Thinkpads Forum

How do I tell if a 600X has speedstep *before* I buy it?

Ask for the TYPE (e.g., 2645-xxx) and then plug it into the "Quick Path" box near the bottom of this site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OME-LENOVO

If it comes back as a 650Mhz CPU, then you've found a SpeedStep system.

Product: ThinkPad 600X 2645-9FU [change]
Operating system: All [change]

Original description: PIII 650MHz (256KB) 64MB RAM 12.0GB 13.3 XGA TFT 1024x768 24X-10X CD-ROM, Win2000

I have NEVER seen a 600X that wasn't speedstep. I have upgraded many 450MHz and 500MHz systems to 650, 800 and 850MHz and never had one that can't handle speedstep.
I've read all the same stuff as everyone else has that some couldn't but I've never seen it.

Well, it may be true that the motherboard could handle the SpeedStep option in those 450 and 500Mhz systems, but the way I read the OP's question is that he wanted to know which one had SpeedStep without changing the CPU. If I was mistaken on that point, then I apologize for reading too much into the query.

I wasn't very clear about that; What I meant is, how do I make sure it will *support* speedstep, so when I upgrade the CPU it will work at the higher speed.

From what I know about the 600X systems, for sure the ones which came with the 650Mhz CPU will support SpeedStep. If you will be attempting to upgrade the CPU then I'd say that you would need the motherboard FRU before you can say for certain that it will work right.

After doing a search of the archives, this is what I find: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 44#p283544

Ok, what about the 600E? Mine is a 2645-4AU. I have searched the archives, and it does seem like all 600X's *probably*(?) are speedstep, 600's are not, and some but not all 600E's are.

I hope I'm not as think as I confused I am.

Bookworm wrote:Ok, what about the 600E? Mine is a 2645-4AU. I have searched the archives, and it does seem like all 600X's *probably*(?) are speedstep, 600's are not, and some but not all 600E's are. I hope I'm not as think as I confused I am.

Well, it certainly can be confusing, and there are disagreements about what the real state of things is. But at the risk of over-generalizing, it is pretty safe to say that the 600 and 600E do not come with a SpeedStep-enabled motherboard, or with a SpeedStep CPU. And in the 600X models, if they came with a PIII 650MHz, then they have SpeedStep-enabled motherboard, otherwise they probably don't.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that 600E's have SpeedStep-enabled motherboards. There are lots of people who have upgraded their 600E with SpeedStep CPUs, but SpeedStep does not generally work when you do this. And so, in order to get your SpeedStep CPU to run at full speed in your non-SpeedStep machine, various kinds of fancy footwork are involved.

Hope that helps clarify things (?)

Phil.

No 600E will support speedsted like he said without fancy workarounds but I have upgraded many 450MHz and 500MHz 600X's with no issues. maybe they were just later models, or there was an ECA or they had new MB's in them, I don't know (it's been years) but I have NEVER not been able to upgrade any 600X with a speedstep CPU and have it not work correctly.
I know I have one or two 500MHz 600X's and an 800MHz CPU I'm dang tempted to go do it again to post a screen shot LOL

I have had two 600X's that did not have SpeedStep motherboards.

With the faster 650MHz CPU installed, the machine hangs on bootup. Any ACPI event seems to make it continue (I press Fn-F2), and it runs at the slower speed. The CPU driver in WinXP also had to be changed, or the machine would lock up every second or so, which required another ACPI event to bypass. Annoying to say the least.

whizkid wrote:I have had two 600X's that did not have SpeedStep motherboards.

With the faster 650MHz CPU installed, the machine hangs on bootup. Any ACPI event seems to make it continue (I press Fn-F2), and it runs at the slower speed. The CPU driver in WinXP also had to be changed, or the machine would lock up every second or so, which required another ACPI event to bypass. Annoying to say the least.

hmmmm maybe HarryC knows of an ECA or force a battery less BIOS update, that seems to make T20's, T21's (with a T21 BIOS of course) maybe it would "add" speedstep (don't know)... I have two here on my desk, gonna pop a CPU in one later and check it out.

Have you checked the parts list, how many FRU's do they have for planners?
I know the old Dells shipped with what they called a "Transport BIOS and then either pentium or pentium II BIOS was added then they were sold. Same exact motherboard. 500MHz latatudes can be flashed in a simmilar manner to make them run at 650MHz too. (seems to mess with the sound though so you have to change the sound drivers)

I recall there being some kind of hack you had to apply to the BIOS to make the 600X work with SpeedStep, and it wouldn't work with all the SpeedStep enabled processors; many worked but slower than rating. I think the hack was actually posted in the old Thinkpads.com.

Big problem with upgrading 600X machines is finding the MMC-2 processor complex. There were 750 and 800 MHz cards, but they tended to be pretty pricey.

Bruce Guttman wrote:I recall there being some kind of hack you had to apply to the BIOS to make the 600X work with SpeedStep

I don't think it was a BIOS hack. [Added later: I think I know the BIOS hack you are thinking about. There is a BIOS hack for a 600E or 770X/Z that you need to use when you replace the original PII at 66MHz with a PIII at 100MHz.] There was a hardware hack that involved soldering onto the MMC-2 board or cutting a connector somewhere in order to force a SpeedStep MMC-2 to start up in high speed mode instead of starting up in low speed mode. This would allow a non-SpeedStep board to run a SpeedStep CPU at top speed. Possibly, this hack also required a utility called DeepSleep in order to function properly at boot-time, but that was never clear to me.

I have copies of the photos and descriptions about this hack if anyone wants them. The site where they were (modthepad) went down some time ago, and I'm not sure if it was ever ressurected.

BUT, some people apparently haven't had to do any hacks at all to get their 600X's to run SpeedStep to run at full speed, even in cases where their machines originally shipped with only a PIII 500MHz (see TTA's post above, for e.g.). So who knows...

Phil.