Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,
I have a 14" wide T61 that works great but I have always been less than happy with the display so after tons of research embarked on creating a Frankenpad. First I bought:

15" T60p with Flexview 1600x1200 Type 2007 system.

I was going to guy my current T61 and drop it into the T60p. Everyone said it was a straight drop-in, but I quickly noticed that the audio port and USB port configurations were different. I thought maybe it as because I have a 14" wide and not a 15" T61 so I went out and bought the 42w7874. Unfortunately that has the same audio / USB port configuration. How do I get around this? The T60p has its audio ports on the left side (when facing the laptop) and also only one USB port on the left while the T61 that I have and the T61p motherboard that I just bought has two USB ports on theleft and the audio ports in front. Needless to say I'm baffled and confused as what to do.

Did I get the wrong motherboard or is there another T60p that I need to get?

Thanks in advance for you help.

Wrong board.

You need one from a 4:3 T61/p to fit into 15" 4:3 T60p frame, your widescreen board won't work.

As you can see, there are 3 entirely different motherboard shapes on T61 machines. The 14" wide-screen motherboard only fits 14" wide machines. The same can be said for the 4:3 machines and the 15.4" wide screen models. The new philosophy is "why design one board when you can design three?" The fans, frames, hard drive covers etc are also different. The part number you bought, 42w7874, is a 4:3 board, so it should fit. It will have the audio ports and one USB port on the left, just like a T60 model 2007. You need the interposer from your 15" T60.

ajkula66 wrote:Wrong board.

You need one from a 4:3 T61/p to fit into 15" 4:3 T60p frame, your widescreen board won't work.

Yes, that's what I figured, which is why I bought the 42w7874 which should fit. I got 42w7874 from the hardware manual and it is a 14" 4:3 T61/p mobo.

richk wrote:As you can see, there are 3 entirely different motherboard shapes on T61 machines. The 14" wide-screen motherboard only fits 14" wide machines. The same can be said for the 4:3 machines and the 15.4" wide screen models. The new philosophy is "why design one board when you can design three?" The fans, frames, hard drive covers etc are also different. The part number you bought, 42w7874, is a 4:3 board, so it should fit. It will have the audio ports and one USB port on the left, just like a T60 model 2007. You need the interposer from your 15" T60.

I have no idea what the interposer is, but the 42w7874 does not have the audio ports and one usb on the left. It has the same configuration as my 14" wide. Did I get sent the wrong board? I bought from Notebookparts.com. Is there any other way I can tell by physically looking at the board? Thanks.

The interposer card is a small adaptor which only does the job of extending the connector for the CD/DVD-drive, so that the width matches with 15" diagonal laptops instead of 14.1". Should be easy to remove the board/card from the T60p motherboard.

The FRU part number 42W7874 should be printed somewhere where it can be found on the motherboard you just bought - can you find this number written anywhere on the board?

Troels wrote:The interposer card is a small adaptor which only does the job of extending the connector for the CD/DVD-drive, so that the width matches with 15" diagonal laptops instead of 14.1". Should be easy to remove the board/card from the T60p motherboard.

The FRU part number 42W7874 should be printed somewhere where it can be found on the motherboard you just bought - can you find this number written anywhere on the board?

Thanks Troels. I wil make sure to keep the interposer card and connect it.

As for the 42w7874, I don't see it printed on the board, although I do see a sticker with the numbering. Here's the big question and why I think I was sent the wrong board. In the HMM it says this planar has nVIDIA NB8P-GL with AMT. To me that says its the nVidia 570m. When I look at this board I don't see the discrete nVidia chip in the middle of the board. I'm going to call the store I bought from tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure this board was marked incorrectly. Any other obvious things I can check? Should I have gotten the 42w7650 instead(p/n descriptions are the same)?

A sticker, hmm ok.

I searched around ebay and found that 42W7874 is this one: http://i.ebayimg.com/14/!BcH9Y1!!2k~$(K ... eg~~_3.JPG

While the 42W7650 is this one: http://i.ebayimg.com/12/!BbdqEOg!Wk~$(K ... cg~~_3.JPG

I haven't the slightest clue why they aren't identical - they should at least both have the same GPU according to the hardware maintenance manual

EDIT: Ok, to make the confusion even worse have a look at this - http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-LENOVO-T61-T61p ... 1e5d142e42

I think that Lenovo or whoever has labeled these motherboards for them might have made some serious labeling mistakes on some batches of motherboards. I'd contact the place you bought the motherboard from as soon as possible and tell them that it's incorrectly labeled.

Troels wrote:A sticker, hmm ok.

I searched around ebay and found that 42W7874 is this one: http://i.ebayimg.com/14/!BcH9Y1!!2k~$(K ... eg~~_3.JPG

While the 42W7650 is this one: http://i.ebayimg.com/12/!BbdqEOg!Wk~$(K ... cg~~_3.JPG

I haven't the slightest clue why they aren't identical - they should at least both have the same GPU according to the hardware maintenance manual

Yeah, I did the same thing. Ugh... From the HMM they should be identical. Other searches lead me to believe they are the same but not sure how accurate these images are. If I can't trust HMM, then what can I do? The oddest thing is that both have the one USB on the left and audio on the left and that's different than mine. Yet another variation?