• Tag Archives Pentium M

  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Latitude D610

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Dell Latitude D610 is a Pentium M based laptop that was a slight upgrade to the D600. While looking nearly identical, there are enough internal physical differences to make swapping parts like the motherboard, LCD, Keyboard, etc. between the two impractical. You can see the specifics on the D600 here.

    Some improvements over the D610 had over the D600 were a sturdier chassis thanks to a more solid frame, moving from the 855 chipset to a 915 based chipset, DDR2 RAM vs. DDR, and faster processor and graphics options.

    This particular D610 seems to be one of the lower end version in that it is using the integrated Intel graphics version of the motherboard as opposed to having a discrete card and only has a 1024×768 display as opposed to the 1400×1050 display that was also available. Specs include:

    • CPU: Pentium M 740 @ 1.73 GHz
    • Graphics/Chipset: Intel 915GM
    • Memory: 1 GB DDR2 533MHz
    • Display: 14.1″ @ 1024×768
    • Hard Drive: Hitachi DK23FA-6 60 GB Ultra-ATA 10 4200 RPM
    • Optical Drive: Phillips CDRW/DVD SCB5265
    • Ethernet: NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
    • Wi-Fi: BCM4318 AirForce 54g 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Tranceiver
    • Modem: 82801FB (ICH6 Family) AC’97 Modem Controller

    For more detailed specs, see the output of Hardinfo here.

    There were two basic variants of the Pentium M. The first, code named Banias, featured a 130nm process and 1MB of cache. The second, code named Dothan, feauted an 90nm process and 2MB of cache. Both variants came in various speeds and had processors that ran on a 400 MT/s bus and 533 MT/s bus. The Pentium M 740 in this laptop is a “Dothan” variant, runs at 1.73 GHz with a 533 MT/s bus. The extra cache and faster bus really makes a difference in how snappy they feel.

    The Intel 915GM chipset includes PCI Express capability, support for DDR2, support for a 533 MHz FSB and updated Intel graphics. Unfortunately, this chipset supports a max of only 2 GB of RAM.

    This laptop is somewhat upgradeable. The most immediately useful upgrade would probably be to max out the RAM at 2 GB. The processor could also be upgraded. The fastest Pentium M, the 780 @ 2.27 GHz will work but may run a bit warm. It’s probably safer to stick with the 21 watt processors (vs. 27 watt) in which case it could be upgrade as far as the Pentium M 760 @ 2 GHz (or Pentium M 765 @ 2.1 GHz but this one runs at a slower bus speed). An SSD or even just a faster mechanical hard drive would probably make a pretty big difference in speed as well. At the end of the day, the chipset limitation of 2 GB of RAM is probably the most significant limitation.

    This laptop was designed with Windows XP in mind and that is probably still the best version of Windows for this machine. It could probably run Windows 7 32-bit but I’m not sure it would be worth the effort. If you want a more modern OS, then Debian seems to work fine and Debian is perhaps the only major Linux distribution still doing 32-bit releases. Debian is working reasonably well even with only 1 GB of RAM but probably not for much more than basic office tasks and very light web browsing.

    Like all of the computers that pass through my hands (at least the ones that are capable), I run BOINC on this laptop. Of the projects I participate in, this machine has gotten work units for Einstein@home and MilkyWay@home. It has also gotten tasks from World Community Grid but that project has been down for a while now. Many projects don’t support 32-bit CPUs these days. You can also check out its BOINC stats on BOINCStats or Free-DC.


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  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 6000

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Inspiron 6000 was a low to medium-end laptop from Dell. Like many models, it had a variety of configurations. When this model first came to market, it wasn’t the greatest value for the money. However, later configurations were better values. Mine has the following configuration:

    • CPU: Intel Pentium M 735 @ 1.7 GHz
    • RAM: 1 GB DDR2-533 (PC2-4300)
    • Video: ATI Mobility Radeon X300
    • Hard Drive: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00 (80 GB)
    • Screen: 1280 x 800

    For more details, check out the reports from CPU-Z, HWiNFO, and HardInfo.

    This seems to have been a middle of the road model. The CPU was on the faster side of what would have been available for this model and it is a version with a discrete video card vs. integrated video. However, the screen is the lowest end that was available.

    The Pentium M was an excellent CPU for its time. It had the speed of a Pentium 4 but was much more efficient, achieving those speeds at lower power and a reduced clock rate. While you could get more raw speed out of the fastest Pentium 4s, the power cost was high with a significant cost to battery life.

    When I got this machine, it had 512MB of RAM which I assume is what it probably shipped with. This is a reasonable amount for Windows XP but not if you want to upgrade to a newer version of Windows or Linux. I upgraded it to 1 GB though it can go as high as 2 GB. I upgraded so that this computer could crunch Einstein@home tasks (turns out 512MB wasn’t enough) and run Linux. 2 GB would be better for that and still not really a comfortable amount.

    The ATI video doesn’t offer particularly great performance when it comes to things like games but it is still quite a bit better than using integrated chipset video. It has dedicated video RAM but I’m not entirely sure how much. Different tools in Windows report two different number and I get yet another number in Linux. HWiNFO reports 32MB, ATI drivers report 64MB, and Linux

    The hard drive is an 80MB model that is most likely original. I have Windows XP and Linux dual booting on it currently. I have BOINC running in both and despite this being a 32-bit CPU, there are still a few projects that it gets work for including Asteroids@home (1), Einstein@home (1, 2), and World Community Grid. You can also see how it is doing overall on FreeDC (1, 2).


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  • Digital Archaeology: Dell XPS Gen2 (2)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The XPS Gen2 is a fairly high end gaming laptop from Dell that was introduced in February 2005. High end in this case means a 2 GHz Pentium M CPU, 2 GB of RAM and an nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra. The nicest aspect from my point of view is the beautiful 4:3 (ok, really 16:10) aspect high resolution screen with a 1920×1200 resolution. Specs include:

    • CPU: Intel Pentium M 720 @ 2 GHz (Dothan)
    • GPU: nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra (NV41M)
    • RAM: 2 GB DDR2-266
    • Screen: 17-inch @ 1920×1200

    For more complete hardware information, see the output of HardInfo, HWiNFO, CPU-Z, and HWiNFO.

    At 17-inches, this is a very large laptop. It also features Alienware like lighting effects. There are three lighting zones that can be set via the Dell QuickSet app. Even without the app, there are a variety of preset colors in the BIOS that can be configured. The zones include the speakers (front), fans (rear base), and back panel (XPS logos on the back of the LCD). However, there is unfortunately no keyboard backlighting. In any case, it definitely stands out in a sea of generic looking laptops.

    The Pentium M seems to have been used less in gaming laptops than other CPU choices of the time (mainly the Pentium 4 or Pentium 4-M). I’m not sure why. The Pentium M was faster on a MHz per MHz basis. I suppose at the time the fastest Pentium 4s (especially if we are talking desktop versions) were a bit faster than the fastest Pentium Ms but not by that much and at the cost of a whole lot more power usage. I think the Pentium M was a better choice for a laptop, even for a gaming laptop. In fact, the XPS Gen2 was the successor to the original XPS which was Pentium 4 based. The XPS Gen2 was originally available with an option of only two different processors. Either the 2.13 GHz Pentium M or the 2 GHz Pentium M (which is what this one has). Both included the nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra.

    The nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra was essentially the same as a regular GeForce Go 6800, just clocked higher. At its release it was probably the fastest laptop GPU available. It definitely makes this laptop great for some old school (circa 2003-2008) gaming.

    So far, the above is almost exactly what I wrote for another laptop because this one is (nearly) identical. The difference is that the last one appeared to be an early engineering sample whereas this one seems to be a normal production model. The previous one had a BIOS revision of ‘X2’ and this one has an ‘A05’ BIOS. The debugging menu that appeared in the ‘X2’ BIOS is, as expected, missing from the ‘A05’ BIOS.

    The odd quirk of the engineering sample model where I had to use a utility to get the processor to run at full speed is gone as well. Presumably it has something to do with the early revision BIOS. However, I also started off using Linux on this laptop while I was running Windows XP on the other one. I was using Linux Mint Debian Edition because it is one of the few distributions that still support 32-bit CPUs. However, it was pretty sluggis so I ended up switching this one to Windows XP also.

    I originally thought it was possible that the slow processor speed of the engineering sample might have been related to thermal issues though this proved not to be the case. Ironically, this laptop seems to suffer from some kind of thermal issue. Or at least stability issues. After it has been on for 20 minutes to a couple of hours under full load it just freezes. However, this does not seem to correlate to CPU or GPU temperature. At least according to the sensors, the CPU temp did not exceed around 70 degrees Celsius or so which is well below where it should start causing issues. The bottom of the laptop did get very hot to the touch though. I put this laptop on one of those cooling pads…a cheap one with only one relatively low RPM fan, and that increased stability greatly. However, it would still eventually freeze after several hours under full load.

    In an effor to get thing more stable, I downloaded a program called Notebook Hardware Control that allows you to control voltage and CPU multiplier among other things. Dropping the voltage did reduce temperatures more to the point where CPU temps were maxing out at just below 60 degrees Celsius under full load. However, this only improved stability slightly. Things would still freeze up after several hours under full load…typically four to eight hours. Finally, I decided to drop the CPU frequency by reducing the multiplier. I dropped it one notch to a multiplier of 14 instead of 15 resulting in a frequency of 1.86 GHz instead of the stock 2 GHz. This did not seem to reduce CPU temp any further but it increased stability further. It went a day and a half under full load before locking up. Finally, I tried reseating the RAM and swapping slots while I was at it. There are two slots, each with a 1 GB stick. After swapping the RAM around the laptop would no longer boot. So I removed the stick in slot 1 and moved the one in slot 2 back to slot 1 and it booted up (albeit with only 1GB now). Running at full speed (2 GHz) it has now been stable under full load for more than three days. I’m calling it fixed. Either the stick of RAM is bad or the memory slot is bad (probably the RAM but I’ll have to find another DDR2 SODIMM to test with to be sure).

    There really isn’t much in the way of noticeable differences between the engineering sample and the production model. The most obvious difference was the fan noice. The fans on the engineering sample were fairly loud while these are fairly quiet, even at max speed. These top out at about 4,000 RPM but I’m not sure how fast the fans on the engineering sample were running. I just know they were quite a bit louder. I thought the loud fans on the engineering sample might have also been a BIOS issue with them always running at max speed or something but given that these don’t get nearly as loud I’m guessing they were different fans…possibly more powerful.

    Another obvious difference, as mentioned above, is the BIOS revision. This one is running version A05 which is the latest available while the engineering sample was running version X2 and also included a debugging menu (with not very interesting choices unfortunately). The dates on the two BIOS revisions aren’t all that different. The X2 BIOS is dated 12/02/2004 while the A05 BIOS is dated 09/28/2005. Comparing the output of HWiNFO on each machine, you can spot a few differences. At a glance, these were the ones I noticed (engineering sample listed first):

    Motherboard model:

    DELL 0EAQA5
    DELL 0F8460

    LCD brand:

    Phillips
    Samsung

    Optical Drive:

    TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L532B
    SONY DVD+-RW DW-D56A

    Ethernet:

    Broadcom BCM5705M NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
    Broadcom BCM5705MA2 NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

    Wi-Fi:

    Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Adapter (DELL mPCI 3A Americas/Europe ZZA)
    Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Adapter (Dell mPCI 3A – MoW)

    Oddly, the engineering sample has a newer revision GPU (A3 vs. A1) and a newer manufacture date (2005 vs. 2004).

    The fact that they have different motherboard models is probably the most interesting but I can’t find any info on either nor are there any differences in HWiNFO that indicate that there are any real differences. For what it is worth there are of course different serial numbers. The production model has a two part serial number. The first part corresponds to the service tag and the second part is a longer alphanumeric string. The production model is missing the service tag portion. The second parts of the serial numbers look like:

    CN129614BN2060
    CN1296157L2762

    Like all the machines I run, I installed BOINC and attached to all of my usual projects (the ones that would work anyway). BOINC on Windows XP still works with a surprising number of projects. So far it has successfully completed work for Einstein@home, World Community Grid, and Asteroids@home. There are probably other projects I don’t participate in that would work also. You can see how this laptop is doing overall at FreeDC.


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