The official 770 Upgrade and general information Topic

[pkiff]

Installed Powerstrip on my evergoing 770Z and that has eliminated the weird flaws in the display with dotted vertical lines all around.

Hey, Brian, long time no see. This Powerstrip solution sounds intriguing/promising! I'm in the process of trying to put one of my 770Z's back into daily use. I'll give the trial version of this thing a try and see if that seems to solve the issue on my machine as well.

Phil.

[DK6400Brian]

Yeah, it's been a few days, Phil Missed you too

It's so weird, that this thing works. Had to tell.

Btw, pretty interesting stuff that 1 GHz MicroPGA/MMC-2, pulled from a Panasonic rough-PC.
Glad I didn't saw it earlier on. I'm $150 richer now.

The 600X and 770X/Z must be the laptops with the longest lifespan.
I think mine are from 1999. That's 10 years of full service. Good golly. Works like a charm.

Get that thing up'n running, Phil.

[el-sahef]

It seems that the program does not have to be started at boot again once the corruption is gone, so no need to buy the full version of the program, but I did not boot up too often with the autostart of the program disabled so that still has to be verified.

The 1 Ghz CPU with the MMC-2 to µPGA2 adapter even works stable at 1,08 Ghz in the 770x (it ran prime 95 with no errors for some time) but I found out now that after unconnecting the AC adapter during a torture test and using the battery I get errors on prime 95 and even blue screens after some time. It seems that the battery (it is a new one and works with Pentium II and on my father's Pentium III 700 Mhz 770x) can not give enough power to the laptop with this processor installed. I will solder a switch to the speedstep mod so I can boot with lower core voltage and speed when running on battery. I hope that this will resolve the issue.

[pkiff]

It seems that the program does not have to be started at boot again once the corruption is gone [....]

Interesting update re: Powerstrip. I still haven't tried this on my 770Zs, but am looking forward to it.

The 1 Ghz CPU with the MMC-2 to µPGA2 adapter even works stable at 1,08 Ghz in the 770x (it ran prime 95 with no errors for some time) but I found out now that after unconnecting the AC adapter [...] It seems that the battery (it is a new one and works with Pentium II and on my father's Pentium III 700 Mhz 770x) can not give enough power to the laptop with this processor installed

This is also very interesting, though I doubt I'll be trying that mod out. Hope you can resolve the battery-only issue with the SpeedStep mod...

Phil.

[el-sahef]

I finally got the processor to work stable when running on battery, but on lower speed (756 Mhz, 1,35 Volt). When the AC adapter is connected, it runs stable at higher speed (1,08 Ghz, 1,6 Volt). This kind of fake-speedstep is done by two transistors who switch the Speedstep-Mod off when the AC adapter is disconnected and vice versa.
This is the circuit i made:
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=fake ... isfuy2.jpg (813x506, 50KB)
It can also be done by a relay, but it is difficult to find a place for it in the Thinkpad.
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=fake ... aybjaj.jpg (813x506, 54KB)
It should also work on Thinkpad 770Z, 600E and 600X without speedstep-enabled system board. The only two restrictions compared to true speedstep is that you have to go into standby, connect or disconnect the AC adapter and wake up again from standby to make a speedstep transition (if you connect or disconnect the ac adapter while in operating mode, the machine will switch off imediately) and you can not adjust the speed via the INTEL utility or the Windows XP power schemes.

[el-sahef]

I found a way to get 133 Mhz Frontside-Bus in the Thinkpad 770X (tested), 770Z (tested) and 600E (not tested, but should also work because it uses the same clock generator). To achieve this, you must desolder the original clock generator (PLL) on the system board (IMI SG577DYB) and solder a new one that has the same pinout but provides more frequencies. I used the ICS 9248BF-55 which can be found e. g. on Gigabyte GA-6BXE and GA-BX2000 desktop motherboards. This clock generator provides 66, 100 and 133 Mhz FSBs @ 33 Mhz PCI clock (works), 75 and 112 Mhz FSBs @ 37 Mhz PCI (worked for me, too) and 83 and 124 Mhz FSBs @ 41 Mhz PCI clock (not tried, but should most likely cause problems).

Because the i440BX chipset in the notebook can only provide 89 Mhz AGP clock at 133 Mhz FSB (which is too high for the Trident graphics chip) you have too feed the AGP clock with a second clock generator and configure its FSB outputs to 66 Mhz at 3,3 Volt operation (and use it for AGP). I do not know if the Neomagic graphics chip in the 600E works with 89 Mhz AGP clock but if it does, it makes things a lot easier.

To make thing even more difficult, you have to use PC133 CL2 (not CL3!) SD-RAM SO-DIMM for stable operation because the 770X and 77Z do not provide an option in the BIOS to set the CAS-latency to 3 and therefore only support CAS-latency 2.
I do not know if 600E supports CAS 3.
256 MB-Chips that run CL2 at 133 Mhz and are compatible to i440BX chipset can be difficult to get, the crucial ones which are listed as comatible for 600X do work.

With this mod, it should be possible to overclock 850 Mhz MMC2-CPUs up to 1133 Mhz but you can of course also overlcok chips with lower mutliplier e. g. 450 Mhz to 600 Mhz.
The higher FSB should have a bigger impact on performance as the higher processor clock because the Frontside-Bus is the bottleneck on the Pentium III.
For example, a 600Mhz Pentium III at 100 Mhz and multiplier 6 is much slower than a 600 Mhz Pentium III at 133 Mhz FSb and multliplier 4.5.

Since I own the µPGA2 to MMC-2 socket adapter, I can also use CPUs with multiplier 9 and 10 in the newest D0-stepping which usually overclocks good. MMC2-CPUs are only available with multiplier up to 8.5 and in the older C0-stepping which can still be overclocked to 1 Ghz+, especially when raising Vcore (voltage can be raised and lowered easily on MMC2-processors, I will post information at another time; it helps to save battery-time and make cooling easier when lowering the voltage).
850 Mhz >>> up to 1133 Mhz
800 MHz >>> up to 1066 Mhz
750 Mhz >>> up to 1 Ghz (should always work without raising Vcore).

The 1 Ghz µPGA2 CPU was not able to run at 1,33 Ghz (133 x 10) even at 1,75 Volt (Vcore can be adjusted with switches on the socket adapter).
A 900 Mhz µPGA2 CPU was able to run at 1,2 Ghz at 1,75 Volt, but I still have to test if it is stable and if the voltage can be lowered to 1,7 Volt or 1,65 Volt .

Even if it does not work, 933 Mhz (FSB 133 and the mutliplier 7 of the 1 Ghz CPU in the battery-optimized mode should be faster than 1 Ghz @ 100 Mhz FSB and mutliplier 10).
933 Mhz was also stable on my old 850 Mhz MMC2-CPU without raising voltage.

Unfortunately there is no 950 Mhz µPGA2-CPU, so I can not test 1266 Mhz.

This mod is only possible with good soldering skills and equipment and does not make any sense regarding cost/performance (maybe only when using a 450 Mhz CPU because it can still run with the original CPU cooler/fan assembly at 600 Mhz); it is only proof-of concept .

Here are some pictures, but they are 150KB each, so be warned!

backside of system board with switches
These are far more complicated because I made a circuit that changes the FSB when AC-adapter is plugged in. Normally, only three simple switches connected to ground and to the three frequency-select-pins of the clock generator can be used to set the FSB.
topside of the system board with the new clock genator ICS 9248BF-55
topside of the system board with the second clock generator to feed the correct AGP clock
screenshot at 89 Mhz AGP This happens if you do not feed correct 66 Mhz AGP clock when runnig 133 Mhz FSB on the 770X and 770Z. The graphics chip can not work correctly with this high AGP speed. Maybe the Neomagic graphics chip on the 600E can.
850 Mhz MMC2-CPU running at 933 Mhz (7x133 Mhz) and correct AGP clock feeded.
900 Mhz µPGA2 CPU running at 1,2 Ghz and correct AGP feeded
Memory that works at 133 Mhz and CL2 Selled by Crucial for Thinkpad 600X, manufactured by Micron.

[DK6400Brian]

I just like your way

I'm still using the 770Z with a 850@700. Haven't had the nerve yet to mod the hardcore way.

Your new efforts are just so freakin' interesting, so I had to respond right away.

I got the recommended 16 chip 256MB low density ramsticks in this machine. I think they're PC100.
You're using PC133, so that's just one more step ahead.

1133 MHz just like that. Is your clockmod without the SpeedStep- and 106 MHz FSB-mods ?

Keep 'em coming el-sahef. Thank you.

[edit] By the way:
My 12½ year old daughter tells me, that some very high pitch noise (15KHz+) is coming from my 770Z, but I can't hear it myself.
I suspect it's coming from the CCFL inverter, due to the coils there that makes high frequency AC to the CCFLs.
Nailpolish should cure that. I'll get to it later and report back.

[el-sahef]

Is your clockmod without the SpeedStep- and 106 MHz FSB-mods ?

For 1,2 Ghz, I use the MMC2 to µPGA2-socket-adapter with Speedstep-Mod applied, a 900 Mhz µPGA2 CPU in D0-stepping (I also own a 1 Ghz µPGA2 CPU in D0-stepping, but it does not work at 1,33 Ghz (133 Mhz x 10), only at 1,12 Ghz (112 Mhz x 10)) and the modified system board:
pictures (150KB each, be warned!):
bottom
top
socket+CPU
side

For 1133 Mhz with the 850 Mhz MMC2-CPU you have to apply the Speedstep-Mod (to enable 8.5 multiplier for 850 Mhz and higher 1.6 V Vcore) and modify the system board as described above. So you have to change the clock generator on the motherboard to an ICS 9248BF-55 (for 133 Mhz FSB operation, so 108 Mhz Mod to the old clock generator is obsolete in this case) and use a second clock generator to feed the correct 66 Mhz AGP clock for the graphics card. Again: This is very difficult! I sawed the second cock generator with some piece of surrounding PCB with the necessary resistors for the clock generator chip out of an old Pentium II desktop mainboard. And you have to use PC133 CL2 SD-RAM. PC100 Cl2 or PC133 CL3 or PC100 CL3 will not work. And of course they have to be 16 chips low density if they are 256 MB (I use one 256MB and two 128 MB, all PC133 and CL2).

My 12½ year old daughter tells me, that some very high pitch noise (15KHz+) is coming from my 770Z, but I can't hear it myself.
I suspect it's coming from the CCFL inverter, due to the coils there that makes high frequency AC to the CCFLs.
Nailpolish should cure that. I'll get to it later and report back.

The inverter only produces high pitch noise if the backlight is not set to maximum brightness. But there are also coils on the DC-DC card that produce such noise, but not all the time.

Edit:
There is absolutely no way using the original small IBM fan assembly even at 850 Mhz because it can not cool down the processor after heavy load. You need something like this (150 KB each, be warned!):
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg3605dk7p.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg36113kla.jpg

For the µPGA2 socket adapter I made a new cooler with a bigger surface (150 KB each, be warned!) On these pictures, the 133 Mhz FSB-mod is not applied to the system board yet:
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg48509i5o.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg4856ch7s.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg4857ij7m.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=cimg4822cga5.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=_dsc5809fnmmfmch.jpg
And there is the adapter for the 1,8" Toshiba HDD. An Adapter for CF-cards may also work regarding space and it is of course much easier to use a CF card than soldering such an adapter for 1,8" HDDs. Only processors with low speeds can still be used with the original cooler when overclocked to 133 Mhz FSB! Changing the cooler is a large amount of work. I did not mention it in the post above because I already did it when using the 850 Mhz MMC2 CPU (there are photos in this thread), so it was not in my mind anymore .
450 Mhz will be overclocked to 600 Mhz >>> OK
500 Mhz will be overclocked to 666 Mhz >>> OK
550 Mhz (lower multiplier of 700 Mhz CPU) will be overclocked to 733 Mhz >>> still OK, but should be the maximum what the IBM cooler can take
600 Mhz will be overclocked to 800 Mhz >>> no way using the original cooler any more

Edit: 1,2 Ghz is not even stable at 1,75 Volt (Edit: 1,85 Volt)
933 Mhz (133 Mhz FSB x 7, no overclocking for the 1 Ghz CPU) is rockstable, so the mods and the RAM are all stable and the CPU is the only limit. 1,12 Ghz is stable also at 112 Mhz FSB and 1,65 Volt with 1 Ghz CPU.
Maybe I should try 1133 Mhz with an 850 Mhz D0 CPU since this is the clock speed region which seems to be stable at acceptable voltage.

[el-sahef]

Normally you get a problem with colors not being correct when swapping the 8MB video card from a Thinkpad 770X or Z with the 1280x1024 screen into a model with the 1024x768 screen to upgrade your graphics card from 4 MB to 8MB.

Now I got a third 4MB card to play with and moved its two RAM-ICs to the second 4MB-Model I own so it also has 8MB on it. But they where not recognized in Windows and in the BIOS at first (when you hit ctrl-a in the test menu, the amount of graphics ram is displayed). After comparing the two cards, I saw some more differences and found out that you have to bridge two solder-pads so that the BIOS enables the 4MB additional ram.
After that, the 8MB got recognized in BIOS and in Windows. Video playback can be improved in some cases because I can now play some h264 video files (low res) and XVID files (high res) flawless on my upgraded 770X that where stuttering before.
This was tested on Windows 98SE because hardware overlay is not enabled by the graphics driver in Windows 2000 and XP and therefore windows 98SE is the OS to go for video playback because the performance is noticeably better. Only 3D mode and overlay mode (both enabled on 98SE only) will profit from the upgrade.

Since it is difficult to solder a ram IC, it should be more easy to get an 8MB model and swap the resistors to match the position they have on the 4MB model so that the colors are not corrupted on 1024x768 screens.

These two images show the differences between the two graphics card versions (8MB models do have two more RAM ICs of course, but this is not shown on the pictures).
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=8mb_ ... op6nmk.jpg (837px × 837px; 149.27 kB)
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=8mb_ ... omowha.jpg (621px × 522px; 49.37 kB)

If you change the resistor positions on the 8MB version as shown, the card should work fine with 1024x768 screens. Note that the bridge that tells the BIOS to enable 8MB ram is already closed with a blue 0-Ohm-resistor on 8MB versions, so no change needed in this area.
I do not guarantee that this method works because I did it the other way (added two ram ICs to a 4MB model and soldered the bridge for 8MB BIOS support) but I compared this selfmade version that works with 1024x768 screen and the original 8MB version and the differences on the pictures where the only ones I found, so it should work.

[CHAZ-HOUSE]

I am just getting started.

My 770Z has a BIOS dated 1-27-99.

Can anyone refer me to a BIOS upgrade?????????????????????????????

[DK6400Brian]

Look and you shall find:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... pgt93.html

[CHAZ-HOUSE]

Thanks Brian, for the reference!!!!! It looks like a lifesaver. I hoped for the specific BIOS upgrade that will allow recognition of a large HD, 320 (gig). They told me I could do this if I ever need when I bought the 770Z from IBM. el-sahef seems to say now, I can come close, only with two 125GB partitions on the WIN98 SE & Service Pack 2.1 (See Tue, May 4, 2010). Is this the only way????????????????????

Thanks again. Please keep in touch. Am sure I will need more help.

CHAZ

[DK6400Brian]

You're welcome, Chaz.

Please keep on posting your experiences with the 770Z. It's a great machine.

If you want to do your 770Z a favor, that must be to feed it with Windows 2000. They're made for each other. The DVD-player inside W2K will be installed, if you got the DVD-drive in the UltraBay. Moreover, if you got the DEVA-card, the W2K DVD-player will use this card.
I don't know how the DVD/DEVA is working with XP, but I have seen reports of a 770Z running XP. I'll recommend W2K though. The W2K installation on my machine dates back to 2005. No BSoD's, no nothing, it just hammers away.

I don't know if you still can get the MMC-2 P-III 850 MHz CPU-card on eBay, but if you ever get your hands on it, it'll make the 770Z a lot faster. Combine that with 2x256 MB low density 16 chips RAM-sticks.

I stopped upgrading my own 770Z with the MMC-2 850 MHz and 512 MB RAM. It's running @ 700 MHz, but is equipped with 2 harddrives. 60GB@7K + 80GB@5K(UltraBay).

Try and look through this forum, the Lenovo.forum and the Notebookreview.forum for any written material on 770Z. I'm not sure about having a 320GB HD in the machine, but it can take a lot. Phil, Bill and JHEM know more, if they dig long enough in their elderly braincells

Funny though. There weren't any of the errors on the 770Z, that is now experienced with far mor modern machines, like T61-series, W500. I consider my Z61p [0674-KSG] being the last stable and well made machine made from IBM, by the way.

It's a great machine. Loved it from day 1

[edit] Removed the "inventorylist". Could be misunderstood for a sales ad.

[VIBM]

Just in case you didn't know....the 770ED has soldered on 32MB chip under the system board,that can not be replaced.....As for the 770ED ....when I used a 256Mb pc100 and a pc66 128Mb it saw all the memory.....from all my experience with mine you will only see 416MB in a 770ED....425 at startup...

Greg St.L

Greg, or whoever can help,
I have a 770E PII 266, running Win2KPro.
If I put in a low density 256MB pc100 SODIMM in one slot, and a
low density 128MB pc66 SODIMM in the other slot, will my
laptop recognize the total 416MB(256+128+32int) without any bios or other tweaking?

I"m also wondering how much performance will be improved, by having 416MB ram in a 266 PII running Win2K. It's running pretty slow with the 64MB that I have in there now.

[ryan.aden]

Greg, or whoever can help,
I have a 770E PII 266, running Win2KPro.
If I put in a low density 256MB pc100 SODIMM in one slot, and a
low density 128MB pc66 SODIMM in the other slot, will my
laptop recognize the total 416MB(256+128+32int) without any bios or other tweaking?

I"m also wondering how much performance will be improved, by having 416MB ram in a 266 PII running Win2K. It's running pretty slow with the 64MB that I have in there now.

Hi, VIBM.

I think yes. It will.
To fix the BIOS to the latest version is "always" a good idea.
No other tweaking needed.
BTW, which BIOS version do your Thinkpad has?

The performance will be improved. More RAM, more performance!!!
It's not a question of a CPU, only.

Hope, this will help

Great forum and great input.
Thanks to all of you.

I'm new, but visiting this forum many times before.

I really love my Thinkpad 770z. Working fine for 10 years now and the story will go on...

[erik]

Well, I have decided that the video problem is probably not heat. Since my post I have determined that the CPU fan does come on. Though I'm not sure at what temp it does turn on, since I still can't monitor changes. At this point I assume the video corruption is caused but the video adapter not being 100% with the 100 MHZ FSB. I have read about the same problem elsewhere in the forum with the same conclusion. Not every one who has made the PIII upgrade seems to have the problem though. My guess is that some video adapters are happy at 100mhz and some are not.

as a workaround to the video corruption issue on PIII-modded 770X/770Z systems, simply disable the trident driver in devmgmt.msc.   i've been testing this under XP SP3 for the last few weeks and it works 100% of the time.   you lose video acceleration and the ability to sleep as a consequence but gain a perfect display at every boot.

disabling the trident driver forces the use of the in-built VGA driver.   1280x1024 @ 16-bit color is still an option for those with SXGA panels.   dragging app/file windows around shows a bit of a lag in refresh but it's certainly usable, especially on a 13-year-old system where speed isn't likely the top priority any longer.

the corruption issue seems to be in how the driver handles the FSB and PCI bus clock frequency increases.   if some owners are lucky with their PIII-modded systems and never have the corruption issue, i'd be curious what OS and video driver they're using.   the trident driver under XP has the issue.   win 2000 might not.   win 7 with the VGA driver is completely clean.   in fact, that's how i discovered the workaround.

so, for those willing to give up video acceleration and sleep to correct the corruption issue, they now have an option.


this may be an old thread but i hope this info is useful to other 770X/770Z owners.