IBM T30 - CPU is working only on half of it's speed.

[Ryszard]

Greetings!

I'm glad that I can join to this community. I'm the owner of the T40, T61p and T30 which have some troubles. In the future I want to expand my ThinkPads family even further

During my restoration of the T30 which was bought not so long ago to my collection. Here is what I've done to the computer during this project already:

- new thermal compound under the CPU
- dead HDD was replaced by IDE to mSATA enclosure with Toshiba 120 GB SSD inside of it
- BIOS was upgraded to 2.10 (latest possible) with Embedded Controler (1.07)
- Internal speaker is dead, so I ordered from eBay a replacement (the audio is working on external speakers)

But I notice something weird when I ran CPU-Z to make sure, that is nothing wrong with my CPU. From the beginning I felt that computer is not working as it should, and I've decided to check it. CPU-Z is reporting, that my Intel Pentium 4-M 2,0 GHz is working only on 716 MHz. Using SpeedSwitchXP it indicates that CPU is running only 1,2 GHz, and the FSB is only set at 200 MHz instead of 400 MHz. That is something that I didn't exprected from the unit. Of course, I''ve played with the Intel SpeedStep settings, but still CPU-Z reported the same data from the beginning.

What is the deal with that Pentium 4-M processors? Or maybe my CPU or unit is going to die soon? I have no clue what is causing the issue.

[RealBlackStuff]

You have either an (almost) dead battery or no battery.
In such cases, the laptop only runs at reduced speed, nothing to worry about.

[Ryszard]

You have either an (almost) dead battery or no battery.
In such cases, the laptop only runs at reduced speed, nothing to worry about.

Thank You for the rapid response! Yes, my unit came without backup battery and CMOS coin battery (even without that special enclosure, need to find it or maybe buy on eBay...). So, in that case the only thing what I can do is regenerate the battery, or maybe find battery pack that holds some current to work at full speed?

[wujstefan]

You have either an (almost) dead battery or no battery.
In such cases, the laptop only runs at reduced speed, nothing to worry about.

Whoa! It's never too late to learn something new, but I was absolutely not aware of that! One generation higher (T4x) works at full speed with no battery, but I'm gonna check in the moment if the same is true for T23.

Thank You for the rapid response! Yes, my unit came without backup battery and CMOS coin battery (even without that special enclosure, need to find it or maybe buy on eBay...). So, in that case the only thing what I can do is regenerate the battery, or maybe find battery pack that holds some current to work at full speed?

T23 battery also works for T30 if this is of any help; T30 batteries are signifficantly harder to get nowadays.

[Ryszard]

T23 battery also works for T30 if this is of any help; T30 batteries are signifficantly harder to get nowadays.

Yep, I was expecting that, too. But I've found an original package in a local advertisement portal. Even if it does not work, I should consider regenerating it. It's better than buying a Chinese replacement from Aliexpress or something.

I think the whole topic will be handy for someone with the same problem with T30's. So, I will post my results when the package comes to me .

And another question for you guys: I cannot find the CMOS battery holder for T30, and I'm considering mounting the battery using double-sided tape. Do you think that is a good idea to do it, or maybe find the original package?

[RealBlackStuff]

Hold it!
The T30 battery works in T20/T21/T22/T23 without any modification.
But a T20/T21/T22/T23 battery ONLY works in a T30, AFTER you cut out a corner of that battery!
Look at the Parts list Overall page 139 of the T30 HMM manual.
The number 10 on that page points to that specific battery-corner.

[wujstefan]

Hold it!
The T30 battery works in T20/T21/T22/T23 without any modification.
But a T20/T21/T22/T23 battery ONLY works in a T30, AFTER you cut out a corner of that battery!
Look at the Parts list Overall page 139 of the T30 HMM manual.
The number 10 on that page points to that specific battery-corner.

Yup, this is correct, but the "mod" is just a mechanical cut quick&simple

Even if it does not work, I should consider regenerating it.

Please share how did that work at any point I have never regenerated my batteries ('cause I don't feel my skills and hand stability can let it), so this may be of interest to me

[kfzhu1229]

Hold it!
The T30 battery works in T20/T21/T22/T23 without any modification.
But a T20/T21/T22/T23 battery ONLY works in a T30, AFTER you cut out a corner of that battery!
Look at the Parts list Overall page 139 of the T30 HMM manual.
The number 10 on that page points to that specific battery-corner.

I am assuming that people have tested that and actually got it working right and IBM didn't put some sort of blacklist that blocks the weaker T2x batteries from working on T30. Or the updated power management mechanism on T23 and T30 vs T20-T22 for that matter. Because when I try A22m battery with extension wire onto the A30, the system simply does not communicate with the battery properly while it worked the other way around.

Either way, be very careful about battery stress on the T30 if you are exercising this route or going with an unknown Chinese T30 battery. The Pentium 4-M sure draws a lot of power at peak load, and from my testing on the ThinkPad R40 with the Pentium 4-M 2.2Ghz and my LG cells that both the new and the old cells have better specs than IBM's original cells, an hour of gaming on battery power got that 8 cell battery's temperature above 45C! It got hot enough that when the battery drained to 8% and I plug in the charger, the battery refused to charge until the temps hovered in low 40s again!
On the T30 if equipped with a similarly high clocked P4-M and only 6 cells to carry the power load vs 8 cells, and then you throw in a battery BMS and Chinese cells that isn't designed to carry the load of a Pentium 4-M, if you do something crazy like gaming on battery power, expect issues anywhere from shutting down due to overcurrent to overtemperature to the cells just not holding up the internal resistance, and expect the battery lifespan to age terribly, or even a hazard in the case the system pushes more than 2A per battery cell.
But for the purpose of keeping the system running at full power, that's perfectly reasonable. But just keep that in mind since there is a very legitimate reason why IBM did not want T30 users to use the weak batteries of especially the T20-T22 days, and gave it 2200mah battery cells (Dell for instance shipped them with negligibly better 2250mah cells, but more of them)!
Dell has a similar preventative mechanism on the Latitude C640/C840 Pentium 4-M systems where if the detected capacity of the battery is below 3600mah (54Wh, i.e. older than a typical battery from Pentium III systems), the battery will not charge, and will throw you a warning saying the system will shut down in 60 seconds and tell you to save your work immediately.

Yep, I was expecting that, too. But I've found an original package in a local advertisement portal. Even if it does not work, I should consider regenerating it. It's better than buying a Chinese replacement from Aliexpress or something.

If you go down the route of rebuilding a battery pack, I think my posts are already detailed enough on how to approach that subject SAFELY. Depending on your luck of the battery BMS chip, you may or may not need to reprogram the EEPROM to get the capacity updated. The Mitsubishi chip gave me a lot of troubles, the Texas instruments BQ chip on the R40 battery happily recalibrated itself after half a dozen cycles. But yes they are indeed better than Chinese replacements, much better, if you get the handiwork spot on.

[RealBlackStuff]

And another question for you guys: I cannot find the CMOS battery holder for T30, and I'm considering mounting the battery using double-sided tape. Do you think that is a good idea to do it, or maybe find the original package?

Going through my parts pile I found 2 CMOS battery holders, that almost certainly come from a T20/T21/T22/T23.
The T30 holder looks very similar and the T23 CMOS holder may also fit in a T30.
Check that and let me know.

[Ryszard]

It's been long time ago since my last post about the my unit. But I've decided to buy another T30 with the original battery pack. The computer looks in really good shape, but I didn't power it on. I wanted only the original battery pack, just to see and troubleshoot.

And guess what. Of course, the battery is almost dead, but somehow, it holds charge for some time, and the CPU is running at the full speed! Finally! Now I got two T30's to play with, and if the second unit will not work either, then I can use it as the spare parts

We can close the topic, but I'm sure that my post will be helpful in the future for those, who have exact same problem

And another question for you guys: I cannot find the CMOS battery holder for T30, and I'm considering mounting the battery using double-sided tape. Do you think that is a good idea to do it, or maybe find the original package?

Going through my parts pile I found 2 CMOS battery holders, that almost certainly come from a T20/T21/T22/T23.
The T30 holder looks very similar and the T23 CMOS holder may also fit in a T30.
Check that and let me know.

Sure! I got T23 that was in the computer fleet of IBM Poland office (i got the sticker with asset management number lol) and it has the same holder. I will PM directly to you if I'm gonna need