Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

Thanks ellalan,

The apricorn cloning software partitions proportionally by default, but can be changed to any settings wanted. I'm just not sure yet how I will want my much larger drive partitioned. What would you say is the largest practical size the recovery should be?? I have Vista home basic btw, and don't see the need to change it.

Don

 

Okay, the T7300 one wont work, am currently looking for some suggestions or recommendations on a CPU that will work with my laptop acer 3680-2680 dual core 32 bit.

and i have tried the 5300 AGN , but none of the drivers would work, got a feeling it is not a real Intel Wifi Lan Card, got it from egay i mean ebay, but it is not working with the drivers . hard to pass up those cheap deals.

I have in mind this Lan Card , but im not sure if i have to have some intel centrino chip or chipset or CPU ?
I read somewhere it works with Centrino Intel technology .... now specifically what does this mean for me? What are they saying ?
my CPU has to be Centrino , i have the Celeron M , is this lan card compatible im interested in here at this link for my laptop?

any help would be appreciated. thank you.

 

Hi Don,
If you go in to Disk Management,you can see how much is allocated for recovery partition( EISA Configuration), mine is 7.81GB. I suppose a few MB more than that should be suffice.

EDIT: @ Adventures, you can upgrade to T7200,T7400 or T7600 but I would suggest you to go for T7200.

 

@Don, for some reason i did not see your post, sorry , I was going to go to clonedisk.net or dot com, looked into it, and its seemed to much drama, so i kept it simple, and did not clone the HDD WD Scorpio Black 2.5" WD5000BEKT

New, yes its 500gb 7200rpm . picked it up for 58.00 off ebay from King Star 8.00 S&H it came boxed and bub wrapped in static bag, and bumper shelf inside , the seller is an ebay seller out of Sunnyvale Calif.

So, all i did was remove the old HDD 80 gig toshiba, and drop the old one in. then had my WIN OS disk xp ready to boot the Laptop , and voila it prompted me to create a new partition or go off the older partition that was there, i had even downloaded the latest bios first before then used the file flash the bios , and it did it with all other programs closed, worked like within about 15 minutes to swap it out and do this, minus the OS download.

I did not use the partition recovery thing either, i removed it, i loaded it all on the same memory. reason why??? well, because my laptop lost and got corrupted the original software and Acer being the company they are would not provide support to get it fixed or recovered, nothing would work to recover it. the maximum allocation should be shown in the disk properties area...

so now, im happy and good to go, and its real simple and easy peasy. i can run my pc without being an admin as a user, for online stuff and use my other stuff to protect my pc laptop.

and yes, i did see the properties of the allocated disk space first by clicking on start/my computer/right click local disk/scroll down click properties. and the allocation to the disk are there, mine is disabled for that through just ignoring this , and during the bios prompt during the re installing the windows OS. the maximum allocation should be shown in the disk properties area...including minimum.


Thanks Ellalan for the suggestion, i want to update to the latest 32 bit dual core processor possible. Because i am getting the wifi card will depend on this quite a bit. Reason is i believe is because the PCIE Mini Bus Wifi lan Card, has been re sized for most laptops to half the size, that use the N Channel range, and the MIMO technology, not to mention the extra wire terminal is not bluetooth it is an extra signal speed and strength , from what i read. also the OS win 7 compatibility, which i plan to upgrade eventually.
In addition , the full size 2x1 " mini PCIE wifi lan card in the acer 3680-2682 is used like most older laptops, and the newer laptops use the half sized card.
what i am finding out, is these wifi cards are not all OEM, and dont have the matched Mac addressed as the OEM ones and wont load the Drivers or the drivers for the Adapter wont load for these cards and are sold all over, but i got mine ready to be refunded and sent back, it was a not a user friendly online parts company out of New York, they charged me 10 bucks to S&H, and now a 20 percent restocking fee, and it was slow shipped, with no good options, then it arrived with a boot print and mangled package of a bub wrap envelope. i was not happy.
i price shop the heck out of the web too.
I am interested in the centrino type duo core, because they have a wifi lan pci mini bus card of the 6000 series that has speeds of up to 450 mps, and N channel, among the extra strength wire terminal , which i ran already when had the laptop apart.

That Centrino dual core processor helps the compatibility of using the wifi card i believe which also helps the wifi card to send signal to the television stream media or movie content to the telly. sound good so far?
not sure if i can find anything close but will settle for the best i can find and or get to work, that is why i want some dual core 32 bit centrino processor, to work. im not real good at this stuff, but i can learn as i go and get drivers to make them work one step at a time per install. Hopefully.

So, if that T7200 is 32 bit dual core centrino, im in like flynn. Are there any things to watch out for when installing the T7200, i would imagine just clean , and dab a new Thermal paste, and drop in, reboot, and install the chipset driver to match it, and a graphics media driver too ? is this correct?

Im going to search this , well i got some used parts to sell already that came out of my laptop. so it should offset some of these costs too. I also noticed the updating of my drivers for my chipset currently helped the laptop a great deal after the install of my HDD .
enough of my ramblings. hope some of this helps, any ideas or suggestions for my lan card needed? I can get as close as possible but, hey whatever works best as far as this mobo can tolerate and will run for now. This Mobo has the three input jacks on the front and the slider selector buttons for the wireless and blue tooth button, so i would think that might be an issue if someone is to change out the mobo??? not sure. thanks for the help.

 

ellalan: thanks for the info.

adventures: the arctic silver site has instructions for applying the thermal paste. As I mentioned, I have already changed my celeron 440 to the t5600. The was nothing to it, it booted normally and installed all needed drivers. The t5600 & the t7200 are both core2 duos, so there would be no difference. What OS do you have? I have vista home basic, which came with the 3680-2682. Iv'e heard it mentioned in this thread somewhere that a patch is needed for duel core, when the os is xp. But if your os is vista home basic, notta problem.


Well, it is that time to tear my acer apart, and change the mobo. Wish me luck, and the next I post here, I let you know how it works.

Don

PS ellalan, before getting started on my mobo swap project, I checked my disc, and I also have 7.81 gigs for recovery. As my drive is 80 gigs, that's nearly 10% of the drive for recovery. When I install the 500 gig, 10 % of that would be around 50 gigs for recovery. Way too much of a waste of space for recovery!

 

Hi Don,
That's correct, if you choose proportional partitioning, the software will allocate 10% of your new drive(ie 50GB). That is why you have to choose your own custom sized partitions, now you know your recovery partition needs 7.81GB so just allocate between 8 to 9Gb to be on the safe side and rest of the partitions you can do as you wish(according your requirements).

 

Mobo swapped! SUCCESS!!! Seems to be working fine. I'll let it run for awhile and make sure there's no problems. I had no problems booting... it just installed drivers and that was it. My 3680 will take 4 gigs of ram now, but didn't have an extra 2 gig stick, so there is 3 gigs in it right now. Only strange thing was I had flashed the bios to the latest 3508, but it's back to the 3505 it was before. strange.

Don

PS So my best advice for anyone with a celeron 3680 to get the most bang for the buck... Get a NEW TDX06 mobo at ebay ($60-80), and a core 2 duo t5600 or t7200 ($30-60).

PPS 2nd strange thing is my puter won't idle. There's something like 91 processes going on last time I checked. The temp seems about right for the cpu usage. Must be something having to do with changing the board. The speedstep will usually drop it down to half speed when at idle, but only drops momentarily, and then right back up. Hope this takes care of itself. OK, it's windows explorer that's just using 50% of the cpu, for what reason I don't know yet.

Yep, have a glitch and need some help. Explorer won't stop running, and is taking around 50% of the cpu all the time. I tried ending the process, but it shut down my desktop. Although my pc wizard was still running, and had the little widget going, and got to see the cpu go to idle, and speedstep drop the speed, along with the temp. I googled this problem, and there seems to be a problem with vista. But didn't have the problem before I swapped boards. Any ideas???

Don

 

Don, Hey , that is good news to hear the Mobo was a success, i had this issue before too, with the old firefox 4.0 so i deleted every bit of it, and booted then once i changed the memory it helped some too. the svchost is wearing out the cpu somehow in the keeping the process high, i also had some bad registry issues with some fake software piggy backed that was written as microsoft drivers and it had something to do with the registry. it was a back door thing, i believe it was coming up as FF Generic, and Hupigon32 , so i cleaned them deleted the spywareterminator software and the Iobit, and have not had the issues since, i swapped out my HDD and Cleaned out the Partition thing and added a fresh Set of Files of my Windows Operating system Home Edition of Windows XP.
This Laptop came with Vista Home Basic , which is 32 bit, but from what i gather now, these 64 bit cpu's you guys are installing and are working will work with them because of how the bios was written by the manufacture with an E something 64 bit/32 compatible architecture structure to run either bit Operating System.

Oh, I did forget to mention something when i changed my HDD , for some reason it placed a exclamation warning triangle yellow on the device driver area , that was in front of the word [serial] under device drivers.
So i deleted it. Dont need it so far, it creates it from windows microsoft with the new HDD when adding your new windows operating system. called a parser port, not needed for a plug and play external or internal thing, because, it comes with the drivers in the system software from the acer manufacture, and loads fine. the New HDD automatically triggers this with the loading of the new windows OS xp or vista when loading i believe.
My plug and play on the laptop works find with the port connections. so far. no issues found.

what is the difference between T5600 and T7200 Cpu ?
and i noticed the T7200 is a 64 bit, i would need the patch for that perhaps too?
will check the acer website , i did notice a patch in their software window operating system selection differences somewhere there at one time or another.

also you can go to intel, and download their tools to see how your cpu is working and your other stuff on your pc , as to what latest download updates you need, and it will change how your pc or hard ware runs a great deal, i dont know the parameters on some of the new hardware and such.
I got new memory, too so thats a plus , and i turn on updates it helps the laptop respond better too with issues to the new hardware such as errors and windows installer and xml stuff i noticed.
service pack updates i mean.
you might want to make sure your updates are on, and clean out whatever you had, disable the system restore, and install a fresh windows os, and delete the old partition and start fresh but make sure you back up or flash drive whatever you want to keep for later you know is good.
If your HDD is not defragged or wont, and the CPU is being overloaded.
you might want to re write that registry with a clean install of win os, and with deleting the old partition and going fresh.
I know i had that issue before, but because i shot gunned it , i am not sure , after the fresh install of win xp and deleting the old partition, i noticed the difference, from what i recall too.

and uh, the slider buttons in the front of your acer are not an issue with the new mobo the 3 input jacks and the bluetooth and the wireless slider buttons???

dont forget to tell me, about the CPU thing about 32 to 64. I think i should be ok. if your win flash resorted back to the older one, i would download the new bios, and then re flash it with every program closed possible.
just to see if thats the issue first.
hey good luck. Oh and as i was going to say , Win Os Vista 32 Home basic was the original OS with my pc but was corrupted and could never be recovered, i used to use the product key code for win xp home edition, but that product key code wont work for anything.
not sure why? maybe it came with an expiration date too, :lol: and the Acer crappy support wont sell me a recovery disk or any original software, they suck.... as anyone knows.

 

Hi Adventures,

The t5600 & t7200 are virtually the same, and both 64 bit. About the only difference is the slightly higher speed, and 4mb of cache, instead of the 2mb. But doubt it makes much difference. The mobos are identical. The sliders, jacks, everything is the same. I'll figure out the thing with the explorer running all the time. I downloaded a registry error tool, and it said I had some 500 registry errors. But it seems like some bogus software, with malware attached. Do you know of good legit registry error software? I've never used it. Anyway, everything is working fine except for explorer running full throttle.

Don

 

Solved the problem! I have carbonite online backup. I noticed since a swapped boards, when I would mouse over the icon, it was constantly saying trying to connect with backup server, so I figured I'd remove the software and re-install it. As soon as I removed it, it dropped down to idle. So, the mobo swap is now a total success! You did know that the core 2 duo will idle a lot cooler then the celeron? It drops down to half speed with no load. Great for the battery, but I always have it plugged in so don't notice it.

 

does the T7200 run warmer than the original cpu , and if so what is the temp on it currently? so you just flashed the bios, and dropped in the replacement? and it worked fine? Im wondering whats the diff of the t5600 and the t7200 if any?

I thought T8100 is a P socket and wont work in a 3680-2682 acer laptop? how did everything turn out?

the chipset for a T8100 is a 965 gml family i believe. the chipset for the acer 3680-2682 is a 945 family chipset. which would work if the P socket is not an issue, dont quote me on this one. although, i would be interested if it worked out or not??? anyone ? hello?

Im at the crossroad on the T5600 vs the T7200, sounds to me like there's heat generated from the T7200 CPU, and with the added warmth of the Black Scorp wdBekt5000 500gig 7200 rpm HDD
not so sure if i want any more heat generated what is the temp of the cpu under a normal workload on the CPU ? on the Intel site they have a Tool download for one to check this, which i believe is called an Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool. let me know, the same for the T5600 CPU in a post . thanks. I kind of think im going with a T5600 . Just want to make sure all the stats and opinions are in , before i make a final decision as to what im dealing with and want to achieve . performance, and less heat, more efficient less power consumption, more speed, and better processing, yes. and i want to get a wifi lan card to upgrade too. I read the stuff on the T8100 it appears it would work, but Don mentioned the P socket CPU on a T7300 would not work, and was thinking , is this the same with the T8100 CPU as well being a P Socket or is this different?

 

@ ellalan (or anyone that knows), I'm curious about the mobo I got and just put in my 3680. It's MB.TDX06.005. Every listing for this mobo I've found states it uses a core2 duo 2.1 - 2.66 ghz cpu. There are no socket "m" c2d cpu's that go up to 2.66... are there??? Here is the mobo on ebay, as you can see the specs... Any ideas which ones are in that range. As this is listed as an acer replacement board for 3680, 5570, 5580 perhaps it was intended for processors never used in them originally???

NEW Acer Aspire 5570 3680 5580 Motherboard MB.TDX06.005 - eBay (item 350325966005 end time Jul-01-11 08:40:13 PDT)

@ Adventures... the pesky problem of explorer running all the time, came back Maybe it has something to do with the above... Probably not. ellalan, if you have any ideas about this, I'm all ears!

Adventures... I don't think you'll have any problems with t7200 running (significantly) warmer then the t5600. I've read all the posts here from when it first started, and don't remember anyone mentioning a problem with heat. The latter costs a little less, and it really is about how much performance you can afford. If you had the $ the T7600 would be the way to go.

Don

 

Hi Don,
You can go up to T7600( 2.33GHz) with M socket CPUs but instead of spending money on a higher speed CPUs, why not think about putting a SSD which will improve the performance many folds. Just a thought.

 

Thanks Don, The MOBO you listed is the same MOBO i have in my acer 3680-2682, how i know is under the CPU when i had the laptop apart i looked for the original part number to the MOBO. and it matched up to DA0ZR1MB6E0 which is the same as the Board you are installing, was the original one you had was bad? or cracked or did you think you could add more memory from 2gigs to four gigs?
When i read most information including on the link you provided , these boards can take a paired 4gig SODIMM set memory ... someone told me they have lied and can take 3 gig ram.
but now that i am reading more from the MOBO i am reading there can be 4 GIGS ram added.
Unless, it means the 2 gigs plus the allocation from virtual or CPU Memory Cache itself besides the RAM ???
I am not a guru at this stuff, I admit I am still a Noob, with a general idea of basic stuff on some of this hardware swapping.
here is a link for processor mobile info

I always thought Explorer runs all the time, because if it does not then there would be no windows to platform itself on or run on. you can click alt ctrl del and bring up your task mgr, then see for yourself when you click on explorer and then click on end task.

Here is your link for Registry and PC Booster and Cleaner

Now, after your post on the MOBO thing, i did a generic search and came up with a slug of MOBOS , appears there are a few for ACER laptops, not sure if they have any better than the one we already have or if they have more than one MOBO to choose or use for the acer 3680-2682 ???
Most of this information should be generic widely known information by now, due to the age of the laptops, and the speed of technology .
Perhaps there is too much to keep tabs on.

So the L or E series wont work and the P Sockets wont work, and the T8100 wont work either because of being a P Socket CPU?

Let me ask this, will these MOBOS or the Bio's for these Acers accept a different CPU other than INTEL , such as AMD and can be cross referenced , could this be the CPU being able to reach the GHZ speed Don is Talking about, such as the dual core processor, not having in mind the M Socket or CPU , because i thought the M Processors were all single core?

Also, are these Mobos all uniform when it comes to using the same Socket for the CPU for these Acer Laptops?
If these CPUS are used in these same MOBOS are capable of the types read by Don, then it might just be the difference is the DL for the Chipset and the Bios for that particular Laptop on manufacture site. now im not sure on this, but have a hunch as long as the same MOBO on different acer models have the same socket and is using OEM intel processors that somehow are working fine. that should be the proof, doing the research to find these, and making sure the Hardware is OEM is the fun part, otherwise in the end one might be wasting time.
Im still new so , if im wrong, dont quote me, any advice would help.

 

Adventures... the very first page of this thread has a lot of info on it. If you have the MB.TDX06 board then that is the top one and you can't do any better. I don't know about using AMD cpu's. The MB.TDX06 board is the only one of the 3 listed on the first page of this thread, that will support 4 gigs of ram. That's the main reason I wanted to swap boards. Right now I have 2 gigs in one slot, and 1 gig in the other. I'll get the bug out of this puter eventually. I just downloaded the registry cleaner from your link. It removed a ton of errors, but still won't idle like it did before. May have to end up re-installing os.

Thanks ellalan. I will be at least getting a 7200 rpm drive when I change it. Was considering a SSD drive but might wait till the price drops a bit.

To any one interested, here is a you tube on the disassembly of a 3680. Before I first tore mine apart, I downloaded it, and burned it to dvd so I could play it on my tv.There's also a companion manual to this vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI_PC4IPznQ

http://www.moneyaccumulator.com/images/S.G_AS3680_5570_5580_BOOK.pdf

 

I love the way my pc works with videos now, with more memory and with updates on my graphics media update and the HDD it just does not stutter or stammer, it is smooth streaming playing for me.

I just picked up the 5600T off e bay, so i think it should do the trick. the T2400 is the same almost but is 32 bit, which i was hesitating, but i think i can run vista or win 7 with this laptop after the change, i am contemplating installing the 2 gigs paired so dimm , in each card slot, hope thats all that needs to be done , and nothing else is required to get the 4gb ram to work.

also, the wifi lan card. any recommendations to get 450mps N Channel working? I can sell my parts after i changed out to cut the costs of these prices down some too.

I would like to install a cam and change the bezel in this laptop too. but its not a big deal.
So i will need a 64 bit win vista or win 7 wont I , after changing to the T5600 CPU, is this correct?
what is the chipset ? the same as it is now, as the M 440 celeron ?

 

Only Intel 6300 or 5300 can do the job that's provided you have a 450mbps capable router.

 

Adventures... I'm running 32 bit vista home basic with the t5600. Found some useful software btw. It's windows "process explorer"... It helped me get rid of that explorer.exe problem. This is handy free software.

Helpdesk Software Blog - Vista explorer.exe CPU 100% problem

Does anyone know about re activating Vista after a major upgrade (like a motherboard). Forgot about that when I swapped boards yesterday (different board w different chipset), but so far, so good. I bought the acer over 3 years ago, maybe this is't necessarily after a certain length of time???

Upgrading motherboard using Vista requires a new license of Vista [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums

 

Thanks for the Info. i have the capable router. i tried the 5300 agn i believe it would not work due to not being OEM, drivers would not work, or load the adapter. it was for an HP model laptop.

They make this FULL to HALF MINI PCIE Lan Card Wifi Adapter, low profile from China, and Germany, the one in the USA, looks bulky and not so compact or thin, and costs well American Consumer priced three times as much or more.
I am thinking on using the 6300 half mini, with an full to half adapter lan card holder. hopefully the bios and the cpu t5600 im installing will support the install ???

For quite awhile there was an issue using Firefox somehow using some svchost.exe overloading the cpu and freezing or crashing the browser or the use of multiple tabs using too much memory, not sure why or how. and the explorer thing, not sure what youre getting at with that windows process. will check the handy free software link you posted , if that is referring to the windows process explorer.exe problemo. hope i didn't mislead you , im just not aware of there being a explorer process issue.

I got this feeling the product key codes expire on the back of the acer laptop we have after three years. because they discontinued the acer recovery software, and i am not sure if the Windows OS was ever part of that recovery software ???
I tried to find a disk cd recovery for all of this from Acer, they just wont give any support if your pc is out of warranty, not even answer a basic question how to purchase a cd, they just mentioned once its out of date , youre done.
LOL i got a kick me sticker put on my back with this laptop purchase from Acer , it appears when needs support for their products.

Don, so with this Laptop MOBO , you think i could get away with slapping in 2gigs of ram so dimm ddr2 in each mem socket to upgrade the memory?
if this is the case i would have not put a single gig in each slot. but i can always keep or sell them , if the new memory i get does not work with four gig paired memory.



update, to the explorer process, yeah, xp gets that too, perhaps its a win os seller thing, multi pronged attack with edb , files thumb files, and svc host files , blah, who knows what they do overloading the cpu and the service packs and the updates to the explorer files to the cpu . they start out with an update for the Win Os from microsoft , right around phase out date for old Win OS and introduction to new Win OS . Conspiracy theories vs. Commonsense and bad updates with dual purposes.
Blah.

 

Adventures... if you have the board with the 945 chipset sure you can pair 2 2 gigs of ram. The boards with the 940/943 chips only allow 2 gigs total.

PS I see we both like the sea lol

 

@Adventures

There should be no issues with 6300 caused by you laptop's BIOS.

 

well, all i know is i have the mobo # MBAZLO600372011FD52500 now does that mean i have the 945 chipset to load 4gigs by pair of 2 per slot? or am i missing something? Arrrrr matey ! yes the sea is a breath of fresh air. and my playground .

I always thought, if one has a 64 bit cpu, they must use 64 bit drivers for their pc to work with their Hardware, and the OS should also be 64bit, unless the software can work with both, and or the wifi lan card has the chipset ability to work with the 64 bit , that is written in the architecture in the bios???
Am i misunderstanding some information i misread from intel and their em64bit architecture technology info?

I am now considering if i cannot get any 6300 wifi lan card to be compatible to work with my acer laptop, then i will consider Broadcom or atheros, atheros is what im starting to read about now.
I dont like the hit and miss or the trial and error thing. I am trying to understand what i need and learn what it takes to get my acer upgraded to run as best it can due to its age and compatibility limitations.

the mini pcie wifi lan cards are now half sized, and i can get an adapter to use a half sized card. the question would be can i get a card to work and load the driver and work in my laptop.
still waiting on my T5600 to arrive, should of been here by now.
any links as to what type of card would work and get me the most MPS and N channel?

 

There's nothing hard-coded into the BIOS about being 64bit- Intel 6300 is supposed to work on both 32bit & 64bit systems and drivers are provided for both. You may get (or have gotten) a lemon or a card that's meant for a specific vendor that won't run in your Acer- but other than that it should work.

 

Adventures... the MB.AZL06.003 board is the one I had, and replaced. It has the 943gml chipset, which allows only 2 gigs of ram. The MB.TDX06.005 (the one I just installed) allows 4 gigs of ram, also full use 667 ram (the other restricts the ram to 533).

 

Hey thanks for the insight, and help , Much appreciated.

okay, you posted a link to the MOBO where you picked it up, to upgrade, i matched the numbers to my MOBO, although at the beginning of this thread it said to use the numbers to match the chipset to say what MOBO one has, if i am correct , or misunderstood you.
not sure now... either way, that memory card top slot of mine shows MBAZL0600373011FD52500 , while contradicting the MOBO# under fan on MOBO# DA0ZR1MB6E0 .... see what im saying here?

the chipset does not determine the memory of the MOBO or the number on the Top Memory slot card holder, i think. And the Number on under the fan is the MOBO # and does , am i right? because the #MB.TDX06.005 is the same as the MOBO# DA0ZR1MB6E0 , correctomundo, right?

What im saying, is the Number matching the chipset is what determines the memory usage, according to the beginning of this thread.
and the link to where you purchased the Mobo or where i read on Ebay, the information in the Mobo Numbers , mentioned the MOBO# DA0ZR1MB6E0 is the same MOBO# as the MB.TDX06.005 ?
Which seems contradictory or am i missing something here or misreading ?

 

Now your starting to confuse me a bit adventures. lol All I know (for sure) is the best way to determine the mobo that is capable of supporting a max of 4gigs of ram, is the sticker on or near the ram slots. It will have MBTD06 there, which will mean that the 945GM chipset is installed. The mobo with the MBAZL06 sticker has the 943GML chipset which will only support 2 gigs of ram. This is all I know, and btw, the mobo swap is working perfectly now, without any bugs at all.

 

I am going to have to go to the link you provided of the Mobo , in your earlier post then copy and paste the wording of what i read, perhaps i misunderstood.
anyways, im glad the Mobo is working for you now.
What is even better, once you install the 500Gig 7200 Rpm HDD, you will notice your pc will run like a dream machine.

so far mine runs very well, im very happy... so far. I would like to get me a newer laptop, welll actually im in the market now for one, im having a difficult time because im not knowledgable enough to know which processors are second generation dual core or latest on the Icores etc, and their equivalence in another brand.
Im trying to read as much as possible and research, but little time with all the browsing going on.
I got my T5600 today, and im about ready to attempt this, i did speak to someone, we have to get into the bios menu and unlock a submenu part then enable virtual something i believe.
Anyways.

Im ready to slap this processor in, to see if theres a difference in performance.
Thanks for the help too. I got this feeling the Chipset thing in these Mobos determines the Memory, and the three Mobos are all interchangable with the one the guy sold you. Im going with that. all i know is the chipset is the determining factor on the memory allowed or maximum set. I will go with that because it sounds the most logical and its a given.

I am trying to decide on a lower end laptop to buy then rebuild, either a MSI or a Lenovo.

gotta work with a low budget. 5-650 not good. i may have to save some money up some to get something close, because some of these are not rebuildable because they use i guess a cheap chipset lol.

UPDATE; I just got off the phone with the skyline-eng.com guy, he ran my number of the SNID and came back with a Chipset of 940 , lol the beginning of the thread said i had a 943 according to the sticker number of the top memory card slot holder.

Which i did match up to be a 943 chipset...

and, yes its confusing because the DA0ZR1MB6E0 he said at skyline, is on every one of those interchangable boards. Heh Heh
Well, I got this feeling, My Board will accept the extra 2 gig memory, which i am going to try when i get some extra cash.
if i get them and dont need them , i can always resell them .

I will keep this posted if it works out to add 4gigs ram total .

Now, is there a way to add a better/later graphics card, or is that not needed? or dependent on anything else too?

Ok, going to install the T5600 today, hope all goes well.

UPDATE; 1hr and 45 minutes later, T5600 CPU installed, the thing booted up like it was meant to be there originally.
Wow, the difference in the Laptop already. Im really diggin this thread, and the info on this site.
It has helped me a great deal, Thanks guys, and Don the Viking .
*Salud*
To a Better Day and a Faster Laptop.

Now, i have to find out which exact or latest atheros wifi card will work on my laptop 3680-2682 , and i need to find the driver and utility or adapter that will support it , either generic or find out how to enter a code to the driver file to make the latest one work, i got my eye on the atheros 9380 .
anyone know if this will work ? any suggestions?

 

Glad it's working for you Adventures!

I was having a little problem still that I couldn't figure out. Was having security problems logging into my bank, ebay etc, and my carbonite backup wasn't working etc. I kept getting "check your time and date!" I thought I had it manually set right down to the seconds. Then I took a closer look, and the year was 2005! lol So, something I learned about installing a new mobo... make sure the date is correct and you're not living in the past! lol

 

Thank You, same there VikingDon, my laptop works like brand new. unbelievable .

the CPU is 64 bit, the drivers for my OS are 32 bit, the Drivers for my pc are 32 bit. and all is well back home, so to speak.

I am really enjoying this.

i had forgot to plug my fan in when i rebooted my laptop after the install of the cpu. although, i caught it quickly, i can easily see how the ram can affect everything.

Happy 4th to you and yours.

Update; @DonViking , did you enable the virtualization in your bios advanced menu to your newly installed CPU ?
why not have the full functionality of your new CPU, right?

 

Adventures... I haven't gone into the bios to change anything yet. But have found this interesting thread, that appears to claim, that with the 3508 bios, the settings can be changed, so as even an 1066 FSB core 2 duo can be used!!! Have to read into it when I have the time.

Acer Aspire 3680 v3508 Unlocked Advanced Options

Happy 4th to you & yours as well.

Don

 

Interesting post of the new processor, hey, im good with this processor, its appears to be doing its job just fine, i do however am looking into overclocking it, just dont know what parameters i could get away with to set for optimum performance and cooling. The link you have shows the processor u mentioned, but i believe its a 775 socket, for a desktop, which means runs hotter, not for laptops, but im not so sure about the details ,

 

Did you check out the link? It was about 3680 modified bios. I downloaded it, but haven,t done anything with it yet.

 

I went and did the download , i told you about on my post on the page before this one , Post 1629, i believe.

The Bios Mod, i believe is the same thing, not sure, did not spend alot of time comparing the bios menu to the one in the download you provided , i believe they are the same??? not sure.

But , with the link i gave you , all i did was download it and clicked on browse file and the only file there was the one i clicked then, clicked enter, and voila.
it flashed my bios.
Next rebooted, and the advance part of my menu was there, and i clicked enable to the virtual part. Worked easier than i thought, about a 5 minute process.

Let me know what you found different or better? I like the T5600 CPU, it works great. when i looked into the other one, it showed it was a desktop CPU, although it was low on GHz and kept the heat down, it was also a 775 socket, so , who knows what the result of this will be like?

It may kick butt too. not sure. Im interested in finishing this acer up with a wifi lan card , im thinking an 5008 atheros. reasonably priced, and supposed to work.

 

First of all, thanks. After seeing the posts on this site for the 3680, I snagged one on ebay. Still in the mail, but looking to upgrade as soon as it gets here.

My question is what to get first and what is the best value? Eventually trying for the most RAM I can pack in this baby, hoping for at least 4gb, though speed is important, too.

I think it`s a 3680-2882, but we`ll see. I`ve got time to check out some sites and deals before it lands.

So T5600 or T5300, what are the pluses? Best dealers(probably won`t go ebay for this stuff) and memory to go with them?

I lived in Missouri for a little while, so you don`t have to show me much. I can usually figure out the rest.

 

Hi RouterRugby,

I have 4 gigs of ram in my 3680-2682 now. But you'll need the board with the 945GM chipset to install 4 gigs. This board starts with MB.TDX06, and you'll find this on or near the ram slot. If your laptop is a 3680-2682, it will likely have the board MB.AZL06. This has the 943GML chipset, and although you can use any core 2 duo, socket M CPUs up to T7600, your ram will be limeted to 2 gigs. I have mentioned the right board in a previous post, and provided a link to a seller on ebay who is selling NEW ones for around $70-80. The T5300 has 533 FSB, so you'll want to go with the T5600 (what's in mine now) or faster, which has the 667 FSB. And ebay, I've found, is the best place for the mobo & CPU.

Here's a question for anyone who has some good ideas. My Vista has the C drive which has everything in it... windows, programs, and files of all kinds. But the D partition was basically empty until until I added my stuff there... This was the original 80 gig. I'm putting the 500gig, 7200 rpm drive shortly, and changing the partitions a bit. The C & D drives are both about the same size. Now, I intend to use the C partition in the new drive, for Windows, and programs, etc., and D for all my files, which, of course, I'll always be adding new files, etc. I don't want to waste harddrive space, and wondering what I should allow for C, if it will only be windows, program files, and that sort of thing. I would think that no more then, lets say 60 gigs would ever be needed unless I had a lot of new programs in the future. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Adventures... I haven't done a thing with the bios. Overclocking & bios are those areas I have virtually no experience, and waiting till after I get the new HDD in, and maybe by then I'll have learned a little more.

RouterRugby... if I were you, I'd go for the T7200... there going for just a few $s more then the T5600 on e-bay.

 

Hello Router, Viking Don is spot on with the latest insight. I hear you, on the overclocking, the bios thing was very simple, easier than changing parts and adding drivers, or about same as finding a driver and loading it. the overclocking thing i am learning myself.
I do believe its easy too.
never did this stuff myself till i came here, now i feel i can fly.
thanks to all the good shared info here and kind people.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys! Took apart my first laptop today, actually the second 3680 I got from ebay (a parts machine), and sent off for the MB Don suggested at ebay. I think I`ll use the first 3680( a good machine) to test the second to see what works, at least till the MB gets here.

Wish I`d seen that video before(I need to look back at earlier posts more), but it looks like the exact same breakdown from an online 3680 manual.

What source do you recommend for the 2GB soDIMM modules, are they generic, or do I need ones specific for the MB.TDX06.005?

And thanks again, really! I`m sure I wouldn`t be attempting this without the incredible knowledge and support for the 3680, that`s here!

 

RouterRugby... good to hear your upgrade is going good. You don't need any special ram with that. Here is exactly what I put in mine... a pair of these. PNY is as good as it gets, and these are economical to boot. The FSB is 667 MHz but I got these as they go up to 800 MHz, and not sure the possibilities with overclocking. And who knows, later on I may want to put them in an 800 MHz machine.

Amazon.com: PNY Optima 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz PC26400 Notebook/Laptop SODIMM Memory Module MN2048SD2-800: Electronics

Right now waiting for 500 gig, 7200 rpm seagate momentus hdd. Faster speed hdd, means faster machine Here's the hdd that's on it's way, if you're interested:

Amazon.com: Seagate Momentus 7200 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16MB Cache 2.5 Inch Internal NB Hard Drive ST9500420AS-Bare Drive: Electronics

Good luck with your project

 

VikingDon....I got 3 parts 3680s, hoping to finish with one good one, but two are in really good shape so I might go for the hat trick.

Just finished getting all my parts for the first one today, but may have to wait till after finals to put it together. I didn`t know if the 800 memory would work so I got this:

SODIMM 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 PC5300 667Mhz LAPTOP 200pin - eBay (item 110531696956 end time Sep-03-11 10:20:51 PDT)

I might try the 800 mem in one of the other machines.

This is the hdd that just came in the mail:


WD Scorpio Black 500GB 7200RPM 2.5" WD5000BEKT - eBay (item 120749494651 end time Aug-03-11 00:17:40 PDT)

I`m toying with the idea of getting a 1TB hdd. It`s a bit pricey, but for the extra storage it might be worth it. If I can make something back on the other two machines, I might go for it. What do you think about this one?

Western Digital ships first 2.5-inch 1 TB hard drive - TechSpot News

 

Hey RouterRugby... I just installed the 500 gig, 7200 rpm Seagate HDD! Had a bit of a problem at first cloning it. I tried with Acronis and Paragon software, and kept having problems. Then I found Seagate had it's own cloning software (disk wizard), and had no problems. Well, I did have one... "C" drive didn't want to resize, so after several tries, I left it at the original 34 gigs. So it's still stuffed with software. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't resize. Anyway, "D" is now 422 gigs.

Oh, I have a minor unrelated problem. My screen went out, so am using my HDTV as a monitor. I determined the inverter went bad. I found one on ebay for $5.99 so will order that today I guess.

 

I am happy i never cloned my HDD.... to me my pc works fresh , new and clean and very fast. no overheating, no crashing, no slow times. no slow boots. and just cruises along with the best of them.
I am interested in changing the bios to get the wifi card of my choice. but thats been an issue.
I do have another wifi card for my other laptop to try , but these manufacturers are very sucky, when it comes to make the bios prevent owners upgrade their laptops to respond quicker as technology changes.

 

I just upgraded my acer aspire 3680-2633 to a T7200! I have not read the posts in a while, just letting you guys know it is possible!

 

VikingDon......You might want to try GParted, it seemed to work pretty well partitioning on my first upgrade. I finally went with an Ubuntu os, with the Cube(very cool), with an Windows XP machine running on VirtualBox, inside Ubuntu.

Since the 3680s have a Vista sticker on the bottom, I`ll probably use that to go along with Ubuntu, either on VirtualBox, or on a separate partition or both(just to compare performance). I`m a bit slow with software, so it`s taking me longer than I thought.

I`m still playing around with the final configuration and I got an error message on my bios upgrade, so still some work to do. I think the new bios needs to take before the CPU virtualization is optimized. Anyone know of a Aida32 equivalent or similar for Ubuntu? I also want to run some performance and temperature tests and compare to regular 3680s.

Right now, I still have to upgrade one more 4GB/T5600 Duo/320GB 7200HDD for ebay. I want to make sure both these boys are running optimal before I send them out the door and start on my T7200 500GB machine. It`s good to see brand_z`s already done one. Props to brand_z!

 

Acer 3680 update: That "refurbished" hdd lasted two weeks I got my money back, and found a new one for only $7 more ($50) then what I paid for the other. I cloned it, and this time I had no problems re-sizing the partitions. I now have the recovery @ 15gb, "C" 75gb & "D" is 375gb. As C will be just for windows & programs, I think it will be large enough. A T7200 cpu is on it's way, and after I put that in, I'm installing windows 7 ultimate.

So anyway, I'll have a good deal on a T5600 if anyone is interested And don't EVER buy a "refurbished" hdd!!!

 

Agreed. Refurbished, Certified repaired or whatever the name is translates to "your data is going down the drain soon".
Don't ever buy such a drive.

 

Well everyone, I put in the T7200, and it's working fine

But I'm still having a having a problem with my screen. It won't light, but when I shine a flashlight on it, the images are still there. I heard this was the inverter, so I changed it today, when I had it apart, but it didn't solve the problem Anyone got any ideas???

Update: It appears I need a backlight, as the lcd is fine. Anyone know where I can find one (reasonable)? I couldn't find any on either Amazon or ebay. I'll trade a T5600 for one (if that's a fair trade).

 

VikingDon.....I may upgrade more Acers, so I could probably use that 5600.

I finally managed to enable Virtualization (What a pain that was, figuring out the correct procedure!) and used SecurAble to varify (still looking for a way to verify enabled speedstepping).

Best method for BIOS upgrade is to use a DOS bootable flash drive + having a "crisis disk" handy, just in case. Thanks to kizwan! Both found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/480992-acer-laptop-phoenix-bios-bios-mod-request.html

Still testing the first 3680 for optimal performance. So far I have Windows Vista Home Basic loaded in one partition/utilizing the sticker on the bottom of the machine. I have Ubuntu in another partition, with Windows XP running on VirtualBox inside Ubuntu (using this to put a load on the cpu`s to test temps and cpu usage).

 

RouterRugby, I know so little about bios, I'm really lost when it comes to a discussion on that subject.

With the PC Wizard, the speed-stepping is monitored all the time when I have it opened. When it's minimized, there's a little widget in the corner that shows the speed, core temps, etc. Both the the T5600 & T7200 idle about 1GHz, but any load they jump up to full speed. Someone was concerned that the T7200 would run hotter then the T5600... I see no difference at all.
n't
PS... you wouldn't happen to have CCFL backlight for my LCD would you???

 

VikingDon....Thanks for the heads up about PC Wizard, I`ll try it.

All 3 of my parts machines wound up being solid machines with only minor problems, so I got the parts to upgrade all of them. I`m probably going to get a few more parts 3680s, but I`m not sure if it would be soon enough to do you any good. I need to ebay at least one of these machines to be able to get more.

The bios was pretty easy, once I figured it out. Download SecurAble ( a very simple program), to see if you have Virtualization is enabled).

If not: Go to the link in my previous post and go down to the bar with: "Flash Bios in DOS Mode" and click on "post # 64". Download the mediafire download just above the "USB Disk Storage Format" form. Download it to somewhere where you can browse to it easily. Click on the icon that doesn`t look like a folder (there are only two) and the "form" will come up. Fill it out just like it shows, with your flash drive plugged in. Your flash drive description will be in the top labeled "Device". You will browse to the other icon you dowloaded ( the one that looks like a folder). Then hit start.

You have to copy the phlash16.exe file and your bios.wph file to your flash drive. Get the plash16.exe file off one of kizwan`s crisis disk downloads(I used one of my other flash drives to make a crisis disk). I think the bios file came from one of your links to his page on enabling virtualization. Anyway, the bios file I used is:
ZR1_3508.wph. You can probably use any 3508 bios (the one listed for the acer 3680, on any number of sites) out there , but I`ve come to trust this guy`s stuff and I`m definitely going to donate for this guy`s valuable work.

Once you make the DOS boot flash drive, just start up your machine with it plugged in and press F2 to change boot order to the flash drive and at the C:/ prompt type, "plash16.exe /x /s /mode=3 [bios-filename]" where bios-filename is your 3508.wph filename. Run SecurAble again and it will show Virtualization enabled.

 

Thanks RouterRugby

The PC Wizard shows I have Virtualzation, but it's disabled. I'll give this a try when have no distractions, as I'm messing with Bios.

Thing is, I know very little about Virtualization, and what I can get out of it. I would need it for "Virtual PC"... right?? I have an older HP scanner, that has the negative/slides scanning feature, but doesn't have the drivers for anything later then XP. If I could get this to work with virtual XP OS that would be great I'm assuming that can be done.

See, I'm still a newbie. The last time I did as much mods on a computer, was over 10yrs ago, when I changed the CPU in my first puter (486 IBM). It had a 350MB HDD. I was excited, when I found I could compress it, and get 700 MBs out of it! (good ole days) lol