Failure to boot, possibly replace unit entirely, options?

[esmithf_ts]

I have a T60p that I have written about before on here.

Just in case this is too long and nobody will read it, my overall main question is "If I buy a new T61p and swap out the HD with my (perfectly functional) drive from the T60p, is it feasible to get that working?"

Now, for those of you willing to read the history:

Original issues were that it would crash non-stop if I used any RAM in addition to the 1.5GB that it came with. There was discussion on here about which BIOS, RAM, etc combinations would work.
My solution was to just not use any additional RAM.
It would bluescreen during that time until the RAM issue was "resolved".

Then one day after about a month, it just totally died. It has been long enough that I don't recall the exact details, but I believe it would not ever start and just come up at best to a BIOS error.

I brought it in to be serviced and they "replaced the motherboard" or something to that effect.

It then worked for about a year, but then it started having issues where there was a failure to book. I would push the power button, and it would not do anything.

After much fiddling with it, I could actually get it to boot. Then, as long as I never turned it off, it would be happy. Over time it turned into "as long as I never moved it" then it was fine.
The issue seems to be something is loose in the upper left of the machine - I would guess a heatsink part or a fan part.
"Breaking" it came down to the point where bumping it (very lightly) with anything in the "wrong" place (seemed to be on the left front mostly) would cause it to die.

The process that seemed to be required to get it back up was:
1) do not use the DVD (removed it entirely)
2) unplug all USB devices
3) in the BIOS and System Manager, disable absolutely all devices you don't use (fingerprint reader, EVDO card that never worked, etc)
4) take out the battery
5) unplug it
6) open the top
7) rotate it on all axis and occasionally bump the top left above the keyboard with the base of my palm until a "clink" sound was heard - then plug the device in and try and boot it - if it boots, then wait until Windows is actually up and then put in the battery.

Anything other than that and in that order would pretty much result in failure.

Then recently I had a case failure, largely for good reason (I was angry, I'll leave it at that) and after some general bashing I managed to get it back into shape and it was working again - but I decided it was probably at this point no longer even safe to use.

So I took it in today to the shop, and these guys seemed totally clueless. I removed the hard drive in front of them so that they wouldn't wipe it, as I am 100% positive that this has nothing to do with the hard drive or OS.
They guy saw me do this, I explained why I was doing it, and then immediately asked me afterwards if I had any passwords on the device they would need to know. I told him that there was not a BIOS password on it. He then asked what my Windows password was.
I held up the drive and reminded him that I held the OS in my hand and would be leaving with it, and they would be using their boot disk to test it.
He stared at me blankly. Then asked me again what my Windows password was.

So I don't have a lot of faith that this is going to get fixed.

I priced out a replacement and I could get a T61p for and it came in around $1500, which is about half what I paid for this one, and it supposedly fixes a few of the annoyances I had with this one (aside from the failures).

So now I'm wondering if I should just replace the laptop entirely and the main frustration there is that I have a lot of software on there that I really would prefer to avoid reinstalling.

So:
1) are the HDs "the same" enough between the two models that I could just swap it in without hardware conflicts (I have it sitting here, so I could get a serial/part number, but it is SATA if that is enough)
2) would Windows XP Pro fail beyond the point of repair? (my understanding is that you register the device and it maps some identifiers on the machine, most notably the CPU, so that even though it is a valid and legal copy of Windows, it would see this as a new install and give an error - but it is also my understanding that there is a way to resolve this via MS)

Any thoughts or suggestions down this path would be much appreciated.

I initially used this laptop was part of my consulting arsenal (programming/IT/etc), but have since gone back to a salary job and this laptop is now largely used for personal projects and the ever important poker (you may laugh, but this is likely soon to be my best source of income, so it is important to me).
So the key points for me are reliability and screen resolution over performance at this point (within reason).

Does the T61p have known issues that I should avoid?
(I would certainly be avoiding some of the things that gave me issues on this one, namely the EVDO card and fingerprint reader, and it would be a pretty bare bones model with the lowest CPU available and just 2GB of RAM and whatever the cheapest 7200 RPM HD is if I cannot use the HD from my other laptop for convenience)

[DAH]

First I having tried it so I don't know... Having said that I do not believe you could simply switch hard drives and go.

1. You are talking about very different video cards between a T60p and a T61p. You would need a new video driver at the minimum. And have you read the possible recall thread? I have a T60p by the way, with 4 GB of memory in it, and I don't have the problems you do. Perhaps I've been blessed.

2. Not so important but the screens are different as well, and if you have the 1600x1200 screen you will probably notice a poor screen in the T61p. There is a reason it is cheaper.

3. I believe you could work around the different mother boards, but then you have a T60p that you've struggled with for a significant period of time, and your ability to solve issues plays a role here. Just as what is easy for me, may not be easy for you, and what is child's play for you may be well beyond me. Could you teach me to play poker if I really wasn't interested?

Yes it could be done, chances are it would be worth your while to pay someone to do it for you, and having said that then it becomes a question of if you wouldn't simply be better off paying someone to install what you want installed.

It really comes down to you and how smart you are, and what your time is worth, and how much you would enjoy/hate doing it. I suspect no one here knows you that well.

[esmithf_ts]

I was not aware that the T61p did not have as high a resolution screen in it as the T60p, that is interesting to note. I priced it out with one setup, but I don't recall the exact setting right now.

I actually don't care about much on the thing other than the screen, so that would be the major dealbreaker.

Thanks for the suggestion about the video cards being different enough - that alone is likely going to be a deal breaker.

I think moving forward, I will get some sort of laptop, put Linux on it, put VMWare on that, and then have an image of XP Pro - then I will get that configured as required, and then regularly backup that image.

That way, if the hardware dies, I can put that image on any VMWare machine and be back up with no configuration at all, in minutes/hours.

Thanks for the reply!