Parts for the ultimate 15” T60 UXGA FlexView w/T61(p) mobo?

[mackinac]

tgun603 - great post and an incredible system. Two questions, please:

1. Would any 8897-03U unit have that motherboard? I am unable to find a reference that links motherboard model numbers to Lenovo/IBM model numbers.
2. Does your system require the 'escape' at boot-up to handle the T9500?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[geohsia]

tgun603 - great post and an incredible system. Two questions, please:

1. Would any 8897-03U unit have that motherboard? I am unable to find a reference that links motherboard model numbers to Lenovo/IBM model numbers.
2. Does your system require the 'escape' at boot-up to handle the T9500?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

1. It has 42W7648 From page 137 of T61 HMM: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67979
2. If I remember correctly the 88* series should not require it. I bought the 42w7650 motherboard and didn't ever need to hit escape even though I did at first chance upgrade to the hacked bios.

[dozer]

1. It has 42W7648 From page 137 of T61 HMM: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67979
2. If I remember correctly the 88* series should not require it. I bought the 42w7650 motherboard and didn't ever need to hit escape even though I did at first chance upgrade to the hacked bios.

Geoshia...... what "hacked bios" ?....from where?

thanks

Also, in regards to losing the modem-board....am I correct that you folks are saying you couldn't fit the T61 mainboard into a T60p-15" case with the --T61's-- modem board?

Is there any way to use the -T60p- modem board with the T61 mainboard? Or is there a different kind of t61-modem that WILL fit ?

Using a pcmcia modem does not sound like a tolerable situation for me...

thanks much!

[geohsia]

Geoshia...... what "hacked bios" ?....from where?

I just did a quick search. Not sure if this is the latest, but you can get it from here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6501443-post75.html

I've been using it for a few months now and so far so good. Fast speeds on main boot drive (SATA 3)

thanks

Also, in regards to losing the modem-board....am I correct that you folks are saying you couldn't fit the T61 mainboard into a T60p-15" case with the --T61's-- modem board?

You can fit it, you just have find the right one. The first one I bought was supposed to fit, but it didn't ultimately fit. (slots configurations were wrong). [

Is there any way to use the -T60p- modem board with the T61 mainboard? Or is there a different kind of t61-modem that WILL fit ?

No, I tried. it won't work. There may be a particular one that might work, but it wasn't worth my time to find out. At the end of the day, it wasn't important to me since I don't do dial-up anymore. With BT and wireless still there, I have no need for an old RJ-11 modem.

Using a pcmcia modem does not sound like a tolerable situation for me...

thanks much!

I guess if you still do dial-up this isn't the right solution for you. Others may have more experience.

George

[dozer]

I just did a quick search. Not sure if this is the latest, but you can get it from here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6501443-post75.html

I've been using it for a few months now and so far so good. Fast speeds on main boot drive (SATA 3)
---------
You can fit it, you just have find the right one. The first one I bought was supposed to fit, but it didn't ultimately fit. (slots configurations were wrong).

I guess if you still do dial-up this isn't the right solution for you. Others may have more experience.

George

Right, I -have- to do dialup....DSL/cable isn't available outside the cities.

So, if I understand you correctly, there IS an IBM modem-board that WILL fit with the T61 board, in a T60p-15" case.....I just have to find it.

If anyone knows the part# for this 'will-fit' modem, please do post it.....much appreciated.

And George, thanks for the quick reply.

Richard

[geohsia]

Right, I -have- to do dialup....DSL/cable isn't available outside the cities.

I see. Good luck, PC Card based modems might be your best bet.

So, if I understand you correctly, there IS an IBM modem-board that WILL fit with the T61 board, in a T60p-15" case.....I just have to find it.

Um.... More like there "could be" a modem that fits in that configuration. I am leaving it open that someone can figure it out. Maybe you'll be the one. I am not aware of any such solution but can not rule out the possibility that it can be done.

If anyone knows the part# for this 'will-fit' modem, please do post it.....much appreciated.

Start a new thread. You may be able to hit a broader audience. Good luck.

George

[dozer]

Um.... More like there "could be" a modem that fits in that configuration. I am leaving it open that someone can figure it out. Maybe you'll be the one. I am not aware of any such solution but can not rule out the possibility that it can be done.

George

ahh....earlier you had said this....

"You can fit it, you just have find the right one. The first one I bought was supposed to fit, but it didn't ultimately fit. (slots configurations were wrong)"

...which sounded like you did have info that such a modem does exist.

thanks again

[geohsia]

ahh....earlier you had said this....

"You can fit it, you just have find the right one. The first one I bought was supposed to fit, but it didn't ultimately fit. (slots configurations were wrong)"

That was in regards to the motherboard not the modem. The first motherboard I got didn't fit, but the second one I got worked great. My modem slot is empty. Neither the T60 or T61 modem I had fit for various reasons (I can't remember now, I'd have to tear it open plus I don't have the parts with me).

[dozer]

ahhh.....all confusion is cleared up now.

If anyone does know exactly what the modem is 'running into' (and how badly, minor or major), please do post a quick note about it....so that I can give it some thought, without having to tear apart the laptop I'm currently typing this on...

thanks!

[Zeroclearance]

Dozer;

You have to grind alot of material>magnesium from the T60 lower frame. I have secured the modem with only one factory mounting screw to make it work. The other factory mounts get ground away. I put a little epoxy to support the top.

[dozer]

hi ZC and thanks for the reply,

The modem is on the -bottom- of the mainboard in a T60 ???

I didn't know that!

I've had it apart several times, but I just realized I've never taken the mainboard out of this one.....only on T4x's.

[Backslashnl1]

This topic inspired me to do the same mod
I tuned my T60p almost to the max: T7600 cpu, 60GB SSD, 2x 2GB ram, UXGA screen. But this mod will make it a complete killer machine

I ordered the following components:

1. 42w7872 motherboard (with Intel X3100)
2. Intel Core2Duo T9500 cpu (2,6Ghz Penryn)
3. 42W3436 PC Card cage
4. 42W2821 T61 fan

I searched this forum and this list of components seems to be complete to perform the mod. At this moment I am still waiting for the motherboard to arrive.
I am curious how difficult it is to perform this mod. I have over 10 years of experience in desktop assemblage, but I never really did a mod like this

Thanks for making this thread Johan!

[Johan]

@ Backslashnl1:

Welcome to this forum, and thank you very much for your kind words! In all honesty, however, I will have to say that I personally didn't actually DO anything - except picking up some information, and posting it in this thread. In any case, I am surely happy to hear that you got inspired! Unfortunately, I regret to inform that I never (yet?) actually got to make (build) this dream-ThinkPad, although the dream is still alive! By the way, do you know that it is even more tempting than ever before, owing to the recent breakthrough in T61-speed, as mentioned in the thread T61p bios hack for ICH8M SATA-II 3 Gbps... after which you have the full SATA-300 speed potential! Wow...!!

As to how difficult it is to transplant a T61-mobo to a T60-case, much is already discussed in this thread, and in the links provided in the previous, but you may probably also want to have a look in a couple of other threads (not referenced above, as far as I can see?), which are concerned with the same project... being these: T60/T61 FlexView FrankenPad Questions and Flexview model with integrated graphics and DVI and T61p mobo in a T60p case? and 14.1" T61 mainboard in 14.1" T60?

Moreover, you'll probably want to know to more about the difference between the two integrated-graphics T61 mobo's, two of which are having FRU's 42W7648 and 42W7872. In relation to this, see the threads: T61 GMA motherboard in T60p and especially notice the remarks by spacejunk in this post. Moreover, see T60/T61 hybrid parts selection question and T61P Motherboard upgrade options and T8100 on 41W1489 motherboard - will it work?.

And then... maybe you'll want to go the whole length.. as discussed in the thread The Complete 6x-series QXGA Thread

That's just all I wanted to say! By all means, please keep us posted with progress reports, photos, performance, happy smiling members etc.!

All the best with building this ultimete ThinkPad!!

Kind regards,

Johan

[Backslashnl1]

Haha really, you never finished your dream? Do you have concrete plans to build this mod for yourself, or will it stay a dream forever?

Yes, I did notice the Bios hack to enable the full Sata 2 speed for my SSD. That's something I am going to perform on my to build frankenpad
Thanks for the extra threads, some of them I already found, some are new to me.

While reading those threads, I realized I bought the motherboard including the bottom bezel:
http://i.ebayimg.com/24/!B9-j+8g!mk~$(K ... +Q~~_3.JPG

I am curious if it's possible to install the motherboard including this bezel into my T60p body? Only one way to find out I suppose

I have been thinking about installing a QXGA panel into my laptop, but I also read the screen quality (viewing angle, colors, brightness, ghosting) of the UXGA panel is much better. So I'll think I will stick yo my HV150UX1-100 UXGA panel

I'll keep you posted

[Harryc]

Your pic is too large, and we don't allow inline pics without a warning in the subject line. breaking .img tags.

[Backslashnl1]

I'm sorry, I was not aware of this rule In The Netherlands 85% of the internet connections is broadband cable/adsl so pictures of 800x600 are non the problem This linked picture is 60 kb btw.

[Harryc]

We have many members browsing the forums using mobile apps like Tapatalk and believe it or not many folks in the US are still on dialup.

[Backslashnl1]

I did it! I finished the mod

As a guideline I used the Lenovo service training movies founded here.
With these movies it's pretty straight forward to disassembly the complete laptop.

After some movies my T60p looked like this: http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/IMG_0338.JPG

The T61 and T60p motherboard almost look identical, expect for 2 mayor points:
T60p motherboard:
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_m ... 43_red.jpg
T61 motherboard:
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_m ... 42_red.jpg

These 2 mounting holes do not match. The T61 has a closed mounting hole on the top next to the modem socket, and one mounting hole which is smaller than on the T60p board.

I had to remove some of the magnesium frame to make the T61 motherboard fit on the frame. I used an file and a small hacksaw: http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/IMG_0347.JPG

This are the locations I had to work on:
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_m ... 8_reds.jpg
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_m ... 0_reds.jpg

I completely removed the upper mounting hole from the second picture with the hacksaw. This one was blocking the modem socket and the closed mounting hole on the T61 board.
I have shorten the other mounting hole, because it touched the T61 board directly. I think I filed off 5mm or so. Now The T61 board fitted the frame:
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/IMG_0351.JPG
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/IMG_0352.JPG

From this point I followed the Lenovo service training movies again to assemble the laptop.

I was afraid this would be a difficult mod to perform, but it wasn't. If you have some experience with desktop assemblage and a saw, you can do it

I used the 42W7872 mainboard, and because of this post I expected no thermal error message with the Penryn. However, I also got this message. Because of this I flashed the Bios with the hacked one to get rid of the message. On top of that, I got full Sata2 speed for my SSD
Original T61 bios: http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/CDM_score.png
Modded T61 bios: http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_m ... score2.png

And thanks to Enhanced Intel SpeedStep (EIST), sometimes my CPU speed jumps to 2,8 Ghz
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/cpuz.png

I am very satisfied with the mod. The laptop runs very quiet now. CPU temperature is around 40 degrees, most of the time the cpu fan doesn't spin. Battery life is also increased
http://home.concepts.nl/~pc125480/t61_mod/battery.png

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

Great job! Thanks for documenting your build and capturing some decent photos too.

I have a T60p QXGA and am in the process of gathering the parts together for this mod (as budget allows) over the next few months. This really helps. I'm sure it'll prove useful to other users too.

Thanks. Have fun with your new toy!

[Binh]

And thanks to Enhanced Intel SpeedStep (EIST), sometimes my CPU speed jumps to 2,8 Ghz

This feature is called IDA (Intel Dynamic Acceleration (?)). It look attractive but currently useless because the speed jumps to 2.8Ghz only when one core is active while the other is inactive (very rare). I am waiting for the moded BIOS that will allow to change EIST bit and thus using Throtlestop software to overclock the CPU a bit

I am very satisfied with the mod. The laptop runs very quiet now. CPU temperature is around 40 degrees, most of the time the cpu fan doesn't spin. Battery life is also increased

Can you post the lowest power consumption at minimum brightness? Mine T61 UXGA with NVS 140 GPU uses 14.1-14.5W (absolute minimum), what is a bit higher than that I expected.
Also, it is interesting to see the result of undervolting the T9500 CPU.

[Backslashnl1]

Great job! Thanks for documenting your build and capturing some decent photos too.

I have a T60p QXGA and am in the process of gathering the parts together for this mod (as budget allows) over the next few months. This really helps. I'm sure it'll prove useful to other users too.

Thanks. Have fun with your new toy!

Thanks you! I am thinking about upgrading the screen to a QXGA one... but I read the screen quality isn't as good as the UXGA one (in therms of colors, view angle, ghosting, etc)... I don't know if that's true... what screen did you have before and how is the screen quality compared to your QXGA one?

This feature is called IDA (Intel Dynamic Acceleration (?)). It look attractive but currently useless because the speed jumps to 2.8Ghz only when one core is active while the other is inactive (very rare). I am waiting for the moded BIOS that will allow to change EIST bit and thus using Throtlestop software to overclock the CPU a bit

Allright, it's another feature That sounds interesting, but I am affraid the temperature will increase so it will run as hot as my T7600 again. I like my T9500 because it's cool and fast

Can you post the lowest power consumption at minimum brightness? Mine T61 UXGA with NVS 140 GPU uses 14.1-14.5W (absolute minimum), what is a bit higher than that I expected.
Also, it is interesting to see the result of undervolting the T9500 CPU.

I will post it if you can tell me how I can check the power consumption

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

I had a UXGA before I did the QXGA mod and you'd be right in thinking that the QXGA isn't (quite) as good when it comes to colour, viewing angle and ghosting.

Bear in mind the UXGA is exceptional and the QXGA is still pretty darn close. You also lose a little brightness with the QXGA what with the backlight pushing through all those extra pixels. But, and this is a HUGE plus for me, I absolutely LOVE the extra space that the higher resolution affords. It's actually pretty difficult to go back to using a lower resolution screen after using this. On balance I certainly prefer the QXGA but then I don't use my T60p out on the road much (have an x200s with the AFFS mod for that). Only in brightly lit conditions do I hunger for a little more brightness. At home it's easy to control the ambient lighting so it's never a problem.

I suppose you'll need to work out what's most important to you. I'd say I preferred movies on the original screen but then again I don't watch many on my notebook. Ghosting is certainly noticeable but for what I do doesn't bother me. The colour and contrast on the UXGA and my modded x200s is (slightly) better. However I always find myself reaching for my T60p first when I have a choice. For browsing, mail, documents, spreadsheets, text, terminal stuff, messing about with many windows, and just about everything else I do on here I'm much happier with the QXGA. I know some people talk of eyestrain with very high DPI but I've found this screen really comfortable to work on for hours at a time without any fatigue. Most of my apps can scale stuff if text is too small. Thinking about it though I usually run everything at native res and feel comfortable with that. It's pretty easy to scale stuff up when my parents come to visit

QXGA screen is slightly heavier if that bothers you.

Hope that helps.

[Troels]

It's really great to see people in the community still want to modify their systems, even though the T60/p and T61/p are somewhat long in the tooth by now (for performance enthusiasts). I have had my T60p for a 3½ years and there's no issues with it, except the odd parts that needed to be replaced. Still used as a primary computer, every day.

I have got the AFFS UXGA screen and currently the QXGA screen installed (+2 in spare somewhere - unfortunately with pressure marks), and i'm not really going back i think. The viewing angles of the AFFS are clearly good on paper, but diagonal viewing angles are not good at all in comparison. I also found that by darker colors, the gamma was clearly not as constant throughout the screen area compared to the QXGA, it was a bit like S-PVA gamma shifts, but still not quite as pronounced. The gamut of both screens are ~45% and the color primaries in the CIE chart are rated to be so closely resembling that it should make only little difference visually - but i found the AFFS reds and blues to be a little more saturated and well-defined.
Of course it's only my subjective opinion.

.. But the CCFL of my QXGA is showing a red very red tint at low brightnesses, so i'd need to find a new CCFL - and find a way of opening the panel - it appears to be constructed and assembled much differently than the newer Idtech LCDs.
And it is not even two years old... So if anyone has replaced the CCFL in the QXGA and know what CCFL i need, i'd like to know.

[RealBlackStuff]

I have done several IDTech UXGA CCFL-replacements. These take me no more than ca. 20 minutes.
See my post here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991

The QXGA CCFL you need is this: http://www.lcdparts.net/CCFLDetail3D.as ... uctID=3260

[keleko]

I used the 42W7872 mainboard, and because of this post I expected no thermal error message with the Penryn. However, I also got this message.

That's very odd. Is anyone else getting this error with the 42W7872?

[tpclover]

Hi everyone,

is there any soldering required in making a T60-61 frankenpad

Is there a "complete' list of FRUs and "complete steps for novices like me" available.( just like the wiki thread on QXGA)

thanks

[Backslashnl1]

All the information you search is in this topic
No soldering is required, it's optional.

I posted my FRU list in this topic, quick link here.
But I think all 14" 4:3 T61 boards will do if you flash them with the hacked bios.

And you can use this post of mine as a walkthrough.

[Johan]

... since I believe that this topic is still of interest to many readers, this post just to share a bit of potentially interesting information:

Those who wish to build a 15” FrankenPad (with a 4:3 LCD, e.g FlexView!) using a T61/p mobo in a T60/p frame will need one of the rare non-widescreen mobo's, which are hard to find. I however just came across a Chinese site claiming that they have at least five (5) of the 42W7874 for sale; go see for yourself at --> Shenzhen Yimai Import & Export Co., Ltd.

To emphasize: I have absolutely no idea about whether this seller is trustworthy or not (and I have also absoultely no connection with this seller!), but this post simply because these mobo's are so hard to find, so if someone reading this wish to investigate further, then... feel free!

The benefit of the 42W7874 is that it will take a Penryn CPU (w/o any thermal error); see the thread Will this t61 take a t9300 processor ? 7659-12U for more info about various 4:3 T61/p mobo's and their support of various CPU's.

Johan

[ajkula66]

... since I believe that this topic is still of interest to many readers, this post just to share a bit of potentially interesting information:

Those who wish to build a 15” FrankenPad (with a 4:3 LCD, e.g FlexView!) using a T61/p mobo in a T60/p frame will need one of the rare non-widescreen mobo's, which are hard to find. I however just came across a Chinese site claiming that they have at least five (5) of the 42W7874 for sale; go see for yourself at --> Shenzhen Yimai Import & Export Co., Ltd.

Not for nothing...

The prices quoted on the aforementioned website are absolutely nothing to write home about, and let's not forget the fact that everything is quoted as FOB China...so add shipping cost which is not going to be $10 per planar and if one receives a bad board, they have to incur additional shipping cost to send it back...I'd *strongly* advise trying to obtain such a planar here on the forum first, and am certain that one could do better overall...

My $0.02 only...