Thinkpads Forum

Hello,
I'm curious if I have an X61 without a finger print reader, and I buy a new bezel with a finger print reader, will it swap in fine? The motherboard for the X61 should be the same no matter what, and the plug should be there, but I was wondering if anyone knew for sure.

Thanks, Jonny

If your motherboard has the plug(I'd check by pulling your keyboard and making sure), all you need to do is get a palmrest with a fingerprint reader.

If you don't have the second fan(meant for cooling the WWAN card), an X60 palmrest will work as well, just in case you have trouble finding an X61 palmrest with FP reader.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:... an X60 palmrest will work as well, just in case you have trouble finding an X61 palmrest with FP reader.

This needs clarification:
An X60/s palm rest will fit an X61/s if one does not care about the fingerprint reader.The fingerprint reader hardware, cable, and geometry of the connector differ between the X60/s and X61/s, and are not interchangeable.

EOMtp wrote:This needs clarification:
An X60/s palm rest will fit an X61/s if one does not care about the fingerprint reader.The fingerprint reader hardware, cable, and geometry of the connector differ between the X60/s and X61/s, and are not interchangeable.

They are. I am currently using my 'stock' X60s palmrest with my new X61s motherboard, and the X60s fingerprint reader works just fine. The hardware and the cables are in different locations(and therefore routed differently), but the connectors on both motherboards are the same and in the same location. The reason the FP reader is in a different location is because the secondary fan on some X61 models will not fit under the X60 fingerprint reader.

The only reason I have to switch to an X61 palmrest(which just arrived today) is because my X61 motherboard is set up for WWAN and needs the second fan. Without it, you get a fan error on bootup. It can be bypassed by pressing escape, but it is rather annoying so I just decided to get the fan.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:I am currently using my 'stock' X60s palmrest with my new X61s motherboard, and the X60s fingerprint reader works just fine.

Yes, you are correct, but the inverse does not work (which I recognize is irrelevant to this thread!).

I would prefer the fingerprint reader on an X60/s to be on the right side, like it is on the X61/s, but no permutation of X61/s palm rest and cable appears to work with an X60/s -- and I am not even referring to mechanical incompatibilities such as the cable not reaching or the connector being 90 degrees out of position.