Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone. I'd like to first say thank you for anyone that takes the time to answer me, I do appreciate it.

Secondly, I'd like to apologize if the question is already answered somewhere.

But to get right to the point. I have multiple broken T61s and working T60s. My mission is to get the T61s working. So my question is, what parts from a T60 can I use to repair a T61. Are any of the parts interchangeable between the two models?

Thank you ahead of time.

Whether you can swap parts will depend on which T60s and T61s you have, and what's broken.

I appreciate you following up. I'm not sure what you mean by what T60s and T61s I have.

I assume you mean the type?

I have T60 1951 4TU

and T61 7659 CTO

Not sure if that's what you mean, if not. I'd appreciate any advisement on this. Thanks.

ram - yes
cpu - yes
hdd - yes
ultra bay - yes
wireless card - yes
wires - depends
plastics - depends
keyboard - depends
lcd - depends
motherboard - unlikely


Hope it helps!

RidleyAran wrote: what parts from a T60 can I use to repair a T61. Are any of the parts interchangeable between the two models?

RAM, HDD, all Ultrabay devices including DVD-RW, and keyboards are easily interchangeable between any T60 and T61, as all variants share the same parts. The T61 CPU's don't run in T60 boards and vice versa, and the respective fan/cooling units should also better stay with their original mainboards, although T61 cooling units were reported as being a less noisy fan replacement for T60 machines. LCD's do work, but only if the form factor and size match, and taking into account that the LCD housing is not interchangable either.

Motherboards can be switched to some degree, if the form factor matches. T60 machines use the same mainboard sizes, regardless of whether the chassis is 15" or 14.1", with an additional interposer card as the only difference for the machines with the larger 15" chassis. Even a 14" T61 mainbord can be made to fit into any T60 chassis. I am running a 4:3 14" T61 mainboard (because of much better CPU/RAM options) in a 4:3 15" T60 chassis (because of superior UXGA display options), and the original board which was contained in the latter went into the T61 chassis which formerly contained the T61 mainboard. One has to remove two elements from the roll cage to make each respective mainboard fit, losing the internal modem slot. Also the cardbus slot differs between these mainboard generations, and should therefore stay with the original mainboard. In any case, the resulting machines work both pretty fine.

Nonetheless, the respective mainboards from the T60 1951-4TU and the T61 7659-CTO you mentioned will not match due to different form factors. According to the Lenovo Quick Path information at support.lenovo.com/en_US, the T60 1951-4TU is a 14.1" machine with a 4:3 form factor, while the T61 is a 14.1" with a 16:10 form factor, and therefore is not compatible in regard to the chassis and the mainboard layout. This can also be easily noted when you compare the audio connector locations on each machine.

Correction to an earlier response:

CPU no
I cannot think of any plastic pieces you can use
wires no
lcd no (wrong size)
motherboard no

Wow. Thank you everyone for your incredible responses. I really appreciate the time and patience you took with my question. It means a lot to me. I learned quite a bit from these posts alone. Thank you and I will be sure to put what knowledge I have now into action!

Thanks again!