Thinkpads Forum

i have a 770ed (PII 266, 64+128M, 4Mdisplay, 8G, DVD). i love this "robust black little box" very much, though i do have a ASUS A6 on hand. but i want to upgrade it, so that it can run XP, and i can use it till my end. i have disassembled it once, and know the CPU is MMC1 packaged. some one told me, this kind of CPU can only be upgraded to CELERON 466, MMC1, but i deem maybe the CPU unit itself can be taken off from the package and changed to, say, PIII 550, or what. so if there is anybody, who have detailed information on this matter, e-mail me, please! i'll be very grateful for you help!

Sorry! i forgot to post my email: gaoyueee@163.com

some one told me, this kind of CPU can only be upgraded to CELERON 466, MMC1

This advice is correct I think. The 770ED is limited by the MMC-1 form factor. The fastest MMC-1 produced on the Pentium chip was a PII 400MHz. I'm not 100% sure about the fastest Celeron, but 466 sounds right. I recall some people suggesting that due to differences in caches or something else, the PII 400 may in fact be faster than the Celeron 466, but I don't know.

but i deem maybe the CPU unit itself can be taken off from the package and changed to, say, PIII 550, or what

I've never heard of anyone replacing the processor chip on their MMC-1 CPU card, and I strongly doubt it is possible to upgrade your CPU this way, but I am not 100% sure.

e-mail me, please!

I would prefer to post replies to the forum: this is an online discussion forum, not a mailing list or email support line.

Phil.

I provide the following options

1. upgrade CPU to MMC1 333, MMC1 366 or MMC1400
2. change to 5400 40GB hard disk.
3. change to 16 chips 256MB SDRAM

Thanks pkiff and wireless4laptop! i didn't expect to receive any replies yesterday so soon. i doubt the time i see in my place is different from that you see in your place. to tell the truth, i really love this 770ed. its speakers are under the handpads on both sides with good sound, not like those on 600, where you probably cover the sound when typing. and this old machine is hard not like those lighter and thinner models prone to break. i'm in china, this is a vast second hand market. i read several posts stating that the CPU unit can be melt off and remounted with a "heat air welding device"--i don't know its name, but the posts were not concerned with 770ed, so i asked here whether you guys have some experience on that. and thanks for wireless4laptop's advice, i'll be looking for these stuffs you told me.
further, i find fewer posts on 770ed than other types, is this machine really out of date?

is anyone here? i got someone selling pII 400 MMC1 cpus in the US! but i don't know whether the price is reasonable, you know, economic enough. does a new such CPU still worth 65 USDs now?? if anyone read this post, please answer me as soon as possible!

gosh! i fogot to post the HTTP, here: http://cgi.ebay.com.cn/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 77900&rd=1

here is another guy selling pII 400MMC1 :http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 5194467424.
BUT he is German, i can't undersdand his words.
would anybody tell me whether the pII 400MMC1 for Toshiba Tecra 8000 is the same for 770ed, can they be compliable?

Breathe

All MMC-1 P-II 400 MHz CPU-cards are interchangable.
They should be the same, every single one of them.

I haven't been told otherwise.

Buy the one you like and which is easiest for you.

Kindest regards
Brian

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

MMC1 366 has no much difference with 400. Good choice.

Your memory is basicly enough. What you need next is one 5400 40GB, or 80GN 40GB.

thanks all kind guys! i'm trying to find these stuff domesticaly, you know, an international transaction will cost me too much. and it seems i'm not too far. by the way, some friend said "your budget for upgrading this old "junck" is big enough to buy a new used and higher one like IBM T 21. or what". but just like the "i robot" stated:" you are willing to do everything for someone (something), if you love him, don't you?" haha!
this is a good forum. if i succeed i'd post my experience for others.

Hello! it sounds like this topic is not so popular, or there are too few people using this old fat lady 770ED, right? i'll give myself a hug. and i'm going to have a pII 400 CPU to upgrade my old lady!

maybe some here will notice this message. when i disassemble my 770ed, i found there was a jumper or something with 6 pins sticking upwards. who knows what function does it have? can it be used to superfrequency? or what?[img]

Someone has tried jumping CPU frequency in the past. Useless. Sorry.

hi,hi!! is there anyone? why i can't download the newest version of bios for 770ed. they just don't give me the download page!!??if anyone have some spare time try the following address, please! or give me an address where i can do it! thank you all! or if possible, just send it to my email: gaoyueee@163.com.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... SHY-3P2MCB

haha! just keep trying, nothing is unquenchable! i contacted ibm and the engineer told me just "uncheck the line above "i agree", then click it and save the file". simple enough! don't tease me! i'm excited just successfully updated my old lady's bios to IDET38WW！

hello, boys! i finally got my new pii 400 for my old 770ed! i want to say the cpu i got from the guy mentioned above is really brand new, very good! i've mounted onto my machine, which is flying now! this is an entrustble man, i say.

hello, maybe these informations is useful for someone. now my 770ed-9549-5ah has a pII 400 CPU, 352M memory (32+256+64, with 32M build-in memory), but the hard drive is still 4200 rps, Sony one. anyhow the speed is now quite acceptable. after a bios upgrade to iwwe38(not an accurate name), XP-sp1 is installed successfully. sp2 is not accepted with a file "txtsetup.sif" reported missing. when trying various memory on my old lady, i find: RAmos 128M/8-chip memory is recognised, while 256M not. the only SD/256M/16-chip memory i can found in my place is SUMSUNG, which seems perfectly good when mounted, but a little bit expensive. i should have bought two such memories, but it ran out of my budget, either couldn't i have bought a 5k80 HITACHI hard drive. acctually, i'm waiting for the 7k100 HITACHI to price down. now, i'm playing with my lady-upgraded!

oh, yes, the machine generates more heat than before, but not quite hot, the fans seldem spins up.
but the power comsumption is definitely enhanced. my battery could sustain for nearly 4.5 hours before, but now only 3 or more---i've not formally test it.

Congratulations on your upgrade. I too am using a 770ED. I have had it since 1998 and I love it. There is no computer on the market today that has the feel of this classic, solid, IBM brick. About a year and a half ago I decided to upgrade to a 400MHz processor. I succeeded, and noticed a considerable improvement in performance. I was very happy for about a month. Then a friend spilled a drink on my thinkpad and the processor was destroyed, along with the motherboard. I bought another 770 which had a broken screen, and rebuilt my thinkpad using the spare parts. Unfortunately I had to go back to my old 266 Mhz processor, but at least it's working again. I'm running WinXP SP1. I've considered upgrading to 400 MHz again, but this time I think I will buy a newer model and keep my 770ED as a web browsing machine. I wish they still built them like this.

Scott

Just bit the bullet and ordered a new 400Mhz CPU from E-Bay $US65, any up front advice that you think of before it arrives? Bios is up to date.

I think you'll be happy with the upgrade. Advice.... I assume you've either worked on a laptop (preferrably a thinkpad) before or you have a good set of instructions to work from. There are some out there floating around on the net. If you haven't done it before, I suggest you read the instructions carefully a few times before beginning, take notes as you disassemble it (there are few sizes of screws so it's helpful to note which ones go where so you don't find yourself stuck wondering which of the holse on the bottom of the computer gets the longer screw) and take your time. If you get done and it doesn't work, don't dispair, just try again. One time (I've rebuilt mine 4 times) I got it together and it didn't work. It turned out that I just hadn't reattached the keyboard ribbon cable. Good luck and enjoy the new speed.

Scott

New 400Mhz CPU is in first time, got lucky, Spybot runs 35% faster. My memory setup is 2*128MB DIMMS, before and after the CPU upgrade the old girl only sees 228MB on startup. I tested an extra 128MB memory card, switched slots, different combinations and still 228MB? Any thoughts?

Do you have the latest BIOS upgrade? That's about the only ting I can think of that would keep it from recognizing memory beyond a certain point. 228 MB sure is an odd amount. The machine should have no more than 64MB on the motherboard then a 128MB module -- 192 MB -- if it wasn't recognizing one of the chips (160MB if 32 on board). So where does the extra 36MB (or 68) come from? The BIOS probably has a recognition limit of 228MB and is only allowing 36MB from the second chip.

It looks like it's only seeing half of the second one, a problem I've seen mention here on the forum. My understanding is there's 32 MB on board (unchangeable 770E) 32 + 128 + 1/2 128 = 224MB ~ 228MB?

If you use 2 PC100 chips with the built in PC66 chip,then it will only recognize half of one of the chips....tried numerous times\ways....If you use PC66 chips,all the memory should be recognized.....might as well,as having the PC66 chip in(not removable on 770E),limits the FSB to 66Mhz anyways....might as well have it run stable.....PC66 256MB chips are VERY hard to find and VERY expensive...

My old 770ED I used to have,I upgraded to a 400Mhz,416Mb RAM,using 256Mb stick(Kingston 390X PC100),128MB stick(PC66),and the built in 32MB PC66.....

You can use ONE PC100 stick with the built in PC66....!!!

Hope this helps..!!

Have Fun...!!!

Greg St.L

Thanks for the confirmation. Indeed I'm trying to make 2X128MB PC100 SODIMM's work. Looks like I'll be shopping for some inexpensive PC66.

Dan