Install a 1066MHz FSB CPU on T61 (including Core 2 Quad)

[RMSMajestic]

This is all good but idea is extra low watts concept, with under clocked 25w processors P8700 running 1.9GHz at 800fsb and P9600 running 2.0GHz at 800fsb. I have couple 1066fsb C2D processors for testing to see this works at 800fsb with modified bios flashed.

That is the reason I need to understand better or something different to modify.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

I see what you mean.
In that case, all you need to do is solder a wire to the BSEL[1] on CPU and that's it.
In fact, you don't even need soldering. Just put a wire as in this picture https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9784_o.jpg
and insulate it carefully.
Also, the lowest frequency on your P8700 will now be 0.6Ghz instead of 0.8Ghz, so you might wanna some more pin wiring to undervolt it even further

[thinkpadcollection]

This is all good but idea is extra low watts concept, with under clocked 25w processors P8700 running 1.9GHz at 800fsb and P9600 running 2.0GHz at 800fsb. I have couple 1066fsb C2D processors for testing to see this works at 800fsb with modified bios flashed.

That is the reason I need to understand better or something different to modify.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

I see what you mean.
In that case, all you need to do is solder a wire to the BSEL[1] on CPU and that's it.
In fact, you don't even need soldering. Just put a wire as in this picture https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9784_o.jpg
and insulate it carefully.
Also, the lowest frequency on your P8700 will now be 0.6Ghz instead of 0.8Ghz, so you might wanna some more pin wiring to undervolt it even further

Thank you, all I do is flash T61-BIOS(1.05).rar on 15.4" R61 (this is same board as 15.4" T61), then cut and solder wire, install P8700. Am I golden in this respect? Also wanted to know about pin wiring preferably via soldering?

Thanks and cheers, thinkpadcollection

[RMSMajestic]

Thank you, all I do is flash T61-BIOS(1.05).rar on 15.4" R61 (this is same board as 15.4" T61), then cut and solder wire, install P8700. Am I golden in this respect? Also wanted to know about pin wiring preferably via soldering?

Thanks and cheers, thinkpadcollection

pin wiring is for 800Mhz FSB as you've asked,
cut and solder is for 1066Mhz FSB as how a P8700 is suppose to work......

Don't confuse two together. There is no need to cut and solder if you only want 800Mhz FSB

[thinkpadcollection]

Sorry to keep asking, what about soldering this wire without cutting instead?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[RMSMajestic]

Sorry to keep asking, what about soldering this wire without cutting instead?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

That will also do 800Mhz. But you will need to cut in order to get 1066Mhz

[ELCouz]

Sorry to keep asking, what about soldering this wire without cutting instead?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

That will also do 800Mhz. But you will need to cut in order to get 1066Mhz

I don't understand why somebody would want ("unlock" already unlocked??) 800 mHz FSB... isn't that stock by default?

My T61p came stock with a T7700 with 800 FSB.

[RMSMajestic]

I don't understand why somebody would want ("unlock" already unlocked??) 800 mHz FSB... isn't that stock by default?

My T61p came stock with a T7700 with 800 FSB.

It's by default, yes. But a P8700 downclocked to 800FSB will give a much longer battery life than any CPU originally shipped with T61 and still gives acceptable performance

[ELCouz]

2) Modify the mainboard:

http://abload.de/img/266-fsbe2cow.jpg (240 kB image hoster link)

Cut the yellow marked trace, then connect the marked side of the resistor with the marked side of the capacitor. This ensures that the chipset will always think that it operates at 200 MHz, which is needed. I did not test it, but it should not be necessary to revert this changes if you want to use a CPU made for FSB-800 when doing the modification this way (but the BIOS has to contain the microcode for the CPU).

Now you should be able to use FSB-1066-CPUs. If you have the hardware, you should test stability now with a normal FSB-1066-Core2, so that you can be sure that your RAM and chipset work stable at the higher speeds before proceeding with the next steps required for quad core support.

Can somebody locate the cropped image on a T61p motherboard?

Is it on the back side?

I want to know if I need to remove the motherboard from the case or it's doable in place!

Thanks!

[ELCouz]

Anyone?

[QWERTY Andreas]

It is on the back, near the CPU. You do not have to remove the motherboard from the roll cage

[ELCouz]

It is on the back, near the CPU. You do not have to remove the motherboard from the roll cage

Thanks

[miljoneir]

It's by default, yes. But a P8700 downclocked to 800FSB will give a much longer battery life than any CPU originally shipped with T61 and still gives acceptable performance

Hello,
does that imply that I can use a T9400 in my t61 that has only got middleton bios and no HW mods?

[el-sahef]

No, you would need a hardware mod (not the one in this thread) to downclock the T9400 (force FSB 800 for a CPU that has a default FSB of 1066). The purpose of the hardware mod in this thread is to enable running those CPUs with FSB 1066 (e. g. the T9400) at their default clock.

[Pete B]

I'm wondering if a P9600 or P9700 will work with the 1066 mod as a (much)
lower power alternative to the X9000. Is the BIOS mod needed?

[el-sahef]

For P9600 or P9700 you need to do steps 1) and 2) of the howto in this post: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 30#p728624

[xebbmw]

Just starting working on my Frankenpad. The mobo is a 42W7648 with a T7300 and 4Gb of RAM (samsung chips). I plan to upgrade the CPU to T9600.

In order to flash SPD for RAM do I need to run SPD tool under Windows?

I would need to find a HDD and install Windows on the machine. It would be nice if it works under DOS.

BR

[thinkpadcollection]

That picture with wiring drawn in purple in that photo link is what I did on a merom motherboard and middleton bios mod allowed penryn CPU T9400 to run at 1.9GHz with amazing really low temperature on pre 08-08 motherboard. I had to do this to keep GPU temp low and did use T500 fan on T61 heatsink instead of poor R61 heatsink. Bios cooling did their job properly as well.

http://abload.de/img/fsb200k8qj4.jpg

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[el-sahef]

In order to flash SPD for RAM do I need to run SPD tool under Windows?

I would need to find a HDD and install Windows on the machine.

AFAIK there is no other possibility.

If you have another laptop with DDR2 RAM you could try to flash the RAM in that machine.

[RMSMajestic]

Tried to upgrade a T61p 14" to 256MB vRAM last week, using H5RS1H23MFR 14C
And failed.
Machine booted fine, but only recognise 128MB
bizzaringly it also recognise 64 bit

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

I think there is a mis-understanding.
You can get all the 800mhz socket P cpus to work in a T61 with JUST a bios update.

Yes, but they were asking about running a 1066Mhz socket P processor at 800Mhz. That does require some modification as well. Granted, there is no point since you can just use an 800Mhz FSB processor, but in theory...

It's a $10 difference if you look now on eBay between a T9300 and a T9400; the T9300 being more expensive.

[thinkpadcollection]

This is not matter of cost consideration; since wanted much less thermal overall to go easy on nvidia GPU (pre 08-08) using 1066 fsb penryn cpus underclocked to 800 fsb, I now know I can do it using either T9x00 and Pxxxx CPUs that are rated 1066 fsb.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Pete B]

I mentioned earlier that I like the idea of this mod to allow the use of the lower
power P processors such as the P9700. But it is also interesting that with the
mod processors such as the T9900 and X9100 are options with 3 GHz clocks and
the potential for overclocking with the X9100.

[Matroskin]

Hi every one.
Not long ago I decided to fresh up a bit my T60 with T61 motherboard.
I bought cheap 4:3 T61 14’’ that have some problems with TFT. The T61 is based on 42w7649 board (for Merom, with nVidia nvs140m) and T7300 processor. I also bought P9500 and Q9000 processors (steel waiting for delivery).
In order to run P9500 and Q9000 I need to do SPD modification, it is clear. The hardware modification for 1066MHz is done though I have no 1066 CPU yet. The motherboard layout was a bit different to what is posted here. Probably I will use the P9500 as a working horse, Quad core was bought mainly to play with, since it was quite cheap on ebay.

But after I read the topic I steel have questions about BIOS.

- I wonder if BIOSes from German forum https://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/17258 ... ndervolten have support of full speed SATA ? At German forum it is mentioned that they have full speed SATA support.
- Can I use those Quad core BIOS with P9500 and T7300 processors? BIOS is flashed, T7300 is running.
- Why we need at all BIOS without Quad core support?
- The link RMSMajestic have shared to the highsun ultimate 2.29 BIOS with quad core support and Nvidia undervolt is not working any more. Please can someone share this BIOS? Or it is the same as we can download via the German forum?

I'm a bit confused with number of BIOSes, do we have a ''best for all purposes'' BIOS?

GOOD NEWS

Thanks to highsun, the ultimate 2.29 BIOS with quad core support and Nvidia undervolt(1.05V) is finally ready, it is based on amaninsh's BIOS and has newer CPU microcode
MD5 2c707e2126d20c43591dbe0821137f22
available here:
http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/pQuATdgO/file.html

Upd. Q9000 is running

[SaskFellow]

Finally!!!



Time to start hacking up my rare late model mobo!

[xebbmw]

GOOD NEWS

Thanks to highsun, the ultimate 2.29 BIOS with quad core support and Nvidia undervolt(1.05V) is finally ready, it is based on amaninsh's BIOS and has newer CPU microcode
MD5 2c707e2126d20c43591dbe0821137f22
available here:
http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/pQuATdgO/file.html

@RMSMajestic: this bios file is not available anymore. Would it be possible to upload it again somewhere?

BR

[RMSMajestic]

GOOD NEWS

Thanks to highsun, the ultimate 2.29 BIOS with quad core support and Nvidia undervolt(1.05V) is finally ready, it is based on amaninsh's BIOS and has newer CPU microcode
MD5 2c707e2126d20c43591dbe0821137f22
available here:
http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/pQuATdgO/file.html

@RMSMajestic: this bios file is not available anymore. Would it be possible to upload it again somewhere?

BR

will try to find it again some time.:/
It's buried inside several hundred GBs of rubbish.

[el-sahef]

Was there a thread at 51nb.com for this BIOS? Maybe with different versions for dual core, different nvidia voltages and so on? If yes, can you post the link please?

Then I can download it myself and post it in the BIOS download table, so all BIOS files would be linked at one place.

[RMSMajestic]

Was there a thread at 51nb.com for this BIOS? Maybe with different versions for dual core, different nvidia voltages and so on? If yes, can you post the link please?

Then I can download it myself and post it in the BIOS download table, so all BIOS files would be linked at one place.

needa find those somewhere..... 51nb was hacked a few months ago and quite a lot of attachments were lost

[QWERTY Andreas]

I have some BIOSes with the following names, lying as backup:

T61-BIOS(1.05)_ASPM -> Just std. Dual Core BIOS i think?
T61 1066FSB-BIOS -> One of the early dual core BIOS i think...

专门网论坛_T61Q_BIOS -> Normal voltage QC BIOS i think?
专门网论坛_T61Q_BIOS(0.9)_ASPM_ -> BIOS with ASPM and 0.9V undervolt on the GPU
专门网论坛_T61Q_BIOS(0.95)_ASPM -> BIOS with ASPM and 0.95V undervolt on the GPU

I can email them if anyone is interested, just PM me.

[xebbmw]

In the German forum https://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/172581 there are some bios files. As per my understanding these were provided by highsun and are based on bios version 2.27. I installed 专门网论坛_T61Q_BIOS(1.05)_ASPM.rar in my machine although I installed a dual core CPU.

However as per discussions in this thread there are two other bioses: amaninsh and highsun which are based on bios version 2.29.