Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone, I understand it's been awhile since I've posted. As a quick aside- I've never lost my affinity for Thinkpads one bit.

My co-worker brought this T61 to me and asked if I could quickly get it working again with a hard drive swap, but it turned out to have a busted display. I noticed right away that it was a 14" 4:3 T61, and then I saw the Type Number.

Here's some pictures that I took of the innards after disassembling it:
Busted Display > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 111312.jpg
Photo of Heatsink > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 111325.jpg
Photo of Cooling > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 111330.jpg
Photo of NVIDIA chip > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 112756.jpg
Photo of T7100 > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 112806.jpg
Photo of Type No. > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 111241.jpg
Photo of BIOS screen > https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 115144.jpg

A couple of interesting things I noticed. It looks like the manufacturing dates of the laptop, the heatsink sticker, and the NVIDIA chip all line up- March 2008. The laptop was full of dust and when I asked my co-worker, he said his family used it for a long time but then just lost track of it and probably had it sitting for years.

I'm not sure what to do with it. From the history, it seems to be a pretty reliable unit, not lived a super-hard life. Seems to be entirely original with no parts changed, the laptop has probably never even been disassembled. I'll probably get Windows installed on it and screw with it a bit- but I'm kind of annoyed since I don't think I have any spare display panels for it. Kind of a bummer the display on it was busted... according to the Type No. it would've been an SXGA+ panel.

Just wanted to post about it... it was quite a random and unplanned find, he literally could've walked in with any other laptop but he brought in a 14" 4:3 NVIDIA T61. I suppose if you guys have any ideas about what I could do with it- I also might see if I can work with him to sell it on here if any of you guys want it. I don't have a T60 15" UXGA chassis anywhere and I'm not sure I'm bothered enough right now in my current situation to find one, not to mention if this board is a strong enough candidate for a conversion.

If the price is right I might be interested in acquiring it. I have a quad core CPU and was going to try a quad mod to see how it performed compared to the T9900 I have in my T601F now, but didn't want to have downtime on it in case something got messed up.

if he doesnt want to sell the unit, you could find a cheap T60 4:3 15 inch and convince him to do a frankenpad, its really easy to do it. I did it in under 3 hours, and was a complete noob to it, really took my time and took pics at each step so i wouldnt mess up at reassembly.
the idea is if a total noob like me can do it, anyone can do a standard frankenpad with the right parts, of course I m not talking about the much more difficult 1066 FSB cpu mod or the quad core mod like the other commentator which can be done only by experienced modders.

theterminator93 wrote: ↑

Fri May 10, 2019 11:55 pm

If the price is right I might be interested in acquiring it. I have a quad core CPU and was going to try a quad mod to see how it performed compared to the T9900 I have in my T601F now, but didn't want to have downtime on it in case something got messed up.

I just got Windows 10 installed on it... I'll probably run it and mess with it over the next couple of weeks to see how healthy of a system it is. I don't plan on thrashing it, just maybe running videos or other media on it to see how well it handles decoding and playback. When I took it apart in the pics, I replaced all the thermal compound on the CPU/GPU with AS5, and it seems to have done the temps some good so far as well. After all of that, I'd likely consider selling it... I don't think my co-worker wants to keep it since it has a busted screen. I wanted to see if I had at least a spare XGA panel or something to put in it, just so it can be used in the laptop format (everything else works and looks just fine), but I don't think 14" T60/61 panels are interchangeable, at least on the VBIOS/EDID end. Anyone know for sure?

TinkerMan wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 4:13 pm

if he doesnt want to sell the unit, you could find a cheap T60 4:3 15 inch and convince him to do a frankenpad, its really easy to do it. I did it in under 3 hours, and was a complete noob to it, really took my time and took pics at each step so i wouldnt mess up at reassembly.
the idea is if a total noob like me can do it, anyone can do a standard frankenpad with the right parts, of course I m not talking about the much more difficult 1066 FSB cpu mod or the quad core mod like the other commentator which can be done only by experienced modders.

The funny thing is- I'm pretty sure I still have a Frankenpad somewhere(I built two), but it's not a high-spec one. It's an Intel-chipped T61 board in a 15" T60 standard, with the 1400x1050 FlexView instead of the 1600x1200.

If I was going to put this board into a Frankie, I'd probably want to find another UXGA T60p unit... but I don't really have a need for a Frankie like that at the moment.

Medessec wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 12:14 am

but I don't think 14" T60/61 panels are interchangeable, at least on the VBIOS/EDID end. Anyone know for sure?

Welcome back home, Medessec...it's been a while....

They are interchangeable. As long as you're not dealing with a third-party screen you should be fine.

ajkula66 wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 6:30 am

Welcome back home, Medessec...it's been a while....

They are interchangeable. As long as you're not dealing with a third-party screen you should be fine.

Thanks! For both the welcome back and the tip. I managed to find a 2007-G3U (T60 14") in my stash which was missing a keyboard. I swapped the panel out of that into the T61, so now I have a working SXGA+ panel on the T61. I have a bunch of 4965AGNs, so I'll be popping that in there as well. The T60's SXGA+ panel is a Toshiba panel, not a Hydis panel unfortunately... so the viewing angles are not so good. But with Windows 10 it's more than useable at least.

Medessec wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 12:14 am

The funny thing is- I'm pretty sure I still have a Frankenpad somewhere(I built two), but it's not a high-spec one. It's an Intel-chipped T61 board in a 15" T60 standard, with the 1400x1050 FlexView instead of the 1600x1200.

If I was going to put this board into a Frankie, I'd probably want to find another UXGA T60p unit... but I don't really have a need for a Frankie like that at the moment.

are you willing to sell the 1400x1050 flexview panel?
im interested