T61 make-over

[peterh]

Make-overs and upgrades seem to be the flavor of the week...

I absolutely love my T61 (6457-7MG: T7800 15.4"), but I really - REALLY - regret not being more patient and waiting until I could find a T61p.

The NVIDIA NVS-140M is OK, but looking at the ratings, the FX570M wipes the floor with it.

Even if I could find one, I can't afford/justify splashing out on yet another machine (I have perfectly good T60p waiting for me at home in Greece!).

So, I figure the cheapest way to get what I want is to change the systemboard to one with the FX570M. Only problem is, the January 2008 hardware reference manual refers to some very old FRUs.

Can anyone out there advise me of what systemboard FRU I should be looking for?

I need the one with the 1394 socket...

Any and all suggestions would be very much appreciated (and thanks to all of you who advised about changing the CPU on my T60p!).

Yours,
Peter

PS. A colleague came into my office today with a plastic bag in his hand - "Peter, I know you collect old IBM rubbish" (in a very heavy Yorkshire accent). I opened the bag, and inside was a Thinkpad 750Cs in perfect condition - that brought back some memories - that model was my very first Thinkpad - G*D only knows how many years ago - and it cost me over 4,000 pounds at the time!

[peterh]

OK...

Well, I'll reply to my own thread! It took some searching, but I found what I believe to be a suitable system board:

44C3931

There's no IEEE1394 port, but then, I've never owned anything to plug in there anyhow.

There is a 'System misc. parts' FRU: 42W3650 which claims to have an IEEE1394 port cover which I can only hope will be a blanking plate.

I'll report back when the board arrives and is installed.

Thanks to all.
Peter

[sktn77a]

Eeeeeee, by gum lad, sounds like tha' got good deal on two counts! (repeat with increasingly annoying Eddie Waring accent!)

FYI here's the contents of the 42W3650 pack:

http://cgi.ebay.it/42W3650-Lenovo-Think ... 0343909687

DC in cable
Bracket, N/B, fan discrete/integ.
Bracket, VGA, fan discrete/integ.
Modem cable assembly, MDC-1.5
Bracket, CPU support
Guide SIM
Bracket, Kensington
IEEE 1394 connector cover
IEEE 1394 connector bracket
SD card slot bezel
Connector bag
Thermal rubber

[peterh]

OK, all the bits arrived today:

44C3931 NVIDIA FX570M system planar from an outfit in Malaysia
45N4181 15.4" hinge set (mine were wobbly)
42W3658 Clear Plate (T61/p stickers)
42X3914 LCD cover kit (lid + LCD bezel)
42W3650 Misc. parts 15.4"
42X4685 Thermal fan (discrete)
45N3854 Screw kit 15.4"
42T3209 US keyboard

All in all, it cost me around 500 bucks.

Well, first off was replacing the system planar (motherboard). Lots of screws! But easy if you're careful. I can't say enough, how well constructed this series is compared to previous models. Both the chassis and LCD assembly are made like a sandwich - everything is attached to a central structure (magnesium alloy?). Very rigid and expertly engineered. I managed to end up with the memory card cover left over... There's no way I am going to pull it all apart again just for that.

I really only bought the LCD cover kit because I was worried that I would damage the LCD bezel when I removed it to replace the wobbly hinges. I needn't have bothered, because everything came apart with relative ease (but hell, an immaculate LCD lid is nice ). The new hinges are nice and stiff. I attached the appropriate T61p 'Clear plate' sticker and I was done.

All that there was left to do was to update the System ID with the correct machine type and serial number (using the Maint. 1.76 diskette - finding a store with some floppy disks was a struggle). My original machine was a 6457-6MG and as chance would have it, there is a T61p with an Nvidia FX570M chip set with otherwise identical specs.: 6457-6XG. I used this plus my original serial number. Of course I can't send the unit in for service (without replacing the original system planar), but at least it keeps 'Software Update' happy.

I bought the 'Misc. parts 15.4' kit because I really didn't know what the deal was with the Firewire socket. The motherboard supplier obviously didn't know either because he claimed it was not supported, but it appears that all 15.4" models have the logic on the system planar, it just depends if you have the socket or blanking plate fitted. In either case, the kit comes with both socket assembly (which I didn't need) as well as the blanking plate (which it turns out, I didn't need either). There's a lot of other goodies in the kit too (like a power socket assembly) - and for $8 or so, a must have.

I bought the fan assembly as insurance for when the original unit goes defective (as my T60p fan did last summer - it gets mighty hot in Corfu).

The keyboard was not really needed, but I prefer the US layout for software work and the T61 was UK spec.

Not everything was plane sailing however, when the machine was reassembled it was most erratic. Crashing almost all of the time. I had two SO-DIMM memory modules in the original T61 (1x1GB + 1x2GB). Clutching at straws, I removed the 1GB SO-DIMM and the system is now as solid as a rock (even with 3D games and benchmarks). This motherboard is supposed NOT to have the dreaded FX570M+2 memory module problem, so maybe it is the memory module - who knows? I will purchase a new 2GB module and try it out, although to be honest, 2GB total is fine for me.

So, here I type in front of my abs. fab. T61p - and luvin-it!

Peter

[eecon]

I was feeling the same way about my T61 purchased in Aug 2007 and really wanted to upgrade to a T61p with the same 1680x1050 15.4" WS resolution.

I see from your latest post it's too late now, but I would not have recommended wasting your precious time and effort on a retrofit.

Heck, I found a new T61p T9300 on eBay in January for $800 from a pawn shop near Minneapolis, MN ..... After a check of it's S/N with Lenovo and a phone call to the police department in MN, I was ready to go! I just spent spent another $194 to upgrade the standard 1 year depot warranty to a 4 year depot warranty out to Aug 2012. There was zero cycles on the battery and the build date was August 2008. It was flawless and half the price of a similar customized unit back in July 2008 from Lenovo Direct.

I also kept my T61 because the unit is identical (except for the video card) and I can swap the HDD between the two units with no problems. I keep my weekly cloned HDD in my T61 spare unit (which I also use for occassion travel). The new T61p stays docked at home.

There is a tremendous difference in gaming 3DMark06 performance benchmarks due to the video card difference:

T61 = 1669
T61p = 4460

There is a world-wide recession/depression going on courtesy of the New York and London banking houses .... There are lots of good deals out there. If you were lucky enough not to have taken on excessive debt over the last few years and did not listen to the advice from the "expert" talking heads of various financial houses and media networks, then you should not be ashamed to take advantage of the many distressed items now on sale around the world.

[peterh]

No such deals can be found on eBay here in the UK... yet!

I habitually check for 'T61p' every lunchtime, hardly a whisper - and when there is something, it is terribly over-priced.

Once having made the mistake of buying a T61, the route I have taken is the cheapest way I could find of getting what I really wanted.

Anyhow, nothing can diminish my absolute satisfaction of owning an immaculate T61p !

Regards,
Peter

PS. Zero debt, so maybe I'll get lucky on a W700 someday!

[eecon]

No such deals can be found on eBay here in the UK... yet!

"Yet" is the key word .... your patience in the UK (and Europe in general) will be soon be rewarded regarding the W700 as the U.S. trough is in for now (March 9th) while the EU is running about 6 months lagging

[peterh]

Just as a follow-up, slightly over two weeks later...

The memory problems got worse, even a single module would give terrible problems - but only from cold. After a few minutes, the machine would boot fine and work all day without issue.

This is somewhat counter-intuitive; one would expect faulty silicon to work better cold and then go on to be troublesome as it warmed up.

Anyhow, to cut a long story (of worry) short, I jumped in the car and went and bought two PC2-6400 sticks from PC World, yanked-out the Intel Turbo memory thingy (XP can't use it anyhow) and the machine has worked flawlessly ever since.

I chose the PC2-6400, not because I believed it would work any faster (memory access remains at 667MHz), but it certainly would improve the data setup time (I was grabbing at straws by that point).

Since everything worked like a charm after that, I never put the Intel Turbo module back in - which may well have been the culprit.

Yours,
Peter

[sktn77a]

Hmmmmmmm................. that is strange (the memory spec for the T61 and the T61p are the same so your old modules should work fine). The 2 DIMM slot issue with the older T61p motherboards was stated to be a tolerance issue with current draw. I guess you could have got a board with really lousy tolerances that causes the problem with evn 1 DIMM. Why the faster memory would change that, though, I don't know (?)

Oh, well, fingers crossed that the problem is fixed. Have you run any 3D tests yet?

[eecon]

I wonder why Murphy's Law always seems more prevalent whenever a laptop's internal guts are retrofitted