T61 with T6X00 or T4X00 series Penryn R0 CPU

I am trying to get a T61 with running with either a T6000 or T4000 series Penryn R0 stepping. Although I cannot even get it to post.

Is there anything I am doing wrong here? Are R0 steppings not supported, or am I doomed since there is no microcode in the T61 BIOS to support the any of the CPU's above?

I have the following to play with T6400, T6500, T4500. I only tried out the T6400 but got no POST, fan spinned up for a split second and that was it.

Other details:
Model - 88955RM
BIOS Version - 2.27

 

My guess would be that they're not supported. I've seen this, variant CPUs like the T2450 or T5250, not working on other ThinkPads like the T60 or R60, though not the T61. I'd ask what's the point of using a T6x00 or T4x00 CPU?

 

Pointless maybe a T4000 series but I would not rule out T6000 series, as these are cheap on a low budget. Another point is I already have the CPU's.

Other features I am after:
Running a 45nm R0 CPU for a very small cost.
Keep in mind R0 stepping will run extremely cool, much cooler than a C0 Penryn.
Undervolting will achieve better results than a Penryn R0 or Memron.
Adds SSE4.
Likely be able to run this almost fanless for the application I will use it for.

Has anyone got any of these to work or not. If so how to get it working?

 

Have you updated to the latest BIOS prior to the upgrades? If not, I'd do so, since CPU support is sometimes added through BIOS updates.

If you have a T61, I'd normally recommend looking at a T8100 or T8300, which can be found used for a reasonable price. You'll get your 45nm process, and SSE4.

 

T61 dont support t4xxx or t6xxx CPU.

 

Yes update to the latest BIOS before installation.
I cannot source a T8100 or T8300 in my country second hand at a resonable price, otherwise at retail they are worth more than the machine.

Thanks for your answer.
I just needed someone else that has also physically tried this to verify.

Is there any chance of getting a P8600 to work at a reduced FSB (800) @ 1.8GHz, as that is my only remaining choice I have, without spending a fortune buying CPU’s I don’t already have access to.

 

P8xxx CPU is not supported either. Penryn CPU choice in the t61 is very limited.

 

After waiting some time a T8100 has come up for sale, I am very limited for choice here and havent seen anything else for sale. It is costly at $127, is it worth it?

I believe the T61, type 8895-5RM will take a penryn?

I do have a T7700 that I could pull from another notebook, however I will have to swap that with the T7300 I have already.

Would the T8100 be far better than a T7300 or even a T7700?

 

I'd say if you've already got a T7300, the T8300 is not worth the money or effort, my opinion of course.

 

It will perform about the same as the T7300, but will run a lot cooler.

 

+1

Memron processors ran rather hot for what they were in my experience. My T60 was always on the warm side and my friend's T61 (w/ Memron) suffered a lot of cpu overheating from normal usage, despite trying multiple heatsink replacements in warranty.

 

btw. In regards to the T61 with T6X00 or T4X00 series Penryn R0 CPU's? I have tried out a T4500 and T6400 and both do not work at all, no post plus blank screen.

This makes it difficult, on one hand performance is the about same with a T8100 as a T7300 or T7700 but will run a lot cooler.

I can use undervolt all processors, although if done then a T8100 will go even cooler.

The T61 runs a X3100 with 4GB RAM. I have upgraded the LCD panel yesterday from a XGA to a SXGA+ 1400x1050, it now looks amasing, lots of work to work and sharp.

I am intending to use the machine with Windows 7 64bit. My main intention is to run two virtual machines, Server 2008 R2 and/or Windows 7/XP for training.

 

For the money you are putting into upgrading the T61 you could sell it and get something like a T400 or T500.

 

I've upgraded my T61 from a Merom to a Penryn and I thought it was worthwhile. I had a T7100 initially and it ran quite hot, at 750MHz the temperature was at 45c, add an extra 10c more for its standard clock speed of 1.8GHz. It also gets strained quite easily on HD movies on my CPU monitor.

I switched to a T9300 and it not only runs cooler than the T7100 (41c for 2.5GHz standard clock) but also runs HD movies more smoothly (thanks to SSE4 instructions).

The T8100 is a decent processor, I have this in my R61e and runs at 34c at stock speeds (2.1GHz) so you can go even lower should you underclock it. The T8100 is supported on the T61, even if the "thermal sensing error" comes on due to an incompatible motherboard you can just use Middleton's modified T61 BIOS to get rid of the error and operate normally which I had to do on my T61.

 

I would really like to go for a T9300, however there never anything here in NZ for sale, it has taken ~2 months for a T8100 to come up here and thats way over priced, works out to near ~$130 in US dollars.

Anyone know of anywhere to get a T9300 internationally at a reasonable price and safely sent to New Zealand?

 

Ebay is a great place to get CPUs:
T9300 items - Get great deals on CPUs, Socket P items on eBay.com!

 

Im am coming to the conclusion the I will not be better off, or not by much any way with a T8100. Then with the recommended T9300 in mind, I am looking at going one step further.

Can anyone recommend a X9000 with the T61, sounds like a smoke hot combo in both repects of the wording.
If so, can the heat be tamed?
Maybe better than a T9300 for VM's?

 

I upgraded T7300 to T9300 on my T61 painless.

It gave me a nice boost, cool temperatures but had to struggle with Temperature sensors error after the bios where I had to press ESC to pass it.

I've done middleton modified bios upgrade and it all worked like a charm.

I would go for T9300, I got mine from ebay in UK for 85 quid.

 

Finally something came up, not exactly the T9300 I was hoping for, but it is a T8300 locally for $54.

Runs cool idle and loaded, does 2.4GHz @ 1.05v, I have several windows open and its temp is 37c in mid summer here.

Thanks for everyone advice, took many months to get here, but made it

Any options of overclocking, or locking in the x13 multiplier for 2.6GHz?

 

"For the money you are putting into upgrading the T61 you could sell it and get something like a T400 or T500."

Performace wise there is no difference between a t61p and those processors listed except for battery life.

Renee

 

If he's putting in the money to replace the screen and processor, he might as well have just sold the T61 and gotten a T400 which would've come with the better processor and display he had to replace. Benefits would've also included battery life as well as the availability of LED screens. Having switched from a T60 to the T400, I wouldn't go back to an older gen Thinkpad now simply because of the led backlight.

 

Big bonus was I was given the laptop with a broken screen and no battery.
I ended up getting a dead battery for free, this was just going to fill the gap, it was discarded from a different T61, and I got lucky, the battery turned out to be good, it charges to +90% of its design capacity.

All I really spent getting it going was $76 for a 1400x1050 panel, which was an excellent upgrade / fix of the cracked 1024x768 screen. At this point I really didn't have to spend anymore.
In theroy this is a $76 laptop.


The other parts were optional. I got somewhat carried away upgrading it, even still, the only other parts I have spent money on:

* 4GB DDR2-800 = $61 - was a logical upgrade over 1GB original, got this on clearance, Apple RAM, no one wanted it, I think people don't know it just laptop RAM anyway
* Seagate 500GB drive $0 - free with gift vouchers I got for christmas, 80GB was the original size
* T8300 = $54 - Wasn't required over the T7300 original

You could say the entire T61 including upgrades, has cost a total of $191.
I think that is pretty sweet