G41 Project - Finished! 1 Pic

[Shredder11]

Yeah I was aware of that brand and was quite willing to pay more....double even, but I had a bad experience with some Micron for my first G40 back in 2013. Probably just a one off and bad luck I know, but it put me off this time around. However I have saved your link in my Ebay UK watchlist, just in case I have to return and refund the ones I have on order.

[Shredder11]

Today I have been trying to get the new IDE adapter and mSATA SSD drive to work in my G41. Using Vista that was already on the computer's old 40GB ATA drive, I used some software to partition and format the SSD drive that was connected via a USB adapter. I then reomved the old ATA drive and placed the SSD in the bay. So up to this point it seemed both the IDE adapter and SSD drive were working, and even via USB so things seemed promising.

For whatever reason the new SSD drive is not recognised by the G41 BIOS and any attempt to install an operating system just fails, as it reports there is no drive available. I also noticed that having the SSD connected, had the effect of stopping the Ultrabay optical drive from being powered or working at all. I even tried changing the jumper setting on the IDE adapter from master to cable select, but neither made any difference.

Not sure what to try next as last year I upgraded the BIOS to version 1XET57WW (1.16 ) 11/30/2006, mainly to make sure the P4 3.45GHz CPU upgrade worked. So I would think there are no other newer or better equipped BIOS out there to try.

Any ideas?

[thinkpadcollection]

This is odd.

Try mSATA 64GB samsung and see? Ever G41 have 127GB bios limit?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[ajkula66]

Ever G41 have 127GB bios limit?

No they don't.

[Shredder11]

This is odd.

Try mSATA 64GB samsung and see? Ever G41 have 127GB bios limit?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

The Panasonic is the first mSATA SSD I have ever bought, so I do not have any other cards to test with. All my other SSD drives are full size SATA models in my other Thinkpads and also my desktop PC. If I see a smaller capacity mSATA SSD appear on Ebay at a very cheap price I may get one.

[ajkula66]

The Panasonic is the first mSATA SSD I have ever bought, so I do not have any other cards to test with. All my other SSD drives are full size SATA models in my other Thinkpads and also my desktop PC. If I see a smaller capacity mSATA SSD appear on Ebay at a very cheap price I may get one.

A couple of things here...

Do you have the ability to test that mSATA in another system? Know anyone with a *20 or *30 series machine?

There's no BIOS HDD limit on the G4x units. I had Samsung HM160HC in one of mine, it was recognized instantly and ran flawlessly.

My best guess would be that either the SSD is defective or the adapter is not up to the task. Without completely eliminating one as a possible culprit it's pretty hard to move along, which is why I suggest testing the drive in another machine...

Good luck.

[Shredder11]

Well I have been messing around today with various pointless things, including installing Win XP Pro to an old adapter with a slow SDHC Class 4 card on my G41. I then dug out an old Synology DS-101j NAS which has an internal IDE port, thinking I might use the new mSATA in that but I changed my mind in the end. So I then turned my attention back on the G41 and tried installing the new adapter and mSATA SSD. I noticed that the reason I had been struggling to get this slotted in the other day, was because it was the wrong way up! Now I have not been feeling too good recently, and have been making constant mistakes the kind I would never do.

So once I had the adapter and SSD the correct way up in the caddy, it slotted in easily and after powering up it was discovered instantly by the BIOS and the Panasonic SSD was correctly shown in the BIOS settings. I then tried installing Windows XP Pro OEM from a disc I always use on my other Thinkpads. It got through the first section where it unpacks all those files prior to the main install, and then it restarted the computer ready to carry out the main install procedure. However it did not get beyond the bit after the BIOS, when it tries to load and install Windows, e.g. it had the black screen with the file system error. Now this might be because most if not all of my SSD installs, have been done with "Paragon Migrate OS to SSD" using an existing Windows installation from a mechanical SATA drive. I'm not sure if I have ever created a fresh Windows install straight to an SSD, so maybe I have not prepared the drive correctly prior to the install?

I now have Windows 7 Pro OEM installed from a Lenovo disc I have used many times before. Despite being stuck at Ultra DMA Mode 2 it feels a bit faster. The reported read and write speeds with CrystalDiskMark are as expected for the drive mode it is in, e.g. 32MB/s. I cannot find a video driver for the Intel integrated graphics chip and the Vista one does not work. I did manage to find a soundchip driver though, using my trusty DriverPack Solution disc image file from their website.

Jeeez I am having more headaches tonight (02-10-2016); I just accidentally knocked off a key and cannot get it back on (the left arrow key). Back in November 2012 I remember doing a 'G' key on my Z61p laptop and that took ages to get on!

[Shredder11]

Now that I have sorted the CPU heatsink issue, I am ready for the next upgrade. I wonder if anything exists to utilise the Mini-PCI slot with an SSD solution? Maybe there is an adapter to use miniPCI-e SSD cards?

You may want to read this thread first:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=115478

While the G4x series are not mentioned in it, it would be safe to presume that they might be affected as well. Proceed with caution...

There is a fair amount of information to take in there and I am not 100% clear on how to proceed. I have checked my Windows device settings and they report that the hard drive channel is running at Ultra DMA Mode 2, so that explains why I am only achieving a meagre 33MB/s read and write speeds; the previous mechanical drive did 24MB/s. According to the application Speccy, I have "Southbridge Model 82801DB (ICH4-M), Southbridge Revision 01". So if I have read things correctly, I need to update my BIOS with additional code to force the drive to ignore it is on a 40 wire cable?

[ajkula66]

I need to update my BIOS with additional code to force the drive to ignore it is on a 40 wire cable?

IDK. I ran into this with an A31p a while ago and waived a white flag. Latest BIOS and all.

Inserting a code into an existing BIOS is way above my pay grade, and towers miles above my comfort level...

Good luck.

[Shredder11]

Well today I have been further updating Windows 7 Pro on the G41, and I then decided to dig out my first G40 which I got back in February 2013. I had a look in the Win XP Pro Device Manager and noticed that it was running Ultra DMA Mode 5, even though both the G40 and G41 use the same drive controller. This completely surprised me and helps to explain why this older computer, always seemed much quicker than my G41. So I ran a test of CrystalDiskMark and sure enough it performed better, even though this has a mechanical 60GB 7200rpm ATA drive. It gave 44MB/s for read and write speeds, which is nearly double what the same type of drive does in the G41. So once I have finished with Win 7 on this G41, I will install Win XP Pro again and see what that does. If it still reports a slower DMA mode, I will put the SSD drive in the older G40 machine. Oh and I managed to get my keyboard sorted but it does not feel and work as well as before, plus other keys are now feeling hard and flat for some unknown reason; it had felt like brand new only days ago.

[Shredder11]

Today I installed Windows XP Pro OEM on both my G41 and G40 using the mSATA SSD and adapter. What I discovered is that on the G41 and G40 it resulted in Ultra DMA Mode 2. I then put the two mechanical IDE ATA drives I have back in to each machine, and both of them reported to be in Ultra DMA Mode 5. So I now know both computers are capable of this mode within their hardware drive controllers. However the mSATA SSD specification sheet says it can do Ultra DMA Mode 5 and higher. So something somewhere must be blocking or not reporting properly to the drive controller. Even in the lowly Mode 2 Win XP Pro boots on the G41 machine in 12 seconds, and the whole machine feels great. I would love to get it to Mode 5 and see this thing really fly though!

[Shredder11]

If anyone reading this topic wants a Pentium 4 3.46GHz SL7NC CPU for their G41, there is one for sale on Ebay USA right now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pentium-4 ... SwtnpXoM-~

[ac12]

Not all mSATA to IDE adapters work the same.
I have one (Aleratec) that refused to work on my Dell C400, the BIOS refused to see the drive, but worked fine in my T23.

But you bring up a question. Both of the following are running XP. Device Manager reports the following UDMA modes.
My T23 with an Aleratec mSATA to IDE adapter, and Samsung 64GB SSD, I get UDMA mode 2 (33MB/sec).
My Dell C400 with an inexpensive Chinese mSATA to IDE adapter, and Samsung 32GB SSD, I get UDMA mode 5 (100MB/sec)

Since it is not the same SSD in both adapters, I can't say if it is the SSD or the adapter that is limiting the UDMA mode on the T23. Or if the T23 can only do UDMA mode 2.

My next step was to put a SSD into my G40.
But now I'm in conservation mode, and limiting my $ spent on these old computers.

[Shredder11]

I've tried Win XP Pro and Win 7 Pro and both with the same outcome. So like you say it could be I have an unlucky combination of adapter and SSD drive for the G41. I may at some point try all this in something else, such as my old ASUS TUSL2-C and Pentium III 1.4S based desktop which only has IDE / ATA from January 2002. I could even try it in an old Synology DS-101j NAS box which is IDE only, although this runs a Linux variant of course. Actually that is one thing I have not tried on the G41 yet........Linux!

[Shredder11]

Reviving an old thread for a RAM question, to see if I can squeeze a bit more performance out of the G40.
On the G40, the FSB runs at 400MHz. The PC2100 RAM is 266MHz.
Will the G40 benefit from going to a PC3200 which can run at 400MHz, to match the FSB speed? Or is there something in the G40 that will limit the max speed that it can get out of the RAM, making the PC3200 run down at 266MHz ?

Last week my PC3200 400MHz DDR RAM modules arrived from Ebay and today I decided to install and benchmark them. I used a small program called MaxxMEM2 and also Speccy, to see what info came up about the modules. The good news is the 400MHz modules are accepted by the G41 laptop, and run without any issues. The bad news is that they run at 333MHz and I have no idea if this can be changed, because the G41 BIOS is not as fully featured as a desktop one. Speccy correctly identifies and reports the capabilities of the 400MHz modules, but also reports they are running at 333MHz.


MaxxMEM2 Benchmark Results - PC2700 333MHz (on the left) - PC3200 4000MHz (on the right)

Left: http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... twgtgq.jpg
Right: http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... nh9lqc.jpg

[ac12]

Shredder
Thanks for the info on the memory speed.
I won't waste $$ on upgrading the memory.