Upgrade from T41 with bad GPU to T43p

[NTL1991]

Hello everyone.

My T41 has served me well for the past 3 years or so, and I still find it quite capable for my uses, even doing some light CAD and VirtualPCing here and there. My GPU problem started about 3 months ago and still occurs. (I'm using the laptop now) If I use the laptop on a soft surface (where the motherboard can flex, the display will blank and the system will hang and reboot.

The laptop is a 2373-4GU. It has a 1.6Ghz Banias, 1.5GB DDR 333Mhz RAM, a 250GB PATA drive, Bluetooth/Modem MiniPCI Card, 14.1" XGA screen with the Radeon 7500 32MB AGP 4x graphics card.

Now, the T43p uses a completely different chipset which requires that I do some upgrading. I would need a Dothan CPU, PC4200 DDR2 RAM, and a large heatsink/fan. I'd imagine most, if not all T43p's came with Bluetooth/Modem, so I wouldn't need to swap that. I know it has SATA capability, but is this for the ultrabay only? Can I use my current PATA drive?

I see many T43p motherboards on eBay which are New, Genuine motherboard which come already mounted in the bottom plastic tray. There are both 14" and 15" trays. This tray would eliminate the need to modify anything for the new ExpressCard slot, right?

Can I buy a T43p motherboard in a 14" tray, and use the rest of my case (ie, the keyboard, keyboard bezel?) I would replace the palmrest with one with the fingerprint reader.

Will my 14.1" XGA screen work with the FireGL card?

Many thanks,
Nick

[Harryc]

Of all of the parts you mentioned, everything is compatible between a T41 and a T43P except for the CPU and RAM. If I may make a suggestion, instead of getting a T43p board/tray, get an Intel R51 board. That way you can build a TR451, reuse all of your parts, and be permanently done with GPU issues. With it's XGA LCD your machine is a perfect candidate.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65505
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-ThinkPad-R51-14 ... 4cf47a7de8

[NTL1991]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware that the R-series parts were interchangeable with T-Series.

If I replaced the motherboard with an Intel Integrated GPU from a R51, I would eliminate GPU problems. But, I'd also be trading off performance (even with respect to the base Radeon), and size & weight. It would be the cheapest method, however.

I'm not looking for a powerhouse, if so, I'd buy a new laptop. I just don't want to make the things I currently do now any slower than they already are.

I was under the impression, however, that the T43 and newer have design changes in the motherboard manufacturing process that has made them more reliable when it comes to flexing and solder issues. Is this incorrect?

Also, I'm aware of the huge increase in heat and noise with the T43p over the older T4* series laptops.

Thanks,
Nick

[Harryc]

Yes the T43's are more reliable. It's your dime, go for it.

[NTL1991]

I could absolutely see going with the R51 if I weren't kind of a power user, but If I'm going to go through the process of replacing the motherboard, I'd like to get a bit more bang out of the system.

When replacing a motherboard with a different type, ex. Replacing T41 with T43p, will I need to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows. I know if the hardware change is drastic, Windows will prevent the system from starting due to Windows Product Activation noticing the changes.

I know I didn't have an issue when replacing the motherboard of a bad-GPU'd T40 with a T41 motherboard. In this case, I'm not sure, as many things are different, including the chipset, processor, probably many of the I/O controllers, video card, etc.

Will my current set of T41 Recovery Discs work in the T43p? For some reason I seem to remember something about the disc set changing for the T42...

Thanks Again,
Nick

[Harryc]

I suspect the R&R discs will work, but there will be older versions of IBM apps, and perhaps some drivers will be missing.

[craigmontHunter]

IIRC, the t43 had a new set of recovery disks. I used the t41 set on a t42 and a t40, but the t43 has a diffrent chipset (and a sata controller), I believe that it uses a diffrent HAL from the previous ones - you may just want to make a xp disk from the i386 folder on your c: drive, and use that to do a clean install on the t43, and use sytemupdate to find all the programs and drivers.

[lukee]

I would take an T43p board... you're getting possibility to install Pentium M 780 inside, use cheap DDR2 RAM modules which uses dual-channel in T43p's and it is equipped with quite strong graphics and it is newer Sonoma architecture with PCI-Express bus and ExpressCard slot. T43(p) can be also rebuild to accept SATA HDDs in main HDD bay - check latest posts in T4x forum. If you want to use your PATA HDD, no problems. Only thing you have to do is to apply no-2010 error modified BIOS if you don't want to listen loud beep everytime when ThinkPad boot-up.

[Bibin]

I would pick a T43p board. You could get a slower dothan if heat is an issue (I am thinking of putting a 1.7GHz in to mine), and would just need DDR2 RAM. The FireGL V3200 is great for CAD and some light gaming is fine too (I play Team Fortress 2 on it sometimes). You can re-use your old PATA drive, but if you have the patience and soldering finesse I would perform the SATA modification and use a SATA drive as the performance difference is huge.

I suggest you use a fresh copy of XP with the license on the bottom of the laptop. If you call microsoft and explain that you'd like an OEM disc and read to them your XP serial, they ought to mail you one. Some Dell OEM XP disc might work as well (I did that for a tablet X41 as tablet XP is hard to find)