Definitely standing the test of time, I'd browse the web on one. The mystery LED you mentioned is just an "on" LED, its on when the computer is booted up and not in standby mode. Upgrade to 4GB if its not already there, put a SSD in there, and it will do very well. I've got a bunch of videos on my channel for upgrading these and doing maintenance (lubing fan bearings and replacing the HSF as you mention yours needs). Keep the Thinkpad videos alive!
Just revived my T61 that had been in storage for years, after the purchase of my X201. Threw in an SSHD I had lying around, with little hope it'd be any good. Well, I'm really pleased to say that I'm typing from the T61 right now ! T7300, 3GB RAM and no SSD. Using Ubuntu 20.04, and Firefox (Chrome was useless). My backlights are badly faded though...
dunno if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me atm then you can stream all of the latest series on instaflixxer. I've been streaming with my girlfriend during the lockdown =)
I have a ThinkPad X61s which has a 12 inch 1024×768 display and I love it. It has a core 2 Duo L7700 processor and 3 GB of RAM. It runs Windows 10 32 bit. It’s a great little laptop. As you say it gets the job done. It works fine for web browsing and watching RUclips videos in 720p. it’s a lot slower than your machine though as it uses a HDD instead of an SSD. Mine also takes a lot longer to boots up as it lingers on the BIOS for about a minute for some reason.
I'm currently tying this comment on my T61. I ordered this 15.4" model from the Lenovo website back in 2008 brand new. I used to use this laptop every single day up until 2019. My iPad Pro 12.9" model took over this laptop's tasks ( pretty much just browsing the web, RUclips, typing some papers here and there, etc. ). I also have an X301 that I also ordred brand new from Lenovo back in 2009. The X301 is MINT with not even 100 hours hard drive on time. My T61 is going on 30,000 power on hours. Went though one battery and that's IT. The rest is just as it came from the factory almost 13 years ago. Pretty impressive. I think I got my $900 worth out of it so far haha
Those old ThinkPad certainly are remarkable machines. Build to last unlike modern laptops these days which break apart after a few years. I recently bought a ThinkPad X61 off eBay for around £80 (around $100) with a 12 inch 1024×768 display and I love it.
Put the Middleton bios on your T61! I have two of these. One is standard version like yours, the other is the later 14-inch "wide" version. Both great computers. I'm using Linux Mint MATE 18.3 on both. All the components worked after the install, no extra drivers needed - bluetooth, NVidia 140M, FW, USB, all of it. I did add the extra proprietary drivers for the NVidia, but that was a very simple task.
I bought myself a thinkpad t61 just a couple of days ago for 12 euro's! A very good price for such a good machine, it had a T7300 in it (i dropped in a T7500 which is a bit faster), the quadro nvs140 graphics, originally 2gb of ram (i upgraded it to 4), battery in a working state and power brick offcourse. Only issue, the dvd burner seems to be dead, it doesn't read dvd's anymore. Which isn't a huge deal, almost nobody uses dvd's anyway. I am very happy with this machine and for the price i paid, it was a steal!
I bought my t61 14.1 wide for 28$, and found factory 85wh battery in aftermarket. After half-year using, I think it's great machine. It has a lot of features and I feel comfortable using it for my programming tasks. Also it has a lot of variations to upgrade.
I tried to do my university exercises and projects in Java/C using Visual Studio Code in my t61, but the 4gb of RAM are, in my opinion, too low. I use Ubuntu 20.04. Only Firefox and VSC uses 50-60% of RAM without doing any hard work (just open it). Sometimes it gets slow and laggy but a restart will resolve that. Occasionally has network problems but I think I have to replace the wifi card or do something with the drivers. I am thinking of switching to an ssd for better performance. Btw it's a really good (and good looking) device considering the age.
Mine has 4GB RAM and a T8300 processor ( with a 32 bit version of Window 10) and is used daily. These, like almost all T series Lenovos are best of breed. Mine is used for internet browsing, email and document editing beside my TV chair and it just excels in this role. I expect it will earn it's keep for years to come.
@@mariusberger3297 hmm, the c2D with DDR3? still i like my T61p but i had to modify it to have both pcmcia and expresscard. Came with neither, such a rare laptop that i was using to attach 2 eGPUs, 1 via expresscard and 1 via dock. This let me have hot swappable GPUs and i used to play games with this before.
Yup, Windows 10 runs well on these old machines, especially with an SSD. I have a ThinkPad X61, with very similar specs to this guys laptop. Except it has a HDD instead of an SSD, so it’s quite a lot slower.
Got a T61P with a 64 bit Windows OS, SSD and 8 GB of RAM, and it cooks. Very happy with it. Your machine had a T8100 processor. Even faster with a T9500 or T9300 :)
Had a t61p given to me by my company, the company went under, never asked for computer back. years later I paid 50 dollars for a t61, (same computer different size screen) with about 4gb of ram in them, and a ssd. im shocked how well they still manage. I mean your not going to be doing crazy high proccesing on them, but with windows 10, etc its amazing still viable all these years later.
If you load the Middleton BIOS (use a live CD or USB, not Windows!) that removes the hardware whitelist and adds other features. Spinning rust drives in notebooks are horrible and that era were woefully slow, but small SSD are cheap and T61s run live Linux nicely off USB. (You can also install Windows-to-Go on USB if you prefer.) The RAM is the second issue and if you can manage at least 4GB (8GB is better, see the Thinkwiki and Thinkpad forums for details on what SODIMMs work best) it helps considerably. Given the desperate lack of RAM on most T61s a light distro with jwm (like Ubuntu-based Puppy Linux) is worth considering. With more RAM I prefer Xubuntu. The easy way to try any distro is boot live off USB, but T61s have been well supported for many years so install what you prefer (you can always install a lighter WM later if wanted).
i have a t61 right now, i absolutely love it, i have more modern laptops but every time i need a laptop i seem to use this one, the only thing i do not like is the headphone jack on the front, gets in the way of my hand on the trackpad.
T61 is still nice computer. Very similar to T400/T410. But major downfall if you need more than 4GB of ram is that T61 uses DDR2 ram. Which means upgrading to 8GB will be pretty pricey. You can get used T420/T420S for not much more money and can upgrade to 16GB DDR3 ram for not much money.
Just noticed .. your T61 is very much different than mine. You have your speakers on teh sides, mine are behind teh keyboard at the back. I guess it's that mine is a 15.4" 1680 x 1050 display.
Hello greetings !. I have two Lenovo T61 ThinkPad laptops and I see you did a great job. Could you guide me to make my laptops work like this? I'd like to give my computers a second life, please. An excellent job what you do 👌
Yes if you upgrade it.I have one without the stock HDD and 2gb ram and a core 2 duo.It is viable if you aren’t doing anything too important it runs web browsing well.Also this is just a tip use Linux for best performance
Kinda of a throw of the dice because you dont really know the state of the fans bearings . Had a X231 for a couple of years until the fan bearings were finished and would be to much of an endeavor to find a replacement one ...
just bought this model refurbished 95£ after a little time updating it i find it a bargain to be had sure you can pay £500 for a new model with the same specs if you got loads of money to spend?
I too used the same laptop for 2 years so I recommend you to install windows 8.1 cuz its. Alot fast The 8.1 is more reliable than linux in ThinkPad t61 this is just my opinion
I don't see what you mean, I'm using GNU/Linux on my ThinkPad T61 and it's been very reliable. Running Archcraft, it's pretty snappy and gets the job done. ThinkPads are loved and very well supported by the Linux community, so that's to be expected. That said, Windows has come a long way and isn't that bad of a choice if you don't really mind the proprietary nature of it.
@@fightforfreedom5292 good question. I dont think ive ever seen a mouse floating around so the track pad or the weird red nipple must have done the job. I know theres a video out there of a thinkpad floating outside of its mount and its hard drive spins up to access a file and the entire laptop starts rotating in the opposite direction because of conserv. ang. momentum lol
Anything after the Core 2 Duo series of ThinkPads is perfectly viable. I used a machine (not _technically_ a ThinkPad) with a 3rd-gen i3 processor all throughout school, it was nice and much faster than any weird Atom or Celeron series laptop you would be getting in a similar price bracket. Truly the only thing I wanted out of it was an IPS 1080p screen.
linux mint mate v19 shud easily install and run like a charm for a long time..... i am collecting these and putting them in a farady bin with moisture/humidity suckers/gel crystals just incase we get hit by a huge CME and bye bye grid, atleast i will still have entertainment :) ohhh and my digital survival library. :) So wheres our update?
Yup should make a up date you nailed it mod the heck out of it with ram and GPU sense it possible it's a beastt still better than most new computer definitely don't make things like they use to. This is the only laptop that truly unlimited make you think 💻🖱️💯🛠️✌️💪🤯
![Does the ThinkPad T60 still hold up 16 years later? [T60 in 2022]](/img/1.gif)
Definitely standing the test of time, I'd browse the web on one. The mystery LED you mentioned is just an "on" LED, its on when the computer is booted up and not in standby mode. Upgrade to 4GB if its not already there, put a SSD in there, and it will do very well. I've got a bunch of videos on my channel for upgrading these and doing maintenance (lubing fan bearings and replacing the HSF as you mention yours needs). Keep the Thinkpad videos alive!
Just revived my T61 that had been in storage for years, after the purchase of my X201. Threw in an SSHD I had lying around, with little hope it'd be any good. Well, I'm really pleased to say that I'm typing from the T61 right now ! T7300, 3GB RAM and no SSD. Using Ubuntu 20.04, and Firefox (Chrome was useless). My backlights are badly faded though...
dunno if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me atm then you can stream all of the latest series on instaflixxer. I've been streaming with my girlfriend during the lockdown =)
@Talon Alec definitely, I've been using InstaFlixxer for months myself =)
@@DuckSherminatorWhat can you do with lighting, do you think?
My T61's rocking Windows 2000 and Arca OS as a dual boot solution. It's not an everyday solution but I still absolutely love it to shreds.
I have a ThinkPad X61s which has a 12 inch 1024×768 display and I love it. It has a core 2 Duo L7700 processor and 3 GB of RAM. It runs Windows 10 32 bit. It’s a great little laptop. As you say it gets the job done. It works fine for web browsing and watching RUclips videos in 720p. it’s a lot slower than your machine though as it uses a HDD instead of an SSD. Mine also takes a lot longer to boots up as it lingers on the BIOS for about a minute for some reason.
I'm currently tying this comment on my T61. I ordered this 15.4" model from the Lenovo website back in 2008 brand new. I used to use this laptop every single day up until 2019. My iPad Pro 12.9" model took over this laptop's tasks ( pretty much just browsing the web, RUclips, typing some papers here and there, etc. ). I also have an X301 that I also ordred brand new from Lenovo back in 2009. The X301 is MINT with not even 100 hours hard drive on time. My T61 is going on 30,000 power on hours. Went though one battery and that's IT. The rest is just as it came from the factory almost 13 years ago. Pretty impressive. I think I got my $900 worth out of it so far haha
Those old ThinkPad certainly are remarkable machines. Build to last unlike modern laptops these days which break apart after a few years. I recently bought a ThinkPad X61 off eBay for around £80 (around $100) with a 12 inch 1024×768 display and I love it.
Put the Middleton bios on your T61! I have two of these. One is standard version like yours, the other is the later 14-inch "wide" version. Both great computers. I'm using Linux Mint MATE 18.3 on both. All the components worked after the install, no extra drivers needed - bluetooth, NVidia 140M, FW, USB, all of it. I did add the extra proprietary drivers for the NVidia, but that was a very simple task.
I bought myself a thinkpad t61 just a couple of days ago for 12 euro's! A very good price for such a good machine, it had a T7300 in it (i dropped in a T7500 which is a bit faster), the quadro nvs140 graphics, originally 2gb of ram (i upgraded it to 4), battery in a working state and power brick offcourse. Only issue, the dvd burner seems to be dead, it doesn't read dvd's anymore. Which isn't a huge deal, almost nobody uses dvd's anyway. I am very happy with this machine and for the price i paid, it was a steal!
I bought my t61 14.1 wide for 28$, and found factory 85wh battery in aftermarket. After half-year using, I think it's great machine. It has a lot of features and I feel comfortable using it for my programming tasks. Also it has a lot of variations to upgrade.
Just curious, what kind of programming you do on this machine? And how is it?
I tried to do my university exercises and projects in Java/C using Visual Studio Code in my t61, but the 4gb of RAM are, in my opinion, too low.
I use Ubuntu 20.04.
Only Firefox and VSC uses 50-60% of RAM without doing any hard work (just open it). Sometimes it gets slow and laggy but a restart will resolve that.
Occasionally has network problems but I think I have to replace the wifi card or do something with the drivers.
I am thinking of switching to an ssd for better performance.
Btw it's a really good (and good looking) device considering the age.
Mine has 4GB RAM and a T8300 processor ( with a 32 bit version of Window 10) and is used daily. These, like almost all T series Lenovos are best of breed. Mine is used for internet browsing, email and document editing beside my TV chair and it just excels in this role. I expect it will earn it's keep for years to come.
I decided to spend a bit more and went with a T420, an absolutely gorgeous computer indeed. Scored a T400 just today, it will be my new XP machine
T420 - sandy bridge 2nd gen iseries
t400 - 1st gen iseries
they can be servers
@@System0Error0Message the T400 is a C2D machine, the T410 was the first one with core i series processors
@@mariusberger3297 hmm, the c2D with DDR3?
still i like my T61p but i had to modify it to have both pcmcia and expresscard. Came with neither, such a rare laptop that i was using to attach 2 eGPUs, 1 via expresscard and 1 via dock. This let me have hot swappable GPUs and i used to play games with this before.
Wow...goes to show about the reliability of vintage ThinkPads. I'm stunned you have Win10 running on your T61 with no big problems.
Yup, Windows 10 runs well on these old machines, especially with an SSD. I have a ThinkPad X61, with very similar specs to this guys laptop. Except it has a HDD instead of an SSD, so it’s quite a lot slower.
Got a T61P with a 64 bit Windows OS, SSD and 8 GB of RAM, and it cooks. Very happy with it. Your machine had a T8100 processor. Even faster with a T9500 or T9300 :)
Had a t61p given to me by my company, the company went under, never asked for computer back. years later I paid 50 dollars for a t61, (same computer different size screen) with about 4gb of ram in them, and a ssd. im shocked how well they still manage. I mean your not going to be doing crazy high proccesing on them, but with windows 10, etc its amazing still viable all these years later.
that's not minidisplay up front, that's a Firewire connector. Also, the slot on the left side is for PCMCIA cards and Expresscards.
If you load the Middleton BIOS (use a live CD or USB, not Windows!) that removes the hardware whitelist and adds other features. Spinning rust drives in notebooks are horrible and that era were woefully slow, but small SSD are cheap and T61s run live Linux nicely off USB. (You can also install Windows-to-Go on USB if you prefer.) The RAM is the second issue and if you can manage at least 4GB (8GB is better, see the Thinkwiki and Thinkpad forums for details on what SODIMMs work best) it helps considerably. Given the desperate lack of RAM on most T61s a light distro with jwm (like Ubuntu-based Puppy Linux) is worth considering. With more RAM I prefer Xubuntu. The easy way to try any distro is boot live off USB, but T61s have been well supported for many years so install what you prefer (you can always install a lighter WM later if wanted).
i have a t61 right now, i absolutely love it, i have more modern laptops but every time i need a laptop i seem to use this one, the only thing i do not like is the headphone jack on the front, gets in the way of my hand on the trackpad.
T61 is still nice computer. Very similar to T400/T410. But major downfall if you need more than 4GB of ram is that T61 uses DDR2 ram. Which means upgrading to 8GB will be pretty pricey. You can get used T420/T420S for not much more money and can upgrade to 16GB DDR3 ram for not much money.
Just noticed .. your T61 is very much different than mine. You have your speakers on teh sides, mine are behind teh keyboard at the back. I guess it's that mine is a 15.4" 1680 x 1050 display.
The fans need grease and care when noisy. It's not right to blame that thing when you are there.
Hello greetings !. I have two Lenovo T61 ThinkPad laptops and I see you did a great job. Could you guide me to make my laptops work like this? I'd like to give my computers a second life, please. An excellent job what you do 👌
Yes if you upgrade it.I have one without the stock HDD and 2gb ram and a core 2 duo.It is viable if you aren’t doing anything too important it runs web browsing well.Also this is just a tip use Linux for best performance
I just recently acquired one.
Same here. Are you going to put a Linux distro on it?
@@efrainrodriguez-arzaga6379 It's not worth to put windows on it. I have mine with Kali on hdd and it works really good.
Zzzione is there a specific version of kali you recommend?
@@efrainrodriguez-arzaga6379 Usual 64-bit Kali
That's me
I'm thinking about getting a T61 for typewriting. Thanks for making the video, helped me out.
last week - I got 1 Donated - for FREE
in perfect condition
works like new
even the original battery
only 40 % wear
great machine
How does it work if you install a Linux distro like Linux Mint?
It works well on mint.But dont use gnome on it or use any gnome distro because gnome is very slow
This ThinkPad model is a ThinkPad T61 14.1".
Kinda of a throw of the dice because you dont really know the state of the fans bearings . Had a X231 for a couple of years until the fan bearings were finished and would be to much of an endeavor to find a replacement one ...
claro que sim estou usando um agora e por sinal muito bom
just bought this model refurbished 95£ after a little time updating it i find it a bargain to be had sure you can pay £500 for a new model with the same specs if you got loads of money to spend?
watching this vid through T61p :)
what is the resolution on that model? I had one back in 2008 and just bought another one for $15 USD complete with the battery and charger.
A lot of 14.1 wide screen t61 has 1280x800 screen, but exist another screens on this laptop, that has resolution 1440x900 with equal diagonal.
I too used the same laptop for 2 years so I recommend you to install windows 8.1 cuz its. Alot fast
The 8.1 is more reliable than linux in ThinkPad t61 this is just my opinion
I don't see what you mean, I'm using GNU/Linux on my ThinkPad T61 and it's been very reliable. Running Archcraft, it's pretty snappy and gets the job done. ThinkPads are loved and very well supported by the Linux community, so that's to be expected. That said, Windows has come a long way and isn't that bad of a choice if you don't really mind the proprietary nature of it.
Windows 8.1 is horrible I much prefer Windows 10 or Windows 7.
the only laptop on the space station lol. well except for some older thinkpads
Did they use finger pads on the space station?
@@fightforfreedom5292 good question. I dont think ive ever seen a mouse floating around so the track pad or the weird red nipple must have done the job.
I know theres a video out there of a thinkpad floating outside of its mount and its hard drive spins up to access a file and the entire laptop starts rotating in the opposite direction because of conserv. ang. momentum lol
Este video lo estoy viendo con un T61, y anda de 10. Creo al menos es una maquina utilizable por 5 años mas.
Ptegunta, veo q no tiene cámara frontal, no te hace falta, sabiendo que ahora todo es virtual
@@yesidvalderramavalero9134 La uso con una web cam externa.
does anyone know if this laptop has internal microphone?
would keep this laptop just if it works and how good it is
I too have the same thinkpad
Am using this but recently lcd got crashed
Is it? Meh yeah kinda. Will you have a good time? no
Anything after the Core 2 Duo series of ThinkPads is perfectly viable. I used a machine (not _technically_ a ThinkPad) with a 3rd-gen i3 processor all throughout school, it was nice and much faster than any weird Atom or Celeron series laptop you would be getting in a similar price bracket. Truly the only thing I wanted out of it was an IPS 1080p screen.
linux mint mate v19 shud easily install and run like a charm for a long time..... i am collecting these and putting them in a farady bin with moisture/humidity suckers/gel crystals just incase we get hit by a huge CME and bye bye grid, atleast i will still have entertainment :) ohhh and my digital survival library. :) So wheres our update?
CNN Really don’t like Trump do they?
Most don't
Trump2020!
Why would you get political like that on a video about laptops
Yup should make a up date you nailed it mod the heck out of it with ram and GPU sense it possible it's a beastt still better than most new computer definitely don't make things like they use to. This is the only laptop that truly unlimited make you think 💻🖱️💯🛠️✌️💪🤯