I'd like to listen to music while on the go, without the need to always have the screen up. Is there a way to set up, that the T61 does not shut down when the lid is being closed?

Thanks.

You can adjust the power settings by going to: Start > Control Panel > Power Options
Also read the Power Management section in the HMM

You can also click on the battery icon in the system try (windows icon, not the lenovo power manager on the toolbar), select "more power options", the select on the left "choose what closing the lid does".

I always disable this. It's very easy to enter sleep mode if you want to and I hate that the default won't let you close the lid for a minute with out the dam thing going into sleep mode.

Additionally, sleep mode may save a bit of power, but it's actually harder on your computer. Each time you go into sleep mode it adds one more hot/cold cycle to all the components. This is one of the major causes of electronic failures. The chips are made of different materials that are bonded together and they expand at different rates and different temps, so each cycle causes friction and wear n tear, so it's best to keep it at operating temp, and shutdown and restart as few times as possible.