Review of My New Thinkpad T61
Posted by Carlton Bale on September 9th, 2007
I received my new Lenovo Thinkpad T61 and I've had a couple of days to play around with it. In summary, it is one awesome piece of hardware; this is the best laptop I've used. Unfortunately, it's not perfect. Windows Vista looks beautiful, but it's pretty slow and unreliable as compared to XP. Also, battery life is shorter than I expected (due to the power hungry nVidia graphics card and maybe due to Vista power management.) Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Keyboard: This keyboard is incredible; it has a great feel to it and the large, white letters on the black keys make them very easy to read. I dislike the keyboard on my Dell D620 even more now and am not overly impressed by the feel of the MacBook Pro keyboard. The ThinkPad keyboard is the best.
- Think Light keyboard light: I love having a keyboard light! The backlit illuminated keyboard on a MacBook Pro is beautiful and extremely easy on the eyesl. The ThinkPad uses a somewhat crude yet practical approach with a single white LED above the screen that shines down on the keyboard. But when the lights are off, when you occasionally need to hunt for a key, they light works.
- nVidia Quadro NVS 140 Video Card+ Docking Station: runs my 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor at full resolution (2560×1600) with no problems. That's exactly what I need. Many laptops can't address a monitor that requires dual-link DVI; a ThinkPad with an nVidia graphics card can. The higher resolution options were not initially presented through the Windows video control panel; I had to use the nVidia control panel to select the 2560×1600 resolution.
- Also note that DVI dual-link is a single DVI connection using 14 pins (instead of the standard 8 pins.) This allows a single DVI connector to driver high resolution monitors (above approximately 1900×1400 pixels. DVI dual-link is not the same a two DVI connectors for driving 2 monitors — see this wikipedia article.
- Clear WXGA+ Screen: The higher resolution WXGA+ screen is extremely clear and very easy to read. I was concerned that the font may be difficult to read at this high of a pixel density, but it is very sharp and clear using the default Windows settings.
- Fingerprint reader: It has worked flawlessly after I got through the initial print entry. I love how quickly I can now sign-on to Windows; it makes the multi-user feature of Windows pain-free.
- Three raised mouse buttons: I love having 3 mouse buttons and the fact that they are raised above the adjacent surface to make them easier to depress. I absolutely hate the 2 recessed trackpoint button on my Dell D620; the ThinkPad buttons are perfect.
- Trackpoint: It is very configurable via the Thinkpad utility, so I can add options such as "tap to select"
- Touch Pad: the touch pad is very configurable; the extra options for scrolling, scroll continuation, and corner taps make the touchpad useful, but I still spend most of my time using the TrackPoint.
- Keyboard customization utility: This little utility allows keyboard remapping of both the internal and an external keyboard, so your can initiate the special Fn+F7 to toggle internal/external monitors and any other of the special Functions.
- Lenovo System Update Utility: Automatic updating of drivers and Lenovo software; much better than with any other manufacturer I've experienced.
- Build quality: This is one solid laptop. It's rigid, purposeful, and balanced
- Docking Station: It's great that there is a docking station available: fast docking for charging, mouse, and monitor.
- Easy to Upgrade: I upgraded to 2GB of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) memory as soon as I unboxed my laptop. Instead of looking for service instructions, I decided to figure it out myself. I flipped over the T61 and each one of the screws that had to be removed to access the memory was labeled with a small icon. I unscrewed each one, the cover popped off, and the memory was right there.
Cons:
- Screen Blanking 6 Seconds after Logon: 6 seconds after I log on or unlock Windows Vista, the screen goes completely blank and then immediately comes back on. This closes the start menu (if I opened it during those first 6 seconds) and also resets the screen brightness to a default level, rather than the level I manually selected prior to the screen locking. This is annoying. Leave the display as it was. Switching back from the logon screen should be completely seamless and it isn't.
- Weird "Bouncing" Sound from Front Right of ThinkPad: About every 5 minutes or so, I hear a weird sound from the front right of the T61 where the hard drive is located. I pretty sure it's the hard drive. It sounds similar to a small wooden ball being dropped on a hard surface from about a 1/4-inch height. It's not loud, but it is persistent and annoying. I'd buy a different hard drive if I knew it would eliminate the sound. It's not the accelerometer detecting motion and parking the drive heads; I disabled that protection feature and the sound continue to occur.
- ThinkVantage password manager: It is supposed to allow fingerprint-protected automatic password entry of passwords on websites. But for WordPress, when I go to create a new post on my site, the password manager box pops-up for no apparent reason (that is not prompting for a password.) It seems best to leave password management to Firefox.
- Disk Keeper Slows Everything Down (w/default settings): It is automatically scheduled to defragment the hard drive, which kills the battery and slows the computer. This shouldn't be the default setting, it's best to disable this software and run it manually.
- No Auto-Wake on Lid Open: When I close the lid, Windows can be set to automatically go to sleep (although I have this feature disabled.) What I really want is for the ThinkPad to automatically wake-up when I open the like, the way a MacBook Pro does. Why else would I be opening the lid if I didn't want to use my computer? Why must I push the power button; can't it just turn on?
- No DVI-I port on the ThinkPad: There should be a DVI-I port on the ThinkPad instead of the VGA port. DVI-I supports both analog and digital signals, so a small dongle converts it to a standard VGA port. Plus a DVI-I port can drive a digital flat panel monitor (such as my Dell 3007WFP 30" monitor). Instead, I have to purchase a docking station just to connect to my external monitor. I would have purchased the docking station anyway, but I shouldn't be required to do so.
- Windows Vista stability and Issues: I initially had problems, but after I installed all of the updates and rebooted, there have been much fewer problems. Unfortunately, ShutterFly software and the ShutterFly Firefox plug-in both crash on Vista (not XP.) Also, the power save feature doesn't work properly — it's set to sleep after 10 minutes, but it stays on until the battery is dead. When the screen is deactivated due to the power save feature and it reactivated, it goes to a default brightness level, not the one I had manually set 20 seconds before the screen momentarily powered down.
- I ordered a CD burner instead of a DVD burner: I figured I'd save $50 and burn DVDs on my desktop PC if I needed to do so. But when I was burning 8 CDs to create the backup media, I knew I'd made a mistake. When I downloaded a 1 GB iso file that needed to be burned to a DVD, I was positive I made a mistake. I should have gotten the DVD+CD burner instead of the CD-only burner.
Other Application-specific thoughts:
I tried using Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook since they are the default Windows programs; I wanted to avoid additional installs. Outlook was unbearably slow syncing with my IMAP server. After an hour of frustration, I installed Thunderbird and all is well. I fared better with IE, but the lack of search-while-you-type finally broke my resolve, and I then installed Firefox. The customization and add-ons make Thunderbird and Firefox almost impossible to beat for anyone who is obsessive about details.
My favorite Windows Vista feature: Start Search. Press the Windows key, start typing the name of the application, and it is automatically selected. I still think Launchy is better, but I could live with only Start Search if I had to.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I've got a T60 for work, and I agree with all of the pros you've mentioned. Neither of the first 2 cons happens with my system - I'm not sure if these are T61 specific, or if you've just got an issue with your HDD.
Thanks for the review, good to see the thinkpad line continues to be a good choice for laptop users!
September 10th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Disk Keeper Slows Everything Down
Very strange. What version of Diskeeper is it? Maybe it's an older version 9 or 10? I am running Diskeeper 2007 Pro on my Lenovo N100 and it works flawlessly. This Diskeeper is the full retail version that I bought and installed it after a clean install of XP (I threw out Vista; couldn't stand it lol!). I have the automatic defrag mode enabled, and have asked it to suspend autodefrag when using the battery. No problems at all- Diskeeper runs in the background, barely uses any resources and defrags the drives automatically (only when on AC power, and only if fragmentation has increased) without slowing anything down. It's intelligent software and I am quite pleased with the job it does.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:39 am
I don't have it set to not defrag when on battery; that must be the problem. The drive, as delivered, was very fragmented, so I had a bad experience with the initial defragmentation while I was running on batteries. I guess I should give modify the defaults and give it another try. I guess the true disappointment is the initial settings as delivered by Lenovo.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Thank you for verifying that this setup actually works with a 2560×1600 monitor! I thought I would have to buy a MacBook to keep using my Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor. Manufacturers are foolish to not include or advertise dual link DVI support, especially if the graphics chipset supports it natively.
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:15 am
I have the same experience on your 2nd con. I didn't notice this one when I played around the pre-installed Vista OS. I clean install Vista and now I noticed this disturbing sound. I have not experienced this super loud sound in previous laptops. sigh!
September 28th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for the review. The first day I received my T61, I installed XP on it and it worked flawlessly and lid on/off did perfectly with XP.
For defrag, you may want to try contig from SysInternals which I run manually when I am going out for lunch or meeting.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 am
I'm having trouble with dual docking display setup. Every time I dock my laptop i've to setup the display. Opening 'Presentaion Director', the option of 'When Notebook is docked' is grayout. It doesn't allow me to set Immediately apply this display.
Have any idea?
Thanks a bunch
October 20th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Carlton, how did you get both the Amex deal AND Fat Wallet? When I tried, I had to go to Lenovo through the individual site (so could only get one or the other). Actually, I don't have Amex, but Visa has a discount too and I had to link to Lenovo thru their site.
Apparantly the 10% coupon is expired. Also, we all
missed out on some sweet lenovo outlet sales:
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/More%20Ways%20To%20Shop/Outlet
When I called yesterday, the rep said all the T's were sold. Oh, well. Thanks for your review.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Getting the dual discounts wasn't a problem. I just went to the first site (fatwalled), clicked the link, and then opened another tab, went to the Amex Site, clicked the link, and completed the selection and purchase.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Does anyone have the T61 with NVidia internal graphics working in conjunction with the Advanced Dock and a PCIe graphics card?
If so, what PCIe graphics card are you using?
I ordered the Advanced Dock and an NVidia Quadro NVS 440 card, but when the card is placed in the Advanced Dock the T61 will not boot to Windows. I had Lenovo send me a replacement Dock, but the replacement will not boot either.
It would seem that these Advanced Docks are very finicky about which graphics cards they will work with. I called Lenovo tech support to ask if they could recommend a card. They could not. They only want to sell their Lenovo ATI cards, but I am running Windows Vista. Under Vista, you cannot use cards by different manufacturers. You have to use the same driver.
Plus, the Lenovo ATI graphics cards they recommend can only run 2 monitors. But we can run 2 monitors with the internal NVidia card. So what is the point of the Advanced Dock if we can't run more monitors with it?
November 21st, 2007 at 9:24 pm
John,
Which NVidia Quadro NVS 440 card did you get? The x1 or the x16?
Also, did you happen to solve this issue? I'm thinking about getting the same configuration as you…well…if it works!
Finally, you say:
"Under Vista, you cannot use cards by different manufacturers. You have to use the same driver."
Where did you hear that? I was not aware of that.
Thanks!
Tom
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Thanks for the reply.
I have the x1 model. I was suggested to use the x1 because it runs cooler and is only slightly slower performance.
No, we have not been able to get it to work yet. The laptop simply refuses to boot to windows with a card installed in the dock. Lenovo tech support was not helpful with this issue. I asked them to tell me if they had a T61 laptop in a dock with a PCIe graphics card, and they didn't. So, I am not able to confirm if the ThinkPad T61 is actually capable of working as Lenovo advertises. Some people have been successful with the T60, but that is a different laptop.
I was disappointed when I asked Lenovo to tell me if they knew of any graphics card that would work. All they could suggest was their Lenovo ATI cards. But these cards can only run 2 monitors. And since they are ATI cards, they will disable the internal NVidia card. Under Vista, you cannot run simultaneous graphics cards from different manufacturers. Your cards must use the same driver. I was informed of this by a couple of resources. Digital Tigers told me this, and they are the dealer which sold me my 4 screen array. They know all about using multiple monitors. I also read it on another message board somewhere, but can't remember where. I'm sure that a quick google search for Vista AND multiple monitors would turn up some details on this.
According to DT, if you use different cards under Vista then one card will have to be disabled. So if I used one of those Lenovo ATI cards, it would disable my internal NVidia card. This means I could only use monitors on the ATI card, and that card only has 2 outputs. So I could only use 2 screens. This is pointless because I can already run 2 screens off the T61 in the dock without an PCIe card. I honestly think that Lenovo made a goof here. I think they did not research this graphics issue with Vista and simply released the T61 model without actually testing it with an advanced dock and PCIe card. I think they assumed that since the T60 worked, the T61 should too. But the T60 had a different graphics card onboard.
DT is sending me an ATI graphics card which can run 4 displays. Maybe this one will work.
I'll report back after the holiday.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The best suggestion I can make to anyone considering a new computer is to stay away from Vista. It is a complete nightmare. It is the slowest, most obnoxious operating system I have ever encountered. It takes 5 minutes to boot and shut down the laptop. Sometimes it won't shut down at all. Just hangs on the Shutting Down screen. This laptop is supposed to be fast, but it runs slower than any I've ever used. BIG mistake if you get Vista.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Brian….
My Presentation Director also has the "When Docked" box greyed out. You can select that option.
To overcome this problem, I created a new Presntation Profile called "Docked"
I set it to use dual external displays, and then made this the first option in the queue.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Hi John,
From what I've read, the PCIe slot on the Advanced Dock is x1 electrically, so even a x16 card would downshift to the x1 datarate.
I am wondering if you just have a defective Nvidia x1 card. Have you discussed the issue with PNY? Maybe their x16 card will work?
Anyway, best of luck with the ATI card…will be very curious to hear what you find.
Thanks!
Tom
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
This is taken from Microsoft.com about the restrictions on graphics cards in Vista:
Multimonitor Support in WDDM
On Windows Vista, older XPDM drivers still work and the multi-monitor behavior with XPDM drivers hasn't changed, because the operating system uses the legacy graphics stack.
However, the Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) brings fundamental changes to the management of multiple graphics adapters and external displays. This includes a new restriction, because WDDM drivers do not support "heterogeneous multi-adapter" multi-monitor implementations. Specifically:
• All graphics adapters in a system must use the same display driver model. That is, all of them should either be running XPDM or WDDM. The driver models are mutually exclusive, and Windows Vista does not allow the simultaneous loading of both an XPDM driver and a WDDM driver.
If a system has one graphics adapter with a XPDM driver and another with a WDDM driver, then Windows Vista will choose the POST device, which is the one with VGA resources. This is commonly referred to as the "VGA adapter."
• If multiple graphics adapters are present in a system, all of them must use the same WDDM driver. If there are two graphics adapters with WDDM drivers from two different manufacturers, then Windows will disable one of them. The VGA adapter will be enabled, and the second device will be disabled.
Notice that XPDM drivers still support heterogeneous multi-adapter as they did in Windows XP. A user who has such a configuration working fine in Windows XP will encounter a problem when upgrading to Windows Vista. An external monitor connected to one of the graphics adapters will have no video signal, because it is disabled. An error message will appear on system boot, as described later in this article.
The solution for this problem could be as follows:
• A user could force the installation of a XPDM driver for each of these devices, and therefore get heterogeneous multi-adapter multi-monitor to work as in Windows XP.
-Or-
• The user could change the graphics hardware configuration by choosing multiple graphics adapters that use the same WDDM driver. Graphics adapters from the same ASIC family generally have the same graphics driver. In late 2006, each of the major graphics vendors had a single WDDM driver for all supported WDDM graphics adapters. Please consult the graphics vendor's Web site for details on their driver support.
November 24th, 2007 at 6:14 am
The screen blanking after logon is from some vista startup program that checks for external monitors automatically. Just look for it with msconfig and disable.
Diskeeper I have mine set to shut off when the computer power is on battery only.
Auto-wake on lid open can easily be set in power settings, the confusing thing I noticed was conflicts between the ThinkVantage software and Vista configurations. The ThinkVantage software overrides the Vista settings, so when you tweak the brightness levels, lid close actions, power button actions, etc. in Vista's control panel, it won't work.
November 24th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Tron: Thanks for the helpful comment! Obviously, Vista has some hidden peculiarities that I haven't yet found.
I did find the Auto-sleep on lid close function. It appears to be tied to auto-wake on like open; there is no way to control the two independently. I would rather manually send my computer to sleep mode but Vista seems to wake fairly quickly, so I guess it's better to just enable this feature.
Thanks again - I'm glad to get that screen blanking problem gone. Now if I could just figure out what the hard drive chunk-chunks every so often. . .
November 26th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
John,
I have not purchased a T61 yet. I was looking into it when your very situation was discovered through my research. I have been talking with Chris at Lenovo 866-428-4465 option 4 and extension #332776. I asked about Lenovo testing the T61/Advance Dock and the NVS 440 specifically. He said they did not have the capability. He was nice enough to say that he would inquire about it with his tech department and to check back later this week. I will continue to do so. I am wanting to purchase 3 systems and can not justify $4,000+ for all the hardware if it does not work. I am running three 18" Mass Mutual monitors with each of my current desktops. I found through NVIDIA that the drivers for the laptop and the NVS 440 are not the same. As I am reading from Microsoft and Vista the drivers would need to be the same for both cards. Correct me if I am wrong. I am very interested in your findings and overall results. Thank-you for posting.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am
My new graphics card arrived yesterday, and I have installed it in my ThinkPad Advanced Dock(s). (I have 2 docks currently because I was trying to verify that I did not have a bad dock)
The laptop will not boot with the ATI card, either. This card is an ATI FireMV PCI-e 1x.
At this point, I have no other conclusion than to say that the Lenovo T61 laptop does not work in conjunction with a PCI-e graphics card and the advanced dock. I believe Lenovo to be guilty of false advertising. Lenovo claims the dock will work with their Lenovo brand ATI cards. I cannot confirm this because I don't have one of their cards. If what they claim is true, and their Lenovo card works, I still believe Lenovo to be guilty of false advertising. They should not call it a PCI-e card slot in the advanced dock. They should call it a "proprietary graphics slot", since it only works with their own cards. Calling it a PCI-e slot is misleading because it suggests that a PCI-e graphics card will work. My experience has shown otherwise.
The two graphics cards by Lenovo are only capable of running 2 external monitors. This is pointless, because the T61 is already capable of running 2 external displays with the internal graphics card. So what is the point of running their ATI card if it can't run more displays than the laptop already does on its own? You cannot run an ATI card and the internal NVidia card at the same time using Windows Vista.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I called Lenovo tech support again.
I asked them to answer a very simple question:
"Has anyone seen a T61 laptop work in conjunction with the Advanced Dock and a PCIe graphics card."
Their answer: "No." And then the support tech asked his supervisor, who also said: No.
I don't know what else to do at this point. The support tech didn't know either. I will most likely call back to request a return of my advanced dock for a full refund, on the grounds of false advertising. The worst part is, I purchased 4 monitors to use with this laptop and now I can only use 2 of them.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
John,
That sucks. I am really sorry to hear that news. It does sound exactly like false advertising.
One question I have is how you are going to use two monitors on the T61 using just the 1 DVI connection the laptop has. Are these mirrored displays, or will you really have two separate full displays? Are you using a splitter of some sort?
Thank you for all your contributions to this list!
-Tom
November 27th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Oops. I will need to trade my advanced dock for a minidock. The minidock and advanced docks both have a DVI output and a VGA. You can use both of those to drive separate, external displays. I have actually been running 2 monitors this way with my T61 for a while now.
The only reason to get the advanced dock is for the PCIe slot, which appears not to function.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hi John,
I see. Do you see any real quality difference between the DVI and VGA? I mean, can you tell that one monitor is DVI connected and the other is VGA? What is the max resolution you can get on each monitor?
Thanks!!
Tom
November 27th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
There is no difference in quality between DVI & VGA that I can see.
I am running 17 inch Sansung monitors. The resolution is: 1280×1024
November 28th, 2007 at 1:24 am
I tried to use Fn + F7 to configure Presentation Director, one of the important d feature "Immediatelty conncect to external monitor when Docked" box is greyed out. I checked all the drivers related to this function is up to date, but still no luck. I am running Windows Vista on my T61 with advance docking.
Also the external USB mouse and keyboard on docking station will not work if there is no power adapter connect to the docking station.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:14 am
Do you have the name of the service that can be disabled so as to remove the "screen blank out" upon startup? Is it "On Screen Display"?
November 28th, 2007 at 9:20 am
HC,
I also cannot get the Presentation Director to allow me to make changes to the box for "When connected to dock" I don't understand why.
What I did to work around this issue was to create my own new Profile for PD. I named the profile "Docked" and set it for dual external monitors. I then set Docked as my primary profile by moving it to the top of the list of profiles.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I have 3 months with my T61 Nvidia intel T7300,2gigs and Seagate 7200rpm momentus i Like it but!
now i have problems with the hard drive , it does a weird noise like if it was old or something so i am going to ask for a new HDD and i have a question for the other T61 owners:
I have a Core 2 T7300 2ghz and 4MB cache and looking at my task manager i see a huge cpu usage ( from 10 to 60% at normal usage) and sometimes i have noticed a 99% i mean wtf!
Does anyone has the same case or there is something abnormal on my cpu perfomance?
i know Vista is slow (dwm.exe ~= 50,000K) but not THAT hungry…
November 29th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I absolutely detest Vista. It is the slowest, most unstable OS I have ever used. Words can't begin to describe how horrible it is. Outlook crashes on me at least twice every day. My Norton 360 has begun to crash every time I boot the laptop. I can't even run basic "important" updates from Windows Update. They fail to install, no matter how many times I try. I am just about to give up and order a downgrade CD for Windows XP.
The reason your computer is constantly running high CPU and hard drive activity has to do with a combination of processes which are constantly running. Vista itself is very resource hungry. The indexing service runs in the background and causes the hard drive to access constantly. Add to that the huge drain by the Lenovo ThinkVantage software.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Hell yeah!, just kill the thinkvantage process and the cpu usage dropped from 60% to 4%, now checking the taskmngr the cpu usage is from 3% to 11%, i HAVE to install linux immediately
November 30th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Hell yeah!, just kill the thinkvantage process and the cpu usage dropped from 60% to 4%, now checking the taskmngr the cpu usage is from 3% to 11%.
Its funny how a nice hardware like this can give me just a "normal" experience with Vista… i am thinking seriously in that downgrade CD.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Carlton or anyone else using a T61 with a docking station to run a 30" monitor at 2560×1600:
Which docking station do you have (model#)?
I am unable to confirm that the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M can actually display 2560×1600, and Lenovo sales and tech support seem to be without a clue…
December 24th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Here's an update:
The combination of Lenovo T61, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M, Advanced Mini Dock, Dell 30" 3007WFP monitor @ 2560×1600 resolution works. I have it running with Vista Business, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with XP or other Vista versions.
Omar
December 25th, 2007 at 8:09 am
You said Advanced Mini Dock. Did you mean to say Advanced Dock? The Mini dock doesn't take a PCI Express graphics card.
What driver are you using for the Quadro FX? Did you have to disable the internal graphics on the laptop? Does your T61 have nVidia Quadro NVS 140M internal graphics?
December 25th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
John, I did say and mean Advanced Minidock - it has pass-through dual-link DVI and I did not have to change anything besides choosing the 2560×1600 resolution in the nvidia control panel. My T61 has the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M and it's driven by whatever driver was supplied by Lenovo/Vista/nVidia. I'm on a different computer at the moment, but I can look up the exact driver later if you wish.
December 27th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Hi, I have a brand new T61 with the NVS140, advanced mini dock and the 30" Dell and all I get is a blurred screen! The only resolution that works is the default of 1280×800. What am I missing? Help!
December 27th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
John, below is my exact setup, and the NVIDIA driver version is 7.15.11.5685 dated 12/10/2007
SYS.6459CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM $1,279.85
6459CTO CTO THINKPAD T61 WIDESCREEN-1Y
42V8191 SBBB INTEL CORE 2 DUO T7500
42V8010 VBB MS WIN VISTA BUSINESS
42V8504 SBB MS WIN VISTA BUSS.32 US EN
42V8287 SBB 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT
42X0819 SBB NVIDIAQUAD FX 570M W/WWAN
41W2060 VBB 1GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 1DIMM
42V8195 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
42V8295 SBB UN(TRACKPOINT TOUCHPAD)
42V8169 SBB 100GB HDD,7200RPM
42V8193 SBB INTEL TURBO MEMORY 1GB
42V8172 SBB DVD REC.8XMAXDUAL LAY UB-S
42X0805 VBB PC CARDSLOT EX CARDSLOT
42V8177 SBB INT.WIRE.WIFI/LINK4965AGN
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
42X1524 SBB LP-US ENGLISH
42X5602 SBB MS XP PROF. US ENG.RCD
42V8063 SBB MS WAU ENGLISH NA-U MODELS
42X1232 SBB NEWINTELLAB_DUALCORE/CEPRO
42V9665 SBB FCC, LABEL
42V8629 SBB 15WSXGAW/OBTW/OWWANW/OUWB
39T6440 SBB 56K V.92 DESIGNED MODEM
42V8657 SBB CL.PLATE T61P WLAN
41W1748 SBB GEO LABEL US WLAN
41W2300 SBB LOGO PLATE
42V8607 SBB INT.WLAN ANTENNA 15.4"
93P7250 SBB THINKPAD LOGOPLATET-SERIES
42X0877 SBB MT 6459 SYSTEM LABEL
42X0850 SBB MECH MISC PARTS
42V7972 SBB MS LABEL (VISTA PREMIUM)
42V8605 SBB NO INT.WWAN ANTENNA 15.4"R
42V8601 SBB NO UWB ANTENNA
42X0995 SBB PC CARD SLOT EXP.CARD SLOT
42V8612 SBB ST LCD COVER/BEZEL 15.4"
42X0842 SBB NVIDOAFX570MW/WWAN,W/AMT
42V8300 SBB 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHZ
42T6638 SBB PACK. US, 15.4"
250410U LENOVO THINKPAD ADVANCED MINI-DOCK - PORT REPLICATOR $164.25
December 27th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
All - tried a different DVI-I cable and that did the trick… No idea I had a bad cable… I feel much better now.
December 27th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
DNA,
I started to write a message to tell you to try a different cable when your new message came along. Glad you figured it out.
When I bought my Dell 30" a while ago it came with a bad cable which produced all sorts of artifacts on the screen at all resolutions.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:59 am
Great Review. What type of docking station do you have for this setup and where did you purchase it? Thanks.
January 1st, 2008 at 4:59 am
I have the ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock. I purchased it from Lenovo because I had several coupons/discount, but it turns out they only applied to the laptop itself, not the dock. I'd recommend purchasing it from one of the many online retailers offering it for a lower price.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I have a new t61 laptop and it does not want to logoff, restart or shutdown. It just stays in windows. It does not shutdown. What is wrong with my laptop.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
The Rescue & Recovery Data Backup is taking up too much space on my hard drive so I would like to remove it and backup to an external drive but I can't find the backup file. I have shown hidden files and did a custom search but can't find it. It's 25GB so it should be easy to find. Any ideas?
January 8th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Jake: I think that is all stored on as hidden, protected file. You'll need to uninstall the software to get the backup space reclaimed. There is also a 6GB recovery partition; use a program with Gparted (free / open source) or Partition Magic (commercial) to delete the recovery partition and resize the existing windows partition. A bunch of file are included in c:\swtools. Create your recover media then delete this directory.
Really, your best bet is to completely reinstall Windows: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783
January 10th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Like Norman Papagayo, in his comment #43, my T60 also would not restart, shut down, or log off. It would just continue as if I'd never requested it to do so.
I fixed it as follows:
1. Went to the Lenovo website and downloaded the latest driver updates. I did it the 'easy' way by letting Lenovo 'discover' the model, etc. I did not select individual drivers, but let it put on today's selections. It did ask for, and I permitted it, to remove the older Restore and Recovery drivers.
It then asked to to a reboot, but still would not reboot, so I held the power button down for 5 seconds. I then powered it up and waited about five minutes until the HD activity ceased.
I then went into Control Panel - Power Options. Mine was set to be 'always on', in AC or in battery, with never any action to be taken with the screen closed, and no time-outs for going into standby or hibernation.
I changed it to a pre-configured setting from the drop down for 'maximum battery life'. Immediately, the screen went much dimmer - and there are selections you can modify for brightness, in AC vs. Battery.
I then exited the Power Options, went to Start - Shutdown, and (TaDa!) it shut down!
Good luck, and hope this helps.
-Warren
January 25th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Great review.
I've been researching a TP setup with the Dell 30" LCD, and wanted to know if anyone has a pci-e video card up and running with the Advanced Dock.
There's a support page that suggests that it works with an ATI X1300 video card on XP, driving 4 monitors from the Dock, which would address John Kiser's problem.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67464.html
From reading the posts above, it seems some pci-e cards are not compatible due to either a) Vista driver issues or b) possibly power consumption of the video card drawing too much power from the Advanced Dock.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:18 am
I originally wanted an Alienware m15x for lots of good reasons but the selling point was the illuminated keyboard with color change feature. Unfortunately after running a test customization of that model I realized $3373.00 was outrageous for a laptop. So it's nice that IBM includes a keyboard light; it's less aesthetic but it does the job. I have an old IBM T30 1.8GHz (single-core) that works extremely well and still looks brand new so I am planning to get the T61p. I love the options that are available in the customization section, especially the WUXGA (1920 resolution!) My 24" Widescreen LCD monitor runs at that resolution. My only disapointment with the T61p is that there's no built-in webcam. I originally looked at the R61 model because of the builtin webcam but that model doesn't support WUXGA so I'm leaning more towards the T61p. My one other beef about the Thinkpads in the placement of the FN (function) key. I use a desktop keyboard so often that I expect the CTRL (control) key to be in the corner. I don't see why they couldn't swap the two like Sony does with their VAIOs. All in all Thinkpads are top of the line systems. *If anyone is currently looking to buy a Thinkpad, they're offering upto 25% off right now and if you search google you can get an eCoupon for another 10% off.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:22 am
I have a T61 with nVidia Quadro NVS 140M, one mini dock station with both DVI and VGS ports. I also have two external LCD 20" monitors. I wonder if I can set it up to use all three displays, one builtin laptop display and two extern LCD monitos. I want to show differnt application windows on three different displays, eg., MS outlook on Laptop display, Web broswer on LCD monitor 1 and MS word on LCD monitor 2.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:15 am
You can connect 1 monitor to the DVI port, one to the VGA port, and use the internal display as well. Otherwise, get the Advanced Mini-dock and the appropriate video card and you can connect to multiple monitors that way. See the comments for details.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Lindeg. Do not get a PCI-express graphics card. They do not work with the ThinkPad with nVidia graphics. Please check the history on this thread and you will see. The only card which works in the Advanced Dock is a Lenovo ATI card. The internal Thinkpad graphics card is nVidia. With Windows Vista you cannot use simultaneous graphics cards unless they use the same driver. Do not make the mistake I did by purchasing the Advanced Dock for use with a PCIe graphics card. I have tried three different cards and none worked. The best you can do is to hook up two external monitors through the dock's DVI and VGA connections.
March 14th, 2008 at 10:03 am
John: Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking that someone got the Advanced Mini-Dock working with some help from Lenovo. I guess I got that wrong.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
No problem. It's partially a Vista issue, because of the graphics driver requirements. But I was never able to find a graphics card that would actually work in my Dock. They always crashed the computer, or would not even allow it to boot in the first place. After my complaints, Lenovo updated the documentation for the Advanced Dock. They now say the only card which works is their Lenovo ATI card. And they also say that the only way to run 4 monitors is with Win XP. This is their acknowledgement of the Vista issue, effectively.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I have the Advanced dock and T61p. I was curious if anyone tried an nvidia graphics card since the chipset in the T61p is an nvidia?
Secondly, all the documentation I see mentions the T60p (ATI based). Has anyone actually got the T61p (nvidia) working with lenovo's (ATI) card = 4 monitors or is that just the T60p (ATI) that works with 4? (Realizing they recommend XP).
Any luck?
May 31st, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I just received a T-61 with a t-9500 and the nvidia 140. I purchased the upgraded screen, The
15.4 WSXGA+ TFT,
and this is my problem. It looks horrible to me. Am I missing something. I lowered the resolution to 1400 by 1050 to enlarge it to a comfortable view, but of course it still is not great. Off angle viewing is horrible, just slightly off angle. I love everything except what I have to look at. Is there anything I can do?
Respectfully,
David
June 1st, 2008 at 8:03 am
David: There is nothing that will fix off-axis viewing. But you should never run an LDC panel at any resolution other than the native resolution of the panel. I will make everything difficult to read because fonts and graphics can't be anti-aliased properly. Run the panel at the native resolution and instead increase the DPI setting (to make fonts & icons bigger) or increase the font size (to make just the fonts bigger.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Mr. Bale,
Thank you for your help. My screen looks much better.
I have enjoyed your forum here.
Sincerely,
David Mayfield