isn't needed for them. However, I did find a similar cable that's compatible with Dell laptops that use a barrel adaptor and will be trying that with my Dell G15, a gaming laptop that came with a 170W power adapter. The laptop will work with lower wattage adapters, but you'll just get a little nag saying that performance may be affected.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, it's the other way around for me.

[@MrKillswitch88]

I use the 240w adapters for my collection with the exception of an 330w for an M18x R2 and yes they downclock when detecting an charger that is of a lower wattage than what was shipped with those machines. It has been this way since the early 2000s back when the Pentium 4 was a still a thing in laptops and really hasn't changed though modern ultrabooks for example don't use much at all especially the low end ones.

[@emmanne08]

Cool accessory but I'd be only using those for throwaway ThinkPads as I don't want to risk damaging the motherboard on non-throwaway ones.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Fair. There are some devices that I wouldn't risk it on myself.

[@lk6015]

i bought the GaN 100w charger to replace a defect charger for MSI Flip 2 in 1 laptop, it works fine, however, the GaN charger does not work for my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 2 in 1 yoga 7 laptop. Do you know why?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting. Can you provide more information on the charger and cable?

[@robe_p3857]

It appears that the t430 is absent from the list of compatible models in the amazon description. t430 uses the same barrel plug as t420. Do u happen to know a reason why the this hack wouldnt work for t430?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Nope. I could even try it later when I have a moment.

[@MrKillswitch88]

At least on paper this is good but I still prefer to use the older chargers for one reason that I use higher wattage models for faster charging as well be able to run higher end machines that would be starved on the lower wattage chargers as some will significantly down clock when a lower than stock or unknown charger is detected.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yes, it isn't a solution for every ThinkPad.

[@grunger5837]

what brand is that charger can i get a link? Thank You!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I did a whole video on it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWPIdI2Nm9SrpMU

[@root8able]

I have tried a 65w usb c charger and connected it to my T430 with a usb c to thinkpad round tip adapter and my T430 intermittently detected the charge but did not hold up.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting, haven't tried that accessory.

[@tomas_klouda]

Unfortunately quality of USB-C cables and chargers varies a lot, so you probably just had bad luck either with cable or with the charger. Not sure what configuration of T430 you have though. In case it is some quad core with dedicated GPU, then that USB-C charger might just not be able to cope with the demand for power...

[@root8able]

@@tomas_klouda no it's a dual core with no dedicated GPU. I will try again to see if I can charge it with the usb c adapter and 65w charger. I have tried charging it with my 65w power bank though and it works!

[@tomas_klouda]

@@root8able then I would also try to run it from that powerbank. If it works, you will know the charger is not good. Are you sure the charger supports 20V output? Most of the 65W does, but it's still worth checking.

[@root8able]

@@tomas_klouda I need to check

[@_Digitalguy]

Something doesn't sound right. Power delivery is a variable voltage technology that negotiates the voltage between the charger and the device but defaults to 5v if the device does not work with power delivery... These thinkpads have fixed voltage (19v or 20v I guess). So how can the charger get the right voltage without a power delivery device? It would be interesting to use a small USB C power meter to check what's the actual voltage and amperage of this charge...

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The question is what is a good, reliable meter? I know some don't measure accurately.

[@tomas_klouda]

That's really good question I thought the video will explain. As it didn't I will try it instead ;-) Basically these cables have PD decoy chip hidden in one of the connectors which asks the PD charger for a set voltage. So instead of having smart communication between the charger and the charged device as you normally do with PD devices, here you will get 20V at the end of the cable the instant you connect it to the PD charger. That is the only bad thing about these cables I would say. It is not that safe as having only 5V there... On the other hand laptop charging cables also have these voltages dangling there, so not a big deal.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for commenting. I certainly claim no expertise on charging technology and didn't want to mislead anyone. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

[@tomas_klouda]

@@LaptopRetrospective I certainly didn't want to hint you are misleading anyone. I just hoped you will be more curious how these cables work and explain it to people when you are presenting them ;-) PD decoy cables can be found in multitude of varieties. I have one for my TS 100 soldering iron for example as a backup when I am soldering somewhere where I don't want to bring my 24V DC power supply with me. As PD is variable, you can also buy these in other voltages, not just 20V (which fits most laptops), but also 12V and 9V. Basically all standard voltages PD offers...

[@LaptopRetrospective]

No offense taken, I'm here to learn. 👍

[@RenatoApazaMeza]

65w or 100w ? need the new charger ?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Can you provide some more information? I'm not sure I understand your question.

[@msor6108]

I have a GAN charger that can do 240watts from one port, should i do it?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's a lot of juice. A workstation might need a good chunk of that but your average laptop doesn't need that.

[@msor6108]

@@LaptopRetrospective I bought it so that I can charge multiple laptops at once. I have a t440p I just put together and I am thinking of buying that cable so that can charge that laptop and my framework laptop and my phone all at once charger. I don't know if it would damage my t440p 😬, I really wanna do it though.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I'd check the PSREF to see the max W it was originally charged with and not exceed it. Older machines may not understand that newer charger technology.

[@44unknown83]

Would it be possible to charge a x240 or x250 with a 20/30w charger?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Possible? Maybe, but it would take ages.

[@44unknown83]

@@LaptopRetrospective would 30w still cause a trickle charge? Or is 45w the bare minimum?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It might give a small charge. Keep in mind if the draw of it running is more than the charge it's a losing battle unless you turn it off to charge.

[@44unknown83]

@@LaptopRetrospective thanks for the reply! I’m gonna keep it as a backup option, the original Lenovo adapter is just too bulky for me to carry around on a daily basis.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Good luck.

[@user-ff5ch7tv3f]

Tried that. It showed charging but the percentage didn't go up.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What charger did you use? Could it provide enough Watts?

[@Envinite]

Definitely not enough watts especially if you using a smaller charger that typically for phones (

[@robinrai4973]

Nice, I like the female type c to slim tip adapter a bit more though, since you can use the same usb c male to male cable for all your other devices With that said my ThinkPad luckily has a usb c port already Also an FYI, you can get non GaN chargers of a similar size, and you want to use a power bank of as low wattage as possible, as it's very inefficient - my 60 watt 30000mah power bank gets destroyed by my x380 yoga, 45 watt would be better I think

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yep, those adapters work too.

[@J20666]

This significantly reduce the burden of carrying the power brick.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It certainly has the potential.

[@iamdmc]

imho you're overthinking it use a USB C charger and a $5 USB C female to barrel or square tip PD trigger adapter - they've been around for years

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I don't really want to go too cheap with my power supply setups. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

[@citizenX117]

less is more

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Only having to carry one charger for a fleet of different machines is nice.