So my T60 finally bricked ..

[frankausmtank]

.. hi there, it's been a while since I last entered these forums.
No news is good news, I guess

So, after 7,5 years of daily use, my screen went white, and after
restarting, there is no chance of bringing it back to life. After pressing
the power button, the fan spins for 2 seconds and stops again; the
display backlight doesn't even light up. I removed everything (also
changed RAM) with no change. And if i'm not mistaking, it also smells
a little funny; I guess I'm in the market for (at least) a new board..
The interesting thing is that there is still enough 'life' in the machine
to beep when all RAM is removed.
I guess it was the final revenge of that crappy, constantly overheating
ATI chip.

Still considering options, but here are some questions just to make sure.
1) I had a HD password set. Do I need to put the HD into another T60
to unlock it or would any (SATA capable) Thinkpad do?
2) I'm considering upgrading, but (of course) like to recycle most of the
T60 parts. Is it true that the T60 battery fits into a T/R500, but no 400?
And it fits a 4:3 T61, but no widescreen model?
3) If I want to keep the RAM, I'm stuck with the T/R/X60 series?
4) Performance wise, are the integrated intel graphics way worse than
the X1300/X1400 ATI chip?

I guess that's it.. don't forget to do your backups

[Tasurinchi]

Hi!

I don't know about 1)

2) What kind of T60 do you have? 14.1", 15" or 15.4"?

a) Batteries for T60 15.4" fit on 15.4" T/R61 and also R/T/W500
b) I think batteries for T60 14.1"/15" fit on T61 14.1 (only 4:3)

3) If you go for T61/R61 you can keep the RAM. But if you go for R/T/W500 you'll need to buy new ones (DDR3)

4) Depends what you want to do. Do you really need dedicated graphics? May I ask which applications do you plan to or would you like to give to the new Thinkpad?

I'd personally suggest to upgrade to any x500 series. And don't worry about the RAM, DDR3 is quite cheap nowadays

My 2 cents!

[frankausmtank]

Hi Tasurinchi, thanks for your reply.
you're right, I shouldn't worry about the RAM too much.
Most used machines today come with at least 3gigs
anyway, which is what I had in the old one. It's a 4:3
14.1" model.
About the graphics, I'd honestly say that the occasional
flash video is the most gpu intensive task I do, but my
old machine tended to become a little sluggish when
having all desktop/3d effects turned on (Gnome3), and I
don't want to step back from that. My actual workload
(coding) is more on the cpu side.
I guess It'll be a *500, then..

[Neil]

1) I had a HD password set. Do I need to put the HD into another T60
to unlock it or would any (SATA capable) Thinkpad do?

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think most any SATA ThinkPad will do as long as you have the password. I've done this between T60 and T61 models, but nothing newer. Still should work though, I would think.

[Tasurinchi]

No problem frankausmtank! I'm glad I could help.

Now that you mention Gnome I have to add a comment though, the new x500 generation are available with Intel integrated graphics, or with ATI/Intel switchable graphics.

This is a very neat option (you can choose between dedicated graphics with higher power consumption or integrated graphics with lower power consumption) but I was of the opinion that the Linux support for that is more cumbersome (more info here). Maybe some user with more Linux experience can add his 2 cents...

[frankausmtank]

Hi everyone,
so I managed to unlock my ssd on a friend's t60.
After considering numerous options I'm now leaning
towards purchasing a T400. The 500 is just
a bit too big and heavy and I think I can get along
with 1440x900 just fine. The old (well, not that old)
battery of my T60 will sure find a good place to go.

Now, to my question: I'm indeed now leaning towards
the switchable graphics option, which, according to
thinkwiki, is also available in the 400 series. Were
there also models that had only ATI graphics,
so should I specifically look out for "ATI+switchable"
models? And are the integrated 'fallback' graphics
always the intel 4500 series?

Tasurinchi, thanks for that web page. I have high hopes
that switching has gotten a little less cumbersome in
the 4 years since this info was written

Edit:
So, after reading
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=75695 ,
I just went ahead and ordered the machine. Thanks everyone!

[Tasurinchi]

Congrats to your new machine. T400's are nice units, with a lot of the feeling of the old Thinkpads but we neat features like the switchable graphs and LED screens on some models.

I was aware that the link I provided was old, but since I don't follow the development (I stayed with windows in my switchable capable machines) I put the best I could remember/find.

Thinkpads were generally regarded as Linux friendly and I hope it's still the case for the T400, keep us posted which machine you got!

Cheers!

T