TLC for my T61p

[Banshee365]

I've had my 14" T61p since new in early '08. I think I am part of the batch with the bad GPU issues. I havn't had any issues and my GPU run's less than 60° most of the time. I don't do any hardcore rendering or intense gaming, just occasional gaming and photoshop type stuff. I love this machine and it's holding up like a tank. I travel for a living and this thing goes everywhere with me in all sorts of conditions. I alway's remove my battery in the hotel rooms and plug the machine into to power adapter to keep the cycles off of my battery. I think my battery has around 250 cycles and still holds a great charge after nearly 4 years.

I want to spruce it up a bit to get some more years out of it. I am happy with the specs right now for what I do with it and enjoy things that really get good life for the money. Over 4 years for a laptop seems to be stretching it hard in most anyone opinion. My screen has a couple of small blotches from pressure being put on it and it has a couple of other issues that I may like to fix up. I just noticed the other day that the battery is a little wobbly when it is installed. The hinge pin on the secondary latch over by the fan appears to have broke and the latch just flops around in there. I think to replace this I'll need to replace the entire bottom case. This may kill a few birds for me as a couple of the plastic fan vent sections are broke and this would get replaced with a new bottom case. I'm just wandering if it is worth it if I can get a bottom case for a reasonable price. This may seem like a small issue with the battery latch as the battery stay's in there fine with the more robust main latch. While I have it apart I could replace the thermal paste with some AC5 that I have laying around.

I would like to upgrade the HDD and move my little 80gig stock drive to the ultrabay which I think would be really nice. I would also like to upgrade my RAM as I am now running Win 7 64-bit on 2GB of RAM. I want to be able to not feel like I'm wasting my money when it comes time to buy a new $100+ battery as I know it will still be going to a good machine. I've had great luck with this GPU and would probably replace the mobo if mine fried if I could get one for a decent price. This thing has really served me well and I hope to get more use out of it but when the time comes I think I'll definetly be buying another Thinkpad of some sort whether it be a T or W series. My wife has a 2011 Macbook Pro which is a great machine but I think I've started to become a Thinkpad fan-boy...

I'm just looking for some advice on which road to go with my machine since I havn't experienced any problems with mine.

[RealBlackStuff]

You got good mileage out of your machine!
Update to 8GB RAM (2 x 4GB): ~$100.-
Larger hard disk, e.g. 320GB: ~$45.-
Ultrabay Slim SATA HDD adapter: ~$25.-
New bottom: ~$40.-
New battery: ~$70.-
New LCD: ~$120.-
So far: ~$400.- without counting labor (of love).

A new machine from Lenovo Outlet, e.g.
ThinkPad T420 (New)
Outlet Price: $873.99
Sale Price: $699.19
Intel® Core™ i5-2520M (2.50GHz base; 3.2GHz Max Turbo, 3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 - English
250GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Hard Drive
2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
14.0” HD+ (1600 x 900) LED
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
DVD Recordable SATA
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)

Makes you wonder!

[Harryc]

I agree with RBS in that you would not want to put a lot of money into a machine that old. My recommendation is to get another 2GB of RAM and an SSD. The RAM is cheap and the SSD can be used in future machines. It's not worth it to fix it up cosmetically unless the machine has some sort of sentimental value (been there, done that). I think you can probably do better than $40 on a new base also, so if that makes you happy I'd go for it ...

[Banshee365]

Thanks for the replies guy's. I see what you're saying about the cost-benefit equation. The machine doesn't have sentimental value to me as much as the fact that I just like to repair what I already have as most of the time that is the more valuable option. The bottom case doesn't matter as much to me but if I could find a good deal on a new one I like tinkering with things anyway and I could do a good cleaning and replace the paste at the same time. The LCD doesn't bother me and I would just rather leave it as it works just fine. I wouldn't mind doing the bottom case for giggles and deifnetly getting more ram and a better HDD, that would be great.

[Banshee365]

I'm having some trouble finding much info when searching for the part number for my T61p's base cover. The number that I need is 42W3664. I've came across some T61 base covers on eBay for a 14.1" (4:3) machine and they look a little different than mine does. My battery is fine so all that I really need to replace to make the machine in perfect working condition is whatever I need to replace to fix the battery latch and do some hardware upgrades.

Is the battery latch available in a misc parts set or is it integrated into the bottom case?

[Harryc]

The 14.1" T61 base covers are the same - http://cgi.ebay.com/Lenovo-IBM-Thinkpad ... 3cba928698

[Banshee365]

The 14.1" T61 base covers are the same - http://cgi.ebay.com/Lenovo-IBM-Thinkpad ... 3cba928698

The base cover in that picture is very different than the one on my machine. On another T61p base cover search on eBay I also saw differences. I would want to make sure I was ordering the right one if I wanted to change it out. I'm still wandering if I can replace just the latch from a misc parts kit.

[Banshee365]

My machine looks just like this: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 313.0.html

[Harryc]

That's a 15.4" machine, not 14.1"

[Banshee365]

Yea, mine is a 14.1" but the side and back of the machine are exactly like mine. All of the T61 base covers I come across have one vertical USB power on the right side and 2 vertical ones on the left which is way off mine.

[Harryc]

Please post the machine type/model number from the sticker on the bottom of the laptop. It will be a (7) digit alpha-numeric .e.g. 7645-3CU

[Banshee365]

Harry, thanks for the help here! My machine's number is an 8891CTO. The part number I find for my machine comes up with $120+ prices online if I can even find them.

[rumbero]

My machine's number is an 8891CTO.

Please verify if there is any other number starting with "8891" but ending in something else than "CTO" on the back side of your Thinkpad. As an exception to the rule, "CTO" means "Customized To Order" and does not actually describe a specific model. If there is no such number on the Thinkpad's bottom, please enter the BIOS where you will find shown it in the first screen before the serial number (but don't post your serial number here!).

[Harryc]

OK, an 8891 T61P is a 14.1in 1400x1050 (4:3) LCD machine. Now I know why you are having trouble finding a base...they are very rare. The correct FRU# is 42W3664. I have a 14.1" Widescreen T61 which is much more common and parts are plentiful and cheap.

[Banshee365]

Rare huh? Great... I LOVE the 4:3 screen myself.

This one looks as identical as I can tell to my base cover but I cannot verify the screen locations.http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lenovo-Thin ... _994wt_648 I wander how close it is...

[Harryc]

That's a T60 base. There are some members who have put a T61 board in a T60 base. Do a forum search for ideas...
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q ... as_qdr=all