Question for LT3103

Hey all,
I've been thinking about upgrading my aging gateway lt31 for a while now, and found this place as about the only real source of information left on the internet. I know most if not all the information I need is already present on the forums, but the search function has let me down, so if it's easier to just link me to old threads that's fine too.

I wanted to upgrade the processor for sure. The l110 leaves much to be desired. Initially I thought an l310 would be perfect because it's also 13W TDP, but they're expensive and hard to find for some reason. I can get a TK-42 for less than $40, so right now that seems a better option. I assume others have done this, so fill me in about what I'm up against.
=Will I need to mod the bios?
=How far underclocked\undervolted would it need to be in order to run, and is there a way to do this before booting into windows?
=Is 20W TDP too much?
Also considering a RAM upgrade, but I expect this to be fairly painless. 4GB is the upper limit correct? Let me know if there are unforseen problems in this direction.

Thanks,
Steve

 

I had thought of upgrading my LT2104u but the ram(2gb max), HDD and wifi card are the only things easily upgradeable. The cpu is soldered to the main board as I think that yours would be as well. Don't know for sure but you may want to take apart to find out first before you order your cpu. As for ram, check your manual or specs on the Gateway site. Don't know what OS your running but getting rid of Vista for Win 7 might prove a better option with ram upgrade(if possible). Good luck.

 

LT31 is socket S1, CPU is upgradeable. I did a L310 in my LT3113 and it was a considerable boost in performance. Many people have tried/used some of the TK processors, but there are always issues with them. Even the L310 gets warm so you're gonna have a heat battle.

Not sure about the ram, I always assumed it was a 2GB max.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
Evil: yeah, the nice thing about these AMD mobile chips is that they are socketed and not soldered. The challenge still remains getting at the damn thing in the first place though. I can't really find a disassembly walkthrough that hasn't lost its images due to old age though.

b1lk1: Heat and power consumption were indeed my worries. I'd much rather use an l310, but the only place I can find them in ebay, and they're almost $90 shipped. Given the laptop only cost me a bit over $300 and it's a few years old, that hardly seems worth it. Do you know of anyone else that sells the chips?

 

I got mine of Ebay for $45 shipped, but they don't come up often at a low price.

 

Okay thanks, I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open. I notice in your sig that you've done the broadcom 1080p decoder mod. Is there a walkthrough or pictures for that one? It's another project I'm considering.

 

That was a piece of cake. Basically, you swap out hte wireless lan card for the broadcom HD card. Get a USB wireless lan card, the nano ones are cheap and work fine. Excellent mod, makes these netbooks oh so useful, mine doubles as a HTPC.

 

Picked up an l310 on ebay for $5.50 and free shipping on friday. A quick glance just now and I don't see them listed any more (the seller had 5 up for BIN when I got mine). Just figured I'd post this here as a heads up to anyone else on the lookout for one.

 

I saw that, was gonna buy them all and sell for a greatly inflated price but he only shipped to the US. That was a crazy deal, hope you get a good one.

 

That $5.50 deal happened a few times in the past couple months and I couldn't get one shipped to canada either. I ended up getting one from a different seller for $20+10 . It really makes this netbook fly. With a small overclock and coreavc, 1080 movies are smooth. I was going to buy a bcm70015 crystal hd card, but now with the L310 I'm not sure I need one.

 

Trust me, with the crystal card, you'll never look back and you can play ANY format 1080p video.