Thinkpads Forum

I'll never ever bid on items on ebay before having had my first coffee. It looks like I'll soon be the proud owner of a 560, which I have no use for. However, it might be kind of fun because I can open it up and get familiar with notbebook interior...might come in handy one day.

Thinkwiki is a bit parsimonious with info on the 560, so here are a couple of standard (?) questions...

1) 133 Mhz seems to be the fastest standard CPU for the 560. Can I use stronger processors such as a 266 MMX?

2) Max. mem. 96 MB, correct? Has anyone tried to use more?

3) Whats the best wireless option for such an old computer? PCMCIA slot is available.

4) <stupid question> Are modern thumbdrives compatible to USB 1.0? Edit: Does the 560 HAVE a USB port? Oh shoot...


Thanks for your replies, I appreciate it.

I could be wrong but I believe someone managed to use a 128MB EDO stick on a 560. Do a search. These sticks are around $40 apiece, even more than what you're paying for the whole laptop! Nope, the 560 doesn't have USB.

The 560Z and 560X had USB but the 560 and 560E didn't. The 560X shipped with a 200 or 233mhz Pentium MMX CPU depending on configuration. The 560Z was the only 560 series laptop with an upgradable CPU. It shipped with either a 233 or 300mhz Pentium II CPU and could be replaced with a 366 or 400mhz CPU.

Thanks for the help guys. Luckily, I was overbid by another weirdo. But I found out that I really would like to have an oldie for fooling around. I think the 600 series might be more suitable, though.

Jan_Hoho wrote:Thanks for the help guys. Luckily, I was overbid by another weirdo. But I found out that I really would like to have an oldie for fooling around. I think the 600 series might be more suitable, though.

The 600 series is an EXCELLENT stepping stool for learning to work on the Thinkpads. Even better is the 600E, so that you can perform the standard upgrades, as well as the "secret" upgrades with PIII cpus, and doubled ram...(to 544mb)

[/quote]
The 600 series is an EXCELLENT stepping stool for learning to work on the Thinkpads. Even better is the 600E, so that you can perform the standard upgrades, as well as the "secret" upgrades with PIII cpus, and doubled ram...(to 544mb)[/quote]

what is the highest CPU upgrade for 600E?

gychang

gychang wrote:

The 600 series is an EXCELLENT stepping stool for learning to work on the Thinkpads. Even better is the 600E, so that you can perform the standard upgrades, as well as the "secret" upgrades with PIII cpus, and doubled ram...(to 544mb)[/quote]

what is the highest CPU upgrade for 600E?

gychang[/quote]

If you read through the CPU upgrade sticky, you might find a little bit newer information. With modifying the BIOS, you can use up to a PIII 850 (Or was that 750...hmm), but it will run at 700MHz, because of the speed step....

If you're lucky enough you can obtain 1GHz MMC-2 CPU, a fellow board member here has one in his 770Z. It's ultra rare though.

And all of the CPU's can be modified to run at their full speed, not Speedstep lower speed. I once had 600E with 366MHz PII and upgraded to 750MHz PIII, performed the Speedstep hack also and that Thinkpad worked for me flawlessly for two years before I sold it. New owner still uses it and no problems.