ThinkPad 600E help

i have just ordered a used 600E for my family to mess around with but wanted to upgrade the ram.
i have got conflicting info from various sites as to what size and speed i can use.

i am correct in thinking that the 600 E can take 2x 256mb sticks as well as the onboard 32mb ram? also could this be pc100 or even pc133 or does it have to be pc66? lastly, i read that it has to be 16 chip modules for these sizes and speeds to work, is this true?

 

You may wish to post this over on ThinkPads.com. They're a bit more ThinkPad centric board and have many more people over there with experience on older ThinkPads like the 600e. They're probably in a better position to give you an answer. A lot of the people here tend have found ThinkPads more recently, but if anyone here can give you an answer, that'd be great too.

The official spec for the 600e is I think 288MB max. Having worked on older ThinkPads myself, in my experience they tend to be picky about what memory they will accept. I've seen them sometimes not accept memory with the correct specs. PC100 can in some instances can be used in place of PC66, but not always. The motherboard, chipset and all that jazz probably come into play. Since I've never tried it on a older ThinkPad or if I have, I've forgotten, I'm not in a position to help on this one.

 

cheers Zaz but it wont let me register as i use a yahoo email. this is due to me not having a pc up till a year ago and i used my brother-in-law's pc and needed my own email.

i am sure somewhere mentioned that the 600 was 288 max but the 600E was more?
this is what one of the thinkpads.com posts say...

---There are three 600 series models:

The 600 (base model):
MMC-1 modules ranging from PI-233 w/MMX to PII 300MHz from IBM, or a PII 400MHz aftermarket MMC-1 module. Al,l with 66MHz FSB.
Base RAM: 32MB (fixed to motherboard like the early 770) up to 288MB max. (NB, the early PI units are limited to 256MB RAM max by the Intel TX chipset.) The onboard RAM is PC66 so it's best to match this when adding RAM rather than attempting to use PC100 sticks.
Video RAM: 2MB NeoMagic MagicGraph128XD.

The 600E:
MMC2 processors ranging from PII-300 to PII-400 (Dixon) with 66MHz FSB.
Base RAM: 32MB. Max RAM: 556MB.
Video RAM: 2.5MB NeoMagic MagicMedia256AV

The 600X:
MMC2 processor ranging from PIII 450 to PIII 650 (Speedstep) with 100MHz FSB. Aftermarket MMC-2 modules are available up to PIII 850MHz, the fastest MMC-2 module made.
Base RAM: 64MB. Max RAM: 576MB
Video RAM: 4MB NeoMagic MagicGraph256ZX

They use a different ultrabay than the 770, but seem easier to disassemble (we'll see about that!)

Please contribute what you can to this topic. Thanks---

as you can see it says the 600e takes 556mb but i cannot see how you would get that number and also it doesn't state what speed

 

IBM ThinkPad 600 E Series

Standard Memory : 32 MB (non-removable)
Maximum Memory : 288 MB
Slots : 2 sockets
Memory Modules : 64MB PC100 SDRAM, OR, 128MB PC100 SDRAM


rgds.

 

cheers benjamin but why do you suppose the above was posted on the thinkpads forum saying the 600e can take more and faster ram?

 

That's interesting, cause my account has a Yahoo email. It must be a new feature.

 

The IBM 600E ships with 32mb 66 speed RAM soldered on the board. You can add 2 128mb PC66 RAM sticks in the slots for a total of 288mb. You might be able to add 100mb sticks or 133 sticks and they may clock down to 66 speed, but to be safe, get two PC66 128mb sticks and you'll be fine.

 

again sorry to question your reply when i am asking for help but the above quote in my post was from thinkpads forum stating that the 600e can take 500 odd mb. why is there not any 100% guaranteed facts as to the max figs and if there is, why do people believe that it can take more/less than other people are saying?

 

Most likely because the official spec is 288MB of memory, but some people may have able to use more.

 

i now have the 600e through the post. i am trying to update the bios but realise that the bios file on the lenovo site is for a floppy drive and i dont have one. someone mentioned using virtual floppy drive to create a cd with the file on it but i wouldn't know where to start.
any help????

 

i have just purchased an external floppy drive but not arrived yet. it works through usb but not sure if the laptop will boot from it or if i can only use it in windows?

 

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade

here you find at the bottom of the page a link to an iso image with the latest bios to update to from cdrom. worked a charm for me on -8BU.
I also have my 600e with latest bios running with the 32mb onboard and 2 256mb pc100 modules for 544mb which is the inofficial maximum.
the thinkpad 600e only works with 16 chip modules, that is 8 modules with 8 chips per side, most 256mb modules only come in 8. you can expect to pay 50$ for a new 16 chip 256mb module.
cheers