Thinkpads Forum

After lot's of deciding, I have finally purchased a thinkpad T61p 6549-A12. Unfortunately in Australia, they do not allow CTO, so I have to do some upgrades myself. I plan to upgrade the harddisk to a 200gb 7k200 hitachi, and the ram to 2x2gb corsair value select DDR667.

In the hardware maintenance manual, it says that the thinkpad uses special nylon coated screws that can only be used once. I'm wondering whether these really should be replaced every time they are used, and where replacements can be bought?

I'm also wondering whether anyone has experience with corsair value select in thinkpads - it seems that crucial is the recommended brand. Unfortunately, crucial ram is very expensive over here, and rather uncommon.

The thinkpad will come with Vista Ultimate, though I plan to install XP Pro on the new harddisk. Are driver CD's supplied with the laptop, or will I have to download everything (driver's, thinkvantage, etc.) myself?

Thanks

ahazi wrote:<snip>In the hardware maintenance manual, it says that the thinkpad uses special nylon coated screws that can only be used once. I'm wondering whether these really should be replaced every time they are used, and where replacements can be bought?

<snip>

Welcome to the forum..

You do not need to change the screws as long as the grooves are still there. Do not over-torque them will save you the trouble from changing screws. If you feel that the screws are not as tight as they should be in the first place, then you need to change the screws.

HTH

Welcome to the forum..

Thanks...

And also, thanks for the quick reply - I will be sure not to over-torque the screws...

You will only be removing a handful of screws when adding memory and replacing the hard drive.

I have reused the screws and have not yet had an issue. The only reason that I think they recommend replacing the screws is that they do not want the screws loosening. Makes sense of course but using them more than once should be ok. I would check to make sure the screws are tight every great while. If they seem to be even slightly loose then maybe I would consider replacing them.

No issues with the Corsair memory. In some parts of the world this memory is considered the best there is.

Enjoy your new ThinkPad!

Brad

I've installed the Corsair Value Select in my wifes T61 and no problems !

It was the 1GB module, but I'm sure the 2GB will work just as well.

The drivers will be on the machine, some will work with XP, some won't. Check out the driver matrix on the lenovo support site.

You won't get recovery CD's.

Good luck

ahazi wrote:The thinkpad will come with Vista Ultimate, though I plan to install XP Pro on the new harddisk. Are driver CD's supplied with the laptop, or will I have to download everything (driver's, thinkvantage, etc.) myself?

Make sure to create the recovery DVDs/CDs. There's a 'DRIVER' folder on the hard drive with most of them. I say 'most' because, looking at the lenovo download site sometimes I see different drivers listed for XP vs. Vista.

ahazi wrote:I'm also wondering whether anyone has experience with corsair value select in thinkpads - it seems that crucial is the recommended brand. Unfortunately, crucial ram is very expensive over here, and rather uncommon.

My T61p is perfectly happy with 2 cheap 2Gb Transcend modules and so am I