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February 27, 2009 09:55 AM
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brentil

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Joined: 02/27/2009

I've made several posts on HP's website and lots of google searching but I've come up with 0 real answers.  I have an iq507 with the T7550 CPU and 9300M MXM currently.  The motherboard supports 800mhz FSB socket P processors which means a possibility of moving up to the T8xxx and T9xxx series intel processors.  I also know other models come with the 9600M GT MXM card as well.

 Has anyone actually done a succeful CPU upgrade or MXM card upgrade here?  If so what models did you move from and to?  Did you need to upgrade to a higher model's power supply too?

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-20 of 136 | Latest Comment | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »

DaveTN Avatar
Expert Member
March 1, 2009 7:54 PM

I was wondering the same thing. Not too concerned about the graphics becase this is not my gaming machine but I'd like to know of any CPU upgrades.

The primary problem I see would be something like running a recovery from the disks after a CPU swap. I used to have a Toshiba M200 Tablet PC that had the Banias proc in it. I upgraded to a 2.0 Dothan. It required some modifications to the BIOS CPU tables and many said it couldn't be done but it was. Really was a good tablet until I decided to do a system restore on it and got the error "WRONG MACHINE". According to toshiba the recovery disk looks for the type of CPU present before doing the install. Fortunately for me I had created a disk image the day I got the tablet so I just did my recovery that way.
It would be interesting to see if it could be done. I just don't hav eth cash to make it happen - or want to risk messing up my primary PC.

David

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg

Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!

brentil Avatar
Member
March 2, 2009 8:14 AM


DaveTN said: It would be interesting to see if it could be done. I just don't hav eth cash to make it happen - or want to risk messing up my primary PC. David

Exactly.  Was hoping someone had already taken the leap to see if it could be done.  I'd like to upgrade to the T9xxx series but they're still way to expensive to buy to just see if it works or not.  The main issues will be if the BIOS can use them properly and if the PSU can provide the needed juice.

The main reason I want to upgrade is I didn't know when I got it that the T7550 model (actually any of the T7x50 models) are lacking virtualization.  So when I run my virtual machines on my iq507 they run like dogs...

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 8, 2009 12:06 AM

I ordered an HP IQ526 because it has the mobo that supports the 800/1066 bus speeds, and the tv tuner inside is a plus for me as well. I also ordered a P9500 Core 2 Duo to go with it, maybe even before I start it for the first time. The mobo info on HP's support page says it will support any of the C2D 35W CPUs, including the Txxxx and Pxxxx procs. This mobo also supports the 800 mhz RAM, whereas the IQ800 series doesn't run the RAM any faster than 667mhz
Wish me luck!
D

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 8, 2009 12:31 AM

As a follow up, I went with the P9500 (2.53GhZ) because it has a 25W TDP which means it's more efficient use of power requres less cooling, and hopefully less power than the T6600 that comes with the IQ526. I'm still not sure if the bios will allow me to pull it off, but I'll try it, knowing that the CPU won't catch fire since it is in the family of P and Txxx processors used in socket p on a PM45 intel chipped mobo.
D

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 16, 2009 11:18 PM

I went for it on Saturday evening, and it is running bug and lockup free at 2.53GhZ with a processor score of 5.9 in Windows Vista 64's performance check.
The Aero performance is the bottleneck, and did not change from the original score of 4.5, but that is in the Nv9300GS, and frankly, I just don't really go for the PC games that are out there anymore.
D

brentil Avatar
Member
March 17, 2009 7:48 AM

WaveRider said: I went for it on Saturday evening, and it is running bug and lockup free at 2.53GhZ with a processor score of 5.9 in Windows Vista 64's performance check. The Aero performance is the bottleneck, and did not change from the original score of 4.5, but that is in the Nv9300GS, and frankly, I just don't really go for the PC games that are out there anymore. D
That's great news.  Unfortunatly it wont help me since I have an IQ507 with the Eve motherboard.  Once the T9xxx chips get cheap enough I'll give it a try.  It's at least positive news for those running the newer motherboards.

brentil Avatar
Member
March 17, 2009 8:22 AM

Ok I finally found some Intel documentation for the T9xxx series mobile processors.  They ONLY work with the GM45 and PM45 chipsets (like WiveRider's system) but NOT with the G965 Express chipset.

 http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupID=35562

I did however find that the T8xxx series are supported on the G965 Express motherboards.

 http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=33099

The T8xxx series is 45nm like the T9xxx series but is lacking Intel Trusted Execution Technology and has 3mb ofcache instead of 6mb.  It'll still be a nice upgrade over theT5750 I'm running since it'll get me the 800mhz bus, 400mhz faster speed, Virtualization, 3mb instead of 2mb of cache.  They're still a ridiculous $250 though.

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 17, 2009 12:19 PM

Hi,
I was really looking at some high-end laptops before a friend bought one of the IQ524's, and I fell in love with the big screen and the small footprint. When I first looked at the IQ800's, I thought to go for the biggest screen, but the mobo's limitations stopped me from that purchase. I use my PC on the kitchen table, currently my old 2003 A15 Toshiba, so I can be near the phone and in front of the TV with the pantry and fridge not far off as well. This PC will fill the bill for me to replace my "command center", which I'd like to retire as soon as I get everything setup on my and my wife's win64 accounts on the new TS PC. I have already ordered a WD Caviar Black HDD with the 32MB cache and the Thermaltake slot load external HDD box so I can back this new one up and maybe try a WinXP load just to see how fast this thing would be in the old faithful OS. I'll keep youse guys posted...
D

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 17, 2009 8:13 PM

One note of interest on the cpu upgrade is as to whether or not the system will reload without a "wrong machine" error when using the factory restore disks if or when it may be necessary. I'd hate to have to disassemble and swap chips twice in rapid succession (B4 and after) just to reload the OS.
D

DaveTN Avatar
Expert Member
March 17, 2009 8:19 PM

Good point. I had the same problem on a Toshiba Tablet that I upgraded from a Banias to Dothan CPU. The recovery disks would give a "Wrong Machine!" error and not go any further. I had to either use a OEM Windows XP TabletPC disk or swap the CPU and run the recovery.
David

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg

Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 17, 2009 11:09 PM

After I get things backed up onto the new drive, I may open it up again and try it using the recovery partition on the new drive so as to leave the scars of experimentation off the mbr of the original drive... I want to put a dab of a fresh new tube of arctic silver under the heat exchanger, as my tube was slightly drier than when new, so for my own peace of mind, I was going to open it up this weekend anyway.
D

brentil Avatar
Member
March 18, 2009 10:39 AM

Once Windows 7 comes out I don't plan on ever needing the restore partition ever again since I'm going to be moving to it as soon as I can.

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 18, 2009 6:46 PM

Sorry DaveTN,
I knew I had heard about that "wrong machine" error somewhere in my travels through the web forums, and sure enough, it was you who mentioned it in this thread. It is still a concern for me though, and now I am trying to get Acronis to work with this USB/SATA drive enclosure, but the drivers for sata evidently don't load before the GUI comes up enough for Acronis to clone the drive. I'll sort through that tonight, and get my external drive cloned, and let you guys know how it goes.
Dave

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 18, 2009 6:49 PM

BTW, my device manager still shows me as having a T6600 Core2 Duo as the CPU. No amount of updating drivers nor scanning for hardware changes seems to change that in the description. Maybe an HP thing, or MS, I'm not sure.
D

DaveTN Avatar
Expert Member
March 18, 2009 8:04 PM

WaveRider said: BTW, my device manager still shows me as having a T6600 Core2 Duo as the CPU. No amount of updating drivers nor scanning for hardware changes seems to change that in the description. Maybe an HP thing, or MS, I'm not sure. D

The CPU table in the bios does not have the information for the processor you are using.  The same thing happened when I "upgraded" the processor in my Toshiba M200.  I wasn't as lucky as you are though as mine only ran at 550mHz instead of the 2.0 it was intended to.  Someone came up with a modification to the CPU tables and figuredout how to flash them to the BIOS and after that, everyone who upgraded their procs was able to run at full speed.

 David

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg

Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 18, 2009 11:37 PM

Here's a tibit for you, the System Info page of V64 shows the P9500 running at 2.53GhZ, and the bios, I think v. 5.04 dated 1/09/2009, shows the P9500 @ 2.53 when I go there. As a side note, I still have 2 Abit KT7-Raid mobos with socket A athlon T-breds that run reliably at 2132MhZ with air cooling and a bios that reports "Unknown Processor @ 2132 MhZ". I'm not sure if you remember those Thoroughbred Athlons that you could either do the pencil track trick, or do as I did, solder a strand of copper wire to jumper the L1 CPU multipliers to get them to jump over the limits of the Athlon Palomino mobo, which maxxed out at like 1250MhZ or so in stock form. Anyway, the System Info page where you get the performance rating from Vista is where I see the proper CPU ID, so maybe it's the driver for the CPU that is locked in by HP or MS that is causing this mis-identification. I haven't installed any of the aftermarket benchmarking programs, so I don't know yet what the difference is in terms of well known benchmarks like Sandra or the 3dMark programs.
D

brentil Avatar
Member
March 19, 2009 7:39 AM

WaveRider said: Here's a tibit for you, the System Info page of V64 shows the P9500 running at 2.53GhZ, and the bios, I think v. 5.04 dated 1/09/2009, shows the P9500 @ 2.53 when I go there. As a side note, I still have 2 Abit KT7-Raid mobos with socket A athlon T-breds that run reliably at 2132MhZ with air cooling and a bios that reports "Unknown Processor @ 2132 MhZ". I'm not sure if you remember those Thoroughbred Athlons that you could either do the pencil track trick, or do as I did, solder a strand of copper wire to jumper the L1 CPU multipliers to get them to jump over the limits of the Athlon Palomino mobo, which maxxed out at like 1250MhZ or so in stock form. Anyway, the System Info page where you get the performance rating from Vista is where I see the proper CPU ID, so maybe it's the driver for the CPU that is locked in by HP or MS that is causing this mis-identification. I haven't installed any of the aftermarket benchmarking programs, so I don't know yet what the difference is in terms of well known benchmarks like Sandra or the 3dMark programs. D

I used the rear window defroster kit to unlock mine.  :D

Is that the newest BIOS for your system, I thought the info page said 5.10 was the newest for that model?  The BIOS might have updated CPU tables.

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 20, 2009 5:55 PM

Hi,
Sorry for the delay, but the bios on HP's website shows 5.04 for this mobo as the most recent. The driver name may have been modified by HP to show the T6600 in Device Mgr., I'm not sure. That's the only place it shows as the T6600, two entries for each core.

BTW, do you guys have a suggestion for a clone program to use to dupe my HDD for future experimentation? My Acronis TI Home v.10 just won't recognize the TT BlacX SATA USB 2 enclosure with the WD Black 640GB drive in it. Any suggs would be appreciated.
Dave

Digikid Avatar
Member
March 21, 2009 10:27 AM

there is a free linux distro called clonezilla. try that.

Having Trouble with your TX2 Series Tablet and Linux? Join us at the Touchsmart Linux Group.
http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com/group/3/Touch-Smart-with-Linux/

WaveRider Avatar
Member
March 21, 2009 5:22 PM

Acronis claims that you need to uninstall HP Recovery Manager to make the clone software work. Not so sure that I want to do that yet.

Back on subject, there is a guy on ebay selling MXM2 cards with the nvidia mobile 9600GT chip and 512MB of GDDR3 memory. He's based in Singapore, so I'm a little apprehensive about taking a chance with my 200-250 bucks depending on how high the auction goes. Even though the guy has a 100% rating, many people don't realize how crooked the overseas postal services are, and insurance is a joke.
I know there is an MXM "club" or blog/forum of some kind on the net, but unfortunately, the deals are usually private sellers with parts from laptops that came from who knows where, possibly stolen, so there doesn't seem to be a reliable consumer level availability for these cards.
Anyone know a source of MXMII modules with current chipsets for sale by reputable dealers? I don't know how the DIY notebook builders get theirs, or if they have to settle for onboard graphics cards.
Anyone knows the answer, let us in on it.
Dave

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-20 of 136 | Latest Comment | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »

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