T40 with Radeon 9600/64MB and active protection

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basturd · #1 Post by **basturd** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:17 pm

Hi, I bought a refurbished T40 from eBay. When it arrived I discovered that it has Radeon 9600 with 64MB of RAM (verified with 3D Mark tests; Radeon 9600 first appeared in T42) and hard drive active protection system (which first appeared in T41). However the BIOS identifies the laptop as 2373-BU7, which is T40 and isn't supposed to have neither Radeon 9600 nor active protection.

How is it possible? How do I find what's the system board inside and whether it supports Dothan CPU's? Why BIOS thinks it is 2373-BU7 when the system board is definitely not from T40?

sugo · #2 Post by **sugo** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:28 pm

Well, there are tools that can modify BIOS model number.

basturd · #3 Post by **basturd** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:40 pm

Can you point me to one of them? Is there a way to find system board FRU without taking apart the whole laptop?

cmarti · #4 Post by **cmarti** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:17 pm

This will solve our problem.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

But do you have your real serial number?

basturd · #5 Post by **basturd** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:21 pm

No I don't. I have the one that shows 2373-BU7 (T40).

Is there any way to find it out from system board FRU or something?

cmarti · #6 Post by **cmarti** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:27 pm

Follow this link it will show you where you can find it.

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 9QTT6.html

basturd · #7 Post by **basturd** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:33 pm

Oh actually I have it. It is what's shown in the BIOS now.

I was thinking I need to change it to a different value correspond to the new system board, which looks like T42 system board.

smugiri · #8 Post by **smugiri** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:01 pm

Lucky you: you got a T42 board for T40 pricing. I think you came out ahead in this deal.

cmarti · #9 Post by **cmarti** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:06 pm

Just leave as is. I also upgraded my motherboard and a few otherlittle things.
( See at my signature )

I entered my correct serial in the BIOS and it works perfectly just remember to instal the software installer from IBM and it will take care of all.

It is important so the programs and applications from IBM can work.

good luck.....Carlos..

basturd · #10 Post by **basturd** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:55 pm

I see. Great. Thank you very much for your replies.

asiafish · #11 Post by **asiafish** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:45 pm

Wow, talk about a free upgrade. And I was happy when the Mac Mini Ibought for my office turned out to be 1.5GHz when the box and Apple's website only list 1.42.

T40 with Radeon 9600/64MB and active protection

T40 with Radeon 9600/64MB and active protection

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