Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks, visited here many times before, now I have a question that finally merits joining.

Ive been a T fan for many years, a couple of T30's then a T60P that I rebuilt and repaired many times before I finally wore it out, much use, abuse and travelling. So annoying, a single pin broke off the motherboard half of the keyboard connector, rendering some keys dead, at that point that was the final blow as it was running noticeably slow, dimming screen, cracked base plastic and its third HSF was dying fast so I abandoned reviving it a fifth time.

I just picked up a good T61 14.1 WS intel VGA part complete off ebay with the idea of transplanting the remains of the useable T60 bits into to make a complete machine to last a short time until I can afford another good Thinkpad, when I remembered reading here many times about Frankenpads.

Ive been reading extensively and I believe Ive satisfied myself of many key points about parts and compatibility, such as a T61 4:3 board, T61 HSF, card cage and interposer board into T60P chassis with internal cage modding. Ill list parts I "think" would work later, however in all my reading I am still unclear on one issue.

I cannot find info anywhere about the HDD position, obviously the physical offset between a widescreen board and a 4:3 board for the sata connector position are different, and the interposer board does not cover this sata connector as far as I can tell, therefore a 4:3 board in a 15.4" T60P chassis wouldnt have the correct spacing for where the HDD lies in its chamber. How is this achieved?

TIA

I may not be reading your post correctly but it seems you want to put a 4x3 T61 MB into a widescreen T60p base, which will not work.
You need a 15" (not 15.4") T60/p base which originally would have one of these model numbers: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2613, 2623, 2637.

These model numbers are for the 15.4" widescreen: 6369, 6370, 6371, 6372, 8741, 8742, 8743, 8744 and won't work for a Frankenpad.

Nope, he wants to put a 14.1" widescreen T61 mobo in a 15" T60.
Sorry, does NOT work.
You need a 14.1" 4:3 T61 for that.

Thanks for the responses.

To clarify, I have a T60P originally holding a 42T0169 and similar model board with ATI V5250

I was wondering if theres any way to replace the mobo with something from a T61 series.

I was thinking from waht I read a T61 4:3 board would work but I hadnt picked up the mods were for the 15" screen models, not the 15.4" screen models.

Is there anything that would fit from a T61 series into what was originally an 8744-C9U

Like I told you, ONLY the mobo from a 14.1" 4:3 T61/T61p (or another T60 motherboard from a 14.1" or 15" 4:3 machine).

Now Im confused, only a 4:3 NON WIDESCREEN T61 motherboard will be possible to fit into a T60P 8744-C9U base (using an interposer board), is that what you mean?

Like I mentioned Im considering in my first post?

I am not considering a 14.1 T61 widescreen board, I just mentioned I picked one up as I was considering re-using the drives, cpu, keyboard, ram etc from my broken T60P before I started thinking about what would be needed for modding a T60P, its not for a donor machine for a Frankenpad.

Or is this doing it the hard way? Ive been trying to read how compatible a 15.4 T61 board into a T60P is but Im finding it difficult to get clear info.

Correct.
ONLY mobos from a 14.1" non-widescreen, standard 4:3, T61 will fit in a 15" 4:3 T60 (with some small modification to the T60 frame).
The interposer board is required to make a 14.1" mobo fit in a 15" case. This board comes already with any 15" T60.
Motherboards in a 14.1" and 15" T60 are identical, the 15" just has the added interposer board.

A 4:3 T60 mobo will not fit in a 15.4" T61.

So let me get this straight, what you mean is a 4:3 board from any compatible tpad only goes into another 4:3 case, be it a 14.1 to a 14.1 4:3 or a 14.1 to a 15" 4:3 with an interposer board.

So in that case NO 4:3 board goes into any widescreen chassis, not even with an interposer board?

But my final query in my previous post was putting a T61 15.4 into a T60P 15.4 widescreen chassis, not the other way round?

Yes, ONLY [Standard 4:3] 14.1" T61 mobos can go into ONLY [Standard 4:3] 15" T60 frames.
T60 into T61 is probably also possible within [both 14.1" Standard 4:3] parameters.
None of the T60 [widescreen] mobos are interchangeable with any T61 and v.v. regardless of interposer or not!