T20 basic questions

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awdark · #1 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:31 am

Okay, I feel that I can make a new thread because my T20 is ALIVE!

This is infact my first notebook ever so I don't know much about it.
The fan seems weird and likes to turn on at temperatures much higher than I prefer. Is there a compatible and safe temperature monitoring program for this?

How do I get it to go into full power (850mhz) mode? Is my 16v 3.36amp transformer inadaquate for powering it? (keeps it in battery mode despite the fact that I don't have a battery and running off AC)

My time/date doesn't seem to stay. Dead CR2032 right?

Would it be logical and safer (for the board) to have a lithium ion battery in the battery bay? If so, does anyone have a old battery lets say 30min - 1 hour battery for a t20 or 30 they would be willing to part with cheaply?

Lastly, I have this really weird crack like thing on the LCD
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/3046/dsc022334ch.jpg
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4351/dsc022326gh.jpg
Im thinking the light box is cracked. If so, do you think I could realign it and tape it back? It gives the screen a weird lighting effect there.

lithium726 · #2 Post by **lithium726** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:35 am

actually, it looks like the cover on the back of the LCD is torn, and is letting light out/in... maybe some tape to cover the tear?

to get the chip running full 850mhz 24/7, set the power profile in XP to "always on"

awdark · #3 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:52 am

Im running Win2k (256mb ram not fun to run xp with 256mb)

CPU-Z should be a good indicator of true CPU speed right?

Edit:
I shall open up the LCD and check it out tomorrow then, I was thinking it might be fixable but wanted to see a little encouragement first

lithium726 · #4 Post by **lithium726** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:16 am

ah, then you need to mess with the Intel speedstep applet. I havent used it in many years so Im not exactly sure what you need to set it to get it to run full speed all the time

you can run XP with 256MB... you just need to cut off some of the fancy crap. It might interest you to know that XP actually has a smaller footprint in memory than 2K SP6 does.

Yes, CPUZ is a great little program for that

awdark · #5 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:55 am

Smaller footprint?!
Hrmm
Well you have a good point there, when I get a HDD replacement I shall consider trying that.

The speedstep utility looks fine. AC on performance, DC on power save, now in power save. >_< me and what battery!
Eh maybe its in the BioS the bios does see the 850 just fine. I think linux saw it as 850 also. So its speedstep+bios I guess.

150mhz downclock sounds so trivial in the context of saving power. OH... could the CPU be waiting for the NEED before it kicks up to 850?

lithium726 · #6 Post by **lithium726** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:01 am

well, its not really the 150mhz drop, its more the voltage drop... those chips go from something like 1.7v to 1.3v load/idle.

basically, its just waiting for you to put a load on it. My 1.2ghz p3 pretty much runs a constant 1.2ghz cuase i max it out fairly constantly. my 1.7ghz P-M typically jumps to full speed after ive loaded about 50% onto the processor. the task manager will show 60% usage, then speedstep will kick in, my chip will go to 1.7ghz and usage will go down to 20-30%. speedstep works before you ever max out the chip, so you basically would never know it was transitioning. its best to just keep it on to keep the heat down, the T2x notebooks get pretty [censored] hot on full load - i know my T23 does.

awdark · #7 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:28 am

Grr
SuperPi and Prime95 uses CPU power doesn't it?

For some odd reason it really likes to stick to battery performance mode. And my bios doesn't like to keep the time.

I opened up the LCD, much more invoved than I would prefer. But it made no difference, the white line is INSIDE the white box so there isn't much I can do, nor am I willing to do.

Could this be a bios issue? My T20 has the 1.10 bios in it and I can't upgrade it. (no physical battery)

#8 Post by **schen** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:58 am

I have some extra T2x batteries. I'll check my list to see what I have and let you know, then you can tell me if you are interested. I ended up with extras from a vendor who sent me the wrong stuff. I think I've got at least one that is down around 30-40 minutes that you can have cheap. What else is missing from your machine? There a pretty good vendor on ebay that is selling actual IBM T/A/X series A/C adapters.

awdark · #9 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:15 am

cool

Most of my computer is complete actually.
The AC adapter I have is a genuine IBM one, but I wonder why it doesn't let me kick it into full power mode.

lithium726 · #10 Post by **lithium726** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:41 pm

a machine that old might need the 74w model, i know thats what my T23 came iwth and hte T23 consumes less power than the earler T2x models.

awdark · #11 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:13 pm

Oh... hmm
I have a 54 watt transformer, feels slightly warm so my logic is its not under a very heavy load. That just might be the cause then because as far as I can tell, the BIOS is set to exuberent use of power mode.

lithium726 · #12 Post by **lithium726** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:24 pm

Wish I could help - ive got 3... two are in use and one is flakey

sorry man...

try getting XP installed, it might be a software problem.

awdark · #13 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:04 pm

Ill try XP when my next hdd comes. The one currently in it is a tad loud... as in it overwhelms the noise from my desktop (quite quiet yes, but still its loud)

awdark · #14 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:31 pm

Uh the backup battery has 3.12 volts and the time and date refuses to stay.
Any ideas?

Orevin · #15 Post by **Orevin** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:41 pm

I would replace it anyway. The voltage may go down under load. You can get those for 3 bucks at Radio Shack.

awdark wrote:Uh the backup battery has 3.12 volts and the time and date refuses to stay.
Any ideas?

awdark · #16 Post by **awdark** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:38 pm

Im thinking its getting bad contact to the battery... is the surface of the lithium cr2032 solderable? Or would it be wise to just wrap electric tape around it very tightly?
Plan B would be to get my dremel and cut off a CR2032 socket off a motherboard I have and make a REAL CR2032 holder unlike this little trivial thing

Website · #17 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:09 am

I would NOT attempt to solder the CR2032....I am speaking from personal experience. I tried this once and just ACCIDENTALLY touched the tip of the solder iron and it exploded. I knew not to touch it, but I was balancing things and slipped.

awdark · #18 Post by **awdark** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:22 am

Glad I asked.
What I was thinking was perhaps the smooth surface would just be hard to solder to. Considered heat might be an issue but didnt think it would be explosive.
Electric tape it is!

Unless I can get a spot welder...

now that I know I can't find. Probably would have more luck mounting that battery compartment over something liek that.

Would you have any insight to the laptop sticking to Battery mode?
Its only plugged into the AC adapter, I do not have a physical lithium ion battery.
Speedstep has both options battery and AC to be on max performance.
Bios unless im missing something should be on maximum performance.

Is there a utiity similar to the ones I have for my A64 which can adjust the speedstep on the fly in windows?

Yes, I will try XP sooner or later, but I can't update my bios until I have a real battery in it. Truthfully, I haven't tried it but I just spent $44 on a new board and don't really have much interest in toasting the BIOS.

As far as I can tell bios 1.1 doesn't suppot XP yet. But doesn't sound like it would have any issues with a 850mhz cpu.
I tried Knoppix and I think I saw a 694 fly by as it was loading but im not sure.

Website · #19 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:03 am

Once you have XP loaded there will be several utilities that you can run to check the CPU speed. I will tell you that the 850MHz chip will most likely continue to read as 700MHz because of Speed Step. It will kick in the extra 150MHz when the system needs it. I was told that there is a setting in the BIOS to force it to full power mode, but I haven't tried it myself.

As for the battery pack, I would definately try getting the 72W adapter, I have my T21 running off of a 56W adapter from time to time, but I am not really comfortable with it.

You can use electricians tape to hold the CMOS battery connectors onto the CMOS battery. Just make sure that you have the best and tightest connection that you can. I haven't tested the longevity of the electrcians tape on a CMOS battery, but I have used it many times to hold me until I got a proper CMOS battery.

Orevin · #20 Post by **Orevin** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:28 am

awdark wrote: Is there a utiity similar to the ones I have for my A64 which can adjust the speedstep on the fly in windows?

SpeedswitchXP will work with your laptop.
I don't know if NHC supports older CPUs.

awdark wrote: Yes, I will try XP sooner or later, but I can't update my bios until I have a real battery in it. Truthfully, I haven't tried it but I just spent $44 on a new board and don't really have much interest in toasting the BIOS.

You will need a main battery anyway before you can update your BIOS.

awdark · #21 Post by **awdark** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:36 am

I guess this is a sign that win2k is becoming obsolete. I was hoping to stick with it but I guess its impossible.

Shouldn't 2k be able to switch to the high power mode if it thinks its necessary though? I know I can run those torture tests on it to kick it into 100% but so far it refuses to do the jump.

Out of curosity, which laptops came with the 56watt transformer over the 72 watt one?
I know someone had said their T23 is actually more efficient and can run on the 56 watt but im curious what configuration IBM had. More specifically, I guess what came with the T22 (that came with a 850 or 900mhz cpu stock right?)

Can people run at full CPU speed off the battery?

lithium726 · #22 Post by **lithium726** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:47 am

The X series comes with the 56w adapter, my X31 had one.

Yes, you can run at full speed off the battery.

awdark · #23 Post by **awdark** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:15 am

What temperature should the fan kick in?
Is there a way I can FORCE it to turn on? I don't like hot computers

it occasionaly does turn on to blow but im not happy with that. I want it ON to keep the cpu cool!

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... IGR-4MCKLN
I think it has to do with this... 99% of the time the fan is off... but during POST the fan is on.

ill turn off my t20 now I dont want it to melt.

Website · #24 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:20 am

lithium726 wrote:The X series comes with the 56w adapter, my X31 had one.

Yes, you can run at full speed off the battery.

FWIW, because I was corrected on this before (I had assumed that ALL X series had the 56W adapter): The X20 and the X21 came with 72W adapters. However, the X22-X31 only had 56W adapters, according to tawbook.pdf.

All T2x series came with the 72W adapter.

awdark · #25 Post by **awdark** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:33 am

Thats not a good thing then.

Um... what about my fan... I have read that the fan should almost always be on. My fan is almost always off.

Orevin · #26 Post by **Orevin** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:38 am

awdark wrote: Um... what about my fan... I have read that the fan should almost always be on. My fan is almost always off.

Where did you read this??? Every laptop owner is happy, if the fan doesn't run too much.

awdark · #27 Post by **awdark** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:48 am

Does 145F cpu sound normal to you?

Im used to my overclocked Opteron 2ghz -> 2.75 with a zalman running at 90 idle and 130 load.

Orevin · #28 Post by **Orevin** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:16 pm

awdark wrote:Does 145F cpu sound normal to you?

Yes, it does. I did a temp check on my T22 (for the first time) right now. The fan kicks in at 85C (185F) and cools the CPU down to 55C (130F) before turning off.

awdark wrote:Im used to my overclocked Opteron 2ghz -> 2.75 with a zalman running at 90 idle and 130 load.

Don't compare a laptop with a desktop. You have a huge heat sink and fan, compared to a laptop and the air can flow much better in a large case.

awdark · #29 Post by **awdark** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:34 pm

Oh so its normal to take that long before it kicks in?! Because my tolerance would be 150F then start cooling...

Oh well, I guess its normal then

awdark · #30 Post by **awdark** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:59 pm

-_- how can my T20 need a 72 watt adapter?!

The back says
Type 2647
16v DC 3.36A = 56 watt.

Which means... I have to figure out the software problems I have

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