Thinkpads Forum

Are lid units (hinges, SXGA+ screen, cover, bezel, etc.) interchangeable between T60 and T61 14.1" non-wide models?

I've got both side by side and they look close. Does anyone have experience in this who can advise? Thanks.

I was lead to believe they can, but now that I have a T60p and a T61 full screen here, I can see they are different size.

The 14" T60 might be a direct swap, but in my case I'm going to need to swap system boards to get my T61 to run a 15" ips flexview.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing what you find out.

I did not made the swap yet. But in my opinion, it can not be done because the screen hingers are different on these models.

The screen hinges are different, but if you swap the entire LCD assembly ( i.e. frame + hinges + lcd ) it will work. T61 LCD in the frame is more towards one side, hence the hinges are different.

It is possible, and member Kamika007z has done it.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=70147
http://forum.thinkpads.com/memberlist.p ... le&u=11318 (check his signature)

@dr_st:
something wrong with your link. It leads to this:

On 12/10/2008 richk wrote:The T60 and R60 have 7 conductor terminal blocks that the main battery plugs into. Does anyone know where one might look if one was looking for a replacement? Or even what that particular part might be called.

Thanks, RBS! The link is fixed now.

So is this confirmed? You can do a straight swap from a T60 to T61 4:3 14" or visa versa?

That would be great. The visible part of the hinges just seem so different... (Until last week I had both models in hand, but never considered the swap...I prefer the look of the T60.)

I suppose you could follow up the swap with the palmrest and hard disk cover, which were also slightly modified for the T61.

underclocker wrote:So is this confirmed? You can do a straight swap from a T60 to T61 4:3 14" or visa versa?

Like I said, Kamika007z claims to have done it...

underclocker wrote:I suppose you could follow up the swap with the palmrest and hard disk cover, which were also slightly modified for the T61.

You could, but they don't make the T61 ugly like the hinges and offset bezel.

I think that a T61 14" 4:3 with the T60 top, and the T60 15" IPS with a T61 4:3 board are the coolest possible Frankenpads.

dr_st wrote:I think that a T61 14" 4:3 with the T60 top, and the T60 15" IPS with a T61 4:3 board are the coolest possible Frankenpads.

While the latter (i am typing this here on one of these) has lots of advantages thanks to a very worthwhile combination of the best of two worlds, i can't see any technical merit for the first Frankenpad variety. In first place one would lose the very welcome additional rollcage in the display cover, which i would consider to be a rather big loss.

The only "gain" would be the IMHO very negligible aesthetic pleasure of having a symmetric display bezel layout. Or is there anything else of technical merit that i might have overlooked?

This swap worked fine. I just moved a T60p lid onto a T61 base. There was no problem with any alignment or with pieces not fitting. The bezel covers the space around the hinges neatly with no need of further T60 parts for a good fit.

Question: I know I've read this, but which antenna is housed in the "lump" on the right side of the lid?
TIA to the group for advice and support in this process.

rumbero wrote:In first place one would lose the very welcome additional rollcage in the display cover, which i would consider to be a rather big loss.

The only "gain" would be the IMHO very negligible aesthetic pleasure of having a symmetric display bezel layout. Or is there anything else of technical merit that i might have overlooked?

You have not overlooked anything. It is just that to some people the aesthetic pleasure is a rather big thing, while the rollcage is a very negligible advantage.

dr_st wrote:It is just that to some people the aesthetic pleasure is a rather big thing, while the rollcage is a very negligible advantage.

Strange, while i do fancy such sublime aesthetics, the asymmetric T61 display never ever bothered me by any chance. But now i seem to faintly remember that someone in the German thinkpad-forum.de once claimed that the rollcage in the T61 display cover would be having a negative impact on the antenna reception efficiency. If this really holds true (never bothered myself), than even a real technical merit could be claimed for this display swap.

dr_st wrote:You could, but they don't make the T61 ugly like the hinges and offset bezel.

No the T61 palmrest and drive cover aren't offensive, they are just hard to find. So it's good to know you can replace a worn out T61 palmrest with a nice T60 palmrest.

rumbero wrote:The only "gain" would be the IMHO very negligible aesthetic pleasure of having a symmetric display bezel layout.

I believe, for me anyway, another gain would be the loss of a few ounces! I noticed that a T61 which is similarly configured as a T60 weighs about 4 ounces more (5 lbs. 4 oz. vs. 5 lbs. even for a T60). I prefer the weight of the T60 in addition to the look of the LCD assembly.

Furthermore, the T60 LCD cover is metal alloy, while the T61 LCD cover is thin plastic (but it does have a metal alloy subframe/rollcage, which the T60 does not have).

The extra benefit that you might loose are the third, and optionally, forth and fifth antennas, which are concealed in the T61 assembly. Four antennas was the maximum for a T60, with one under the keyboard bezel and one protruding from the LCD assembly. The T61 LCD assembly nicely conceals all five antennas. (Perhaps this is why the left hinge on the T61 is huge? To hide all those antennas?) With a T60, N wifi plus WWAN (utilizing 5 antennas) was not an option.

Modding a T61 with a T60 assembly, palmrest and drive cover essentially gives you a stealth T60, it looks just like a T60, but performs like no other!