Swapping out my CPU

Hi,
I want to swap out a T2400 1.83GHz cpu for a T2500 2.0GHZ chip in my 9400/E1705.

Can I just replace the thermal pad with Arctic Silver? I need to know this before I remove the Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly as I don't know where to get the thermal pads.

 

Yes , just clean the residue before .

 

clean it very well, and a little paste goes a long way

 

OK thanks,

I was afraid that there might be a small gap between CPU and heatsink that the original thermal 'pad' filled and enabled contact. I was thinkin if this was the case then my thermal 'paste' might not be able to bridge this gap(unless I put on a big blob!)

 

no no no, the pad, also known among enthusiasts as the heating pad, isnt very effective, its just easy to apply and works well enough to pass by, basically, after cleaning the heatsink and the chip very very well, with as close to pure isopropyl alcohol that you can find, take a pea sized amount of the as5 and cut a corner of a plastic bag, or a piece of plastic wrap and put it on your finger and make an even layer across the heat spreader,I'm pretty sure intels notebook chips use spreaders, if not use a bb sized amount and apply directly to the core in the same fashion, some folks like to do the same thing to the underside of the heat sink, if you do, use 1/2 to 1/4 the amount, the idea is for the as5 to fill all the cracks and crannys in the heatsink and spreader, achieving as close to total contact as possible, something the pad does a piss poor job of, but its quick and can be stamped out, when you reattatch the heat sink, screw one side 1/4 turn, then the other, and repeat till its solid, you want a tight fit, but dont over do it, and by alternating the sides, your guarenteed a tight even seal with no gaps

another thing you could do, though its not really worth the trouble, would be to lap the heatsink and the spreader, basically polishing it down to a perfectly flat mirror finish, if done correctly you dont need any cooling compound at all, but its a long tedious process, all the compound does is fill in the gaps left after the milling process, increasing contact between the sink and the cpu

 

Yeh, thanks Iceman.

Got my system off Dell outlet with a T2500, but the WXGA screen is crap. I've ordered another system with a T2400 and the WUXGA screen. Gonna swap over the CPUs and then sell the first...hey! - I think it will probably be simpler swapping over the displays!!

 

i think doing that to your dell would void the warrenty

and it's harder to sell a dell with no warrenty

 

just take your time, and be sure you know what your doing, and it'll be a piece of cake

 

hmmmmm, how do Dell tell if you've opened your system? None of the screws have been pre-marked, and I haven't damaged their heads at all during disassembly.

Also where does it say that you can't dismantle your system?

 

I'm not 100% positive, but I think the notebooks will still be covered, except for the cpus, basically all the parts in the original config will still be covered by warranty, user upgraded parts will not be covered

 

You warranty will be out the window.... Sorry...

 

Just had a Dell technician out to change the motherboard on an unrelated issue of squeaking sounds coming from the system when on charge.
Anyhow, he strips and reassembles the thing in about 25 minutes, and doesn't examine anything to see if the system has already been opened (and it has). I think as long as you don't f**k anything up when you take it apart, the warranty will still hold.

On a side note, the technician just speeds through his routine, and just slaps the CPU and heatsink back together without cleaning or changing the TIM.

 

If you know what you are doing, you should be fine, but that isn't most people out there. That is why I said void warranty. Just the same way with my possible exchange of 6800go to 7800gtx go. If you do mess something up, they won't back you up.

 

Wonder what Dell thinks about switching around non-internal components from a couple of notebooks? For instance, switching LCD's between two identical, same-timeframe notebooks, or moving Dell RAM from one notebook to another? Does that void the warranty on that component, should it fail at some future time?

 

I would say that the lcd might have some question, but the hdd and ram are clearly ok to change out under warranty (Maybe because of two screws and go). Many people do say to keep your ram/hdd if they do get picky and want it back in orginal config.

 

This is interesting I was told with a replacement part to just change it out. They also said on the ticket that 90 days or end of warranty WHICHEVER is longer. I thought that was pretty outstanding. And this is a video card by the way.

 

Don't worry about warranty:

http://www.notebookforums.com/post2400024.html#post2400024

 

I meant: as long as you don't screw something up yourself... the warranty is still valid with the original system config.

 

While I'm thinking of doing a CPU swap, does anyone know if a T7200 will go staight in, or do I need a BIOS update?