Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Don't lose those screws...
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Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

I finished this job up a couple of weeks ago and am finally getting around to posting some pics. My previous laptop was a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. After using it for a couple of years it stopped powering on earlier last year. According to the troubleshooting procedure in the service manual, the main board was at fault. At the time, the replacement motherboard was well over $200 and for not too much more money, I bought a newer W510. I also had the option of buying another semi-broken T61p and building one functional machine, but that was around the same price. Fast forward almost a year and the price of the board is now just over $100. So I figured now is a good time to fix this still a capable machine.

I have owned several ThinkPads and their interior construction is similar, so this walkthough may have uses for other machines too. I recommend grabbing the service manual from the support website as reference too. http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/ Their support sight is fantastic, not just for manuals, but also up to date drivers. They have current Windows 8.1 drivers for this machine, even though it is from 2007. One of the benefits of buying a business-class machine off a corporate lease.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz
4GB DDR2 667MHz
Nvidia Quadro FX570M
Intel Centrino AGN WiFi
Other fancy bits including Bluetooth, DVD burner, gigabit Ethernet, PCMCIA slots, 4-in-1 card reader, and a 56K modem (!)

Now for the repair. The (slightly blurry) laptop:
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The motherboard (or mainboard):
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Start by removing the battery. This machine has the optional 9-cell battery.
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Then the hard drive. One screw holds the door on.
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With the door out, the hard drive can then be slid out.
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Remove the DVD drive. There is a small switch on the side which makes the release lever pop out. Pull on that to release the drive.
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Remove all the palm rest screws. There are 4 on the underside of the laptop in a line on the front third of the machine, they are marked with the keyboard symbol. There is another one in the center of the underside of the laptop. You can remove that one now or later.
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The palm rest then tilts away from the keyboard and pulls free. Be careful of the ribbon cable.
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The ribbon cable attaches with a push on connector next to the memory slots.
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Memory modules. With performance.
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Last edited by Adam on Sun Jan 05, 2014 1:46 am, edited 5 times in total.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Lenovo T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

Nothing special about removing these. The metal tabs on the side are pressed outward and the module will pop up.
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Remove the other keyboard screw if you haven't already. The keyboard then slides forward and up and out. Again, be careful of the ribbon cable underneath.
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Push on connector for the keyboard ribbon.
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You can now remove the add-in cards from underneath the keyboard. The WiFi card is a mini-PCIe card. Two screws and three antenna connections and it can be tilted up and out.
DSCN5551.JPG
Next is the Bluetooth/modem card. Two screws and it can pull up. The bottom of the card has a push on connector. There is also an antenna cable that attaches to the underneath front side of the card.
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CMOS battery. They tape in mine stuck really well, but lost all its adhesive when removed. I ended up replacing the tape on reassembly. The same tape is also used to hold in various antenna and speaker cables that run through the chassis.
DSCN5553.JPG
Next is the upper keyboard bezel. The first two screws are on the corners of the U-shaped bezel, previously covered by the palm rest. There are also two screws near the hinges on the underside. Here is one.
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Here is the other.
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The last four are next to the top of the main display connector (center) and just to the left in the small piece of aluminum. Both are attached to the upper keyboard bezel.
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With all the screws out, tilt the sides up then pull forward to remove the bezel.
DSCN5557.JPG
Last edited by Adam on Sun Jan 05, 2014 1:51 am, edited 3 times in total.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

Now for the speakers. Left side (with the two screws already removed).
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Right side (with the two screws still in).
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Audio wires run down the sides of the chassis to this connector next to the memory slots. You will have to remove some tape to get the wires out.
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Now for the fan and heat pipe assembly. This unit covers the CPU, GPU, and chipset. Start with these two hold down brackets over the GPU/chipset side.
DSCN5561.JPG
Then move on to the other two screws over the CPU. You can see the power connector on the left. After this is removed, the entire assembly tilts up from the front then pulls out. In hind sight, it is easier to remove the screen first (next steps) before pulling the fan assembly out as you end up with a little more room to work in.
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Time to pull the screen off! Having the screen out of the way makes the rest of the removal much simpler. Start with the two main screws. Left side.
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Right side.
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Pop of the main display connector. Two screws hold the bracket on (shown earlier) then the connector is another push on, just really big.
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Last two screws. Left side.
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Right side.
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Last edited by Adam on Sun Jan 05, 2014 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

The screen can now pull out of the lower chassis.
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There are now three main components left. The main board, the outer chassis, and the inner bracket (plus some other daughter boards and cabling, but that isn't important to what we are doing here). The main board attaches to the bracket which then attaches to the outer chassis, so we need to first separate the outer chassis before we can get to the board directly. Start by removing the rest of the screws you can access from the bottom of the chassis. Of the four screws you can see with copper around them, the right two don't need to come of now, but you can remove them now if you want. This image also shows a good shot of the fifth keyboard screw in the center of the chassis.
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You can see the remainder of the lower screws in this wider shot.
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There is one more hidden screw. On the front face of the lower chassis, there is a small screw on the right side next to where the latch release would be.
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The inner bracket and main board can now pull out of the lower chassis.
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Lower chassis without the parts that were just pulled out. You can see the rear USB port's controller daughter board that is still attached. Leave it that way.
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Now take out the rest of the screws, remove the CPU cooler bracket, and pull the main board away from the bracket.
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Swap the CPU over to the new board. The retainer is a half-turn screw. Turn it to the unlock position and carefully pull the CPU straight up taking care not to bend any pins. Put it in the new board and secure it with the retainer screw. It only goes in one way, make sure you line it up correctly. The corner with the arrow is the one missing a pin. Now to clean off the silicon. Use some isopropol alcohol and a cotton swab or paper towel to wipe the old thermal compound off of the three main chips that are underneath the fan assembly. My chipset actually uses a thermal pad rather than the traditional thermal grease so I reused that but cleaned it off anyway.
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Installation is reverse of removal. Make sure you apply some new thermal compound when reinstalling the CPU cooler. You can see the axillary micro-SATA slot in this shot. If you use this and the drive tray that replaces the DVD drive, this laptop can have three internal hard drives!
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Functional!
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Well, kind of. After running this new board for a few hours, I started seeing graphics artifacts. I thought it was just the main display connector not being attached, but then the machine started blue-screening with video driver errors under Windows 7. Turns out this board was bad too. The eBay seller was kind enough to cross ship me a replacement so I got it in a couple of days after sending the failed one back. The second unit worked like a charm. After doing this job a couple of times, I can swap the board in about an hour. Another laptop saved from the scrap heap!
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by kevm14 »

I like the socketed GPU.

It's nice to have current driver support. Though I will say the 2006/2007 breakpoint was a critical one, if only because of the 32-bit Core Duo vs the 64-bit Core 2 Duo.

Also I would subtract points for using a service manual but I'll be honest and say I looked for one for mine and couldn't find anything free.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

kevm14 wrote:I like the socketed GPU.
It is soldered to the M/B and not user-removable. This laptop was available with either the Nvida card or a more basic Intel GMA card. I believe the chip on the other model is in a similar location, though. As I bought it used, the premium for the better GPU was much smaller.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by Adam »

kevm14 wrote:Also I would subtract points for using a service manual
I used to think that following instructions was a stupid waste of my time, but then I realized wasting time and breaking things during a repair was actually the stupid part.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T61p Motherboard Replacement

Post by kevm14 »

Like I said, I did look for one. I had a pile of screws and at one point seriously wasn't sure if I'd be able to get it back together.

The thing about directions is, you can make an argument for or against them. For example, if I use a GPS to get where I am going, I have a much better chance of getting there on time. But I will be much less likely to actually learn the route. The real reason I would want the service manual for my Vaio? So I could put the correct screws in each location. I may have swapped a couple long and short screws. And a black and chrome screw...doesn't impact functionality though.

If I was trying to make money by fixing computers, I'm sure I would definitely use the directions to maximize my productivity and chance of success at fixing an unfamiliar system the first time, so I could turn it over. And I probably would have used it if I found a service manual in my brief search.
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