The official 600 Upgrade and general information Topic

[fje]

Yes, the clock circuit was in "the other side" of the mainboard. I finally had today the time (and courage) enough for doing the hardware modification to my "very old" 600E to have it working at a clock speed of 100MHz and.... it works !!!!

I thought for a while in doing also the FSB to 108MHz mod, but the resistor I have (1/8watt) is too big for putting it under the MMC2 board and, aditionally, the solder I have, being small, it is not the appropiate for the places that have to be solded the resistor.

So, I'll stay with my 100MHz and now waiting for the new memories to come to my hands in the coming days (hopefully).

[uniter]

I just installed a new HDD on my Thinkpad 600x 4EU 500Mhz. Its a Samsung 120GB HM121HC for 44 Euro incl. shipping. It works without any problems out of the box. I cloned the old original 12 GB HDD with HDclone free edition. The new drive is basically silent in comparison to the old shaking and buzzing HDD.

My attobench results. Max at about 22 MB/s. My home SSD reaches easily over 100 MBs but thats another story.



For comparison my original 12 GB from 1999. Its about half the speed but with real working the speed improvement is much larger.



Another comparison with the TP 600E with the original 6GB HDD from 1999. Really slow with 4-6 MB/s max.

[paul*robertson]

Uniter, i also decided to upgrade the HD on my 600x from the original 12GB to a new 40GB. I did a test on the old HD using the same software, 8-9 mb/s, pretty much the same as you were getting. Now i'm getting 20 read, and 32 write speed. (why the big difference in read/ write ) Its also a lot quieter.
Finally i upgraded the RAM to 448.

[emeraldgirl08]

I'm wondering if a BIOS flash is necessary to get a large HDD working properly. My version is 1.09 and I installed a dual-boot but for some reason one of the OS' will not load. I also get a message before my linux boots that a forced ACPI will be done. It also says something about an old BIOS image (1999) and no (2000) BIOS.

Something along those lines. I'm assuming a newer BIOS version must be necessary to get my dual-boot working properly.

[pkiff]

I'm wondering if a BIOS flash is necessary to get a large HDD working properly.

Possibly, but I don't know.

My version is 1.09 and I installed a dual-boot but for some reason one of the OS' will not load. I also get a message before my linux boots that a forced ACPI will be done. It also says something about an old BIOS image (1999) and no (2000) BIOS. Something along those lines.

Note that the internal BIOS date of ALL 600X BIOSes is 1999, even though the release date for some of them was a few years later. The reason for this has to do with something about Windows 98 installation and the use of the BIOS date to determine ACPI/APM compatibility.

I'm not saying you shouldn't upgrade your BIOS, and maybe that will solve your problem. I'm just noting that you should be careful if you are relying on the internally reported BIOS date to make any decisions about this.

Phil.

[TTA]

you guys are going to make me drag out a 600X and make an 850MHz version... dang you people

[TTA]

ok 600X check, CR2032 battery, check. can't find a battery... I know I have one, check. MMCII 850MHz CPU dang... 800MHz good enough

[banyanleaf]

I have a TP 600 and want to run a DVD player on it...any ideas to make it work?

I have used the caddy and faceplate of a bad TP 600 UltraBay CDROM drive and replaced the bad drive with a DVD/CD-RW combo and it works just fine.

[mdp]

Hi,
Just preparing for LCD replacement and found helpful video on this, since I have two dysfunc and 1 working 600x (win7, 512mb ram, samsung hm160c hd) and I'm a little nervous about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20MNAGKp_58
Mom is giving me her old "A" series in July, but I need my winged turtle for now.

[TheForgottenKing]

Hi all, I have a 600e with 544mb of RAM installed and the 400mhz cpu, a working battery, display, etc. Looking at removing the extremely damaged rubber on the bottom, successfully done so on the top, and expose the nice plastic underneath. I am wondering two things:

-Is there any way to replace the ccfl backlight with an led one?
-How to install an OS to the blank drive?

Thanks!

[Neil]

-Is there any way to replace the ccfl backlight with an led one?

Probably...but it's not a job that I would be willing to take on any longer, on any ThinkPad. My eyes are not good enough, my hands are not steady enough, I don't have to right tools or environment. Even the CCFLs I have replaced in the past did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

-How to install an OS to the blank drive?

That I have done many times, and the procedure on a 600 series is the same as any other computer...simply boot the install media, partition and format the drive then install.

[TheForgottenKing]

-Is there any way to replace the ccfl backlight with an led one?

Probably...but it's not a job that I would be willing to take on any longer, on any ThinkPad. My eyes are not good enough, my hands are not steady enough, I don't have to right tools or environment. Even the CCFLs I have replaced in the past did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

-How to install an OS to the blank drive?

That I have done many times, and the procedure on a 600 series is the same as any other computer...simply boot the install media, partition and format the drive then install.

What do you use to boot? CD/DVD? And what and how did you write to the install media?

[Neil]

Well, several years ago, I had a 600X that ran W98SE for a long, long time. I had a factory pressed install CD for W98SE. Eventually sold the 600X, but acquired an older 600E some time later, but still several years ago, and ran a few Linux distro's on it, but Win XP for the longest time. Pretty sure I burned XP to a CD-R disk for install. Those old CD/DVD drives just don't seem to read RW disks very well (either CD or DVD), and do a little better with non rewritable disks. Even better with factory pressed disks.

Another option might be be burn a PLOP boot CD which would give you the option of installing from USB. Not sure that I've ever used that method on a 600 series machines, but have on other old hardware.

[Arc]

So wait, I have a 600 and it came with 64MB RAM. (32MB onboard + a 32MB stick). I had some 64MB PC100 sticks around and stuck it in, and it only amounts to 128MB. I am assuming that's because the onboard is PC66?

[GunslingerThink]

Where can I get the full list of 600 BIOS error codes with descriptions? I need to know what 00161, 08611, 00192, 00163 mean.

[RealBlackStuff]

See the 600/600e manual at the HMM link above.

[everchanging02]

I came across a 600 last year at a local college surplus equipment store. I had the idea to make it into a retro-gaming machine, but ran into a hitch when installing the drivers for Win98. Despite all my hunting, I have yet to find audio drivers that are compatible with this unit (read: I can't get the speakers or headphone output to work). I have not disassembled the unit, as I have a few other projects going on (became a collector shortly after getting the 600).
I guess this is more informational and passively requesting if anyone has had a similar issue with the audio drivers.

For reference, this unit has the following specs:
Pentium II 233MHz
64MB RAM
~3GB HDD
13.3" screen
intact battery (no charge)

(Apologies on the initial lack of info, I seem to not have recorded details since initial acquisition. I will add more when I can get to the unit.)

[Neil]

If it is indeed just a matter of not having the correct drivers, have you clicked on the Drivers Link at the top of this page? That should take you too this page: https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad- ... m/600.html which contains all the drivers for a ThinkPad 600, including audio. If that doesn't work, there may well be a hardware malfunction.

[everchanging02]

I have tried the drivers here without luck. I also loaded a program that checked out the hardware of the system and indicated that the hardware it detected in the unit did not match the hardware the drivers are designed for. In searching for the 'detected' drivers and installing them, I still had no luck.
I'll probably get the opportunity to poke at it over the weekend and get more details for the post.

[Neil]

I don't know. It's been too long since I ran W98SE on my 600X and/or 600E that I don't remember whether I had audio troubles or not. Plus, I don't have any experience with the older 600 model, and I believe it used a different Cirrus Logic audio controller than the machines I owned, but I'm not sure about that.

[JPOESQ]

These are the drivers from my 600 running Win98SE. Give the audio drivers a try.

(Link deleted by me)

[everchanging02]

These are the drivers from my 600 running Win98SE. Give the audio drivers a try.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2t68bnovw8om ... s.zip?dl=0

Thank you for the drivers.
Unfortunately, there was a mishap over the weekend. The original charger end (yellow plastic tip) had broken off and gotten stuck in the power receptor of the laptop and was making keeping the unit powered challenging. So, I did what I could to get it out (and succeeded). However, now the unit will not recognize the HDD or CD drive.
I'll see if it was just a shock/stress issue with it having been placed aside for the past few days, but I fear I'll have to crack it open now and do some detailed analysis of the main board.
This outcome hurts a bit, especially since my R51e decided to cease working over the weekend as well - and I had only removed the keyboard from it. v.v
In good news, got the 365xd restored, though I still need the official floppy drive to update the bios for a Win98 install, which I believe should be arriving today. Little victories, I guess.

[cadillacmike68]

These are the drivers from my 600 running Win98SE. Give the audio drivers a try.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2t68bnovw8om ... s.zip?dl=0

Apparently one needs a dropbox account to DL these.

Well, here is to more spam coming my way.....

[cadillacmike68]

everchanging:

You wrote: "though I still need the official floppy drive to update the bios for a Win98 install".

Was this in reference to the 365XD or the 600? I would hate to have to dig out a bios update floppy for my recently acquired 600 to be able to install and run Win98SE. If it is for the 600, then maybe I can pay you to copy and send me a diskette.

[everchanging02]

everchanging:

You wrote: "though I still need the official floppy drive to update the bios for a Win98 install".

Was this in reference to the 365XD or the 600? I would hate to have to dig out a bios update floppy for my recently acquired 600 to be able to install and run Win98SE. If it is for the 600, then maybe I can pay you to copy and send me a diskette.

Apologies! That was in reference to the 365xd, not the 600. The 600 is just fine with Win98 - or at least mine was.
I ended up ordering floppies off eBay so I could support the inevitable with the 365xd.

[everchanging02]

These are the drivers from my 600 running Win98SE. Give the audio drivers a try.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2t68bnovw8om ... s.zip?dl=0

Apparently one needs a dropbox account to DL these.

Well, here is to more spam coming my way.....

I didn't... I was able to just click the "No thanks, continue to view" at the bottom of the dialog box that pops up and download it without issue.

[cadillacmike68]

Thanks you. That worked for me as well.

[kfzhu1229]

Okay I am late to this problem but perhaps next time you can try the drivers off here?
https://think.lenovo.com.cn/support/dri ... 6osid%3D11
I have a ThinkPad 600 but that is under Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 has the drivers out of the box with no problems.
Lenovo China still have all the drivers for 600/E/X if interested

[cadillacmike68]

I'll have to brush up on my chinese for that site.

[JPOESQ]

Let me know how the drivers work out. I have multiple OS builds (custom and preload) that are fully functional and are for my original 600 that is on my desk.