Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

Revisé la guía de CPU, lo cual es excelente, pero todavía tengo que preguntar: ¿seré capaz de reemplazar a un Celeron M 410 con un T5200 en un TravelMate 2441, el chipset es ATI Xpress 200 tengo la intención de comprar?

 

I looked over the CPU guide, which is excellent, but I still have to ask: will I be able to replace an M 410 Celeron with a T5200 in a travelmate 2441, the chipset xpress 200M I'm planning to buy?

 

Hi, I believe it will work. I've installed Core 2 Duo's on Toshiba's with the ATi Xpress 200m chipset. I can't guarantee anything, but the chipset is ready. It will mainly come down to whether the BIOS supports it.

 

Hi -- I'm running the live Ubuntu CD on my Acer, which has not yet been upgraded, and it's certainly a breath of fresh air. The keyboard problem has gone away. The space bar was a real problem before -- now, not a problem. Would you advise installing Ubuntu alongside of Vista? Or under Vista? Or to hell with Vista on my notebook?

 

Well, as for me, I dove into Linux head-first in 2002. I completely replaced Windows with Linux and was 100% migrated in less than a month, and I never looked back. I've been very happy with these Acer's with Linux, especially in performance.

I myself will sometimes install Windows on my own laptops, in case I find myself in a pinch where I require Windows. (Of course, I can't remember any time that happened.) Since I use Windows very little, I just make a small partition for it. For most of my clients, I recommend using all but about 20GB of the hard drive for Windows and installing Linux in that 20GB. The reason I say that is that Linux has no problem reading and writing Windows filesystems, so if you simply keep the bulk of your larger files and documents in the Windows partition, you'll always be able to access them.

If you want Windows, I suggest installing Windows, then installing Linux from the installation disc and not from inside of Windows. It would probably work, but there have been occasional bootloader problems when using that method. Since you have no problem starting up and running the live CD, you'll probably have no problem installing from the CD.

Remember, backup early, backup often.

 

So I'm ready to put in the new processor and new memory. The video referred to in the first post is of no help in that the guy moves so fast it's impossible to tell what he's doing. Does anyone know of step by step instructions on opening up the 3680 and putting in the components?

 

I don't know of any step-by-step instructions, but I can give you the quick rundown from memory.

1: Take off the large memory cover
2: Unhook the WiFi antennas, modem, microphone, and speakers. (There are five connectors there, one of which is the CPU fan. It's fine to just unhook everything you see there.)
3: Remove the three screws from the back (two for the hinge covers, one close to a hinge
4: Open the screen all the way.
5: Grab the right edge of the strip of plastic that covers the hinges, power button, and quick launch buttons, and pull upwards. It should remove the entire strip pretty easily.
6: Remove the two screws holding the keyboard down, and pull up on the keyboard (around the F8 key) until it pops up easily. Then flip the tiny plastic latch that holds the ribbon cable onto the motherboard.
7: Find where the WiFi antenna wires pass through the middle of the chassis under the keyboard, and pull them back up and remove them from the rest of the chassis.
8: Unhook the screen from the motherboard. (Be careful, since it's made of tiny wires. It usually is pretty easy to pull straight out, but sometimes it gets stuck.)
7: Close the screen (carefully so as not to smash the cable against the screen), and remove the four hinge screws.
8: Open the screen again, and it should simply come all the way off
9: Remove the three screws under the keyboard.
10: Disconnect the touchpad (with a similar connector to the keyboard)
11: Flip the laptop over, remove the hard drive cover, hard drive, and short wide-headed chrome plated screw under it.
12: Remove all of the black screws from around the edges. (There's a silver screw in the hard drive compartment that does -not- need to be removed. It reinforces the edge of the chassis.)
13: Flip the laptop over again, unhook the lid switch (near where the power button is), and lift the top of the chassis starting from the right side. It tends to hang a little near the S-Video connector, but turning the chassis top a tiny bit while lifting it will usually free it right up.
14: Remove the two more black screws that hold the motherboard down to the bottom of the chassis. Grab the right edge of the motherboard, and lift it out, raising the back up first.
15: Flip the motherboard over, and remove the six screws that hold the CPU fan assembly. (Watch that the plastic washers don't get lost. They usually stay on the screws, but they sometimes do fall off. They need to be put back on if they fall off, otherwise the heatsink will not be flat on the CPU when you put it back together.

As they say in car manuals, "Reassembly is the opposite of disassembly," but these are the most helpful tips I can give:

The screws are almost all the same, except there's a short screw holding the hard drive chassis in, there are two screws holding the keyboard down, there's a short wide chrome screw under the hard drive, and the hinges have round-headed screws.

When handling the motherboard, be careful not to put stress on the corner with the power board.

When reinserting the motherboard into the chassis, gently hold the WiFi and BlueTooth switches to the right while inserting the motherboard starting at that exact point. So often, people miss this part, and then they put the whole thing together, only to get frustrated with switches that don't work. Rather than disassembling and reassembling, people then tend to force the switches, and they break. -IF- this happens, you can either use Linux, which can send the "ifconfig wlan0 up" command to the wireless card, or you can use the Acer Empowering Whatever-It's-Called to enable the card.

When putting the top of the chassis back on the motherboard, start from the S-Video connector area. This will make things much easier...

After doing this whole thing one time, you'll probably feel confident enough to do it all again whenever you feel like. It's a really pretty nice design that doesn't use silly plastic locks, double-stick tape, melted plastic rivets, tons of cables, or boards that need to be twisted to put into place. If you're like me, you'll probably find yourself disassembling and reassembling 3680's a lot, and the most annoying part is when you've done it too quickly and have reassesmbled it 90% of the way, only to realize that you forgot to run the WiFi antenna cables under the keyboard. q-: I've done that plenty of times.

 

I've got a 3680-2633 with the right chipset and am planning to use t-7200, OCZ vertex ssd, 4g ram. Question is has anybody used Windows 7 64 bit? Any problems?

 

Hi, my brother put Windows 7 64-Bit on his Acer 3680, and he's having no trouble at all. One problem, though, is that your motherboard will almost certainly not support 4GB of RAM. 2GB (theoretically 2.5GB) is the typical max for Acer 3680's. If your SSD has good caching, then 2GB of RAM will still run quite well. If you still need more speed and find that RAM is your bottleneck, then adding a ReadyBoost compliant flash device will probably do the trick. (If you want to be stealth about it and don't mind doing some SMT soldering, you can usually disassemble the flash drive, hide it under the power board, and hook it up to the Webcam jack. If you need pinouts for this, let me know.)

 

Very interesting thread, I was reading the posts(about 30 pages so far), I could go on for a few days. I stumbled upon a very expensive processor and would like to share with you all. Thanks to all contributed, well done.

 

i have acer 3680 celeron m [email protected] ghz 533 fsb. pc wizard and everest ultimate say my chipset is Intel i943/940GML. what is the compatible cpu for my laptop?
thanks for any reply

 

celeron m580 1.6g

 

exra_bujang, have you looked at the serial number on your RAM slots? it usually begins with five letters like "MBTEB" or "MBAZL". Considering the chip you have already, I would say it's likely that you have the 940GML chipset, which would mean that the fastest options are either a Core Solo, such as a T1600, or a Core 2 based Celeron, such as the Celeron M 520 (or the socket M version 530). I've successfully overclocked a Celeron M 520 well over 2 GHz, which resulted in quite good performance. I used "setfsb" with (if I remember correctly) the ICS 954310BGLF PLL. There's not yet any support for that PLL in the Linux utility "lfsb", but it should be easy enough to figure out how to do.

Of course, if you have the 943GML chipset, then you can go all the way up to a T7600, but the (very cheap) T5300 can usually go much faster when overclocked.

Don't forget the BIOS update!

 

if i have 940gml, so can use intel core solo only? what is the meaning of Intel i943/940GML? then, what is "setfsb"?

 

mine is acer aspire 3680 celeron m 1.46ghz. Intel i943/940GML. does it really work?

 

The "i943/940GML" means that PC Wizard and Everest Ultimate don't know which one it really is, whether it's the 943GML or 940GML. unfortunately, software can't tell you whether you have the 940 or the 943.

If you open the memory cover, there is a sticker on the memory slot. What does that sticker say?

 

i have open the ram cover, and it say it is 940gml..so bad. what is the best cpu for my laptop? celeron M 410 is not good in performance. also, it waste my laptop battery. i can only used my battery for 2 hours..

 

can any body tell the list of cpu that is very compatible with my laptop? chipset is gml940..

 

Source: Intel Mobile Processor Compatibility Guide (thanks to Commander Wolf)

 

any compatible with intel pentium dual core? its hard to find core solo

 

Unfortunately, no. There were rumors in the past that there was a PDC that would be compatible with the Intel 940GML based versions, but it seems to be incorrect.

About the Core Solo, I find them on eBay often for less than $10. If you want good performance and battery life for a cheap price, try searching for a T1300. They seem plentiful.

If you want the maximum performance, bad battery life, very very cheap cost, and you're willing to experiment and do something that could possibly be risky, then try a Celeron M 520 and overclock it with a program like "setfsb". (I think the PLL for your board is ICS 954310BGLF.) With a Celeron M 520, I have gone above 2 GHz, running Windows 7 64-Bit, since the Celeron M 520 is a stripped down, cut-in-half version of the Core 2 Duo.

You might also consider upgrading your motherboard. There are Core 2 Duo capable boards for around $50 on eBay.

Good luck!

 

upgrading motherboard? is it possible for my laptop? how to do that? yours is acer aspire 3680 too?

 

I have many Acer Aspire 3680's. The motherboard with Intel 940GML is physically very similar to the motherboard with Intel 943GML. They fit in the same chassis. One difference is that some of the 940GML motherboards use IDE hard drives, but almost all of the 943GML motherboards use SATA hard drives. Another difference is that the wireless card is usually MiniPCI on the 940GML version and MiniPCI Express on the 943GML version.

Other than those differences, I swap motherboards between chassis all the time. The motherboard used in TravelMate 2480, Aspire 3680, Aspire 5570, and a few others is the "ZR1" motherboard. The plastic bottom is usually identical from model to model.

 

(I should clarify something. By "upgrade motherboard", I mean replacing the motherboard with a newer one, not actually adding parts to the existing motherboard.)

 

sound interesting! where to get celeron m 520?

 

Oh, there are still plenty on eBay. Sometimes you can find some on the Pay It Forward thread on NoteBookReview

 

collit99 any feedbacks?did you upgrade your laptop to t5300..coz i have also aspire 4310.

 

acer gurus what processor upgrade is the best for my acer aspire 4310, celeron m 530 1.73Ghz..I'm not sure if its 940gml or 943gml..cpuz tells me my processor code name is conroe L while pc wizard is telling its Merom L..thanks

 

which is better celeron m 520 or core solo t1300/t1350/t1600?

 

Alamatx and Collit99, I'm sorry that I don't have any answer for you. if you tear it down and find that the chipset is a 943 or 945, then chances are very good that a socket M T5300 will work just fine. unfortunately, I can't say from experience, since I don't have any similar models. I buy several broken Acer laptops from recyclers every week, and I'll keep it in mind in case I see one.

As for the difference between the Celeron M 520 and the Core Solo's, if you are not overclocking, and you want to have good battery life, then you want a Core Solo T1600. if you are overclocking, and you want the highest performance, then a Celeron M will outperform any Core Solo. (It's possible to overclock a Core Solo, but clock-for-clock, a Celeron M 520 is more powerful.)

 

i have upgraded my 4310 from celeron m530 to core duo t2450..celeron temp at idle aroung 55c while with the t2450 its 42c..thanks to you guys this forum is really great!

maybe next upgrade will be the fsb 667.....

 

Krazyphire,

It's been a couple of years since you posted this.....any problems afterwards? I have the 3680-2682, and have to change the power card, so I thought I'd upgrade the processor while I'm in there (only 6 more screws).

Thanks,

flyingace22

 

Upgrading to the Core 2 Duo processor uses less power, produces less heat, has more cache and therefore requires less speed out of the RAM, and more. There are no downsides. :-D Keep in mind that the 2480's and 5570's are ZR1's as well. Acer used the exact same motherboard in other configurations with dual-core CPU's. This upgrade will actually prolong the overall life of your laptop by straining power circuits less.

I've been doing this kind of upgrade on laptops for years.

 

Does anybody have a good close up picture of the motherboard at the sata port back and front? I just got a 2480 board that I converted to sata from ide but I need to enable sata power.

 

I have some.

http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/1.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/2.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/3.jpg

Let me know if I can help you with that project. if I remember correctly, you have a ton of capacitors in a row, right? I do a lot of SMT work, including conversions like this, so I will be happy to help any way I can.

 

Odd, I place the capacitors and resistors just like in the photo and still the drive does not power up. I checked for 5v and 3.3v is being sent to the drive and thats ok

 

yeah, nice thing about wiring up SATA is the small number of pins. however, the not-so-nice thing about it is that the drive actually has to be told that it's okay to power up... does your board have MiniPCI or MiniPCI Express? (if it has Express, then you can buy or make one of those SATA&USB adapter cards, simply run fresh wires to the drive, and run a wireless USB adapter on it.)

 

my board has miniPCI

 

Got power to the drive now, but its not detecting in the bios. Do you have pics of the southbridge front and back? I know I need to add a capacitor to C646,C649 beside the southbridge.

 

http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/4.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/5.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/6.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/7.jpg
http://local.winchesterpc.com/acer3680sata/8.jpg

Sorry I couldn't get better pictures. Please note that this one has MiniPCI Express. I don't know what else may be different. Good luck! Are you going to publish instructions for this particular conversion? If so, I'd like to put it on my website.

 

Hope this will be a new thread...otherwise tell me how to...thanks.

Trying to upgrade a 5310 acer aspire with i943GML on MB.AH302.001 and found that T5500 up to T7600 would work fine. But I wonder what happens with the frequency if it does not match the original 133mhz multiplied to 1600 1733 or 1866 etc... Can anybody tell me if the board will automatically adjust, if there is waste, if it is better to to go with a T5200 for safety or what shoudl be done/thought about this? And what about heat with the higher frequency models? The original CeleronM520 has 31w/45w max, the T7600 has 34w/53w heat power emissions. Anybody got some experience?
Many thanks in advance.

 

Hi, I can't guarantee anything about your particular configuration, but in all of the cases where I've had a 943 or 945 chipset with a BIOS that supports Core 2 Duo, all of the socket M based chips work at their rated speed. As for heat, the numbers are a little deceptive. The Core and Core 2 chips have much better power saving features, and as such they can end up getting close to 1 watt at idle. The Celeron's have almost no power saving features, so they run hot all the time.

 

If you could decide between T5200, T5300 and T5600, which one brings the biggest gain compared to a Celeron M 520? Which one will be the lowest risk if the goal is to make it work for sure?

 

I've got a T7200 cranking, wow what a difference.

Has anyone had luck with 4GB Ram? I've purchased 2x 2GB PC-5300 sticks and I can only get one to work at a time, despite reading 4GB is supported in the service manual.

I've read of some people experiencing the same issue with other Acer laptops (5102) and a bios jumper short circuit has solved the problem
http://superuser.com/questions/63233/4gb-memory-upgrade-for-acer-aspire-5102wlmi

does anyone have any knowledge in this area? I'd love to get 4GB so I can get 64-bit Windows 7 running.

Thanks

 

You've read in the manual that the 3680 support 4GB???! I thought 2GB was the max permitted by the chipset(GM943/5, right?)..

 

2gb is the max. You can pop in 4gb but 2gb will only be addressed.

 

what is the chipset in the aspire 3690? is it i940? support core Duo t2080?

 

read the first post on the first page to answer your question

 

i have read it. but as i know, AS 3690 is using i940gml..

 

My 3690 is running i945 chipset with a T7200.No issues.Plug n Play.The latest bios flash helps.A larger single partition 7200rpm hard drive helps a lot.Mine came with an 80gb hard drive and two partitions that equaled to 67gb.Vista took the rest of the space and I am almost full now from Vista and anti spy/adware and their updates.I'm sure there are other things that can be done to get more from a two core processor but I am to lazy to do the research and work. :laugh: