IBM ThinkPad T61p Craigslist deal. Good/bad?

So i managed to haggle this down to 350$, possibly even more. It's very comparable to my T500 except it's less efficient, but I want that 1920x1200 screen. Warranty is up to the end of this month, so I may be able to extend it. Should I go for it? What should I check for when I meet up to check it out?

Here are the specs:

Screen: 15.4-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) TFT Display,175 NIT, 500:1 Contrast
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (4MB L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
Hard Drive: 80 GB hard drive (Seagate 7200.1 7200RPM)
Memory: 2GB x 1 RAM (PC5300, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM) 4GB max memory
Optical Drive: DVD+-R Double layer / DVD+-RW Drive
External Ports and Slots: Three USB 2.0, Firewire 400, one ExpressCard slot, one SmartCard Reader, one VGA, one 4-in-1 card reader, headphone / line-out, microphone-in, modem, 1Gb Ethernet
Wireless: WiFi (Intel 4965AGN 802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.0 w/ EDR
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB)
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
9-cell Li-Ion battery (10.8V, 7.8AH)
Dimensions: (WxDxH): 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.2?1.4"; 358.4mm x 255mm x 29.8?34.5mm
Weight: 6.77 pounds (w/ 9 cell battery, 5.67lbs w/o)

 

350 dollars is pretty cheap for a T61p, if you can extend the warranty on it, then by all means do it, as you will be covered under warranty for any defects that may possibly show up done the line (namely the nvidia GPU).

 

I'd say for $350 that's a steal! I'm wondering if there's any damage and that's why they're not asking more. Check it out thoroughly before forking over the cash.

 

He was asking for 450$, i managed to get to 350$.

What things should I check for? I was thinking of checking basically that the parts are what they are said to be via device manager, asking them if I can install gpu-z/cpu-z and... ? What else?

 

If it has the new-ish version of the Thinkvantage Toolbox on it, I'd run the stress tests.

 

just download Prime95 and Tpfancontrol, run the prime95 and check the peak temperature of the laptop's CPU and GPU after say 10 minutes, also make sure it doesn't shutdown as a result of overheating.

-> take off the keyboard and palmrest check for water or corrosion marks on the motherboard.

-> make sure every usb works in usb 2.0 mode.

-> check the LCD brightness and whether there is dead pixels or light spots.

-> any major cracks and hinge tension should be checked too.

-> make sure all the screws are there in place and not missing.

-> check whether the Optical drive works

Lastly check the power input port on the back of laptop is not loose and doesn't drop off power supply when you move the power connector around.

 

Also check that the battery is in good condition , the keyboard/trackpoint work properly

 

I have a replacement keyboard/trackpoint and touchpad from my Lenovo T500

 

The two first bolded, how should I do that?

 

1. Palmrest has 4 screws, and the keyboard has one screw. It is the same as your T500, so just practice on your T500.

Lenovo Support & downloads - Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T61, T61p 15.4inch widescreen (type 6457, 6458, 6459, 6460, 6461, 6462, 6463, 6464, 6465, 6466, 6467, 6468, 6470, and 6471)

2. Flash drive will do the trick, if it doesn't work then a message would pop up saying that your usb can perform faster.

3. You can check the hinge tension by opening and closing the LCD, you have your T500 so you would have a reference point regarding what sort of hinge tension is acceptable to you.

 

I meant for the keyboard/palmrest, what if he doesn't consent to that and how do I check/how do water/corrosion marks look like? Completely obvious?

 

usually there is discoloration marks and corrosion related oxides for severe corrosion. Look at the water drainage system for any inconsistent oxidation on the magnesium rollcage frame.



have a look at this blog.

when water flow into your laptop | laptop parts blog

This is obviously not the most accurate way of accessing water damage (but this is the only thing you can do, and it is better than nothing), as some water damages can occur through the bottom of the laptop, which you can't access unless you take the laptop completely apart.

 

Ty for the help

 

"I have a replacement keyboard/trackpoint and touchpad from my Lenovo T500 "

Wont work (i don't think) for the T61p.

Renee

 

Hmm... Dang. They are identical though..

 

I should sell mine, too (w/o water damage!!).

 

What are you implying? Not a good deal/ good deal? If you would sell yours, how much would you sell it for?

 

i don't think you can fault a good working T61p with warranty remaining for that price, as long as there is no major faults or damages.

 

He called me just now and said that he would go to 300$ if we do it now but he doesn't have the time to let me go through the laptop. He said I maybe have about an hour if I drive to his house, but I don't want to do that... ugh..

 

Just get it. For $300 you can't go wrong. If there's anything broken it have it fixed under warranty.

The only thing I'd be slightly concerned about once warranty is up is the relatively higher failure rate of Nvidia gpu's in T61's.

 

Hmmm, sounds like he's in a hurry to dump a pile of junk. I'd be pretty skeptical. Especially since he's trying to rush things and dropping the price so low and so fast.

 

I'm here at starbucks. Been here for a while, hje's on the phone. Laptop is a little gross... missing (but replaceable) trackpoint. I'll clean it up...

Running prime 95 and checking temps. Idle cpu was hovering high 40s, gpu at mid-high 50s... Battery wear seems decent.

 

Well, what happened? Did you buy it? Any major flaws? We're all waiting to hear if you got a great deal or not. (I cruise Craigslist here in Seattle all the time... a zillion laptops on there.) I've bought perfectly good, high-end laptops from people on Craigslist for peanuts because they had no idea what they were selling.

Some awesome deals can be had if you look hard and often. But you have to be quick -- the tech-aware sharks (like me) are constantly circling the pond, looking for victims. I once made $200 in one day buying/selling an Alienware. Also, I sold an old Compaq Armada (worth less than $100) for $350 to an "aspiring writer" who just wanted something to write on at the coffeeshop. WooT !

 

maybe you should twit about the progress.

300 dollars... is not bad, but it does sound a little dodgy. Did the person actually own the laptop or is it stolen?

Make sure there is no bios password or hdd password.

 

Sorry for the late update, I also just got GPU/CPU to finish building my desktop today.

I got the laptop. It was a little dirty and I wiped it off. There's a noticeable wear on part of the laptop lid as shown here:

but it's looking to be pretty decent. It seems the T500 is brighter than the T61p, which is unfortunate. The Asus G73 Glossy LED backlit i had was so bright! I just can't compare anything to it.

I opened it up after I came home. I didn't notice any water damage.

I then swapped the HDDs and noticed that it came with 80GB 5400RPM Hitachi drive branded with an apple logo. This guy DID talk about really liking apple and that he swapped his ram with the T61p, but not the HDD. Not a big deal for me losing the spinning speed though.

Also, he mentioned it was 1GBx2 sticks of ram, but it's just 1 stick of 2GB, so that's decent if I wanted to go 4GB.

AFAIK, its working fine EXCEPT for the trackpoint middle button to scroll. I'm not sure if it's drivers... T500 works with W7 drivers, but this T61p is not working. I'm still waiting for System Update from ThinkVantage to finish up. EDIT: It works with drivers

No BIOS/HDD password either...

 

Call Lenovo and tell them the scroll button isn't working and you'll get a new keyboard by Friday. Make sure to ask for the NMB unit 42T3143.

I'd go over the unit very carefully and see if there's anything else that needs to be repaired, while you're still under warranty.

 

What can I take a look at that Lenovo can repair?

I'm wondering if I should extend the warranty... although that's pretty extensive itself...

 

The external casing looks okay for such an old machine. Given that it uses an IBM sticker this machine was produced before 2008.

I have seen machines in far worse state than this.

 

Wrong pic. This is on the edge of the screen:

 

is there anything else broken.

That scratch mark is pretty deep, it penetrated the top casing. Is there any other major damage to it?

 

It's not actually a deep scratch. Picture makes it really seem like so though lol. It's just some of the matte coming off, not a hole.

Anyway... Does the T500 have a higher brightness than the T61p? Seems like it pretty clearly right now...

 

Given that your T61p is 3 years old now, the CCFL backlight on the T61p is probably reaching the last stage of its life if it is used constantly. Which is why you should get the warranty extended, as a new LCD WUXGA would cost around 200 dollars or so, not including labour cost.

 

Hmm >.>

What do you think if I sent it in for warranty repair saying something like it intermittently blacks out or brightness dips... but they can't reproduce the problem? Would they replace it? >.> 1yr warranty costs a lot, although their service is excellent, I have never been the type to pay extra for warranty.

Also, what happens if I don't have the original components... I'm sure that the HDD and ram are not the original ones that came from Lenovo. What if those went faulty, is that covered or no?

 

they will just send it back and not replacing the lcd. The hdd and ram is not covered by warranty, since they are aftermarket.

Ram is actually quite reliable, so they are the least likely component to need replacing.

I wouldn't bother with keeping your current hdd, since a 500 gigs only cost around 60 to 70 dollars.

 

Would they not replace a display if it's dimmed significantly? I'd give it a shot, it's legitimate imo.

This is the first T61 I've ever with the IBM logo still on it.

 

pre-2008 model R61, T61, X61 had this logo on it.

Also, there is no clear cut definition of dimmed significantly, it would be considered as normal wear and tear of the part under usage. Unless you can't see the image or it is so dim that you no longer is able to see anything would they even consider to change the LCD.

 

So, not the type to pay for an extended warranty, but the type to defraud a company to get a repair done under an unextended warranty?

 

I think I might resell it. The only thing it has going over my T500 is the resolution, but I find the resolution a little too small already anyway (even though I can see it fine). Still not sure though. I love screen estate.

As far as I can tell, the screen on my T500 is brighter and the sound is louder too.

I looked into the BIOS of the T61p, it is 3 years old and hasn't been updated.

When I went in there, saw that the LCD brightness was set on High instead of normal and that the brightness would not changed plugged in/on battery, but it did, so I'm not sure what it did. I set it back to normal...

 

I updated the BIOS to see if it changed the speed of bootup, but I have no luck. Is there any reason the T61p takes like 15 seconds to get out of BIOS while my T500 only takes a couple of seconds?

 

I'd keep it. The last true IBM ThinkPad.

 

No, that's a Lenovo. the T40 I think was the first of the not-made-by-IBM computers...or T-fourty-something was, I think... (but I think the first Lenovo T was the T60, and the first Lenovo the X41 tablet).

 

It's hard to speculate on this subject. I worked for IBM when Lenovo bought their ThinkPad line. They didn't just get the trade name and logo, there was a fully fledged technology going as far as 10 years ahead. Only a few things were completely redone by Lenovo. IIRC, T61p was the last or one of the last TP's pre-designed by IBM, but I might be wrong, of course.

 

Ah, when you said true IBM Thinkpad I thought you meant made by IBM, which IIRC stopped just a few years before the sale.

 

You're right, sorry for creating the confusion. I was too overwhelmed by the IBM logo

The last ThinkPads build by IBM were the T4x series (T43p?). T6x were transitional,...but still...

 

The T61 I had 3 yrs or so ago, had the IBM logo.

 

Absolutely buy the warranty. It has the cursed GPU and apparently a few other issues Lenovo would take care of. I thought the T60's were the alst ones with the classic IBM Thinkpad logo. I think you got your money's worth even having to re-up the warranty.

Also the T500 keyboard will work with the T61. Same thing as using a T60/61 keyboard with the T500. The difference between them is the Swiss cheese backplate. Actually, you could have gotten a T500 with a T61 keyboard depending on when Lenovo put it together.

 

I think that the T43 was the first to say "Made for IBM" on it instead of "Made by IBM" because it was after they outsourced production. There might have been one or two models before it that were outsourced, but I'm pretty sure anything pre-T40 was made by IBM.

 

Post this a year ago and i would have most deffinitely suggest that notebook, but it was rather outdated even a year ago, although in my mind if it hadn't used a deffective batch of GPU's, it would be the peak of ThinkPad perfection, minus all the new display options on newer notebooks (namely HDMI, Displayport), it beats the W500 in raw GPU power and pretty much everything else...

 

Even though T43 was built in China, I still consider it as being "made by IBM". Almost everything is outsourced.
Lenovo's are not made by Lenovo
The point was - that after T43, Lenovo had the control over the ThinkPad line and probably up to the T60/61 they were using the technology acquired from IBM with very little intervention. It could be that the T6x were already redesigned completely by Lenovo, but there still was a delay before their logo replaced the IBM's. I think that was their marketing strategy, to let the glorious "IBM ThinkPad"
do the trick to make the perfect transition.

 

It was interesting to me that they ditched the IBM name WAY before the right to use it that they paid for expired. I guess they wanted people to get used to the idea of it being a lenovo quickly. My T60 says lenovo inside the screen, but IBM on the palmrest and lid.

I'd normally agree with you about the T43 being still made by IBM, but 1) IBM was apparently not outsourcing very recently, and 2)IBM themselves were the ones to change the language on the bottom of their computers from Made by to Made for.