How to tell if a CTO machine has Nvidia video chip

[ac12]

On a T61 with a CTO lablel, is there any way to determine if the T61 has the Nvidia video chips?

The only way I can think of is to go into the Windows Hardware Manager and look at what the video adapter is.

[cadillacmike68]

The Machine Type (first 4 numbers) will tell if it has Intel or nvidia graphics. However, you need to Large Lenovo / IBM product guide to look up the Machine Type.

Here are a few:

6463 intel
6465 intel
7658 intel
8897 intel
8898 intel

6460 nvdia
7664 nvidia


Post the Machine Type and I or someone will tell you.

[RealBlackStuff]

Take the battery out and tell us the P/N or FRU you find there on a small white label.
Or look it up in the HMM...

[ac12]

6465 = intel

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

[cadillacmike68]

Ok then. I have one T61 6565, model 5ZU. So 6465-5ZU. Nothing special, but it runs fine.

[RealBlackStuff]

The TYPE-label is just that: a label only.
What if someone exchanged the motherboard?

[Saucey]

When I wipe hard drives with Parted Magic live disk/usb, there's a hardware tool to show your specs.
I check under PCI devices, usually graphics card would be in there somewhere.

[cadillacmike68]

The TYPE-label is just that: a label only.
What if someone exchanged the motherboard?

Yes, but it is also in the BIOS, and that will tell you the TYPE even if the mobo was changed. If the mobo was never changed, that white label is the key to your factry secs, especially if you have the Personal Systems Reference Guides.

Except for my 8898-AGM which is Not in the boooks...

[Bibin]

I found a T61 in a local electronics surplus shop for $10 - a 14" 4:3 model. I was allowed to power it up, and I did. The screen turned on, but then I got "Fan Error" and it shut down.

I looked carefully in the vent, and saw no fan, and no heatsink at all! The top lid said T61, and it had the Lenovo-style stickers, but the bottom case had a type number from a T60. Looks like someone had used it for frankensteining and didn't put back the heatsink at all!

It goes to show that indeed, a label is just a label. Power it up and check the type as reported by the BIOS when possible!

[TPFanatic]

Did you buy it?

[RealBlackStuff]

...my 8898-AGM which is Not in the boooks...

T61 (8898-AGM):
T8300(2.4GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1024x768 LCD, Intel X3100, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinVista Business 32

(as found in the MTM link at the top of this page...)

[ajkula66]

Yes, but it is also in the BIOS, and that will tell you the TYPE even if the mobo was changed.

You do realize that with proper tools which are not all that difficult to obtain one can set the BIOS to show whatever they want, especially on older ThinkPads?

If the mobo was never changed, that white label is the key to your factry secs, especially if you have the Personal Systems Reference Guides.

PSREF is a valuable guide, but it does not include all configurations of the model - *any* model - that were produced, not by a long stretch.

[cadillacmike68]

^^ Absolutely correct. My 8898-AGM is not is the books, but other 8898s are so you can tell a: the basic chassis size (14" 4:3, 15" 16:10 or 14" 16:10) which is good if you want a certain size or don't want another. And B: the graphics type (Intel or Nvidia). And we all know why That is important.

Sure, you won't get screen res, factory CPU speed or RAM, etc, but those two critical items, chassis size ad graphics are there. It helped when I was looking for another T61. Even though it was a 14" WS (different battery and fan!) I bought it because it has the T9500 2.5 GHz CPU, and i'll put it in the dock if I want a large, high rez screen.

Yes, I know you can change some of that, but if you have someone selling a machine , and did that and didn't disclose it, or did a tap dance about it, It would go back faster than it got here.

That reminds me when we were messing around with the dBASE III internals and had it spit out "Learn the language, you dummy" whenever it caught a syntax error.

@ RBS, I never even noticed that MTM link (Machine Type Model - pretty good). It wouldn't help the OP because his was a CTO.

[ac12]

Did you buy it?

Inbound to me right now.
Should arrive on Thur.
Then it's 'play time.'

It has the later T8300 chip, so should be the later motherboard.
I will flash the BIOS so I can get SATA2 out of the drive. I gotta read up on the instruction to flash the Middleton BIOS.
Then start the build. It's too expensive to get 8GB of DDR2 RAM, so it will stay at 4GB.

Once the new T61 is built, I will upgrade the old T61. I have the new CPU (T8300), but had not done the CPU upgrade, and the Middleton BIOS flash. At the time, I only had the T61, and could not risk loosing everything, if the BIOS flash failed. Now that I have another T61, I have a fall back. And I need to replace the fan, it is beginning to fail.

[ac12]

^^

That reminds me when we were messing around with the dBASE III internals and had it spit out "Learn the language, you dummy" whenever it caught a syntax error.

That reminds me of a discussion I was following on the Garmin forum.
One guy hacked the response, so when you miss the turn, rather than saying "recalculating," it would say "You missed the turn dummy!"

[cadillacmike68]

^^

That reminds me when we were messing around with the dBASE III internals and had it spit out "Learn the language, you dummy" whenever it caught a syntax error.

That reminds me of a discussion I was following on the Garmin forum.
One guy hacked the response, so when you miss the turn, rather than saying "recalculating," it would say "You missed the turn dummy!"

I always hated that "recalculating" It sounded very condescending...

I never had one, but one my my (always lost) fellow colonels did. He and another col got lost going from SFO (or San Jose) to an obscure fort in mid Calif. It took then 5-6 hours to finally find it.

We had a cartoonist in our HQ and he made a great caricature of them two. I still have it.