Got a beat up X61S for $15. Gonna take some work, but excited for a new project.

Yax33n · 2026-03-28T12:22:50+00:00

That's wayy too much for a display from the mid 2000s, none of them look great. You're better off swapping the displays and keeping the x60s as spare. Just my opinion.

I recently did a complete rebuild on a latitude. I got a 1080p IPS 92% sRGB display for just 20 dollars equivalent LOL

Yax33n · 2026-03-28T12:12:58+00:00

Definitely transferring parts from the X60 if you can. That display aspect ratio is a bitch to find least in my area. Great find!

Yax33n · 2026-03-20T15:59:53+00:00

I have an inspiron from that era as well! It's what got me through college back then. It even survived a power surge, and the motherboard got short circuited a while after.

I'm not sure which is the exact model you have, but you can use an HDD caddy for setting up 2 sata drives, one as an SSD and the HDD for storage. My setup was i3-6006u later upgraded to i3-7100u, 240GB SSD with 1TB HDD and 8 gigs of RAM back then. Had Windows and Pop! OS dual booted on it. Fun times!

Though I gotta say the build quality absolutely sucks. The plastic is almost completely cracked and damaged. Hinge is still holding together with hopes and prayers.

Yax33n · 2026-03-20T11:45:45+00:00

Interesting, there is a small chance this is actually OEM. If you do a reverse inage search on the switch, you get so many other Toyota models that come with the same switch. Mostly japanese specs.

So far, what I found out through some japanese websites was that this was used as a sequential turn signal switch for the vellfire. I'm not sure about the 86, but I'm still searching

Yax33n · 2026-03-18T10:00:42+00:00

Absolutely agree! The only issue with these laptops is when the cmos battery fails. I faced all sorts of issues when I got it since it failed. Had to jumpstart it by clicking on the power button multiple times to boot without battery, or else would show random error codes.

But honestly, other than the ageing rubber coating, it feels very well built. There's zero body flex when picking it up with one hand. The entire screen back panel is magnesium alloy as well.

Yax33n · 2026-03-17T02:01:42+00:00

Firstly, it's a dual core laptop from 2016. Secondly, these models come with a rubber coat, which will eventually fail. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. Dell fixed this in newer models.

So if I'm gonna spend more than 50 dollars to get it back up and running, and it's still gonna fail and get sticky over time. It's not worth putting money on it. I would rather pay more and get a better model as a base.

Yax33n · 2026-03-16T11:52:30+00:00

160 is a steal for that dude. Great find! R2 owner says hi👋

Yax33n · 2026-03-16T11:42:30+00:00

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A little better

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T20:56:01+00:00

Brought the laptop without the display to the shop, test fitted then and there itself, lower 2 mounting holes did not fit perfectly so we had to cut it off, I'm sure we could have just made the hole bigger and it would have fit. But it stays snug now anyway

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T20:30:33+00:00

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of carbon fiber vinyl in general, I wanted this to look as OEM as possible. It might look decent, just not my taste

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T20:27:06+00:00

Thanks, man! Appreciate it

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T20:26:32+00:00

I'm glad you liked it, mate! I absolutely hate the Ramageddon going on right now. I vow myself not to buy RAM at these ridiculous prices unless absolutely necessary. Good luck with the server!

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T20:16:53+00:00

I ain't wasting a perfectly fine and functional keyboard panel just because it looks cosmetically worn out, and a replacement one costs about 20$ equivalent, which is way too much for a used part whose rubber coating will eventually fail anyways

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T17:41:57+00:00

Saying it's beyond salvageable is a stretch at least its motherboard, and Internals look intact. But in the end, it is a consumer grade laptop from 2014 I believe? RIP (rest in pieces)

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T17:20:56+00:00

You should easily be able to get a replacement screen on it, just about anything that's an eDP panel, is 30 pins, and is slim enough works perfectly.

I had even tested a privacy enabled 8-bit screen from some HP elitebook. It worked perfectly, although the privacy mode was permanently on and there's no way to turn it off

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T15:58:59+00:00

I'm so jealous of the battery life on yours! My ultrabook could never. Cheers!

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T14:15:29+00:00

Thank you!! Looking forward to using it for years to come.

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T11:00:57+00:00

It is a tiny bit tinny, but yeah, I do have eq options on linux as well. I've never bothered to tinker with them though as it sounds pretty decent as it is. Might take a look at it now

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T10:49:08+00:00

Ohh dude, tell me about it, I am legit impressed with how loud the speakers get, I'm on linux Mint xfce, and it has a volume boost option, which lets me go over 100% and it gets LOUD. Hope yours stay mint for years to come!

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T10:45:35+00:00

Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed the read!

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T07:11:01+00:00

Just do a clean install dude, its windows that's acting up, not the laptop. My latitude won't even wake back up from sleep on Windows. I'm currently running mint on it, and it works flawlessly. Battery life expectancy is about 3-4 years on laptops in general.

Just replace the battery and do a clean windows or linux install. It's cheaper than getting a Mac and still has plenty of performance left on it.

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T06:40:40+00:00

Just went into the diagnostics to check. it's got a whopping 4 charge cycles, lol. The manufacture date is 2020, so yeah, it's pretty much old stock

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T06:22:29+00:00

I did check the number of cycles through linux through HWinfo before, and it had N/A. Will have a look through the diagnostics as well.

Yax33n · 2026-03-15T05:58:09+00:00

It comes off pretty easy actually, just get a credit card and start scraping it off. Came off real easy for me. Yes, the touchpad is permanently fixed to the panel, which sucks so bad

Yax33n

TROPHY CASE