Thinkpads Forum

Hi

It's not that l just saw a 600x on ebay, but the price threw me off.

It was for a 600x not in running order, no hard drive and it had a 650m which l also have and it was well over a hundred dollars!

I like mine over the T-40 as far as size and the way it felt and l thought my LCD was brighter and clearer.

Alan

That isn't a suprise. The 600X is the Cadillac of the 600 series, since it can natively handle the faster PIII CPUs, but still have the build quality of the 600/600E. I believe that there were also fewer 600Xs produced, than the 600 and 600Es. They are VERY nice machines.

I was ecstatic about picking up a 600X here in the forum for about $65 EVEN THOUGH it had issues.

I would of gladly gotten a 600x if it wasn't for the great deal I got on my T21. My 600E was great. I even got a second battery for it, but I do find that the T21 has better power management than the 600E did. I bought the second battery for my 600 because the original just didn't cut it. The battery for my T21 has the same capacity as my original 600E battery, but it lasts a good 3+ hours before dying, about 2 with Wifi.

IMHO, I believe the 600X's are hard to find because they are still being used.

My wife uses one, two of our friends use them. I had one until the CMOS battery died a few months ago, and I'm trying to resurrect that one as a media server.

Hi

I thought that the CMOS battery was less then $10 and it was easy to change?

Or am l wrong

Alan

Less than $10? Easy to replace? Both true statements.

But if you have a supervisor password set when the CMOS battery dies, there seems to be a bug in the BIOS so you can't get past that password prompt, even if you know that password.

How do l know if l have this supervisor password set?

I bought this 600x 3 yrs ago form a reseller and this is the second time that l am replacing the hard drive.

I ordered a CMOS battery anyway to have but now l might be better off not playing with it.

What l was doing before is leaving it in standby all the time.

Alan

You have a supervisor password set if you need to enter a password to get into EZSetup. The machine forces you into EZSetup if you change RAM, and I think if you change the size of the hard disk too.

Hi

The last time l changed the battery l changed the size of the hard disk and didn't have a problem. Orig it had a 12gb and l forgot what is in it now but l have a new 20gb to go into it now.

Alan

PC GENIUS -FIX WINDOWS ERRORS & VIRUS, REPAIR REGISTRY

I found this and similiar cd's on ebay will this help if l have a problem with the password?

Alan

kingman99 wrote: I found this and similiar cd's on ebay will this help if l have a problem with the password?

Alan

No it won't help you.

The password is for the BIOS.

To answer a couple of points brought up previously in this thread...

- changing the size of installed memory does not cause the system to automatically enter BIOS setup even if there is a BIOS password set
- changing the disk drive WILL cause the system to automatically enter BIOS setup only if there is a BIOS password set (because the new drive will not have a password set; BIOS error 158 will be generated)
- the supervisor (BIOS) password will only be asked if you purposely attempt to enter the BIOS (by holding down the F1 key at power on) OR if the backup battery has been removed AND if it has been set in the first place
- I know of no problem (BIOS bug) accessing the BIOS with the correct password

All of these statements have been verified using one of my 600X systems with BIOX ITET55WW

I don't doubt anything you wrote. I only know this: I have a 600X with a password set (and I know what it is). The CMOS battery died. I replaced the battery.

Upon startup, it continuously reboots. If I hold F1 to get into EZSetup, it asks for the password, which I give, and then it reboots continuously. Seems like a bug to me.

Here is a 600X system on e-bay.

Just posting it in case someone is interested.

whizkid wrote:Upon startup, it continuously reboots. If I hold F1 to get into EZSetup, it asks for the password, which I give, and then it reboots continuously. Seems like a bug to me.

Don't know if this will help, but have you tried the reset button on the side of the system?

Temetka wrote:Here is a 600X system on e-bay.

Ouch! $246 for a 600X? Maybe I should sell a couple of mine....

Never having owned one, and not knowing what the used market is like, it doesn't seem like such a bad deal.


That is until someone comes a long and makes a comment like yours and makes me realize just how out of touch with certain markets I am.

Like now. I am looking at picking up another Compaq Armada M300. Snappy little utlraportable. I guess it's Thinkpad equivalent would be the X20 or X21 series. I loved my M300, but it's sale did help me to purchase the T41p I am typing from right now.

Taking a quick scan of completed 600X 500Mhz systems on eBay, $246 is on the high side. There was only one other that was higher ($275) but it was not a Buy-it-now. Average price appears to be around $165-$175 but I didn't look to see how they were configured. Compared to some systems I seen go by, add $75 to $100 more to that average 600X price and you could get a 1.13Ghz or 1.2Ghz T23 with 512MB of memory. Granted, I've also seen some T23s go for close to $400.

Temetka wrote:Here is a 600X system on e-bay.

Just posting it in case someone is interested.

WOW.
$219.99 buy it now price.
Are the 600X's worth that much?

Looks alot like my 570E.
My 570E now has a P-III 500 / 40gig/192 ram/cd-rw,dvd-rom/13.3" TFT/has base with the cd-rw/dvd-rom/floppy.

I realy like the size of the 570,realy thin.(without base)

Went to thinkwiki to look up the specs on the 570. I seem to notice a lack of documentation on the 570 series.

jeez ppl are paying that much??!?

just picked up my 600X a couple weeks ago: $125 for 650/256/30 + 2 good batteries + 2 power adapters + atheros wireless card.

hd was making ominous sounds, swapped in a nice quiet new toshiba 100gb/16mb; replaced the stock cd with a panasonic/M a t s u s h i t a uj-825 dvdrw from my ill g3 powerbook.

installed kubuntu 7.04 beta and win2k, this thing rocks. last time I had a thinkpad, I was working for ibm 'bout 10 years ago, would have been some 7xx model. [censored] I forgot how nice they used to make these things!

watching movies from the console using neofb (with the gui switched off, natch), I get well over 2 hours on the battery. sweet.

ps some big company(ies?) must be dumping T23 recently, I saw a lot of them for ~300 on computergeeks and pacificgeek, ~250 from some it vendor on craigslist. almost made me regret the 600X but only for a second -- it is definitely enough machine for what I want.

tarvoke wrote:just picked up my 600X a couple weeks ago: $125 for 650/256/30 + 2 good batteries + 2 power adapters + atheros wireless card

Now THAT is a good deal, especially for the PIII 650MHz model AND WITH the 2 good batteries. Some eBay sellers are asking for an arm and a leg plus your firstborn in order to get just the 650MHz motherboard.

tarvoke wrote:watching movies from the console using neofb (with the gui switched off, natch), I get well over 2 hours on the battery. sweet.

That is also excellent battery performance. I sometimes have difficulty getting all the way through a DVD on battery-only, even with relatively new batteries: 90 minutes of DVD playing is about what I get on a fresh recharge, even with a less-then-one year old, larger capacity than original, battery. I only get over two hours if I'm doing low-intensity stuff.

Phil.

I was definitely amazed, previous owner claimed 1.5 hours on each battery (which sadly are knockoff parts not official ibm, but hey they do the job and well I might add!)

to be fair there were a few ...interesting... aspects -- the machine is definitely of rather curious provenance:

1. the bottom chassis is from a 600 (-A1U). not a big deal, but vaguely annoying considering I have a minipci wireless I want to put in (hirose->rp-sma etc. as some ppl have done). where did it come from? seller doesn't know, he got it from his boss. anyone got a 600X chassis to sell lol? make my life easier.

2. seller claimed it was a 750mhz which I found hard to believe for the obvious reasons. he had winme (ugh!!!) on it, which did not even speedstep and only ran it as 500. bios (and also linux, win2k) run as 650, thank crom.

3. keyboard seems to be brand new. I know older ibm gear has long lasting good engineering quality, but this has no marks or dirt under keys or sweat stains / oil or anything. ^_^ I love this kbd, it feels so right and size is not lacking. then again I prefer stuff like full size ibm M kbd (esp. the black deathstar trackpoint ones, I use at home!)

4. the right corner of the lid was broken and glued back in place. luckily the lcd was not affected at all! and a friend of mine had an old dead 600 or 600E, which he let me take the lid shell for an easy swap.

5. one stuck pixel (opposite side from broken lid corner, so not a result of whatever trauma) -- trying to unstick it but no luck so far. no particular big deal.

6. the right lower spring latch was busted, possibly deliberately since the hook on the glued broken lid corner was out of position. again took the replacement part from my friend's dead 600 and now it is working 100%.

7. tried a 256mb pc100 part from my dead-ish g3 powerbook, but the stinkpad will not even boot with it. irony is, chips themselves are labelled IBM lolol. ah well.

conclusion: 600X is definitely an enthusiast machine. easy enough for anyone to get a T2X or T4X at reasonable price these days.
we choose the 600 for other reasons! er, don't we?

tarvoke wrote:I was definitely amazed, previous owner claimed 1.5 hours on each battery (which sadly are knockoff parts not official ibm, but hey they do the job and well I might add!)

The original 600 series batteries have a somewhat dubious reputation, so I'm happy using cheap no-names from Ebay...

3. keyboard seems to be brand new. I know older ibm gear has long lasting good engineering quality, but this has no marks or dirt under keys or sweat stains / oil or anything. ^_^ I love this kbd, it feels so right and size is not lacking.

Indeed, I just finished writing my diploma thesis on my 600X, much nicer than my newer machines.

7. tried a 256mb pc100 part from my dead-ish g3 powerbook, but the stinkpad will not even boot with it. irony is, chips themselves are labelled IBM lolol. ah well.

Might be a density problem, the 600X needs low-density memory (recognizable by the 16 small square black chips on the board, instead of 8 larger ones). Those sticks are somewhat rare compared to high-density memory.


Björn

Everything is just perfect with the 600x (650) and l have a T40 coming this week to take it's place which now l'm questioning.

The only thing that l have to do with the 600x is to get it wifi updated and maybe treat myself to a new battery so that l can watch a DVD on the train (1 hr). That's all that l need because of the length of the trip.

By the way l feel that my 600x LCD is brighter then the T40 lcd and the 600x is flawless.

Alan

Wow, after reading this, I think I got a smoking deal on my 600x. I paid $50 for it and no shipping since the seller was local. I can't beleive I was the only bidder

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... &rd=1&rd=1

All that was wrong with it was the spacebar was missing and a few cosmetic blemishes on the lid and missing port covers. Oh, and there was no HD, RAM or CMOS battery.

I had all those things lying around, threw them in, installed XP and I now have a PIII 450mhz computer with 590MB of RAM and a 40gig HD for under $100. Add the 650mhz processor on its way from E-bay for $25 and I will be a happy camper. Oh, and it also had a good battery. That alone was worth half the price of the laptop.

WOW...awesome price wingnut!! I was excited about mine for $65...