Just bought Used x60, a few issues

[ThinkingMan]

Hey all, received an x60 for christmas, love this little netbook beater. I am amazed that more people don't know about these little computers, they really do have some great features.

My x60 came with xp pro sp3 and office 2007. But I wanted to wipe it clean and do a reformat and reinstall windows. I have run into some problems...

With no optical drive, i used wintoflash to create a bootable windows xp install on my usb thumbdrive. I got the x60 used, so it came with NO windows install disk... i used another windows xp disk (retail version) and that will not take my Product Key... I have windows installed, but it wont activate with my product key! the COA sticker is there but hard to read. Before I wiped the HDD, i used magic jelly bean key finder, and got my product key for Windows XP, Office 2007 etc.. I am stuck at this point. I need to be able to activate windows.

the battery is pretty much bad now, it holds a small charge, but has like 400+ cycles on it.. Anyone have any good experience with any non lenovo branded batteries? any names you can give me?

the hinges are not as tight as my T61 or my T41P are.. What is the best method to get that fixed? find used hinges on ebay??

love this little computer, but am frustrated that I haven't really been able to use it until I get windows XP activated, any help would be appreciated and what I have to do at this point...

[RealBlackStuff]

Wrong forum, this is for T60 and T61.

[Harryc]

Moved to the X6X forum.

Welcome to the thinkpads.com forums . I know you can activate an OEM copy of XP with the COA # on the laptop sticker, but I don't think it would work with a retail copy. Not sure on that one. The best place to get a battery is Lenovo Outlet when they have them in stock, followed by EBay. Try to get a genuine Lenovo battery and not an aftermarket one. Hinges can be ordered from Lenovo directly and can be replaced using the maintenance manual. It's an 8 on a 10 scale for laptop repair difficulty. But If you are handy no problem ... it's not rocket science.

[billp117]

Can you restore Windows XP from the hidden partition?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... UFUYK.html

[ZaZ]

that will not take my Product Key

Do you mean it won't install with your key or it won't activate with your key. As an alternative you can install it with the key from the disc and use XP's activation program to change the key to your key, then activate it.

[Woodenspoon]

Depends how much you paid for it. Sounds like you got a heavily used item.
My hinges are pretty smooth and tight, but in general the one i got was barely used.

One trick is to take the hd out and hook it up to a desktop with adaptor and just parittion it so you can dump the xp install dir on a second partition, then just boot using a dos usb and traverse to the install dir and run the install straight from the second partition.

That being said I have the utlrabay so I didn't have to go through all that.

[ThinkingMan]

hey all,

Thanks for replies on this.

I had downloaded an OEM install iso, installed it, and paid close attention to my coa sticker numbers as it was barely legible, and finally got the activation to work!

I am up and running!

unit seems to get quite hot, but that was when i was heavily updating and installing drivers windows updates etc.. is it a good idea to open it up to see if it is clogged with dust?

I'm going to get a new battery, but lenovo outlet seems to never have any... anyone have luck with certain vendors on ebay?

my lcd screen has about 1/2" to 3/4" of play... would like to get new hinges... ebay has em for like $13.. anyone use ebay hinges to success?

For $200, these lil laptops are just sooo good.. way better than my netbook, this thing is so fast just browsing and having a few different applications running at same time.. the keyboard itself makes this computer great. very happy with purchase.

[IvanAndreevich]

Try blowing hard into the fan exhaust. If dust flies out - keep doing it, until it doesn't. Otherwise use compressed air.

No real point to open it up for that.

[friedrich-eugen]

Hello,
I did a complete "reconstruction" on a used and faulty X60 last summer, took it completely down, cleaned it inside and outside.
I added a new (!) fan&cooling part (and new arctic silver, partly new screws), new WLAN and WAN mini-cards, 4GB of memory and a 500gb hdd.
I had to add a new keyboard and had to buy Windows Pro 32bit.

Installation via usb-dvd-drive, followed by WLAN-updates ...

No real problems, installation was smooth and rather swift. Updates from lenovo 100%, Office Software and tools alike do run rather swift. My wife and my children like it (so much, that they stop using their own laptops (ok: A31P) and settle in the living room instead their places to surf and/or work (wireless).

Remaining Problems:
(1) Board does not load batteries, as that circuit (used board) seems defunct.
(2) Palmrest becomes rather hot (sometimes)
(3) WAN-Card installation ist not finished (Zenders Bios, ok, but driver-problems, will have to redo, eventually using the contact 20 cover-method)

Anyway, I do join in the chorus: I did not expect to find that laptop that swift, comfortable and "handy", that it actually is.

Good luck

[Brian10161]

I'm having a similar issue with mine. Bought it for 200 and was somewhat misled. Told it was in average condition, and it's essentially a service computer. Lid is scratched, battery dead, fan was severely bent (I think it got dropped), the display was buzzing and the hinges were loose.

I pulled the computer all apart and cleaned it top to bottom, tightened up the hinges and temporarily fixed the buzzing. I straightened out the fan as well, so now it's working fine. Now, I have a new keyboard on the way (the space bar has such a wear mark in it, it's actually worn through the plastic and dented it) and a new inverter board coming as well. Need a new lid and essentially a new casing for it to be half decent.

[Woodenspoon]

hey all,

Thanks for replies on this.

I had downloaded an OEM install iso, installed it, and paid close attention to my coa sticker numbers as it was barely legible, and finally got the activation to work!

I am up and running!

unit seems to get quite hot, but that was when i was heavily updating and installing drivers windows updates etc.. is it a good idea to open it up to see if it is clogged with dust?

I'm going to get a new battery, but lenovo outlet seems to never have any... anyone have luck with certain vendors on ebay?

my lcd screen has about 1/2" to 3/4" of play... would like to get new hinges... ebay has em for like $13.. anyone use ebay hinges to success?

For $200, these lil laptops are just sooo good.. way better than my netbook, this thing is so fast just browsing and having a few different applications running at same time.. the keyboard itself makes this computer great. very happy with purchase.

ultraportables can be hot. its all crammed into a tiny place after all, when it is running on ac or performance mode it will be hot, there is no way around it. its like its using the case as a heatsink. if you keep the clock down in battery type mode and the cpu is throttled down it can be quite cool actually, barely warm at all, fan barely on if ever. handrest heat is pretty standardt though. install all lenovo software drivers. their power controls and charging controls are more thorough than the windows by far. it even runs win7 aero quite fast...in fact aero makes the tiny screen easier to use because the live previews and such make it faster to see what else is going on.

[madkat]

Not necessary i think - to open a new topic.

Havin a little win install problem on a newly acquired X60.
Came with a SP3 - kind of old and "tired" - so tried to install a fresh sp2 from the CD. Connected via USB, in the same way i did with all my previous machines. But nomatter what i do - it wont boot from CD. In win it autoruns, and opens the windows install etc etc dialog - and from that point it starts the install. But not from "scratch"
Also not with a known good Win7 dvd.

It absolutely ignores the drive on boot.

Am i doing something wrong? Is it a trick in x60's bios that i'm not aware about?

[Harryc]

Is the optical drive at the top of the boot list in BIOS? It should be in the startup section.

[Brian10161]

At boot up, push F12 and manually select the DVD drive. If it's not there, the computer isn't recognizing it for some reason.

[madkat]

To both - yes. It was the first thing to do.

Windows recognizes it asa DVD drive, the bios the same. BUT - nero doesn't see it as a RW drive.
Tried both with the rack interface, and with a portable usb-ata-sta interface.

maybe the drive is fornicated? This weekend i'll try with an old cd-rom and one of these interfaces - to see what happens.

Btw - what does the Sata mode option mean (with compatibility and something-i-don't-remember mode)

[Brian10161]

SATA operation is the sata controller. On the X60(s) I leave it in AHCI as Windows XP seems to work fine in text mode installation part anyway. My T60 is another storey.

If I were you, I would try making a USB installer and install from a USB key. It works fine on my X60s. It does sound like your DVD drive is defective though.

[madkat]

It is set on "compatibility". On the other setting it gives blue screens at startup...

I'll try with another cdrom to be sure its not a hardware issue.

[IvanAndreevich]

It is set on "compatibility". On the other setting it gives blue screens at startup...

I'll try with another cdrom to be sure its not a hardware issue.

BIOS update? I had a problem with installing from USB with a very old bios once on an X60.

Also I presume you tried another USB port?

[Woodenspoon]

It is set on "compatibility". On the other setting it gives blue screens at startup...

I'll try with another cdrom to be sure its not a hardware issue.

compatibility is for xp without the drivers, pre win7 installing sata was a bit of a pain, compatibility isn't as fast though.

[madkat]

Yes, tried all three ports.
Could be an old bios - but first i'll have to get my hands on a known good cdrom.

Win7 doesnt sound so good to me - on the R61 i have dual boot - an it's equally fast with both OS's but with Xp i get almost 3hrs battery lifetime, while with 7 only 2hrs. And couldnt do anything to make it better.
And the X60 has the small battery, which with XP sp3, has 2hrs + lifetime - less would not be enough...