The Perfect Laptop?
I’ve been a “mac guy” my entire life. Started with the original Apple II and moved on from there. I’ve always had various apple desktops and laptops around and still do to this day. However, being a tinkerer, it is always fun to see what you can do on your own. The T440P is the perfect “build your own” laptop. It has the strong build quality, great screen, excellent keyboard, and modular construction. Yes… its a little thick and heavy… but that’s what I have my iPad or MacBook for… if I need something small and light. However, I find myself using my T440P more than any other especially now that it runs OS 11.0 Big Sur (update… I have had no issues whatsoever updating my computer and, as of September 15, 2022, I am running 11.7 without issue). This guide uses OpenCore… not Clover. I’ve always used Clover in the past but had trouble when trying to go to Catalina or BigSur on the T440P. OpenCore works much better as of the date of this blog in my opinion. Big Sur works perfectly and I haven’t had a reason to attempt an upgrade to Monterey yet. This is a guide only… proceed at your own risk…
PREPARATION
Get a used T440P off of eBay. Best to get one without the internal graphics card since it is not necessary. Don’t worry about cracked screens or missing keys on the keyboard or no hard drive. Just make sure the case is in good shape aesthetically so your finished product looks good. Should cost between $50 and $100 depending on condition. Make sure it is not locked with a supervisor password or some other corporate lock. If locked it cannot be unlocked.
Buy a new 6 or 9 cell battery on eBay. Up to you which one. I chose 6 cell for size. Run time is 4 hours or so depending on what I’m doing. Not great, but with the USB-C mod I did to mine there is always a charger at hand.
Buy an IPS 1080P screen. I chose a 14.0" FHD IPS LAPTOP LCD SCREEN for Razer Blade (2016) FHD LGD046D LP140WF3-SPD1. It is drop dead simple to install. Plug and play.
Buy 16 GB of ram. I chose DDR3 DDR3L 16GB (2 x 8GB) RAM 1600MHz (PC3 12800) 204 pin CL11 1.35V Non ECC Unbuffered SODIMM Laptop Memory Module.
Buy a SSD. I chose Crucial MX500 500GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, up to 560MB/s - CT500MX500SSD1. I bought two of them and put one to replace the original spinning drive and installed Windows 10 on it and then put the second in place of the CD drive using this 2nd HDD SSD Hard Disk Drive Caddy Adapter for Lenovo ThinkPad T440P T540 T540P adapter so it is a true dual boot machine. The adapter comes with the plastic door so it is plug and play. Sometimes Windows is the right tool for the job and sometimes Mac is the right tool for the job.
Buy this Plug & Play Hackintosh M.2 NGFF WLAN BCM94360NG 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 WiFi Card for PC Catalina mac OS Native Support macOS AirDrop Continuity Handoff Better BCM94352Z DW1560 Support Intel NUC on Amazon or eBay. I’ve tried them all over the years and trust me, unless you have native WiFi and Bluetooth, this whole process becomes a pain. This one just works. No extra kexts or trickery. Continuity, airdrop, iMessage, FaceTime, etc all work. You have to remove the WLAN whitelist restriction Lenovo puts on the laptop. That is the biggest pain but once its done you are good to go. This guide is based on this WiFi / Bluetooth module only. If you use a different card then you will have to add kexts for the card you choose.
OPTIONAL… buy a good processor. I chose an Intel Core i7-4712MQ SR1PS 2.3GHz-3.3GHz 4 Core 8 Thread 37W CPU Processor. This is the best compromise of speed, power, and thermals. It is drop dead simple to install. Plug and play. This is more expensive than the laptop and you can always upgrade this later if you like the result of your work. I used this excellent GUIDE when choosing my processor.
OPTIONAL… buy a better trackpad. I chose THINKPAD T440 T440P T440S T450 T460 Touchpad Trackpad With Three 3 Buttons Key. Make sure it is a Synaptics brand NOT an Alps. Update… I have given up on the upgraded trackpad and went back to the original. Either one works perfectly in OS X. Ironically, the issue is in Windows and since I’m running Windows 10 Home, I am unable to “block” the system from wanting to update the driver. It became a pain so I switched back. My advice is not to mess with the trackpad is you are on Windows 10 Home.
OPTIONAL… buy a backlit keyboard if your T440P doesn’t already have one. Mine did not and was missing keys when I bought it cheap on eBay so this was a win win for me. I chose one off of eBay HERE.
OPTIONAL… buy a Lenovo GOBI5000 Sierra Wireless EM7345 4G LTE GSM GPRS EDGE FRU:04X6015 ThinkPad WWAN module. This will only work in Windows but its pretty awesome to have. My T440P had the SIM slot under the battery and the WWAN antennae already there so it was plug and play.
OPTIONAL… buy a mini display port to HDMI dongle. Output works perfectly without any additional tweaks.
GET TO WORK
Review this excellent GUIDE several times before beginning your work. Get a clean workspace and take your time. It’s fun and can be easy if you don’t let yourself get frustrated. In that guide, DO NOT use the recommended WiFi card. Please use the BCM94360NG since it is native to the Mac.
Replace the hardware you decided to purchase by following the guide on disassembly, etc. It’s super easy to work on this laptop. TAKE YOUR TIME so you don’t break clips or wires.
Remove the WiFi whitelist. I used this guide by KLEM. Took a few minutes with the tools he suggests and once he sends you the modded BIOS.
SOFTWARE
Install BigSur. If you are dual booting, make sure you keep track of which SSD is which so you don’t overwrite your other install. Alternatively, you can simply remove the hard drive you plan to use for Windows from the computer while you install OS X so you don’t mix them up.
Create a BigSur USB install by following this guide by Apple.
When you are done, mount the EFI partition on the USB stick by using the Mount EFI script.
Leave the EFI folder on the USB stick but place the OC and BOOT folders you downloaded from here inside of the EFI folder on the USB stick. So you should have an EFI partition, a folder called EFI inside the EFI partition, and then the OC and BOOT folders inside of the EFI folder.
Edit the config.plist found inside of the OC folder on the USB stick to add MLB, SystemSerialNumber, and SystemUUID values to the config.plist. I used GenSMBIOS to generate mine. Be sure to type MacBookPro11,2 as the type of computer when you use GenSMBIOS. If you don’t do this then iMessage and FaceTime WILL NOT work. The supplied config.plist has dummy entries in it and they need to be populated with values. I used ProperTree to edit my plist.
I find that if you install Windows 10 AFTER you finish your OS X install it is better since OpenCore will recognize the windows drive in the picker. If you do Windows first and OS X second, often the OpenCore picker will not recognize the Windows drive. Not sure why. Install Windows 10 on the second hard drive if you are going to dual boot. Just follow many of the guides out there to install a clean Windows installation. The laptop is still supported on Lenovo’s website but in general Windows should install no problem. I have provided drivers for the Broadcom bluetooth and wifi card here, if you are using the one I recommended if Windows doesn’t automatically install the correct drivers. The only additional tweak would be if you upgraded your trackpad as I have done with the buttons. If you did that, you have to tweak the driver a bit per this guide.
7. Reboot and enter BIOS. Reset BIOS to defaults and then make these changes.
In Security menu, set the following settings:
Security > Security Chip: must be Disabled,
Memory Protection > Execution Prevention: must be Enabled,
Internal Device Access > Bottom Cover Tamper Detection: must be Disabled,
Anti-Theft > Current Setting: must be Disabled,
Anti-Theft > Computrace > Current Setting: must be Disabled,
Secure Boot > Secure Boot: must be Disabled.
In Startup menu, set the following options:
UEFI/Legacy Boot: Both,
UEFI/Legacy Priority: UEFI First,
CSM Support: Yes.
8. Reboot and hit enter and then hit F12 and boot from USB. Follow the instructions to install BigSur. I like to enter Disk Utility and format the SSD I’m installing BigSur on just for good measure. Make sure you use the correct SSD if you are dual booting. Leave the USB stick you created in the computer until it is done installing.
9. Once you are booted into a BigSur desktop you need to add the contents of the EFI folder to the SSD so that you can boot without the USB stick. Use MountEFI script to mount the EFI on your SSD. Delete anything inside of the EFI folder. Use MountEFI script to mount the USB stick EFI as well. You need to use the EFI files on the USB stick since you added the MLB, SystemSerialNumber, and SystemUUID values to the config.plist in the previous steps. Next, copy the OC and BOOT folders from the EFI folder on the USB stick to the EFI folder on the SSD. So you should have an EFI partition, a folder called EFI inside the EFI partition, and then the OC and BOOT folders inside of the EFI folder. Basically its exactly the same files that are on you USB stick. Remove the USB stick and reboot. If it doesn’t work, you messed something up. Put the USB stick back in, reboot, and try to retrace your steps to see what you did wrong.
9. Once you are done installing you need to fix audio. Download and place the extracted ALCPlugFix folder into desktop. Then open Terminal and enter the following commands one after the other…
sudo spctl --master-disable
sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin/
cd desktop/ALCPlugFix
chmod +x ./install.sh
./install.sh
10. Install the ThinkPad Keyboard app by downloading it here. Once installed, click it in the menu bar on top of the screen and select Monitor Capslock and Launch on Login.
11. DONE!!!! You should be up and running. Keep in mind that the fingerprint reader, SD card reader, and WWAN card (if you installed one) will not work in BigSur. Some people have had the SD card reader working at one time or another (including myself) but it is so unreliable that I just removed it from my config.plist and kext files for a cleaner installation. Display port to HDMI works out of the box. Enjoy!
CONCLUSION
If you like a good project from now and then, then I would recommend this. Financially it doesn’t necessarily make sense but it is fun and makes what I would consider a fast, stable, great keyboard, great screen, dual boot monster of a laptop. Have fun!
