A tale of bios revisions and pc100 vs. pc133 ram (the T21)

[TonyJZX]

I had mine at 1.04 or something like that with a single 128Mb pc100 module.

I have 2 x pc133 modules all 128Mb.

I installed 2 x pc133 modules and the unit would only post with 1 module or detect only 128Mb and would not install ubuntu or win2000.

Win98 booted fine.

I updated to 1.16 which is dated 2004 - this is a huge step over the original bios.

Unit now detects 2 x pc133 128Mb modules perfectly and both ubuntu and 2000 installed to the desktop no problems.

If people want to use higher speed memory, get the newest bios???

IBM in my opinion did a sterling job to keep the T2x series as useful as possible for as long as possible.

By 2004 the T21 was long long obsolete with the 2nd generation Centrino (Banias) available.

I hope this has been helpful.

[bradius]

I was just reading through some posts here and came across this one. I got my T21 a few months ago and it had an older BIOS version, too. I also had some PC-133 RAM I tried at the time, but it didn't seem to work. A few weeks ago I updated the BIOS, and after reading this decided to try that RAM again. And it worked! So thank you very much!

[Purcy]

I just wanted to say, that's wonderful for both of you. Isn't this community fantastic, so many people helping people.

[Musti]

IBM in my opinion did a sterling job to keep the T2x series as useful as possible for as long as possible.

Hear, hear.

It's been more than 6 years since the T2x was introduced, and as recently as last month we've had a BIOS upgrade...not to mention several other software updates after that.

IBM/Lenovo has truly made a convert from a long time Mac fanatic (*runs away and hides*)

[TonyJZX]

I manage a fleet of T4x laptops at work... there's s smattering of T60s and Zeds as well.

I personally have a T21 and T23 and am about to purchase a T43... very much into IBM except for one of two mistakes with HP Compaq and a few hand me downs from Dell.

I am surprised how ageless IBMs are... a T20 does not look out of fashion today as much as a Compaq e500 or a Gateway any of the dead laptops from 5 to 7 years ago!

[vlyne]

I installed 2 x pc133 modules and the unit would only post with 1 module or detect only 128Mb and would not install ubuntu or win2000.

Well, that is interesting and useful to know! Are these memory chips high density (4 chips total)? If it is high density I wonder if the 512Mb max limit is still applicable with the new bios?
Cheers

Edit: Curiousity got the better of me (but I should have known better) so I tried a pair of high density 256Mb ram in a recently-fixed T21 with the 1.16 bios - no go I'm afraid. So we're back to the low density ram for the T20/T21/T22 series. There may also be an issue with the CL2/3 latency with the pc133 ram (it may in fact be slower).