Thinkpads Forum

(This is an edit to my previous thread, I thought I'd just reuse the one I had...)

I just picked up a base and motherboard for a 600X, which has a bad AC port and needs to go back, but just to test my new CPU I popped out the 500Mhz that came with it and popped in the 750Mhz (using battery power). When I finally got it booted up, I see that it is only showing 600 (598)Mhz in use. Is this just speed stepped down, or is there a mod I need to do (BIOS update) to get full use out of the 750?

Thanks.

Check out 600E CD Bios update.

Phil.

Bump.

I edited the Original post... Thanks.

pikaia wrote:to test my new CPU I popped out the 500Mhz that came with it and popped in the 750Mhz (using battery power). When I finally got it booted up, I see that it is only showing 600 (598)Mhz in use. Is this just speed stepped down, or is there a mod I need to do (BIOS update) to get full use out of the 750?

This is the standard expected speed loss that you will usually see when you install a SpeedStep CPU in a non-SpeedStep motherboard. The 600X series has some motherboards that support SpeedStep and others that don't. Most of the 600X's that began life with a PIII 500MHz cannot run a SpeedStep 750MHz at full speed. There are hardware mods that one may be able to perform on the MMC-2 module that will force the CPU to run at max speed all the time, but I have not personally tested these mods, and there is a lack of information available on whether these mods always perform as desired in the 600X. Most people who have performed these mods are working with 600E machines.

Phil.

popped out the 500Mhz that came with it and popped in the 750Mhz (using battery power). When I finally got it booted up, I see that it is only showing 600 (598)Mhz in use. Is this just speed stepped down, or is there a mod I need to do (BIOS update) to get full use out of the 750?

If you boot your computer powered by the battery only yes it's the expected speed, 750mhz is only on AC.

Thanks, I knew I was missing something!

Thanks again.

Alright.

I got a replacement board, but that one fried as soon as I powered on.... so I'm back to the old one. Everything seems to be working fine except that it doesn't recognize the AC adapter. How difficult is it to fix the AC port? I don't see anything broken around it, but the socket is pretty chewed up. What should I be looking for? The Laptop shop I've been working with has been kind of lax about getting a replacement, so I'm trying to deal with them as little as possible. I don't have a soldering iron but I might be able to get ahold of one tomorrow... and if worse comes to worse, the guy at the shop did offer to try and fix the port before I asked for a replacement.

Thanks.

cmarti wrote:If you boot your computer powered by the battery only yes it's the expected speed, 750mhz is only on AC.

Good point, cmarti. I had overlooked that pikaia said they were using battery only.

I don't know anything about replacing the AC port, so someone else will have to help you with that pikaia. Good luck!

Phil.

Thanks.

Again, I'm hoping not to have to deal with the shop again.

If the replacement motherboard has also been damaged then that leads me to believe that your AC adapter could be at fault. Several things come to mind:

- is it a genuine IBM AC adapter? (has the "lined" IBM logo(s) and DOESN'T say "for IBM" on it)

If YES:

- does the output specs say "16V" and "3.36A" or "4.5A"?
- if not, then what is it?

If NO to IBM AC adapter:

- same questions as above AND is the center connection labeled as "+"? Most adapters will have a drawing something like this:

+ ----o)---- -

which indicates that the "+" voltage connection is inside the barrel of the DC plug and the "-" connection is on the outside of the barrel.

In either case, the best thing to do is to measure the voltage (and polarity) of your adapter and make sure that it is providing 16 volts, give or take 0.5V, with the positive connection inside the end of the DC plug.

The DC jack is soldered onto the motherboard in four places. The two pins that are on the "sides" of the jack are for mounting only. They should not have any electrical connection to the pin inside the jack or the "tongue" which touches the outside of the plug. The other two pins should be inline with a plastic alignment post and are the negative (closest to the yellow post) and positive (furthest away from the jack's opening). After all that... here's a picture :

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/images/ibm_6 ... bottom.jpg

Again, the best way to check to see if everything is wired up properly is to use an ohmmeter. About the only thing that can go wrong with the DC jack is that one of the connections inside is broken and then you won't get any power to the board. Set the meter on the lowest resistance range (typically 200 or 300) and put one end of the ohmmeter on the pin inside the DC jack and connect the other lead of the meter to the "positive" pin I've labeled in the picture. It should read 0 ohms. Do the same with the "negative" pin and the metal tongue inside the DC jack. It should also read 0 ohms. Connect the meter to the positive and negative pins and you should read "infinity". If you measure anything other than that, you have a problem with the motherboard.

The AC adapter is fine. I have 4 other 600's that it works great with... (and it is an original). The first one had a DC jack that was burned out when I bought it... but I just thought it was a bit dirty... but after closer inspection it had burned out and actually put a hole in the mobo. The second board was connected to a battery when it fried. I hooked up a heatsink to it to test and turned it on, I heard an odd noise before the laptop shut off. When I tried to turn it back on, I got nothing but a whiff of something burning. I swapped out the heatsink and CPU to test, and they are fine, as well as the LED panel. So I'm assuming the second is a complete fry, though I'm definitely open to other opinions. The first one I took to the shop to get a new DC jack soldered, but the guy told me that he couldn't do it (because of a hole).

So Right now I have only one board, and its presumed fried...