Thinkpads Forum

I originally posted this in the upgrade thread, but possibly people don't look there- So I'm creting a new thread for my question.
So, I'm about to buy a PIII for my 600E, (Now: PII-400 MHz) but I have a few questions.
1) To get it straight: Will it run stable on 650 MHz? Or do I have to keep it at 500 MHz? If I do the speedstep hack and re-insert the old CPU, what will happen?
2) Will my bus speed stay at 66 MHz? Do I have choice?
3) Can I get L2 cache working properly in linux? For Windows, will L2 cache work with hibernation mode. (My concern is that, since Windows doesn't do a full proper boot, the L2 cache status might get lost when rebooting, or something) I like hibernation mode, so this is quite important for me.
4) Heat! Will it be a problem? I'm not just talking for the sake of the CPU. I've already had one disk killed, probably partly by heat, and I don't want that to happen again. Especilly if I use a modern high-rpm disk. What's the risk? Or were these travelstars just particularly badly designed?
5) I reckon I'll lose the ability to use the onboard 32 MB of RAM. But if it would fail to work with the 32 MB, will it work long enough for me to turn it off in the BIOS, or do I have to re-insert the old CPU just to get into the BIOS?

Thanks in advance. (:

First off, note that there are a wide range of different 600E models. Some models have caused more problems than others when attempting the PIII upgrades. What is your complete model and type number? (2645-???)

Also, my upgrades have all been with the 770 series and with 600X, so I don't actually have any direct, personal experience upgrading the 600Es...i.e don't take any of this as the gospel.

nitro2k01 wrote:1) To get it straight: Will it run stable on 650 MHz? Or do I have to keep it at 500 MHz? If I do the speedstep hack and re-insert the old CPU, what will happen?

It will run stable (more or less) at 500MHz. Once in a blue moon it will randomly decide to start up at 650MHz instead of 500MHz. If you do the SpeedStep hack successfully, it will always start at 650MHz. The SpeedStep mod is done on the CPU module, not on the motherboard, so if you re-insert the old CPU, everything will be back to the way it was -- after you reset/initialize the BIOS/CMOS.

nitro2k01 wrote:2) Will my bus speed stay at 66 MHz? Do I have choice?

The PIII requires a 100MHz bus speed. You don't have a choice. All your memory will have to be compatible with this (some may be able to speed up without requiring replacement).

nitro2k01 wrote:3) Can I get L2 cache working properly in linux? For Windows, will L2 cache work with hibernation mode. (My concern is that, since Windows doesn't do a full proper boot, the L2 cache status might get lost when rebooting, or something) I like hibernation mode, so this is quite important for me.

I don't know anyone who has the L2 cache enabler working in Linux, but you might check out Activating the L2 data cache of Pentium III in Thinkpads 600. Under Windows, you will need to re-run the L2 cache enabler utility each time you return from hibernation. A ThinkPads.com user named shined located a utility that will allow this to be done automatically, but the information about the utility is all in Japanese. For more info, check out Restarter or read through the 600E w/P3 and L2 cache thread.

nitro2k01 wrote:4) Heat! Will it be a problem? I'm not just talking for the sake of the CPU. I've already had one disk killed, probably partly by heat, and I don't want that to happen again. Especilly if I use a modern high-rpm disk. What's the risk? Or were these travelstars just particularly badly designed?

Some people replace their 600E fans with 600X fans, but I don't know if it makes much difference. I think this is the recommended practice, even if it doesn't. Your PIII 650 running at 500 will probably run cooler than your current PII 400.

nitro2k01 wrote:5) I reckon I'll lose the ability to use the onboard 32 MB of RAM. But if it would fail to work with the 32 MB, will it work long enough for me to turn it off in the BIOS, or do I have to re-insert the old CPU just to get into the BIOS?

I think that the onboard memory is automatically disabled simply because if is not compatible (it's PC66 and you need PC100), but again, I'm not sure about this one.

Phil.

For the onboard memory, it may or may not be compatible. If you get blue screens in Windows, then look around the "official" 600 upgrade thread for infomation about disabling the memory. As for the CPU L2, you can also figure out how to disable it in BIOS on the same thread and there is also mention of a utility by PowerLeap that will allow you to enable the L2 cache under Windows.

nitro2k01 wrote:I originally posted this in the upgrade thread, but possibly people don't look there- So I'm creting a new thread for my question.

did you ever figure all of this out? thanks

alfio

Everything needed can be found here.