Thinkpads Forum

I could not tell from the description on Lenovo's website, and I would like to add a media card reader. Do all T61's come with this slot or not? Machine is as shown in my sig. Thanks.

All thinkpads have a pc card slot.

XyKo wrote:All thinkpads have a pc card slot.

PC Card = Cardbus = PCMCIA != Express Card?

wswartzendruber wrote:

XyKo wrote:All thinkpads have a pc card slot.

PC Card = Cardbus = PCMCIA != Express Card?

True, but there are Cardbus cards that can act as media readers.

All T60(p) and T61(p) have Express card slots.

"One ExpressCard slot and one PC Card (Type-II) slot"

Reference: Detailed specifications - ThinkPad T61, T61p

syedj wrote:All T60(p) and T61(p) have Express card slots.

"One ExpressCard slot and one PC Card (Type-II) slot"

Reference: Detailed specifications - ThinkPad T61, T61p

One of the things I miss about the Lenovo 3000 that this T61 replaced was that the 3000 had a memory card reader. Actually, I liked the keyboard on the 3000 better than this T61 as well, but really really missed the trackpoint, thinklight and other traditional thinkpad features.

It depends. Usually, unless you specifically order it any other way, a T60 or T60p, comes with one PCMCIA, and one Express card slot.

If you gently push down the latch covering the slots (left front side), you can tell yourself as to whether or not you have one. The Express card one is shorter and not as wide as the other, and it is usually the top one of the two.

CYoung234 wrote:Machine is as shown in my sig.

Original description: T7500(2.2GHz), 1GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

Looks like its standard config in terms of slots, so you will have one Cardbus slot and one Express card slot.

You can get memory card readers in both Cardbus and Express card formats from numerous third party suppliers.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Crunch wrote:It depends. Usually, unless you specifically order it any other way, a T60 or T60p, comes with one PCMCIA, and one Express card slot.

If you gently push down the latch covering the slots (left front side), you can tell yourself as to whether or not you have one. The Express card one is shorter and not as wide as the other, and it is usually the top one of the two.

The default T61 "customization" menu for USA purchases includes an Express/54 in the top position and a standard PCMIA card bus slot on the bottom. There is also a separate multicard reader on the front of my T61 as part of the default configuration.

The reference to /54 after "express" indicates that it will handle both the 34mm and the wider 54mm express cards.

For more info check this site:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2849

For example, a Creative X-fi Notebook Audio card requires an Express/54 slot while the Creative Audigy 2 Zs PCMIA Audio card would use the bottom (and older tech) PCMIA cardbus slot.

Note however that Lenovo's choice of the Ricoh R/RL/5C476II PCMIA Cardbus Controller is listed as incompatible with the Audigy 2 ZS at Creative's web site.

My T61 has only one single slot in the top portion. The bottom portion where possibly another slot could have been, is blocked off by a plastic piece that wall it off so nothing can be inserted in the bottom. The single usable slot has pins that go almost the full width of the slot. Does that mean that the usable slot with pins is a cardbus slot? Is there any software tool I can run that would tell me what I have there for sure?

Also, I have accumulated a few T61 motherboards because I've had motherboard failures in the past. I kept all the old motherboards and so I also have a collection of the assemblies that connect to the motherboard and provide the "slots" where external cards can be inserted.

One type of assembly has an upper slot where the pins only take up maybe 1/3 of the slot width and are not all the way in the back of the slot space and a lower slot where once again I see pins all the way at the rear whose width take up just about the entire slot width. Is this type of assembly the one that has expresscard on top and cardbus on the bottom?

I have one last type of assembly which has the "large", full width slot on top and in the bottom half has something that is centered from left to right, is roughly 1/3 of a full slot width, and comes all the way forward more or less in line with the T61 outer case. What is the forward item, a smartcard reader? Something else?

All these assemblies appear to plug into the same connector on the motherboard.

Please help me to figure out how to tell what I have here. If you could point me to any photos to id what I have, that would be great. If there are any software tools I can run, please let me know.

Is it safe to plug any of these assemblies into my motherboard (assume the assemblies themselves have no problems) if it actually fits the motherboard connector? Will all these assemblies work with my motherboard or do only certain types of these slot assemblies only work with certain types of t61 motherboards?

If requested, I can also take photos of what I have an post them here. I don't know how well they will come out because most of the pins inside these assemblies are at the back or near the back and it may not be easy to properly light them up for a photo.

I've never used a pci express card or a smart card reader and I wouldn't know what they looked like if I saw them nor what there pin connectors look like.

I just saw an article elsewhere that claims a T61 can have any 1 or 2 of these: cardbus, expresscard, sd reader, smartcard reader. Is that true? I'd like someone to point me to photos of all four of these if this is true so I can figure out what I have.

I imagine that because my T61 was new way back around 2008, there are probably newer versions now of the expresscard. What version of expresscard would my T61 have used when new? What size expresscard did the T61 have (34mm, 54mm, whatever)?

If requested, I can look in the "bios setup" and post any info it gives me about my motherboard (type, serial #, whatever).

Thanks very much for any help.

audioresearch wrote:My T61 has only one single slot in the top portion. The bottom portion where possibly another slot could have been, is blocked off by a plastic piece that wall it off so nothing can be inserted in the bottom. The single usable slot has pins that go almost the full width of the slot. Does that mean that the usable slot with pins is a cardbus slot?

Yes, I believe so.

audioresearch wrote:Is there any software tool I can run that would tell me what I have there for sure?

If the device manager / lspci in Linux shows a CardBus bridge anywhere, then you have a CardBus slot.

audioresearch wrote:One type of assembly has an upper slot where the pins only take up maybe 1/3 of the slot width and are not all the way in the back of the slot space and a lower slot where once again I see pins all the way at the rear whose width take up just about the entire slot width. Is this type of assembly the one that has expresscard on top and cardbus on the bottom?

Sounds like it.

audioresearch wrote:I have one last type of assembly which has the "large", full width slot on top and in the bottom half has something that is centered from left to right, is roughly 1/3 of a full slot width, and comes all the way forward more or less in line with the T61 outer case. What is the forward item, a smartcard reader? Something else?

An SD Card reader, I believe. See here: http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/c ... G_0017.jpg

audioresearch wrote:Is it safe to plug any of these assemblies into my motherboard (assume the assemblies themselves have no problems) if it actually fits the motherboard connector? Will all these assemblies work with my motherboard or do only certain types of these slot assemblies only work with certain types of t61 motherboards?

I think they are all interchangeable, but I am only 80% sure. I would wait for at least one more confirmation.

audioresearch wrote:I imagine that because my T61 was new way back around 2008, there are probably newer versions now of the expresscard. What version of expresscard would my T61 have used when new? What size expresscard did the T61 have (34mm, 54mm, whatever)?

ExpressCard is 34mm insides, but some slots are 54mm wide, to allow for cards that are wider on the outside (so you can put more ports or additional hardware in there). The T61 ExpressCard slot (if any) is 54mm wide, just like the CardBus slot.