Fingerprint reader retrofit on X61s

[Edward Mendelson]

A few people have asked on this forum whether it's possible to retrofit a fingerprint reader on an X6x, but I don't think anyone answered the question. Here's the answer.

I bought an X61s without a fingerprint reader, and was able to retrofit the reader simply by replacing the supplied "keyboard bezel" with what the HMM calls "Keyboard bezel with fingerprint" - FRU 42W3771 (ordered from ibm.com) I think the connector for the fingerprint reader is included on all motherboards in the X6x series; the list of "planar" parts in the HMM doesn't indicate that any are specifically with or without the connector for the fingerprint reader.

If you do this, don't make the mistake I made - you have to remove the orange protective tape on the fingerprint sensor on the supplied FRU part. If you don't do that, the hardware seems to work perfectly - except that it doesn't detect your finger. Once I got that sorted out, the fingerprint reader worked perfectly.

Now, is this also possible on a T61, I wonder?

[732]

Yes, the switch of the panels will work on T60 and T61 with no problems.

[Edward Mendelson]

Thanks for the info on the T6x series!