Aspire 5315 CPU Step-by-Step Upgrade Guide

NetRolller,

Thanks for your reply.

After looking at my interest, would you think the BLACK version of BIOS or the "H" version of the BIOS would be the better version?

Do you think both versions will become 1 in the near future?

..#4. Is there a reasonably hi-end cpu you could recommend that does not require, or is less demanding of voltage adjustment.

..#B. I thought Fn+Esc was a recovery technique, not a New BIOS Programming technique.
I am reviewing

right now.

..#D. I am confused a little "enable while NOT using Dual-IDA". Are you talking about using or NOT using Throttlestop? Can you briefly explain?

Thanks for your work,
Byghtn

 

Fn+Esc is primarily a recovery feature, but it works just as well when the BIOS is not corrupted. And it is known to flash the PEI volume. Flashing the PEI volume with InsydeFlash is a lot more complicated than just doing an Fn+Esc.

As for the high-end CPU question; remember that even Dummy's BIOSes contain voltage mods only for the T7300 and the T7500. For all other CPUs, the default voltage is used. And, as I said, not all T7300s and T7500s are alike.

IST Configuration = Enabled sets the EIST bit to Enabled & Locked. IST Configuration = Disabled sets it to Disabled & Unlocked. This is why it should be disabled only when using Dual-IDA (EIST enabled will result in longer battery life than EIST disabled; however, EIST must be unlocked for dual-IDA. "EIST Enable" and "EIST Lock" are two separate MSR bits; setting "EIST Lock" to On prevents changing "EIST Enable".)

Of course, you can always have "IST Configuration" disabled, and enable EIST using ThrottleStop later when you need the extra battery life.

 

NetRolller, again thanks for your reply.

After reviewing the entire recovery section, it seems simple enough to flash both BIOS's back and fourth to try them both---but---there are many people complaining that theirs got bricked flashing the BIOS (many are reporting strange proceedure steps to get to bricking but it is still a possible outcome) so I think I want to do it only 1 time. Is there any reason to purposely select 1 over the other.

I know you modified this bios to reveal new configuration settings and enable/enhance the MXM capabilities of other similar models, but with MXM removed from the discussion which would you choose? Is there any reason NOT to use the BLACK edition? Is there any example where it is detrimental to use the BLACK?

I appreciate the time you have spent with me
Thanks,
Byghtn

 

Well, there are 2 reasons why you would choose not to use Black Edition:
1. I've seen occasional stability issues on my own machine when resuming from hibernation; likely caused by my ACPI ASL-to-AML compiler being too new for Windows 7. (Linux with kernel v3.0 has no such issues, likely thanks to its better AML decoding. On Windows 7, merely recompining the factory DSDT with my compiler is apparently enough to trigger stability issues.) This will be fixed in Black Edition v4.1.
2. It has no CPU voltage tweaks (but this is moot anyway if you don't have a T7300 or T7500 CPU).

 

NetRolller,

I finally found the BLACK 4.0 download link and I am ready to take the risk and make the change from M540. Always looking forward to upgrades and can't wait for 4.1 though I typically don't use hibernation much because I don't turn off that much.

I can buy a T7700 for $45 2.4ghz 800mhz 4mb SLA43 SLAF7
or I can get T8300 for $39 2.4ghz 800mhz 3mb SLAPA

It seems this is the sweet spot as everything else I see is $75 for 2.6ghz up to $225 for x9000

Is there a particular problem with T7xxx series that the voltage adjustments are extra desirable in the other BIOS (ver.H), or do both CPUs have similar difficulties??

With these 2 options is there really an advantage for the T7700s' extra 1MB L2?
This page http://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html says the T8300 is faster for less money.

Someone else in the CPU Upgrade thread said to stay away from ES & QS Spec numbers, but others say there are no differences. Do you have an opinion on this? What about stepping numbers E0, E1, E2, G0... is there an advantage to any different steppings?

Thanks again
Byghtn

 

Generally, ES CPUs with the same stepping as the retail version of the same CPU are fine. However, most ESes on eBay are early-stepping ones, which contain bugs.

Generally speaking, later/higher steppings are usually better. But stepping should only be compared among CPUs of the same processor number; it is meaningless to compare steppings of different CPU models.

 

@joeblaster

Since these laptops can't support more than 3G of ram (as far as I know). The only benefit I am aware of would be the ability to run 64-bit apps. When I upgraded mine to W7 I finally decided on 64-bit simply because I already had three 64-bit machines, and only one 32-bit.

I am glad to report another successful upgrade. My 5315 is now running a T7500, Intel 320 SSD, and W7 64-bit. And W7 really does have all the drivers included! I'm sure others can understand my skepticism as to whether that was true. lol

 

4G is possible on rev. 2.0 and 3.0 motherboards. Rev. 1.x is limited to 3G.

 

Thank so much bud Remy540. I am a happy camper every penny i invested on this free 5315 has been worthy. I upgrade the CPU from Celeron to T8300, memory from 1g to 2g (will go up to 4g shortly) i also upgraded from Vista 32 to Win764. This thing is flying fast it is 80% faster, win7 64bit makes a huge difference interms of speed and battery life. I am using the lates stock Bios and it runs perfect without a glitch. I am even thinking I should have ordered a faster cpu. Thanks everyone for all your help. Happy New Year! Cheers!

Beer

I am in Luck I have Rev3 mother board so 4g it is.

 

How do you determine the revision number of the Motherboard -
ie: exactly what do you have to remove to get to it.

Thanks & happy new year

 

Hello everyone, I watched this forum for a while and I want to present my Acer Aspire 5315

CPU:
Intel Celeron 560 (1M Cache, 2.13 GHz, 533 MHz) -> Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (2M Cache, 1.66 GHz, 667 MHz)
Memory:
Samsung 2GB DDR2 667Mhz
HDD:
Western Digital 250GB
Sound card:
Creative X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB
Fans:
Cooler Master NotePal E1
BIOS Version:
1.45
You can see the WEI score and my highest temperature in the pictures bellow.


I changed the look with a Acer Aspire 5520G display case. You can see it in the pictures bellow.

Future upgrades:
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (3M Cache, 2.10 GHz, 800 MHz)
ExpressCard 34mm with 4x USB 2.0
4GB Memory

Also i wanna ask something.
@.NetRolller 3D - are you sure that rev. 2.0 and 3.0 motherboards work with 4GB ? I discovered that I have rev. 3.0 ( like in the picture bellow ). And I would like to do this upgrade.
@Quilty997 - if the 965 Chipset can support 667 or 533 Mhz, so not worth buying 800 Mhz, right ?

And
@Davidwall - you can determine the revision number of the motherboard by removing the RAM memory. ( i attached a picture bellow where is exactly )

 

Thanks arutsuc - but 'bugga' - my upgraded machine is rev 2.0.
I 'do' have a rev 3.0 machine but to be honest can't be bothered swapping over the camera from my rev 2 into it, although I suppose I don't use the camera anyway nowadays.
I may upgrade it in the future though.

Once again - thanks for the info.

 

Rev. 2.0 was used in 5720Gs, and is known to accept 4GB. Rev 3.0 is even newer, so I doubt that they intentionally broke 4GB support.

 

Damn; Thanks .NetRolller 3D.

I missed your post #1458 somehow.

Will try my second 2GB memory in the machine then install the 64bit Win7.

Thanks again.

 

I finished installing my new T8100 and works perfectly. Here are some pics.
WEI score:
CPU: 4.4 -> 5.5
RAM: 4.5 -> 5.5 (still with 2 GB, surprising)

@.NetRolller 3D - Thank you very much for info.
@Davidwall - after you finish to install 4 GB and x64bit Win7 can you tell me some impressions of how it works? I want to do this upgrade too. Also, can you post the new WEI score with 4 GB and x64bit Win7 ? Thank you.

 

I own an acer 5315 and I remember when I replace the wireless card I notice a small space,,,like a second mini pci e.... you can see this in arutsuc`s picture called Rev.JPG . Anyone managed to install anything in that slot? another hdd (maby a ssd)

Any luck with 4 g ram ?

 

That connector is installed on 5720(G) machines, and is a full PCIE/USB mini card slot. It is used for 3G on some models, while on others, it holds a TV tuner card.

However, simply soldering in a mini-PCIE connector may not be enough - SMD components may also be missing on the 5315. (Consult the Compal ICL50 schematic for more details - no link provided, it's copyrighted..)

 

i m curious if soldering a mini pcie connetor and swiching the wireless card in the new slot could damage my laptop. I think swiching the wireless card could be the easiest way to test the "new" slot because i don`t need to buy another PCIE card

 

@NetRolller...
I have tried to upgrade my bios to 4.0 with the fn+esc method and bios on a 1g fat16 and fat32 usb key, and nothing happened. Every 1.2 minutes it would flash the usb stick led and dvd drive led but the bios version was still the same origional version. I ran the windows bios flasher packaged with the genuine 1.45 bios and it worked to some degree.

1.How can I tell if I flashed the entire bios table?
2.Will the new 4.0 bios now flash with the fn+esc?
3.How long might it be before hibernation might be working?
4.Is there some way to increase video memory allocation?
5.Is there a need for more than 8mb?

BTW I installed the T8300 cpu and 3mb total as well as W7-32Ultimate Acer branded. Any real reason to go to 64bit with less than 4m? Are there any 64bit drivers that actually work better than the current 32 bit drivers?

Thanks for your work & answers

Byghtn

p.s. @Arutsuc...
WEI numbers 3.0 total Aspire 5315 T8300 and 3mb total W7U32
CPU .............5.9
RAM . ...........5.9
GRAPHICS ....3.2
GAMING .......3.0
DISK ............4.7 orig 80G

 

@.NetRolller 3D - I found on page 124 a modded BIOS with the hidden "Advanced" menu (including Intel VT, SATA hotplug, etc.).
That is the last version? Is there any performance improvements with that BIOS ? Worth it to install?
This guide is good to try to install ? If somehow i fail to install, what worst might happen?

@byghtn3 - nice upgrades

 

Latest upgrades:

- Keyboard died so I bought a replacement one in black; the original white-ish color attracts too much dirt so I opted for the black (plus the black gives it a Macbook pro-esque look).

- Apparently my university WiMax network went live last semester so I figured while I was looking at wireless N cards, I'd look for a WiFi/WiMax combo card. I bought an Intel® Centrino® Advanced–N + WiMAX 6250 (622ANXHMW) and bracket to make it full-height. Connected via ethernet and had to manually download and install the drivers for WiFi and WiMax (along with the WiMax utility) from Intel's support site. I have a full WiFi signal throughout my house (I used to have 1-2 bars in my room now I'm at 5) and the internet is running much faster. I won't be back on campus for a few more days so I can't comment on the WiMax but I'm sure it will run fine.



I saw some previous comments about board rev. # and RAM upgrades. I checked my REV # and I have a REV 3 board, so according to what was said previously, I should be able to run 4 GB and Win7 64 bit? Is there anything else special that needs to be done to get it to work? What RAM are you guys using for these upgrades?

 

Hello. Can anyone tell me if the motherboard from Acer Aspire 5315 have the Bluetooth Module Connector ? I found a Bluetooth Module from a 5520G and i wanna know if it fits in mine.


EDIT:
And the answer is no!
The JP12 Connector is missing. Also is missing the JP20 Connector.
So you can't put the Bluetooth Module from other Acer Aspire.

 

4Gig did not work in my Acer 5315 rv3 and the latest Bios I have one 2gb 667mhz and 2bg 800mhz i tried different modules and swapt the modules and no go I get blue the screen. Running windows 7 ultimate 64..Any Ideas or suggestion.

From tech stuff

From tech stuff

 

@byghtn3: I've said it a hundred times, and will say it again: use a CD when flashing via Fn+Esc. USB drives are hit and miss.

(Also, no need for increasing video memory - the 8MB is just the amount of memory split off from system RAM for exclusive use by the IGP. The whole point of UMA is the ability to use shared RAM outside that exclusive area.)

 

you could buy a new wireless card with bluetooth like me and you`ll have bluetooth on you 5315 acer!

I check my mobo and I found out that mine is rev 3.... does anyone manage to install 4 gig of ram ? (2x2 gig)?? please reply to this ASAP because I want to buy some modules ASAP. If yes pleas tell me what should i buy ...@667 mhz or 800 mhz? tnx

 

So what blue tooth wifi did you buy for your acer 5315?

 

Here is what I did to upgrade my 1.7G celeron cpu - I changed it to a T5550 and flashed the bios to 1.45. And now I can load W7x64 Ult onto the acer. I am getting in later this week a T6500 but first I will put a T5750 in and then test a T6500 to see the end results. But the T5750 will be most likely the cpu in the Acer 5315 since that is 2.0 Ghz and that all I need to give it for now. Tried to go 3 gigs but wouldn't power up but since I upgrade the cpu and bios I will tray again and see what it does but putting just one 2 gig memory work though. I try for 4 gigs again and see what it does as well.

 

@StormJumper,

It is my understanding that the 2 gig module needs to be in the outside slot.

Try swapping them back and forth before giving up.

Byghtn3

 

I tried 4gig on my Acer 5315 and it booted up but did not go past the win7 logo it would just crash and get the blue screen. Went back to 3gigs. Look at my post above.

1 2gig stick 667mhz cl5 and 1 2gig stick 800mhz Cl6

 

@StormJumper what mobo do you have? rev1, 2 or 3? your test with 4 gigs of ram was successful? also try this

EDIT

another way of installing bluetooth on acer 5315 read this

 

I just tried to update my CPU and Ram but ran into an issue flashing the BIOS. I downloaded the 1.45 from the Acer site and ran it inside Vista. I got an error saying "error verify" and then the notebook restarted. It wont power on and the LED lights wont show when I connect the charger or try the power button. Is it fried or is there anything i can try?

 

Do an Fn+Esc recovery.

 

That did it, thanks. thought it was dead. but now im experiencing an issue with booting. It's at BIOS 1.45 and it hangs on a black screen with a cursor when trying to boot Vista. I tried installing again, but the installation freezes at "completing installation" and wont ever boot into Vista. I tried XP and Windows 7, but they both freeze at the initial installation screen. I scanned with memtest 86+ and RAM seems ok. I can't boot into Linux either. It gets to some text about sleep states and ACPI and freezes on Mint, and Ubuntu from a USB gets to SCSI devices and also freezes. I tried to go back to the T2330, but it still wont boot. I also wiped the HDD completely from the Vista install disk and it doesn't help as the installations still freeze. Any ideas?


edit: I got XP to install, but upon reboot it freezes at the Windows Xp screen with progress bar. I can actually go into safe mode though.

 

Try a CMOS clear (from BIOS setup, and also by shorting the onboard battery for a few seconds).

 

Bad and good news...

I can only go 2gigs of Ram only and the T5550 stills sits in it. I got T6500 and tried it and it doesn't work so no luck there. Will have to keep looking. I think it could be related to the FSB as the T5550/667 and the T6500/800 might be some limit in the chipset. I will try again to put 3 gigs and 4 gigs to give it a test I did update the bios to 1.45. Not sure on the mobo revision.

 

I got it to work. I replaced the t2330 and booted into safe mode where i selected diagnostic startup. It restarted and then in xp i went to msconfig and selected normal startup. It started fine. Then i downloaded the old v1.43 BIOS and downgraded to that. I replaced the t4300 and it booted right into XP. (oh i did need to change the bios back to IDE after the flash.) I'm going to try windows 7 now and see how well it does. Thanks


Windows 7: to get to W7 I had to do a clean install of Vista, which then froze and The clean install of W7 froze as well so i had to do an upgrade. It is up and running now, and i only have one problem. The laptop wont sleep or shutdown. I have tried disabling hardware and services, but i believe it is due to the t4300's sleep states as compared to the t2330. ( pent dual core vs core 2 ) The fan works since I downloaded acer's epower application. I just selected Hibernate and that works. I can shutdown from safe mode, but doing any type of selective boot other than just pure safe mode causes these shut down/ sleep issues.

 

So I bought a new battery for my Aspire, as the old one is almost dead. The new one is now have minor issues with rapidly discharging (fully charged when shutdown but when I boot on battery I get a system beep and then there's like 5% battery left) and before I'm able to return or exchange it, the seller wants me to enter BIOS, go to power, run a battery calibration and then update the battery to known and see if that resolves the issue.

Now, that's nice and all but I have never seen a power option anywhere in the 5315 BIOS (and I searched for a while last night). I've got BIOS 1.45 and that's the most current so am I missing something or was his response silly? Anyways, it sounds more like a faulty battery to me.

 

There are notebooks that have this option but these are rare cases.
I don't remember any of Acers using it- so no- you're not missing anything.

 

OK thanks downloads.

 

Are there any BIOS mods for the Insyde bios? I need to disable APM or ACPI in the BIOS. I think that's what is causing my machine to not work with Vista or 7 properly.

 

I highly doubt that I got windows 7x64 installed on my acer and not experiencing what you talking about. Can you be more specific as to the nature of the problem?

 

Yeah my last few posts have detailed the problem. I have been trying to upgrade to a t4300 from a t2330. So far:

-I tried updating the BIOS (to 1.45) first in Windows, which failed.

-I used recovery and then reupdated the BIOS to 1.43 once i got into Windows Vista.
( i tested RAM which passed, and tried removing to one stick at a time, but booting subsequently still failed. so ive just been leaving the 2 sticks in. 2x1gb 667 )
-I then installed the new processor. Windows froze on the Windows Vista logo screen.
- I tried reinstalling Vista, and it would freeze at the end of setup before rebooting. trying to boot after cutting it off resulted in freezing at the logo. ( though i could enter safe mode)
- I was able to install XP, then updated the BIOS to 1.45.
-Trying to install Windows 7 froze at the initial screen. I installed the old processor then finished the Win7 install then tried to put in the t4300. It would boot into safe mode again, but no Windows 7. (froze at starting up)
-When i enable boot logging the system boots into Windows 7, but will freeze trying to shut down or sleep. (hibernate works though)

I have tried removing anything attached to the system. (wifi, modem, RAM) but nothing seems to work.

 

Did you use the official version of 1.45, or a mod? (Black Edition has known issues with ACPI, due to my use of a too new ACPI compiler. This will be fixed in Black Edition v4.1.)

 

I used the official 1.45 direct from Acer. I didnt know you had a special edition. What benefits does the Black Edition have?

 

It reveals extra menus, an EFI shell (32-bit only ATM), improved MXM card support (for 5720G and 7720G owners - doesn't affect other models with the same BIOS), updated CPU microcode for the T7300 and T7500 CPUs, Intel VT support, downclocking bugfix for 45nm CPUs (T9300 now reports 2500MHz instead of 2493MHz - mostly cosmetic) and some other minor changes.

However, I'm starting to suspect that your T4300 may be an ES (beta) CPU.

 

How would i know if it's ES? It doesn't have any different markings than the image on CPUworld. And I had a weird thing happen. I am able to finish W7 setup if i leave a usb mouse plugged in. ( no freezing) It boots up and runs fine, but then if i unplug the usb mouse it freezes instantly. I tried installing Vista chipset drivers to see if it was a USB driver issue, but that caused it to freeze at shutdown and boot. Now it doesn't like to boot any OS.

I do think that those Advnced menus could help. I dont remember why i thought it was an ACPI or APM issue, but looking at the advanced menu screenshots for Insyde it shows I may be able to change those. Maybe editing the sleep states can help. Better than what it is now anyways.

 

Does it matter which port you plug the mouse into?

Also, install Black Edition (or the earlier Advanced Menu Edition V2, or MXM Edition V3), and play around with USB configuration. Try disabling ports one-by-one, or disabling entire host controllers. Likely one of your host controllers is dead (at HW level).

 

I couldnt find the Black edition, but i did find the AME V2 you posted on Marcansoft. I disabled all the USB, but windows 7 setup still freezes. I also tried the 3 different USB ports with the mouse, but they all let setup progress until it needs to shutdown or restart then it freezes. ( or if i unplug the USB mouse)

I've also had no luck disabling power states and getting the setup to progress.


newest--I disabled everything power management i could find and now it's letting me go through the W7 install without a USB mouse. And it shut down fine. Crap though, this means i have to enable one by one.

 

That sounds bad - perhaps the CPU is overheating.

 

Get this, I disabled C states and sure enough Windows 7 installs no Usb mouse needed and no freezing. Windows runs fine and sleep and shutdown work great.

Weird, because a few posts back i said "...but i believe it is due to the t4300's sleep states as compared to the t2330. ( pent dual core vs core 2 )...."

Guess that's true. Thanks for the custom firmware though so i could disable that.