Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

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Gatewave · #1 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:10 am

HI,

The motherboard in my T42 has failed and I have purchased a replacement. When it has arrived I found out it was a T40P with Radeon 9000 Graphics. I'm also able to get a T42 motherboard but the question is which motherboard is better to use T42 or T40P?

T40P motherboard looks bit different it has small card at the bottom of the board I'm guessing thats a secure chip...

And one last question do I need to get the larger heatsink to go with the T40P motherboard or the small one should still be ok?

thanks

dr_st · #2 Post by **dr_st** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:25 am

Well... if you could get one of the last batch of the T42 motherboards (manufactured from Spring 2005 onwards), the GPU would be fixed to the board with red epoxy dots. This would drastically decrease the chances of the GPU failure in comparison to early T42 or T40/T41 motherboards. But it is hard to know which one you are getting.

If you care about GPU performance, than the Radeon 9000 would be better than a Radeon 7500 found on some T42s, but significantly worse than a Radeon 9600 / FireGL T2 found on other T42/T42p mobos.

Cannot answer your heatsink question, sorry.

Gatewave · #3 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:48 am

Well the T42 motherboard I had in my thinkpad has the red dots and it still failed... the usual GPU problem.

I guess what I need to know is if the MB is identical in performance or better T40P compared to T42? I understand the Graphics would be better but what about everything else? I got a 1.7Ghz CPU in it.
Also will the T40P take PC2700 RAM to work with 1.7Ghz CPU?

thanks

aaa · #4 Post by **aaa** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:17 am

I'd prefer a T42 for the battery charge control. Otherwise the only significant difference is the GPU. They take the same ram and CPU (T40 will run the PC2700 ram at PC2100, which isn't a big deal).

Gatewave · #5 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:34 am

Excuse my ignorance but whats the difference in the charging control?

Also will 1.7Ghz CPU support 2100 RAM speed? I though 1.7Ghz CPU needed 2700 Speed.

#6 Post by **underclocker** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:43 am

Assuming you had a basic 32MB video T42 mobo, the T40p mobo will perform slighly better due to the improved GPU.

I've also had several "red dot" GPU mobos that failed, including one on a T43 with ATI X300 video. I'm not sure the red dots did all that much!

I'm not sure about the change in the charging control (especially since the BIOS and EC is the same for all T40/T41/T42's), but you will lose the APS (Active Protection System / hard drive sensor), that first came with the T41 mobo's. Maybe not a big deal for you - sometimes I don't install the software on those machines that have it to keep overhead at a minimum

No issue with the "slower" RAM. It's definitely not a speed decrease that a human can perceive.

Good luck.

Gatewave · #7 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:38 am

I like active protection and would defiantly want to have it .. I guess I should just sell this MB and get a T42P instead with 128Mb Video ram and all.
Also will the normal XVGA LCD work with T42P boards even though they support higher resolution?

thanks

#8 Post by **underclocker** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:53 am

It would help if you tell us which mobo you have in your T42, 32MB, 64MB or 128MB GPU version, but if you don't have a 128MB version now (I assume you do not because you seem to have an XGA LCD), you should know that they run very HOT. This means less battery life and more noise from the fan that is on more often. The 64MB version with the ATI 9600 GPU is a great choice IMHO - good temps, good performance.

Any LCD assembly will work with any version mobo.

Gatewave · #9 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:38 pm

The T42 MB I have is 93P4156 .... its the vanilla flavor MB with Radeon 7500 with 32MBs of Memory.

It just stop working one day with fuzzy lines on the screen.. I did a reflow but I think it made it worse so I got another one. Read here on this forum it said that all the T4x are same like the T2x but it seems like its not the case. As mentioned previously the T40 doesn't have the automatic HD protection which I would like to have.... also im still not sure (and no body yet confirmed) if the 1.7Ghz CPU will run on the T40P MB or not.

By the way the T40P MB number is 91P7247.
I'm still thinking should I sell this and get a T42P which is bit more expensive or just use the T40P... apart from the HD protection would I be losing anything else?

#10 Post by **underclocker** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:17 pm

The 1.7GHz Dothan CPU will definitely work.

Due to the higher performance GPU, a "long" fan is recommended. It may not be necessary, but it's probably a good idea - for about $20 in the marketplace or on eBay.

You could try to use your "short" fan with a temperature monitoring utility to see how it works out or you could solicit input from other forum members who may have tried the short fan with a T40p mobo. With a T41p/T42p mobo, I'd definitely go with a "long" fan - even with it you're leg will get plenty hot.

Gatewave · #11 Post by **Gatewave** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:46 pm

Yep looking to get a long fan as well..... I'll see how I go with the T42P if i dont end up getting that board I might as well stick with T40P... it does sound like a better unit then T42

thanks

Gatewave · #12 Post by **Gatewave** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:03 pm

Well I gave the T40P motherboard a try today everything was put together with 1.7Ghz SL7EP that was on the old T42 motherboard. After trying to start the computer the battery and power lights come on but the computer itself doesn't start, NO IBM logo or anything on the screen.

I have then put another 1.5Ghz SL6F9 CPU and everything came to life. I also tryed 1.8Ghz SL6FH (anyone knows what CPU this is? Is it Celeron 1.8?) but that also didn't work.

So question I have to ask again why isn't the 1.7 SL7EP CPU working on T40P motherboard? I thought all the Centrino and Pentium M CPUs with 400Mhz Bus should work fine on the T4x motherboards.

Can somebody help with this?

Will SL7EG 1.6Ghz CPU work with this T40P motherboard?

thanks

#13 Post by **underclocker** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:59 am

I can only think of four reasons, 1) bad CPU, 2) improper installation, 3) bad GPU on mobo (try pressing and holding down the ATI GPU before pressing the power button), 4) you need a BIOS and/or EC update on the T40p mobo.

4 is most likely.

Good luck.

Gatewave · #14 Post by **Gatewave** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:45 am

Yeah I think so too... about the point #4 as rest has been checked and confirmed.

I'll update the BIOS after install the long CPU fan.. dont want to have the thinkpad running on the short fan for long.

Will let you know how it goes.

poshgeordie · #15 Post by **poshgeordie** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:37 pm

Regarding the red dots - I get loads of T4x boards with them on, and my conclusion is that they are a waste of time, and potentially more difficult to reflow too.

The best solution is to reflow, make sure the graphics (and the rest of the TP!) works and to then do a continuous bond around the chip.

@Gatewave - I'd suggest doing another reflow - the first may not have taken, especially if you can press on the chip, switch on and it's OK.

Gatewave · #16 Post by **Gatewave** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:09 pm

The T40P i know works fine its a new motherboard so I dont think I need to do a reflow on.

i'll try bios upgrade as soon as I get the long fan.

Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

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Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

Re: Which Motherboard better to use T42 or T40P?

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