Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

cahj1968... that looks like a lot of wifi card for $8. Before I started using a broadband ISP, I used my wifi at coffee shops, etc. I live in the city and picked up stray unsecured signals I could hook with, sometimes 2 days at a time. Not very strong, so I started playing with antennas. For instance made a directional reflector with a half 2 liter soda bottle & foil, around a 16dbi antenna. Didn't really help much over the antenna built into the laptop. Everybody said you just can't extend the range of wifi signal, so I gave up. Do you think this card would make an improvement over the original card?

As far as a blueray drive, don't know much about them... see what the system requirements are on them.

 

Vikingdon I thought the same thing. I have no Idea what it is about the 3680 but it seems like there is a big craze about trying to upgrade it. I did notice this thread is from 08 and yeah I do believe we are all abnormal. xD

 

This seems rather affordable:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBSQ

 

Don, I needed a new card regardless, and the OEM was the same of more money. So I was like the heck give the "N" a shot....

Charles

wow that came apart easy.... much nicer then the thinkpads and dells i have raped in the past

 

@Viking and Loco

Sorry it took me a while to get back my results, here they are.
Finally got it together and its running fine and stable, [email protected], 4GBram@667MHz.

Heres some pics.

 

I see with my overclocked T7200, I'm only a tad lower in the processor & memory. But I'm a little better with Graphics. If I remember correctly, I had a score of 3.6 with Vista, and when I upgraded to Windows 7, and re-ran the score it went up to 3.8.



With a multiplier of 14 on that T7600, you ought to try some overclocking, and see what you get.

 

ill try that overclocking, but I need the instructions to unlock the bios, i read em somewhere a long time a go, but i dont remember any of it, if you got a link handy id appreciate it.

anyway, im installing world of warcraft and starcraft 2 to see how it moves compared to my ealier T5400/2GB config, will post results

 

I used setfsb which is really easy. I've found that even with a modified bios, getting into it to change clocking was a problem.

 

Hello, im following this thread since a lot of time and i really don't know which sockets are compatible with mine. Im really confused.
Here are the specs. Hope it helps.
Thanks in advance.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3973/91258005.jpg
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3289/30293125.jpg

 

You have Socket M and 940GML chipset I think, T5200, T5300 will work without any problem. Can you check the RAM bay for the numbers, just to make sure that your chipset is 940GML or i943. There's a label near the RAM with some numbers on it, something like MB.TEB 06....

 

Yes, chipset is i943/940GML, and the motherboard is: MB.TEB06.003. What kind of socket does the processor needs?
Also, is this one compatible with my motherboard?: Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor T5600 1.83GHz 2MB | eBay

Thanks!

 

Sorry, I have made mistake, your chipset is 940GML and it can only be upgraded to a solo, the info is in the first page of this thread.

 

Well, I am done with my upgrades. New MB.TDX06.005 board. 4GB PC2 6400 Ram, T7200 Core Duo, Kingston SSD. This thing is screamin. Loving it.

Windows 7 Rating 3.2

Processor: 5.0
Memory 5.0
Graphics: 3.5
Gaming graphics: 3.2
Primary HD: 6.5

It's also running a lot cooler now.

Thanks to everyone for the help finding the right parts ect.

One thing:

Under memory, it says only 2.99GB usable? This board is supposed to support 4GB?

Cheers,

David

 

Alright, now my system is freezing up / crashing. I cant figure out if it is the GPU or the SSD. I put the old HHD in and the 32bit Win 7 doesn't crash, I put the SSD with win7 64bit and it will crash after a few minutes. I got this SSD on ebay listed as "Brand new" but it had been opened. Is there a way to find out if the SSD is faulty?

*Nevermind, seems to be a bad copy of windows*

Thanks

David

 

Thank you very much Ellalan and sorry, I also made a mistake. My mobo is MB.AZL06.... so, I can upgrade to a core 2 duo. But I found a lot of proccessors with 478-pin Micro FCPGA and mine is Socket 479 mPGA. I don´t know what to buy. I´ve readed that Vikingdon did put a T5600 in the MB.AZL06 mobo. Vikingdon if you read this: What socket should I search for my board?

 

aleloco... your mobo will will work with anything up to a T7600. In fact, I have an MB.AZL06 mobo with a T5600 in it right now. It's just taking up space, and be glad to give someone a great deal.

rankind... are you able to run chkdsk on it?? I bought a "refurbished" 500 gig HDD for mine first, and it lasted fine for a couple weeks, and then started getting errors with everything. I ran chkdsk, and it was so messed up, it wouldn't even finish. Hope you can figure it out.

BTW... The 5.0 scores for the processor & memory are what I got, when I first put the T7200 in... after I overclocked it, they both jumped to 5.5. Oh, and the 2.99 usable memory is what I have also... been googling it, to figure that out. The board does support 4gigs... the one gig is reserved or something.

 

Thank you Viking! How much cost that great deal?.

 

Well, I got it working right on Win 7 Ultimate without SP1.

No crashing, running smooth. One funny thing...

When I turn the computer off, or put it to sleep, it wont wake up if it is plugged in to power and it wont boot if it is plugged into the power cord. I can hold the power button down for about 20 seconds, then press it, and it boots or resumes from sleep. It doesn't do this at all if it is not plugged in, it acts right. Shuts down and boots up. Is the power requirements for the MB.TDX06.005 different than what came with my 3680? The bios is saying the new board goes to a travelmate 3270. Anyway, only drawback so far.

 

aleloco: I sent you a PM.

No rankind, no difference in power requirements. I have no idea what the problem is. Check the power settings, and see if there's anything screwy there... although nothing should have changed. The only problem I had when I changed boards, was the date was set to 2005, and didn't notice it until I had security problems, when logging onto sites. Finally, when magic jack wouldn't work, they told me to check the date... I had the month, day, and time right, but was off by 6 years.

 

Seems to be a problem with the MOBO. I have tried different ram, and a different HDD with win 7 on it. It does the same thing. Wont boot only when plugged into power. If I hold the power button down and clear the charge it boots.

 

Looks like a messed up MOBO. I unplugged all extras, did everything I can think of, same issue. Sick of crap ebay items. Sending it back. The original one works fine - no issue.

 

That sucks

 

Hi all, I have a Acer Aspire 5315-2153.

CPU-Z shows my chipset is GL960. Currently my CPU is the stock Celeron M 530. I threw in 2 GB of RAM and I've already upgraded my BIOS to 1.45.

What is the fastest processor I can upgrade to?

Also I would like to go ahead and upgrade the hard drive. Can this thing handle a 300GB or more drive?

Thanks,
cash22

 

Hi cash22, welcome to the forums, there's a lot of information in this thread:


http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...gl960-chipset-processor-upgradability-12.html
Yes, you can upgrade your hard drive to any size as long as it's a 2.5" laptop HDD.
HTH.

 

whelp thanks to all of the reading, I have the T7200 with 2 gig ram and the maxtor hybrid drive. The N type wifi card worked like a charm, and this thing screams.... I am still thinkign about the MD upgrade so I can max out the ram

 

They sent me a replacement MB I got in yesterday. Seems to be functioning fine. This thing screams.

My windows ranking deal is throwing a log error, not able to save results or something. Not sure what the deal is. I am noticing this MB is able to throttle the processor, which is sweet. Runs about 20 deg C cooler and in turn more quiet - longer battery life.

Be nice if there was a permanent way to overclock it

 

Hi Cahj1968. What is your wifi N card? Can you tell me the model? I want to buy a new one for my 3680. Thank you

 

here is the link....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280749300183&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:1123"]

check post #1750 for the links to the upgrades i did

the hybrid drive makes a big difference

 

I haven't found that a problem at all. I put the setfsb folder in my documents, with a shortcut on my desktop. Ever morning after I boot, it takes me no more "clicks" or time to overclock, then to get into my mail Been doing it every morning for over a month now, and like it better that way, actually

 

Wow i have been watching this form threw out pass year and there are a lot of interesting ideas in here. I too have a acer 3680-2611 running the 943i chipset so i have since gotten the t5600 and threw it in there, maxed out the ram two 2gbs. Love the differents in the performance now. I have also installed a 500 gb segate 7200 rpm drive running windows 7 ultimate. Bios unlocked modified

My question (and i'm sure its due to the graphics card not being that great) has any of you noticed that when playing a movie you have in itunes that video will stutter? Last has any one have any picture of the bluetooth connection being used as a usb host to put in a tumbdrive to run has a hdd?

 

wow!!! what a thread .. right , here goes ,,i too have a 3680 on the 945 chipset. im taking the upgrade easy route by installing a t5200 to start with ..now , i currently run win 7 ultimate 32bit , and it runs quite well but im wondering , when i install the t5200 will i need to reinstall win 7 with the 64bit version ? or can i keep the 32 bit version? thanks in advance for any help ,, regards brian.....

 

You can keep 32bit version unless that's limiting the amount of your RAM (if you want to have or have at least 4GB go 64bit)

 

thanks downloads

 

core 2 duo processor in and running like a dream , 2gb of ram ordered . its amazing that less than £20 has totally transformed my wee laptop, just need to get a faster harddrive now lol

 

Is there any chance to do this with Acer extensa 5204?

 

I haven't been here for awhile, but I see the thread is still alive

sengaaaaa: If you have the mobo with the 945 chipset, you can put up to 4 gigs of ram in it. Try to get the 800 MHz ram, as you may want to overclock your CPU like I did. I've been running my T7200 @ 2.24 GHz, with 747MHz FSB for months now. With the 7200 RPM HDD it's pretty fast. The Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit) is what I have.

 

cheers viking , my bad - its actually the 943 chipset im running . these things must absolutely fly with 4gb of ram in them ... stuck my 2gb of ram in this morn and got my boot time in windows 7 down to 32 seconds (hitting the power button to full usable desktop) from a minute odds when it had the smelleron processor in it ... another question for the ram people , whats better to have - 2xr16 pc5300s or 2xr8 pc5300s ??

 

sengaaaaa, ya it's pretty fast with the 4 gb of ram. Actually I have the pc2-6400 ram (800 MHz fsb). I've overclocked the CPU, which boosts the stock 667 MHz fsb, to about 747 MHz (not to far for the ddr2 limit). With that speed the ram is pc2-5900 (as you can see below). You ought to overclock it like I did, and see what you can get

 

Has anyone been able to solder a SATA port onto their Mobo???

Schematic shows a SATA to IDE/PATA converter. What the heck were they doing, getting rid of PATA drives??

 

jeez ,thats gonna be more hassle than its worth soldering a sata port onto the mobo .... your aswell getting a sata mobo and selling the pata..

 

jumping in again , any idea what program i could use to change the product name in my bios, been googling for answers and im lost

 

Glad to see this thread still active. I learned a lot

I purchased a t7200 processor and am about to upgrade the processor. I've read through as many of these threads as could. Phew, theres a bunch.

One thing I'm curious about: Why do I have to look at the insides to determine which graphics chipset I have when I see it in device manager? It shows Mobil Intel 945 Express Chipset Family?

Hope I got the correct processor!

I have a 3680-2633

 

Because it's the safest way to determine the chipset model.

Device manager and most of diagnostic software tend to report the chipset in a...general way i.e. the software may say you have the 945 chipset but you might actually have the crippled version which is 943. I had ACER laptop a few years ago with a 960L chipset but almost every software out there says I gave the 965 one.....

Anyway if you indeed have the 3860-2633 model I guess you are safe and you really have the 945GML chipset so you can put a T7200 in it.

 

Thanks ATG. I've read another thread in this forum and found out it's pretty easy to find the mobo number.

I'm going to take my time and read this entire thread before I proceed. I'm glad this thread is still going.

When I finish the upgrade I'll probably put a SSD in it. My guess is that this will be a decent laptop. I have a 64gb SSD in a Dell minni9 with OSX Snow Leopard...SSD's make a big difference.

I got this acer in 2007 for my wife and she turned it on about 10 times. I sold it on eBay for $135 a few weeks back. I mean it was brand new with plastic protective sheets still on it. I then learned an eBay lesson...don't accept returns. When I got it back it looked like it was used as a lunch counter. The palm rest now has a scratch and a ding. I only refunded 110. So I guess I'll have fun souping it up a little and using it.

 

I had fun souping mine up! I've been running my T7200 overclocked @ 2.24 GHz & 747 MHz FSB for months now... performs abt the same as a T7600, for 1/3 cost

 

I checked my mobo. It's the AZL06 type. That means I'm good to go with the t7200. All I need is the heatsink paste and I'm good to go.

 

It's amazing this thread still alive after 4 yrs and going strong, all credit goes to the excellent work by krazyphire. well done all.

 

dude , u are gonna notice a super difference with the new processor in place , if you have the 945 chipset ,are you going to upgrade the ram? im just waiting to get a ssd for mine , these are great ol laptops ....

 

I did it! I did it!

Im now the proud owner of a 3680 2633 with a t7200. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Next up is an SSD. Then, I want to add ram but not sure which to get. 533ghz ddr2 I suppose. But if I want to clock it up a little I understand the ram will speed up too. But does that mean I should have more than 533ghz ram? I'll figure that out later.

Right now I want to find software that will give me all the new specs. The hardest part was trying to find the numbers on the gpu. Dang they're small and dark. I did this all on my lunch hour which turned out to be a two hour lunch hour I used arctic silver 5 and followed the directions on the website to the letter. It is a great guide for thermal paste. My gpu wouldn't make contact so Ihad to reuse the thermal pad.

All you guys are great.

 

I've been part of several forums and threads but I've never seen one like this. It started with a Krazyphire/hoggie/Andy tag team. Eventually the torch got passed along to other tag teams, all the way to you guys that just helped me 4 years later.

Damn.

(No offense meant to any of the contributors I didn't mention.)

ADDED: any problem upgrading my bios to the latest at this point? I'm hoping to boost my gpu to 256mb