Any reason a R40 won't take a 1.7 GHz Pentium M?

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Terrahawk · #1 Post by **Terrahawk** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:13 pm

Hi there,

I just purchased a 1.7 GHz Pentium M to replace the 1.3 GHz Pentium M in my R40 (2723-26M) and it's not working. When I originally installed it, it failed to start up and it was only after a bit of poking around that I managed to get it to boot. I ran the DOS based PC Doctor and it confirmed the CPU as being okay.

I powered the machine off to finish putting it all back together, and then it refused to start again after that.

I know I might have a dud CPU, but is there anything else I might need to look out for? I have the latest BIOS (1.33) and the latest embedded controller code (1.14) installed.

#2 Post by **underclocker** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:20 pm

I'm not sure about R40's and Dothans, should work, but you might want to read this;

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=32165

Can you post more information about what does or doesn't work.

Do you know the sSpec number from the CPU?

Terrahawk · #3 Post by **Terrahawk** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:39 pm

I'm pretty sure the R40 does not support Dothan CPUs (based on threads I have read here), the one I have is a Banias, the s-Spec number being SL6N5. My original CPU is a SL6N4, being a 1.3 GHz Banias. Both report a CPUID of 695, and both are the B1 stepping core.

The R40 no longer boots at all with the 1.7 GHz Banias CPU installed, so I'm back to the 1.3 for now until my other one arrives.

What actually happens.....
With the 1.7 GHz CPU installed, the system powers on (battery or AC) and the CD drive does its power up routine, the hard drive spins up, the power light comes on, the HDD, numlock and capslock LEDs light up for about two seconds, the CPU fan spins for about five seconds then stops. No other activity is seen, even when leaving the machine for a minute or so.

Removing this CPU and putting my original 1.3 GHz Banias in results in a working machine, which I am typing this entry in on now. The thing that is annoying, is that it powered up successfully twice, booted to the recovery partition and reported itself correctly as a 1700 MHz Pentium M. I have no idea why it suddenly stopped working.

#4 Post by **underclocker** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:07 am

That is very strange. It sounds like your setup should work.

R40's certainly shipped with 1.5's (maybe 1.6?).

Other than the possibilities of the 1.7 not being supported or a particular bad CPU, maybe you have a bent pin? Look very carefully at the CPU.

It's very odd that it would boot a couple of times.

Terrahawk · #5 Post by **Terrahawk** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:52 pm

I think I have a dud CPU. I received a second Banias Pentium-M 1.7 GHz from ebay and it is working fine. Just ran it through some SiSoft Sandra benchmarks and it benches somewhere between a 2.4 GHz P4 and a 2.6 GHz P4, or a little bit slower than an Athlon XP 2000+ in the CPU Arithmetic and CPU Multimedia benchmarks.

I'll bet it's more like an Athlon XP 2200+ (or 2.2 GHz P4) in real everyday use.

#6 Post by **underclocker** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:56 am

Well, it's good to hear that the 1.7 Banias works well in an R40.

Hopefully, you were credit for the first one that was flakey.

I've done 1.3 to 1.5 and noticed the difference, the 1.7 must be very nice.

Terrahawk · #7 Post by **Terrahawk** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:02 pm

Since it spends the bulk of its time at 600 MHz, it's been a bit more difficult to notice but when I run programs that require a bit more power, it does seem quite a bit smoother.

Any reason a R40 won't take a 1.7 GHz Pentium M?

Any reason a R40 won't take a 1.7 GHz Pentium M?

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