Added a X61s to "the fleet"

So our quarterly university surplus auction has come and gone, and I came home with another ThinkPad! While not as spectacular as the previous $30 T61 (I spent $150 on the X61s), it is quite the machine and still under warranty. The unit works great, but needs a hard drive and new battery. Warranty is good until Nov. 2011.

This is going to replace my netbook, since this is under warranty. Any thoughts to good upgrades to this machine?

 

The SXGA+ 1400x1050 screen upgrade may be possible on this model.

 

I'm still using an x61s, it's still a great machine. Runs great win an intel SSD and win7. I find the screen a little small sometimes. $200 for a new battery hurt a bit. My next computer won't be till Windows8 comes out.

 

I've read about people doing this for the X60, but with modifications to the cable due to putting an X61 tablet display in an X60. I've found the 1440x1050 displays online, and I've been wondering if it would be possible to fit it in a X61s with minimal modding, since the cables should be the same.

 

only if the X60s/X61s comes without the ultralight display, otherwise an entire upper display assembly and cable are needed to fit the modified SXGA+ panel.

having built over a dozen of these systems myself, SXGA+ mods on X6x notebooks are nowhere near "minimal" modding.   just saying.

 

and you would need the special display cabling from somewhere, which is not cheap either.

So if you want to keep the cost low, just a new hdd and battery (try the marketplace on forum.thinkpads.com for that or outlet.lenovo.com).

 

I've got an old 80GB drive in there, updated the BIOS with middleton's SATA 3gbps one floating around here. I'll head to eBay for a cheap OEM battery (paid $40 for my T61 OEM battery on eBay, no problems with it).

I might try to sell this one for at least $250-300 and put that towards a X120e, but I'll see how this works out for me. Mine's got a Verizon WAN card (and the extendable antenna on the display), so that's a huge plus. I believe this card also does GPS, from what I've read.

Regarding the special cable, there's an eBay seller from the UK that sells the cable for around $25-30, and it seems to be the proper one needed for a SXGA+ transplant:
ThinkPad X61 X61s X60 X60s SXGA+ IPS Flexview LCD cable - eBay (item 130524496985 end time Jun-23-11 01:01:52 PDT)

 

Hey hey next time a good deal pops up, you know who to contact.

 

I believe that this unit comes with a regular display, not the ultralight. It would have mentioned that in the parts list on Lenovo's website.

So, as far as I understand, I need the special converter cable (assuming the eBay auction in my last post works) and the right kind of SXGA+ panel (an IPS one, can't remember the specific model number).

 

You'll have to let erik explain this one as I've never done the SXGA+ mod, but I believe you need a BIOS hack as the X61s BIOS won't see the SXGA+ resolution and a jumper harness. Both are hard to find with the harness being particularly expensive and requires a fairly high level of skill to complete. I'd love to have one. I should have bought eriks when he had it for sale.

 

I seem to remember that you won't need a BIOS hack if you're using Linux, as it will probe and pick up the resolution on its own. The boot process may (will?) still use the wrong resolution though.

 

"the right kind of SXGA+ panel" is one that you've painstakingly disassembled the frame from the chassis, carefully removed the writing surface, meticulously cut the stainless steel frame tabs and plastic chassis tabs without cracking, breaking, or scratching anything in the process, cut the tabs from the controller board without cracking the PCB, and reassembled everything without introducing dust in between any of the layers.   patience, a clean room, quality tools, the skill to use them, and knowledge of LCD panel innards would be good to have here.   if you get any dust inside, you might as well buy a new panel... no joke.

i've seen the cable from ebay and wish you luck with it.   i recently used one on a build and it took me a good half hour to solve a crosstalk issue it introduced due to being unshielded 28ga wire in a mass of individual strands.   the soldering quality was amateur at best and the connectors used were foreign-made copies.   i did my best to make it as reliable as possible for the owner.

the BIOS is easy to find nowadays.   the original BIOS i used back in 2008 was from an X61T -- until i found someone online who had the same idea i did and combined the SXGA+ microcode into the standard X61 BIOS.   middleton is currently offering a SATA 3Gb/s BIOS with the SXGA+ microcode embedded.   the link is in the "SATA II" thread on this board.

so, yeah, all you need is the right SXGA+ panel -- and a grocery list of time, patience, skill, parts, and a bit of luck if you've never worked with delicate electronics before.

this isn't impossible as long as you understand that this isn't a plug-and-play affair.

good luck and keep us posted.

 

I've worked with electronics and such (EE grad student here), but this seems like a huge amount of effort/money for something that (at least for me) wouldn't have much of a benefit.

I will humbly defer to your expertise, and stick with the XGA screen!