IBM Thinkpad 600E bios mod for processor update

[hjulian]

Would somebody be so kind and post a working link for the Powerleap L2 cache enabling utility?

I am running Windows XP on a TP 600E but would like to have the one for Linux, too.

I had downloaded something called cacheutility.zip and it gave me a blue screen and didn't work at all. The Powerleap.exe file that I had was unable to enable L2 cache on boot giving me the following error:

Error: unable to start ring 0 component (or something like that!)

After boot I had to manually start the utility and then it was OK, the L2 cache was enabled.

I was unable to find any working link to the proper Powerleap utility or to any cache utility that would enable L2 cache on boot.

Thanks.

[Pokemon]

@hjulian

Remove PowerLeap from autostart (in options),and add his shortcut manually to start/programs/autostart .Add shortcut at the end of list programs to run.I do this yesterday and it works.I had same problem as You.

[borc2m]

Hello,
could somebody please help me to solve my problem. I have IBM TP 390E and I decided to change my Celeron 300Mhz CPU with PIII 450Mhz. I bought it and I inserted it. The problems I am having are:
CPU works but it works at 300Mhz
PCMCIA, SOUND, FLOPPY doesnt work
also films are not working at least as good as they were on Celeron.
I did not updated my BIOS yet. Must I take BIOS UPDATE for 390E or could it
be for 390X. Are the difficulties because I have 66Mhz RAM?
Thanks for answering.

[beatoem]

Hello,
could somebody please help me to solve my problem. I have IBM TP 390E and I decided to change my Celeron 300Mhz CPU with PIII 450Mhz. I bought it and I inserted it. The problems I am having are:
CPU works but it works at 300Mhz
PCMCIA, SOUND, FLOPPY doesnt work
also films are not working at least as good as they were on Celeron.
I did not updated my BIOS yet. Must I take BIOS UPDATE for 390E or could it
be for 390X. Are the difficulties because I have 66Mhz RAM?
Thanks for answering.

if i was you i would update bios to latest type 390e first
and see how it goes.
looks like the bios or mobo defaults to 66fsb but somehow using p111 divder ratio which hinders usb and graphics speeds respectivly.
conversely another trick is to swap resistor from r 71 to r73 location on the pin side of cpu,to attain 100fsb on existing celeron cpu.but no guarrantees if bios or mobo wont detect 100fsb.

[Bluubekt]

After successfully resurrecting an old 770X by replacing the DC/DC card I have now joined the TP 770X/Z admirers club. Mine has the 13.7" SXGA LCD panel (1280x1024) and I must say that is one sweet screen! I haven't seen many a laptop that can compete with its crispness and the viewing angles are excellent as well.

The only problem is that it only has a PII 300 in it and even with maxed RAM (512Mb) it's just a tad too slow to play movies (webbrowsing and office stuff is surprisingly good though). So I've found this thread from the Thinkpads.com forum and have read most of the posts (this is one big thread - a testament to the enduring appeal of these brilliant old Thinkpads) and have a couple of questions:

1) I'm not keen on the PIII upgrade as long as the BIOS hasn't been successfully hacked to alllow the L2 chache to be enabled at boot. What is the status on this project? Is Sharedoc still around? I may be able to assist him with some of the parts that may be needed as I think enabling the (trouble free) use of PIII processors in 600E & 770X/Z machines would be a great thing! Of course I also hope to share the inevitable Nobel Prize for such a feat...

2) As an alternative to the PIII route I have been contemplating a Celeron (the horror, the horror!). If I understand things correctly this would work without any hacks/extra software as a Celeron has the same L2 cache size as the PII? Of course that would mean I would miss the performance boost of the PIIIs bigger cache but shouldn't it still give a decent performance boost? How helpful is SSE when it comes to playing mpeg movies anyway?

Many thanks,

Bluubekt

[borc2m]

Hello Bluubekt,
you shold see this forum. I have the same problem with my 390e.
I would also like to watch films on my TP. Although some of them works.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... light=390e
I hope it will help you to decide what to do.

[Bluubekt]

Hi borc2m,

Thanks for your reply! However, the 600E and 770X/Z do (most of the time) support the 100MHz FSB of PIII processors so the speed problem you're experiencing shouldn't be an issue on these machines.

Regards,

Bluubekt

[Sharedoc]

borg2m,

take a look for a clock generator hack in
http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6483

[Sharedoc]

bluupect,

There is no urgent need for bios hack as there is a workaround by disbaling the L2 during boot via CMOS data mod and the enabling L2 using PowerLeap utility.

PIII is much better than Celeron in performance and it runs cooler.

[Pokemon]

Hello

Several months ago i bought PIII 650MHz processor to upgrade my TP 600E (2465-8BG).I put processor to my TP and modify bios.Processor works fine, but with 500Mhz.On mmc2 board there is no "japan" SS controller,there is empty place.I can't do SS mod and because my mmc2 board is different than boards described on this forum.Im must not do FSB mod,bacause processor automatically runs at 100Mhz FSB,and onboard 32MB memory works too without errors.Im sure that is 650 PIII because,after remove shield from processor i saw 650/256. How i can put processor to higher frequency.Vcore is about 1,56V.PowerLeap shows :
cpu family : 6
model : 8
stepping : 6

and shows also cC0

[Sharedoc]

pokemon,

See the lowest picture. To do SpeedStep mod, please solder 2.2kohm resistor between left end of R1 and + end of the big black capasitor on the left. Then install DeepSleep utility and it should go 650.

[Pokemon]

It doesn't work .I have installed deep sleep utility under win 2000.Deep sleep shows 495~501 Mhz clock - powerleap and sisoft sandra shows that multiplier still is 5.

[Sharedoc]

Did you install the 2.2kohm resistor?

[Pokemon]

yes, i did

[Sharedoc]

Hmm,

There may be two explanations why SpeedStep is not working

(1) SpeedStep controller is missing
(2) Some other components may be also missing (resitors)

I really can't say.

Can you return the processor and ask for proper 650MHz piece?