Thinkpads Forum

In a "how stupid can I be" move I went to clean the screen on my Thinkpad T61 (7661-W1K with 3 Gigs of memory) the day after surgery and got too much windex under the bezel and onto the screen itself. Well, it was driving me crazy, and since I had replaced screens in T41s I thought I could open it up and dry it out. Wrong. Now the screen is black and I can only use an external monitor. Being brilliant, I thought perhaps I had pressed <fn>F7 by mistake so I tried that and now it will only display in "Safe Mode." (Obviously designed for idiots like me.)

Now, the questions. What is the typical cost for a screen for a T61? Is it an easy install and will it solve the "dual" screen problem? Is it worth the effort? (I do like the T61 a lot) Also I am almost out of space on the internal HD and had planned on moving to a larger drive, but the question arises, is it worth it what with the screen problem? Or should I upgrade to a newer Thinkpad? If so, what would the suggestion be?

Mine has Windoze 7 Pro and programs that I have the keys for but lost the disks for a reinstall in a move a while back. Is there a way to migrate the programs without the disks? (Visio Standard 2010, Office 2010 Standard, PowerShell, Project Standard 2010, Roxio various. I have others but have the disks or a way to recover them.

Thanks.

Allen

A screen swap is really easy to do.

I'd pick up a panel from e-bay, download the HMM for your machine and get to work. Maybe watch a youtube video of the procedure before hand. T61's are wonderful machines.

I gave mine to a good friend of mine and he loves it.

Your T61 has the following stock configuration (according to Lenovo's Support page):

ThinkPad T61 (7661-W1K)

Based on 7661-CTO: T7300 (2 GHz), 1 GB RAM, 60 GB 7200 rpm HD, 14.1" 1280x800, Intel X3100, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Modem, 1 Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, 4c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

According to System service parts - ThinkPad T61 and T61p (14.1") and more specificly 14.1" WXGA (1280x800) LCD service parts - ThinkPad R61, R61i, and T61 (14.1" widescreen) you've got a number of choices, depending on whether you want a glossy or non-glossy panel. If you want the same panel as yo currebtly have, go to the Lenovo Parts Lookup page, enter the model of your T61 (= 7661), and enter its serial number (found on the labal attached to the bottom, and/or found in the BIOS), and you will be able to find all the parts the machine was built with, by selecting the Parts Lookup.

As to what T61 panel is "best" i guess that this depends on personal preference... otherwise I suggest you search this forum for "T61 + LCD" etc. You will find the T61 HMM here and there's of course a lot of information elsewhee about swapping LCD's, incl. this video. If you don't feel comfortable to do the screen-swap yourself, I'm convinced that you can find someone in your neighbourhood who can do this for a reasonable cost... feel free to ask for suggestions here.

With respect to how you can install a larger drive in your T61, I strongly suggest you consider upgrading to a SSD (Google!), if you haven't done this already, and in addition - if you haven't already done it? - also flash your T61 BIOS with the Middleton BIOS (search this forum!), as this will significantly speed up your T61. There's no need to re-install all programs on a new, larget drive; what you do when you go from a smaller drive to a larger drive is that you clone the old drive onto the new, and then... everything which were on the old (small) drive is on the new (programs, settings, data etc.) plus the new, larger space! I'm unfortunately too lazy today to serach up relevant threads for you (sorry!), but the topic of upgrading e.g. T61's from mechanical hard drive drisk to SSD's has extensively covered.. as a starting point e.g. see the thread Adding an SSD to a T60 You're very welcome to ask for avice, but you're equally welcome to search a little on your own before asking!

I very much like yout self-irony!

Good luck getting everything back to its "before"-condition!

Johan

As a side note, don't use windex on lcd screens. It will yellow the screen overtime and isn't very gentle anyway. This method works much better:

1. Get a clean, quality microfiber cloth (slightly smaller than a standard hand towel).
2. Wet one side moderately with water. The towel needs to be slightly more than damp, but definitely not dripping.
3. Wipe the screen horizontally, back and forth, starting at the top, and slowly moving down.
4. Use the other dry side of the cloth and quickly, but smoothly, repeat 4. Also, make sure that whatever part of the screen that you are drying is completely dry before moving on. (this prevents water marks from being left behind).

This method does a very good job of cleaning the screen without chemicals, and leaves no watermarks if done correctly.