Thinkpads Forum

I just finished putting together my t60p with the motherboard from a t61 non widescreen. It is the board 42W7648 with the integrated graphics and designed for the t7xxx cpu/s. I am using a t9300 cpu, but I have heard that it works fine that way, if you are willing to press escape to make it boot.

I do not get anything at all on the screen. There is supposed to be a message about a thermal sensing error. Then you can press escape and boot windows. I wish I was getting that warning. I get a black screen. I tried external monitor. Also black. Everything else seems to be right though.

For example:
No beep sequences unless I remove ram.
Lights under lcd do exactly what they would do if the unit was working
unit stays on until I turn it off.
Eventually gets warm, fan turns on.
put in cd and it runs the cd drive.

So is there anything that can be done?
Is this just a bad mobo with no video at all?>


I followed advice of many people who had done this, and it went exactly as everyone said. I got it together perfectly. No badly fitting parts. I just filed off 2 areas from the structure frame to allow for the t61 mobo.

I wonder what could be done here. Anything besides tearing the thing apart and sending back the mobo.
I have 14 days to send it back. It was a $40 motherboard from ebay. In hindsight, I shouldn't have expected it to work. But what do they get out of selling it if it is no good? They have to give the money back anyway. It is pointless.

It is a shame, because I got a nice new heatsink and fan from IBM, and it ran so quiet I could hardly hear it. It would be really great if something would show up on the screen.

If it also effects an external LCD, my opinion is that you have a bad GPU on the systemboard.

Try a correct (read T5xxx or T7xxx) CPU before you give up on it.

Try the correct CPU as suggested above, then flash the BIOS to the latest. I still believe (although others would disagree) that the board will not detect an overheat condition correctly, even if you bypass the error at startup

I don't have a 5xxx or 7xxx cpu. I have a t2600 and a t9300. I bought the t9300 for the project, and I have the t2600 from the old t60p board. The t2600 is socket m. Won't work I don't think.

Since many people have made this exact part # cpu work with the exact part # t9300, I can't see buying a cpu I don't want just to test this. For a little more I can buy a board that is made for my t9300. The only reason I bought this board in the first place is that it was $40.00. Now, I can buy another one for $200 used $400 new. or I can buy the penryn board for $200 used $360 new. so Obviously I would take the penryn board. My only other choice is to possibly exchange my $40.00 board for another one, although why would I expect it to be any better. I don't know if they have any more boards anyway. They might just give me back my money.



Also, the computer appears to be functioning. Don't you need a working cpu to make the fan turn on and off with temperature and to start the optical drive when you put a disk in it, and make the other signs of life that I listed?

But I am not spending $200 until I sell another computer to pay for it. Plus there is another one I want to buy. So this will have to wait I guess. I have a new board for the T60p, so I guess I will put that in and make due with that. Maybe in a couple weeks, I'll get some more money and get another t61 board and try it again. I wish it wasn't such a pain to change. They make you take almost everything off to get the board out. The first time I did it took a long long time. And the filing was not fun. But I think it will go fast now My only gripe is with the hardware maintenance manual. They tell you the lengths of the screws on the disassembly, (when you don't need to know the lengths), and on the assembly (when you need to know the lengths)they don't say the lengths. So for the assembly, you have to constantly keep scrolling up 3 pages to where the disassembly instructions are for the part you are assembling so you can know which screws go where. It is really stupid. they did it backwards. Screw length is irrelevant for disassembly. It is not like you need different tools for the different screw lengths. what were they thinking.

I appreciate all the help. Of course this project wouldn't be possible without the forum.

So apart it comes again. I will be glad to have it working again. I am putting a new fan in and I cleaned the radiator, so it will run better. It was always cool, but the fan was a little rattly. i will be glad for that to be fixed. Without the radiator clogged with dust, it will run even cooler I suspect.

Sometimes I think I should sell my t9300 and get a t7600 for the t60 board, but my animal instinct wants more power. The 6mb cache, 2500 mhz cpu, and the 8000 mb ram.

I don't know why we can't retrofit the newest hardware into these things.

Or somehow retrofit a ips 4:3 screen onto the newest t5xx or W5xx or W7xx.

It seems to me if we just chose the machine with the closest width to the 15" 4:3 screen, the hinges could adapted with transition brackets. Then make a new latch in the new location. Or just not have a latch. Lots of modern laptops don't have screen latches.

richk wrote:Try the correct CPU as suggested above, then flash the BIOS to the latest. I still believe (although others would disagree) that the board will not detect an overheat condition correctly, even if you bypass the error at startup

I never thought it would detect an overheat condition. I was going to monitor the gpu temp and extrapolate probable cpu temp from that. My machine never got anywhere near hot, and this configuration was supposed to be cooler. The strange thing is the fan does respond to heat changes, and how does it do that with the thermal sensing error? Just by gpu temp sensor?

But it looks as though I won't be having that thermal problem since the board has no video. I'll just have to get a new board and since it seems there are no more $40 merom boards, I'll get the penryn board. When I get money. I have a 16 lb. 3 spindle Toshiba to sell. Strangely, I think it has IPS. It is a wuxga 17" and cost me $3000 in 2006. I like it very much but it is no thinkpad. It has no trackpoint and I cant stand swiping my finger on that stupid little square they use for cursor control.