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Greetings!
I'm new to the forums, though I've been lurking since about 2008. I found this site to be quite helpful and decided to finally post.
I currently have a T61 14.1" WXGA and I would like to know if I can upgrade the LCD panel to the WXGA+. I've hunted around and found some screens at places like www.lcds4less.com and www.laptopscreen.com. They go for about $100.
I was told that there should be no issues with the LCD being upgraded other than the cable, but the HMM shows that the same cable is used for the WXGA and WXGA+ T61 laptops.
Either way, is this possible? And if so, what should I look out for? Thanks in advanced!
UPDATE: This works, you can see my process in my blog linked in my sig.
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So I went ahead and purchased the LCD. I'll be sure to post on how it goes. I also purchased a new Intel SSD x25-v 40gig. I'll let yall know how that goes to. I will purchase a T7700 intel cpu in the next week. Won't be buying a new laptop for awhile
keep it old school!
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Congrats on the new screen, do you have pictures by any chance? Using a T61 with WXGA+, I can say that the 1440x900 resolution is better to use compared to the standard 1280x800. Though my only gripe is that my screen is pretty dull compared to LED screens but you can't have everything!
Processor wise I believe the highest you can put in is a Socket P Core 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz, 6MB Cache, FSB 800. Though I heard the T9300 provides the best performance to price so look out for that (auction sites like eBay is a good place). In my opinion it's not really worth sticking with the Merom (T7xxx) chipsets as they use the old 65nm fabrication so it won't be as efficient in dealing with heat compared to the Penryn processors such as the T8xxx and T9xxx series. My T61 with the T7100 procesor runs 10 degrees hotter in idle than my sister's R61e with the T8100 processor. And that's with brand new aftermarket paste as well.
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I'm curious if anyone's ever tried sticking an X7900 or x9000 in a T61.
It should work fine with the chipset, the question is if the BIOS will recognize the CPU (and if the microcode will work with it). I'm fairly sure that you won't be able to OC it, but it'd be interesting if it'd work at all.
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Nice blog on the screen swap. I have the same plenar as you era86 on my T61. Decided to temporary borrow my sister's T8100 from her R61e to check out the results and, unfortunately the temp sensor error do come up. Though as lead_org mentioned simply pressing ESC from the error and it works fine there after. Temperature readings seem fine, CPU-Z recognises the T8100 with no problem.
Though I probably get annoyed with the sensor error over time so I probably have to scrap my plans for a Penryn upgrade and stick with my T7100. May have to buy a newer Thinkpad later at some point to reap the benefits of full SSD speed and cooler processors even though I do like my T61.
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Thanks for the great info Era86. I bought a new WXGA+ panel yesterday from screencountry.com and it's due any day now.
One thing I wanted to point out to anyone who orders from them (and they're in the US); screencountry.com is located in Canada, and they ship it VIA UPS. Apparently, the Canadian branch of UPS writes things a little differently from the US branch.
We here in the US typically write out a calendar date in month/day/year format. So, for example, March 8 2010 would be written out 03/08/2010. Apparently the Canadian leg of UPS uses day/month/year (like most of the rest of the world). So, March 8 2010 would be 08/03/2010.
What's the problem? Oh not much.. if you aren't paying attention when you go track your package on UPS.CA (like I did yesterday), you'll think the expected delivery date of March 11 2010 turned into November 3 2010.
Took me about 10 seconds to realize what was going on. I was like WHY THE HECK IS IT GOING TO TAKE 7 MONTHS TO GET HERE??!?!? I mean, I know customs can be slow, but it's only a freaking LCD panel!
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Mine's already got dual SSD's in it.
Try to keep up.
Just kidding.. But seriously, mine does have dual SSD's in it.
I have an OCZ 60GB Core2 SSD in the main drive bay and a Kingston SSDNOw 64GB SSD in the ultrabay. I already maxed out the memory, and the extra real estate from the 1440x900 screen will be helpful in REAPER ( www.reaper.fm). I'll probably skip the CPU upgrade since this really isn't my main system (my Gateway 7805u is my main laptop, and besides RAM, that thing's maxed). Mine has a 7300 (2.0Ghz) CPU in it already and it's plenty fast enough for what I need it for.
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Darn... Got the panel in today and tried to install it. No go. It physically fits and the cable plugs in, but it refuses to display correctly on my system.
I'm not 100% sure if it's a compatibility problem or a bad screen. I'm going to contact screencountry to see if I can get a replacement.
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btw everyone, here's the maintenance manual for the T61.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67760
It does into how to take part the system. -
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Sorry I haven't been around. Been doing some testing....
First let me say that I have never been one to believe everything I read or see on the 'net. I've seen way too many fan boys create hoaxes just to gain attention to themselves, or to create lulz towards others. I've also had my share of things that "should just work" (i.e. AMD Athlon64 s939 that was tempermental with ram whenever you updated the BIOS on the system) that never do.
I think it was pretty obvious that I didn't believe you BNHabs. Why? Simple: Intel and Lenovo specifically say that no more than 4GB of RAM will work in the T61/PM965 chipset. Being that I fix and test this stuff for a living, I tend to believe it when Intel says something.
Still... I figured that if you were that adamant and stubborn, then there may be an air of truth to it. So I decided to try and put a nail in the coffin of the topic of 8GB of RAM in a T61:
I bought 2x4GB modules and tested it myself.
Before I did it though, I did some homework first.
I went through the spec sheets for the PM965. The highest that's officially supported by Intel is 1GB tech modules. *HOWEVER* one thing I noticed is that the controller had been tested with up to 256Mb components. It's also been tested with up to 16 (non-ECC) components on a module.
So I started combing through newegg to see if I could find any SODIMMS that had 256Mbx8bit x 16 modules on them. Taking an edumacated guess, I figured that if this was going to work at all, I'd have the best chance with SODIMMs matching that description. By luck I found the following kit from GSKill:
F2-6400CL6D-8GBSQ ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231293)
The modules use PCB's from Brain-Power Taiwan, and use Hynix H5PS2G83AFR DDR2 (which are 256MBx8bit) modules. I took a chance that the module shown in the photo in Newegg's listing would be what would be shipped to me, and that's exactly what I got.
I got the modules in this morning, popped them into my T61 and drumroll please....
they worked!
I'm still running a stability test on them, but from just using it all day it's been stable. I'm going to run a 24hr burn-in test with Memtest86 before I call it a complete success though. One thing I've noticed already is that the machine will only run them at DDR2-667 speeds. Not a big deal really, but it's something to keep in mind.
Now everyone's probably thinking, BNHabs was right, I was wrong, and I'm a n00b. Umm... not exactly... and here's why folks (and why I was disagreeing about "just sticking the memory into the laptop and it'll work" bit).
There's two different types of 4GB SODIMMs out there. If by some chance you were able to get the following GSkill DDR2-667 kit for less than the DDR2-800 kit:
F2-5300CL5D-8GBSQ ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231210)
Logically thinking, you'd think that it'd be a better match than the DDR2-800 kit. You'd more than likely be wrong. Here's why.
Those modules use Samsung K4T4G274QA chips. They're based on 4GB tech. I tried looking up the specs on those chips, but they're so new that not even Samsung lists them yet. I was able to find a part number decoder that does break down what the part number means:
K= Memory
4= DRAM
T=DDR2 SDRAM
4G = density (4GB tech)
27 = bit organization: x8 Stack (JEDEC standard)
4 = # of internal banks: 8Bank
Q = Interface: SSTL 1.8V
A = Generation: A-die
Again, taking an educated guess, the modules are most likely 512MBx8bit (so you'd need 8 of them on a double-sided non-ECC SODIMM to get you a 64-bit data path). From looking at the work Intel's done, they never tested any 512MB components (not SODIMM, the actual components on the SODIMM), and *most likely* you stand a higher chance of either getting errors or the machine just not posting at all with those modules. If you read the reviews on Newegg.com for both sets, the DDR2-667 modules seem to have a higher miss ratio than the DDR2-800 modules with various machines that are supposed to support those modules. So in other words, you have a 50/50% shot of it working, vs a 90% shot of it working with a 256MBx8bitx16 module.
I've emailed GSkill to see if they'll loan me out a DDR2-667 kit on consignment so I can actually test this for myself.
Given my experience in the past though I'll say that your BIOS and the particular rev of your board will also play a factor in whether or not a given brand/capacity of module will work (Anyone else had a Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939?). I don't have the planar revision off-hand, but the stepping on my north bridge is C0, and I'm running bios 2.26.
...so yes BNHabs you were correct to a point. Yes, *although Intel and Lenovo say otherwise* and there's literally zero documentation anywhere about it (that I could find at least), assuming that you use the right modules and at least the 2.26 BIOS, it appears that the T61 can take 8GB of ram.
...you're welcome everyone.
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@DigiDoc Don't worry! It was just a little debate we had! I am glad it worked for you
(You seem very educated on this.. I am not.. I just heard from a lot of people that it worked) -
The memory has passed all tests.
I'm calling it a success.
So... the next logical question is, what do you do with all that memory.
As we all know, increasing a system's memory to 8GB isn't going to necessarily make it any faster. All it does is give your programs more breathing room so they don't have to page out to the hard drive if your system is running low on memory. If a program won't directly take advantage of the extra RAM, it's not going to see much, if any, speed increase...
... but there is something you can do get a little bit of a speed boost from most programs indirectly.
Back in Oct '08, Dataram corporation bought out Cenatek Corporation. Cenatek had written and released a RAMDISK program that was pretty good, but was charging around $50 for for one license (and it was a PITA to reinstall, since it used a time-based registration key).
When Dataram Corp bought them out though, they re-released the application as a freeware app! You can download it from here:
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk/download-ramdisk
The only limitation on it is that the unregistered version will only create a ramdisk up to 4GB in size. To go beyond 4GB, you have to register the program... which will cost you nothing (it's free to register).
Upgrade T61 Screen to WXGA+
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by era86, Mar 1, 2010.
