IBM Thinkpad 600E bios mod for processor update

[ChrisL]

also amazingly the little flap that covers the USB still stays in its place to...I just removed it for fitting.

[squink]

Chris - I'd be very interested in doing this myself - where'd you get that one from? I only found one on ebay, and that was US Only, Money order. I'm in canada, so that's a problem!

I noticed that you appear to have dremel'd part of the chassis - Do you think cutting the far end of the radiator off instead is a viable idea [Last time I checked Copper bends fairly easily, so it's feasable the radiator could be realigned to fit]? I'm trying to keep my chassis as complete as possible.

[ChrisL]

search ebay for "evo heatsink" I used the one from the n610c but the n600c is similar and might actaully be a better choice because all you have to do is remove the bottom of the radiator from the fan assembly and in that case doesn't require any dremel.

[squink]

Thanks for the reply, Chris.
I've dropped a message to someone on Ebay with one (n600c). If they ship to Canada, I'll be joining you in the land of heatsink mods. With this in mind, I might/should be able to push my 850 (assuming it still works) over the 1ghz mark. I assume that the 600c is slightly smaller in order for there to be no dremelling involved?

I'd say this is definitely one of the most interesting threads i've read in the last few years!

ALSO, it looks like the fan enclosure on this 600c is remarkably similar to the standard 600e one. I know this is probably obvious, but I wonder - what about just swapping actual the fans over? Looks like it might fit.

edit - I have an n600c on it's way.

[ChrisL]

Yea I really don't think that you will need to use the dremel to modify the heatsink at all. With the n600c it looks like all you have to do is remove the radiator from the sadle after you disassemble it.

[Sharedoc]

hjulian,

If you change byte 20H in CMOS from 0A -> 09 you get trackpoint disabled and then 8611 is no more a problem

[Sharedoc]

Squink,

I am also interested to get a second USB port installed somehow.

Searching for the USB controller, it may be some of the big ASICs on the lower side of the motherboard.

[hjulian]

Thanks Sharedoc,

posted a longer reply on the other thread.

[hjulian]

Just thought of something in regards to your second USB port.

Have you people thought of wiring a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card directly into the PCMCIA bus?

I am not sure if you would then have to disable 1 PCMCIA port for that or if it's possible to just add a PCMCIA thing to the bus.

Just an idea.

[Williham]

Just wondering but what have peoples succes been with installing the 850mhz pentium 3? Can you get it to work at top speed with just software, no hardmodding?
Also how would you overclock the cpu from 850mhz to 1000mhz? are there some jumpers,or bios settings?

[squink]

Have you people thought of wiring a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card directly into the PCMCIA bus?

Surprisingly, yes. I eventually opted towards using a method involving a mini 4 port usb hub. With the correct modifications, it fits snuggly under the left palmrest bezel. Worst comes to worst, there's nothing to stop me from taking my fourth USB i/o and running that to a fresh port. Currently I'm set up like this (or will be once the new board arrives);

Code: Select all

 600e USB Socket [the one by the cooling fan]
    \ 4 Port USB Hub                |^^^^
     |__ Bluetooth Adaptor          | - Wires run back to original
     |__ USB Ethernet Adaptor       |    USB to retain functionality
     |__ Unused                     |
     |______________________________|

So essentially I'm just modifying the onboard usb, by snipping the 4 usb wires, rerouting the ones from the board to the hub, and then from a hub port back to the usb port.

Ideally we should run the secondary USB port directly from the USB Controller rather than the Unused port (IMHO).

I have also been toying with the idea of using DIP switches to turn the different devices on and off, but I'd need a decent place to mount this. My current plan [since I have a linux pad] is to just write a script turn the devices on and off individually. The other thing hindering me with the DIP Switches is actually getting hold of some that'd fit properly.

Sharedoc- I will take my board out in the next few days and give it a good look over. Cheers.

edit I forgot to mention WHY i didn't opt for the PCMCIA idea I figured since pcmcia cards have so many connectors, and since the card is so big, it seems like you'd have to keep the entire card intact. Plus they're more expensive than the cheapo usb hubs. I couldn't think of a way to integrate it well..

[ChrisL]

I think the USB controller is the texas instriments chip on the back of the board.

[squink]

Close, but not quite!

I do have some good news though! I have successfully located the Docking Port USB controller. It's the Intel FW82371EB chip, motherboard underside, just off the processor pins and docking pins. Initially I was afraid that the Docking station would have it's own, seperate controller. Luckily, the specs sheets give us USBP0 and USBP1, indicating dual USB.



ftp://download.intel.com/design/intarch ... 056201.pdf - Original Specs for the Intel 82371AB multi-function PCI device (284 pages, 1.4MB pdf)

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/sp ... 063508.pdf - Updated Specifications ( FW82371EB - That's the chip in the 600e - 45 pages, 178kb)


If you scroll down to Page 270, Figure 34, you'll notice they've made things nice and easy for us - they've given the pin i/o coordinates



These are the pins I think are most likely of interest.

This is the physical location of what I believe to be the pins above (on the underside of the board, obviously. Apologies for the poor image quality. I used a board marker to indicate the pins, though - in blue) Note that because it's the underside of the board, the pin locations are flipped;


Now I'm going to figure out exactly where these go, and I'll let you know (unless someone figures it out first!) which docking port pins you can connect your second usb to

edit
Lack of a magnifying glass and appropriate equipment makes this more or less impossible for me to trace. Anyone else wanna give it a shot?

[hjulian]

Sharedoc,

If you change byte 20H

I couldn't find an "H" in my CMOS table. Letters only run to "F".

I have a TP 600E, 2645 4A0.

[squink]

Hjulian,

I believe (iirc) it's on the third row down of the first column, but I can't be 100% sure because my thinkpad is in bits, so I have no way to check