Thinkpads Forum

I have a speedstep board pull from a 600x. It came with a 650mhz cpu and worked fine. FRU 08k3198

So I pull it out of the machine and threw a working 850mhz at it. Problem is that it will not boot up past the IBM screen that displays the ram. Just hangs there. So I put the 650 back in and same thing! If I put in a 450mhz chip I have, it boots fine and lets me in the bios.

Funny thing is if I throw the 850 or the 650 in a 600x board I have that is not the speedstep type, it will boot them up fine. I have tried booting completely barebones, just a display, cpu, and keyboard, cmos so as to not get any errors, always the same result.

Edit- I now have xp pro installed on the non-speedstep 600x with the 850mhz cpu. If I start it up with the battery in, it runs at full 850, but hangs often. I have to press fn+f2 often to bring it back. Soon as I pull the battery, no more hanging but it runs at 700mhz, as I expected.

Help?

There is another thread recently about the speedstep in a 600x. Basically, you have to go into device manager & change the driver for your processor. There is something like 3 choices:

Intel Pentium III processor
Intel Pentium processor
Intel processor

Or something like that, I can't remember exactly??? Anyway, just change driver and see if that works. It worked for many people. I think choice #2 was the favorite.

EDIT: Here is the link to the thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=48117

I will try that for the machine that the 850 is already in, but what about the speedstep board that will not boot at all with any chip except the 450mhz?

I know this reply is a year late but I had a very similar problem last week. I was upgrading a 600x speedstep from its 650mhz processor to a 850mhz. However when I put the 850 in it just hung at the IBM boot screen - put the 650 back in - same thing! Then grabbed an old 500mhz I had and stuck that in and thank god it booted. I then put the 850 in again to try again - same problem. Suddenly occured to me - BIOS update! Put the 500mhz back in booted and did the BIOS update and then popped the 850 and voila! It works like a dream.

The only thing that still bothers me about this is that the 650 didn't work once I'd tried the 850? Also I think I might've bent one of the processor pins with all the swappinrg. Nevermind - it works now and thats the main thing.

/me casts thread necromancy +1

I have been doing a lot of searching and reading about upgrading the CPU in my 600X, and have become a tad confused as to what exactly it will support and how.

I have a 2645-3EU, it is 450Mhz, and does NOT have SpeedStep. I am a bit unsure of what is expected if I put a SpeedStep MMC-2 board in.

1) If the CPU is unmodified, will it (a) Run at 150Mhz less than spec--"low speed" or (b) run at full speed with periodic hangs?

2) If the CPU is modified (resistor to disable SpeedStep) will that prevent the hang-ups?

3) I have seen conflicting posts--are there software methods to run full speed on a non-SpeedStep motherboard or not?

4) If I mod a chip to run at "hi-speed" the whole time, will just using good thermal goo suffice, or will there be heat issues?

Obviously the "Ideal" solution is to get a SpeedStep motherboard, but I want to work with what I have.

vim_commando wrote:I have been doing a lot of searching and reading about upgrading the CPU in my 600X, and have become a tad confused as to what exactly it will support and how. I have a 2645-3EU, it is 450Mhz, and does NOT have SpeedStep. I am a bit unsure of what is expected if I put a SpeedStep MMC-2 board in.

It looks like you've just about got it all covered in your list of items above. Part of the problem is that the 600X models are not as well tested as the 600E models as far as CPU upgrades are concerned. And there are seemingly conflicting reports on some issues without anyone ever producing a definitive answer in my opinion.

vim_commando wrote:1) If the CPU is unmodified, will it (a) Run at 150Mhz less than spec--"low speed" or (b) run at full speed with periodic hangs?

Or (c) run at full or low speed as it should even though you don't have a SpeedStep motherboard (there are some people running Windows 2000 that appear to have this experience). Case (a) is the most likely.

vim_commando wrote:2) If the CPU is modified (resistor to disable SpeedStep) will that prevent the hang-ups?

I haven't seen many reports on this with the 600X and can't say for sure.

vim_commando wrote:3) I have seen conflicting posts--are there software methods to run full speed on a non-SpeedStep motherboard or not?

Not as far as I know. The hardware method requires an additional software tool (DeepSleep) I think. And as mentioned above, some people experience joy with Win2000: but this is apparently not because of SpeedStep, but because Win2000 has some kind of processor throttling built in that behaves a bit like SpeedStep.

vim_commando wrote:4) If I mod a chip to run at "hi-speed" the whole time, will just using good thermal goo suffice, or will there be heat issues?

In my experience, the built-in fans of the 600X work just fine with the higher speed CPUs, and some good thermal goo should make everything hunky-dory.

Maybe someone else with conflicting/alternate experiences will jump in to augment/correct what I've posted above...

Phil.

pkiff wrote:

vim_commando wrote:3) I have seen conflicting posts--are there software methods to run full speed on a non-SpeedStep motherboard or not?

Not as far as I know. The hardware method requires an additional software tool (DeepSleep) I think. And as mentioned above, some people experience joy with Win2000: but this is apparently not because of SpeedStep, but because Win2000 has some kind of processor throttling built in that behaves a bit like SpeedStep.

Win2000... look for "Intel SpeedStep Ultility" (doesn't work under XP... XP has build-in-Speedstep - witch not works )

I've 3 non-Speed-Step 600x with non-modified SpeedStep-CPUs.

Before install, I changed the processor-driver (see above). Different to "real-SpeedStep-Boards": if powersupply and battery are installed, I have to press Fn + F2 after POST.

u.mac wrote: Before install, I changed the processor-driver (see above). Different to "real-SpeedStep-Boards": if powersupply and battery are installed, I have to press Fn + F2 after POST.

Do you have to hit Fn+F2 at any time after post, or just that once?

Once - after any POST (if battery and powersupply are installed for higher mhz).

If only battery or only powersupply is installed, system boots up without any key - with lower mhz... like "the real SpeedStep machines".