Farewell Thinkpad - R61 planar usable in T61 chassis?

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Amigaman · #1 Post by **Amigaman** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:24 am

Hi all,

My T61p just died suddenly, and it seems I have the well known NVidia GPU failure

.

Unfortunately I was not aware of this well known problem before now, and after talking to Lenovo customer care, they have told me they won't fix my machine because it is after the arbitrary "31st March 2011" deadline for out-of-warranty repair of this issue.

Having paid over $2000 for this "top-of-the-line" machine around 3 years ago, I'm disappointed that it's now become a big black paperweight through no fault of mine. Since I also got mildly screwed when I bought my T43 a few years previous, I think it's time to bid farewell to what has become the Thinkpad.

I need to revive my machine at minimal cost for the interim, and I thought about obtaining a cheap R61 planar from Ebay. I've taken a look at the images, and it looks it might be the same shape as my T61p planar, except it has far fewer features.

Does anyone know if the R61 planar can be placed into a T61 chassis, or is this is a really bad idea?

Thanks for any help,

Ross..

kaede · #2 Post by **kaede** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:51 am

its better for u to get t61 planar with intel graphics. just my 2 cents

Amigaman · #3 Post by **Amigaman** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:59 am

I don't see many T61 planars with Intel graphics, and they are probably too expensive anyway. I have seen R61 planars for less than $100!

#4 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:40 am

Between same size machines the mobos are interchangeable.
(i.e. T61 and R61 are both 14.1" or 15" 4:3 standard, or both 14.1" WS, or both 15.4" WS)
You need to check the P/N or FRU carefully against the appropriate T61 and R61 HMMs.

#5 Post by **richk** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:37 am

A slight correction on the post above: The T61 4:3 didn't come in a 15" model. For the 14" wide-screen, many of the intel-based R61 machines are different - no firewire and different BIOS. 15.4" wide screen models are similar-sized, but different electrically. They use different BIOS images.

#6 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:44 pm

Maybe I mentioned uncommon or non-existing models, but the general idea applies, same size T61 and R61 have swappable mobos.
A firewire port is easy to create, should it be missing...

Amigaman · #7 Post by **Amigaman** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:01 pm

Thanks for the advice gents.

I have noticed that the Intel graphics based R61 mainboard, with FRU: 42W7733 is fairly easy and cheap to obtain, but I cannot find that part number in any of the R61 HMMs for 14" or 15.4". Searching on the internet indicates that the part is easy to obtain, but none of the stores indicate what type of R61 (screen size wise) it is used for.

http://www.primelec.com/Laptop-Accessor ... 15844.html

Has anyone seen this part number before, or have any idea?

For the latest revision of my T61p mainboard, IBM Australia wants $800!

Regarding firewire, on my 15" T61p it is at the front of the machine, but I see from the HMM that the 15" R61 firewire port is on the left side near the PCMCIA/Express card slot. I guess I'll leave it out, or is the port easy to re-locate?

Thanks again..

#8 Post by **richk** » Sun May 01, 2011 6:45 pm

42W7733 does not fit any T61 or R61. It is an R60e motherboard and is the wrong size and shape. It uses a lesser CPU and has no dock or touchpad connector

Amigaman · #9 Post by **Amigaman** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:31 pm

Hi,

Thanks! No wonder the planar was so cheap! I'd forgotten about the i and e series.

Looks like I'll have to re-think my plan..

#10 Post by **richk** » Mon May 02, 2011 11:01 am

I quickly laid the 15.4" boards on top of each other to compare holes, etc. The mounting holes mostly match up, but there are differences. The T61 takes a modem card, while the R61 modem is built into the board, so the cable that goes to the ports will need to change if you want to keep that functionality. The firewire port connector is different, so you will lose that functionality. I didn't measure the placement of various parts, like the CPU, video chip, USB connection for right-side port, etc. The last intel-based 15.4" T61 board I sold went for $150

Amigaman · #11 Post by **Amigaman** » Thu May 05, 2011 12:36 am

Hi Rich,

Thanks again for the extra details. It seems that the R61 is less than ideal as I had originally though. I have been conducting research and it seems there is little difference in price between R61 and T61 board, so I will abandon the R61 planar idea.

However it seems that I may be able to get Lenovo to repair my machine, based on consumer law in Australia. This is because all purchases have implied warranty that lasts for a reasonable time, and this is in addition to the expressed warranty from Lenovo. Since Lenovo indicated that there was a problem with T61 machines (i.e out-of-warranty repairs until March 31st, 2011) they must repair my machine and are not allowed to "terminate" my statutory warranty like they have attempted to do, by creating an arbitrary "deadline". It seems that many places in the world have these laws in place too. This is why other companies like Sony, Apple do not seem to have attempted to place a deadline on out-of-warranty repairs of machines that were sold with a manufacturing defect (which happens to be a breach of contract between the supplier and the purchaser).

#12 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Thu May 05, 2011 5:37 am

Amen to that, please tell that to my Congressman!

Amigaman · #13 Post by **Amigaman** » Mon May 09, 2011 3:20 am

We use a common law legal system like yourselves and have implied warranty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implied_warranty). It seems that some states of the US allow this warranty to be disclaimed, but based on the fact that NVidia opted to settle a class action lawsuit recently (rather than taking it to court), it's likely that consumer rights would hopefully prevail in these cases of "defective from manufacture" which we seem to have been unfortunately experiencing..