Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I just recently bought a Thinkpad 600E from a ham radio flea market for $10. Everything is there(even the original manual),works fine, and is is almost perfect condition besides the processor which is only (according to windows xp) running at 102 MHz. i can surf the net at quite a fast speed until I try to download something such as wireless internet card drivers and it will not open any pictures .It will run MS Word 2003 which is what i wanted it for because the keyboard is the stuff of dreams but it would be nice to also be able to use it for research.

What does CPU-Z say? What type number is printed on the serial number sticker?

The 600E originally came with PII CPUs running at 300, 366 or 400 MHZ, I think it was. But definitely not 102MHz. So something is either wrong with the CPU or even with whatever reports its speed. These CPUs do not speedstep, so they do not throttle down.

For any upgrade, if you are looking int that, the 600E is an odd bird. They have the MMC2 CPU connector, and some of them are capable of PIII upgrades, while others are not. So might not worth the hassle to go the PIII route today, as they won't run a modern OS anyway. And something like Linux Antix runs well even on a 266MHz CPU. have never owned a 600E, so unfortunately no first hand experience.

Norway Pad wrote:The 600E originally came with PII CPUs running at 300, 366 or 400 MHZ, I think it was. But definitely not 102MHz...
These CPUs do not speedstep, so they do not throttle down.

+150. SpeedStep was invented in P-III era by Intel... But we have Big Blue;) I don't believe that they could do it, but they done.

Yes i have 600e with 400MHz. And Win98 still here. I have installed CPU-z and have some fun with PowerMizer. PowerMizer's options can be adjusted in Control panel - Power management - Power mode. There are 3 power modes and only one customizable. If have chosen "Slow" CPU Speed and "Automatic clock control" and have this (click for more - 400k PIC)

(120MHz CPU - 6x 20 MHz BUS)
Incredible! Main trick - that they manage to control bus speed and CPU speed follow it (like we do in BSEL mod on Core 2).

Bad thing: even on low CPU speed fan working with constant speed (and with constant noise):

OP. You can use Fn+F11 to switch power mode. I don't know if it need PowerMizer to be installed.

FryPpy,
Cool! I didn't know 600E can change FSB speed on the fly. But is it changing power consumption and temperature?
I think it works only in 9X OS, because there is no Powermizer for XP either Fn+F11 doesn't work

Wow, I had no idea about this. So it's possible that some adjustments have been done to OP's 600E. Good to know.

But you can only clock them Down and not Up, I assume?

geka3250 wrote:FryPpy,
Cool! I didn't know 600E can change FSB speed on the fly. But is it changing power consumption and temperature?
I think it works only in 9X OS, because there is no Powermizer for XP either Fn+F11 doesn't work

I don't know about power consumption - have no means to measure (battery is dead and it lives on AC). WFM - temperature - need some software to monitor temperature. Interesting can TPFC work on 600e with 98?
BTW - i thought about XP - but mine 600e have one dead memory slot and now have only 160MB:( Can use 256MB stick from T20 - but not now;)

May be i placed wrong name for PowerMizer. Full name from our drivers section is "Battery MaxiMiser and Power Management features for Windows" - 1xu105u1.exe. And in readme it states that it can work with 95 - XP.

Norway Pad wrote:But you can only clock them Down and not Up, I assume?

From software side (PowerMizer) - No. But if this software can work with clock gen?! Yes we can try to mode something here. I have no schematics for 600e and don't know model of clock gen. And honestly i don't want to torture this old guy - he worked well in past - now he achieved retirement and can rest.

FryPpy wrote:Interesting can TPFC work on 600e with 98?

TPFC is incompatible with 600-series. For monitoring you can try old versions of HWMonitor

It seems to have fixed itself being it now says 364 Mhz. Itried to install cpuz but it crashed as soon as i opened the website.(happens a lot)
Type number is: 2645-4AU