Which motherboards are compatible with mine

[madadam]

Hello,

I want to replace the motherboard on my laptop, due to faulty graphics card. I found several offers on ebay, but I'm not sure which ones are compatible with my machine. My machine is Lenovo Thinkpad R61 8918-DFG. It's a 15.4' widescreen model. The original motherboard is model number 42W7882 (at least according to the lenovo hardware maintenance manual, not sure how to verify this). I could probably try to find one with the exact same model number, but I want to avoid ones with Nvidia GPUs and buy one with Intel GPU. The reason is, that according to short internet research, some Nvidia GPU models (including the one I had) are faulty and tend to overheat and die (which happened to me) and I don't want it to happen to me again. I'm fine with having lower performance GPU as long as the machine is usable.

So, my question is, which motherboard with Intel GPU will fit my machine?

[RealBlackStuff]

Check the 1001 posts about this on the T6x forum, R61 and T61 of the same size can use the same mobos.

[madadam]

Ok. The search on this forum (like all forums that run on phpBB) sucks badly, but when I search with google, I did get some useful results. Thing is, I really want to be sure, because if I buy an incorrect model it is going to be huge hassle returning it (if even possible), and I don't want to waste 150 - 200 euros.

So, basically, in the ThinkPad® R61, R61e, and R61i (15.4-inch widescreen) Hardware Maintenance Manual there is a list of several motherboard models. Would any one from those fit my machine? In particular, will mb from R61i or R61e work with R61 (no e, no i)? In even more particular, will the 42W7884 be ok? (I found decent offer on ebay for that one).

[richk]

42W7884 is an R61e board. That has no docking station connector and no touchpad/fingerprint connector. It would not be a good choice. You also have a Penryn CPY (T8100). A compatible board is hard to find. My notes say you need 42W7883, but I am not sure that is right.

[madadam]

Thanks for the info. I can live without fingerprint reader, touchpad and docking station connector (never used any of them anyway). Don't really understand that Penryn thing. According to the HMM, my CPU is Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz, part number 42W7881. Are you saying that it won't fit into the 42W7884 motherboard?

Meanwhile I found another offer on ebay, almost 100 bucks cheaper - it does not say the part number, but it says it was pulled from 7650-DHU, which, according to HMM, is part number 42W7826. Would that one be any good?

[richk]

Your Penryn chip (T8xxx and T9xxx) CPUs won't work in either board

[madadam]

Hey guys,

Just want to let you know that I've just received the 42W7826 (ordered it before richk posted that it won't work), assembled the whole [censored] thing back together and ... surprise - it works! As was mentioned, neither fingerprint reader, trackpad nor docking station port work, but I don't care about those things. The rest of the machine looks fine, yay!