Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I recently picked up a Thinkpad 770, type 9549-1AU. This is a 233MMX Pentium machine. I also picked up a 266 PII off ebay, thinking it would be a direct MMC-1 replacement. When I swapped the CPUs, the 266 would not boot at all. I then opened the machine back up, checked connections and put the original 233 back in. The machine now boots as it did originally.

I've done some search and haven't definitively confirmed what I can upgrade to. I'm hoping this group can help.

Should a 266 PII, MMC-1 work in this machine. Is any BIOS update needed? There is also the chance that the 266 CPU doesn't work.

Any input or help is appreciated.

Thanks

If you upgrade the CPU of your 770 to PII, you will have to take a procedure so called "keys on boot" just like in 770X/Z. This means that your system will issue two errors on boot after the CPU upgrade, so you will need to push "ESC" first and "F1" second in order to boot the OS.

I don't know if there is any workaround for these errors since we are talking about a vanila 770, not 770X/Z for which a solution is known.

If you don't mind pushing keys on boot, yes, you can upgrade the CPU to PII. If you want the system to boot cleanly, perhaps you better stay with the current CPU.

Thanks for your response.

I am assuming that since when I installed the PII 266 the machine would not boot at all (the small lcd showed the volume/speaker icon but the screen showed nothing at all), I either installed a bad CPU or had a bad connection when I reassembled.

If I had a bad CPU, should I be able to get to BIOS, or does the system need the CPU to do anything?

Thanks