Thinkpads Forum

Hello,
I think i have a combination 600E. The top parts are different from the bottemparts.
How can I tell what sort of 600E I have? It is a 2645 and then nothing.
Standard 32 Mb, 6 Gig HD, CD and that's it.

In the BIOS is more information, but all the numbers I tried on Google resulted in nothing.

Thanks for your reply.

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

In the BIOS you should see System-unit serial number. The first seven characters will be the model type. Those characters (2645xxx) can be plugged into this page:

Support and downloads

in the "Product Number" field. That will tell you how the system was configured when it left the factory. Note that the model type information is contained within the memory on the motherboard and if it has been swapped into another base, then all bets are off.

> BIOS info

go back into the BIOS--on the "Easy-Setup" screen, look
for the "System-unit serial number." On my 600e it is
26458AU78GLR27.

parse thus: first 4 digits 2645 tells you it's a 600
next 3 8AU tells you which type
last 7 ....... serial number

now goto IBM's website with the type info "2645-8AU"
and you will learn how it was originally. Use their
top-right searchbox.

http://www.ibm.com/us

Thanks for the answer and link. At this moment the 600E wouldn't give me access to the bios. It does not respond to the F1. I have been inside the bios so i have hope to enter it soon.

It is a 4BG, not knowing if its good or bad .... I will take the advice and search the above mentioned links to find out!

PS What a great way to discover a community with that many IBM adepts!

I too have been frustrated by the occasional thinkpad which will not enter BIOS when holding down the F1 key when powering up...

anyone have any idea why?
Is there a CMOS bit which causes the user request to enter SETUP to be ignored?

Mine ignores F1 even after flashing the BIOS...

Here's a workaround to get to BIOS SETUP pages if the F1 route fails:
1) hold down F2 (or any other key) during the power up process,
2) the self-test will report Error 06 301 (or something similar)
3) the machine will jump to the BIOS test page.
4) Click on the Test button
5) machine will go to the BIOS hardware test page
6) then <esc> 1 time to go the main BIOS setup page from the hardware test page

The main BIOS SETUP page will give the
1) internal machine serial number (2645xxx78yyyyy)
2) motherboard identification number (xxxxxxxxxxxx)
3) BIOS version (INETxxWW)
4) processor identification (Pentium II xxx MHz)
5) UUID number (32 alphanumerics).

If the internal machine serial number doesn't match the number on the bottom label, then it is likely that the motherboard has been replaced some time in the past... and the replacer did not use the IBM hardware maintenance disk to rewrite the system identification memory and generate a fresh UUID.

Cheers,

dabard051

from IBM's site:

> ThinkPad 600E 2645-4BG [change]
> Operating system: All [change]

> Original description: PII 400MHz (256KB) 64MB RAM
> 10.0GB 13.3 XGA TFT 24X 56K(ACP) Win98

so you have the king of 600e's

> entering BIOS

another way is pressing <esc> on bootup

tom lightbody wrote:from IBM's site:

> ThinkPad 600E 2645-4BG [change]
> Operating system: All [change]

> Original description: PII 400MHz (256KB) 64MB RAM
> 10.0GB 13.3 XGA TFT 24X 56K(ACP) Win98

so you have the king of 600e's

> entering BIOS

another way is pressing <esc> on bootup

That's odd, all is present, but the HD is a 6 G and the ram is 32Mb. Were there some old models sold as newones in that time?
For sure is that the machine is running on XP smoothly. Not rapidly but secure.
I'm waiting for a 256 Mb module to arrive and after that I would like to repace the HD with a faster plate (5400rpm). Hopefully the systemspeed increases.

> 32 meg

the 600e has 32 meg on the motherboard; the other
half of the original is a (removable) chip in socket
on bottom of the machine.

> 6 gig HD

well, somebody swapped out the original.

you can find more information from twbook.pdf (also
about the 240s):

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitu ... twbook.pdf

Thanks for your information. I dowloaded the pdf and in the coming weekend the stuff will be read.

Sibrand.