Thinkpads Forum

I'm working on a pretty extensive mod which involves modding a t500 motherboard to accept a quad core processor, either a q9000 or q9100. From what I've read though, using libreboot disables the integrated radeon graphics that some motherboards have, and having that extra graphics power is pretty important to the mod.
Is there a bios mod that allows the use of radeon graphics on t500 motherboards while also unlocking quad core processors? I know there are hardware mods that are necessary to do as well, I'm comfortable doing those and there is plenty of documentation for them as well.
Additionally, is there an easy way to distinguish t500s with integrated graphics from t500s with radeon graphics from the case exterior a serial number? I'd like to pick up a used one or one in rough shape. All I need from it is a working motherboard, heatsink, and bottom case plastic.

Case wise the Intel-only and ATI models are identical. You might be able to detect a difference in the heatsink coloration through the vents, the Intel heatsinks are slightly more copper-toned, and the ATI heatsinks are a little more silvery. But it's very slight.

Your best bet is to put the model numbers you find in the MTM for the specs. http://tp.krelay.de/index.php

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. and thanks for the type number tool, I think that's exactly what I was looking for.

That MTM tool has been at the top of every Forum page for at least 5 years now...

I'm not aware of any BIOS mods that allow quadcores on T/W500. All the quadcore T/W500 projects I've seen use Coreboot to add support for quadcores. Theoretically the Radeon VGA BIOS could be extracted from the factory BIOS and added as a option ROM in Coreboot. I spent a significant amount of time trying to get this to work on a W500, but so far have been unsuccessful. If someone is able to get it working, let me know!

Side note - my W500 motherboard died during my tinkering. I suspect the GPU failed, which is unfortunately rather common for these models (although not as bad as Nvidia machines from 2007). It sparks when I plug in the power jack now.

ripvoid wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:08 pm

Side note - my W500 motherboard died during my tinkering. I suspect the GPU failed, which is unfortunately rather common for these models (although not as bad as Nvidia machines from 2007). It sparks when I plug in the power jack now.

Usually that doesn't sound like a failed GPU to me. Usually that's a shorted component like a capacitor or mosfet, though a shorted GPU vcore is not impossible.

My W500 spontaneously died with the same symptom, sparking at the jack. Granted the board went in the pile a long time ago so finding it would be just as hard as potentially repairing it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to take another look at my W500 board and see if I can spot any damage to caps or MOSFETs. I'm not very skilled at board repair, but it's worth trying.

ripvoid wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:08 pm

I'm not aware of any BIOS mods that allow quadcores on T/W500. All the quadcore T/W500 projects I've seen use Coreboot to add support for quadcores. Theoretically the Radeon VGA BIOS could be extracted from the factory BIOS and added as a option ROM in Coreboot. I spent a significant amount of time trying to get this to work on a W500, but so far have been unsuccessful. If someone is able to get it working, let me know!

Side note - my W500 motherboard died during my tinkering. I suspect the GPU failed, which is unfortunately rather common for these models (although not as bad as Nvidia machines from 2007). It sparks when I plug in the power jack now.

I want your laptop, can I you PM me for this?