Thinkpads Forum

The palm rest on my X61s is beginning to develop some cracks.

Now I plan to replace it with a new one (can be had on ebay for just a few bucks) but most of them are with the fingerprint reader. A feature my X61s doesn't have. I wonder, does the motherboard support the connection for it? (So I can just plug the reader in and it will work..) or should I just get a reader-less palm rest because it won't work?

Almost certain that your motherboard has the fingerprint connector, which means that you can use it if the palm rest has the hardware and if you install the software. Remove the keyboard and look for the connector. In the pictures below, the fingerprint connector is the black "rectangle" just below the yellow round CMOS battery:
http://mito.lapalta.net/systemboard_nokb.jpg
http://www.tpuser.idv.tw/articleimages/ ... pic-44.jpg

I thought all of them had the the FPR connector?

Removed the keyboard, and that little rectangle is there south of the CMOS battery.

I guess I'll be ordering a new palmrest

And keyboard (US in stead of the UK that's now in there), and perhaps a bottom casing and top lid as well. My X61s is pretty banged up, the previous owner did not take care of it properly.

Okay, that's $100 in plastics but it will make it look almost like new. There are a few keymarks in the screen that I can't get rid of anymore.

You should verify that your model was built with a fingerprint reader originally,
although I think newer models will accept it regardless.
I put FPRs into both my X60s laptops without a problem but my T42 wouldn't take it,
even though the connector was there. I had to change the motherboard.

Tim S

The T42 has to have a Secure Chip installed to use the Fingerprint Reader. Not all did.

Bruce Guttman wrote:The T42 has to have a Secure Chip installed to use the Fingerprint Reader. Not all did.

But all X60/X61 do, right?