Thinkpads Forum

Hi All

i have a thinkpad 570E - P3 500, 64, 20gb HDD and the ultrabay docking station... I have a couple of problems with it...

1. The screen hinges have gone floppy, when the screen is stood at 90 degrees its fine but and more either way and it just flops over... is there any way to repair this?

2. I have tried to upgrade the memory on this to 320mb... In BIOS it registers fine but it then will not do anything - i just keeps coming up with different boot problems... it won't even boot memtest i have only tried with 256mb 133 cl3 chips (as thats all i a have available atm (all test fine in other laptops) - infineon and nanya brands... crucials memory configurator says that a 133 speed should be fine - are thinkpads lockied into using branded ram?

thanks in advance.

Nothing you can do about the hinges except replace them. They wear out, but there is no way to "tighten" them when they get loose.

The 570E takes PC100, low density ram only. Crucials' PC133 SODIMMs are advertised to be compatible, but I have no experience with them.

I do know I tried several different SODIMMs in my 570E and nothing but low density, PC100 CL2 worked. You can tell 256MB low density SODIMMs by the fact that they have a total of 16 chips, 8 per side. Branded ram is not the issue, the format of the ram is.

The RAM chips also need 4K refresh, IIRC, and that's why many PC133 sticks don't work but Crucial's do. I have used Crucial PC133 sticks in my 600X, which has the same memory controller as the 570E, so I'd wager they'll work in your machine.

Just a FYI, 570 series hinges seem to be in short supply... don't toss your old ones until you find replacements.

I have the crucial PC133 sticks in my 570e on which I write. So we can see they work! My machines hinges are also floppy.

There is a way on the hinges. You have to crimp them but be very careful. I made a hardwood crimp that I install in a bench vise. Works like a charm, keeps the pressure even all the way along the hinge barrel. The clutches wear/stretch the barrel which thins it, so you have to be very careful.

I'm using Crucial PC133 in one of mine and it works, it's low density PC133.

I took the hard drive out I was going to swap it round with a 600e, but luckily I just swapped it with the A20e, that one I would have swapped with the 600e because my 570e bleats that it can't find the OS, and there doesn't seam to be any hard drive carrier in the 570e.

linuxcomputers Take a look at this thread as it references your 570E's hard drive issue; http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57935

Sometimes the hinge pins come out on the 570. You can use a set of pliers to squeeze them back into the hinge and then they have friction again. You have to remove some covers to see the hinge pin sticking out.