IBM Thinkpad 600X CPU Upgrade

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FaTTy · #1 Post by **FaTTy** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:54 am

Hi,

yes i know, here are more that 100 topics about this, but, i have search specialy for my model and found nothing about compatible cpu upgr.

Brand: IBM Thinkpad
Family: 600X
Type: 2645
Model: 7EG

So i know that you can upgrade your CPU with MMC-2 boards.

Know i want to know, what kind of processor i can put into the board.

Now it is a P3 450Mhz installed. I think a 700 or 850 Mhz shows better performance.

Can somebody tell me, what cpu supports this board? I don't want to buy a mmc-2 mod and see that this won't work

Thank you guys and girls !

Best regards

FaTTy

whizkid · #2 Post by **whizkid** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:47 am

Any 600X that came with a 450- or 500-MHz CPU (like yours) is not "SpeedStep Enabled."

All PIII MMC-2 modules of 600MHz or faster are SpeedStep Enabled.

For a SpeedStep Enabled CPU to run at full speed, it must be in a system that is also SpeedStep Enabled, or the module must be modified to run at full speed all the time.

If you buy anything faster than a 550MHz CPU for your motherboard, it will run 150MHz slower than full speed: An 850MHz module will run at 700MHz... unless you modify the CPU (or the BIOS, or whatever).

You can use a 500MHz PIII (big wup), run a faster one at its slower speed (700 is a LOT faster than 450), hack your machine, or replace your motherboard with one from a SpeedStep enabled machine. See your hardware maintenance manual for part numbers for the different motherboards.

Note that if you go the route of hacking the machine and locking the CPU at the faster clock speed, it will generate much more heat than usual and greatly reduce your run time on battery.

ChrisL · #3 Post by **ChrisL** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:44 pm

I have a PIII that is modified to run at full speed all the time if you are interested. It is a 750 Mhz unit. pm, IM, or e-mail me if you are interested in it.

440roadrunner · #4 Post by **440roadrunner** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:00 pm

Whizkid, there seems to be some question about what you said.

I have a 600x, originally a 500mhz. I bought a 700mhz cpu, and have run several "recognized" speed testers, all showing 697xx or so. There was ORIGINALLY no indication ANYWHERE that this unit had speedstep associated with the motherboard.

AFTER the 700mhz cpu was installed, the bios/ easy setup screen now shows "Pentium III processor, Intel(r) Speedstep Technology." The machine does have the latest known bios update.

I have an IDENTICAL factory stock 600X (both are 2645-4EU)

That machine shows the PIII 500mhz processor, and says NOTHING about speedstep.

There seems to be some question with all the stuff I've read whether speedstep is "on the cpu" or "on the board."

The upgraded machine DOES have it's share of problems that I've not been able to "fix."

THe machine almost always hangs, and requires "Fn+F2" to bang past.

I CANNOT get the XP installer to run properly on the "upgraded" machine. It will install and run 98, W2k, just fine. XP is another matter. Either machine, with the 500mhz factory cpu's would install and run XP just fine.

#5 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:54 pm

FWIW: If you don't have a SpeedStep machine, you might still be able to get some artificial support under some operating systems. I have a ThinkPad 600E (2645-4BU) which was designed as a Pentium II notebook so definitley no chance of SpeedStep support but nonetheless, the 750mhz SpeedStep Pentium III I upgraded with, despite being detected as a 600mhz part in the BIOS, runs at the full 750mhz when I'm booted into Windows 2000. With this in mind, I'm starting to wonder if SpeedStep is even on the hardware level or just on the software level.

My ThinkPad has the latest BIOS but otherwise has zero modifications to it and the CPU board is stock and also has zero modifications made to it.

DNA_DAN · #6 Post by **DNA_DAN** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 2:22 am

I have a 600E which is PII 400mhz. I recently purchased a PIII 650 off ebay to make the switch. Here is what I did.

1) Swap out the processor.
2) Disabled L2 Cache
3) Installed Power Leap to enable L2 on restart.

Voila! The 600E runs the PIII 650 at 500mhz, totally stable.

I investigated the whole issue on these forums and over at wimsbios and from what I can conclude, there are no stock 600E thinkpads that are "speedstep" enabled. From the sound of it, the 600X may or may not be speedstep enabled, depending on the revision of the motherboard.

http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopi ... highlight=

So being the speed freak that I am, I decided to try and modify my CPU to always run at the higher speed.

4) I performed the speedstep tweak to the CPU board.
5) Upon reboot the computer still only runs at 500 mhz stable.

I read some more on wimsbios and a user there "wmarcusm" wrote a program to force the speedstep on a 600E. I figure sure, I'll give it a try since I already modified the hardware.

6) I went to http://home.pacbell.net/wmarcusm/deepsleep/ and installed version 1.4 of the deepsleep utility. When I run the utility it bumps my CPU from 500-->600. This was checked using CPUZ. Now I figure either I was robbed on ebay and the PIII is actually a 600, OR something else is limiting the full blown 650 from running. I am still using the onboard RAM and PC66 in the laptop, so there is a good reason to believe that the board or bios is somehow limiting the speed to maintain the stability.

It runs hotter than normal under full load, but still stable as hell on PC66 RAM. Why the long post you ask? I just wanted to point out that under the DeepSleep utility which is all software, it forces the speedstep on a 600E as long as the CPU has been modified per Katch's directions on his TP mod site. The program is just brilliant!

Here is my mod on my CPU, [censored] those are hard to solder!

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/1607/d ... 8ao.th.jpg

I forgot to mention that the CPU mod is not for the squeamish! It was quite challenging, however even if it didn't work, the CPU still seemed to work okay at the lower speed. I was not able to "test" my mod until after running the deepsleep utility.

#7 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:40 am

I'd say that if you are not exactly the most adept with a soldiering iron, then your best choice for upgrading, whether or not your laptop supports SpeedStep, is to get the fastest rated PIII you can get ahold of. If your computer can't run SpeedStep and you don't have the same luck as I did having the OS artificially support the SpeedStep, you'll still have a faster computer than before. An 850mhz part at 700mhz or a 750mhz part at 600mhz is still faster than a 500mhz or 450mhz Pentium II or Pentium III.

Also, DNA_DAN, there should be a number on the CPU board on the underside at the end opposite from the connector that tells you the CPU speed and whether the CPU has 128kb of L2 cache (Celeron) or 256kb (Pentium III). On both, my old 366mhz PII board and my current PIII board, this number starts with three letters, three numbers for the CPU speed followed by either an 01 or an 02 depending on the cache size (01=128kb, 02=256kb) then some more numbers and letters after that.

serverbook · #8 Post by **serverbook** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:10 am

if you plann to run win xp on 600x with speedstep cpu only
you better prepare for alot of trouble
at this stage w9x -2k only feasable os that allows speedtep to work as supposed to.
600x motherboard compatabity is not an issue win xp is(period)

beastie · #9 Post by **beastie** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 2:06 pm

hello all together,
first of all: great forum and users, seems to me everybody
is helping eachother

of cource, i have also a question:

i've got the same laptop like the threadstarter,
thinkpad 600x type: 2645-7eg build 02/99

i already did a few upgrades:
30 gig hdd, dvdrom, usb2/firewire/wlan via pcmciacards...
but now i'd like to do a cpu upgrade.

as far as i know, my tp doesnt support the speedstepping, this
means, the cpu wont run at its full speed, always 150mhz slower?

will it run under xp?

do i have to change also fans? i mean, the new cpu will produce more
heat!?

thanx for helping me with these questions,

greetings,
beaste

BillD · #10 Post by **BillD** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:04 pm

Man have you opened up a can of worms..

First my disclaimer...I am not a laptop expert. I have built and fixed dozens and dozens of desktops,but I am new to this laptop fixing and upgrading..

In the last 2 weeks I have upgraded 2 600x 500Mhz TP's.. 1 with a 600mhz CPU,the other with a 650Mhz.. Both do run at the higher speeds..I checked them with CPU-z,Mobilemeter,and Powerleap... I could NOT get the higher CPU speed until I d/l the speedstep applet from IBM's website..I also could not get them to act like a true speedstep machine,they either start at 500mhz,or I can force them to start at the higher speeds when they boot up..They do NOT switch back and forth after the machine is powered up...So IMHO speedstep is CPU and software driven.

But is it worth it? Again just my opinion,NO!! When I force the computers to start at the higher speed I always have to do the 'fn+f2' to get it to boot.. Also neither machine will come out of standby when they are at the higher speed..And finally the speed increase really isn't that noticeable..

Now if you want to spend big bucks and get a 800 or 850Mhz MMC2 CPU,then you may see a noticeable increase in speed.. But I have yet to find a solution to the fn+f2 boot problem,or the standby problem.. So I seldom run either machine at the higher speeds...

Good Luck

PS...I only tried this on Win2k,I have no idea what,if anything will happen in XP...

440roadrunner · #11 Post by **440roadrunner** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:39 pm

I would mirror what BillD says, I've had about the same result. I CANNOT get XP to load reliably on my 600X's---I have two. W2K runs great.

beastie · #12 Post by **beastie** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:06 pm

BillD wrote:Man have you opened up a can of worms..

First my disclaimer...I am not a laptop expert. I have built and fixed dozens and dozens of desktops,but I am new to this laptop fixing and upgrading..

In the last 2 weeks I have upgraded 2 600x 500Mhz TP's.. 1 with a 600mhz CPU,the other with a 650Mhz.. Both do run at the higher speeds..I checked them with CPU-z,Mobilemeter,and Powerleap... I could NOT get the higher CPU speed until I d/l the speedstep applet from IBM's website..I also could not get them to act like a true speedstep machine,they either start at 500mhz,or I can force them to start at the higher speeds when they boot up..They do NOT switch back and forth after the machine is powered up...So IMHO speedstep is CPU and software driven.

But is it worth it? Again just my opinion,NO!! When I force the computers to start at the higher speed I always have to do the 'fn+f2' to get it to boot.. Also neither machine will come out of standby when they are at the higher speed..And finally the speed increase really isn't that noticeable..

Now if you want to spend big bucks and get a 800 or 850Mhz MMC2 CPU,then you may see a noticeable increase in speed.. But I have yet to find a solution to the fn+f2 boot problem,or the standby problem.. So I seldom run either machine at the higher speeds...

Good Luck

PS...I only tried this on Win2k,I have no idea what,if anything will happen in XP...

BillD, 440roadrunner,

thanx for your answer.

Hm, it seems to me, that upgrading the CPU is not without problems...
I can get a 500er P3 with MMC2 socket without speedstep for a few bugs... I'll give it a try, because WinXP is essential for me and 50Mhz more is better than nothing.

The "last" P3 which is compatible is the 550Mhz?

BillD, you didin't say a word about the fans, so you didn't chance there something? still the original fans doing their job with the 650er?

Greetings,
beastie

BillD · #13 Post by **BillD** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:25 pm

BillD, you didin't say a word about the fans, so you didn't chance there something? still the original fans doing their job with the 650er?

I didn't change the fans and I have had NO overheating problems..

PS.. But I did put a thin layer of the silver goo stuff on the heat sink..

Sorry I can't think of the name of the stuff right now,my brain went dead...

But you know what I mean,I hope...Let me know if you want the exact name,when I get home I'll ost it for you...

Website · #14 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:53 pm

Arctic Silver?

BillD · #15 Post by **BillD** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:13 pm

Arctic Silver?

Yes,bless you...Thx

Anyway I don't know if it helped out but I have no overheating problems with the juiced up 600x's..It is good stuff,I've used it MANYTIMES in overclocked desktops with good results..

beastie · #16 Post by **beastie** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:49 am

Hi thinkpad-lovers

got a 500er P3 for 8bugs and want to install
this buddy.
Do we have a tutorial here how and where to open the thinkpad?
I don't want to destroy something, replacing hd and ram is very
easy, but I have no idea where to open my laptop.

Any suggestions?

Thanx in advance,

beastie

bosco · #17 Post by **bosco** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:16 pm

I just upgraded my 600E last week to a P3 500mhz. I'm sure the 600X is the same.

See this thread (especially a post by BillD):
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=22509

Just be careful lifting up the keyboard. There are two cables attached that you don't want to pull off very hard.

Also, see the sticky thread for this forum, or do a search on posts by Katch, he has a website that details the cpu upgrade.

Website · #18 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:37 pm

Beastie: What Thinkpad do you have 600, 600E, 600X, etc.? Also what is the type and model number for yours (ie. 2645-45U)

P.S. @Bosco: You might want to update your email address, because your profile is showing "User with bad email address, PLEASE fix!".....just wanted to give you a heads up so your account doesn't get deleted, or something.

bosco · #19 Post by **bosco** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:38 pm

tfflivemb2 wrote:P.S. @Bosco: You might want to update your email address, because your profile is showing "User with bad email address, PLEASE fix!".....just wanted to give you a heads up so your account doesn't get deleted, or something.

Thanks! I updated it last week and it still says that for some reason. Can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Website · #20 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:52 pm

Send a PM or email to Bill Morrow....or an Admin/Mod.

beastie · #21 Post by **beastie** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:54 pm

tfflivemb2 wrote:Beastie: What Thinkpad do you have 600, 600E, 600X, etc.? Also what is the type and model number for yours (ie. 2645-45U)

Hi tfflivemb2
My Thinkpad is a 600x, Modelnumber/Type: 2645-7eg Build 02/99.
Is it the same procedure like the 600e ?

bosco wrote: See this thread (especially a post by BillD):
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=22509

Just be careful lifting up the keyboard. There are two cables attached that you don't want to pull off very hard.

ah, great - these infos about cables you have to take care of was one reason for asking

Website · #22 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:01 pm

Ok, for a600X, you should use this Hardware Maintenance Manual. There are some differences along the way, but if you are going to use a manual to disassemble the laptop, it might as well be the right one...instead of the 600E manual.

This manual will tell you how to remove almost every single piece of your machine.

beastie · #23 Post by **beastie** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:12 pm

tfflivemb2 wrote:Ok, for a600X, you should use this Hardware Maintenance Manual. There are some differences along the way, but if you are going to use a manual to disassemble the laptop, it might as well be the right one...instead of the 600E manual.

This manual will tell you how to remove almost every single piece of your machine.

wowhow! That's a great service of you for giving me the link and of IBM to provide that information!!! Thanx a lot!
Well, I'll print this and will read it in bed, good night

(hoping my girlfriend won't kill me

)

So long,
beastie

IBM Thinkpad 600X CPU Upgrade

IBM Thinkpad 600X CPU Upgrade

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