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T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

T60/T61 Series
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suprsonic
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Location: Madison, WI

T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#1 Post by suprsonic » Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:59 pm

I have a T61, Middleton 2.29 BIOS, with a 42W7648 mobo.

I have upgraded to a T9300 processor, but I am having issues with it: it is recognized in the BIOS, but it doesn't seem to want to boot. I've tried booting to a Win 7 USB boot image, a Win 7 DVD boot image, and the hard drive with Win 7. Usually I just have a black screen with no cursor after the splash screen. Sometimes I have a blank screen with a cursor, and once it actually started to load the boot image but then blue screened with stop 0x124.

I've tried setting the power settings in the BIOS to maximize battery, and that was what allowed me to get to the DVD boot image, but since then no luck.

Any advice? Is the proc. getting too hot? Do I need to configure the BIOS a certain way? I did hit F9 to set the BIOS back to the defaults before I installed the T9300. I thought this proc. would work since I scoured this forum before I purchased the proc., and it looked like TuuS had a similar setup.


*******EDIT on 5/5/13*****************
My issue is resolved, details of the issue are in thread below.

Here is my final configuration from previous to current parts:

2 GB RAM --> 4 GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 1.80GHz --> Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection --> Intel WiFi Link 5100
120 GB Toshiba HDD --> 128 GB Panasonic Pro 840 SSD
Last edited by suprsonic on Sun May 05, 2013 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Cigarguy
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#2 Post by Cigarguy » Sat Mar 30, 2013 2:31 am

As a desktop overclocking enthusiast, the symptoms you describe is in line with a CPU overheating. Did you reapply thermal paste and the HSF is installed properly? When you installed the new to you CPU, did you forget to turn the screw to lock the CPU in place? Even though I doubt this will work, but try booting from a live Linux CD/USB and see if that works.

Finally, reinstall your old CPU. If that works fine, then you have a bad T9300.

suprsonic
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Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#3 Post by suprsonic » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:07 am

Thanks for the advice, Cigarguy, that's kind of what I suspected re: overheating. Subsequent to my first post, I did some research on applying the proc. paste and I don't think I had cleaned up the old proc. paste as well as I should have, plus I may not have had the HSF on squarely over the proc. (perhaps in addition to too much paste..I was trying to be careful about that, though).

Any other info on CPU overheating from you experience would be appreciated, e.g. can procs. get blown out from this, etc.

DaKKS
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#4 Post by DaKKS » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:04 pm

They shut down before there is any damage done to them. Unless your have an ES CPU (Engineering sample aka. prototype) that is. They often lack the thermal shutoff switch thingy.

TuuS
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#5 Post by TuuS » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:18 pm

As far as damaging the cpu from overheating, I believe it can and does, but there are two schools of thought here. Some believe the intel processors are virtually indestructable, and I agree it's hard to kill one, but I think that by design they are built to function with many of their hundreds of millions of transistors fried. I've seen heavily overclocked cpu chips that just don't perform like they used to, but still booted and appeared to work, so I strongly believe that although then don't often experience fatal circuit failures, they do indeed experience degrading failures.

However, it would be difficult to know for sure since we can't test each transistor.

Regarding your problem, you've been given some good advice here. Make sure you have a well seated heatsink/fan and some good thermal paste, if that doesn't help, then you probably have a bad cpu.

suprsonic
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Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#6 Post by suprsonic » Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:15 pm

Thanks for all of the help and replies, all, sorry for the belated note.

I ended up switching out the processor with another T9300 and it just came yesterday. I've subsequently tried 2 types of proc. compound, AS5 and NT-H1, and have tried reapplying it numerous times (trying to be very careful to not use too much, as I know that can create too large of a barrier b/n the proc. and heat sink).

Basically, it seems to be getting too hot; when I remove the keyboard the heat sink is very hot to the touch. The fan seems to be working, though, albeit maybe not enough. I guess I'm wondering if there are various types of heat sinks / fans for the T61, and maybe the one that is in my T61 isn't sufficient for the T9300 (it came with a T7100 1.8 GHz proc.).

I appreciate your help and advice!

RealBlackStuff
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#7 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:28 pm

A properly installed T9300 will run cooler than your old T7100, so the fan should be more than adequate,
provided it is in good working order!
Yours is a 14.1" 4:3 T61 with Intel graphics.
These are by nature cool-running machines to begin with.
Leave the keyboard bezel off and only attach the keyboard.
Then start it and see if the fan even spins...
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

suprsonic
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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:41 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#8 Post by suprsonic » Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:54 pm

Thanks for the tips; I thought it was supposed to run cooler than the T7100, in addition to using less power.

You must be on to something; when I booted the laptop the fan spun for approx. 3 seconds and the stopped.

UPDATE: I've let the laptop run for a while, and the fan has kicked on and run for a period of 30-45 seconds. So, it works that much. Also, I have used compressed air to clean out the fan, etc. I've tightened the heat sink in a X pattern, i.e. 1-3-2-4 screw pattern, ala lug nut fashion.

UPDATE 2: I hope that I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I decided to pull the Intel 5100 NIC that I had upgraded to, as I noticed it is an "Engeering Sample," and I put back the stock WM3945ABG Intel NIC. So far, so good!

I thought that this 5100 NIC was good, as I had installed it and used it without issue when the T7100 proc. was still in.

I guess my question now would be if the engineering sample NIC is a known compatibility issue / unstable copy? I ordered the NIC off of eBay, and it was advertised as new and the related photo was NOT of the engineering sample (I have actually ordered a 5100 NIC from the same vendor and it was not an engineering sample, and I have been using it for a few months now in a T60 without issue.

Thanks for all of the help everyone! Any other feedback is greatly appreciated!

Binh
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#9 Post by Binh » Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:43 pm

IMO, your problem is not a defective T9300 processor. Since the heatsink is hot to touch, it should be the processor is forced to run hot (i.e. output too much heat). There are two reasons for that:
1. The voltage on processor is abnormally high. This is a very rare case, only when you do incorrect voltmod.
2. The processor is running constantly at high load. Try to check in Task manager the CPU load, or run in battery mode and check the power consumption using Power manager. If I remember correctly, a bad LAN card can cause the CPU to run at high CPU load. So, IMO, this is very probably your case.
Compaq 386SX > AST 486SX-25 > TP 390E > Compaq N410C > T41 2373-9U5 > T42p 2378-RVU UXGA 1.7@2.45GHz > T60p UXGA modded to T61 8889-ACG with T8300 OCed to 3.2Ghz@1.20V, undervolted to 1.6Ghz@0.775v, Nvidia NVS-140M undervolted to 0.9v, PCI-E ASPM enabled, 11W power in idle.

suprsonic
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Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#10 Post by suprsonic » Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:12 pm

I've been running the T61 with the T9300 processor for a few hours now, so far without issue. I was able to do a clean install of Win 7 64 bit, and am able to see that the temp for the T9300 is averaging 35°C (ambient temp around 70°F). This is using the stock 39345 ABG NIC.

So, it seems to be strongly correlated to the Engineering Sample of the 5100 wifi NIC. Caveat emptor!

TuuS
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Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#11 Post by TuuS » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:38 am

Very interesting thread. I've never seen a NIC that works with a merom but not a Penryn and causes such severe problems but it's always a good idea to remove all options when troubleshooting, I probably should have suggested that but it's usually not necessary with a simple cpu swap. I've done countless swaps and never seen a similar problem.

I too have been scammed with E/S wifi cards on ebay. They came from china so would have cost far to much to return so I just wrote it off as a lesson learned. Cheapest isn't always best, although I would assume the main difference in the engineering sample wifi card is that it lacks the FCC approval numbers, but I guess there could be many other potential problems with these cards. I wish companies like Intel would stop putting them in the trash and destroy them properly so they don't end up on ebay.

suprsonic
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Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#12 Post by suprsonic » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:13 pm

Now that the system seems stable with the T9300, I think I'll try putting my non-ES T5100 NIC in to see if that works or not - I'll update this once I have some results in case anyone else ever gets into a situation like this.

If the non-ES T5100 doesn't work, then I can stick with the stock 39345 ABG NIC, as that is a minor loss relative to having the T9300 work!

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get the seller of the ES T5100 to swap it out with a non-ES; this came from the states, and I bought my other T5100 from them, so we'll see...if they make me pay for the return it will end up costing about as much as the proc itself!

suprsonic
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:41 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Re: T61 CPU Upgrade Issues

#13 Post by suprsonic » Sun May 05, 2013 2:16 pm

I finally had a chance to try the non-ES T5100 NIC - lo and behold, it works fine!

Lesson learned - stay away from engineering samples!!!

Thanks for everyone's help along the way - I appreciate it!

BTW, for some more hilarity, I contacted the seller about the engineering sample that they sent while advertising a production release NIC; they indicated that they would send another NIC, seemingly the correct type, and they sent ANOTHER engineering sample!

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