IBM Thinkpad 600E bios mod for processor update

[gilf]

Thanks cmarti.

re. 600x fsb mod. Do you have schematics for the 600e and 600x motherboards? If so it shouldn't be too hard to translate the modification, unless the chip architecture has changed radically.

Sharedoc,

Encrypted DVD video looks great now. Using VLC media player, xine and libdvdcss2 codecs, set player to use xshm, plus the following Ubuntu video software mods (from Thinkwiki):

Video

"By default the xserver graphics modes will be set to a 24 bit colour depth. As the neomagic card in th 600e does not support hardware acceleration in 24 bit mode the performance of the graphics will be very poor (jerky windows, poor video playback). By changing the default colour depth to 16 bit, which is supported by hardware acceleration, you can obtain a significant increase in graphics performance. To modify the default graphics colour depth open up the /etc/X11/xorg.conf in a text editor as root and locate the section of the file labelled "Screen". In this section will be the command,

Defaultdepth 24

Change this to read,

Defaultdepth 16

"To allow the successful playback of DVDs (ie achieve good frame rates) a second modification to the xserver configuration is required. To obatin a decent rate of DVD playback you need to tell the xserver how much menory it can allocate to perform video overlay. To do this find the section labelled "Device" and a add a line containing,

Option "OverlayMem" "829440"

The xserver will need to be restarted fo these modifications to take effect (either via reboot or by manually restarting the server)

[AK121881]

Hello everyone.
First I would like to say that I've been extremely impressed with everyone's knowledge and ability. Especially SHAREDOC of course! He started this thread and through his, and other very smart contributors, efforts, the Thinkpad 600E has been given a new life.
I thought I could do these mods but have failed somehow in the attempt. After trying the mods I have a total new respect for all of you who have had success.
I bought a PIII 600Mhz CPU and installed it in my 600e after doing the bios edits. The 500mhz I got without speed step working was nice but I read this entire forum and thought I could at least do the speedstep mod. I used a 2.2kohm 1/4 watt resistor. After doing the mod I re-installed and everything worked but I still wasn't getting up to 600mhz. I used intel's and wmarcusum's utilities to check. I did try the deep sleep utility but I still had nothing. I guessed I had done something wrong on the mod and disassembled it to try again. I also this time made sure the foil was cut by digging a little instead of the slice I had tried earlier. I thought my connections on the newly installed resistor were fine so I left them alone. I then put everything back together and tried to boot. Fan runs, hard drive light comes on but nothing else happens. ??? I took the pad back apart and realized that I might not have pushed both sides of the unit back into the motherboard. So I then corrected that and put it all back together and then booted. Still nothing. I replaced the 366Mhz PII and everything worked fine.

So I messed the CPU up right?

I have a digital voltmeter and was wondering if there was a way to see if I messed up the R10 spot on the PCB. I did try to test {but don't know what I'm doing} by putting the meter on the 20k ohm setting and comparing the readigs of alike pieces on the PCB. I get same reading when testing R10 as when the two test leads are not touching anything, screen reads 1 . I get EXACT opposite reading of 0.00 when testing similar pieces on PCB which is same reading as whe I touch the two test leads directly together. I do have to admit that I don't even understand how to use this meter.

Anyone got some ideas to see if I can salvage this unit with my extremely basic sodering skills?

Thanks in advance everyone!!!
P.S.
I have a model 2645-3AU
Bios Ver: INET36WW
I am running a dual partition with win98se and Windows Server 2003
Runing server because I'm a CIT college student in U.S. and we have to learn networking and security on this OS. Had NO success finding a L2 cache enabler utility that would work on Server. BSOD with Holgi's version, and could not move file on install with other version. Both were PowerLeap's. Also tried deep sleep on both OS and nothing happened.

[gilf]

Well, the first thing is, don't use the meter. An ohmeter puts current into a circuit it tests, and there's a possibility you could damage a circuit by doing that.

Second is the pins on the connector are very very easy to bend while inserting. Check them with a magnifying glass in strong light. It's possible to short your motherboard if the wrong pins are bent. Be extremely careful in inserting the CPU card into the motherboard -- never force it, always make sure the card mounting holes are exactly lined up before applying light pressure directly above the connector.

I wouldn't be surprised if you had bent pins. Yes, testing with the ohmeter, soldering too large a resistor, with too much heat, bending pins, etc can damage the cpu. If so even replacing the card again might damage the motherboard -- not definitely, but you should be aware of the possibility before you decide anything.

[gilf]

A 1/4 watt resistor is pretty big. It can be used I guess, if you have to, by snipping off the leads short and adding leads of very thin wire like wire-wrap wire.

Another tick is to wrap a piece of copper wire around the tip of your low wattage soldering iron, use the tail of that wire as the soldering iron tip. Be sure to use a magnifying glass.

Check double that you put the resistor in the right place.

[gilf]

This really is very delicate work, and you probably should have expeience building IC projects before beginning, plus the right tools -- particularly a low wattage fine tip iron and magnifier and strong light.

Even then, the surface mount stuff is difficult for most people even familiar with circuit building conventional projects -- you need a steady hand, a light touch, and the ability to know when just the right amount of heat is applied without too much. You're working with tiny amounts of solder also -- practically just tinned leads.

Anybody who attempts this should realize there is always some risk to your computer. As I said, even replacing the CPU card (yes the mmc-2 is a small circuit board with a cpu -- someone earlier on this thread actually tried to un-mount the cpu chip itself -- you can't, and that's not what this thread is about) you run the risk of destroying your computer, if you bend pins during the plugging in of the card.

So this message isn't meant to discourage anyone, just let you know that you are taking some risk, and replacing the cpu card isn't just like popping a PCI card into a desktop workstation.

It's more like working on a watch. Lots of amateur people do work on watches. Just know what you're getting into.

[Sharedoc]

AK,

Undo the modifications on the CPU card and try if it still works. If not, you propably damaged the card somehow.

Just buy another 700MHz or 750MHz PIII and make the mods again. They are cheap.

[AK121881]

I removed the mods to the card and re-installed....Still nothing ...Oh well it was a great learning experience!!!. .The 366mghz card works great and there really isn't a big difference when I had the 600 running at the stepped down 500 mghz.....This has by far become my favorite place on the web.....I'll try to get another cpu and this time I'll try to find the 700 or 750.....They are a little hard to find here in the states but I'm willing to do anything to try to get some more speed out of this pad..... I Could really use some tips on how to solder the next one I get....I have taken note of using copper wire wrapped around the tip of my soldering tool....I will definately give that a try...And can someone give me some advice on what wattage resistor to use?...I tired the 1/4 watt but it was mentioned that that was too much...Oh and I really need to know how everyone is cutting the foil in the PCB....Is it simply a slice with a razor blade?.....Thanks again for everyone's research, expertise, and time!!!

[gilf]

Hello, AK121881,

Well, good man for sticking with it. Here are my suggestions --.

A 1/4 watt resistor is not "too much" in terms of wattage -- nothing wrong with the value of the resistor. It's just hard to work with large components without modifying them. The main thing is, the leads from the resistor need to be small enough to match the place you are soldering them to.

Therefore, if you are going to use a 1/4 watt standard carbon resistor, you need to cut its leads short, and then attach fine wire to it -- replacing the old leads with much thinner ones. I have some wire-wrap wire bought from Radio Shack 20 years ago -- yup it has lasted that long! It is fine wire with a white coating which can be "peeled back with a little heat from the soldering tip.

I did two CPU's with it using 1/8 watt resistors, and they both turned out well.

The method I used on the second one was better than the first. In the first one I attached the wires to the resistor first, then added it to the circuit board.

In the second one, I attached an extra long piece of wire to the two circuit board solder points first (just as if I were going to short them) and then I cut that wire in the middle, and added the resistor to it -- much easier to work that way, and less likely to damage the board. Don't skimp on the length of wire, make it extra long and it will be easier -- you will be cutting it back in length anyway when you add the resistor.

Even if you do use a wire wrapped around your soldering iron tip, to provide a second tip -- the iron itself should be a low wattage iron. Most irons have replaceable screw in elements, and a variety of available screw on tips, so you can get something appropriate in size.

I cut the trace with an exacto knife with the standard triangular tip blade. Because of the danger of damaging nearby traces, you are generally pressing the tip, rather than slicing with it. It doesn't take much. A magnifying glass and a strong light are essential.

The main thing is to be ABSOLUTELY sure you are cutting the right trace in the right place -- same thing for the soldering. There were at least a couple different style boards -- and some slight errors in the early instructions -- I mentioned them a few posts back.

Be sure to use a thin, high tin (60/40) electronics grade rosin core solder. You only need the amount that will stick to the lead before soldering in place - barely tinning it.

Be sure to wipe your soldering tip with a damp paper towel or sponge immediately before soldering -- this will clean of oxides and make it bright.

You need to hold the tip to the component long enough to fuse the solder, but no longer. If you hold it too long, it will damage the component. Too short and the joint will break. Err on the side of too short, and hold the joint still til absolutely cool. Flex it a couple times to see if its good, a bad joint will usually fail immediately.

Use fingernail clippers to cut wire-wrap wire -- they make a clean cut, unlike most wire nippers with this fine a wire. Don't try to strip wire wrap wire with conventional wire strippers -- they will just nick the wire and cause it to fail after soldering. A little bit of heat from the soldering tip before soldering can usually push back the insulation enough. This ONLY applies to wire-wrap wire -- conventional wire insulation usually needs mechanical wire -stripping.

Well that's all I can think of for the moment.......

Good-Luck!

[gilf]

Oh yeah, very important:

Be sure to examine all of your work after soldering, with a magnifying glass. You want to check for any possibility of a tail of wire, or bit of solder that is touching another circuit board trace or component lead. It is VERY easy to short something together when working on this scale, and you CANNOT see it with the naked eye. I think a magnifying glass is even more important than a soldering iron in this kind of work!

Oh yes, a few pieces of tape over the resistor and leads is also important -- it is possible that these can get caught between components when re-inserting the CPU board, or that in use they might make contact with something. Laptops get a lot of shaking and vibration in their lives.

A final caution -- be very careful where that keyboard connector fits into the back of the case -- it's a tricky fit -- I actually had to bend my cable just a little tighter at the crease to get it to stick back into the slot in the hinge line. Then you can use long tweezers to help plug the connector back into its socket.

[pikaia]

Well first of all, this is a great resource and I wanted to thank everyone who has added to it.

I picked up a 600E for $50 off Craigslist a couple months ago and have been in love ever since (now I own 3). After finding this forum, I've been contemplating an upgrade to the CPU and now that I've read more than half of the nearly 60 pages of posts I'm nearly ready.

I have a 2645-4AU and am looking to upgrade to something a little more responsive and functional. Right now I have a slimmed down version of XP running, (I had a minimal Ubuntu running, but surprisingly XP runs a bit smoother), and want to get things a bit snappier (opening of Abiword or Openoffice, being able to handle Flash, etc...) My problem is that I don't own a soldering iron, so bypassing the SpeedStep might be out of the question right now for me.

My question is: should I upgrade to a PIII 650-750 and install Ubuntu/PCLOS and utilize the tool to enable L2 or should I just look for a non-SpeedStep PIII (I think 500 is the fastest)? I can get both for pretty much the same price through a local shop (~$20). I want the simplest upgrade at this point that is going to give me the best performance (without the soldering of course). I have no problems cracking open the case or swapping out the CPU.

Thanks again, and I'm sure I'll have a pile more questions in the coming days.

[marc.knuckle]

hey guys, how do i do this, i dont have a clue what to do to do the colour depth and mem overlay
----Video

"By default the xserver graphics modes will be set to a 24 bit colour depth. As the neomagic card in th 600e does not support hardware acceleration in 24 bit mode the performance of the graphics will be very poor (jerky windows, poor video playback). By changing the default colour depth to 16 bit, which is supported by hardware acceleration, you can obtain a significant increase in graphics performance. To modify the default graphics colour depth open up the /etc/X11/xorg.conf in a text editor as root and locate the section of the file labelled "Screen". In this section will be the command,

Defaultdepth 24

Change this to read,

Defaultdepth 16

"To allow the successful playback of DVDs (ie achieve good frame rates) a second modification to the xserver configuration is required. To obatin a decent rate of DVD playback you need to tell the xserver how much menory it can allocate to perform video overlay. To do this find the section labelled "Device" and a add a line containing,

Option "OverlayMem" "829440"


The xserver will need to be restarted fo these modifications to take effect (either via reboot or by manually restarting the server)----

i am using win2000 on the tp 600e that has a magicmedia 256av video adapter and has 2555KB memory size

[Sharedoc]

Pikala,
Propably the best choice for you is 700/750MHz PIII. It will run 550/600Mhz without any soldering.

If you later want more uumph, you can contract some Thinkpad hacker do the speedstep mod for you...

[Sharedoc]

Marc,

Could it be this simple?

Go to the Win2000 desktop. Click mouse right button, select properties, select settings, select color settings -> medium 16 bits.

[marc.knuckle]

cheers i found that setting with some messing about but now wondered if i could get it to allow more ram to be shared with the video adapter. any ideas?

[Sharedoc]

Check Powerstrip utility