Comments on: Review of My New Thinkpad T61

By: Steve DeLong

Steve DeLong — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:24:21 +0000

Hi Jeff,
I use a Quadro FX 570 card in the PCI-E slot. I'm using vista ultimate. I can use the built in LCD and have 3 external LCD's. I'm sure I could put one more on. Biggest problem I have is every reboot I have to reset the position of my monitors.

Good-luck

Steve

By: Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:13:06 +0000

@ Jeff Clark. Using the pass through connectors on the advanced dock + using a low profile graphics card for even more monitors? Pics explain it better than I could:

www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-68889.html

I looked into it a while back but was put off by reports of the dock having a really noisy fan.

By: Jeff Clark

Jeff Clark — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:07:02 +0000

I am running XP Pro. I know I've read somewhere on the web that people are doing this successfully with XP. I think it's with an ATI chipset. Thanks.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:59:01 +0000

Jeff, I'm not aware of any method to display 3 screens at the same time using any of the available integrated video cards. Brian Flay above suggests the following:

EVGA has a product "UV Plus+" that is a USB VGA display adapter (www.evga.com/uvplus); you can have as many displays as you do USB ports.

By: Jeff Clark

Jeff Clark — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:06:12 +0000

I've been reading through the comments and am now confused… I have a Thinkpad T61P with the Advanced Dock (PCI-E). The internal video chipset is the NVidia Quadro FX 570M. I currently have 2 external 22" LCD's connected to the dock's DVI and Analog connectors. What video card will work to allow me to either connect another external LCD or at least use the internal LCD with the existing LCD's? Are there multiple options or just one? Thanks!

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:40:47 +0000

It sounds like you have a failed or failing hard drive to me. I've had zero problems since performing a clean install of Vista; not sure that I'd recommend the system restore reinstall as you still may get some programs you don't want. Or you could just perform a clean install of Windows 7 beta; free download from Microsoft.

By: Suffering user

Suffering user — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:34:24 +0000

I dunno how everyone else seems to be having +ve experiences with the T61. Perhaps I have some installation quirks. Often when I take the running T61 off the ac-power, it plain hangs—becoming unresponsive and responding to only a hard reboot. Finally, today that happened one times too many, and now the laptop refuses to start up at all — despite having performed a system restore via the pre-installed ThinkVantage utility. I am surprised to observe such behavior from a thinkpad, and dont know if it is the Thinkpad or the Vista professional on top which killed everything. However, I think it is about time that I went over to the Macs….

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:06:07 +0000

Mick: Yes, it will work.

By: Mick Mandalay

Mick Mandalay — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:23:11 +0000

Great info here but I have a quick question:

I have a T61 with the nvidia NVS140 but my screen is a 15.4"@1680×1050. I also own an advanced mini-dock (the one with the DVI etc but WITHOUT the PCIe slot).

My question is will this setup drive a 2560×1600 screen? The reason I ask is that the T61 you (Carlton) own has a 14" screen with a lower res. I just wonder if it will work properly before I make the jump and order the Dell 30".

By: Brian Flay

Brian Flay — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:43:51 +0000

There is another option for those who want to run more than two external monitors. EVGA has a product "UV Plus+" that is a USB VGA display adapter (www.evga.com/uvplus). Each one can run an external VGA monitor and you can run as many of these as you have USB ports on your machine – in addition to the two that you can run on the minidoc!

By: Brian Flay

Brian Flay — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:39:19 +0000

Great website and review of the T61p. I had an experience getting the Dell 30" monitor to work properly that some others might benefit from.

I can testify that the Thinkpad T61p with the docking station with DVI output (part #250410U) will drive the 3007EFP monitor correctly.

However, it did take some fiddling around to find out how to get it going correctly. At first, it was very dark most of the time. I tried using the Thinkpad Presentation Director software to set it up, but it could not handle the 2560×1600 resolution. I called Dell and they said that the computer could not run it. I called Lenovo and they even said that the computer could not handle that large a resolution! I then had a tech person from my place of employment come over and he solved it in seconds.

You have to use the NVIDIA Control Panel (it shows when you left click on the desktop). It will recognize the screen right away. You may have to correct the resolution (but at least if provides the correct resolution as an option), and if the color is off, you can correct it under the "Adjust desktop color settings" option — where you can click on "Restore Defaults" in the upper right-hand corner. Since getting it set up correctly, it works like a charm. I have one at home and one at the office, and I can simply close the lid (set to go into Sleep mode), move from one docking station to the other, and open the lid.

I hope that people on other lists get to see this – because this information is hard to find!!

By: Deepak Ayyala

Deepak Ayyala — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:15:10 +0000

Hi,
I've been using a T61 for 8 months and for the first two months, the system worked absolutely great. After that, I started having troubles after I get out of the sleep mode.
The system works fine for 5-10 minutes after coming out of the sleep mode, but then it stops from responding. I ran PC Doctor, found a problem in the Hard Drive and got it replaced.
It was fine for a week but the problem persisted. I recently got the fan of the laptop replaced, but still it hangs after I come out of the sleep mode.

I updated my Drivers and BIOS and still am facing the problem.
What can I do to work peacefully with this system?

Thanks,

Deepak.

By: MIke

MIke — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:12:06 +0000

I have the T61 and am running 2 monitors on my dock (1 on DVI and 1 VGA). My problem is that every time I undock and use the laptop without the dock, I have to reset my display settings and my desktop icons get moved around as well. The same thing happens when I re-dock. Does anyone know how I can get around this?

Thanks,

Mike

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:12:51 +0000

Yes, the Dock with a DVI connection will fix the problem.

By: dtbsz

dtbsz — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:09:08 +0000

I have an issue to. I have a T61 with the nVidia Quadro NVS 140 video card and a Samnusng 970p monitor. I used it with a desktop computer on dvi. Wokred fine. Now when I plug it in on vga (I have no dvi on my t61) I have a signal issue I think. Everything has a ghost kindof effect.

I'm planning to buy this:
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/cr/products.nsf/$wwwPartnumLookup/_39T4587?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_expressepi=web_express#Compatibility

Will it fix my problem?

By: Herwig

Herwig — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:23:49 +0000

Hi Carlton,

thanks a lot, your hint with the DPI settings helped a lot. Honestly, I have never ever needed that one in the past as all my laptops came to me setup in an eye-friendly way. I still feel that this is more as a patch as a 'normal' seeting as it does somewhat make the icons and fonts look strange compared to leaving DPIs at standard size – but I guess that is always the problem you have with scaling. This PC is by the way running on XP, but I agree with you, Vista is not bad at all (I have it at my beloved Dell at home

But in short: Thanks a lot again for saving my eyesight!

Now I just have to learn to live with all the other shortcomings ('unique' keyboard, too small touchpad and buttons misplaced, battery sticking out, ugly design, eighties style large (and descentered) frame around the screen, flimsy plasticy feeling, unstable docking station, ……… ) until it dies

By: Wes W.

Wes W. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:50:59 +0000

This echos my similar experience with my new T61 which I've only had about two weeks. I also suggest UNINSTALLING Diskeeper Lite, as there is no other way to make that absurd tray icon go away. Instead, create a batch file with "defrag c: -b" and "defrag c: -v" on a separate line, each. Add similar entries for other drives you wish to defrag. Safe the files as "C:\Program Files\AutoDefrag.bat". Next save the following code as "AutoDefrag.vbs" as this will run the defrag silently.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\Program Files\AutoDefrag.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing

Now you can schedule the AutoDefrag.vbs with Windows' Scheduled Tasks to run on a frequency of your choice without being interrupted by a command terminal popup. You can also invoke your .bat file anytime to manually run, but you'll see the popup window.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:46:16 +0000

Herwig, I think you're looking at the pixel density from the wrong perspective. It's not about fitting more desktop real estate into a given screen size, but rather keeping the desktop the same size and giving more detail to what is being displayed. Think of a 0.25" tall letter being displayed on a 14" screen. It will look better if 1,000 pixels are used to draw the letter than if 600 pixels are used. The key is to scale what is displayed by the operating system to use higher pixel density. Adjusting the DPI setting is the best way to do this. Windows XP handles this pretty well, Windows Vista does it even better. Despite all of the anti-Vista talk you hear, I've a very positive experience with the features and zero stability problems. (I initially had a failing hard drive – the "weird bouncing sound" – that I incorrectly thought was a Vista-related problem.)

The keyboard feel is exactly the big advantage of the ThinkPad. It has the best feel of any laptop keyboard I've used and is a joy for typing even after many hours of continuous use. No keyboard flex, great keystroke feel, perfect amount of key depression effort, etc. I agree that the control key is in a weird location. I think it is actually a better location (not as much finger stretch for ctrl+c, ctrl+v), but I hate that it is different than any other keyboard I use. As for the ESC key, I've never had a problem with it – it's still in the far upper right corner, but I can see that it could take some getting used to.

By: Herwig

Herwig — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:35:54 +0000

Hello Carlton,
thanks for replying so quickly. I already tried to adjust the font sizes etc, but this first of all looks dreadfull and secondly doesn't look great on the external screen I use in the office.
I wonder why Lenovo decided to squeeze such a high native resolution in such a small screen, doesn't seem to make sense to me or am I missing something?

Based on the positive feedback on this machine that you have written above:
What is it that you like so particularly about the keyboard? I personally find it dreadfull, being used to Dell, HP and Compaq: The Ctrl and the Esc keys are completely misplaced, and the buttons for the touchpad are too low/almost on the edge, not allowing for confortable working. The response on the keys is good though, that I have to admit. But honestly, I want my Dell back!

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Herwig: This issue is not specific to Thinkpads or even laptops; all LCD screens should be run only at their native resolution. If the font size is too small, increase the front size (small->large). If the menus and the fonts are too small, increase the DPI setting. Both of these are standard options in the Windows Control Panel – Display Settings (used the Advanced button to get to DPI setting.) You need admin access to change these settings.