Upgrade options

Older ThinkPads.. from the 600, the 7xx, the iSeries, 300, 500, the Transnote and, of course, the 701
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ajac
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Upgrade options

#1 Post by ajac » Sat May 28, 2005 1:06 am

I just got a thinkpad 600 and I am thinking about upgrading it. Has 128mb of RAM and I installed windows xp Pro on it. I know I know upgrade to 288 wll when I get the cash were is a good place to buy memory for it? Also hard drive options are thier any? ALso when I installed windows xp the audio driver is yellow and I have to uinstall it and reinstall it to get sound every reboot anyway to fix this? I was looking for the drivers but couldnt find them :(

Anthony

Laptop_wizard
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#2 Post by Laptop_wizard » Wed Jun 01, 2005 11:18 am

Go to ebay, you will find hardrives as big as 80G for your thinkpad, and also i got a 128 pc100 memory chip for 24bucks.
about your sound, you kneed to do a COMPLETE fromat and install windows xp, just boot to the xp disc, and sore from their.
if that dosen't i had that problem with my cdrw-dvd drive,
I figured out i had to pullit out, then insert it, and unistall the friver and restart, after your sound works, make sure you mkae a restore point.
reguards

farna
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#3 Post by farna » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:00 pm

Make sure you go to the IBM site and get the latest BIOS upgrade first. The upgrade site should mention if you can use 256M RAM modules. I know the BIOS upgrade allows the 600E to use 256M RAM modules (originally would only use 128M). You need the eight chip RAM modules, the four chip high density RAM won't work. 256M modules run for $80+ that will work though. If you're going to keep and use this computer it would be worth it to get at least one 256M module even if the second module is a 64M or 128M, expecially running XP. XP will run in 64M, but with a LOT of disk activity. 128M is better, but it runs best with 156M or more. Sure, a pair of 128M modules will work, but a single 256M costs about the same as a pair of 128's and leaves you open to upgrade more if you really want to later.
Frank Swygert (USAF - retired)

ajac
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#4 Post by ajac » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:31 pm

how do u create a boot disk without a CDROM? I am only using the CDROM and thier is suppose to be a way to update the bios using a CD instead of disk

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#5 Post by warwound » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:33 am

Have you got a PC with a CD-RW and floppy which you can use?

Assuming you have then download the latest BIOS update from IBM.
Get a blank floppy and create the BIOS update floppy.

(I hope you also have Nero installed!)

Open Nero and select New > CD-ROM (Boot).
On the Boot tab there's the 'Source of boot image data'.
Select Bootable logical drive and then your floppy drive - you need to have the previously created floppy in your floppy drive.
(This will use the floppy's boot data for the CD).
Click New and you've got a bootable CD image but no actual data..
So select your floppy (A : ) and add all files from the previously created floppy to the CD-ROM compilation.

Burn it to CD-R and you're done!

Basically you're creating a bootable CD using the boot data of the floppy and then adding all the files from the floppy too.

I did this myself recently for my 600E and it worked no problems.

If in doubt about any of the process then post again for more detail - better safe than sorry!

warwound.

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#6 Post by ajac » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:20 am

hmmmm means I gotta go buy some floppies lo lanyone got an image of the newest bios availble for the 2645-85u if somene makes an ISO for me I can easily burn it hehe. oh yeah means also I gotta put the floppy drive back in lol

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#7 Post by warwound » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:46 am

ajac wrote:hmmmm means I gotta go buy some floppies lo lanyone got an image of the newest bios availble for the 2645-85u if somene makes an ISO for me I can easily burn it hehe. oh yeah means also I gotta put the floppy drive back in lol
Post a link to the EXACT BIOS download that you need and i'll make a bootable CD image for you to burn.

Must it be an ISO or will a Nero .NRG image be ok?

warwound

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#8 Post by Nolonemo » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:50 am

[quote="farna"]256M modules run for $80+ that will work though. [quote]

You can get pulls on eBay for around $50, just make sure they are the low density etc.
560, 560x, T23, T61

ajac
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#9 Post by ajac » Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:12 am

okay got it updated used floppy image to do it how is this memory if i use this one:

http://www.amamax.com/mmsdmc030n144133256.html

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#10 Post by farna » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:45 pm

The description sounds right, but the pic isn't correct. You need 16 chip modules, eight small chips on each side instead of 4 chips on each side of the board. The four chip models are "high density" chips and won't work. I'd ask and make sure it's a generic pic (most likely) and the modules are the 16 chip low density before buying, that's all. Description says they are 16 16 bit chips -- if that's correct you're good to go.
Frank Swygert (USAF - retired)

farna
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#11 Post by farna » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:47 pm

Nolonemo -- Nero has an option to "burn a disk image". Should be an ISO image or an option. I forget which (if it is ISO or there's an ISO option), but I recently downloaded and burned an ISO image with Nero. I think it's version 6 for OEMs.
Frank Swygert (USAF - retired)

ajac
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or this

#12 Post by ajac » Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:20 am


farna
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#13 Post by farna » Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:45 pm

No way to know 100%, but 16x64 indicates there are 16 64K chips on the SODIMM, so either should work. PC66 and PC100 memory works, and most PC133 SODIMMs seem to work with 16 chips.
Frank Swygert (USAF - retired)

ajac
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#14 Post by ajac » Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:54 pm

thats what I thought to. I will hae to order some

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#15 Post by warwound » Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:32 pm

What do you all reckon to the likelihood of a 128MB PC133 SODIMM working on my 600E?

I've started a thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=12226 and am looking for some quick advice - i'll upgrade if the PC133s will work.

Thanks.

warwound.

skilcom
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#16 Post by skilcom » Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:25 am

di i have to copy the cd image to my hard disk before i run the command.com file and choose option 2


regards


steve

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#17 Post by pianowizard » Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:46 pm

farna wrote:Make sure you go to the IBM site and get the latest BIOS upgrade first. The upgrade site should mention if you can use 256M RAM modules. I know the BIOS upgrade allows the 600E to use 256M RAM modules (originally would only use 128M). You need the eight chip RAM modules, the four chip high density RAM won't work. 256M modules run for $80+ that will work though.
Part# 33L3070 (or 33L3069) definitely works. I know because I just got one for $45 + $7 S&H from eBay and installed it today. The other module is 128MB and so I now have 416MB total including the 32MB onboard memory. It seems to help Windows XP Pro quite a bit, although this could be my imagination, LOL!

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