Thinkpads Forum

I'm building a T60/61 Frankenpad (Intel graphics - 42W7648, 15" UXGA, T9500, Middleton). Many thanks if you can shed light on any of the following:

1. Wifi card & wifi LED: I want the wifi LED to blink during network activity, but don't want to do a mod on pin 13. What are the best cards that you're reasonably sure should work? My T60 lid has 2 antennas. ( FYI, re pin 13 mod, see: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... h_WiFi_LED )

2. BT module & BT LED: Will the Bluetooth LED work as normal with newer daughter cards like 60Y3303 or 60Y3305? ( Bluetooth itself should function since those are 14-pin. See: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Bluetooth ... 14_pins%29 )

3. HSF: Can anyone confirm that a T500 HSF for discrete GPU ( 45N5492 ) will properly contact the Northbridge on a T61 Intel mobo using a thermal pad? Also, is that HSF 45N5492 pretty easily bent? ( I know cooling isn't a big deal for this set-up, but it seems cheap and easy to optimize anyway. ) See: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 88#p677687 and http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 15#p721977

4. Clearplate: Is there any particular T61p clearplate that will fit a 15" T60 LCD bezel?

Thanks very much for your help!

Consider one of those BIOS'es for ASPM feature(power saving):

http://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/172581 ... ndervolten

45N5492 will fit it - have it in my T61P.

BruceDickinson wrote: 1. Wifi card & wifi LED: I want the wifi LED to blink during network activity, but don't want to do a mod on pin 13. What are the best cards that you're reasonably sure should work? My T60 lid has 2 antennas. ( FYI, re pin 13 mod, see: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... h_WiFi_LED )

LED problem (AFAIK) is only for old (pre T60) miniPCI based WiFi modules in ThinkPads. New T60+ ThinkPads have miniPCIe WiFi modules and they work right out of the box. I have tested with Intel 5xxx and 6xxx series modules and all worked well.
BTW - beware from 6xxx modules with disabled N-band.

BruceDickinson wrote: 2. BT module & BT LED: Will the Bluetooth LED work as normal with newer daughter cards like 60Y3303 or 60Y3305? ( Bluetooth itself should function since those are 14-pin. See: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Bluetooth ... 14_pins%29 )

I have some T60 / T61 / X61 with 2.1 and 3.0 bluetooth modules and they worked well (including LED operations) like with normal 2.0. Only replace module and reinstall drivers. I have read that 4.0 works with no problems, but haven't tested this.

BruceDickinson wrote:4. Clearplate: Is there any particular T61p clearplate that will fit a 15" T60 LCD bezel?

I have measured clearplates on T60 14", T60 (frankenpad) 15" and T61 14" 4:3 - they are the same length 13cm. My FrankenPad have native (non Lenovo branded) T60p clearplate. AFAIK there is no T61 clearplates without Lenovo signs.

If you want som fun you can make custom clearplate like T601 combining it from 2: T60 and tail from T61.

SO - i wish you happy FrankenPadding

For cooling the Intel board you should use thermal paste on the controller/gpu chip. Although the T500 heatsink can be modified to fix, I prefer either the T61 intel or T61p nVidia fan, on the later you'd want to remove the pad and replace it with thermal paste.

I'll also confirm that the clearplate from your 14" T61 will fit your 15" T60 lid.

Are there any t61p heatsinks without the grey pad (is this the chipset area)? I got a parts machine T61p and when I removed the pad, there was a sizeable gap in between, even when tightening the screws all the way. To my surprise, my intel T61 had lower temps with the stock cooler than the T61p version (I put the pad back on). Both machines had fresh tuniq tx-4 thermal paste.

My experience is that the best (IMO) wireless card that you can install in these machines - Atheros 9380 - will not blink in Windows.

The real question is what is more important to you: ability to blink or connection quality?

Thanks very much to eru3, FryPpy, TuuS, brchan and George for your replies and information. Looks like the BT and clearplate questions are fully answered. Thanks for your comprehensive response, FryPpy.

As to the heatsink, TuuS, have you found the T500 HSF for discrete GPU ( 45N5492 ) to not fit as well as the others indicated in the thread(s) I referenced? It sounded like removing the 3 fins was pretty straight forward and that the gap issue was at least easily addressed with a pad. I like the idea of the T500 HSF mainly b/c of the reports of it having a much nicer sound. ( I do understand I could put a T500 fan in a T61 heatsink, but I prefer a single-part solution. )

And George, yes, you're so right about the tradeoff re: the wifi LED. I'm trying to identify the top cards that blink the LED so I know just how much I'd have to sacrifice relative to an oft-recommended card like the AR9380.

Thanks again to all of you. It's so cool to be getting responses from all over the world.

My 2 cents worth:
In general since the days of the T20, I have found Atheros based solutions to lock on faster, lock on stronger and work better AFTER the correct driver is installed.

With that said, they tend to be more temperamental with the initial set up, once again my experience. Once set up, they are wonderful.

Ron