Spooky Skellington that aint gonna happen mate. and thats why now im still using my T410, upgraded to 8gb ram and put ssd on it, and work like a charm.
I use two laptops when I'm on the go: my Dell Latitude D830 and a Gateway MX6960. Both run great for my needs and the performance (and durability of owning older laptops that are sturdier and longer-lasting) make me never want to upgrade, and I won't!
because of contracts and such, business laptops need to be upgradeable like that, to be able to fix them without having to replace the entire laptop, retail laptops are made to be bought, used for a year or so, and then be thrown into the trash.
Well, you would sacrifice portability and slimness, which is a must for some business workers. But yes, I do wish today's laptops were just as modular and upgradable. No longer do you need to buy a new laptop every 2-4 years. Now you can have one that will keep on ticking for years, even decades.
Hi, I'm a long-time Thinkpad fan, and would like to offer some tips, all free: 1. forum.thinkpads.com to learn from the experts 2. tpfancontrol.exe to reduce (or boost, as needed) fan activation 3. firemin.exe (for Windows) to reduce FireFox RAM use by 90% or more, no typo 4. Bongiovi DPS to boost sound volume and quality 5. Ultrabay batteries that kick in when the regular one is used up (or vice versa, I forget) Thati's it for now. Have fun. Classic Thinkpads are amazing.
You're a saint. Been using my T60 for a decade, no problemo, but everything you mentioned is just brilliant and will definitely enhance my experience. Thank you very much.
You are indeed a saint. Without any hardware upgrade yet, my beloved working mule Lenovo ThinkPad T60 is already soaring in the skies, thanks to your advice. Thanks a bunch, most appreciated.
If you do this kind of upgrade in the future, you should run benchmarks before and after [as much as you can] to show how much of a real improvement there is, other than faster boot times.
So I'm watching this six year old video because this is my second favorite computer. My favorite is an even older ThinkPad that uses DOS. I just want to say it's refreshing to hear someone speak so fast so clearly so intelligently, and controlling 3 to 4 to 5 subjects simultaneously, each perfectly controlled.
When I was in college, on my lunch break from work, I would always see this guy in the lounge where I would eat. Every time I saw him, I waited for the moment when he pulled out his laptop, a Thinkpad. From that point on, I called him "Thinkpad Guy" (my hero).
Yeah i use a 2.66 ghz Core 2 Duo on Sierra. Works fast! I am planning to throw 8 gigs of ram, 256gb SSD and a new battery in it. It is the late 2009 white MacBook
hidde1626 yeah, i had the white macbook with the nvidia chip. I had 6gb Ram and a ssd in it. My IMac has a SSD inside and 8GB Ram. It is worth the money. But for most i use the Macbook mid 2012 15 inch with 16gb ram and ssd.
Leon G the core 2 duos were a miracle when compared to pentium 4 and years later the Sandy Bridge I5's in the t420 laptops and then the ivy bridge i5 on the t430 was the last breath.
Those T60's can survive WW3. Was so exited when our company decided to retire all desktops for developers and give us all top spec Core 2 Duo Lenovo T500's with dual Intel/AMD graphics but they did not last long ... after 2 years most had been binned due to faulty graphics and was replaced by longer lasting Dell Lattitudes. I suspect the thermal design was not so good.
Yeah the Nvidia GPU chipset was notorius for flexing... The T61, T400 and T500, which all used that Nvidia GPU, all suffered from that flexing issue sadly. This was entirely Nvidia's fault.
50%of my bedroom is dedicated to my computers, my floor is laced with cords, I try to keep them in one place, but its impossible I always end up needing more
same, my corner of the living room is filled with random power supplies and computer parts because I just mess around with different parts too often to clean it up.
My last daily laptop was T60, and I recently upgraded to T400. I had upgraded CPU to T7400 2.16ghz, RAM to max 3gb and SSD 120gb. It ran Windows 10 really well, pretty fast and real pleasure to use. These Thinkpads are amazing, best laptops ever. Now I'm enjoying of T400 Thinkpad.
Great seeing you give Scott a Thinkpad T60. That laptop is a beast, if it was a car it would be a 1969 Ford Mustang. My first computer was also given by someone else in the family when I was just 7 years old, at the time computers were extremely expensive and my parents couldn't afford. I still remember having to go through MS-DOS to execute games, even though it was a slow obsolete computer and the monitor was only monochrome, in my world it was the most magical and exciting machine that I had. Sometimes something so little can mean so much to someone else.
i didn't know you could replace the CPU in a laptop. I miss my lenovo thinkpad r400, everything was in good condition except the HDD and I gave it to my sister for christmas last year. it was a decent laptop, i played a lot of low-end games and some old games on it too.
Yep, but it's time consuming and risky depending on the laptop's design. For mine, I have the Lenovo Ideapad Z400 which requires you to take the entire back cover off in order to access the motherboard. I had to unscrew about 20 different screws. And when I did get to the CPU, I replaced my i5 CPU with an i7 from my dad's old laptop. After 20 minutes of putting everything back together, I found out that the i7 CPU was broken. And had to re-open my laptop once again..
I just picked up one of these, and I have to say, even without doing any upgrades to it, it's a very usable machine! In fact I am typing on it right now! To help future-proof it a little I plan on replacing the Core Duo with a Core 2 Duo, upgrading the RAM to 4 GB, replacing the hard drive with an SSD, upgrading the wireless, and maybe replacing the worn out keyboard with a newer one. Then I should have a nice secondary laptop to go along with my daily driver, the T420.
@@maskednil They're excellent machines. I have since made extensive upgrades to my T60 (making it a FrankenPad T601, T61 in the T60 body) and have replaced the T420 with a T430 with a classic keyboard mod and FHD display upgrade.
@@SebisRandomTech nice. I had wanted to go the same route with a t430 but decided to settle with used t420 with ram, SSD, and keyboard upgrade, as it is not my daily driver, for mobile writing and light browsing, and I have a desktop that I splurge money on. And putting in 3 different parts in that frankenpad lol! Awesome
This video has inspired me to upgrade mine! Its was just an old laptop with a broken screen taking up space on my shelf. Now it will be my backup and my son can use it when he visits. Thank you very much for the video!
I had to refer to your vid to make sure I was putting in the RAM correctly. I also noticed you have the 15in model, you should look into getting a 1600x1200 screen if you haven't already. Thanks man, this video was really helpful and you're a great guy for blessing your friend with a T60.
I bought a IBM T60-1951 second hand but business refurbished back in 2007, Since owning it, It's had Windows XP, Windows & and Windows 10 on it and never gone wrong on me. Because its the 1951 model (the earliest T60) it can only support 3GB of memory but I still use it to this day and plan to put an SSD in it to give it a second lease of life. Its still in great condition and its an old faithful friend. Best money I ever spent on a PC.
I love that beautiful IBM logo! Thank you for sharing this great video. I hope to do the same thing someday. I just have to find one at a reasonable price first. Wish me luck.
Dude I have the same laptop (the 15 inch model, if I am correct your's is the same), I bought it off eBay for £35 (I live in the UK), I was shocked as it was in almost new condition, the inside (keyboard etc) is pretty much unused. Also I couldn't believe my luck when I found out that it had the Flexview 1400 x 1050 screen in it and was the Ati x1400 model. I have been thinking about getting a laptop with 4:3 aspect ratio screen (I can't stand this wide screen fashion), and also have been thinking about Thinkpads because of their amazing keyboards and general sturdiness. So this T60 turned out to be my dream machine. I upgraded the ram to 3gb as well, put a 240gb Kingston SSD in it, installed Ubuntu Mate 16.04, upgraded the CPU to the 2.33 ghz T7600, flashed the BIOS, so now I can install a more modern pci-e wifi card in it (originally the BIOS has a "white list" that prevents using non original/lenovo components). So It has become the perfect machine for me. Only issue, my battery lasts about 15-20 minutes, so I will replace the cells in it in the near future. I use it as my everyday computer, will install FreeCAD in the coming up weeks to see how it can handle some light CAD work.
zoltan87 i bought two T60, both 15" but not Flexview IPSs, one has x1300 the second got intel GMA950, both 2GB ram..the thing is i had T42 with sxga+ Flexview which can go on T60 :), and i have UXGA T43p Flexview too, so i am looking foward to upgrade them. The only thing which is bugging me is that on external monitor using dock i cant play 1080p videos without stuttering. got them for 35$ for peace
I have my t60 for +-10y, and I bought it as a second-hand. Had many operating systems (win xp, win 7, ubuntu, fedora, debian) and sometimes long weeks of nonstop working. No components changed, no bad sectors, no dead pixels, battery life is 1 hour still. 5y ago had a 'fan error' - fixed for 40pln (+-10usd) in computer store. Best notebook ever made.
I remember when I started out in this field. Back in 97 none of us had laptops. For one thing they were so expensive, and used laptops were junk. They had almost no power by the time someone wanted to get rid of them, or they had so little storage space you cound't install anything modern. LOL. I did manage to pickup a small Toshiba laptop for cheap, and then quickly upgraded to a Compaq Deskpro when I had the money. I still have my T60 that I recieved from work, and still use it for some special things here at home. It still has PCMCIA slots, and I have a few special PCMCIA cards that I use with it. I'm always amazed at how far we have come when you can grab a T60 on Ebay for so cheap, and still have something that can be used today. Sure wish it had been like that back in the day, but hey things have moved forward.
Bit late to the show, only found and subbed to your channel recently. Gotta say right off the bat that I love the rambling- along with the fact that you put it all in the description as well! Many youtubers don't use the discription section to its full capacity and I'm such a visual person. Anyway, definitely love this channel, like I'm not at all as knowledgeable with this stuff, and your whole process is just so informative and your ramblings are honest and makes your videos a pleasure to watch! I've never upgraded a laptop before and this is a great place to start. A few years back i was researching about upgrading the ram and hard drive in my Macbook from 06/07, but it was discouraging that it was stuck on older version of OSX and I wasn't comfortable trying to "hackintosh" way to a newer version, mainly because of my lack of experience. But I have a T61 that I got for free like two years ago, and it's working well, but it is showing its age and I've always loved that these older Thinkpads are so serviceable! I'm not sure of the upgrades I can do yet with what i have, but dude, you've set me on the right track! I feel ur dude Scott's situation tho, the thought of buying a computer or even just upgrading an older computer is intimidating when all you have to go on is research, less than ideal income, and too little initiative (or too much anxiety) to go all in hands on. Sounds stupid, but its the real deal for me at least. For the past years i've led a comfortable life living off of my mobile mostly and turning to these older computers when the need arises. It's good that this Scott got to talking with you then! Cause ik for me at least, your channel and videos alone bring new hope!
I did nearly the same thing recently for one of my clients. she had a samsung with that cpu running at 2 ghz. I just increased its ram to 4 gb and installed a 120 gig ssd in it. and man, it runs as fast as a new 500 dollar lenovo laptop she bought recently :D
Had one of these babies for years. Main problem is CCFL backlighting for screen. The inverter goes bad, and the bulb itself gets dimmer, and then finally fails. Starting with the T410, Thinkpads finally went to the much better LED backlighting.
Dude, I love the video. I use a T60 to this day. I personall believe it is the greatest laptop ever made and I fear the future where I have to use a machine with poor build quality (all modern laptops.) Subscribed.
T60's are nice solid machines, dated CPU and GPU but still usable for basic tasks without an issue. The keyboard on the early build T60s is amazing. I have an early build T60 which makes virtually no mention of Lenovo anywhere on the case, it's almost purely IBM aside from the BIOS and a tiny copyright sticker on the bottom of the machine. The battery and DVD-RAM ultrabay drive both are IBM badged units. Nicest thing about the T60 is the solid construction. These laptops feel like they are chiseled out of marble. All that magnesium alloy makes a difference!
These were the last IBM made laptops before they sold their division to Lenovo - just picked up a T60 with XP for £10, buyer said it kept freezing which it did. Removed HDD and ran from live MX Linux USB - kept freezing, RAM test passed so bit of Googling and wadya know? If the battery's failing they'll freeze! Remove the battery and run from power supply only - 100% perfect. Also check your CPU spec, not all Dual Cores can run 64 bit, the T2400 @ 1.83Ghz in mine is 32 bit only. Well done keeping these pieces of history alive!
You gained a new subscriber here! Sure, its cool to see all the newest stuff coming out, but channels like this that revive old tech, and provide dirt-cheap ways to get people their first computer that may not have the means to buy a brand-new one, are great. Found you from your Dell Latitude 2120 video! If you search dell latitude on youtube, you rank pretty high. Nice work!
For tough to remove thermal compounds, you should look into ArtiClean (you can find it on Amazon). It's a 2 part kit, TIM remover and a solvent for removing the residue. I'm pretty sure #1 is just citrus oil, so if you can find pure citrus oil cheaper, grab that instead. For #2, you could just use alcohol to remove the residue left from the oil. Do NOT use something like goo gone or other citrus based solvents as they contain chemicals that may harm PCBs, plastic, or electronic components. Citrus oil also works great for removing adhesive residue from stickers and tape. All it takes is a couple drops.
The articlean is kinda expensive. I appreciate the suggestion but I am not willing to pay that much. I might try your other solution though. Someone also suggested using contact cleaner(yes, as in contacts for your eyes). Have you ever tried that?
AA Computers and Technology Eye contact cleaner? I don't think I've ever heard anyone using it. I don't use contacts or I'd try it, lol. Is that too expensive, Newegg has it a couple bucks cheaper than Amazon atm ($6.09). It's only 30ml per bottle, but that will last a long time. I'm just starting to run out of the #1 bottle after about 5 years and at least 100 applications. The #2 bottle is about halfway. Like I mentioned, the #1 bottle is basically citrus oil so you could also try finding some pure orange oil or lemon oil cheaper (and probably in a larger quantity). If you check the SDS for articlean and citrus oils (and stuff like goo gone), you'll see the key ingredient is d-limonene which is what breaks down stuff like TIM and adhesives. It's worth the investment to have a dropper of one or the other to get both surfaces really clean.
AA Computers and Technology Hmm, after looking at the contents of a couple eye contact cleaners, I don't think that would work. They're mostly a water based solution. Are you sure they meant eye contact cleaner and not electrical contact cleaner? In the case of electrical contact cleaner, I'm sure it would work fine if you really needed to clean the thermal compound off and it's all you had on hand. For me, it's a bit too heavy duty for this application and it's in an aerosol which would also be a bit unwieldy.
you're a good guy for doing this. would have suggested adding in a 4965AGN MM1 card to drop in, because 802.11n is the best thing you can give one of these things, especially since most of them came with a 3945abg. but, since the machine only has 2 antennas from what I can see, something I've done in the past (after getting my hands on the de-whitelisted BIOS, of course) is dropped in one of these BCM94321MC's out of a Macbook/Pro of that era. www.ebay.com/itm/BroadCom-BCM94321MCWireless-WLAN-Mini-Card-MACBOOK-A1181-/282133140217 they're 802.11n, support the theoretical 300Mbit/s at 2x2, and so long as you use the drivers for bcm43xx cards off Wikidrivers or set it up properly in your flavor of Linux (Debian/Ubu have a b43-installer package IIRC) they're pretty reliable. I even installed one in the HP 4410t thin client laptop I converted into a full working laptop back a few years ago (and subsequently made a video about.) but, this is only doable with the de-whitelisted BIOS, or Libreboot, which does support the T60, but I think only the GMA950 variant which seems to be what you have here. Another upgrade, although over $10 and under $20, would be the addition of a Broadcom Crystal HD BCM970015 decoder card to the WWAN slotjust below the CPU heatsink. this plus drivers found very easily for Windows (and I believe there's inbuilt support for it in the Linux kernel, but take that with a grain of salt) pretty much make the system able to decode HD video fathoms better than the onboard GMA950 can handle alone in such application as MPC-HC so long as LAV is properly configured for DXVA. a proper thermal gap pad should be applied to the chip on this card to mate with the keyboard, because it DOES get fairly hot with use, but it does work and work well. it also accelerated Flash video decoding properly, and I'm fairly certain it should work with the HTML5 player as well, but again, grains of salt on that.
Believe it or not I am actually contempt with current wireless setup. YES, I have always wanted to try out a Broadcom video accelerator / decoder in one of these older computers! Do you know if the BCM970015 will work with Windows 10? Hmmm, I really need to look into that.
should. www.broadcom.com/support/crystal-hd but you should be using these drivers unless windows 10 has its own. that being said, it should work all the same with either a win10-natively installed driver or these, since these were put out during the Windows 8.1 era and should just work without issue. but again, if you get a 970015, you want to definitely make sure to get a thermal pad that mates it with the bottom of the keyboard, and I hope like hell yours is one of the good solid-backed ones and not one of the much flimsier keyboards like which come with later T400 and T500 models such as the one I have to live with in my T500. however, strengthening from underneath from some craftily-placed adhesive rubber pads does fix this issue... but that's up to you as to how to solve that if you're plagued with the latter and not the former. Ideally you want the thermal pad to be enough to cover both the chipset and the RAM chip associated with it on the board. any that are made by Fujipoly and have a decent thermal transfer rate can be found for a decent price on eBay, assuming the seller is legit-looking enough, and there is a guy selling copper shim kits for nvidia-based laptops on there with some sort of nissan silvias model in his eBay username that may be a good place to start in your search. I have no idea what the name is fully, but I believe looking for D630/D830/DV6000 shim kits is where you'll probably find this seller. they should have some sort of shim kit which you can make use of the pad from and keep the copper shim or otherwise for a later time. Some of these kits also contain a sort of thermal putty also made by fujipoly, and such putty is what I have keeping the chipset cool in my T500 after saving it from the couple of D630 kits I've acquired over the course of a couple of years. after a while the putty does solidify with heat, but that's apparently by design. if you do go back into your T60 for whatever reason, you should consider this post here: forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=101788 as it contains some interesting information on the purchasing, modification and installation (plus afterward results) of a T500's fan into the T60's heatsink for improved cooling power and quieter functioning during idle/load. I'm fairly certain this can also be applied to the T61 as well, but take that with a grain of salt.
I have been thinking about getting one of these HD decoder cards, but if I remember correctly I read something like, I could only put it into the pci-e slot where the wifi card is placed. Are you saying I could place this Broadcomm decoder card into the Expresscard slot in the left bottom corner, under the palm rest? I am a little bit confused.
zoltan87 the Wireless WAN slot under the keyboard, if the machine you're placing it in is an older core 2 thinkpad. not the expresscard slot. you should not need to remove your WiFi card to add this in.
the cool thing about this laptop that it is vintage, you have no idea of the impact you made to this kid's life. it's like giving a car enthusiast a collector item say a vintage & retro Mustang GT of 1970 keep up the good work bro, loved your channel.
I did the same as you (2019) to my T60 and installed MX Linux. 720p video is not doing great depending on what you stream. Fast moving images get a lot of lag. My internet is 500Mbps so that's not an issue here. The RAM limit and the 32 bit limit make this PC outdated now. Google only gives you Chrome 64 bit. Chromium is buggy and froze my machine. Btw. I found my macine in a dumpster along with a T420 and a E520. I also have a T430. All these 3 are better than the T60, but I love the tall screen on the old model. Thanks for the video.
I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 from Ebay for $26. I ordered a battery from Ebay also. I also ordered a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter so I can use a Samsung 128gb ssd in this laptop. I'm going to install Xubuntu. I really enjoy your channel. My personal laptop is a HP Probook 6450b. I've dual boot with Windows 10 Pro and Xubuntu 16.04. I've got a Samsung 256gb SSD with 8gb ddr3 ram. Its very zippy.
I dont mean to be offtopic but does anyone know of a trick to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost the account password. I would appreciate any assistance you can offer me.
It's midnight here in Italy right now, but I watched the whole thing anyway. I just like your videos. Like somone else said, you should unscrew the heatsink in a X-pattern. I've seen many heatsinks with screws numbered: 1 - 3 4 - 2 that's the order to follow. Hmmm... I MIGHT resemble Scott. Not entirely sure. :p
I had one of these laptops. I put a Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU in it. That CPU is 64 bit meaning I was able to put in 4GB of RAM, all of which were recognised by the OS. It was a great machine and despite having ATI graphics inside, it miraculously survived BumpGate.
Well for those wondering, I did upgrade that T60 to max specs. I then realized I picked up the widescreen version, and me wanting to use this for some retro pc gaming, I quickly coveted the 4:3 model and now I own that as well, because I clearly have a problem.
Nice upgrade! Another upgrade to consider for the T60 is replacing the DVD drive with a caddy and a second HDD. Let us know how it goes if you decide to upgrade.
Well yea I think you have a bit similar opinions to me. I use a T43p as a daily driver and it is great as-is! Windows 10 itself is also great as-is if you debloat it. You get Pentium M 780 2.26ghz single core and 2GB DDR2 as chipset limit. I am perfectly fine with 2GB RAM and Microsoft Edge with Adblock. Since I have the more expensive performance series I have the IPS high-res LCD. Trust me, it is awesome. The resolution is around HD+ to 1080p and its contrast and viewing angles are just unimaginable for today's people to think of a 2005 laptop. I suggest you to upgrade your panel to SXGA+ IPS OR UXGA IPS. The IPS panels are AWESOME! Yes they do cost a fortune but just try to find it first. And since you have T60 not a T43p, you don't have to worry about the LCD cable but instead you can only buy panels designed for T/R6x due to a EDID chip requirement while a T43p still works with T60p panel out of the box (assuming they are the same resolution). You wouldn't want to switch back to XGA after that!
Ok, seeing the speed made it even more interesting. The Dell Precision M65 I currently have (and use) does have that same T7200 CPU, and I was starting to wonder if the extra RAM and the SSD was worth getting it before upgrading the laptop or not (probably a second hand Thinkpad) This pretty much answers it. I've been trying lightweight distros lately on that machine, and if you you are interested in trying some distros, try LXLE, it is based on Lubuntu LTS, but incredibly polished. Hard to ask for more while keeping the lightweight tag. I've found also wattOS, Ubuntu based, with LXDE or i3WM, but I do have yet to test that one out, but it indeed looks promising. Who knows, maybe that is the perfect excuse to get used to tiling WM and give them a fair try.
nice to see youg people are still impressed by these machines.Try to make the best t60 out there. Go for the Core2Duo T7600 since it is the most powerfull the t60 can handle, and also try to keep the memory sticks identical (even if you loose 1gig due to chipset limitiation, dual channel tehnollogy will work at it`s best).
Thanks for your video. Based on it I just upgraded my Lenovo T60. I obtained it for free, so I decided to upgrade it for fun to test if it is still useable nowadays. It was originally equipped with BIOS v2.21 (2008-02-05), T2400 Core2 1.83MHz CPU, 0.5GB PC2-5300 667 MHz SO DIMM RAM, 60GB HDD 5400RPM, 14.1-inch XGA (1024x768 resolution) TFT display, 64MB ATI Mobility RADEON X1300 graphic chipset. I decided to upgrade it with BIOS v2.27 (2011-03-21), T7400 Core2 2.16GHz CPU, 4GB PC2-5300 667 MHz SO DIMM RAM, 500GB Crucial MX500 SSD. I tested it with Windows 10 Pro v1909 64-bit. I found all hardware drivers except IrDA (drivers I found are non working both with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10), so I disabled IrDA in BIOS. I tested it with Passmark PerformanceTest 9.0 and my results are: overall Passmark score: 384 points, CPU mark: 1483, 2D mark: 255, 3D mark: 45, Memory mark: 591, Disk mark: 1393. Your T60 model was shipped with Intel 945GM graphic chipset, that's why your 3D Mark score is 0. Except mine Radeon X1300, there were T60 equipped with better ones like 128MB ATI Mobility RADEON X1400, 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 and 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5250. What about T60 feelings in year 2020? Well, laptop is heavy copared to nowadays models :) My model is equipped with 14.1-inch XGA (1024x768) display, which means there is no way to set higher resolution, except if you connect it to external display device. For example Win10 settings sometimes are not able to fit the screen and you have to scroll it. Fonts are big, icons are big, everything is quite too big. There were also T60 equipped with 14.1-inch SXGA+ (1400x1050), 15 inch XGA (1024x768), 15 inch SXGA+ (1400x1050), 15 inch UXGA (1600x1200), 15.4 inch WXGA (1280x800) and 15.4 inch WSXGA+ (1680x1050). Brigthness of display could be better, but on maximum it's ok. Bettery life is horrible. On performance preferred power settings it can work up to about 1 hour. It initially says that it will work about 2h, but finally 1h on max brightness seems to be unavailable. Keyborad is great except Esc key is located above F1 (not the same line with F keys, so F keys are shifted to the left by 1 key). You cannot swap Fn and Cntrl keys in BIOS (later Lenovo models have this possibility), because Fn key is located where Ctrl key used to be. Volume up/down and mute keys are working but independently with Windows 10 volume setting. Volume can be adjusted from 0 to max using T60 keys, but it does not control Windows native volume slider. For example pressing mute sound you won't hear anything, but looking at Windows volume level you won't notice any change. You may see max volume while there will be no sound at all. A little bit strange, but It's ok, when you know it. SSD drive is limited to SATA1 speed, so SSD disk drive is fater than HDD, but not fast as is could be in modern laptops. With 4GB RAM only 3GB will be available for use even if 64-bit Windows is installed. In my opinion T60 is still useable as office PC, good for internet surfing, but keep in mind that 1024x768 is not resolution which nowadays sites are designed for, so prepare to scrolling. Fortunatelly you can downscale browser's view which is still readable. Many older games with work fine on this hardware. I tested Minecraft Java Edition v1.12.2. It can be run but, but with render distance set to 6 and many other options set to off or low (using Optifine) FPS varies from 4 to 15. With render distance set to 4 you can play with 10 to 20 FPS.
You should install coreboot or libreboot on it it will speed up the boot time (Windows & Linux are both supported). That is what I did with my ThinkPad X200 and I simply love it.
Just got an R61. Love its Price performance. With all the upgrades I put in it and Lubuntu, its en par with every sub 600 $ Notebook out there. Except of course GPU wise. But for internet and 720p videos its perfectly fine. With Lubuntu Even most 1080p videos run allright on it. That is pretty amazing when you consider the crappy old Intel GPU, at least that one lasts, unlike the Nvidia Version, which unfortunately most of them are dead by today.
Nice quality video - quite strange watching it through the window of a T410 - and interesting comparison, they are not too dis-similar in performance, especially with an SSD, which probably helps also if swap is used, not just with loading programs. I've been avoiding SSD's but your video may well make me review this for my 410.
Awesome video! Just watched it throuhg to pass time to encode a video. I want to upgrade the CPUs in our old laptops now. 15:46 There's a song called "Scott's a Dork" by Reel Big Fish!
cool and solid vid! i love the iconic IBM logo. this is one of the last laptops with it. did basically the same upgrade with a z61m with titanium cover. bit a shame that these machines are limited to 3gb and doesn't support better cpu's. I have a suggestion to remove the hard thermal compound, a plastic card should help to scratch it off. to make it easier I would install the cpu first to hold it into the socket.
It's possible to do a frankenpad mod by using a certain T61/T61p maiboard that fits into the T60 case, and being able to use more than just 3GB since the T61 was already a 64 Bit chipset.
I still keep a T60 as a dedicated Windows XP island-system for all the things that i can only do under a real Windows XP environment. It's great for gaming. Especially on a model with 15' LCD with 1024x768 resolution and ATI X1300 of X1400 GPU. It runs most games from around 2001-2005 pretty damn good. You can even run Doom 3 on medium settings on the X1400 GPU model. The fact that it still has both PCMCIA Cardbus, Express card slot and Infrared port, makes this a VERY versatile machine. Much nicer than running a virtual machine. Sadly my model suffers from a really annoying high pitch noise almost like coil-whine.
Just upgraded the CPU of mine... unfortunately the missing piece (wiggling out the heatsink) was just the one giving me trouble. I had to bend the plastic rim with quite a bit of determination and two wires were taped to the top of the fan housing. After reassembly, temperatures are not outstandingly great but OK (60°C idle, 75°C under cpu-z stressing) and I didn't kill the new old CPU so it's not a huge issue.
I have only watched 3 of your videos, I also bought a T60, it doesn't have the finger print reader yours came with and I didn't stick a SSD in it, just a windows XP for old games from time to time. I like your Nexdock Video too, and I bought a laptop like that with an atom processor. I really want to install windows XP or Win 7 on it though, can you make a video on how to go around the UEFI for installation? Thanks.
I had the same laptop when i was younger. Got it from my uncle after he passed away. Since it was windows XP and I was 9 years old, it got pretty destroyed with virus’s. So bad to the point it wouldn’t connect to internet and couldn’t even power up normally. I kick myself for absolutely obliterating when I was bored. Maybe it could have been upgraded?
Hey, were you able to make the media controls, red nub, and fingerprint scanner work? If yes, where did you download the drivers from? Thanks and great video!
@4:25 where you can see the CPUID, that is critical info if you are upgrading older systems where it can be harder to confirm compatible CPU upgrades. That CPUID should be on the list of CPUIDs supported in the BIOS microcode. In almost all cases upgrading your BIOS to the latest build will give you the best CPU compatibility and might even be needed for installing a current OS on an older system.
Man, old thinkpads are cheap there. Here, T61 can still goes up equivalent to 100 USD. I'm still using T400 and I checked the market price, its still around 120+
I'm repairing an old T60 that was in the family for years, and swapping out all thermal paste with carbonaut so the paste won't degrade into more of an insulator over the years. Big oof super stoked
The only mistake I saw was using Arctic Silver 5. With it's 2 week break in period, convoluted break-in process, and need to be replaced every year (that comes directly from Arctic Silver's website) it is a terrible TIM for laptops or anything else that is intended to be a install and forget. It doesn't even work that well compared to more up to date TIM that cost the same, or even less. Gelid, Arctic Cooling, Noctua among others sell TIM that is performs and lasts considerably better/longer. AC5 may have been the best when it was released 10 years or so ago, but not today.
The 2 week break in period is not too big of a deal for this application. But yes, I do agree the break in process is a bit tedious. I cannot find anything on the Arctic Silver 5 web-page or safety datasheet indicating that it should be replaced every year. I believe you but could you post a link to the page where it says that, I would like to read up on it. Just out of curiosity what thermal paste do you prefer?
I prefer Gelid GC-Supreme, GC-Extreme, Arctic Cooling MX-2, or MX-4. iF i have on hand I go with GC-Supreme for general use and GC-Extreme for critical applications like overclocking. I haven't gone to the Arctic Silver website in years as I stopped using it back in 2005 or 2006. I looked for the support document that stated it's useful lifespan (how often it needs to be re-applied) and didn't find it. All of the documents I found are dated much later than that so it's possible it isn't there any longer. I did a quick look in my archives of old support documents and didn't find a copy that I had downloaded, but I'll keep looking to see if I can find a copy of it as I know I downloaded it back in the day.
Your channel is really nice! I have an R61 and an T61 and I love them too. They are so easy to take apart and upgrade it. Here in Germany I had to pay about 70€ (75 Dollars) for each of them. Last week the T61 got an Samsung 850 EVO SSD with 250GB. Now it boots Windows 7 Pro 64Bit up in about 30 sec! Why did you install Windows 10 on the T60 runs it better than Windows 7? Or needs your friend programms which only run on Win10? I haven't Win 10 on my PC's but my sister gets a PC from my father and me and we don't know what OS we should install.
Will a t61 be a good school machine for first year in collage? I'm thinking to buy one just for coding , exercises and RUclips. Youre doing great work with your videos jeep it up!
I wish modern laptops would be upgradable like that.
Spooky Skellington that aint gonna happen mate. and thats why now im still using my T410, upgraded to 8gb ram and put ssd on it, and work like a charm.
I change all the pieces of my Thinkpad T440p, the cpu, ram, and SSD.
I use two laptops when I'm on the go: my Dell Latitude D830 and a Gateway MX6960. Both run great for my needs and the performance (and durability of owning older laptops that are sturdier and longer-lasting) make me never want to upgrade, and I won't!
because of contracts and such, business laptops need to be upgradeable like that, to be able to fix them without having to replace the entire laptop, retail laptops are made to be bought, used for a year or so, and then be thrown into the trash.
Well, you would sacrifice portability and slimness, which is a must for some business workers. But yes, I do wish today's laptops were just as modular and upgradable. No longer do you need to buy a new laptop every 2-4 years. Now you can have one that will keep on ticking for years, even decades.
why is this dude nicer than most kids in my school
Same man
Such a nice dude
Everyone in my school were uhh mean
Because he has had time to mature properly. That and most people are pricks
Hi, I'm a long-time Thinkpad fan, and would like to offer some tips, all free:
1. forum.thinkpads.com to learn from the experts
2. tpfancontrol.exe to reduce (or boost, as needed) fan activation
3. firemin.exe (for Windows) to reduce FireFox RAM use by 90% or more, no typo
4. Bongiovi DPS to boost sound volume and quality
5. Ultrabay batteries that kick in when the regular one is used up (or vice versa, I forget)
Thati's it for now. Have fun. Classic Thinkpads are amazing.
You're a saint. Been using my T60 for a decade, no problemo, but everything you mentioned is just brilliant and will definitely enhance my experience.
Thank you very much.
You are indeed a saint. Without any hardware upgrade yet, my beloved working mule Lenovo ThinkPad T60 is already soaring in the skies, thanks to your advice. Thanks a bunch, most appreciated.
(Y)
If you do this kind of upgrade in the future, you should run benchmarks before and after [as much as you can] to show how much of a real improvement there is, other than faster boot times.
While u in America are able to buy such pc's for so low,
here in Europe, we can't even find a broken 10 year old Thinkpad for €50.
nassimishere i feel u dude in estonia a t430 is 300 euros
I bought this laptop from cash converters for 35 quid.
I got r61 with core 2 duo 2.8 GHz 4gb ram and 120 gb ssd for 60€. Here in Central Europe.
@@kaspartiits908 sama
@@Ace_k_ ayy gangshit eestlased
So I'm watching this six year old video because this is my second favorite computer. My favorite is an even older ThinkPad that uses DOS. I just want to say it's refreshing to hear someone speak so fast so clearly so intelligently, and controlling 3 to 4 to 5 subjects simultaneously, each perfectly controlled.
When I was in college, on my lunch break from work, I would always see this guy in the lounge where I would eat. Every time I saw him, I waited for the moment when he pulled out his laptop, a Thinkpad.
From that point on, I called him "Thinkpad Guy" (my hero).
Yep, the core 2 duos are still great. I'm still usung my 3,06GHz with MAC OSX. Works great.
Yeah i use a 2.66 ghz Core 2 Duo on Sierra. Works fast! I am planning to throw 8 gigs of ram, 256gb SSD and a new battery in it. It is the late 2009 white MacBook
Btw almost all my Windows PCs are Core 2 Quads and Duos
hidde1626 yeah, i had the white macbook with the nvidia chip. I had 6gb Ram and a ssd in it. My IMac has a SSD inside and 8GB Ram. It is worth the money. But for most i use the Macbook mid 2012 15 inch with 16gb ram and ssd.
Nice!
Leon G the core 2 duos were a miracle when compared to pentium 4 and years later the Sandy Bridge I5's in the t420 laptops and then the ivy bridge i5 on the t430 was the last breath.
Those T60's can survive WW3.
Was so exited when our company decided to retire all desktops for developers and give us all top spec Core 2 Duo Lenovo T500's with dual Intel/AMD graphics but they did not last long ... after 2 years most had been binned due to faulty graphics and was replaced by longer lasting Dell Lattitudes.
I suspect the thermal design was not so good.
Yeah the Nvidia GPU chipset was notorius for flexing... The T61, T400 and T500, which all used that Nvidia GPU, all suffered from that flexing issue sadly. This was entirely Nvidia's fault.
Had to show this video to my mother to prove it is not weird I have a bunch of random computer parts around my room.
Drakador
😂 I have the same “problem” with my mom 🙏🏻
same too, its a small world
50%of my bedroom is dedicated to my computers, my floor is laced with cords, I try to keep them in one place, but its impossible I always end up needing more
same, my corner of the living room is filled with random power supplies and computer parts because I just mess around with different parts too often to clean it up.
Absolutely a iconic piece of technology
My last daily laptop was T60, and I recently upgraded to T400. I had upgraded CPU to T7400 2.16ghz, RAM to max 3gb and SSD 120gb. It ran Windows 10 really well, pretty fast and real pleasure to use. These Thinkpads are amazing, best laptops ever. Now I'm enjoying of T400 Thinkpad.
Almost 5 years later, and I just discovered this great video. Great content!
Great seeing you give Scott a Thinkpad T60.
That laptop is a beast, if it was a car it would be a 1969 Ford Mustang.
My first computer was also given by someone else in the family when I was just 7 years old, at the time computers were extremely expensive and my parents couldn't afford.
I still remember having to go through MS-DOS to execute games, even though it was a slow obsolete computer and the monitor was only monochrome, in my world it was the most magical and exciting machine that I had.
Sometimes something so little can mean so much to someone else.
i didn't know you could replace the CPU in a laptop. I miss my lenovo thinkpad r400, everything was in good condition except the HDD and I gave it to my sister for christmas last year. it was a decent laptop, i played a lot of low-end games and some old games on it too.
yotoprules you can always get it back
Yep, but it's time consuming and risky depending on the laptop's design. For mine, I have the Lenovo Ideapad Z400 which requires you to take the entire back cover off in order to access the motherboard. I had to unscrew about 20 different screws. And when I did get to the CPU, I replaced my i5 CPU with an i7 from my dad's old laptop. After 20 minutes of putting everything back together, I found out that the i7 CPU was broken. And had to re-open my laptop once again..
*****
I wish, my sister said the laptop broke so she threw it away :(
Depends on the model, many smaller models have a soldered cpu.
it whouldt not have worked either cause of heat of an i7, is much more ,iam constantly running at 80 ° degrees in cpu
I just picked up one of these, and I have to say, even without doing any upgrades to it, it's a very usable machine! In fact I am typing on it right now! To help future-proof it a little I plan on replacing the Core Duo with a Core 2 Duo, upgrading the RAM to 4 GB, replacing the hard drive with an SSD, upgrading the wireless, and maybe replacing the worn out keyboard with a newer one. Then I should have a nice secondary laptop to go along with my daily driver, the T420.
Dude wtf. I too have a T420 and a T60 as the second laptop.
@@maskednil They're excellent machines. I have since made extensive upgrades to my T60 (making it a FrankenPad T601, T61 in the T60 body) and have replaced the T420 with a T430 with a classic keyboard mod and FHD display upgrade.
@@SebisRandomTech nice. I had wanted to go the same route with a t430 but decided to settle with used t420 with ram, SSD, and keyboard upgrade, as it is not my daily driver, for mobile writing and light browsing, and I have a desktop that I splurge money on. And putting in 3 different parts in that frankenpad lol! Awesome
This video has inspired me to upgrade mine! Its was just an old laptop with a broken screen taking up space on my shelf. Now it will be my backup and my son can use it when he visits. Thank you very much for the video!
I am a programmer and the T60 with Linux is much more useful for a computer science major than a chromebook. a script would tighten this up.
I had to refer to your vid to make sure I was putting in the RAM correctly. I also noticed you have the 15in model, you should look into getting a 1600x1200 screen if you haven't already. Thanks man, this video was really helpful and you're a great guy for blessing your friend with a T60.
I have 3 T60’s and I’ve done this upgrade to all 3.
I bought a IBM T60-1951 second hand but business refurbished back in 2007, Since owning it, It's had Windows XP, Windows & and Windows 10 on it and never gone wrong on me. Because its the 1951 model (the earliest T60) it can only support 3GB of memory but I still use it to this day and plan to put an SSD in it to give it a second lease of life. Its still in great condition and its an old faithful friend. Best money I ever spent on a PC.
I love that beautiful IBM logo! Thank you for sharing this great video. I hope to do the same thing someday. I just have to find one at a reasonable price first. Wish me luck.
Dude I have the same laptop (the 15 inch model, if I am correct your's is the same), I bought it off eBay for £35 (I live in the UK), I was shocked as it was in almost new condition, the inside (keyboard etc) is pretty much unused. Also I couldn't believe my luck when I found out that it had the Flexview 1400 x 1050 screen in it and was the Ati x1400 model. I have been thinking about getting a laptop with 4:3 aspect ratio screen (I can't stand this wide screen fashion), and also have been thinking about Thinkpads because of their amazing keyboards and general sturdiness. So this T60 turned out to be my dream machine. I upgraded the ram to 3gb as well, put a 240gb Kingston SSD in it, installed Ubuntu Mate 16.04, upgraded the CPU to the 2.33 ghz T7600, flashed the BIOS, so now I can install a more modern pci-e wifi card in it (originally the BIOS has a "white list" that prevents using non original/lenovo components). So It has become the perfect machine for me. Only issue, my battery lasts about 15-20 minutes, so I will replace the cells in it in the near future. I use it as my everyday computer, will install FreeCAD in the coming up weeks to see how it can handle some light CAD work.
zoltan87 i bought two T60, both 15" but not Flexview IPSs, one has x1300 the second got intel GMA950, both 2GB ram..the thing is i had T42 with sxga+ Flexview which can go on T60 :), and i have UXGA T43p Flexview too, so i am looking foward to upgrade them.
The only thing which is bugging me is that on external monitor using dock i cant play 1080p videos without stuttering. got them for 35$ for peace
Hmmm, tha video issue is strange, mine plays full hd videos just fine. Although I haven't tried it with a docking station yet.
I have my t60 for +-10y, and I bought it as a second-hand. Had many operating systems (win xp, win 7, ubuntu, fedora, debian) and sometimes long weeks of nonstop working. No components changed, no bad sectors, no dead pixels, battery life is 1 hour still. 5y ago had a 'fan error' - fixed for 40pln (+-10usd) in computer store. Best notebook ever made.
I got startled by the beep at 9:24 - I thought it came from the T420 I was watching this video on!
i was pulling apart an laptop and heard that beeping
Same for me :D T43
Force shutdown sound at the time of booting
Same, P53 xD
I really like your vids, you hit all the perfect spots of the things I would like to do or learn to do. Keep up the great work.
I remember when I started out in this field. Back in 97 none of us had laptops. For one thing they were so expensive, and used laptops were junk. They had almost no power by the time someone wanted to get rid of them, or they had so little storage space you cound't install anything modern. LOL. I did manage to pickup a small Toshiba laptop for cheap, and then quickly upgraded to a Compaq Deskpro when I had the money. I still have my T60 that I recieved from work, and still use it for some special things here at home. It still has PCMCIA slots, and I have a few special PCMCIA cards that I use with it. I'm always amazed at how far we have come when you can grab a T60 on Ebay for so cheap, and still have something that can be used today. Sure wish it had been like that back in the day, but hey things have moved forward.
hey AA Computers
Im proudly watching this on a Pentium 4 on PGA478
MrDoge FTW thank you
Snapdragon 820 and I5 7300HQ. Had to switch screens.
ItsT3K Respect! BTW what operating system are you using right now?
I'm watching with a t7200 and Quadro 110M on a dell d620 at 720p60.
wow
Bit late to the show, only found and subbed to your channel recently. Gotta say right off the bat that I love the rambling- along with the fact that you put it all in the description as well! Many youtubers don't use the discription section to its full capacity and I'm such a visual person. Anyway, definitely love this channel, like I'm not at all as knowledgeable with this stuff, and your whole process is just so informative and your ramblings are honest and makes your videos a pleasure to watch!
I've never upgraded a laptop before and this is a great place to start. A few years back i was researching about upgrading the ram and hard drive in my Macbook from 06/07, but it was discouraging that it was stuck on older version of OSX and I wasn't comfortable trying to "hackintosh" way to a newer version, mainly because of my lack of experience.
But I have a T61 that I got for free like two years ago, and it's working well, but it is showing its age and I've always loved that these older Thinkpads are so serviceable! I'm not sure of the upgrades I can do yet with what i have, but dude, you've set me on the right track!
I feel ur dude Scott's situation tho, the thought of buying a computer or even just upgrading an older computer is intimidating when all you have to go on is research, less than ideal income, and too little initiative (or too much anxiety) to go all in hands on. Sounds stupid, but its the real deal for me at least. For the past years i've led a comfortable life living off of my mobile mostly and turning to these older computers when the need arises. It's good that this Scott got to talking with you then! Cause ik for me at least, your channel and videos alone bring new hope!
I did nearly the same thing recently for one of my clients. she had a samsung with that cpu running at 2 ghz. I just increased its ram to 4 gb and installed a 120 gig ssd in it.
and man, it runs as fast as a new 500 dollar lenovo laptop she bought recently :D
It's 2018 and I am still using the T60 that I bought in Jan 2007, as my primary development machine.
It's 2023 now and I still use my T60 for everything from web surfing to 3d CAD design.
Had one of these babies for years. Main problem is CCFL backlighting for screen. The inverter goes bad, and the bulb itself gets dimmer, and then finally fails. Starting with the T410, Thinkpads finally went to the much better LED backlighting.
Dude, I love the video. I use a T60 to this day. I personall believe it is the greatest laptop ever made and I fear the future where I have to use a machine with poor build quality (all modern laptops.) Subscribed.
T60's are nice solid machines, dated CPU and GPU but still usable for basic tasks without an issue. The keyboard on the early build T60s is amazing. I have an early build T60 which makes virtually no mention of Lenovo anywhere on the case, it's almost purely IBM aside from the BIOS and a tiny copyright sticker on the bottom of the machine. The battery and DVD-RAM ultrabay drive both are IBM badged units.
Nicest thing about the T60 is the solid construction. These laptops feel like they are chiseled out of marble. All that magnesium alloy makes a difference!
These were the last IBM made laptops before they sold their division to Lenovo - just picked up a T60 with XP for £10, buyer said it kept freezing which it did. Removed HDD and ran from live MX Linux USB - kept freezing, RAM test passed so bit of Googling and wadya know? If the battery's failing they'll freeze! Remove the battery and run from power supply only - 100% perfect.
Also check your CPU spec, not all Dual Cores can run 64 bit, the T2400 @ 1.83Ghz in mine is 32 bit only. Well done keeping these pieces of history alive!
You gained a new subscriber here! Sure, its cool to see all the newest stuff coming out, but channels like this that revive old tech, and provide dirt-cheap ways to get people their first computer that may not have the means to buy a brand-new one, are great. Found you from your Dell Latitude 2120 video! If you search dell latitude on youtube, you rank pretty high. Nice work!
For tough to remove thermal compounds, you should look into ArtiClean (you can find it on Amazon). It's a 2 part kit, TIM remover and a solvent for removing the residue. I'm pretty sure #1 is just citrus oil, so if you can find pure citrus oil cheaper, grab that instead. For #2, you could just use alcohol to remove the residue left from the oil. Do NOT use something like goo gone or other citrus based solvents as they contain chemicals that may harm PCBs, plastic, or electronic components. Citrus oil also works great for removing adhesive residue from stickers and tape. All it takes is a couple drops.
The articlean is kinda expensive. I appreciate the suggestion but I am not willing to pay that much. I might try your other solution though. Someone also suggested using contact cleaner(yes, as in contacts for your eyes). Have you ever tried that?
AA Computers and Technology Eye contact cleaner? I don't think I've ever heard anyone using it. I don't use contacts or I'd try it, lol. Is that too expensive, Newegg has it a couple bucks cheaper than Amazon atm ($6.09). It's only 30ml per bottle, but that will last a long time. I'm just starting to run out of the #1 bottle after about 5 years and at least 100 applications. The #2 bottle is about halfway. Like I mentioned, the #1 bottle is basically citrus oil so you could also try finding some pure orange oil or lemon oil cheaper (and probably in a larger quantity). If you check the SDS for articlean and citrus oils (and stuff like goo gone), you'll see the key ingredient is d-limonene which is what breaks down stuff like TIM and adhesives. It's worth the investment to have a dropper of one or the other to get both surfaces really clean.
AA Computers and Technology Hmm, after looking at the contents of a couple eye contact cleaners, I don't think that would work. They're mostly a water based solution. Are you sure they meant eye contact cleaner and not electrical contact cleaner? In the case of electrical contact cleaner, I'm sure it would work fine if you really needed to clean the thermal compound off and it's all you had on hand. For me, it's a bit too heavy duty for this application and it's in an aerosol which would also be a bit unwieldy.
you're a good guy for doing this. would have suggested adding in a 4965AGN MM1 card to drop in, because 802.11n is the best thing you can give one of these things, especially since most of them came with a 3945abg. but, since the machine only has 2 antennas from what I can see, something I've done in the past (after getting my hands on the de-whitelisted BIOS, of course) is dropped in one of these BCM94321MC's out of a Macbook/Pro of that era. www.ebay.com/itm/BroadCom-BCM94321MCWireless-WLAN-Mini-Card-MACBOOK-A1181-/282133140217
they're 802.11n, support the theoretical 300Mbit/s at 2x2, and so long as you use the drivers for bcm43xx cards off Wikidrivers or set it up properly in your flavor of Linux (Debian/Ubu have a b43-installer package IIRC) they're pretty reliable. I even installed one in the HP 4410t thin client laptop I converted into a full working laptop back a few years ago (and subsequently made a video about.)
but, this is only doable with the de-whitelisted BIOS, or Libreboot, which does support the T60, but I think only the GMA950 variant which seems to be what you have here.
Another upgrade, although over $10 and under $20, would be the addition of a Broadcom Crystal HD BCM970015 decoder card to the WWAN slotjust below the CPU heatsink. this plus drivers found very easily for Windows (and I believe there's inbuilt support for it in the Linux kernel, but take that with a grain of salt) pretty much make the system able to decode HD video fathoms better than the onboard GMA950 can handle alone in such application as MPC-HC so long as LAV is properly configured for DXVA. a proper thermal gap pad should be applied to the chip on this card to mate with the keyboard, because it DOES get fairly hot with use, but it does work and work well. it also accelerated Flash video decoding properly, and I'm fairly certain it should work with the HTML5 player as well, but again, grains of salt on that.
Believe it or not I am actually contempt with current wireless setup. YES, I have always wanted to try out a Broadcom video accelerator / decoder in one of these older computers! Do you know if the BCM970015 will work with Windows 10? Hmmm, I really need to look into that.
should. www.broadcom.com/support/crystal-hd but you should be using these drivers unless windows 10 has its own. that being said, it should work all the same with either a win10-natively installed driver or these, since these were put out during the Windows 8.1 era and should just work without issue.
but again, if you get a 970015, you want to definitely make sure to get a thermal pad that mates it with the bottom of the keyboard, and I hope like hell yours is one of the good solid-backed ones and not one of the much flimsier keyboards like which come with later T400 and T500 models such as the one I have to live with in my T500. however, strengthening from underneath from some craftily-placed adhesive rubber pads does fix this issue... but that's up to you as to how to solve that if you're plagued with the latter and not the former.
Ideally you want the thermal pad to be enough to cover both the chipset and the RAM chip associated with it on the board. any that are made by Fujipoly and have a decent thermal transfer rate can be found for a decent price on eBay, assuming the seller is legit-looking enough, and there is a guy selling copper shim kits for nvidia-based laptops on there with some sort of nissan silvias model in his eBay username that may be a good place to start in your search. I have no idea what the name is fully, but I believe looking for D630/D830/DV6000 shim kits is where you'll probably find this seller. they should have some sort of shim kit which you can make use of the pad from and keep the copper shim or otherwise for a later time. Some of these kits also contain a sort of thermal putty also made by fujipoly, and such putty is what I have keeping the chipset cool in my T500 after saving it from the couple of D630 kits I've acquired over the course of a couple of years. after a while the putty does solidify with heat, but that's apparently by design.
if you do go back into your T60 for whatever reason, you should consider this post here: forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=101788 as it contains some interesting information on the purchasing, modification and installation (plus afterward results) of a T500's fan into the T60's heatsink for improved cooling power and quieter functioning during idle/load. I'm fairly certain this can also be applied to the T61 as well, but take that with a grain of salt.
I have been thinking about getting one of these HD decoder cards, but if I remember correctly I read something like, I could only put it into the pci-e slot where the wifi card is placed. Are you saying I could place this Broadcomm decoder card into the Expresscard slot in the left bottom corner, under the palm rest? I am a little bit confused.
zoltan87 the Wireless WAN slot under the keyboard, if the machine you're placing it in is an older core 2 thinkpad. not the expresscard slot. you should not need to remove your WiFi card to add this in.
***** i have a spare t60, gonna disassembly sometimes in the coming up weeks and have a look where this slot is.
Just bought a T60, great advice and great video, thanks, saved me a ton of work and cost in upgrading the memory as it would not serve me. Thank you.
That's amazing quality for a galaxy s4
the cool thing about this laptop that it is vintage, you have no idea of the impact you made to this kid's life. it's like giving a car enthusiast a collector item say a vintage & retro Mustang GT of 1970
keep up the good work bro, loved your channel.
Galaxy S4's rock and I can appreciate the smooth jazz as well. This was an interesting video.
I did the same as you (2019) to my T60 and installed MX Linux. 720p video is not doing great depending on what you stream. Fast moving images get a lot of lag. My internet is 500Mbps so that's not an issue here. The RAM limit and the 32 bit limit make this PC outdated now. Google only gives you Chrome 64 bit. Chromium is buggy and froze my machine.
Btw. I found my macine in a dumpster along with a T420 and a E520. I also have a T430. All these 3 are better than the T60, but I love the tall screen on the old model.
Thanks for the video.
I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 from Ebay for $26. I ordered a battery from Ebay also. I also ordered a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter so I can use a Samsung 128gb ssd in this laptop. I'm going to install Xubuntu. I really enjoy your channel. My personal laptop is a HP Probook 6450b. I've dual boot with Windows 10 Pro and Xubuntu 16.04. I've got a Samsung 256gb SSD with 8gb ddr3 ram. Its very zippy.
I have one of those and I love how it has the square shaped screen.
Thanks, it's a great upgrade T60 works now awesome!
Bonus points for doing most of the work with one hand!
Amazing!
I bought an X61 for 40 dollars. I bought it as a spare for typing stories. I end up loving it.
Congrats on 10k subscribers can wait to see what you have in store in the future.
- from a long time subscriber
Thanks for sticking around!
Just recently found your channel! love your reviews, great content!
I dont mean to be offtopic but does anyone know of a trick to log back into an Instagram account..?
I somehow lost the account password. I would appreciate any assistance you can offer me.
@Davian Jabari Instablaster ;)
It's midnight here in Italy right now, but I watched the whole thing anyway. I just like your videos.
Like somone else said, you should unscrew the heatsink in a X-pattern. I've seen many heatsinks with screws numbered:
1 - 3
4 - 2
that's the order to follow.
Hmmm... I MIGHT resemble Scott. Not entirely sure. :p
Yes, the X pattern removal process is much better. I will try to do that from now on!
It also applies to desktop coolers. Any heatsink with four screws should be removed that way.
AA Computers and Technology I have the non IBM t60. why doesn't yours have an ATI graphiccard?
I had one of these laptops. I put a Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU in it. That CPU is 64 bit meaning I was able to put in 4GB of RAM, all of which were recognised by the OS. It was a great machine and despite having ATI graphics inside, it miraculously survived BumpGate.
I'd been coveting a Thinkpad for a while. I just picked up a T60 and am shopping for upgrades now.
Well for those wondering, I did upgrade that T60 to max specs. I then realized I picked up the widescreen version, and me wanting to use this for some retro pc gaming, I quickly coveted the 4:3 model and now I own that as well, because I clearly have a problem.
What you did there's really cool, and , indeed, those keyboard is amazing for writing code;))
just found this channel...going to get a t60 so this is very informative.
This actually is the first video that I have seen about ThinkPads. Without this. My laptop wouldn't be a T440p. It would have been a Dell.
This Lenovo T60 was my first Laptop. I loved it. Got rid of it when I got an HP Compaq with similar specs but was an overall better laptop.
i really do like the video. keep up the good work.
Nice upgrade! Another upgrade to consider for the T60 is replacing the DVD drive with a caddy and a second HDD. Let us know how it goes if you decide to upgrade.
14:35 that domain name is really something from ten years ago! +1 for the nice reaview though!
Well yea I think you have a bit similar opinions to me. I use a T43p as a daily driver and it is great as-is! Windows 10 itself is also great as-is if you debloat it. You get Pentium M 780 2.26ghz single core and 2GB DDR2 as chipset limit. I am perfectly fine with 2GB RAM and Microsoft Edge with Adblock. Since I have the more expensive performance series I have the IPS high-res LCD. Trust me, it is awesome. The resolution is around HD+ to 1080p and its contrast and viewing angles are just unimaginable for today's people to think of a 2005 laptop. I suggest you to upgrade your panel to SXGA+ IPS OR UXGA IPS. The IPS panels are AWESOME! Yes they do cost a fortune but just try to find it first. And since you have T60 not a T43p, you don't have to worry about the LCD cable but instead you can only buy panels designed for T/R6x due to a EDID chip requirement while a T43p still works with T60p panel out of the box (assuming they are the same resolution).
You wouldn't want to switch back to XGA after that!
I love IBM ThinkPads - I use a z61t
Ok, seeing the speed made it even more interesting. The Dell Precision M65 I currently have (and use) does have that same T7200 CPU, and I was starting to wonder if the extra RAM and the SSD was worth getting it before upgrading the laptop or not (probably a second hand Thinkpad) This pretty much answers it.
I've been trying lightweight distros lately on that machine, and if you you are interested in trying some distros, try LXLE, it is based on Lubuntu LTS, but incredibly polished. Hard to ask for more while keeping the lightweight tag. I've found also wattOS, Ubuntu based, with LXDE or i3WM, but I do have yet to test that one out, but it indeed looks promising. Who knows, maybe that is the perfect excuse to get used to tiling WM and give them a fair try.
Thanks for pointing LXLE out. I bookmarked it!
Thanks for the processor link I will install it into my smaller thinkpad T60. Mine has a intel T2400 @ 1.83ghz
nice to see youg people are still impressed by these machines.Try to make the best t60 out there. Go for the Core2Duo T7600 since it is the most powerfull the t60 can handle, and also try to keep the memory sticks identical (even if you loose 1gig due to chipset limitiation, dual channel tehnollogy will work at it`s best).
Thanks for your video. Based on it I just upgraded my Lenovo T60. I obtained it for free, so I decided to upgrade it for fun to test if it is still useable nowadays.
It was originally equipped with BIOS v2.21 (2008-02-05), T2400 Core2 1.83MHz CPU, 0.5GB PC2-5300 667 MHz SO DIMM RAM, 60GB HDD 5400RPM, 14.1-inch XGA (1024x768 resolution) TFT display, 64MB ATI Mobility RADEON X1300 graphic chipset. I decided to upgrade it with BIOS v2.27 (2011-03-21), T7400 Core2 2.16GHz CPU, 4GB PC2-5300 667 MHz SO DIMM RAM, 500GB Crucial MX500 SSD.
I tested it with Windows 10 Pro v1909 64-bit. I found all hardware drivers except IrDA (drivers I found are non working both with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10), so I disabled IrDA in BIOS. I tested it with Passmark PerformanceTest 9.0 and my results are: overall Passmark score: 384 points, CPU mark: 1483, 2D mark: 255, 3D mark: 45, Memory mark: 591, Disk mark: 1393. Your T60 model was shipped with Intel 945GM graphic chipset, that's why your 3D Mark score is 0. Except mine Radeon X1300, there were T60 equipped with better ones like 128MB ATI Mobility RADEON X1400, 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 and 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5250.
What about T60 feelings in year 2020? Well, laptop is heavy copared to nowadays models :) My model is equipped with 14.1-inch XGA (1024x768) display, which means there is no way to set higher resolution, except if you connect it to external display device. For example Win10 settings sometimes are not able to fit the screen and you have to scroll it. Fonts are big, icons are big, everything is quite too big. There were also T60 equipped with 14.1-inch SXGA+ (1400x1050), 15 inch XGA (1024x768), 15 inch SXGA+ (1400x1050), 15 inch UXGA (1600x1200), 15.4 inch WXGA (1280x800) and 15.4 inch WSXGA+ (1680x1050). Brigthness of display could be better, but on maximum it's ok. Bettery life is horrible. On performance preferred power settings it can work up to about 1 hour. It initially says that it will work about 2h, but finally 1h on max brightness seems to be unavailable. Keyborad is great except Esc key is located above F1 (not the same line with F keys, so F keys are shifted to the left by 1 key). You cannot swap Fn and Cntrl keys in BIOS (later Lenovo models have this possibility), because Fn key is located where Ctrl key used to be. Volume up/down and mute keys are working but independently with Windows 10 volume setting. Volume can be adjusted from 0 to max using T60 keys, but it does not control Windows native volume slider. For example pressing mute sound you won't hear anything, but looking at Windows volume level you won't notice any change. You may see max volume while there will be no sound at all. A little bit strange, but It's ok, when you know it. SSD drive is limited to SATA1 speed, so SSD disk drive is fater than HDD, but not fast as is could be in modern laptops. With 4GB RAM only 3GB will be available for use even if 64-bit Windows is installed.
In my opinion T60 is still useable as office PC, good for internet surfing, but keep in mind that 1024x768 is not resolution which nowadays sites are designed for, so prepare to scrolling. Fortunatelly you can downscale browser's view which is still readable. Many older games with work fine on this hardware. I tested Minecraft Java Edition v1.12.2. It can be run but, but with render distance set to 6 and many other options set to off or low (using Optifine) FPS varies from 4 to 15. With render distance set to 4 you can play with 10 to 20 FPS.
Hi, good video, I experienced enjoyment whilst watching. Greetings from Europe.
lol imagine having an 802.11ad wireless card . enjoyed the vid i love watching old pcs get fast upgrades
You should install coreboot or libreboot on it it will speed up the boot time (Windows & Linux are both supported). That is what I did with my ThinkPad X200 and I simply love it.
Good stuff. I'll be upgrading my T1300 CPU to a T7xxx. Thanks for the info.
Such wholesome content. Subbed
Just got an R61. Love its Price performance. With all the upgrades I put in it and Lubuntu, its en par with every sub 600 $ Notebook out there. Except of course GPU wise. But for internet and 720p videos its perfectly fine. With Lubuntu Even most 1080p videos run allright on it. That is pretty amazing when you consider the crappy old Intel GPU, at least that one lasts, unlike the Nvidia Version, which unfortunately most of them are dead by today.
That is one bad ass laptop. Makes me wish my T420 didn't die
Nice quality video - quite strange watching it through the window of a T410 - and interesting comparison, they are not too dis-similar in performance, especially with an SSD, which probably helps also if swap is used, not just with loading programs. I've been avoiding SSD's but your video may well make me review this for my 410.
Awesome video! Just watched it throuhg to pass time to encode a video. I want to upgrade the CPUs in our old laptops now.
15:46 There's a song called "Scott's a Dork" by Reel Big Fish!
cool and solid vid! i love the iconic IBM logo. this is one of the last laptops with it. did basically the same upgrade with a z61m with titanium cover. bit a shame that these machines are limited to 3gb and doesn't support better cpu's. I have a suggestion to remove the hard thermal compound, a plastic card should help to scratch it off. to make it easier I would install the cpu first to hold it into the socket.
It's possible to do a frankenpad mod by using a certain T61/T61p maiboard that fits into the T60 case, and being able to use more than just 3GB since the T61 was already a 64 Bit chipset.
I still keep a T60 as a dedicated Windows XP island-system for all the things that i can only do under a real Windows XP environment. It's great for gaming. Especially on a model with 15' LCD with 1024x768 resolution and ATI X1300 of X1400 GPU. It runs most games from around 2001-2005 pretty damn good. You can even run Doom 3 on medium settings on the X1400 GPU model. The fact that it still has both PCMCIA Cardbus, Express card slot and Infrared port, makes this a VERY versatile machine. Much nicer than running a virtual machine. Sadly my model suffers from a really annoying high pitch noise almost like coil-whine.
Just upgraded the CPU of mine... unfortunately the missing piece (wiggling out the heatsink) was just the one giving me trouble. I had to bend the plastic rim with quite a bit of determination and two wires were taped to the top of the fan housing.
After reassembly, temperatures are not outstandingly great but OK (60°C idle, 75°C under cpu-z stressing) and I didn't kill the new old CPU so it's not a huge issue.
I have only watched 3 of your videos, I also bought a T60, it doesn't have the finger print reader yours came with and I didn't stick a SSD in it, just a windows XP for old games from time to time. I like your Nexdock Video too, and I bought a laptop like that with an atom processor. I really want to install windows XP or Win 7 on it though, can you make a video on how to go around the UEFI for installation? Thanks.
Good of you to do this!
I had the same laptop when i was younger. Got it from my uncle after he passed away. Since it was windows XP and I was 9 years old, it got pretty destroyed with virus’s. So bad to the point it wouldn’t connect to internet and couldn’t even power up normally. I kick myself for absolutely obliterating when I was bored. Maybe it could have been upgraded?
Samsung s4! That's awesome, it's my daily, you should try the (unnoficial) Android 10 rom for it, its really impressive
*As a former computer tech, these videos make me want to buy a few Lenovo/IBM T-series' and upgrade them.*
Hey, were you able to make the media controls, red nub, and fingerprint scanner work? If yes, where did you download the drivers from? Thanks and great video!
try Sam drivers
Grade video! You have a new subscriber.
9:23 i was working on a laptopt and watched your video, man that beeping gave me nearly a heart attack
Don't worry, you're rambling is awesome! ;P
I wonder what your tool collection looks like. I'll look around on the channel and see if there's a video about it...
@4:25 where you can see the CPUID, that is critical info if you are upgrading older systems where it can be harder to confirm compatible CPU upgrades.
That CPUID should be on the list of CPUIDs supported in the BIOS microcode. In almost all cases upgrading your BIOS to the latest build will give you the best CPU compatibility and might even be needed for installing a current OS on an older system.
Man, old thinkpads are cheap there. Here, T61 can still goes up equivalent to 100 USD. I'm still using T400 and I checked the market price, its still around 120+
You got a nice voice. So what do you think about using a caddy for expanding storage space ?
For brightness adjustment of that machine you have to press fn+home key
For lower the brightness you have to press fn+end key
Ha! What a neat laptop! I'm sure he'll enjoy it
I'm repairing an old T60 that was in the family for years, and swapping out all thermal paste with carbonaut so the paste won't degrade into more of an insulator over the years. Big oof super stoked
The only mistake I saw was using Arctic Silver 5. With it's 2 week break in period, convoluted break-in process, and need to be replaced every year (that comes directly from Arctic Silver's website) it is a terrible TIM for laptops or anything else that is intended to be a install and forget. It doesn't even work that well compared to more up to date TIM that cost the same, or even less. Gelid, Arctic Cooling, Noctua among others sell TIM that is performs and lasts considerably better/longer. AC5 may have been the best when it was released 10 years or so ago, but not today.
The 2 week break in period is not too big of a deal for this application. But yes, I do agree the break in process is a bit tedious. I cannot find anything on the Arctic Silver 5 web-page or safety datasheet indicating that it should be replaced every year. I believe you but could you post a link to the page where it says that, I would like to read up on it. Just out of curiosity what thermal paste do you prefer?
I prefer Gelid GC-Supreme, GC-Extreme, Arctic Cooling MX-2, or MX-4. iF i have on hand I go with GC-Supreme for general use and GC-Extreme for critical applications like overclocking.
I haven't gone to the Arctic Silver website in years as I stopped using it back in 2005 or 2006. I looked for the support document that stated it's useful lifespan (how often it needs to be re-applied) and didn't find it. All of the documents I found are dated much later than that so it's possible it isn't there any longer. I did a quick look in my archives of old support documents and didn't find a copy that I had downloaded, but I'll keep looking to see if I can find a copy of it as I know I downloaded it back in the day.
i really like that thumbnail! :)
Same, I was trying to make it really eye catching!
Your channel is really nice! I have an R61 and an T61 and I love them too. They are so easy to take apart and upgrade it. Here in Germany I had to pay about 70€ (75 Dollars) for each of them. Last week the T61 got an Samsung 850 EVO SSD with 250GB. Now it boots Windows 7 Pro 64Bit up in about 30 sec!
Why did you install Windows 10 on the T60 runs it better than Windows 7? Or needs your friend programms which only run on Win10? I haven't Win 10 on my PC's but my sister gets a PC from my father and me and we don't know what OS we should install.
Great vids! I have a few T42 I've been working on upgrading have you done any upgrade or have advice on hardware/software combo Thanks for vids
Pretty sure the extra gig of memory will be allocated to helping the intel 945 as video memory....if I’m not mistaken.
Will a t61 be a good school machine for first year in collage? I'm thinking to buy one just for coding , exercises and RUclips.
Youre doing great work with your videos jeep it up!