Thinkpads Forum

I've got a T61 7661 that has done me well for a couple of years. It's had a Samsung 840 Pro chucked in it, jammed full of RAM, middleton BIOS and a new 1440x900 screen.

However, it's on its way out by the looks. Getting the odd hang and boot failure and the tiny 4-cell battery has given out and dies after 45 minutes now. The headphone socket also has a quiet left channel, the left USB ports have packed in and the touchpad died after my other half watered it. All of these are issues I can't be bothered to iron out.

I think the chassis at least needs pillaging for bits and burying in the garden with an appropriate gravestone.

Anyway on to the questions.

I'm looking at a T400 as a replacement as these are dirt cheap here in the UK at the moment. Seems to be pretty much the same hardware.

Some questions:

1. Does it take the same RAM as the T61? The RAM I have is relatively new and good brand (Crucial/Micron).

2. Does it natively support SATA-II speeds on the internal controller or do I need a BIOS hack?

3. Does the 1440x900 default screen configuration have LED backlight?

1) No. DDR2 on T61 vs. DDR3 on T400.

2) Yes.

3) No. Both CCFL and LED were available for all resolutions offered on T400.

Though the positive news is that second hand prices for DDR2 RAM are > 2x those of DDR3 (also in the UK). So you should be able to make some profit on the RAM switch, and if you keep your charger and SSD the switchover cost might only be £100.