I have a 600 that i want to upgrade

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northcarolinagal · #1 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Fri May 23, 2008 7:07 pm

i bought a thinkpad 600 it is running with a 160 mbs of ram right now and a 5 gb hard drive. here is what all belarc says she is running right now.

Operating System System Model
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222) IBM 264545U

Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
300 megahertz Intel Pentium II
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: IBM 264545U

Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: IBM IBET35WW 09/25/98
Drives Memory Modules c,d
5.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
4.51 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-1702BC
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")

Generic IDE hard disk drive (5.11 GB) -- drive 0, No SMART Driver 160 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot '0' has 32 MB
Slot '1' has 64 MB
Slot '2' has 64 MB
Local Drive Volumes

c: (FAT32 on drive 0) 5.11 GB 4.51 GB free

what all would i need to do to upgrade it too xp. it is working great with win 98se but i just bought another thinkpad this one was a 2621 and hubby says ok enough so have to choose a couple of mine to sell now which i aint liking to well but oh well. any and all advise would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

vanaya · #2 Post by **vanaya** » Fri May 23, 2008 7:48 pm

Hello, I would recommend you alter your serial number for security reasons first.

Now as far as upgrades, your 2645-45U is not the pickier models that fuss about the ram (I believe). You could add 2x256mb pc100 low density (8 chips per side.) These chips are in the $45 to $60 range. I have a 2645-51U plain vanilla that works very well with W2K and 192 ram. Very well as in net surfing and emailing. I have installed XPP with the 192mb ram and it was painfully slow. So depending how much ram you get will determine the OS, IMHO. The next big upgrade would be a faster HDD. That 5gb is probably a 4200rpm. Any 5400rpm will feel much more responsive.

northcarolinagal · #3 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:03 pm

after the ram the hard drive was gonna be next. so the 5400 rpm would be a good one to get will have to look one up and also thanks for telling me that the serials were still there thought i had removed them. so it should be able to handle two 256 mb sticks that will be cool if it can.

thanks

vanaya · #4 Post by **vanaya** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:42 pm

Just make sure its low density. You can get the ram from crucial.com theirs is the pc133 but will work. From everyone else is has to be low density 16 chips. Lets us know how it works for you.

#5 Post by **pkiff** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:33 pm

I would not recommend purchasing additional hardware in order to upgrade this Thinkpad so it can run XP. While there are some folks who run XP on a PII 300MHz machine, most would say that is too slow. I would just stick with Win98SE or follow vanaya's suggestion and upgrade to Windows 2000, and stick with the hardware you've got. A used Thinkpad of some kind with a PIII 500MHz or faster can be found on eBay in the U.S. for about $100, and you should be able to get one for only $20-$40 more that runs XP right out of the box (no new memory/hard drive required).

If you have hardware sitting around and are just wondering where to start in terms of upgrading, then I would agree that more memory is a good place to start.

Phil.

BillD · #6 Post by **BillD** » Sat May 24, 2008 7:23 am

Yeah...I also recommend using Win2000 on your TP 600..

IMO 2000 is MUCH more stable then 98 and it has less eye candy then XP..2000 works very well on the 600 series TP...

As for upgrading the 3 things are, and in this order:

1) put as much RAM in as you can...( low density)

2) get a faster Hard Drive...5400 or 7200...

3) upgrade the CPU...Not nearly as important as 1 and 2, especially if you do 1 and 2 upgrades and use Win 98 or 2000 ( stay away from XP)..

Good Luck

#7 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat May 24, 2008 1:52 pm

I have a 600 that somebody gave me recently. I plan to use it as a light duty surfing machine. Right now it has 512mb (edit: 416mb) ram and a pentium 233 cpu in it. With a 10 meg DSL connection it surfs like dial up. I think the cpu is the bottleneck. Going to a pentium 400 for $32.00 should be worth the money don't you think? Any thoughts?

#8 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:04 pm

Personally, I'd stick with Windows 2000 for sub-450Mhz systems (e.g., Pentium II 600 and 600E systems). And that's as long as it has the maximum amount of memory that you could stuff in there. A 500Mhz Pentium III 600X with 576MB runs Windows XP just adequately enough.

northcarolinagal · #9 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:50 pm

so i guess i will be looking for win2000. will it run pretty good once i get the thinkpad up to 256 mbs of ram. also i had checked before and crucial said that the highest amount the 300 mhz could take was 256 is this right or not guys.

thanks again so much for yall's help. just getting into laptop rebuilding been working on desktops since i was 19.

#10 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat May 24, 2008 4:13 pm

It looks like the 2645-45U can go to a maximum of 416MB. This is with one 128MB low density module in the "front" slot (closest to the Ultrabay opening) and a 256MB low density module in the "back" slot. Along with the 32MB onboard, that's a total of 416MB.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=51580

Edit for density explanation:

A low density 256MB module will have 16 chips on it (8 per side). A 128MB low density module will have 8 chips (4 per side). You should be able to use PC66, PC100 or PC133 rated modules as long as you adhere to the "density" rule.

Edit for senility

: The "128MB" module needs to be a single-bank module. If you don't have one, then a 256MB module can be used but only half of it will be available. I'm running memory diagnostics on my 2645-45U right now to re-verify all of this. There's two low density 256MB modules installed but memtest86+ only "sees" 416MB.

northcarolinagal · #11 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Sat May 24, 2008 6:25 pm

ok had gotten some ram yesterday from a guy up in town and one was for my toughbook which worked real fast both of the sticks were pc100 128 mbs. well didnt know till today that the one had to be in the back port so when i put it in yesterday the 600 said no to it and couldnt figure out what was wrong. now i have the stick in the right slot and it is now reading 228 mbs of ram. so next thing is to find it some more ram. it is running wonderfully now again. ok how big of a hard drive will it hold? can someone tell me that much. sorry to ask so many questions guys but glad yall dont make a person feel stupid when asking questions. which is one thing i like about this forum. i so appreciate that so very much. i know i am a rare female puter nerd as everyone around here calls me but i love working on puters.

thanks again

BillD · #12 Post by **BillD** » Sat May 24, 2008 6:36 pm

carbon_unit wrote:I have a 600 that somebody gave me recently. I plan to use it as a light duty surfing machine. Right now it has 512mb ram and a pentium 233 cpu in it. With a 10 meg DSL connection it surfs like dial up. I think the cpu is the bottleneck. Going to a pentium 400 for $32.00 should be worth the money don't you think? Any thoughts?

Since it's only $32 give it a try...But IMHO the bottleneck is the video chip. What Windows are you running? Is the right video driver installed?

BillD · #13 Post by **BillD** » Sat May 24, 2008 6:40 pm

northcarolinagal wrote:ok had gotten some ram yesterday from a guy up in town and one was for my toughbook which worked real fast both of the sticks were pc100 128 mbs. well didnt know till today that the one had to be in the back port so when i put it in yesterday the 600 said no to it and couldnt figure out what was wrong. now i have the stick in the right slot and it is now reading 228 mbs of ram. so next thing is to find it some more ram. it is running wonderfully now again. ok how big of a hard drive will it hold? can someone tell me that much. sorry to ask so many questions guys but glad yall dont make a person feel stupid when asking questions. which is one thing i like about this forum. i so appreciate that so very much. i know i am a rare female puter nerd as everyone around here calls me but i love working on puters.

thanks again

How big of a HDD do you think you're going to need?

Unless you plan on d/l a lot of movies and videos look for a 40/50 or so gig 5400 RPM...That should do you fine...

northcarolinagal · #14 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Sat May 24, 2008 6:52 pm

thanks bill and nope dont download movies are such on it but might watch them once in a while on it when we are on the go. other than that not gonna do a lot with it since i have my desktop with a 120 gb hard drive in it and hubby's with a total of 370 gb of hard drive. just want the laptop for outdoors or when we go somewhere.

thanks

#15 Post by **pkiff** » Sun May 25, 2008 4:57 am

BillD wrote:
carbon_unit wrote:I have a 600 that somebody gave me recently. I plan to use it as a light duty surfing machine. Right now it has 512mb ram and a pentium 233 cpu in it. With a 10 meg DSL connection it surfs like dial up. I think the cpu is the bottleneck. Going to a pentium 400 for $32.00 should be worth the money don't you think? Any thoughts?
Since it's only $32 give it a try...But IMHO the bottleneck is the video chip. What Windows are you running? Is the right video driver installed?

I can't comment on the 600 video chip, but I experienced noticeable improvements on my 770E when I uppgraded the CPU from PII 266 to PII400. And if I recall correctly, web page rendering was one area it improved. I browse with Flash disabled, though, and also disable some JavaScript functions, as certain sites can still be slow (this is true even on my 600X PIII 850).

I can't say for sure which 600 models can be upgraded to PII 400 CPUs.

The same upgrade may be worthwhile for northcarolinagal, too, but such an upgrade won't make enough of a difference to move to XP comortably, IMHO.

Phil.

BillD · #16 Post by **BillD** » Sun May 25, 2008 6:32 am

pkiff wrote:
BillD wrote:Since it's only $32 give it a try...But IMHO the bottleneck is the video chip. What Windows are you running? Is the right video driver installed?
I can't comment on the 600 video chip, but I experienced noticeable improvements on my 770E when I uppgraded the CPU from PII 266 to PII400. And if I recall correctly, web page rendering was one area it improved. I browse with Flash disabled, though, and also disable some JavaScript functions, as certain sites can still be slow (this is true even on my 600X PIII 850).

I can't say for sure which 600 models can be upgraded to PII 400 CPUs.

The same upgrade may be worthwhile for northcarolinagal, too, but such an upgrade won't make enough of a difference to move to XP comortably, IMHO.

Phil.

Yeah...For only $32 I'd give it a try. As far as I can recall all 600's call be upgraded to 400 mhz( PII ONLY, not Celeron). The point is IF the user plans on using XP is the upgrade worth it? That's what I am basing my opinion on, a move to XP. If the user goes with 98 or Win2000, then spending a few bucks to upgrade the CPU might be worth it..

I've had 500mhz 600x's that didn't handle XP well.. Just surfing and page loading was slow.. The only thing it could be was the video chip...

#17 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun May 25, 2008 4:56 pm

I have no intentions of running XP on a 233 or 400 mhz machine.
Probably puppy linux or win2k.

#18 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:24 am

Here is what I got. Ebay

u.mac · #19 Post by **u.mac** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:30 am

Bottleneck isn't only processorspeed. 32+128+256mb max. memory, 66MHz FrontSizeBus and PCI-Graphics with only 2.5mb memory are not soo much. The 600e or 600x are most better bases.

SUSIEJO · #20 Post by **SUSIEJO** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:07 pm

My mother in law has a TP600 with WinXP on it and it runs fine, and she doesn't even have her RAM maxed out, I think she has 192 MB RAM. I have 2 TP 600E's, one is a 366 and the other is a 400 and I have XP Pro on both of them and they run fine. My personal TP is the 600E with a 400mhz processor, I have maxed the RAM at 544 MB (2-256 MB sticks plus the 32 MB on board), I have a 60 GB HD, and I also have a dvd-rom. It runs great and plays movies great.
So I don't know why some say they can't run XP, personally I love the XP on my TP's. (Not that I doubt the others, some TPs may have trouble with the WinXP)
I have put XP on about 11 different TP's (600, 600E, 600x)and all have done fine.

But about the up grade on the HD, I recommend either a 40 GB or higher, even if you don't plan on storing a lot on it. I have found with the TPs if the HD gets very full it causes it to run a little slower. Plus you never know when you might end up needing the space so ere on the side of to big then to small.

But definitely max the RAM.

~susiejo

#21 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri May 30, 2008 7:22 pm

I installed the 400 mhz cpu today and it helped a lot. The machine is way more usable now. Of course I almost doubled the processor speed. It was worth the $32.00.
I forgot how easy the cpu is to change in the 600. Compared to others it is a breeze. It took about 15 minutes.

northcarolinagal · #22 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Fri May 30, 2008 9:28 pm

well it is now up to almost 228 in ram according to belarc and just got a 40 gb hard drive for 11 dollars. it will be sent out tomorrow and hopefully will be here sometime the first of next week. susiejo what processor does your mother in law's TP have. I am like you I love my TP's. as of right now have a TP 600, an I series 1300 i think still getting use to the different numbers plus my fujitsu lifebook which i am gonna try to get back to win98 this week for it to run the touch screen off of it and then i have my toughbook CF-47 which is wireless and running xp. all of them are running xp right now except for the TP600 but hoping to get it up and running it soon. got two more laptops coming in this week. one is a 2621 I series with a DVD drive in it and the other is a workpad z50 which is the one i am really anxious to get here asap. hoping i can get it running good enough to find a new home for my Ipaq if the workpad works out right. oh yeah and have a apple ibook that right now is at my daughter's so she had a laptop to play with. laptop bug has hit her now.

thanks one and all for everyone's help. oh yeah got one more project a 1171 that i need a motherboard base too everything is good on it but the bottom case of it. out of all of the laptops i have this is the best one.

SUSIEJO · #23 Post by **SUSIEJO** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:51 pm

Hers has a 266 mhz processor. I would like to upgrade that but I've never changed a processor in a TP. Didn't know how difficult it would be or what kind of processor a 600 would take.
After reading some of the threads here I might just try it.

Oh, BTW, I just have to say I love NC. It is a beautiful state.
Although we haven't been for a while, we used to go to the Smokies on vacation alot and we would go over the mount. into NC and go for drives and look at the scenery, hike some of the trails and see some of the waterfalls. I love it there, very peaceful.

northcarolinagal · #24 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:58 pm

yeah after seeing that carbon_unit did it was thinking about talking to my brother and seeing if he knew how to do it so he could teach me how. just learning how to work on laptops and beginning to like them a whole lot more than a desktop.

#25 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:42 pm

If you want to take your Thinkpad apart there are detailed Step by Step instructions in the Hardware Maintenance Manual.
Basically you just remove the keyboard and bezel, take the screws out of the processor and fan and lift them out. Reverse the process to reassemble.

northcarolinagal · #26 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:27 am

thanks carbon_unit. I downloaded all the manuals for all the laptops that i have. i really appreciate the info alot.

thanks again

northcarolinagal · #27 Post by **northcarolinagal** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:22 pm

ok update on the TP600 300 mhz. it now has 162 mbs of ram a 40 gb 5400 rpm hard drive and is running wnxp with not a problem one. also got the ir working where i can sync it to my workpad z50. put service pack 3 in it and still no problems. plus now have a docking station for it so i would have an extra usb port on it. it is running really good and pretty decent speed to it as well.

thanks everyone for the advice and info i really appreciate it

ZAGNUT · #28 Post by **ZAGNUT** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:23 pm

BillD wrote:
Since it's only $32 give it a try...But IMHO the bottleneck is the video chip. What Windows are you running? Is the right video driver installed?

video driver? didn't know you needed one on a 600. at least on mine whenever i format and install win2k the drivers for video and track point are already there.

and with 160MB of RAM and the 266MHz CPU it runs win2k very nicely, including video. surfing on a 2.5Mb cable connection isn't as quick as on my T30 but definitely not dial-up slow. with a stripped down version of win2k it gets much quicker in just about everything it does.

dave

I have a 600 that i want to upgrade

I have a 600 that i want to upgrade

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