Best way to upgrade RAM and SSD on a T61 without overheating?

[skylerwhite]

Hi everyone, I just got a used T61 and I’m thinking about upgrading the RAM and maybe swapping the HDD for an SSD. I’m a bit worried about overheating since these laptops are pretty old. Has anyone done this successfully? Any tips on which RAM/SSD combo works best without causing thermal issues?

[Gonzaleitor]

I don't think the RAM and SSD could be a problem with your thermal issues. I would clean heatsink and fan(Separate the fan from the heatsink assembly and make sure that there is nothing blocking the output), remove old thermal paste and repaste if I were you.

[Glaurung-quena]

Hi everyone, I just got a used T61 and I’m thinking about upgrading the RAM and maybe swapping the HDD for an SSD. I’m a bit worried about overheating since these laptops are pretty old. Has anyone done this successfully? Any tips on which RAM/SSD combo works best without causing thermal issues?

Any heat problems with t61's are going to come from the CPU or the GPU, not the ram/storage. Take out the heat sink, blast all dust out of it with a blower, clean the old crusty thermal paste off the CPU/GPU and the heatsink, and apply new. Doing that usually dramatically reduces how hot the bottom of the laptop gets under load.

[Glaurung-quena]

I don't think the RAM and SSD could be a problem with your thermal issues. I would clean heatsink and fan(Separate the fan from the heatsink assembly and make sure that there is nothing blocking the output), remove old thermal paste and repaste if I were you.

My experience with messing with the fans in thinkpads has been uniformly negative - I can easily, despite being careful and putting things back exactly as they were, end up with a fan that doesn't want to spin freely. If there's something wrong with the fan, trying to replace it might work and be cheaper than buying a new heatsink assembly, but if it's working OK, I would not take it apart. Blowing it out without disassembly works and is safe.

[Gonzaleitor]

I don't think the RAM and SSD could be a problem with your thermal issues. I would clean heatsink and fan(Separate the fan from the heatsink assembly and make sure that there is nothing blocking the output), remove old thermal paste and repaste if I were you.

My experience with messing with the fans in thinkpads has been uniformly negative - I can easily, despite being careful and putting things back exactly as they were, end up with a fan that doesn't want to spin freely. If there's something wrong with the fan, trying to replace it might work and be cheaper than buying a new heatsink assembly, but if it's working OK, I would not take it apart. Blowing it out without disassembly works and is safe.

The assembly can accumulate filth and block the output, rendering the repaste useless. That's why you have to separate them and clean them. It's only a couple tabs and a strip of kapton tape, there should be no damage involved in removing the fan from the heatsink.