IBM X61 12" notebook - SCH Trade - £66.79 - 4gb RAM 80Gb hdd £66.79 @ Schtrade

Cheers, ordered one for my sister who wanted a laptop for her daughter

Heat added
Nutnut

bought one and thanks op

OOS now

Out of stock now as I was placing an order!
Thanks anyway.

I have been trying to break (Well taking no care of it whatsoever - using it in the bath - dropping it open onto concrete - using it with motor oil on my hands - every time I think it is dead it resurrects.) my old IBM Thinkpad X31 for years and haven't managed it yet.

Thinkpad's have the best keyboards period. (Not the new type ones) the classic Thinkpad keyboard is the best laptop keyboard.

This is compared to a £2000 HP Mobile Workstation (That luckily I didn't have pay for) that I treated like Royalty that was flimsy as hell. Had a poor quality keyboard (That broke far too easily and cost £50 a time) a far less accurate trackpoint. (It had a good LCD Panel - Matte 17" 1920x1200 but that was the only good thing about it).

Even if you need to buy 3 and strip down 2 of them for spares and have one good laptop with spares it would still be vastly more desirable for me than a new laptop. (Unless it was a brand new business grade classic thinkpad).

It is called a trackpoint and they are vastly superior to touchpads.

I'm sure it can run a spellchecker, I'd buy it if I were you.

Tier one online are a bit more expensive same sort of thing as these but from what I can gather the grading system is fairer.

I have an X31 that is the fastest pentium-m (Upgraded the ram to 2GB put a 160GB drive in it) everything else is as it came and it is still going strong. (I use it in XP or Linux for specific things not day to day)

2011 BIOS update for those who get this without

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-67983

Excellent, a bootable CD for a device that comes without optical device. Nice one, Lenovo. I guess everyone must buy a docking station... :D

Thankfully they also have it as a Windows executable: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?&LegacyDocID=MIGR-67982

If it 's anything like the older x60, it will run Linux Mint very well.
Do SCH identify if the units they sell have a mobile broadband slot or a fingerprint reader onboard?

I know this deal has expired now but may get another of theirs in the future,would one of these be ready to run on wifi?

mine came with a fingerprint reader

They all have wifi


I've been reading extensively online and this model should have a fingerprint reader, however, other model number may not have that. I've seen model numbers in the past that SCH have sold that do have mobile broadband but it's a case of googling the model number and hoping that it might come with it. I think SCH tend to be quite vague on the exact spec to cover themselves should it be slightly off.

My order marked as processed... guess it won't be here tomorrow, Tuesday?

From past experience there's usually a day or two between the order status going to 'processed' and it being despatched. The status should change to 'shipped' on the day its despatched (and they usually put the TNT tracking number in the comment field) plus you'll probably get an email as well. The laptop should arrive next working day.

Well you will also have to take into account that they just received about 200 orders (or £13000), and most probably as a direct result of my 2 posts for these units over the weekend so they will have a bit of a backlog of items to box up and get ready. SCH this morning had pretty much no B grade stock left, so even the things that I had not posted was being sold like hot cakes which I'd say is pretty uncommon for their average weekend.

Back in stock with 12 units, well 11 now thanks op,

All gone within 10 minutes it seems

Right, now everyone's gone a new X61 coming to them, I suppose it's time to run through the things to check on the laptop once it arrives to ensure it's in good order. If anyone think's I've missed something important please mention it and I shall update.

1. Check the plastics and casing of the laptop, the x61 will likely have had abuse over it's life and the best sign of this is the plastics, check the for hairline cracks and take a good look at all the corners. Have a good check around the power cable area as a loose power cable connector is a good sign of a possible problem in the future. Be sure to check your windows COA sticker is intact.

2. Loose hinges are pretty common on this model but the screen should hold itself up. While you are looking at this make sure the lid catches are working and present as these are a common thing to be damaged.

3. Check the keyboard for signs of any spillage, the x61 has drain holes so it is unlikely to have been a problem, but it's a key place where dried gunk will build up if it has had to be used and if it has not been cleaned properly it would be worth doing a decent job of cleaning.

4. Boot up and load the BIOS by pressing the blue ThinkVantage button when the message "To interrupt normal startup, press the blue ThinkVantage button " is displayed. Check that there is no supervisor password set, if there is one set this will likely cause you issues later so be sure to get in contact with SCH about this. While in the BIOS it's a good time to check the basic configuration of your machine is all correct by scrolling through the menus.

5. After you've installed windows (guide in the first post) and installed the drivers from the Lenovo site, it would be a good time to check everything is working. Check the device manager that everythings working as expected.

6. A bit of stress testing would be a good idea to be sure it's all working on the inside as needed. I would recommend the following guide as a basis of tests to run on the machine.
http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/762-how-to-stress-test-your-hardware-and-keep-your-pc-stable/

7. After stress testing, I'd look to clean the inside of the machine if that's something you're comfortable with. A good clean of all the fans and get rid of the dust. The guides you need are there for step by step, page by page manual. Alternatively and in my option easier to follow is the service manuals here

Hey,

Just got mine 10 min ago, and was looking at it, when the charger arrived at the door too!

The 90W charger I ordered is 125x30x49 mm and the kitchen scale says 250grams (without main power cord, of course), could someone measure their 65W charger to compare the bulkiness?

I also ordered this to redo the CPU thermal: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005EYYYO0

Mine has some dust in places, not opened it yet, but it is visible.
Missing dummy PCIMCA in the left side, and small crack there. Make sure you check that area and try to find a dummy.
UPDATE: tried a dummy from my other laptop (MSI) but didn't fit.

Fingerprint reader: YES.

BIOS version: 2.16, Embbedded Controller Version: 1.03

Battery: wobbles a bit, could someone else please confirm this or is it just mine that seems like not a very tight fit? It was flat when arrived.

OS: sticker for Win Vista Business, but will put Win7 for sure.

Both rubber legs are missing on the back, the two from the battery are still there.

No HDMI, knew that, but that is the one thing that makes me regret my netbook, which also had 8 hours battery life (Acer AOD720, from HUKD also).

@MaximusRo

I ordered one of these sadly just before the price drop (delivered last thursday), still managed to use the DAFFODIL code and got it for £80 and I am pleased.

The battery on mine hold about 5 minutes charge, so ordered a new 8 Cell battery £17.50 on Amazon. I ordered an official Lenovo 42T5274 90W charger off Ebay for £10.99 125x30x47mm.

Mine arrived, little dust with a distinct medical "hospital smell" about it.

A couple of tiny scuffs on the rubberised lid, and the usual rubbings on the base, think it may have been used in a thinkpad dock at one time, and both front rubber feet missing and pointing stick a little worn..other than that literally looks like new, no "polish shine" wear to the keyboard. Fingerprint reader (which I was expecting with this model)

Opened it up to clean it, could tell it had never been taken apart previously, not a great deal of fan dust..I certainly have repaired far worse condition laptops in my time...literally looks like an ex display unit.

Can confirm that even with the lock applied on the right hand corner the battery does have some "play" that end.

Replacement Pointers and Rubber feet are available and cheap on Ebay, as obviously are Windows 7 stickers. The feet glue that was remaining on mine was very strong, a tip for removal of remaining sticker glue is to use lighter fluid...works a treat.

For anyone wondering..to access the keyboard light, hold down the FN + PgUp key.

With regards to the PCMCIA dummy, there isn't a dummy, you should have a sprung hinged flap there instead (hinged from the base) just above the SD Card slot...if cracked in that area I presume with the damage it is either missing or jammed open..have a look in the area.

Mine arrived today (as did £6.99 cable that was recommended). Very impressed in fairness. One hairline crack on the plastic cover just to the right of the power cable but that's not going to impact the power connection. I'll find something to tack that up. Some stickers on it which I removed with a wet wipe and a bit of elbow grease and it needed a bit of a clean but nothing you wouldn't expect.

I've loaded Ubuntu Desktop 12.10 onto it (once I remembered to go into BIOS and ensure USB HDD was the first boot device - got the white screen otherwise) and it seems to be flying. Not sure if I got the normal batter or some sort of extended version (mine sticks out of the back to extend the length by 3cms or so) but battery life seems to be a happy 2-3 hours or so. Got lucky I guess!

As for the X61 itself, it's a lot quicker than I expected. The little nubbin's a bit annoying but that's the price of the form factor I guess. Anyway, very happy.

Yes, the battery does stick out about one inch, it would have been just too beautiful and compact if it didn't :)
I love this little machine.

You can get a 4 cell battery that doesnt stick out but it will last about half as long as the one you've received with an 8 cell

http://www.finnie.org/2010/08/13/lenovo-thinkpad-x200s/

The laptop on the top of the images on that page is an x61 with a 4 cell battery.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=71155

Some more images available in that thread of how it will look with 4 cells.

The only real upside is it reduces the weight, the batteries are about the same sort of price so makes buying an 8 cell a no brainer.

The "palmrest" plastic housing is probably the only "weak" point on the build of the unit, along with the plastic screen bezel, everything else is metal.

Replacement housings can be sourced on Ebay easily enough, however something like epoxy resin or gorilla glue would do the trick quite nicely on that crack you mention.

hi any one having difficulty to load windows?mine giving me an error to load win 8

How are you trying to install it? By USB DVD/CD or USB pen drive?

Need a bit more to go on than "it wont work" to help as I could be here all day making suggestions and still not give the right one to you.

i have followed exactly on the suggestion link to install win 7 n 8 with a usb drive
when i enter window product key after few seconds it shows the hdd drive to select windows to install
then a can see a message that it can't be install this drive.don't know what to do

Seems a strange one. Are you trying to install it on the pen drive possibly and not the main hard drive? What is the exact message you receive? I've yet to install windows 8 so I'm basing any answers on experience.

Have you seen post 179 here:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-x61-7674-12-notebook-grade-b-sch-trade-66-79-2gb-ram-80gb-hdd-1503113?page=9#post17513641

thanks i have tried another with different windows version and now it looks like taking win 7 instead win 8.
i will let you know guys while it finished.thanks

just installed win7.unfortunately win 8 not able to install.

There is at least one user reporting success with Win8 install, and there are Win8 drivers from Lenovo, so it should work.

I suggest you use an ISO from the links in the first post.