Purchased a used t60 and I think I have problems.

[bass1175]

Just purchased this t60 today and noticing the battery wont charge or a very slow charge. Keeps saying 60% remaining for the past few hours. How serious is this problem? I dont have any IBM power management installed.
The charge indicator is green but when unpluged it it gives me that 60% remaining.


Also my screen looks faded not crisp as my t43, updated bios and drivers and still screen is not sharp.

I got this thinking I will be trouble free compared to the poor design on my t43 motherboard but I think im in more problems.

I tried to be loyal to this brand but if the above problems are serious I think this will be the last time I get an Ibm. Sucks. Please advise if possible on the above issues, thanks very much for your help.

[billp117]

Sounds like you have mulitple problems which might include a new battery and a new screen.

Can you return it and get your $$ back?

Good luck...

[bass1175]

Thanks for the quick reply bill, I dont mind getting a new battery but what worried me is that I read another thread and they mentioned a bad charging circuitry on the systemboard. Is this a common issue with this model?

[bass1175]

Just downloaded power management, my main concern here is to rule out a bad system board of any sort. Here are the batteries status


status discharging
remaining 38%
Full charge capacity 56.16
current 1.88a
voltage 10.86
wattage 20.04
temp 33
cycle count 28
first time used June 2006
manufacturer Sony
design capacity 56.16
design voltage 10.80


Im afraid the battery looks good, the only problem is that its old.
Laptop looks brand new.

What do you make out from the batt results.
Thanks again.

[ajkula66]

One really can't make much of the battery results per se...the only way to know for sure is to test the machine with a known good battery.

Personally, I'd be almost willing to bet that the battery is bad, with one or more cells blown.

[bass1175]

Thanks for the help, I ran a battery mainternance test and the results changed to poor and the full charge capacity dropped to 39.31 from the 56.16 orig read.

So lesson learned is to run a few tests on the battery and not to take the batt stats with high regards as you mentioned.


Sorry to drag this on but my screens fonts look great when I increase the resolution to 1400x1050 from the typical resolution of 1024x768. I also noticed the name of my driver and card are 1400. Does this mean my lcd functions best at this resolution. Its too small for me to keep at this res and very used to 1024x768 but like I said the fonts are not sharp. Can you tell me whats going on with this issue? Do I need to keep it at this high res?

Thanks for all the help.

[RealBlackStuff]

What's the 7-char. TYPE, like 2007-64U?
You probably have an SXGA+ LCD which is 1400x1050.
That one doesn't like to run at 1024x768 which is XGA.

[craigmontHunter]

You need to run the screen at it's native resolution in order for it to look it's best. The best way to solve the problem of text size is to increase the DPI, allowing you to keep the sharpness of the screen.

Good luck

[bass1175]

Model number 2007-63u.

I increased the dpi to 120 and the res to 1400 and things just didnt look right.

[Harryc]

That model has an SXGA+ LCD. You are stuck using 1400x1050 resolution. If 1024X768 is what you are used to and need, either return the machine or replace the LCD.

Product: ThinkPad T60 2007-63U [change]
Operating system: All [change]

Original description: T2500(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1400x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI Radeon X1400, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

[RealBlackStuff]

I have a T60 with excellent 14.1" XGA (1024x768) LCD.
Maybe we could do an LCD swap?
PM me if interested.

[bass1175]

Hey black I would have traded if I was back in pa as Im not used to this screen at all, right now im overseas and will be a hassle and costly to take apart and send.


One last thing, the wifi card on this t60 is an intel and my t43 is a pci (I believe), the t43 always picks up more signals then this intel card on this t60. Can I do a swap and put my t43 card in this t60?

[RealBlackStuff]

It depends on where you are...
If your LCD is in good nick (no pinkish/reddish color, no scratches, pressure marks, dead pixels, etc.) you could ship the bare T60 to me (no hard disk, optical disk, battery or AC adapter), I do the LCD swap and return your T60 to you within 2 days of receipt.
We'd each pay only shipping one way and I do the work to make up for the difference between SXGA+ and XGA.
E.g. USA - France: 5-6 pounds incl. packaging, ca. $45.-
If you're in the Military somewhere, probably cheaper...
Alternatively, if the lid is also in good shape as well, we could just swap the complete lid with LCD, cable and antennas.

And no, you can't swap wifi cards. The T4x has a MiniPCI slot, and the T60 has a MiniPCI-e slot. Totally different cards.

[bass1175]

Man I cant believe this screen, any benefits to having a screen like this that Im not seeing? Maybe I will get used to it after a while, but still I Cant believe anyone can work with such small fonts and I have perfect vision.

I mean whats the point of being able view more apps or documents at once if theyre all very small? Maybe this is ok on a screen 20" but not 14".


I found this statement from a poster while trying to search for answers on how to view it with no fuzz at 1024

poster writes

While you may struggle to read the screen at 1400 x 1050 with XP,the ability to change the screen dpi in Vista works very well. This effectively allows you tomake the screen appear to be at a resolutionsomewhere in between 1400 x 1050 and 1024 x 768 withall the icons, text etc.still remaining crystal sharp because the panel is actually running at 1400 x 1050. You can make the trade off between readability and screen real-estate that you are comfortable with.

If you try and run a panel in XP at a resolution other than at optimal then this usually results in a larger but alsoslightly out of focusimage, and the ability to change the dpi in XP never really worked properly. Vista changes all of that.
Maybe theres a fix for xp out there somewhere that I can search for.


As for the swapping im just gonna keep it as it is and deal with it. Would have def considered it if I was in pa.

[GrandMasterKhan]

You should keep it. That's why everyone is salivating for it. BTW I have a 1440x990 on a T61. Just zoom to 125% on IE and Office Apps. Desktop should not bother you as you want the expansive real estate at your "command center." It's the perfect resolution for a 14 inch. WXGA 1024 x 768 is NOT what you want. Looks like cartoon so big on a WS display. It's in YOUR best interests to keep it unless you have a strong aversion to it.

[redleaderone]

Hi bass1175,

The problem with using zoom in browsers and office apps is that it doesn't affect the base software navigation and options (only the document content) or other applications.

I was playing with this last night on my T60 - Agreed that the native resolution on the SXGA+ is a bit hard to read, and when increasing DPI to 120%, the fonts look funny.

I am currently running Vista - in Appearance Settings --> Effects, there is an check-box option for "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" - Vista offers Standard and ClearType. Enabling the option and choosing ClearType makes a great improvement of fonts in 120% DPI.

Not sure if there is a similar setting in XP or how well it might work.

Hope this might help.

[ziemeck]

See here for clearType on winXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306527
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle ... step1.aspx

I myself downgraded from 1600x1200 to 1024x768, but I purchased on purpose a laptop with malfunctioning LCD. As the matter of fact the resolution makes little difference if all that you do is writing text and reading text. In such case you must tweak font size for comfortable work (all toolbars and menus). Some programs have labels and panes of fixed size, thus if you increase DPI - the labels and option legends will not be visible, sometimes the interface will be partially inaccessible. Some toolbars will be too small even after fixing the font. Web browsing is of an issue too if your favorite browser has no zoom-in option (plain font enlargement leaves blocks unwidened - thus the columns of text are ridiculously narrow. Opera has the zoom -in option, there's a Firefox addon too, but not that good imho.

But Hi-res screens are very welcome if you're working with graphical or tech project applications like Photoshop or CAD.

[sktn77a]

I use 1024x768 on most of my SXGA+ machines, as I have the same problem reading the small font. With ClearType enabled, the screen looks fine to me. (My kids always put it on 1400x1050 when they use the machines, as their eyes are still good!)