Thinkpads Forum

I just ordered a 256GB SSD for my T61P 15.4 nVidia machine. NewEgg has a couple 256GB options for $199. I see lots of suggestions to install the Middleton BIOS to enable SATA II, but I wonder if the difference is significant for typical day-to-day usage, or if it's mainly to satisfy benchmark junkies.

Are there any Middleton BIOS horror stories that would cause me to think twice about flashing my machine?

Any enthusiastic "AMENs" for the performance boost with the SATA II and an SSD drive?

Difference - especially if you're using a SSD - is huge.

As for horror stories, *any* BIOS flash gone wrong is a horror story, and Middleton's is as safe as the factory one IMO.

Agree with everything said above. Will add that I certainly find the difference of factory vs Middleton to be *noticeable* using a SSD. No problems to report.

Good day,
I have moded couple of T61 machines myself without any issue. SSD is much faster and getting rid of whitelists is also nice.

Just to be on a safe side, Ithink it's best to flash bios (not just middleton, but any) from a bootable iso (owercomes all possible problems windows installation might have. If your optical drive is working fine) and machine should have fully charged battery, firmly connected power source and no extra devices attached. I think it's also good if machine is "cold started" (not waked from sleep or hibernate states).

Flashed the BIOS from CD - no issue - went fine. SSD installed today. Used the NTI ECHO program to clone my spinny disk to the SSD.

Was hoping to be blown away with the performance. It's certainly an improvement, but my socks are intact.

zemlin wrote: SSD installed today. Used the NTI ECHO program to clone my spinny disk to the SSD.

Was hoping to be blown away with the performance. It's certainly an improvement, but my socks are intact.

Cloning anything from a rotational drive to a SSD is a bad idea in my experience.

What OS are you running?

W7x64

As George mentions, some cloning programs don't nail this... need to make sure the partitions are correctly aligned on the SSD. Do some googling on this.

I went from a 320GB 7200RPM Western Digital WD3200BEKT -- known to be a pretty zippy spinning disk, to a 160GB Intel 320 SSD in my T61p. I already had 8GB of RAM in the machine. The difference was very appreciable!

No plans to buy an SSD in the near future, having recently gone to a 500Gb WD Scorpio Black in my T61 (6466-9YG, W7 x64), but wonder what difference the Middleton Bios would make?

Walter

Come on guys, someone must have a comment / answer? Tuus? Johan? RBS?

Walter

tenpointnine wrote:No plans to buy an SSD in the near future, having recently gone to a 500Gb WD Scorpio Black in my T61 (6466-9YG, W7 x64), but wonder what difference the Middleton Bios would make?

If Google'ing a bit after T61 Middleton BIOS HDD you will (easily!) find the thread T61 and Solid State Drive Upgrade -- Questions where our fellow forum-friend TuuS in this post tells us:

Dekryptor wrote:Anyway, if I don't update the bios which will then limit the system to SATA I, will I notice any difference in speed from the original WDC WD1600BEVS-08RST2 (5400 RPM)?

... in reply to which you'll read:

TuuS wrote:The original drives these came with are SATA1, so it won't make any differene, but if you upgrade to any SATA2 drive, there will be some difference, but to really notice a difference you'd need something fast, like an SSD.

There are also other advantages to this BIOS, such as removal of the whitelist that blocks non-Lenovo branded WiFi cards, and a few other enhancements I'd best not discuss here.

Moreover, the thread SATA-II BIOS patch for T61/T61p and X61/X61s (X61t coming) is worth reading. Try Google for Zender BIOS T61 HDD or likewise...

Johan

Thanks Johan (and Tuus).

Having recently upgraded my HDD to 500Gb Scorpio Black (7200), if I won't notice much difference unless I go to an SSD then it is probably not worth the risk.

Incidentally, you might remember this thread I started back in December?

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=100849

And this line from one of my posts in that thread ..."it would appear that an Intel X3100 with 1280 x 800 might be my best compromise, although anathama to some of you guys!"Well that is what I ended up with. Screen resolution is perfect for my needs, but I do notice the shortcomings with most videos / films. Still, that is what the TV is for.

I am very happy with my T61, especially as my T60 seems to be getting slower and a little erratic.

Walter

Apologies for thread necromancy, but this may help someone. I agree with Totoro-kun,

When I flash a BIOS (or burn any live CD/DVD such as Knoppix or FalconFour) I burn the CD (in this case a DVD since it was handy) at the slowest speed available and preferably on the PC I'm going to flash so I know I've got the best odds of that drive reading the media on boot. I've burned many live CD/DVDs of various types over the years (as far back as Demolinux!) because I find them useful.

I just flashed my T61 a few minutes ago this way with no problem. I don't have an SSD for it yet but eventually will, and the whitelist fix alone is worth it so I can play with different hardware. Any I acquire in future will get flashed since it takes little time and effort.

I used the 7luj27uc.iso file. ImgBurn works fine on Windows, but I run CentOS on this machine so I used k3b.

I had excellent luck with my batch of t61 wide and t61 4:3 one. The only thing I did not try is my t61 15" type 6459. I wonder if this would work or not.. anyone know ? I would love to have faster ssd speed

Same Middleton BIOS that you used on your other two T61s will work on your 6459.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

91011 wrote:Same Middleton BIOS that you used on your other two T61s will work on your 6459.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

Is the Middleton BIOS recommended for my T61 6465CTO? It's a T7700 machine with a 640GB Samsung HDD. I just bought two SSDs:

Intel 330 180GB
Intel 520 120GB

I was intending to put the 330 in my desktop but it looks like the SATA controller is just too old and primitive, so unless I can get a good PCI SATA controller for that system I'll put the SSDs in either these Thinkpads:

T61 6465CTO T7700 running Win7 64 bit
T60 1953CTO T5500 running XP Pro SP3

I figure maybe the 330 in the T61, but it could go either way. Should my first step be to flash the T61 to the Middleton BIOS? Thanks.

Muse wrote: Is the Middleton BIOS recommended for my T61 6465CTO? It's a T7700 machine with a 640GB Samsung HDD.

I'd recommend Middleton's BIOS for *any* R61/e/i, T61/p or X61/s/T.

I just bought two SSDs:

Intel 330 180GB
Intel 520 120GB

I was intending to put the 330 in my desktop but it looks like the SATA controller is just too old and primitive, so unless I can get a good PCI SATA controller for that system I'll put the SSDs in either these Thinkpads:

T61 6465CTO T7700 running Win7 64 bit
T60 1953CTO T5500 running XP Pro SP3

While none of these two SSDs would be my personal choice - not by a long shot - it is what it is. I'd just recommend getting rid of XP on that T60 of yours - W7 is well-supported on that platform...

I figure maybe the 330 in the T61, but it could go either way. Should my first step be to flash the T61 to the Middleton BIOS? Thanks.

I would be flashing the BIOS before upgrading the machine(s) any further.

After flashing middleton, itunes decided that it was on a new computer that needed authorizing.
This may have just been a "straw that broke the camels back", because I had been making other hardware changes previously, but I still suggest de-authorizing itunes before flashing middleton and re-authorizing it after.

http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/music- ... now-about/
http://www.wondershare.com/apple-softwa ... tunes.html