Thinkpads Forum

Hey forums.thinkpads.com community ,
Im Evo ,currently living in UK and i have T61 w/screen 7661 Y5L T8300 4GB RAM and 500GB 5400RPM HDD , i got this from ebay nearly a year ago when my sony vaio vpcm12m1e/l (l stands for blue ) broke down after few drops :/ so instead of new notebook/laptop i got myself cheap T61 which is BRILLIANT ! even in second hand condition it looks, performs like new apart few bits and baps which im trying to fix it now So , better for me to start talking about restoring/fixing my T61...
1: Hinges a bit wobbly ; 2: Palm rest is missing IBM Thinkpad sticker; 3: Keyboard surrounding plastic is broken ; 4: Power jack connector is unstable , i need to move a bit to get some voltage ; 5: HDD cover - missing ; 6: Fan - loud :/ but i found solution in this forum, but still unhappy ; 7: Earphone jack is wobbly as well ; 8: - few keyboard buttons burned but not that bad ; 9: Battery is dead , well ... when i was testing Linux , balloon popped out saying that it holds only 30% of charge which means - DEAD .
Now... plans !
1: Fingerprint scanner coz i love my privacy ; 2: Change all broken plastics; 3: Upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM; 4: Replace HDD with SSD and replace DVD/RW with HDD ; 5: Sim card slot ; 6: bgn wi-fi ; 7: swap my T8300 with a bit more powerful processor; 8: fix power jack connector ; 9: fix hinges; 10: fix earphone jack, ; 11: do something with fan ; 12: new battery; 13:HDD cover; 14:upgrade BIOS.
Now ... im going to take apart everything today and clean from dust and i want to find out what can i do with it i mean can i upgrade my laptop with bits i want. What do i need to know before i start doing everything ? How can i find out is my motherboard compatible with sim card slot, can i change processor , can i add fingerprint scanner , can i change wifi into n , can i swap fan from other than T61 ... maybe into more powerful fan to keep my legs cool , can i replace dvd with hdd ? oh, one more thing ... integrated graphics - would love to have better graphic card ! so i understand i need new motherboard ... so which one i need ?
To avoid few things such as "why do u need so many rams ? " i allways have at least 4-6 tabs open , listening to music, watching movies and im starting to work with photoshop, and i will use video editing programs , so i need more POWEEEEEEEEEEER from my buddy but i dont want to buy different laptop coz my T61 is my pride and joy and i love it
P.s sorry if u c plenty of grammar mistakes or sentence does not make any sense, English is not my native language
Cheers !

Welcome to the forum.
Most of the above is possible, but if you insist on better graphics, you need to get another laptop model.
T61 are notorious for nVidia graphics problems (search/read this same T6x forum).
Unless you know the history of such a T61 nVidia board, AND trust the seller, stay away from them!

Before we can give more detailed help, we need to know the 7-character TYPE from your laptop.
On a sticker, on the bottom, looks like TYPE 7659-12U, S/N XX-YYYYY, followed by a date 07/11 or similar. What is your date?
If it says e.g. TYPE 7659-CTO, please also give us the PRODUCT ID under it.

Sweet yeh, i heard about nVidia ... integrated should do then for now ... , but just out of curiosity , how good are integrated graphics ? how much of memory they could use ? gig ? or less ?
yes, i have these numbers ...its: TYPE 7661 - CTO S/N xx-xxxxx but sticker is a bit torn in the middle of date ... and it could b 06/06 or 08/06 and PRODUCT ID 7661Y5L

Moderator edit: removed S/N

Yours is a 14.1" widescreen T61 from 08/06.
Further specs are not available on Lenovo's website.
It can take up to 2x4GB PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 SODIMM memory modules.
To use more than 3GB, you'll need to put in a 64-bit OS.
It's very rare though that anybody needs more than 4GB RAM, I'd say limit yourself to that, it's more than enough.
And the T61 Intel graphics are good enough for your purposes.

Brilliant ! Thanks RBS
Im running 64bit OS , somehow works smoother and more efficient compare to 32bit, but i know for sure, i need 8gb coz im multitasking and i have many windows open , and 4gb just not enough .... .
So to come back to my "need to add hardware " ... sim card slot is connectable ? bgn wifi available ? and what about better fan ? or its not necessary ? coz when laptop is on my knees, it close to burning heat feels trough plastics . p.s if sim card slot is available for my laptop, where it should go ? and what purpose sim card slot serves ? mobile broadband ?
Cheers

No 14.1" Widescreen T61 with Intel graphics has a WWAN option, so no SIM-card, and no mobile broadband.
Wifi BGN yes, read the multiple forum posts about that.
You can put in a fan from a matching discrete-GPU model, but it's not necessary.

can i add wwan/ sim slot ? ps. can u tell me what mobo i need to replace my one ? i made mistake flashing bios ( laptop powers one but no beeps , screen blank , fan spins and hdd spins a bit and thats it ) cheers !

What do you wish to do with the graphics?
I didn't use an integrated gfx on the T61, but the X61T works great w/ 4GB of ram and SSD on photoshop.
I'm not the type that does heavy editing though, I did use Power Director on the X61T and it was slightly sluggish at some parts of the UI with not quite HD video.

I think only the 14.1" Widescreen mobo will fit, 14" 4:3 mobo is too 'tall' for it to fit, while the 15.4" one is too wide.
Plus the heat sink fans are shaped different, I would think the chassis is as well.

I am unsure if an R61 board will fit.

I repeat: No 14.1" Widescreen T61 with Intel graphics has a WWAN option, so no SIM-card, and no mobile broadband.

To replace the mobo, download the Hardware Maintenance Manual for T61 14.1" Widescreen from the Lenovo website.
ONLY T61 mobos from there will fit, NOT the R61 ones! And NO nVidia!

Soucey cheers for your input , i like to play games once in a blue moon , plus when im on my t61 and i have multiple things going my graphics struggles a bit , video delayed or video struggles and squares are displaying video for few seconds thats why im thinking to have a nice video card
RBS oh sorry mate i miss understood your post now u. explained me clearly ! and with your knowledge can u tell me what sn or code or some other numbers should be on mobo ?
sorry if i keep repeating my self im a bit lost and confused about hardware its been long time when i had a look into pcs/ laptops


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The P/N or FRU is on a small white label, either visible when you remove the battery, or under the RAM modules.
The HMM has all the numbers you want/need (item 21 for T Series).
My suggestion: RTFM.

...evening
Im changing few bits so have few more questions.
1: i have Atheros AR5BXB6 FRU39T5578 and im changing into FRU42T0875
Now its two hooks for wiring on my old one and 3 on Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN is it worth to get 3 one ?
P.s there are few intel agn cards, on manual states that some of them n disabled , if im getting card with n enabled ... it means is n enabled and just need swap it and no need of bios flash to use it or there is no such a thing agn n enabled wifi card ?
2: i have Modem daughter card (MDC-1.5) ... what is it ? what can i do with this MDC?

RBS mntioned NO WWAN ... no sim card, no mobile broadband...understood, but i checked my system board and discovered that i have connector which seems to me for sim card thingy and manual for 14.1 T61 widescreen states "Sim Card slot FRU 42W2498 for 7661 CTO" . ... T61 Wireless WAN antenna 93P4558 so it seems to me that parts are available , excluding wwan card ! so im thinking ...maybe try wwan card such as Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad 3G/HSPA WWAN Card T61 R61 X61 x300 FRU:42T0931 ? . I know, its different FRU and might be for 15.4 or still for 14.1 but 4:3 coz i dont c this FRU on 14.1 ws manual, or maybe just use intels agn card or its completely different card to compare with wwan card?.... anyone tried to fit wwan card on their w/scren t61 ?

P.s sorry if this is silly to keep asking this same and this same, but i want to use sim card without additional dongles sticking out .
P.s T61 14 4:3 or 15.4 have wwan available ?

3: Im getting bluetooth as well and do i ned to change LED indicator plate or just sticker ?
4: web cam .
... now my screen is (samsung) wxga+ so i need to get camera and btooth i need LCD bezel assembly with camera FRU 42X5059 and i need camera and btooth lcd cable LCD cable assembly with camera and Bluetooth FRU93P4376 and thats it ? or i need to get actual camera FRU42T3106 and Bluetooth daughter card (BDC-2) FRU 39T0497

a bit of morning update about wwan:
it seems to me i was thinking right way:
http://thinkwiki.de/WWAN_im_T61_nachr%C3%BCsten

I believe you can install a simcard reader from a T400 in your T61 14" widescreen.

To add the webcam you'll need the camera, LCD cable and bezel. I believe I have these parts if you're interested in them. The bluetooth is just a module but if you want the LED to display when it's turned on, you'll also need the LED clearplate.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use any wwan card from a similar model, but mounting the antennae would be an issue.

TuuS wrote:I believe you can install a simcard reader from a T400 in your T61 14" widescreen.

To add the webcam you'll need the camera, LCD cable and bezel. I believe I have these parts if you're interested in them. The bluetooth is just a module but if you want the LED to display when it's turned on, you'll also need the LED clearplate.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use any wwan card from a similar model, but mounting the antennae would be an issue.

TuuS, thanks for your input and offer, at the minute im waiting for some parts (palm rest with finger print, full set of screews, new fan, bezel around keyboard and one T7300 and i think bluetooth as well ) so im cool with parts for this moment, but i know where to go and look for parts now

EvoT61 wrote: TuuS, thanks for your input and offer, at the minute im waiting for some parts (palm rest with finger print, full set of screews, new fan, bezel around keyboard and one T7300 and i think bluetooth as well ) so im cool with parts for this moment, but i know where to go and look for parts now

MHO -nothing more but nothing less...
You need T400 notebook. It is the same size like your T61. But it can use DDR3 memory (8GB DDR2 memory (4GB memory modules) is not common and not cheap). It can use MV processors (like P8xxx P9xxx - which can be better in terms heat vs processing power). AND IT CAN USE BUG FREE ATI GRAPHICS CHIP. Before upgrading - please calculate costs and take a look at ebay for price of T400.

I don't understand why you searching for T7300, when you already have T8300??? T7300 - is slower than T8300 (and you wrote that need more POWER) and it is one generation older (merom 65nm vs penrin 45nm). I don't think it is cooler than T8300 at peak workload. And you can use Power manager to customize power settings (and heat generation).

WWAN and WLAN. You can use modules from HMM (lenovo branded) or any modules from market (802.11ac? 4G? IF YOU INSTALL MODDED BIOS (without whitelist checking). I don't have any 14" wide models, but SIM hole must be near the battery (SIM can be inserted | removed only when battery unpluged). SIMreader is under keyboard bezel. SIMreader connector on mainboard is rightof the WLAN card. CHECK for second miniPCI-e slot on mainboard (it is under CPU socket). Yes antennas must be placed in monitor and routed to WWAN card.


BTW
RBS. I have dead 42w7866 (cannibalized for PCMCIA cage for frankenpad long time ago) and it have second miniPCIe - so it can have WWAN...

FryPpy

i bricked my mobo , so i got new one and its meron type, because my bricked mobo was penryn and cpu was penryt t8300 , i needed to get meron processor ... i think u know about flashin ibm`s so this is why i mentioned about t7300.
Now talking about t400 .... emmm, i dont want. i like my t61 its robus and unbreakable. and when linux runs and few tabs are open , cpu shows 36 degrees but at the moment its only plain linux, nothing else. i will upgrade it to 8gb ram and i dont care how much it going to cost me i just got palmerst with finger print, new bazel, another batter, ultrabay for ssd is comming, bluetooth and web cam will b next and then memory

P.s thanks for wwan ... i discovered everything... yes i have socket for sim card next to wifi card, i have some sort of socket underneath keyboard. mini one where wwan needs to be inserted.

A bit of morning edit.... just baked nvidia, wokrs... dont know for how long, but we will c ... Medieval should run smooth

EvoT61 wrote:FryPpy

i bricked my mobo , so i got new one and its meron type, because my bricked mobo was penryn and cpu was penryt t8300 , i needed to get meron processor ... i think u know about flashin ibm`s

I see.
I have flash 5 times modded (Middleton's) bioses to 61-type thinkpads (2 T61 + X61 + 2 X61t) and the worst thing is Fn-Ctrl was swapped on one of them. BUT I DON'T WANT THIS (and don't do Fn-Ctrl swapping steps). But it was on X61t - so let it be.
If you know Middleton's bios can hide error of penryn CPU on merom mainboard (termal sensing error).
But if you are so unlucky with flashing BIOS - maybe not worth the hassle.

PS
T400... All but one my thinkpads is 4:3 classic. And if i could get (buy) new (modern) one with the same aspect ratio and good screen - i would do it.
If you are upgrading - there is no reason to look back. Go ahead!

at the minute im using nVidia board with t8300 ( from this morning) so im not going to flash other board unless nVidia will go [censored] up
about upgrading to t400 ..,... i think im going to go trough all of them
because at the minute i have 1 and half T61 , i need screen, cmos batt, keyboard, batt and ram to finish building half of the laptop... sell it, and start testing rest of the range but this is going to take a while . maybe ill fix my bricked one with resoldering bios just for fiddling abouth sake

Can you actually re-solder a new BIOS on the mobo?

How did you brick the first mobo??

cadillacmike68 wrote:Can you actually re-solder a new BIOS on the mobo?

How did you brick the first mobo??

If my memory does not lie ... yes u can.. u can buy actual bios chip as well
how i bricked my mobo : i was flashing bios and i was thinking its done and discarded cd ...dunno .

Hi ...
im fiddling aboout with my new nvidia board with T8300 C2D and windows 7 . My battery is running very funny . Holds no charge. After fresh W7 install, i installed lenovo stuff i it, and now battery works a bit better and holds a charge for few minutes. Started to google about about battery cicles ect ect. and founded how to check cycles and a bit more info about it, but the problem is ... i have no clue what is what.
So this is example of "powercfg -energy" in cmd . ( u need to use as Administrator )
It shows 3 errors, 14 warning... but i cant find cycles .. anyone can help me with this report and tell me about cycles ect ect ?
Thank you
Evo.
P.s Its very warm where my hdd is,..is it because hdd is on the last leg ? Hdd 111GB , 5400rpm.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report
Computer Name IBMT61
Scan Time 2014-05-07T18:16:39Z
Scan Duration 60 seconds
System Manufacturer LENOVO
System Product Name 7665Z5M
BIOS Date 08/15/2008
BIOS Version 7LETC4WW (2.24 )
OS Build 7600
Platform Role PlatformRoleMobile
Plugged In false
Process Count 64
Thread Count 779
Report GUID {97c04b72-b437-4245-9406-9de659012a41}

Analysis Results
Errors
System Availability Requests:System Required Request
The device or driver has made a request to prevent the system from automatically entering sleep.
Driver Name \FileSystem\srvnet

CPU Utilization:Processor utilization is high
The average processor utilization during the trace was high. The system will consume less power when the average processor utilization is very low. Review processor utilization for individual processes to determine which applications and services contribute the most to total processor utilization.
Average Utilization (%) 8.58

Battery:Last Full Charge (%)
The battery stored less than 40% of the Designed Capacity the last time the battery was fully charged.
Battery ID 10096SANYO42T5262
Design Capacity 56160
Last Full Charge 20010
Last Full Charge (%) 35

Platform Power Management Capabilities:PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) Disabled
PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) has been disabled due to a known incompatibility with the hardware in this computer.
Warnings
Platform Timer Resolution:Platform Timer Resolution
The default platform timer resolution is 15.6ms (15625000ns) and should be used whenever the system is idle. If the timer resolution is increased, processor power management technologies may not be effective. The timer resolution may be increased due to multimedia playback or graphical animations.
Current Timer Resolution (100ns units) 10000
Maximum Timer Period (100ns units) 156001

Platform Timer Resolution:Outstanding Timer Request
A program or service has requested a timer resolution smaller than the platform maximum timer resolution.
Requested Period 10000
Requesting Process ID 368
Requesting Process Path \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\opera.exe

Power Policy:802.11 Radio Power Policy is Maximum Performance (Plugged In)
The current power policy for 802.11-compatible wireless network adapters is not configured to use low-power modes.
CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name BitTorrent.exe
PID 2508
Average Utilization (%) 3.55
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\SystemRoot\System32\win32k.sys 1.31
\SystemRoot\system32\ntoskrnl.exe 0.73
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\usp10.dll 0.35

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name System
PID 4
Average Utilization (%) 0.57
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\SystemRoot\system32\ntoskrnl.exe 0.27
\SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys 0.12
\SystemRoot\system32\hal.dll 0.08

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name sidebar.exe
PID 3244
Average Utilization (%) 0.48
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.7600.17007_none_2b47185a719d6182\GdiPlus.dll 0.13
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\WindowsCodecs.dll 0.08
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\mshtml.dll 0.04

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name opera.exe
PID 448
Average Utilization (%) 0.43
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\opera.exe 0.34
0.03
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll 0.01

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name dwm.exe
PID 2176
Average Utilization (%) 0.32
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\dwmcore.dll 0.10
\SystemRoot\system32\ntoskrnl.exe 0.06
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\nvwgf2umx.dll 0.03

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name explorer.exe
PID 2348
Average Utilization (%) 0.28
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\SystemRoot\system32\ntoskrnl.exe 0.12
\SystemRoot\System32\win32k.sys 0.08
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\user32.dll 0.02

CPU Utilization:Individual process with significant processor utilization.
This process is responsible for a significant portion of the total processor utilization recorded during the trace.
Process Name TPFanControl.exe
PID 3064
Average Utilization (%) 0.22
Module Average Module Utilization (%)
\SystemRoot\System32\win32k.sys 0.07
\SystemRoot\system32\ntoskrnl.exe 0.06
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll 0.01
Information
Platform Timer Resolution:Timer Request Stack
The stack of modules responsible for the lowest platform timer setting in this process.
Requested Period 10000
Requesting Process ID 368
Requesting Process Path \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\opera.exe
Calling Module Stack \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\winmm.dll
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\d3d9.dll
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\libGLESv2.dll
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\libEGL.dll
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Opera\20.0.1387.82\opera.exe

Power Policy:Active Power Plan
The current power plan in use
Plan Name OEM Balanced
Plan GUID {381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e}

Power Policy:Power Plan Personality (On Battery)
The personality of the current power plan when the system is on battery power.
Personality Balanced

Power Policy:Video Quality (On Battery)
Enables Windows Media Player to optimize for quality or power savings when playing video.
Quality Mode Balance Video Quality and Power Savings

Power Policy:Power Plan Personality (Plugged In)
The personality of the current power plan when the system is plugged in.
Personality Balanced

Power Policy:Video quality (Plugged In)
Enables Windows Media Player to optimize for quality or power savings when playing video.
Quality Mode Optimize for Video Quality

USB Suspend:Analysis Success
Analysis was successful. No energy efficiency problems were found. No information was returned.
Battery:Battery Information
Battery ID 10096SANYO42T5262
Manufacturer SANYO
Serial Number 10096
Chemistry LION
Long Term 1
Design Capacity 56160
Last Full Charge 20010

Platform Power Management Capabilities:Supported Sleep States
Sleep states allow the computer to enter low-power modes after a period of inactivity. The S3 sleep state is the default sleep state for Windows platforms. The S3 sleep state consumes only enough power to preserve memory contents and allow the computer to resume working quickly. Very few platforms support the S1 or S2 Sleep states.
S1 Sleep Supported false
S2 Sleep Supported false
S3 Sleep Supported true
S4 Sleep Supported true

Platform Power Management Capabilities:Adaptive Display Brightness is supported.
This computer enables Windows to automatically control the brightness of the integrated display.
Platform Power Management Capabilities:Processor Power Management Capabilities
Effective processor power management enables the computer to automatically balance performance and energy consumption.
Group 0
Index 0
Idle (C) State Count 3
Performance (P) State Count 6
Throttle (T) State Count 8

Platform Power Management Capabilities:Processor Power Management Capabilities
Effective processor power management enables the computer to automatically balance performance and energy consumption.
Group 0
Index 1
Idle (C) State Count 3
Performance (P) State Count 6
Throttle (T) State Count 8