T40 processor upgrades

[Myka]

I just bought a ThinkPad T40 off Ebay. It's a low-end machine (1.3 gig processor, 512 ram) but there is some room for upgrades. From what I've read the first thing to do is rip out the 4800 hd and replace it with an Hitachi Travelstar. The second is max out the memory to 2 gig, and third is to bump up the processor. I know it will most likely top out at 2 gig, since it only has a 400 FSB, but what about the step code? Some are sl7en, but others sl7em or sl7sm. Which ones will work?

[agarza]

1. Typically all the hard disks shipped with Thinkpads are Hitachi Travelstars, you then have a Travelstar already with poor 4200RPM and possibly with only 2MB of Buffer Cache. Getting a 7K100 would have a very positive impact on performance.
2. You don't need to max out memory, unless you plan on running Vista (personally I wouldn't recommend to jump at it right away, you should wait until SP1 comes out).
3. I'm unsure about the technical names of the Intel processors, but I can recommend you to upgrade to a 1.8GHz Dothan processors, those right now are very cheap.

[underclocker]

For performance;

1) 7200rpm drive
2) 1GB RAM
3) CPU upgrade to 1.8GHz or faster

Enjoy it.

[vinny77]

I actually have the same question, I have a 2373-12U and want to get a new processor, this website says

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_479

can i run a core 2 duo in my laptop as they are the same socket or is this website wrong and if so what is the highest i can go,

[Temetka]

No Core or Core 2 action for the T4x series. They are electrically incompatible.

The highest you can go is 2.1GHz. I think it's a Pentium M 765.

[GnatGoSplat]

I actually have the same question, I have a 2373-12U and want to get a new processor, this website says

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_479

can i run a core 2 duo in my laptop as they are the same socket or is this website wrong and if so what is the highest i can go,

That site is very, very wrong.
It says the difference between socket 479 and socket M is just 1 pin changed. I thought maybe if it's just 1 pin, there's a chance a Core Duo could be made to work, maybe just without the BIOS support, but I've run CPUs in the past without BIOS support and they worked anyway. However, I downloaded the Socket 479 and socket M pinouts. The pinouts are completely incompatible, just about every pin has changed. Most of the signals actually appear to be the same so i think theoretically a company could make an adapter, but I guess an adapter would probably take up too much space in a notebook.

[atanasoff]

No Core or Core 2 action for the T4x series. They are electrically incompatible.

The highest you can go is 2.1GHz. I think it's a Pentium M 765.

I have a T40p w 1.6 cpu. What part # or description should I search on to check upgrades?

[rafar]

While we're still talking about upgrading CPU's.
I just upgraded my T40 from 1.4 Banias FSB-400 to 1.73 Dothan FSB-533 and it works fine.
The problem is BIOS says that cpu is only 1.53, Windows however reads it correct as 1.73. I also did the BIOS update and nothing changed. I know that the motherboard on the T40 is only supposed to work with CPU's of FSB-400, I'm not sure how it might cause any issues, since its only using for memory transfers with RAM as far as i know.
Anyone has any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance.

[underclocker]

Welcome to forum.

Can you run a cpu clock utility to see how fast it is actually running?

Like CPU-Z - http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

[FTC]

Hi, This is very strange. If you really did put a Dothan 1.73 / FSB533 in a T40 what should happen is that it runs at 100*13=1300 Mhz (1.3Ghz) instead of 133*13=1730 Mhz (1.73Ghz).

I suggest you to install CPU-Z or something similar and see what it says (name / core speed / multiplier / bus speed / rated FSB), and we will work from there what happened.

[rafar]

Ok, I'm back.
CPU-z says the following:
Intel Pentium M processor 1.73GHz

Core Speed 598.1 MHz
Multiplier x 6.0
Bus Speed 99.7 MHz
Rated FSB 398.7 MHz

Motherboard
Manufacturer: IBM
Model: 2373PU7
Chipset: Intel i855PM

I think this should be useful. What do I have to multiply again to find out the actual cpu speed?
Thanks for helping out.

[sktn77a]

Try running CPU-Z in safe mode - I think speedstep is preventing you seeing what speed your processor is actually capable of running at. But in principle, it should be maxing out at 1.3 MHz as it is a 533 FSB processor running at 400 FSB.

[underclocker]

Or, you can select the Maximum Performance option of the IBM battery power manager. That will kick it into full speed mode.

Let us know. I believe FTC is correct, it should show 1.3GHz, although it's amazing that it's properly identified.

[rafar]

Or, you can select the Maximum Performance option of the IBM battery power manager. That will kick it into full speed mode.

Let us know. I believe FTC is correct, it should show 1.3GHz, although it's amazing that it's properly identified.

Haha, yes cpu-z is pretty neat.
Well, I did set the performance to max using another tool I found called "Notebook Hardware control" its pretty cool. And right now the speed is 1.3GHz. I guess that's about all I can do.
Still somehow it feels faster than my 1.4 Banias did.

Thanks for advice everyone.

[FTC]

Hi,

Well, with your setup you can do two things now :

1. Undervolt it a lot. A Dothan core running at 1.3Ghz ought to be able to run with as low as 1.03V or less.. This will get you a very cool notebook.

2. If you want to gain a little more of speed, you can try overclocking it. I have a T40 which is successfully overclocked to 112 FSB (using the SETFSB (http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/) program for the X31. Note however that not all T4xs have a programmable PLL... (my T42 does not). In your case, 112FSB would get you as high as 1.46Ghz.

[underclocker]

Still somehow it feels faster than my 1.4 Banias did.

Well it does have 2MB cache vs. 1MB.

[rafar]

Hi,

Well, with your setup you can do two things now :

1. Undervolt it a lot. A Dothan core running at 1.3Ghz ought to be able to run with as low as 1.03V or less.. This will get you a very cool notebook.

2. If you want to gain a little more of speed, you can try overclocking it. I have a T40 which is successfully overclocked to 112 FSB (using the SETFSB (http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/) program for the X31. Note however that not all T4xs have a programmable PLL... (my T42 does not). In your case, 112FSB would get you as high as 1.46Ghz.

Hi,
1. I did change the voltage to 1.03 and it works fine.
2. The setfsb returns a PLL Error so I cant overclock it, I dont kow why.

Thanks for your suggestions.