Aspire 5315 CPU Step-by-Step Upgrade Guide

Oh, not too sure about the dual layer buddy, i dont use dual layer disks so its all good for me

Bargin bread that is! Gotta love the Japs!

Im running a screen res of 1280x800 which is fine for me, any smaller n i couldnt see it...

Aye, once all the hardware updates are complete, ur laptop would retail at about £1,000, not too bad for a mobile phone upgrade... and my new Nokia 6500 classic is sl33k!

 

I got the laptop, a Samsung j700 ok but highly saleable (not a patch on my N95 8gb) AND a Motorola W Flip Phone. Apparently most customers who have been with them for a while can get a free PAYG mobile (just pay the £10 first top-up), so I'll sell that too. I might even end up with all this for free AND money in my pocket. Deals like this don't come along very often!

 

T5450 Core2Duo
2 Gig Ram

just dropped both in and had absolutely no problems at all ,
after doing it though I am cosidering a T8300 if I can get 1 cheap enough

 

Nice mate. I had my laptop via an upgrade, the painstaking wait of an 18 month contract is finally over! And it was greeted with a new phone and a laptop which I cant complain about! Especially after coming across this thread!!

 

As I should have it all the same time, I was thinking of doing a walk-through with pictures, not to take anything away from this EXCELLENT thread. I figured a walk-through with pictures would help those less savvy. I am also going to Image the drive before I boot up to swap for a 200Gb and maintain the E-Recovery (I'm happy to keep Vista, eventually I'm going to pay for the Vista Ultimate upgrade off the MS website). I'll let you know how that goes, but I have read another thread about this, so should be straightforward.

What do you think BigO? Perhaps a new thread but a link from this one?

As I said, not to take anything away from all contributors of this excellent thread.

Bri

 

If I was to buy a new harddrive to put into the laptop, is there any way of transfering my OS & programs to that new hard drive? Dont really wanna format etc again...

Thx!

 

I'm going to use Acronis Workstation, which should do the job. Look at this link (read it all as there is a lot of information).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284607

I know it is for XP, but it SHOULD be the same for Vista, I'll try it out. I want to Image the drive before even starting up Vista and copy that onto a new 200Gb drive but with a resize of all but the hidden partition.

 

Will that program allow me to transfer my current OS & programs onto a new hard drive?

 

Should do, done this numerous times, but not with the Acer Recovery partition in the way ....

I'll try it and post the results.

 

Sweet! Cheers mate.

 

congrats on the successful upgrade

hey,, if you wanna take some pics and start up a thread that's great.... i'll even link to if from my thread if it's OK with you.... i'm just here to help people and to make them aware of what we can do with these systems,,, any help you can provide would be excellent.... that's how the community gets stronger... by increasing the level of info we can provide to the visitiors.

i always use ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE... it will image the entire HDD or just the C:.... how ever you want it,,, acronis will do it and the FREE TRIAL is all you need unless you plan on taking more than 10 days to get everything all sorted out.

nice to see you all visting and not just upgrading but helping each other and thinking of how to help others in the future.... *tip of the hat*

bigO

 

Hello there you bunch o' pro's

I'm looking for a new lappy for a very long time now and i really like the blue gemstone from acer 8920, or if possible 8930. But I was wondering if you could update the gpu in it because it is not really powerfull (why can't they bring one out with the 9800 or something equal )

Now I know it has something to do with mxm but it's not clear to me if this notebook has it or not and I'm quite the noob to all this so I don't even now which one would fit in XD

could someone give me a clear overview of the options here? I'd like to turn it a bit into a gaming machine

thx guys

 

You can buy an 8930G, and hope that the BIOS supports a 8800M/9800M GT/GTS/GTX. ATM, the best GPU that the 8930G supports is the 9700M GT.

I know the 8920G BIOS does not support the 8800M GTX, because one guy tried it out, and failed.

The 5930G, and the 6935G have a MXM-II slot, so they won't be able to go above the 9600M GT. There are rumours that there will be a MXM-II form-factor of the 8800M/9800M, but I am not sure about BIOS support.

BTW this is a CPU-upgrade thread, nothing to do with MXM and GPUs. (You could have started a new thread for this discussion)

 

just make sure the 8920 or 8930 has the all important G at the end of the model #

that indicates that the GPU is MXM based and there for upgradable....

 

sorry thought it was for upgrading in general
thx for the reply though

 

nice one...+REP
Thanks,
Phil

 

good to see ya back Phil,,

later,
bigO

 

Sweet!
I did a few searches on the net before I actually asked here and the number 1 program seems to be ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE as well And im loving that 10 day free trial! Roll on payday when I can start my upgrade

Ooooh its getting exciting! hahaha

 

Hey,
I can get a T8100 for £75.00... Reckon I should go for it? Or wait till something better comes along!

 

That sounds good where from? Just in case these I've ordered turn out to be wrong.

Still waiting for my laptop :-( turns out they messed up the order and I have my phones but no laptop! I have my memory and my hard disk, still waiting on my processors.

Guess I'll just keep watching for the courier.

 

sounds like a good price for europe

i hate that waiting game... maybe it'll show soon!

 

Seen it on ebay.de (German), but its gone!

Ahh nightmare mate... I agree.. I hate waiting as well... I gotta wait till 25th until I can get anything anyway. Payday then lol

 

I now have 2 x T7500's Fully boxed (genuine intel retail) with holograms etc.

Don't ask how, because I have no idea how I could get them that cheap! Incidentally these came from Germany, interesting that you found that T8100 on German ebay!

Anyway I'm going to start a new 'project' thread so I'm not hijacking this thread and posting information that isn't 'directly' related to this.

Bri

 

OK - I've used these forums for long enough to still be trolling around as a leech. I bought my wife the 5315 for $379 US and was pretty satisfied with the specs but when digging around decided to downgrade to XP, upgrade to 2 gb and replace the CPU to a C2D. Thanks to this forum I've completed all of this, although I haven't had the CPU in long enough to see if it's stable and not having any heating issues.

If anyone is still monitoring this thread, a couple of questions.

1 - Has anyone replaced the CPU/heatsink fan - if so do you have more info?
2 - I've noticed a couple times since the CPU upgrade the laptop has either not turned on with the power button or hung at the Acer splash screen. Suggestions? Maybe loose CPU?

Otherwise, if I can confirm this is a stable system, I'm very pleased. I got the T5450 1.66 C2D for $40 w/ shipping and had the RAM already from upgrading my EX4420 so the total investment has yielded a pretty decent product. Video is the only kind of bummer but this isn't a gaming machine so I'm really not worried.

Only other note is when I removed the fan cable the plastic part of the connector cracked and a little bit broke off. It still works and isn't a big deal but I've disconnected hundreds of this type of connector in my time and never had this happen even while being cautious. Just a heads up to anyone who might try this upgrade still -- doubting you'll get to this post before trying it though!

 

Oh -- one more quick note -- maybe update in your directions when adding the new CPU to add thermal grease before reapplying the heatsink. Newbs may not do this w/out directions. I actually forgot to do it and when I went searching for my thermal grease discovered a long since dried crime scene of insufficient storage of computer supplies -- still waiting to get some more which I'll go back and reapply.

 

Is it posible to install this in aspire 5315?

 

Or another video card like this?

 

Thermal grease application is mentioned much earlier in thread, particularly how to remove the remains of the particularly sticky previous application to the heatsink at the factory.

 

Nope & Nope.
Afraid the graphics are intergrated and not upgradable buddy!

 

Im quite confused about this actually .. lol..
Why would you clean a new processer? Why would there be paste on a new CPU and why would you wanna scrape the old paste off ur old CPU and put it on the new one?

Am I drunk or just reading this all incorrect ? haha

w0rD!

 

Actually, now you mention it I'm confused by this, all I'll do is clean the heatsink (only the bit that sits directly on the processor), then apply the grease to the new processor. Then screw the fan back onto the processor.

 

Not everybody can afford a new processor. Sometimes used ones come with the old grease still on it.

 

You would want to clean a processor everytime to remove any impurities, fingerprints etc, because that will cause the generation of heat as it will prevent the thermal compound from doing its job.

You can re-apply the thermal paste from the old CPU onto the new, but not advisable -- again impurities.

When storing thermal compound containers, such as AS-5, store them in a fridge, with the opening tip at the bottom, so that when you have to re-use it, you can remove a bit of the thermal compound at the bottom that comes out first, because impurities generate in it over time, and settle at the bottom.

(Thermal Compound is very cheap, around $5-10 max)

 

Desktop processors usually come with some grease attached to the included heatsink pad ready to apply. As new Notebook processors don't come with a heatsink due to the variety of different chassis they may be placed in, you would still need a tube of grease. Even if you bought used, you should never use the grease on a old processor as likely it has dried out and lost a lot of it's thermal transfer abilities. A tube of grease is very cheap, usually around the price of a glass of beer. OK more for arctic silver, but not a great deal more. The difference it can make are somewhat large, particularly to a notebook with poor airflow to start with.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=205224

Found this...

 

Ok, so sick of those random BSOD's I finaly took the plug and formatted the thing...

This time used the driver package provided by BigO (instead the one i've downloaded from the different manufactures sites) and now I seem to have one driver missing - SM Bus Controller.

On top of it the pc is sluggish, having high temps and fan keeps going up and down (result of the temps).

No fuddling around with any programs these time, so less things I can "point the finger at".

Thanks in advance, annoying little thing this 5315 is turning out to be

 

SM Bus Controller will be installed through the Chipset Driver.

 

It wasnt in my case (beats me why), installed the latest one too btw.

Edit: Re-installed Intel chipset driver package and nothing..

 

Did you download the chipset driver for the GL960 ? (Restart ?)

Try installing manually through Device Manager, and select the correct .inf for the installation.

 

Ok, the workaround possible was to get the older version of intel chipset driver (the one provided by soulpass) and then manually update the SM BUS Controller on device manager. Seems to have worked.

 

I know it's probably obvious, but is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000B5U9UK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top the correct RAM for the 5315. Just want to be 100% sure, as it looks the same as the one from crucial, but i dont really know.

 

It sure is

 

Ok, here's my update. So far after re-seating the CPU and cleaning off old thermal grease and applying new the power on problem has diminished. I actually haven't noticed any problems since but my wife swears it hung on the splash screen once. At least I haven't noticed it not powering on when I press the power button, I think she's just not being patient on the splash screen and ever since I showed her the hard reboot (press/hold power button) she thinks that's the answer to everything. tsk tsk

If I see any problems I'll re-install XP b/c I downgraded to XP before doing the CPU upgrade -- but haven't seen any other problems. And for $410 this little laptop now running Core 2 Duo w/ 2 GB of RAM was a great investment!

 

A core2duo really makes a noticeable difference in this computer. I just installed a t7100 yesterday and applications open a lot quicker and the keyboard area over the processor is barely warm. Off course I removed chunks of dust from the fins where air exits the fan so I'm sure it breathes better. And against the advice of one of the posts in this thread by bigO I bought an engineering sample. It seems to be working properly though. Thanks to this thread I'm liking my cheapie laptop.

 

I promised to post the comparative spd settings for Kingston HyperX PC2 5300CL4 and OCZ PC2 6400.

1) Kingston KHX 5300 52LL/1G

3-4-4-10 @533
4-4-4-12 @667

2) OCZ2M8002G

3-4-4-12 @533
4-5-5-15 @667
5-5-5-18 @800

The Kingston is definitely has a slightly better spec for systems like the 5315 which only support a 667 memory bus speed. The Turion 64x2 @1.8Ghz system which the memory ended up in saw its memory WEI score rise from 5.4 to 5.8!

Sorry BigO, i wasn't able to do full side by side testing as I don't have a 4Gb set of the Hyperx any more!

 

Did you try kits of each time, or different modules ?

Symmetric timings are 3-3-3-9, 4-4-4-12, 5-5-5-15, 6-6-6-18 and so on.

 

The numbers are taken straight from the spd on a single 2Gb chip, as reported by CPUZ, running on the 5315.

The OCZ was a kit, but as 2x2Gb I couldn't run it in the 5315.

The HyperX had been a kit, though I only have one left, enough for a like for like comparison.

I didn't think I could do any proper testing without 4Gb of both and a machine to run it on, but I thought the spd numbers might still be of interest.

I have just started trying some 2x2Gb Corsair PC2 5300 CL4 in a 6920 and this appears to run at 4-4-4-12, just like the HyperX. Interestingly it only appears to support 667, probably something to do with its 'Mac Memory' status. Performance improvement in the 6920 over the original 3Gb of mixed CL5 is negligible. The burgers are better than the memory .

 

Ok, I do feel dumb now

Can you upload a screenshot of the SPD and Memory Page in CPU-Z, with a single HyperX PC2-5300 CL4 module, and then with a single OCZ PC2-6400 module ?

If possible, it'll be great.

I basically want to see how the timings downclock from PC2-6400 to PC2-5300, and what sort of timings are shown by HyperX.

I know G.Skill shows symmetrical timings of 2-2-2-6, 3-3-3-9 and 4-4-4-12.

 

Ok, it may take a while as the owners of the laptops containing the memory will need to be in the same place at the same time !

 

No Problem. Take your time.