Thinkpads Forum

I have a ThinkPad 600X, which has 64mb RAM built into the systemboard. Unfortunately this is showing as faulty with diagnostic tests I have run, so as far as I am aware, my only option is to replace the systemboard.
My question is whether I can swap the systemboard with one from a 600 or 600E. Does it have to be 600X? Will my processor (PIII 500mHz) work in a 600 or 600E systemboard? I am assuming that the 600, 600E and 600X all have the same connections and can support the same LCD screen, hard disk, ram etc etc - am I right?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You cannot use a board from the 600 or 600E. They are mechanically different. The 600X has a MiniPCI slot, the others don't. They have different audio (and maybe video) connectors. The E and X can use an UltraSlimBay battery, the 600 cannot.

There are enough differences that I would not recomend it.

Further, the 600X has two different system boards. One is used in the 450- and 500-MHz models and does not have SpeedStep abilities. The one with SpeedStep is used in the 650MHz model. Those are mechanically interchangeable but have different functionality.

Depending on how handy you are, you could replace memory chips. Unsoldering surface mount chips is not a job for a beginner though.

You could also disable the internal memory by editing the BIOS. That would give you more time to find a new board.

The 600 and 600E run the system bus and memory at 66MHz, the 600X at 100MHz. The screens and hard drives are compatible between models, except for the 12.1" HPA screens in the very oldest 600.

Grimace11 wrote:I have a ThinkPad 600X, which has 64mb RAM built into the systemboard. Unfortunately this is showing as faulty with diagnostic tests I have run, so as far as I am aware, my only option is to replace the systemboard.
My question is whether I can swap the systemboard with one from a 600 or 600E. Does it have to be 600X? Will my processor (PIII 500mHz) work in a 600 or 600E systemboard? I am assuming that the 600, 600E and 600X all have the same connections and can support the same LCD screen, hard disk, ram etc etc - am I right?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What problem are you having?

A 600X board goes for $125 on eBay at the moment..

Thanks for your replies. As it isn't my main machine I didn't really want to spend any money, and as I have some other 600s lying around just wanted to check whether i could swap bits around, but just like I thought, there are too many differences!
You mentioned editing the BIOS - does anyone know the value to change to disable onboard memory if I hex edited it? Has anybody successfully done this before?

whizkid wrote: The E and X can use an UltraSlimBay battery, the 600 cannot.

the base model cannot use the ultraslimbay battery ???

I have a base model and got a ultraslimbay batt and was wondering why it seemed to make no difference..

is there any way to make one work, or am I out of luck ?

Just for future reference, after playing around I managed to disable onboard memory (64mb) for my 600X as it was faulty.
In BIOS Easy Setup went into Config and pressed CTRL + D to enter hex editor. Changed value at row 20, column B from 80 to 81 and saved it. Turned off laptop, turned it back on and voila! The memory count is 64mb less. As a side note if you go back into the BIOS it will say "installed memory" in my case 262144 KB, but "usable memory" 196032 KB

bler wrote:

whizkid wrote: The E and X can use an UltraSlimBay battery, the 600 cannot.

the base model cannot use the ultraslimbay battery ???

That's right. There's no battery connector in that bay on the 600. I'm not saying it's no way to get it to work, but even if you cram a connector in there, the BIOS may not recognize it.