Thinkpads Forum

As a new memeber, I have spent the better part of the last 4 hours reading through the older posts on this subject. I think I know a little about what I can do, but I guess I need some corroboration from some experts out there

I have a TP600 2645 51U. It has a 266 mhz processor with 160mb of Ram and a 6GB HD. I am currently having issues with an error code for the fan, but I hope its just a fan problem and once that is replaced, all will be good.

So, as I understand it, the best I can do with this current set-up, is upgrade the CPU to a 400mhz PII. I have found one here that seems pretty cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0076110427

And as for the RAM, if I can find some 256 PC66 ram, I can have 548mb or Ram.

But if my system board ends up being no good, I think I can upgrade to a SB out of a 600E like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0077234073

If that will work, then I can upgrade that to a PIII, correct?

This site sure has some great info. I could spend hours reading through these forums. In fact, I think I know what I'm going to do to pass my time at work tomorrow night

Thanks to all who contributed.

Moderator edit: Shortened 1st URL

I have zero experience upgrading a TP600 although I suspect the answer is "yes" to your first question. But the reason I am writing is to ask you this: Have you thought about replacing your TP600 with a more modern machine? A nice 700MHz PIII T20 with 128MB RAM and 10GB HDD can be had for only about $140US these days. That 400MHz MMC-1 alone would be $47US.

Yes, I believe that the 600Es can take a PIII processor (the fastest I've ever heard of in a 600 series is 850MHz). There's been a lot of discussion on this which I assume you've been poring through, so I imagine you've already read about the speedstep issues.

If the replacement fan fixes the error, though, I see no reason not to swap a 400 MMC-1 in to replace the 266.

I've been soldiering along with a 300MHz 600 running 98SE for the last couple of years, and while it isn't the fastest laptop on the planet, it has certainly served me well. In fact, now that I've put in a 400, I'm going to put XP on it (it would have worked fine at 300MHz, but I figured that if I was going to do the processor swap, I'd just do it before installing and not have to deal with reactivation).

Also, as far as I know you can go as high as a 160GB hard drive with your computer, so long as the BIOS is up to the latest revision and the OS supports it (98SE limits you to 137GB, IIRC).

Personally, if you want to stick with the 600 series, I would skip the 400MHz MMC-1 CPU, and go ahead and look into getting a 600E system board, or a 600X with systemboard.

The 600E systems board have come down in price, to about the same price as the 400Mhz MMC-1. I have picked up 600E systemboards in the past for as little as $25 shipped.

As you stated above, with a 600E, you have the ability to upgrade all the way up to an 850MHz CPU, though there is a potential for heat issues when you go that high.

One side note though...if you get a 600E system board, you will also need the 600E inverter.

The Highest Ram you can put in a tp 600 is 288 mb max.

Well, I put a PII 400 mhz processor in there today. No issues at all, booted right up and recognized the new CPU. Now I just need to get some more RAM to bring me up to 288

Atlas64 wrote:The Highest Ram you can put in a tp 600 is 288 mb max.

Well, I found a couple of cheap 128mb sticks to upgrade my RAM to 288MB. But I am curious to know what is the reason for the RAM limitation in the 600? Why can I not put 2 x 256 sticks in there? I know 256 PC66 sticks are hard to find, but they are out there. Or is it a system board issue?

The early PI units are limited to 256MB RAM max by the Intel TX chipset.

Wingnut wrote:

Atlas64 wrote:The Highest Ram you can put in a tp 600 is 288 mb max.

Well, I found a couple of cheap 128mb sticks to upgrade my RAM to 288MB. But I am curious to know what is the reason for the RAM limitation in the 600? Why can I not put 2 x 256 sticks in there? I know 256 PC66 sticks are hard to find, but they are out there. Or is it a system board issue?

As far as I know, you can put the 256MB pc66 units in - the chipset should support it. A couple of folks here have exceeded the 288MB limit that IBM's documentation shows.

I tried a set of pc133 modules once over the summer, but they didn't work too well. Instead of having 2x256+32 = 548, I was seeing 548 detected, ~420 usable - this tells me that the system IS capable of recognizing and using it, but you have to find the right parts (in this case, pc66). They are around, but difficult to find.

Since you started with a machine that's PII-based, you'd probably be fine if you can track down a pair of 256MB pc66 sticks.

Rob

Atlas64 wrote:The early PI units are limited to 256MB RAM max by the Intel TX chipset.

But...It's a PII???

Also, since the 128mb stick I had in there was a 100mhz stick, would a 256mb 100mhz stick work too. Or would that be wishfull thinking that a 256 would be backwards compatable to 66mhz? Its easy to find PC100 256mb sticks.

Anyway, I just installed my 2 sticks of 128mb RAM and it is only recognizing 224MB instead of 288mb? So, I tried swapping the sticks one at a time in one of the slots, they are both good sticks showing 160mb (128 + 32 built in). But when I tried them one at a time in the second slot, they only totaled 96mb (64 + 32 built in). So the sticks are fine, but for some reason the second slot is only recognizing 64mb instead of the full 128mb.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

Thanks.

Wingnut wrote:Also, since the 128mb stick I had in there was a 100mhz stick, would a 256mb 100mhz stick work too. Or would that be wishfull thinking that a 256 would be backwards compatable to 66mhz? Its easy to find PC100 256mb sticks.

Anyway, I just installed my 2 sticks of 128mb RAM and it is only recognizing 224MB instead of 288mb? So, I tried swapping the sticks one at a time in one of the slots, they are both good sticks showing 160mb (128 + 32 built in). But when I tried them one at a time in the second slot, they only totaled 96mb (64 + 32 built in). So the sticks are fine, but for some reason the second slot is only recognizing 64mb instead of the full 128mb.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

Thanks.

PC100 and PC133 tend to generate mixed results with 128MB sticks and lower - I use 2x128 of pc133 in my 'Pad, but the PC133 256MB sticks didn't work so good. I asked about it here at the time, and the answer I got had to do with the latency (our old machines need CL2, not CL3). The thread is here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30080. I may try again some time to find the right ram, but at the moment I'm trying to make the time to switch up to XP.

On the partial stick recognize, that has been hashed around a lot here - one guy was experimenting with adding little foam pads to press harder on the stick in the 2nd slot (something about not quite proper fitment or bad contact), but I don't recall him having any degree of consistent success. There seems to be a number of systems like this around, but I don't recall seeing a definitive answer on root cause.

Rob

Thanks for that link Rob. I had read it before and actually used the info in it in my search for upgrade options for my TP600. That is why, when I went shopping for RAM, I made sure it was CL2 and 100mhz backwards compatable to 66mhz, both requirements of my TP600.

I could understand this issue if it were a 256mb stick I was trying, but even the IBM literature for my TP600 says I can have 2 x 128 sticks in there. So I wonder if it HAS to be PC66 specifically instead of the pc100 I have in there, even though the seller specifically stated in the E-bay auction it was backwards compatable to pc66?

Oh well, at least the 224mb I have now is better that the 192 I had in before. If I could only get that last 64mb to be recognized

Nevermind.....I found an older post here where a user had the same problem. TRUE pc66 RAM has to be used in order for all of it to be recognized. I'm not sure why mine regognizes the 128 in one slot, but only half of it in the other slot though???

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ht=264551u

I'd forgotten about that post - perhaps I got lucky on my PC133 sticks, which is why I advocate a "try before you buy" stance when it's possible.

This thread's got a doozy of a good explanation on the latency issue:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=34684

Anyhow, here's a couple of links on the "half recognized" issue:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19812

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=36196

HTH,

Rob

In case anyone is looking for this information in a search, I got my TP600 to recognize all the RAM (294 total).

I tried to install 2 x 128mb pc100 sticks in my TP600, but it would only regognize half of the RAM in the second slot (the one closest to the CMOS Battery). It didn't matter what configuration I used, it would only read half the RAM in that slot. So I bought a stick of pc66 128mb RAM and installed it into that slot and it now recognizes it all, even though the RAM in the first slot is still the same pc100 RAM. Go figure.

Since pc66 256mb cards are hard to find, I wonder if I could keep the pc66 128mb ram in the second slot & add a pc100 256mb card in the other slot for a total of 416mb???

Off to E-bay to track some down

My advice is to save your money upgrading a 600E.

For what you would need to spend to upgrade a 600E, you can buy a solid 600X off eBay. More memory, Faster Speedstep processor, better everything.