Thinkpads Forum

I tried posting this last night but my connection suddenly wouldnt work..

first- i have both computers set up the same way, same processes running, same items in taskbar etc. i ran adaware and the 600e never went above 60C, and when it got there, it shot back down to the low 50s. the 570 on the other hand, went up to 70C and stayed there. fan problem perhaps? you apparently can't apply arctic 5 to the 570 cpu since its soldered?

second- im monitoring the frequency of both computers. they have identical p2 366mhz processors. the 570 speed stays at 366, while to my surprise, the 600e is fluctuating all over the place, and now its sitting at 181mhz. is this really happening or could it just be confused? i thought it needed speedstep to do this? im so confused..

edit: i did the obvious and checked both plugged in and unplugged. the 600e in fact did go back to 366 when plugged in, which means in the BIOS its set to battery optimized when plug is removed?

on the 570, its set to the same, but the frequency never changes.

dsigma6 wrote:Iim monitoring the frequency of both computers. they have identical p2 366mhz processors. the 570 speed stays at 366, while to my surprise, the 600e is fluctuating all over the place, and now its sitting at 181mhz. is this really happening or could it just be confused? i thought it needed speedstep to do this? im so confused..

edit: i did the obvious and checked both plugged in and unplugged. the 600e in fact did go back to 366 when plugged in, which means in the BIOS its set to battery optimized when plug is removed?

This is strange... I downloaded MobileMeter last night for the first time and ran it on a 500Mhz 600X under Windows 2000 Pro SP4. I was extremely surprised that it reported that my processor speed was ~250Mhz. At the time I was running on a re-celled IBM battery only. I plugged in an AC adapter and it changed to 500Mhz! It does seem like MobileMeter is correct in this since the system is noticeably slower launching programs if I'm on battery power.

I have tried to confirm this by using memtest86+, which is the only utility I have at the moment that is supposed to report processor speed. It says 500Mhz for both battery only and with the AC adapter. I assumed that this speed throttling is something that Windows 2000 was doing. I checked the power settings and found that the CPU power management was set to Automatic. I changed it to Disable, rebooted and still MobileMeter reports half the speed when running battery only.

I too would like to know what's going on.

so odd!! when the mobmeter settings are identical, the frequency on each computer doesnt match. the 570 only changes the temperature when its set to view actual speed, and the 600e only changes when it takes the info from windows- but it will put it down to 133mhz, or 200 depending on if i let it show in increments of 33.3mhz. im trying to figure out what role the bios cpu settings have, but i cant get into bios on the 600e- F1 takes you to the ibm config stuff..maybe im just having a slow day.

To keep this thread on-topic I pulled out my 600E with Win98SE. As it appears that you can't run MobileMeter with this O/S, I downloaded CPU-Z and ran it. Even stranger results. My 600E is a 2645-5BU with 288MB memory and INET35WW BIOS. The following readings are taken with the laptop plugged in to an AC adapter and with three different battery configurations: 1) original IBM battery pack w/about 1 hour run time 2) re-celled 4400mAh original IBM pack w/about 2.5 hours run time 3) no battery:

Identifies as Intel Moblie Pentium II 400Mhz (well no surprise there)

Core speed varies around 100Mhz (99.1 - 116.3; I would expect it to be more stable, but 400Mhz not 100! After all I'm using an AC adapter.)

Multipler is x 6.0 (I think it's what the core speed is when multiplied by the FSB speed)

FSB is 16.5Mhz to 21.2Mhz (no typo... sixteen point 5 to twenty-one, two! Well that explains my core speed!)

Okay, time to dig into Win98 power settings... (it's been a long time since I've used it). Open up Power Management Properties window. Click on Power Mode tab (Thinkpad Configuration Utility is installed). Power Mode for the AC setting shows "Automatic" but below that in the greyed-out Setting Details CPU Processor speed shows "slow" and Automatic Clock Control is checked. Click on "High Performance" then Apply. Right away CPU-Z starts to show 400Mhz core speed and 66Mhz FSB! Play around with the power settings for AC and battery and find that as long as the AC setting is High Performance and battery setting Customized and you select one of the three Processor speed options (Max-400Mhz, Medium-200Mhz, or Slow-100Mhz), everything looks right.

Well this may explain why my daughter said the laptop was a dog and that everything seemed to be so slow. I naturally attributed that because of all of the programs that were running in the system tray. I don't know how, why or who made these changes to the Power Mode but they were the wrong ones.

As I only ran CPU-Z on my 600E I do not know what the temperature readings are.

dsigma6,

Since it appears you are running Windows 2000 on the 600E, then I would try the following:

Open up the Power Options Properties window and see what the current Power Scheme is set to. I would bet that you are running "Max Battery". Change it to "Minimal Power Management" and re-check your CPU speed when running on the battery alone. It should now be running full speed.

I have verified this with my 500Mhz 600X running Windows 2000 Pro SP4 and a 650Mhz Speedstep 600X running the same O/S. Both systems throttle down to half speed when set to "Max Battery" and the AC adapter removed. Both CPU-Z and MobileMeter report the same frequency changes. What appears to be changing is the Front Side Bus (FSB) speed. It goes from 100Mhz down to around 51Mhz. My 500Mhz 600X on WinXP does not do this so it must be something built into Win2K.

thanks, you have been a great help. that fsb speed drop is a bit too much for me! and running at ~200mhz isnt quite cutting it. i think first off i need to update the bios on both computers, then mess with the power settings.

i still cant figure out how to get into the 600e bios. i searched but didnt turn up anything- ez setup is getting in the way..

dsigma6 wrote:i still cant figure out how to get into the 600e bios. i searched but didnt turn up anything- ez setup is getting in the way..

EZ Setup IS the BIOS. ThinkPads all come with a rudimentary GUI to control BIOS settings and it is called Easy Setup. It is possible to manually hex edit the BIOS as well, from within EZ Setup, but there should be no need for you to do this, and as far as I know, no one knows how to control the power settings that way. The power settings are best controlled by the ThinkPad configuration utility or by whatever power settings are provided by your operating system. Different OSes provide different power management options. rkawakami's advice on this seems sound to me.

rkawakami wrote:I have verified this with my 500Mhz 600X running Windows 2000 Pro SP4 and a 650Mhz Speedstep 600X running the same O/S. Both systems throttle down to half speed when set to "Max Battery" and the AC adapter removed. Both CPU-Z and MobileMeter report the same frequency changes. What appears to be changing is the Front Side Bus (FSB) speed. It goes from 100Mhz down to around 51Mhz. My 500Mhz 600X on WinXP does not do this so it must be something built into Win2K.

I find that very interesting. It does seem like W2K has some unique CPU power functions. If your analysis is right, then it may explain how some people running W2K seem to be experiencing SpeedStep functionality when they install a PIII SpeedStep CPU on their non-SpeedStep 600X/600E machines. See for e.g., SpeedStep and Windows 2000 on a ThinkPad 600E.

Phil.

it seemed like there wasnt much hope considering all my search turned up was info about the easy setup and hex editing- which i steered quite clear of. maybe its much ado about nothing, but im starting to fancy an x21 instead of this 570.