R500 and X9100 CPU

[txnative3]

I have a T9600 installed at the moment ...but have a new x9100 laying around ....have latest bios updated & embedded controller updated...but system will not boot when x9100 is installed,installed a x9100 on a sl510 & worked with no problem .So am I missing something or is T9600 max cpu for the R500 ?


Thanks

[Screamer]

Doesn't seem like something is missing, and the T9600 is not the fastest processor for the R500. Clearly something here is not right, because a lot of R500 users had ran the X9100 in their machines without a problem.

When you mentioned that your R500 does not boot with the X9100 installed, does that mean that you get nothing when the R500 powers up? A black screen, or it can not even boot to the BIOS?

[ajkula66]

Have you tested that X9100 in another system ?

On a different note, I'd pass on anything faster/hotter than T9600 in these machines with the stock cooling.

[wujstefan]

X9100 works perfectly fine in R500, and with stock cooling.

R61 has problems with top-shelf CPUs, but this is not an issue for R500. Are you using 90W PSU? What thermal grease did you put in there?

[txnative3]

When i have had the x9100 installed it only shows the power light is on ...shows a blank black screen...using a 65watt power adapter &even with a new charged battery only shows getting power but will not post to os or bios...do remember on the sl510 used a 65 watt adapter & worked with no problem.Any idea how to check if cpu is bad ?

[wujstefan]

Well you should test it on another unit -however, you have mentioned this particular one has been tested on sl510... or was it another one?

[Screamer]

When i have had the x9100 installed it only shows the power light is on ...shows a blank black screen...using a 65watt power adapter &even with a new charged battery only shows getting power but will not post to os or bios...do remember on the sl510 used a 65 watt adapter & worked with no problem.

A blank black screen would usually mean that the processor microcode is outdated or is not present, assuming that the processor itself is working. I would like to be sure about this though, did you check your BIOS version which should be 3.13? Is the embedded controller's firmware version 1.06?

wujstefan has a good question too, do you actually have 2 X9100 processors?

Any idea how to check if cpu is bad ?

There are not a lot of ways to check, but the first one is testing it on another machine, which you might have done on that SL510.

I have noticed that some processors tend to come with bent pins, so that might be an issue if you did not bend it back to place. Could you check if this is the case for your X9100 that you have installed in your R500? Also, was the socket locked after you installed the X9100? I seem to recall forgetting to lock the socket, and that resulted in a blank black screen.

[txnative3]

Okay have checked the cpu no bent pins ...when I upgraded to the latest bios which is 3.15 had looked in the lenovo EOL for latest bios update....didn't bother to google ....shame on me as when I do google bios version 3.13 & 3.14 both speak of the microcode update for cpu's .Now is it possible to revert back to either one of these versions ? I mainly did the 3.15 version because of the sound driver issue....have yet to upgrade my ram to the full 8gb as 4gb is installed at the moment & T9600 cpu temp.is running pretty steady at 61 celcius.The X9100 was from a pair of brand new ones that were purchased & as stated installed one in sl510 & had this one as a extra ....sl510 was sold...& the r500 is the only laptop on hand that will use this cpu.Do appreciate all the suggestions & recommendations...

[Screamer]

Woops, my bad. I did not check the latest BIOS version, which should be 3.15. I highly suggest that you keep your current BIOS and do not downgrade.

It is possible to revert to an older BIOS release, but I am not very sure whether if it works on the R500. I only tried that on my R40 that worked with the downgrade, but that is more than a decade ago.

From my perspective, it seems to be very likely that your X9100 has a problem. The last thing I would check for to know that it is the X9100 itself and not the BIOS, is to take off the keyboard and feel the heatsink's heat while the R500 is powered on (with the X9100). If the heatsink starts to feel warm/hot when the R500 is powered on, this means that the problem lies elsewhere in the BIOS or the motherboard. Also, be sure to place your hand or finger to the closest point of where the processor seats at.

However, if the heatsink does not feel warm or hot, this means that your X9100 is dead. A non-functional processor should not produce any heat.