CPU for a really old laptop

[nobody]

I got hold of a real antic - toshiba satellite 2515cds with PMMX-266.
If anyone remembers how to deal with this dinosaur, please answer a
few questions:
1. Is it regular Socket 7 or something different?
2. Are there any multiplier and (hardly possible but still hope) FSB
clock jumpers? What are possible FSB settings?
3. Did anyone try AMD k6-2+ or 3+ in this? Did it work?

My plan is to use one of these (whatever I can have on ebay or
anywhere else - they must be around $20) to make this thing at least
marginally capable to run win2k. Even if the bus is locked at 66, it
still would make the CPU run at 400. If, against the odds, the bus
can be set to 75, that would mean 450. On-chip L2 will also speed
things up. And if the chipset happens to be Super7 (snowball in hell
chance) this baby might go up to 600. Right now it has only a corrupt
win98 that boots only to safe mode, and no NIC, so I can't even load
something like Sandra to get more info about the system. I want to
install win2k and office and give it to old folks - for browsing,
email, and light MS Word typing this thing should be marginally
adequate. I just don't want them to deal with crappy 9x, and 2k needs
a bit more horsepower than 266.
TIA
NNN

 

[krw]

I got hold of a real antic - toshiba satellite 2515cds with PMMX-266.
If anyone remembers how to deal with this dinosaur, please answer a
few questions:
1. Is it regular Socket 7 or something different?

If it's a P5 w/"MMX technology" it's Socket-7, but it *might* be
soldered down. I'm not familiar with Toshibas.

2. Are there any multiplier and (hardly possible but still hope) FSB
clock jumpers? What are possible FSB settings?

Likely not on a laptop, but maybe.

3. Did anyone try AMD k6-2+ or 3+ in this? Did it work?

I wouldn't give it much chance. Laptops tend to be very specific.
It likely wouldn't have BIOS support for processors other than what
it came with.

My plan is to use one of these (whatever I can have on ebay or
anywhere else - they must be around $20) to make this thing at least
marginally capable to run win2k. Even if the bus is locked at 66, it
still would make the CPU run at 400. If, against the odds, the bus
can be set to 75, that would mean 450. On-chip L2 will also speed
things up. And if the chipset happens to be Super7 (snowball in hell
chance) this baby might go up to 600. Right now it has only a corrupt
win98 that boots only to safe mode, and no NIC, so I can't even load
something like Sandra to get more info about the system. I want to
install win2k and office and give it to old folks - for browsing,
email, and light MS Word typing this thing should be marginally
adequate. I just don't want them to deal with crappy 9x, and 2k needs
a bit more horsepower than 266.

You might want to do a web search. A quick search on "toshiba
satellite 2515cds" gets 550 hits, including many for Linux on that
model.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I got hold of a real antic - toshiba satellite 2515cds with PMMX-266.
If anyone remembers how to deal with this dinosaur, please answer a
few questions:
1. Is it regular Socket 7 or something different?
2. Are there any multiplier and (hardly possible but still hope) FSB
clock jumpers? What are possible FSB settings?
3. Did anyone try AMD k6-2+ or 3+ in this? Did it work?

If it's 266Mhz, then it's not likely a PMMX but rather a P2 with MMX.
PMMX didn't go over 233Mhz.

Yousuf Khan

 

[nobody]

If it's 266Mhz, then it's not likely a PMMX but rather a P2 with MMX.
PMMX didn't go over 233Mhz.

Yousuf Khan

According to the spec on Toshiba site, it's PMMX - that is, P5 with
MMX. IIRC, these PMMX stopped at 233 as desktop variety (business
decision to make way for PII rather than technical limitation), but
mobile went all the way to 300 because it took some time for Intel to
figure how to make PII mobile.
But thanks anyway.
NNN

 

[nobody]

If it's a P5 w/"MMX technology" it's Socket-7, but it *might* be
soldered down. That's one of my concerns
I'm not familiar with Toshibas.

I really don't want to take a screwdriver to this thing before knowing
with a good degree of probability that I have at least some chances.

Likely not on a laptop, but maybe.


I wouldn't give it much chance. Laptops tend to be very specific.
It likely wouldn't have BIOS support for processors other than what
it came with.

I have a K6-2+ in a desktop mobo. BIOS sees it as a 486-66, but
Windows figures out correctly what it is (well, almost - it reports a
K6-3 600 with 128k L2). Since clock, multiplier, and voltages are set
by means of jumpers, it may just work even without correct BIOS
support.

You might want to do a web search. A quick search on "toshiba
satellite 2515cds" gets 550 hits, including many for Linux on that
model.

I know Google is my friend, but first few pages did not answer my
questions, with the probability of it even less down the result list.
I just hoped that somebody dealt with this model before.
But thanks anyway.
NNN

 

[Franc Zabkar]

I got hold of a real antic - toshiba satellite 2515cds with PMMX-266.
If anyone remembers how to deal with this dinosaur, please answer a
few questions:
1. Is it regular Socket 7 or something different?
2. Are there any multiplier and (hardly possible but still hope) FSB
clock jumpers? What are possible FSB settings?
3. Did anyone try AMD k6-2+ or 3+ in this? Did it work?

My plan is to use one of these (whatever I can have on ebay or
anywhere else - they must be around $20) to make this thing at least
marginally capable to run win2k. Even if the bus is locked at 66, it
still would make the CPU run at 400. If, against the odds, the bus
can be set to 75, that would mean 450. On-chip L2 will also speed
things up. And if the chipset happens to be Super7 (snowball in hell
chance) this baby might go up to 600. Right now it has only a corrupt
win98 that boots only to safe mode, and no NIC, so I can't even load
something like Sandra to get more info about the system. I want to
install win2k and office and give it to old folks - for browsing,
email, and light MS Word typing this thing should be marginally
adequate. I just don't want them to deal with crappy 9x, and 2k needs
a bit more horsepower than 266.
TIA
NNN

You're already planning for extra OS bloat and you haven't even
checked your hardware configuration? At the very least, find out how
much memory is in the box and whether you can add to it. Then find out
whether Win2K drivers exist for all the hardware.

BTW, I'm quite happy with Windows 98SE, 128MB, and an AMD K6-2/450.
It's just fine for Internet use and office work.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[nobody]

On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:23:40 +1000, Franc Zabkar

....snip...

You're already planning for extra OS bloat and you haven't even
checked your hardware configuration? At the very least, find out how
much memory is in the box and whether you can add to it. Then find out
whether Win2K drivers exist for all the hardware.

BTW, I'm quite happy with Windows 98SE, 128MB, and an AMD K6-2/450.
It's just fine for Internet use and office work.

- Franc Zabkar

The box has 64MB - not much but good enough if all you plan to have is
an instance of IE and/or Word. And yes, the drivers exist - that much
I've checked. And while you may have your own reason to use 9x, I'd
rather have 2k or XP on that box for being much more stable and harder
to be broken by computer-illiterate users to whom I intend to give it.
It would take quite an effort to persuade my old folks to finally
admit a PC in their home, and I don't want them to be turned off by
blue screens to which 9x is so prone.

And until '04 my main box was k6-2+ 600 (OC) that was good enough even
for .NET development with 512MB RAM. That box is still alive - used
as a test box and also for running emule 7/24 - I would not trust
these downloads before testing them on a box that can be easily
formatted in case something goes wrong.

NNN

 

[Roger Hunt]

If it's 266Mhz, then it's not likely a PMMX but rather a P2 with MMX.
PMMX didn't go over 233Mhz.

Intel did make Pentium MMX processors at 266 and 300MHz, low voltage
models presumably for laptops.
Details in Intel Tech doc No 24248041 ("Pentium® Processor
Specification Update"). (sorry I don't have an URL for that)

 

[Tony Hill]

If it's 266Mhz, then it's not likely a PMMX but rather a P2 with MMX.
PMMX didn't go over 233Mhz.

The desktop Pentium MMX only went up to 233MHz, but the mobile version
went up to 300MHz. Remember that the first PII chips were rather
inappropriate as a laptop chip (high power consumption and external
cache on a backside bus), so Intel needed to keep the mobile Pentium
MMX around a bit longer than the desktop counterparts. They did
manage to get some mobile PII chips out eventually in a multichip
module, and then eventually mobile PII chips with 256KB of integrated
cache (basically one of the old Celeron 'A' chips with twice as much
cache).

 

[krw]

The desktop Pentium MMX only went up to 233MHz,

"up to"? IIRC that was the *only* speed sort released.

 

[chrisv]

(e-mail address removed) says...

"up to"? IIRC that was the *only* speed sort released.

No, there was 166MMX and 200MMX as well.

 

[krw]

No, there was 166MMX and 200MMX as well.

P55C went that low? I didn't remember that.