New (to me) T61P widescreen

[Raidriar]

I've nabbed one of these T61P (build date 08/07) on the cheap in my attempt to collect some thinkpads. I've read the FX 570M has been a troublesome chip, but some how mine manages to live on. The thermal paste was dried on the GPU and CPU, so I replaced those. I noticed the FX 570M is a HOT chip. This thing would push into the 70s and 80s under load, even with new paste. I've figured out why. nVidiots thought they should run this chip at an absurd 1.15V, which is unheard of in most dGPU setups from 2009 and on. Luckily, a chinese fella has released several different BIOS files with revisions to how the FX 570M is being handled including voltage and better ASPM. I decided to drop the voltage from 1.15V to a much, much cooler 0.95V. This thing now tops out at 65 degrees instead of the low 80s it was doing before. I've also thrown in an old crucial M4 256GB SSD, which makes the system quite snappy. It also has 4GB of RAM, but to expand beyond that is quite expensive, as DDR2 has become absurdly expensive at the 8GB level.

Now for the last big mod I want to do. I hear it is possible to run FSB1066 chips in these. However, I don't want to solder anything to the board. I read someplace a simple pin trick could work. I would have liked to put the Intel X9000 in there, but it runs for 70$ whereas the X9100 runs for under 20$..... hoping for some good news here. Also, is there a WUXGA LED panel that will work in the T61P wide edition?

Thanks. Glad to have one of these in the collection. Also managed to pick up a T43 with the X300 (will stuff a Pentium M 780 in there and a msata SSD converted to IDE), and also have a 600E. Looking to grab a T23 and T30 as well.

[ajkula66]

Don't I know you from somewhere...

Just wanted to say "welcome to the forum"...

I'm not aware of a LED panel that would work on a T61.

As for the X9100 mod, there's a thread on that topic somewhere in the T6x (I think?) forum...

Happy upgrading. And, of course, ThinkPadding.

[Raidriar]

Don't I know you from somewhere...

Just wanted to say "welcome to the forum"...

I'm not aware of a LED panel that would work on a T61.

As for the X9100 mod, there's a thread on that topic somewhere in the T6x (I think?) forum...

Happy upgrading. And, of course, ThinkPadding.

You've known me for quite a while, under various names here, on NBR, on the official lenovo board. You first helped me out when I used a T30 for a science project in high school

I saw the thread for FSB 1066 in the T61P, but it was not clear if the soldering is required, or just the pinmod. And for the pin mod, it wasn't exactly clear where the other end of the jumper wire was supposed to go.

No LED panel is a bummer...is there a good WUXGA panel that fits?

Random aside: I forgot what a pleasure it is to type and use one of these machines. The keyboard is phenomenal and the build quality is exceptional. I got stuck using a chiclet style HP "elitebook" for medical scribing, and my fingers were cramping halfway through the day, never mind the atrocious keyboards on other manufacturers. Believe it or not, only Alienware can deliver a half decent keyboard today, though it is still a farcry from the keyboard I use on the T60P/T61P.

[ajkula66]

I saw the thread for FSB 1066 in the T61P, but it was not clear if the soldering is required, or just the pinmod. And for the pin mod, it wasn't exactly clear where the other end of the jumper wire was supposed to go.

Someone else will have to chime in since I've never done this myself...

No LED panel is a bummer...is there a good WUXGA panel that fits?

There's a Sharp WUXGA used in the Dells from that era which works wonders. Some finagling is required, but it's a very nice screen.

Believe it or not, only Alienware can deliver a half decent keyboard today, though it is still a farcry from the keyboard I use on the T60P/T61P.

Alienware is a brand that I've always taken seriously. Their intended target marker requires a keyboard that will withstand gaming so it can't be utter junk.

[RealBlackStuff]

Alienware is also a daughter-company of Dell, maybe Dell should take a few keyboard-making lessons there?
From what I could find out, a lot of Alienware keyboards are made by OKI in China, whoever they are...

[rkawakami]

If it's the same OKI as I've known since the early '80s, then it's this company: http://www.oki.com/ They are a Japanese-based company that used to be fairly big in the memory (SRAM & DRAM) market up until about the late '90s. Also known for their dot-matrix printers.

[Cigarguy]

Used to be Okidata?

[Raidriar]

I have the Alienware M18x, M15x, and Alienware 18 in my possession. All have excellent key travel, but there is certainly some flex in the keyboard which I'm not sure how to combat short of stacking post it notes underneath it, but it's not awful.

The real atrocity is the keyboards on the new Late 2016 Macbook "pro"....my fingers were cramping after an hour of continuous usage.

[SurrealMustard]

The Samsung WUXGA panel is great, but be aware that at 100% scaling, graphical elements do get a little on the small side. If you're not running Windows 8.1 or newer, don't even bother with trying to engage scaling. Windows 8.1/10's scaling is okay, but I'm getting seriously tired of Windows 10 and am beginning to question whether or not it's a worthwhile tradeoff myself.

As for the FX570M, I have noticed that it runs a bit toastier than the T9300, but I won't bother underclocking it because the performance is only just acceptable as-is.

[Raidriar]

Hell no, I only stick to Windows 7. I couldn't adjust to the UI in Win 8 or Win 10, and the very intrusive behaviour in win 10 is alarming to say the least. Not to mention the ads. Win 7 for as long as it can receive security updates, and if MS doesn't clean up its act, i'm off to Linux.

Note I said I undervolted, not underclocked. I'm running 100% original clocks for the FX 570M, just with a major reduction in voltage (about a 17.4% drop), which translate into lower temperatures and power consumption without sacrificing performance.

[cadillacmike68]

Used to be Okidata?

We had some heavy duty Okidata printers in the late 80s - early 90s. Those things were indestructible, and could print a 6-part carbonless invoice, etc.

[Raidriar]

Still haven't found any real documentation on the "BSEL Mod" for the T61. The Intel X9000 will drop into the T61 without a fuss, but it costs 55$ and runs warmer than the X9100, which runs just 16$ shipped. Somebody has to have stuffed a X9100 into a T61 before

PS: Undervolted the FX 570M even further to a paltry 0.9V down from the obscene 1.15V they used to run at factory. I'm almost certain that caused the premature death of thousands of GPUs from that time period. No laptop GPU today runs anywhere near that voltage, and I've had several including the 6970M, 6990M, 580M, 7970M, 680M, 780M, 970M, and 980M. All of the run typically 0.98V-1.02V, no more than that (unless overvolted by end user)

[el-sahef]

You have to ensure that BSEL1 stays on logic high level. But the X9100 would pull that signal down to logic low.

The usual approach used was a small wire connection from the BSEL1 pin to a VCC pin.

Post with an image: FSB downclock mod on the intel GL960 and GL40 --- useful info for PLL Modders - post 10471494

Insulating or removing the BSEL1 pin might also work.

[cadillacmike68]

Raidriar, can you tell us where you got the T61p BIOS, and whether or not wil will screw up any Middleton BIOS changes? Thanks.

[Raidriar]

Sorry for the late reply, I got the BIOS from here:
https://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/17258 ... ndervolten

I recommend 专门网论坛_T61-BIOS(0.95)_ASPM.rar as a starter, 专门网论坛_T61-BIOS(0.9)_ASPM.rar if your GPU can tolerate it. It retains all of the "Middleton" mods

In reality, the mods are the following:
1. No wireless whitelist
2. SLIC 2.1 retrofitted
3. undervolted nvidia vBIOS for nvs 140m and fx 570m
4. ASPM (power management) support for nvidia gpu


there are options for quad core but this also requires mainboard modifications. Plus heatsink is not exactly equipped to handle quad core heat.