Thinkpads Forum

I have a T61 (7661-Z3W) which has never been tampered with apart from the hard drive. Due to its 2GB RAM and dated T7250 cpu I've been considering getting a new laptop, but I believe maybe something can be done to improve it.

Regarding the cpu, can I drop a T9300/9500 in there and expect it to work without any issues? Will I have to upgrade the BIOS as well?
Other than that, will that setup plus an upgrade to 4GB RAM allow the T61 to run Win 7 64bit?

Thanks

You most likely have to upgrade BIOS to Middleton one in order to run Penryn CPU (T8100/8300/9300/9500/X9000).

But you can run W7 64bit already with your current CPU/memory.

Thanks, those are good news! I thought it was too old to support the T9300/9500.

Regarding the BIOS update, I can run it from Windows itself, or is it a "bootable" sort of update requiring external media (usb pen, cd, dvd...)?

you can run bios update from Windows. That's the way I prefer to do it anyways.

miro_gt wrote:you can run bios update from Windows. That's the way I prefer to do it anyways.

Great, I'll give it a go tomorrow and report back
Already ordered a T9300 from eBay.

I just spent many hours figuring out the best way to do this on a pair of T61s. What I learned from the forum (miro_gt, TuuS, others) was this:

1) Flash the bios from within the existing 32 bit Windows installation - the Middleton package makes this very easy; there is a "wsetup.exe" or something similar in the 32-bit file folder. Do this before you switch to 64-bit; it's possible of course to do within a 64-bit OS, but the installation is different and a little more complicated.

2) Then I did the Windows 7 64-bit install after the BIOS. This was from a 4gb USB stick that had been a) made bootable from an MS boot creator utility, and then b) the Win 7/64 iso copied to the stick. Very fast and painless. The following linked article has an embedded link to the MS tool to create a bootable installer (like most all things, it's nearly impossible to find on your own in the MS webmaze (it would be utterly dishonest to call MS's web presence a "site" - it's a "maze.")):

http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/12 ... ash-drive/

There are other ways to do it, but this is simple.

With a T9300, 4gb ram, and Win 7/64, I am very, very pleased with performance in a t61p. I will add an SSD soon, and I am taking advantage of the Middleton wifi white list to add an Intel 5300 wifi card. With these fairly inexpensive and easy updates, I don't think I'll be looking for another computer for several years.

I added the T9300 after the bios/OS change and honestly the difference vs. a T7300 (for my albeit not-taxing) uses was not huge. But the T7250 has 1/2 the L2 cache of even the 7300, so you'll probably see a bigger jump. If you don't swap chips all the time (I don't), be aware you need a small packet of TIM or "thermal paste/grease" to install the new CPU.

Thanks for putting it all together, this is really helpful. I feel a lot more confident and will definitely give my feedback.

I was checking the link provided in another thread for the (middleton) patch to upgrade the BIOS but I don't know which one to download, because my 7661 is not listed there. Does it mean mine doesn't support it?

it will work fine, my intel laptop is also 7661.

It did work fine, ran it under WinXP 32bit. Will proceed to upgrade CPU (when it arrives) and OS to Win7 64bit

Hi guys, I need your help again.
I ordered a T9300 from a 100% seller in eBay but it turns out he sent me a quad core Q9000 SLGEJ.
I'm guessing this has nothing to do with Penryn and I'm also guessing T61 does not support it. Am I right?

Check with TuuS. I believe he is running a Q9000 in a unit of his.

Fixed_Rider wrote:Check with TuuS. I believe he is running a Q9000 in a unit of his.

Nope. TuuS has X9000, Q9000 is a no-go in these machines AFAIK.

Yes, I read something about the X9000, but not the Q9000.
Have to send it back, then.

As far as I know only the W700 supports the Q9000, but the chip is worth slightly more then a T9300 from what I recall, however there are limited applications for it. It's also a different bus speed from the T61 series. Would be nice if it would work, but not a chance of that.

It's also not an easy chip to sell because if I recall, it's the lowest quad core option on the w700. It might be a suitable upgrade chip on other brands of laptops though.

Thanks, I actually returned it and got the T9300 but I sold my T61 in the meantime, so I ended up with a fresh T9300 to spare.