Enabling L2 cache on 770Z after PIII upgrade

[VFR_firefly]

Hi all.

This site is awesome. I've done the 770z upgrade to a 500mhz PIII coppermine-core processor. Right now I've got 3 128M PC100 memory in all 3 slots. That mainboard slot really is "hard to get to" -but not really that difficult. It's just time and following the excellent maintenance manual step-by-step.

I was amazed that there was a lot of junk in there. I had used this TP for a year before I did the upgrade and it worked fine. When I opened up the beast I found a loose/free-range jumper thingie floating around under the processor. Don't see where any jumpers were missing. I think this must have been something that the original Candidian tech dropped in there when he/she assembled this machine. When I pulled off the mainboard to get to the "hard to get to" memory slot I found a tiny molex connector like the one that the microphone wires are connected with to the MB just floating around under there too. Needless to say, I didn't put those two parts back in. I don't think that floating junk in there is necessary to the operation of the laptop.

Booted with the 127 error so I did the hex editor with the help of a friend and figured out to switch 00 to 08 at location 20.

Now it boots cleanly to winXP and it is running fine. I can tell a big difference between now and before running XP. This 770z has the 14.1" screen with the 1024 x 768 resolution. I hope to replace the screen and vid card from another TP on eBay. I have a non-upgraded 770z with the 13.7 screen that I may upgrade later and going back to the low-res screen is not a goodness. Big difference in my opinion.

Sandra says that the L2 cache is enabled but I'm not running anything to turn it on. I thought the BIOS change disabled the cache so it could boot. Do I still need to turn this back on to get the max performance of this processor? Is Sandra wrong? -or am I reading it wrong?

So far I saw one weird video phenomenon when I booted but it went away and I've never seen it again after about 30 boots. I'm going to be using this machine as my daily driver so I'm going to see how well it works in the long-term. I've been using these 2 770z's for the past 2 years as my daily driver and basically the only thing showing any wear are the keyboards. Rock solid units the 770's are.

I can't wait to see how the PIII holds up in this unit. So far the temps have not been too high and rarely get over 65C according to Mobmeter.

[shined]

Welcome to 770X/Z club!

Sandra says that the L2 cache is enabled but I'm not running anything to turn it on. I thought the BIOS change disabled the cache so it could boot. Do I still need to turn this back on to get the max performance of this processor? Is Sandra wrong? -or am I reading it wrong?

I don't know if Sandra can report the L2 cache status correctly. But my favorite utility is CPU-Z. This gives the correct L2 cache status. Try this and see what is going on.

[VFR_firefly]

Both CPU-Z and the Inspecs online upgrade configuratron ulitility at Powerleap.com said that the L2 cache is there but not operating.

I couldn't find the Cache enabler software anywhere on the powerleap site but saw it refered to as "part of the package" for a number of upgrade processors.

I'm assuming it isn't a free download anymore. Does anyone know where I can download an L2 cache enabulationator program?

-Jim

P.S. I had some video symptoms when I had the machine left on overnight with the screen on. At first I was able to make it go away by pressing Fn-F7 (switch to external monitor) and then back again and it did the same thing as rebooting.

After a while even that didn't work (or rebooting) and I am assuming it is a heat issue with the vid card. When I replace the 4M card with the 8M after buying a 770z with a 13.7 screen I will not be so [censored] miserly with the heat grease. I was afraid it would goop all over and that little pad looked so nice that I only used the barest of thin applications.

No video problems though all day today after 13 hours straight of running the beast. They didn't show up until after 48 hours straight of running wide open the other day.

[pkiff]

[moved discussion to new thread in order to keep Official 770 Upgrade thread length manageable - Phil.]

Jim: That's great that you've had success (so far) getting your 770Z upgraded to a PIII 500Mhz. My 770Z has this same upgrade, and I love it.

For links and details to the different versions (there are two) of the Powerleap utilities, check out the thread: Power Leap Utility Installation Problem.

If you have a problem with that link, send me an email and I will send you the file directly (it's tiny).

Phil.

[shined]

Oh, I just noticed that pkiff moved this topic to a separate thread. So let me repost my reply to here.

Since pkiff already gave you a link to the Powerleap utility, I would like to give you just one more tip. After you install Powerleap CCP, you may find a utility "restarter" useful. Please see the other thread for what it is all about.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=23825

Enjoy!