New to me T61p - want to give it a good thrashing

[zemlin]

There's a box at home waiting for me. Hopefully it contains a T61p 6460-67U wide screen T7500 quadro 3GB 100GB. I'd like to give it a good thrashing to make sure it's sound and stable before I start putting time/effort/money into it. it's coming loaded with Vista Business. I plan to put W7x64 on it as soon as I know the rig is worth it.

Any suggestions on freeware or inexpensive tools to give it a good shakedown?

[Neil]

Welcome to the forum...that's a nice ThinkPad!

The only real weakness in these is the nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M graphics chip. It's not a Lenovo problem, rather nVIDIA shipped defective chips to all computer makers. Some have been replaced by the factory, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Best test for you to do is look at the bottom of the laptop for the manufacture date. If it's 08/08 you can rest assured you likely have a great machine that will give you years of service. If there is any other date, then it's just a bit of a gamble as to whether the GPU will fail or not. AFAIK, there is no software test that will tell you if the chip is going to fail.

[zemlin]

I am aware of the nVidia issues - read about that after committing to this purchase, but if the machine is sound and has lasted this long, I'm not going to sweat it. Was just thinking about some sort of "burn in" utility that will keep the disc, CPU, and RAM busy for a few hours just to be sure the foundation of the machine is solid.

At home now - machine looks pretty darn good. Screen has a little slop/flop in the hinges. Running PassmarkTest on it now. At this point CPU temps are around 73C. I know this isn't testing the GPU, but the rest of the system is getting a workout.

[miro_gt]

run games on it ... lol.

might I suggest downloading and installing the free Team Fortress 2 through steam Then go fight for couple hours, that should do it .. lol. I play it regularly without problems, at 1024x768 though.

or I could point you some stress testing programs, but with the above you'd have lots of fun.

[zemlin]

Ran the free version of Passmark - that seemed to think everything was OK. Now letting the demo of 3DMark run on it for a while. The machine looks pretty good. The keyboard is not very worn, display looks good. Case is a little worn around the edges (which seller highlighted in the listing) and the display flops a little when up.

[jdhurst]

I have a T61p 14 inch 4:3 aspect ratio machine. It came new with Vista, 200Gb hard drive and 2 Gb of memory. Now it is different. It has a 500GB 7200-rpm Hitachi Travelstar in it, 8Gb of memory and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. It is a nice fast machine and runs everything I need. Office 2010, Adobe Standard V10, VMware Workstation V8.0.2 and a bunch of virtual machines (100Gb worth).

It is still under warranty for a couple more months (4 year warranty when new).

I was going to wait for a Windows 8 machine, but I have Windows 8 Consumer Preview running. With a toy telephone interface and no Start button, Windows 8 is non starter for me. I will reserve final judgement until Windows 8 Professional is released. If Microsoft relents and gives us a Start button, I shall begin shopping for the next laptop.

This one (my T61p) bows to no one or nothing. However, the next one may not have an on-board DVD writer like the T61p.

Very nice machine. .... JDH

[jdhurst]

>>> and the display flops a little when up.

If the total amount of play at the top of the screen when open is less than 1 inch and the hinges are firm, forget about it. From what I recall of that era, the hinges were good (and sloppy) or broke (but firm). Mine is the former and the play irritates me but after 4 years has not caused a single problem.

... JDH

[zemlin]

I checked the hinges - lifted the bezel enough to make sure they were tight on both sides.
My employer leases tons of Thinkpads, including a few T61 and T61p still in circulation. I might ask the IT guys to keep their eyes out for good hinges on one going back on lease ... swap the good for the bad and return the loose ones. We'll see though. Doesn't bug me much.

Planning to order RAM soon (tonight, maybe). I have a 500GB 7200 RPM disc in my VAIO that will move into this machine once I'm ready to install W7 on it. I don't have an open license right now, so looking at my options for picking up the software for as little $$$ as possible. My wife just got a new ACER, but her old HP with one of my W7 licenses still gets used now and then. :-/

[jdhurst]

With respect to Windows, only use Pro. It will cost a bit more but Home is often troublesome for people. I see this all the time in Experts-Exchange. In my consulting work I will not service any Home variant, only Pro and above.

With Windows 8 coming, you might get a good deal for Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on eBay (check the vendor carefully). I got Vista Business (Pro) 64-bit on eBay for $50 and it still runs fine (fully legal) as a virtual machine.

... JDH

[miro_gt]

besides the show off of the admins laptop that has nothing to do with the subject of this thread, Windows home and pro are essentialy the same thing with the first missing some of the features the second has. I dont see how a home version would be more troublesome than the pro version.

also you cant truly experience the full potential of the laptop before putting a nice SSD into it.

either way, I'm going to eat some chocolate now.

[jdhurst]

@miro_gt - I thrash my T61p daily. That is why I posted. How is that not related to the thread? Real world thrashing for 4 years is far more telling than benchmark testing.

With respect to SSD drives, they are not yet large enough for my needs (at least the ones that I have seen) and when they fail, the results are usually catastrophic. I am sure someday I will have one, but hard drives are still better for me at this point. ... JDH