XPS l501x motherboard upgrade to l502x

Is it possible to swap my dell xps l501x motherboard for the l502x as the chassis is the same.

 

I wouldn't see why not, the only differences is in the processor but I would compare the motherboards before I did anything

 

Downer81,

Did you find out whether the chassis is compatible with the l502x-motherboard?

 

I want to know if anyone thinks this is really possible. My i7-620m ES just died or halfway died and I can do this swap for around $200 with a low end core i3. I have taken a look at pictures of the motherboards for both models and they look pretty identical and according to my research the heat pipe cooler is the same. I can also recoup at least $100 by selling my old L501x motherboard on ebay. I have the 9 cell battery for my L501x and I would love to get more than 3-4 hours out of it. I get over 6 hours with my work E6420 without a problem and it has a i5-2540m

If anyone is curious the issue I am having with my i7 is that the laptop only sees 1 core and turbo is not working. I have reloaded the OS and that did not help. I then swapped my CPU from a Dell E6410 and the issue went away on my L501x and the E6410 had the same issue with the CPU. I ran the dell diagnostics and it passed for some reason. I have seen a CPU die only a few times in my 12+ years in IT and I have never seen one die half way.

 

Please, does anyone have any input? I really want to either order a new CPU to replace my bad one or try doing this major upgrade. I really do hope someone else has tried this and has been successful.

 

Well it looks like nobody has tried this. I went ahead and ordered a L502x motherboard off ebay. Once I get it I will post if it worked or not.

 

^^ That will be interesting, keep us posted!

 

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Subcribed!!!!

 

any updates..

 

Let us know if the swap works. If it does then I will also be doing the swap

 

I gone thru the process and can only tell you that it wont work. the board looks the same but there are minor differences in the mounting and screw holes and it wont take the heat sink to just mention a few.I had to return the board and ordered the l501x, The reason i know is as follows and my problems are not over.So any help with my new problem would be appreciated

I had a water spill on my xps L150x and did my mother board in, I ordered a replacement board and fitted it with few problems, fitting my i5 cpu off my damaged board into the new board. All went well till boot up and got error message arrandale cpu not supported on discrete platform. please use clarksfield cpu. Ok after checking up on this it appears that dell made a model with the i7 clarksfield core, and this is obviously the board i now have. My question is if i upgrade/buy a new intel Core i7-740QM Mobile Processor (6M cache, 1.73 GHz) SLBQG cpu and fit it to the board will every thing be ok or will i have another problem, ie with the power supply ect.appreciate any comments thanks

 

You ought to be fine with a 740QM in that case, though I of course won't guarantee it.

The reason there were 2 mobos for the L501x was that the quad-core i7s for gen-1 i7s (the 3-digit ones like the 740) did NOT have integrated graphics, and so could not utilize Optimus to switch between the Nvidia dGPU and the Intel iGPU. The i5s DID have this functionality. Due to this, there needed to be 2 different mobos, one with the wiring/traces to utilize Optimus, and one to only use the Nvidia.

Which raises one issue you will run into if you get an i7: you will have much less battery life since you are always using the power-hungry Nvidia chip, even if all you have open is the desktop. Just something to be aware of.

Sandy Bridge (and of course now Ivy Bridge) have integrated graphics on ALL CPUs, so you can utilize Optimus on all of the systems. Nice to have a quad-core 17" system with 6 hours battery life