Ideas to improve R61 which has been Middleton'ed questions...

[titang4ppc]

Hi there,

Just want to get peoples advice of possible Hardware upgrades which can be achieved on an IBM/Lenovo R61 model: 8918 which has had its BIOS flashed to Middleton v2.29-1.08.

Currently the following have been changed:

- CPU: intel T7100 -> intel X9000 (Not sure if quad core 800FSB is permitted)

- WIFI: Intel 4965AG Mini PCI-E network card -> intel 6300 633ANHMW 6300AGN Half Mini PCI-E with adapter - (Maybe have better option but this seems to be the best fit for XP 32bit and Solaris 10/11)

- HDD: Hitachi 80GB 5200 rpm -> Seagate Momentus 750GB 7200rpm (Note: I know that I could go at max 2TB due to BIOS limitations for boot drives)

- RAM: 2x2GB DDR2 800 Hynix -> 2x4GB DDR2 800 Crucial (seen by 64Bit OS such as Solaris 10/11 which I have on another similar Seagate Momentus 750GB 7200rpm drive)

- BlueTooth: NO CHANGE

- Screen: IBM Original Lenovo ASMP41W4628 15.4 " WXGA LCD -> IBM Original Lenovo 13N7020 15.4" WSXGA LCD - (Also changed the flex cable to include cam ability which the original didn't have) - this change required a new screen bezel for the cam

- Soldered: 2 x headers to allow mini pcie cards to be installed inside the casing (This hasn't been tested with devices and may need clarification as I'm not sure if the required circuitry is available) (Note: the header next to the sound ports (left side) seems to have space issues with mini pcie cards. It seems that the topmost ground point is obstructed by the grey frame. Any ideas on how to go around this issue?)

- Obtained: 17.7mm 2nd SATA HDD Optical bay Caddy. Problem is boot issues. It seems to not like the BIOS configuration either in compatibility mode or AHCI. The machine locks when I have two drives and only the main drive is the boot drive not the one in the additional caddy. Any ideas?

- Also obtained NEW - IBM ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock 2504-10U... for those legacy hardware


Any ideas or workarounds regarding items above would be much appreciated.