FrankenPad R61i

[micrex22]

Yeah I noticed even on my higher powered non-laptop Intel CPUs even from 2014 they just die when it comes to Electron or HTML5. It's pretty crazy at how unusuable the internet is with those old machines.

Ideally I'd like the performance of an M2 macbook in a T60p, but they don't make anything like that these days

There's a recent thread on reddit where one guy turned the TP25's keyboard into a standalone USB keyboard, with the intention of transplanting a Framework 13 laptop AMD system board into a T470/TP25 chassis.
One of the commenters felt inspired and said he'd like to try the same to a T60.

Oh man, I'd love the T60 keyboard in the framework (I still have those dozen new-old-stock NMB T60 keyboards and new-old-stock soft rim trackpoint caps... although I've not had to use any of the keyboards since they last such a long time! They would make great stand-alone keyboards if they could be converted or put in another laptop).

[axur-delmeria]

Oh man, I'd love the T60 keyboard in the framework (I still have those dozen new-old-stock NMB T60 keyboards and new-old-stock soft rim trackpoint caps... although I've not had to use any of the keyboards since they last such a long time! They would make great stand-alone keyboards if they could be converted or put in another laptop).

Frank Adams has a design that uses either Teensy 3.2 or Teensy LC to convert a T60/61 keyboard to USB:
https://github.com/thedalles77/USB_Lapt ... inkPad_T61

[600X]

I ordered an AMD Framework and am also hoping that one day an alternative keyboard will be available.

el-sahef is probably the expert at swapping newer boards into older ThinkPads. I still have his Core i3 based 600X. I should probably grab it from the collection and take some pics one of these days.

It works well but there are several compromises, mostly the battery (had to be hacked up) and ease of access, which is greatly restricted compared to a stock 600X. It also retains XGA (albeit with a higher quality panel) so it's ultimately still more of a collectible/novelty than even my R61.

I have a 16" M1 MacBook at work and I quite like it. Thought about getting the M2 Air in Midnight but Framework finally adding an AMD option made me take the plunge on that. Also 3:2 is unbeatable and the Framework will match my desktop monitor in that regard.

[micrex22]

Frank Adams has a design that uses either Teensy 3.2 or Teensy LC to convert a T60/61 keyboard to USB:
https://github.com/thedalles77/USB_Lapt ... inkPad_T61

Yeah but there's no elegant assembly (like a 3D printed chassis) and you still have to build a horrible harness for those surface mount keyboard connectors.

[TPFanatic]

I am getting a bizarre Fn key behavior now on this laptop. D:
Pressing Fn has the effect of activating Fn+F5 and Fn+F6 at the same time, pressing Fn+Home or long-pressing Fn activates Fn-F4, and pressing Left Alt+PgUp activates the ThinkLight even at the splash screen. wtf

Tried two more keyboards and the misbehavior is the same. Tried another Drive and the misbehavior is the same.

I hadn't updated to Ec 1.08 yet (the .FL2 of the R61 15.4" BIOS) so went ahead and did that, no change in behavior.

I really didn't want to rollback to the R61 15" BIOS because then I'm trapped with Merom, but being the fellow who keeps saying all Core 2s feel the same, I suppose I gotta eat my words sometimes.

But even after downgrading to the Middleton's R61 15" BIOS 1.24/1.00 with T7300 the problem persists.

Began nuclear testing... downgraded to OEM 1.04/1.00, unplugged right-hand I/O (USB, S-Video), WLAN, removed a DIMM, removed both DIMMs, no change.

To further the insanity, 5 more people have reported this happening each on a T430s, P17 G2, Yoga 370, and two R61 (8918 15.4" and 7738 14.1" Wide). Seems like R61 is more susceptible to this stupid problem!!
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T ... -p/1409277
https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... _how_do_i/
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/R-Series-T ... /m-p/62084

This sucks so much...... I'm thinking the only fix is to buy a replacement rare motherboard ahahahaha. Unless that one will fail too? darn...

Edit to add:

Two incidents happened prior to this that I think could have caused this.
1. Few days ago I plugged powered off laptop into AC power and the laptop tried booting, as if it had lost its CMOS, but then turned itself off and stayed off.
2. I plugged in a Microsoft USB Joystick just before noticing the misbehavior.

I am going to leave the laptop with AC, battery, and CMOS disconnected for awhile. Hopefully there is a change in behavior when I come back to it in a few days. Otherwise I will stop using the computer because this makes me sad.


Edit:
Alright I have a plan.
If the EC doesn't fix itself (it most likely won't) I will acquire a T61 15.4" Intel board and frankenstein that into the machine. This will grant me with two additional mpcie slots and the SD reader, and AFAIK this key-mapping issue is not known to occur on T61. I can lose the IDE ultrabay since in this day and age it's useless other than for DVD burners, the ultrabay battery doesn't even fit right, and additional storage can be fulfilled with mpcie-adapted NVME drives.

This is going to become a frankenpad after all.

[unixed]

There is no need to "update" (they are version control numbers for firmware for different machines) the EC firmware. I've just left the latest official release in place on several of these without issue. This is the first time I hear of this problem, so would not say it is prevalent in the R61.

Use dmidecode under linux to check that you have indeed the EC firmware you've flashed.

Use a USB keyboard. If that works correctly not only has it helped troubleshoot the problem, but it presents you with an alternative solution. There are projects which allow the use of the R/T61 keyboard as a USB device. You can use that, making use of internal USB from the (unpopulated) mPCIe connector or similar.

Use xev (in x11-utils iirc in debian) or similar to try and see what is going on when you press the FN key. Compare this to what happens on another of your thinkpads which is working correctly. You may be able to remap the keyboard (.Xmodmap etc in linux, some dedicated program in Windows, I vaguely remember something called sharpkeys or something else I'll post if and when I remember it, maybe autohotkey or similar).

I would not frankenpad in a 15.4" T61 planar. wujstefan I think did this, but he ferrets out rare machines without breaking a sweat. Use a R60 shell. Don't experiment with a R61. peak2peak has a great post where he uses a R61 planar in a R60, and you can see that effectively it's a straight swap.

I've put a 15.4" T61p planar in at 15.0" T60 shell and you can consider that as an alternative. However it is much more difficult than the usual 14.1" T61 planar frankenpad mod.

[TPFanatic]

The only differences I see between this R61 and R60 are
1. No infrared cutout in the bottom case.
2. The 965gm motherboard, which is now dead to me if it doesn't read any keyboard correctly due to this stupid EC glitch with no solution.
3. It says R61 on the bezel.

It was not in perfect condition when I bought it and I see no need to keep it "numbers-matching". It exists to satisfy me and now it doesn't. It is only valuable to the nerd willing to buy an obsolete laptop old enough to vote.

I use Thinkpad particularly because of its IBM-engineered keyboard and hotkey support. Now it's all broken and inconsistent with the proper way of things.

If I'd known I'd have to frankenstein in a repair board I would have started with a cheap domestic R60. But since I have this, I will proceed with what I've got.

The 15.4" boards fit surprisingly well in the 4:3 chassis. Entire T61 is under half the price of an R61 15" board and offers better expansion with 3 MPCIE slots. Could even run Core 2 Quad in T61.

I already own some T60 including T601 with time bomb NVS 140m. I like the look of R series and loved R50p but the decontenting going on under the hood of the lesser -i and -e models holds no appeal to me.


edit:
So I mocked up planar from dead T61p 15.4" into the R61i frame.

Structure frame is 42X4912 for R61 and R61i according to HMM.
As well exists:
41W6346 for R60e and R61i
42R9853 for 15" WWAN
42W3494/41W5162 for 15" not WWAN (??)

Truly I'm curious what if any difference there is between these frames.

In any case, as I expected the T61 15.4" board lines up substantially, with conflicts at the SD card reader and Wireless USB MPCIE slot. CMOS connector is slightly under a frame rail. Nothing majorly problematic. Nothing a die grinder can't handle. I want to make an access hole for the Wireless USB slot. If it makes anyone happier I can spend $15 on a 42W3494 and slice into that instead of the 42X4912 frame. Besides I have to buy a T61 motherboard anyway.

edit:

Pleased to report that with some bone surgery I have fit my T61p 15.4" test motherboard into the R61i frame and case, turning it into an R61p. The board accepts power and happily verifies that its FX570m is still dead.

Some considerations putting a 15.4" T61 planar into R60/R61:
- UltraBay devices stick out an inch. Not a big deal, USB DVD and BD drives are plenty, and an UltraBay can be gained with the 2503 Dock. I will trim a travel bezel to fill the space.
- You gain the half-height MPCIE header but it lives under the UltraBay structure frame and cannot be accessed. I am not yet willing to make a hole to use it. There's a possibility I can fit something inside before screwing the planar into the frame.
- You gain the SD card reader but it is blocked by the frame and case. I cut out the frame but so far have left the case intact.
- If going for an Nvidia motherboard (you shouldn't) you need to shim some amount between the R60 dGPU heatsink and the Nvidia as it is shorter. Just get an Intel board and save all costs.
- You lose S-video out, no big loss as VGA and dock DVI are better.
- Unclear yet if the R60/R61 FireWire remains functional off the 20-pin 2xUSB+UltraBaySwitch port. T61 board has a removable FireWire header at the forward-left corner. Are two FireWires possible? I have never used FireWire in my life.
- The keyboard can no longer be fastened down because the motherboard is in the way. I am not severely concerned as the palmrest will secure the keyboard and the keyboard can be braced with insulation foam.
- 2.5" bay is now shortened so SSD PCBs or mSATA in adapters are necessary, and you have to make two little holes for the relocated 2.5" pegs.
- Have to trim a little bit of frame over the CMOS connector, not the worst of the mods.

This fits together so much nicer than a **00 board. Left-hand port arrangement is 100% the same. Right-hand USBs appear to plug right in. WLAN-kill switch fits perfect. T61 is still a competent workhorse, you can get lucky as I did with finding 8GB DDR2 for cheap. Ports and connectors are substantially in the same places. Lid plugs right in. And T61 15.4" are still dirt cheap, I just paid $35 for a complete unit to harvest the board from. I'm sure it's possible R61 15.4" may be suitable donors, but since they are documented as susceptible to the stupid EC glitch https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/R-Series-T ... /m-p/62084 and may not even have WWAN-header, I go for T61 with the 3 MPCIE headers. T61 has better specs and support and now it can enjoy the enhanced cooling of the bigger R61 case.

Maybe Core 2 Quad, someday!



edit:

Having the opened up Ultrabay but having the new half-height slot, even inaccessible to cards, opens to some unique possibilities. I can convert the Mini PCIE to additional USB ports, additional SATA ports, analog video capture, connector for GDC Beast, another Expresscard slot, etc.. Lots of room to work with, lots of tech to try out.

edit:
Impressively the dead FX570m came back to life since the laptop booted to splash screen, no backlight tho (display backlight verified to work on another test-board). Can't get farther than that without a cooler on the GPU or it safety-shutdowns.

I'm noticing the plastic travel bezels do not exist in the aftermarket and OEMs are too expensive. What I've done is ordered a cheap second drive caddy, I'll remove the SATA adapter and trim the rear, then use the hollow space to hide something, likely an m2 on a cheap extender from the half-height slot. I'm not yet equipped to fabricate some sort of USB 3.0 bezel or that would be a neat custom hack.

Other cool fact I've learned, the R61 15" uses the T60/R60 style of expansion card cage, while T61 as we know uses the newer style cage shared with T500/W500.

As for the shortened 2.5" main bay, on the 3rd SSD I opened up I found a 2/3rds length PCB that fits perfectly. Some kapton and foam tape to brace and insulate and it's good to go.

Max internal storage capacity is upwards of 6TB, for example :
- Main bay 2TB
- Broadband slot 2TB NVME
- Half-height slot 2TB NVME

(edit: I am old, there are 4+ TB SSDs now )

For now I'll have 128GB main bay and 512GB broadband slot NVME.

edit: I have learned that not even R60 has IRDA. I never used it so I will not miss it.

It seems to me that every screw except for the two UltraBay IDE connector screws and the single keyboard screw are retained with R60-T61 15.4" FrankenPad. We keep Modem functionality as well, for what little it's worth. With modern SSDs being physically so small we should give greater appreciation to the T61 15.4" as a planar donor.

edit 7/7/23: The R61 is back up and running with the T61 15.4" motherboard driving the FlexView UXGA, as is meant to be again. Donor T61 was disgusting and water damaged, both magnesium frames took the worst of it, but the board was clean and is functional 100%, I will run with it. If it fails I will simply replace it again.

Regarding UltraBay, I intend to convert both the IDE connector and the new MPCIE half-slot to m2 format, SATA and NVME respectively, for additional digital storage, and plug up the empty hole with a dummy bezel.

With:
-Broadband adapted to PCIE x1
-Half-height adapted to PCIE 1x
-IDE UltraBay adapted to SATA
-2.5" using SATA

This thing is going to rival my P71 with its 4 slots. and yes I know this thing is slower in every way.

It's unclear if the original 1394 port is functional, despite plugging into the T61 motherboard at the right-side I/O connector. I have no 1394 devices to test with so this may simply have to be a mystery. I suspect it is simply not supported in BIOS. In any case, the front 1394 can be enabled with a hole in the front case, along with the RICOH card reader, if desired.

In the end I am mainly satisfied with the machine up and running again with properly functioning function keys.

[unixed]

Well done.
It is not a firewire port on the RHS but a place to attach a lock.
With your R61 planar the problem is more likely to be the keyboard connector on the planar than the EC, but you can dump the firmware and examine it.

[wujstefan]

Pleased to report that with some bone surgery I have fit my T61p 15.4" test motherboard into the R61i frame and case, turning it into an R61p. The board accepts power and happily verifies that its FX570m is still dead.

Well done!

I'm noticing the plastic travel bezels do not exist in the aftermarket and OEMs are too expensive. What I've done is ordered a cheap second drive caddy, I'll remove the SATA adapter and trim the rear, then use the hollow space to hide something, likely an m2 on a cheap extender from the half-height slot. I'm not yet equipped to fabricate some sort of USB 3.0 bezel or that would be a neat custom hack.

I should have 3D-printed the bezel; should have stl somewhere there if you like or I can print one for you in the so-called free time. Modified HDD frame works well too, and I was working with... bay battery, because the cells inside are so flat they would actually fit when placed one on another. Dropped that idea due to no experience with working on batteries though ;(

As for the shortened 2.5" main bay, on the 3rd SSD I opened up I found a 2/3rds length PCB that fits perfectly. Some kapton and foam tape to brace and insulate and it's good to go

I can also share a stl file for mSATA to SATA adapter you just need to cut the standard rubbers in a half and it actually looks pretty professional

Maybe Core 2 Quad, someday!

This actually did work, but the heat generated vs power gain made no reason to keep it.