Thinkpads Forum

Hi all

I'm sitting here with a T61 (07/09 - Sept. 2007), which remarkably is still working, even though it has the NVS 140 graphics chip.

So I was thinking, maybe the motherboard was replaced on the warranty, so maybe this machine has got a good motherboard, but how do i verify or check this? A software check would definitely be prefered!

The rest of the specs of the laptop, is pretty nice aswell:

T61 7665-CTO
Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2GHz
1GB ram (gonna throw more in, if the motherboard is good)
320GB 7k2 hard drive (not stock)
NVS 140M
14.1'' WXGA+ screen (So it's the 14'' widescreen version with the nice 1440x900 screen), still got great brightness.
Mint NMB keyboard
Mint touchpad + palmrest
Near mint base. No cracks, dents, holes, scratches etc.
Near mint lid. No major scrathes or marks, no wear on the corners



Thanks in advance!
Best Regards, Frederik.


EDIT: Just saw that on the buttom, it says 7665-CTO, but in windows DXDIAG, it says 7665-W1F, I tried looking it up on Lenovo's support site, didn't find anything though.

If the motherboard was replaced by the factory via a warranty claim, then I believe that the replacement board would have an orange (?) sticker on it indicating something to that effect. The sticker is generally placed in the area of the memory sockets, which for the T61, means removing the palmrest.

I know you don't really want to open up the system but if you do go that route, then after you find (or don't find) the sticker, go a little further and peek at the date code on top of the Nvidia chip. That might be your best shot at figuring out what you have. I don't believe that there's a software way of determining the build date/version of the system board, or that of the video graphics controller. However, if you wait around somebody else here can probably tell you for sure.

DXDIAG is probably reading the BIOS to get the system information. You should see the same model type info if you access BIOS yourself. It's quite possible that 7665-W1F is a valid type for a T61; not all possible types are listed at the support site.

Thanks for you informing reply, this is really helping me on my way.

This is what I found under the RAM slots:

According to the FRU the board is from 2007. Thus the board is bad.

Aw man, too bad. Really had the hopes up for this one.

Here's a shot of the graphics chip:

That chip dates from Year 2007, week 26. (see code 0726A2)
Not necessarily, but quite presumably failing sooner or later.
Since it's still running after 6 years, it may continue fine as long as you don't overdo it, and keep it cool.

RealBlackStuff wrote:That chip dates from Year 2007, week 26. (see code 0726A2)
Not necessarily, but quite presumably failing sooner or later.
Since it's still running after 6 years, it may continue fine as long as you don't overdo it, and keep it cool.

Okay, thanks for clarifying.

I rinsed off the old thermal paste with some benzine cleaner, and put some new Arctic Silver MX2 on it instead (high-grade thermal paste, also used on performance gaming desktop PC systems), so it should be good to go now. Also gave the fan some oil, as it was running real sluggish before, so nice and cool, as well as quiet now. idle temperatures around the T7300 CPU is around 40ºC which afaik is alright.

One thing to be avoided at all costs is thermal cycling: keep the laptop on 24/7/365 and just turn the LCD off (Fn+F3) when not in use. The same wisdom applies to older ThinkPads with ATi graphics.

I wouldn't game on that machine, though...but then again, I don't play games on my laptops to begin with.

ajkula66 wrote:One thing to be avoided at all costs is thermal cycling: keep the laptop on 24/7/365 and just turn the LCD off (Fn+F3) when not in use. The same wisdom applies to older ThinkPads with ATi graphics.

I wouldn't game on that machine, though...but then again, I don't play games on my laptops to begin with.

This really wouldn't work very well for me, as I only use my Thinkpads at school, and very rarely at home, as I've got my desktop for use here, which is much faster, cooler and quieter and more comfortable to use than any laptop.

So this would mean to make the Thinkpad stay on in my carrying bag 1½ hour to and from school everyday, which wouldn't be good at all.

Cola wrote:
This really wouldn't work very well for me, as I only use my Thinkpads at school, and very rarely at home, as I've got my desktop for use here, which is much faster, cooler and quieter and more comfortable to use than any laptop.

So this would mean to make the Thinkpad stay on in my carrying bag 1½ hour to and from school everyday, which wouldn't be good at all.

Well, don't you have another laptop to carry to school?

I mean, allowing thermal cycling equals looking for trouble on these machines, as well as on many others...

Some info and some corrections.

1. The assumption that the gpu is doomed to fail is faulty. Only a small minority of chips fail, but your date puts the chips product at the stage before the problem was isolated so there is zero chance that your chip is the redesigned model. The GPU could function for another 10 years even with several heat cycles per day, however George is 100% correct that it's the heat cycles that cause the internal fractures in the circuits. Since the materials expand at different rates it causes stress. Imagine a piece of plywood where a center layer expands and shrinks much more than the outer layers. After so many expansion cycles you'll see cracks appear and even with many cracks your house won't fall down, but then suddenly you get one crack in a very bad location and there is nothing left of your once proud house except for pieces of lumber and toothpicks.

2. The assumption that a warranty replacement board is free from the risk of failure is just wrong. These warranty boards are well tested when they get refurbished, but if the GPU passes the tests, it doesn't get replaced. Trust me on this as I've seen many that have failed, in fact you don't even have to take my word on it, if you want proof I can send you a pile of Lenovo warranty boards with failed (original) gpu chips on them. Some do get new GPU chips, but it's random luck. When I find a refurb board with a new GPU chip it's like hitting the lottery and such a board naturally sells at a premium.

Also, not all warranty boards had the "orange sticker" (serviceable used part), only the refurbished boards. New replacement boards didn't have them although these boards are extremely rare.

***I do currently have one of these rare boards available if you're interested***

On the refurbished board the orange sticker is usually on the bottom of the board so you'd have to remove the lower cover to see it. Both the new and refurb boards also had a replacement "mac" sticker taped to the upper ram slot. I've never seen one where the technician actually put the sticker on the bottom of the laptop where it is intended to go, every new/refurb board I've pulled from laptops still had it in place.

Photo of new NOS nVidia board showing the "mac" sticker and nVidia chip from 2010


Since you have no other reasonable alternatives I'd just keep using your laptop as you are but you can still minimise the number of heat cycles, you might also consider replacing the board with an Intel board. I have one that has native Penryn cpu support if you're interested and I also have one of the rare NEW replacement boards that was installed by ibm/lenovo onsite warranty tech which has a GPU dated from 2009. This is a board originally manufactured with the new GPU, not one that's been through the stressful reballing process. Such a board would cost about what the laptops worth, but keep in mind that the laptops value is low only because of the poorly designed gpu chip so unless you're fortunate to find an 08/08 model confirmed to have the original board, then your best option is to either replace the board or use the laptop as it is.

It sounds to me like you have a nice system and you may get years of use out of it so don't assume it's doomed simply because others have failed.