Thinkpads Forum

Hey guy's. HarryC has been helping me on another thread regarding sprucing my T61p back up to a few years ago's condition. I'm looking around for a reasonably priced base cover as my battery latch that's in the base cover is broken and bothering me. I have an 8891CTO 14.1" 4:3 T61p which, according to HarryC, is pretty rare compared to the WS models. This makes any of the base covers I find over $120 online. I'm not paying anywhere near that for a batter latch.

My question is this: There is a misc parts kit for base covers that includes something described as a battery latch and battery latch spring. I wander if there are the only parts I need or is the latch itself integrated into the base cover making it not a serviceable item. the kit looks something like this, although this particular one goes to the X series. http://www.ebay.com/itm/42W2540-Lenovo- ... 29fb81241a

My base cover isn't broken anywhere except for the broken battery latch under the heatsink.

I think you can replace just the latch using the parts kit, but I also think that it is possible for the base plastic to be broken around the latch area in such a way that the latch becomes loose or non-functional. Only you can asses the damaged part. Either way it requires a complete dismantling of the laptop to replace.

Harry, you were correct. I pulled my entire machine apart to find the molded plastic hinge pin for the latch sheared off. I removed the latch and spring and glued the pin back in place in the same orientation. I applied excess glue before installing the pin back in it's place so that the glue would build up around the pin and I let it harden in that way. I reinstalled the hinge and spring and it works as new now. I also had to glue a few of the plastic fins for the fan intake and exhaust in the back. Along with removing the old heat sink paste and reapplying some AS5 I think I'm good to go for a while. My idle GPU temps are like 46C and when running video chat through Google I run around 50C.

The FRU number on my bottom case also doesn't match what the Lenovo site say's. Mine is labeled as a 42R9989 which I found a couple of on eBay. But, like you said, they seem to be few and far between compared to the WS models.