7801u CPU Upgrade: T9800 won't post!

I ordered a T9800 off of eBay and tried replacing the P8400 in my 7801u (as many users here have had success doing). Even after updating to the latest .17 BIOS, my Gateway 7801u will not post with the T9800 in the slot. It powers on, I see lights, and the fans are engaged, but I never get beyond a solid black screen. I even tried 3 other recent BIOSes, all of which had the same result. The person I bought the CPU from is actually a notebookreview.com user (zfactor) who tested the CPU before sending it, and there is no visible damage on the CPU. Can anyone think of any reason that this CPU would not work for me? If I put my P8400 back in, it posts right away with no problems. Other users have swapped in the exact same processor (some even faster) without any problems.

I have swapped the chips and BIOSes so many times that my fingertips are callused and raw. zfactor has agreed to let me return the CPU for a refund (thank god!), but before I ship it back I was hoping to make one last-ditch effort to get this thing working. Is there anything in the CPU replacement process that I have overlooked? Are there any settings or routines or rituals or human sacrifices I should try before giving up hope? I was under the impression that upgrading this laptop was a pretty simple drop-in procedure. Any advice would be greatly appreciated; I've been looking forward to this upgrade all week and am heartbroken to have to send it back!

 

hey man first off welcome to nbr its a great place. yeah this was 100% tested working with a msi gx620 (1651) literally 2 hours before sending it out. id love to get this working for you as well. everyone who knows me here knows my rep and i have sold a ton of stuff here. i would never have shipped it to you if it was not working. other than being damaged somehow in shipping (i packed it very well as i always do though) im just not sure, ill help in anyway i can though. either way ill take care of you i always do for anyone that buys from me. as i told you i own a repair shop and have some serious test equipment etc..

one thing i thought you have a 7805u thats what you said on the phone? some questions as id love to get it working unless as i said somehow it got damaged in shipping. its normally a simple procc. a few things what thermal paste did you use? if it was as5 did you get any on the pins at all as that can be conductive? by chance did you check the pins and make sure none got bent even slightly out of line i have seen that before? usually its pretty easy so im thinking of anything right now.

 

7805u and 7801u are piece-for-piece identical. The 7801u is the version that shipped with the 1920x1200 WUXGA screen, whereas the 7805u was supposed to have a 1440x900 screen. The first couple batches of the 7805u were actually 7801u models with the 1920x1200 screen. Since the 7805u ended up selling a lot more than the 7801u, I just refer to mine as the 7805u to make it easier to research. Aside from the screen (even including the screen in many cases!), the rest of the hardware is 100% identical between the models.

 

yeah i remember that i actually got one of those at best buy when they dropped the price and it was boxed wrong. got one brand new for 749.00 (i know the store manager lol ) when they did that with the wuxga lol..i resold it though and made some cash on it since i had to many others. again just thinking of everything. wish i was closer id throw it back in the msi to verify its still working. as i said i ran it through prime and orthos and temps were awesome on that chip 30-32idle and just a hair over 50 max load in the msi which is not known for great cooling..i dont know if there are any tricks with the gateway as i dont own it anymore and i dont have a whole lot of time with that machine. again no worries about the refund as long as it in perfect shape still. im a honest seller so please dont worry tons of people know me here and know that i am..nbr is a awesome place im sure if there is anything to know with the gateway they will help out. not sure if ewrecked is still around i believe he did a lot with his gateway..

 

I'm still fishing for ideas here. I'm running a RAID 0 and wondered about power concerns, but swapping in my old standalone HD didn't fix the issue either (and other users here have upgraded with a CPU and RAID 0 anyways).

There are definitely no bent pins, and I always handle my AS5 like weapons-grade plutonium. The proc just falls right in and locks into place with a half-turn of the locking screw. It really does seem like the easiest CPU swap I've ever seen on a laptop, and that's why it's so frustrating that the damn thing doesn't work!

I have been using RightMark CPU to undervolt my P8400, but that shouldn't be an issue for the T9800 until I get into Windows. I can't even get into the BIOS with the T9800. Even disabling RightMark and setting default voltages for Windows made no difference, but that wasn't much of a surprise since I could never get to Windows for the voltages to have an effect in the first place.

Any other theories floating around out there?

 

yeah cause ill bet that unless it got damaged somehow ill drop this in the msi when i get it and it will post fine.. id love this to work for you..ill even post screens if it works lol

 

Ugh, still no luck. Tried a final BIOS today (.12) and still failed. Almost lost my whole Windows install in the process (damn RAID drivers!). The only good news is that I found my screwdriver with a rubber grip! No more rubbing my fingers raw with the ribbed all-metal precision screwdriver kit =p

So I've now tried BIOSes 8, 9, 10, 12, and 17. I've tried taking out my hard drives (just hoping for a post) and resetting CMOS. Still nothing.

I realize it's beating a dead horse, but on the phone I mentioned an unimaginably thin line that runs horizontally over the center of the die on the CPU; are you still certain this is normal? It's a long shot, but can anyone with a T9800 or similar chip verify this? You have to hold it very close to see it, but it was noticeable enough to make me wonder upon first inspection. The reflection that comes off the die almost looks more like an oh-so-slightly folded mirror type of thing. It's probably normal, but I'm just grasping at straws here.
______
|_____|
|_____|

I guess it looks kind of like that, but the line is hair-thin and only visible when held in direct light next to your eyeball. Reflections in the die are oh-so-minutely distorted along this line (with the slightly "bent mirror" description I used earlier). Upon visual inspection this is the only thing that looks even remotely out of the ordinary, but it could very well be the standard appearance on these chips for all I know. Could it be a hairline fracture in the die? I've never seen a cracked die, but I would wager no simply because of how thin and almost indistinguishable the line is (a real structural failure from stress in shipping seems like it'd be more catastrophic and imperfect).

I'm mostly just rambling theories on and on trying to keep this post near the top for a couple days. Unless I get a revolutionary suggestion, I think I'm finished with the trial-and-error installation process. I plan on shipping the chip back Tuesday morning. I still have my fingers crossed for a miracle solution, but I've beat my head bloody against the wall trying to make this thing work and today's near-loss of Windows was the wake up call. No more delusional, finger-crossed BIOS updates for me. I'm throwing in the towel unless someone has a definitive suggestion.

 

Try reseating your RAMs.

 

yeah the only thing i can think of is damage from shipping then. it depends if its a slight scratch from the heatsink or not. seriously just send it back and ill refund it as long as there is no other damage. if the die got cracked it either happend in shipping or from to much pressure from the heatsink. as i said it was perfect working 100% when it left.

 

If the RAM already works like a champ with the P8400 in, is reseating it going to do much? I only ask because I'd like to spare myself another trip inside the case, but if I'm disconnecting the battery between each CPU swap (effectively resetting it) and the RAM has no connection problems (as illustrated by it working with the P8400), what would a reseat relate itself to?

I'm not asking these questions to be facetious as I am most grateful for any suggestions, but is there some kind of specific connection or relationship to the CPU that the RAM would need to expel? Have you seen a RAM reseat solve a case where the computer would boot with one CPU and not another? Again, I hope there's no sarcasm read into this as I'm thankful for suggestions of any kind, and I'll definitely give it a try if I decide to dive into my laptop one last time.

 

Did you try this:

1. take out the battery and power cord.
2. Hold the power button for 1 min.

put the battery and power back in, try it.

 

The line over the middle of the die was definitely present when I took it out of the package. The first thing I did was check out the surface of the die (eBay paranoia, you know how it is!), but the line is straight, thin, and subtle enough to appear as part of the design.

If it does turn out to be a crack (and it's hard to believe that it is since it's straight as an arrow and thinner than a human hair) and was working when it was packaged, then it definitely happened somewhere during shipping. The package showed no signs of abuse, though, and it seemed adequately packaged. Was it insured? Arrrgh, I just wish it would work

 

I combined the last two suggestions (RAM reseat, battery removal, holding power button for 1 min) to no avail. After this many trips into my case I have to be careful not to strip the screwheads on my heatsink. Thanks for the suggestions, though. Keep them coming!

 

of course i insure them but ill get the money back from them not you. and it takes FOREVER with the usps to file a claim which sucks. ill inspect it whem it gets back and see if i can file a claim. i ship cpu's all the time and this will be the first i ever had damaged in shipping if thats what caused the problem. again i am sorry about the issues.

 

Like I said there is a very good chance that the line I see is not actually damage. It's impossible for me to know, really, but if I had to guess I would say that it doesn't look like a crack. Part of me hopes you'll plug the chip into a laptop at your shop and have it post so we're both just out some time and shipping, but then another part of me hopes that it's just a broken CPU and not some flukey crap about my computer in specific =p

In my dreamworld some knight in shining armor says "HEY STUPID FLIP THE MAGIC SWITCH UNDER YOUR GRIGGLEFITZ 9000 UNIT" and magically it will work, but that dream has slowly but surely been beaten from my delusional skull by the baseball bat of reality

 

no sweat man. i can send it back to china. i buy a LOT of cpu's i sold maybe close to 100 this month alone so my suppliers have no problem with me sending a couple back. send it on back and ill test it and let you know i may have another t9800 in my shipment coming in on wed if i do get one ill give you the option of exchange as well if for some reason this one doesnt work when i test it, is that cool?? t9800's are very scarce right now in qs form and i ordered 2 with this shipment but i dont know what i get till i open the box with the china suppliers. i have 2 dozen chips coming and hopefull ill get a couple t9800's. but if this chip works when i get it then its def not the chip. send it back again i have no issue refunding you. just please fill out the form after we resolve it so i get my fees back from ebay if you would. ill send it to you. and for anything else just pm me here after that i can work with you directly..if you ask anyone at all here who has dealt with me i can feel 100% confident they will only tell you good things.. before the ban on es chips here i sold a lot of them lol

 

My only suggestion would be have you tried to boot without the A/C addapter. If it is a power concern then the battery has a much higher available amp draw from 100% charge. It probably isn't this but I do know these power bricks are stressed out right from stock........

 

I have tried booting with both the AC adapter and the battery separately, but both got the same plain ol' black screen. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

Where abouts are you from? If you are local to me I'll give you a hand. I have a 7805 (and a few other systems) I could test the CPU in to make sure it didn't get damaged in shipping.

 

I'm about as far away from you as I can be while still residing in the continental United States--I'm in Seattle, WA. I definitely appreciate the offer, though!

At this point I'm not too heartbroken about sending it back. I've all but accepted my fate at this point. I'm bummed out that it didn't work but extremely relieved that it will be easy to return. I'm now tempted to just go for the gusto and try buying a 3.06ghz x9100 or T9900 on the next go around. It's either that or I take this failed venture as a sign to save my money for another couple of months and build a gaming desktop instead of sinking money into a lappy with an ultimately limited gaming lifespan =p

I feel like I could probably get at least another year of high end gaming out of this thing if I dropped about $300 on a CPU, or I could just try to save up about $700 to build a gaming desktop that's more upgradeable down the road. I'm on a crazy tight budget (going back for a Master's Degree in the fall!) so I'm still on the fence. What kind of performance (primarily gaming) increase have people seen with a CPU upgrade in a 7805u? Could I feasibly get 2 years of gaming performance out of it by sticking in 2.9 or 3.06 ghz chip? I want a gaming box that can last me through grad school since I probably won't be able to buy another rig then. The realistic side of me knows that a gaming desktop is probably the better investment, but I just find the idea of a gaming laptop so sexy! I hate to see it age before it's time because of a ho-hum stock processor =( I might make a separate post asking these questions, in fact.

 

Thats the price we pay for portability. Buy it and upgrade it and not build it ourselves.

 

please pack it as well as i did when sending it back which is why i cant see how it got damaged from shipping ??? but you never know i guess, and please use the plastic case i sent it in with the padding in it. shoot me a tracking as soon as you have it please. ill send the refund as soon as i get and inspect the chip. not a big deal. sorry again i wish it worked out for you and hope its not a damaged chip as i know it worked before i shipped it. ill take care of it though.

 

I currently have it in all the original packaging. I'll pick up a new box at the post office and mimic your packing method. It may still work in your machine, who knows. I'm actually really interested in finding out of it works for you. If it turns out my laptop is just b**chy and refused to cooperate with a good CPU, then I'll definitely forget about trying to upgrade this thing and focus on saving for a desktop. I appreciate your help in all of this and promise to do everything necessary to make sure you don't end up eating any fees or anything.