Changing T61 motherboard question.

Hi guys.

Do you think it's possible to get Lenovo to 'upgrade' my T61 so I can get Nvidia gfx? ie: swapping the motherboard for one with the nvidia graphics?

It's not for performance, I like to use Linux on my T61, but the intel xorg drivers suck so horribly, and many distros and versionf of Ubuntu too, I've tried with Hardy, Inrepid, and now Jaunty betas with latest dev driver snapshots but, xorg will just keep crashing, not a hardware issue as my Thinkpad has never given me any grief in Windows.

I don't really want to wait another year until Intel/linux devs can get the Intel 965 x.org drivers to actually function correctly.

I'm sure it would cost a lot though, but do you think it's possible?

 

many people say that the thinkpads have soldered gpus on them, so im not sure if you could replace it. I think it has to be mxm and removable, so you should probably look in your manual to check for upgrade capability

 

I don't mean replace the GPU, I mean replace the entire motherboard, since afaik, you cannot change just the GPU.

 

You can pretty much order any part through Lenovo's Service Center, the big question is, is it worth it? I'm sure the mobo and GPU won't be cheap. I had my palm rest replaced due to some color defects, and it was covered under warranty. At the beginning, they were not sure if it can be covered by warrant since the palm rest is a wear and tear part, so I asked them how much it would cost me if I were to order it and they said the price would be over US$100.00, and this is just a palm rest with the touchpad, so imagine how much it would cost for the mobo and GPU.

 

Good point Stewie, yeah I'm going to try appeal with them, IBM seem to have a good repuation with this sort of thing, they do Lenovo's support in my town. Maybe I can get a rebate/trade in, but I'm not expecting much.

 

I think your best bet would be try to find a used/broken T61 on eBay, sometimes you can even find individual parts for the popular models. The problem with Lenovo's Service Center is that they will charge a very high premium price for any kind of parts, kinda like buying an original wheel from a car dealer instead from an aftermarket retailer.

 

I'm kind of scared on the idea of stripping my Thinkpad and replacing a motherboard, I've been building PCs forever, but notebooks.. OK the last ntoebook I stripped was a Thinkpad 390E and that was utter hell.

Plus, it would probably void my warranty, I've had my baby for just over a year now and still have 2 left.

 

There you go...

T61/p mobo w/ Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M - $300
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370121924336

T61/p mobo w/ Nvidia Quadro FX570M - $320
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370121910087

 

Oh great, tempt me with potential notebook abuse Thanks man

 

Unfortunately, yeah the warranty will be void. Anyway, try to ask Lenovo to see how much to get it directly from them and have them replace it, but expect to be more than $300 though.

 

By the way, another thing we forgot, the cooling duct.

I don't know if it's the same, so you may need other parts.

 

Mmm, yeah, had not thought of that, if Lenovo can't do it for me for a fair price and/or give me a rebate / let me sell them my current board then I probably won't bother.

And there's always the disk of having stripped the machien down, getting the board and finding out it is fubar. Too much hassle for such a young machine.

Thanks for your info, Stewie