Thinkpads Forum

First post, here goes:
I'm looking for a new laptop. I have narrowed it down to a T61, because after a BIOS flash, I can use a miniPCIe wireless card of my choice. This will be used mostly for on-the-go web surfing. I am leaning towards a 15" with the possibility of a QXGA swap later down the road, but not sure about the nVidia sudden death syndrome. Did it affect 14" models? If not I will get one of those and start gathering parts for a T60 with a T61 Intel motherboard, and a QXGA swap of course

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to the forum!

There were no T61/p units produced in the conventional 15" 4:3 (non-widescreen) format, which makes your quest for an QXGA upgrade impossible.

You need a FrankenPad like the one I have here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=106015

Which is a 15" (4:3) T60/p frame + T61 motherboard + QXGA panel.

If you're looking to build something like this, there are no "safe" nVidia boards from 4:3 models, but later the date - smaller the chance of it blowing it on you...at least theoretically speaking.

I paid a small fortune for the board that got used in mine, because I wanted it coming from a known source instead of playing Russian Roulette with feebay...

Good luck.

Not sure what I can add to this, George did a very good job at answering your questions, but to continue, the both 14" and the 15.4" models suffered from the nVidia issues, but very few have actually failed however the problem is compounded by the same failed systems being sold over and over again after shoddy repairs. I'd never consider buying one on ebay and no one in their right mind would sell a good nVidia chip there, it's become the clearinghouse for bad ones.

If you want a widescreen version you can get one dated august 2008 or later. They generally cost much more, but they aren't effected by the gpu problems. To date, after extensive searching I've never seen nor heard of any non-widescreen units made with the new nVidia chip so for your T60 frankenpad build you'll need to decide if you want powerful graphics and accept the risk, or go with integrated graphics and play it safe. I use nVidia in my personal frankenpads (after extensive testing), and have yet to have one fail and even if one did, it's not the end of the world, I'd just put a new board in it and move on. If you don't need a dedicated graphics processor, then the Intel board will work very nicely. Either George or I could probably get you a good sound board, but I believe he has a Qxga system still available and with the price of those screens I doubt you could build one cheaper.

Good luck and hope you enjoy whatever you buy/build

Thank you for the replies. In that case I will start looking for a 15" 4:3 T60 and upgrade as I need. The only reason I steered away from the T60 originaly is that I have seen a lot more posts for BIOSes that fix the whitelist issue for the T61 and allmost none for the T60. On a sidenote ( sorry if this is a stupid question ) what does the "p" after T60/T61 denote?

tipo33 wrote: On a sidenote ( sorry if this is a stupid question ) what does the "p" after T60/T61 denote?

The "p" is for performance. The systems with the P suffix all have more powerful discrete graphics and the lower screen resolutions are removed from the options. They usually also have more powerful CPU chips, but technically the cpu options were identical in the T61 line for the most part, ranging from 1.8 to 2.6ghz, but the T60 line has some low end chips that I don't think were available in the T60p. All T60p had ATI FireGL graphics, the ones equipped with a core duo cpu seem to have v.5200 and those with core2 duo have v.5250, a minor revision. All T61p had nVidia FX570m GPU, the 15.4" having 256mb video ram and the 14.1 having 128mb. Also available in the series was nVidia NVS140m, 128mb and Intel X3100 (shared memory) graphics and the T60 line had ATI Radeon x1300 and x1400 and intel integrated. The boards with different graphic systems are generally interchangeable within the same formfactor, but the integrated systems use a different heatsink/fan.

The last thing to consider is max RAM. T61s can use up to 8GB (with certain OSs) while T60s are limited to 3GB (I think).

Consider also, that if you get a 1 in the world T60 series and its screen, MB, etc. gets FUBAR'd it's that much harder to get the scarce replacement item.

cadillacmike68 wrote:
Consider also, that if you get a 1 in the world T60 series and its screen, MB, etc. gets FUBAR'd it's that much harder to get the scarce replacement item.

If this is in reference to T60/p series, you're wrong. Replacements parts are plentiful, and inexpensive.

I'm referring to the one-off parts like the 15" XSGA+ & UXGA Flexview screens, which are not as easily found ad 14.1 TFT XGA or even 14.1 SXGA+ screens. however, these may be more available than my understanding.

cadillacmike68 wrote:I'm referring to the one-off parts like the 15" XSGA+ & UXGA Flexview screens, which are not as easily found ad 14.1 TFT XGA or even 14.1 SXGA+ screens. however, these may be more available than my understanding.

They are available, both SXGA+ and UXGA. QXGA is a whole another matter. For those, expect to part with a kidney or your firstborn.

RBS offers 15" NOS LG Philips SXGA+ FlexView panels for something like $74 shipped, which is a steal IMO...proper FRU and all...

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=105469

I wouldn't be able to find a NOS 14" SXGA+ panel for a T6x for that amount...

Thank you for all the answers. I now have a clear idea of what i would like. Will post picks in the photography section, when it comes in the mail