Thinkpads Forum

There are two things I want to replace on my recently acquired T61.

1. The bottom shell: The hard drive's bay cover is loose because the ledge where the cover screw holds onto has cracked completely off. That bit seems to be contiguous with the entire plastic bottom shell so I assumed I have to replace the entire thing.

How hard is it to replace just the bottom shell?






2. The lid cover: As always the situation with used Thinkpads the lid tops usually look the worse for wear even when everything else is looks new. I just need to change the lid cover. Is this easy or it is wiser to change the entire lid cover with screen components and guts?





So far I have plenty of experience changing T6x's keyboards and palm rests and the T61 sxga manual for FRU replacement instructions makes the lid and base seem super easy but really how easy is it?

I just want to know if it is even worth it.

As is, I can live with the loose battery cover and worn lid but if it is safe and relatively risk free I want to make it my own.

I just switched the mobo today, which is screwed to the bottom shell basically. It's not hard, but tedious. You have to take everything out basically. What I did is take pics of every screw next to the hole it came out of on my iPhone, and then put them all back in reverse order. Took me about 1.5h for the mobo replacement. It was my first time doing this model.

moltar wrote:I just switched the mobo today, which is screwed to the bottom shell basically. It's not hard, but tedious. You have to take everything out basically. What I did is take pics of every screw next to the hole it came out of on my iPhone, and then put them all back in reverse order. Took me about 1.5h for the mobo replacement. It was my first time doing this model.

Agreed, when I built my T60 I had a purchased parts machine and a new base & mobo. It was my first time even looking at the inside of a T60 but I was able to strip the "parts" T60 and transfer everything onto the new T60 mobo and install it in the new base without too much trouble. IIRC, the routing of the USB wires was about the hardest thing to do.

Moltar's advise to take pictures is really good as it is essential that you remember what screws go where. Trust me about a 1/4 of the way through you'll have a ton of screws out and they will all start to look relatively the same. If you don't know which screw goes into which hole you'll end up doubling your reassembly time as well as risk driving improper length screws into holes. I didn't take pictures instead I used some masking tape and just created (area) screw groupings.

The key is to take you time, don't force anything, use the HMM and above all be organized. I also recently changed the lid to a brand new one and that was about a 1hr job. Routing the antenna wires was the hardest part of the lid assembly.

I will say there is nothing more aesthetically pleasing than clean/new plastics on a machine. With a new base, lid and keyboard my T60 looks like it was just unboxed yesterday . For me having the laptop look so visually appealing was well worth the time and effort that I had to put into breaking everything down and reassembling it.

Also if you're going to do this I'd advise doing all your upgrades at one time. For example if you're thinking about shimming your fan, changing your fan, changing your heatsink, or changing your processor, get those parts before you start and just do them as you go. And since you're in there do not forget to apply some new AS5 (Arctic Silver 5) to your CPU/heatsink.

There is also one big hidden advantage of doing this. Having stripped and reassembled your T60 you'll get a really good understanding of how it works and where everything fits. That's important because it gives you confidence and renders any future labor a breeze as you kind of know where everything goes.

I just did this job and it was super easy:

Tips for anyone attempting this:

1.Before you even begin removing fru's you should buy a bag of Thinkpad replacement screws as a sound insurance policy against losing screws during the work. I found one off eBay for $2.99 that had all the T60/T61 screws and screw cover stickers. Also buy some Silver Thermal Paste ahead of time. You can find a tube on eBay for around $3.00 to $5.00+. I forgot to do this and when I removed the heatsink fan I saw the original paste was just dried crispy chunks. I ran out and ended up paying $12.99 for a small tube at Best Buy. Radio Shack sells it but also at a high price $13something.

2.The labor is very easy! If you ever replaced the Thinkpad keyboard or Palm rest or RAM memory then you pretty much already done 40% of all the dis-assembly work. Then once you get the keyboard bezel off you are at 50% done. The lid is next then the heat sink fan components and you are at 90% complete dis-assembly.

3. There are some screws that you will see that you don't need to remove. Especially around where the battery goes. There are also many holes for screws around the lid anchor and base bezel that don't take screws. it seems silly to state but when you get there you will see why it is important to note this. Follow the fru booklet exactly and you will be okay.

4. I also used the Lenovo Service Portal link dis-assembly videos which I found very helpful:

ThinkPad T61 / R61 (RTD54)
http://lenovo.f.relayware.com/content/C ... index.html

ThinkPad T60/T60p (RTD44)
http://lenovo.f.relayware.com/content/C ... index.html

However I found some of the T61 videos were for the widescreen or 15 inch books. So I followed the T60.

5. When putting stuff back together you will be obviously more focused on the dozens of tiny screws around you that need to go back to their right places. However, it is not that hard once you are organized during the removal of the screws. What you also need to focus on is the placement of the fru's as well as wiring. I forgot to re-seat my intel card properly and one of the wiring for the antenna was being pinched.

Total time it took me my first time doing the entire 'dis-assembly/repair/and re-assembly' was about 1 hour. Most of that time was sorting out my screws, reading the manual and going back because I forgot to re-seat the wifi card.

Now if I was to do it again I can dis-assemble any Thinkpad T60/T61 down to the base motherboard in about 10 - 20 minutes.