Thinkpads Forum

I've thought about various ways to modify my T61p for a while now and just thought I'd get ideas out. If you have any pics of a modded T61 please share!

1. Change LED colors
The LED lights indicating power and wifi are green by default. it may be possible to change it to blue by placing a thin red transparent filter behind the plastic (like changing the light color on the back of a MacBook)

2. Paint entire notebook
I know Colorware does this professionally, but it's too expensive. Personally I like the black color so I may paint it glossy black but I'm considering other colors.

3. Paint red stripes on the Trackpoint buttons
The X300 had red stripes like the old ThinkPads. The difficult part would be painting it precisely.

4. Put black tape over stickers on back side
Just a minor detail, the white stickers and windows license on the back don't look so good.

5. Repurpose the ThinkVantage button
Right now the button is hardly used and it's original function is practically useless to me. I'm using Thinkpad Key Mapper to make it lock my desktop when I press it. I'm thinking of relabelling the button and make it do something else, like start up a BSOD screensaver .

P.S. if you want to get your T61p painted professionally go to http://colorwarepc.com/ . they'll paint your T61 for $$$400

... but why?

qviri wrote:... but why?

I think he just wants to personalize his belonging....I see your point that it won't add any productive functionality aside from the pleasure of the aestetics and setup, but you gotta understand. Do you always keep what you buy "as is" ? You never customize anything to really make it your own ?

I've barely done anything with my ThinkPad. I installed my programs and that's pretty much it. It took me 4 months to change the default background!

it will be fine if your laptop is out of warranty

my T61 is going to be out of warranty in about 4 months. I'm not going to screw it up though.

have to agree with .nox, i want to make this my own t61p. i have a A31 which i modded thoroughly and i want to do the same with this one.

I was considering using black vinyl dye to paint all the keys black. Basically I wanted to remove the lettering from all the keys so they're blank.

I modded my IBM Model M keyboard in the same way a while back.

I wouldn't do actual case mods, but changing LED colour and painting the keyboard does sound intriguiging. Sadly, for the former the colour that would interest me (white) would require surface-mount soldering that I am not nearly enough pro for. I am not sure how well the latter would work given the labels on keys are very slightly convex. I also wonder about the longetivity; jonnnny, how is the dye on your model M holding up?

Estrogen Kid wrote:I've thought about various ways to modify my T61p for a while now and just thought I'd get ideas out. If you have any pics of a modded T61 please share!

1. Change LED colors
The LED lights indicating power and wifi are green by default. it may be possible to change it to blue by placing a thin red transparent filter behind the plastic (like changing the light color on the back of a MacBook)

2. Paint entire notebook
I know Colorware does this professionally, but it's too expensive. Personally I like the black color so I may paint it glossy black but I'm considering other colors.

3. Paint red stripes on the Trackpoint buttons
The X300 had red stripes like the old ThinkPads. The difficult part would be painting it precisely.

4. Put black tape over stickers on back side
Just a minor detail, the white stickers and windows license on the back don't look so good.

5. Repurpose the ThinkVantage button
Right now the button is hardly used and it's original function is practically useless to me. I'm using Thinkpad Key Mapper to make it lock my desktop when I press it. I'm thinking of relabelling the button and make it do something else, like start up a BSOD screensaver .

P.S. if you want to get your T61p painted professionally go to http://colorwarepc.com/ . they'll paint your T61 for $$$400

I don't know any program called Thinkpad Key Mapper. Where do you get it?

my bad. it is actually thinkpad button customiser. my memory isn't that great.
http://www.schlackman.org/programs/thinkpad.html

i'd be interested in how one would go about soldering and replacing a LED.

Might be just what you're looking for?

http://tattoo4electronics.com/default.aspx

I saw someone's X60 laptop laser engraved (don't know if it's by this company) at a local Starbucks while I was interning and it'd looked awesome.

wow thanks for the link

I will definitely be considering that option.

Estrogen Kid wrote:
2. Paint entire notebook
I know Colorware does this professionally, but it's too expensive. Personally I like the black color so I may paint it glossy black but I'm considering other colors.

Might as well buy a Sony Vaio CR series laptop. It comes with blue, pink, maroon, gold, and white. Hmm purrty.

qviri wrote:I wouldn't do actual case mods, but changing LED colour and painting the keyboard does sound intriguiging. Sadly, for the former the colour that would interest me (white) would require surface-mount soldering that I am not nearly enough pro for. I am not sure how well the latter would work given the labels on keys are very slightly convex. I also wonder about the longetivity; jonnnny, how is the dye on your model M holding up?

Not well, it is flaking because I used the wrong kind. I used Vinyl Fabric Dye... not Vinyl Dye used for modding.

I'm going to try again with another keyboard using the correct dye.

Changing the trackpoint to a different color is a nice "mod" that doesn't void any warranty.

I'm planning to "mod" my brand new T61p by peeling off the "Thinkpad T Series" stickers on the screen and palmrest and replacing them with real IBM stickers