Acer Aspire 4330-2403 Processor upgrades?

Hello, I recently inherited an Acer Aspire 4330-2403 notebook. It has a celeron processor in it, which i synonymize with crap. I'm looking to upgrade it. I recently did a processor upgrade on an acer aspire 3680 from a celeron to a core 2 duo T5300. i'm hoping this processor is compatible with it. I currently cant seem to find the processor's socket or what is compatible with the motherboard/BIOS, so I'm hoping for some help searching here. Basically i need a general idea on what processors i can upgrade to, what sockets are compatible and if there are any upgrades outside that window that can be done. I know its unusual to upgrade processors or other major internal material in laptops, but I've had experience dealing with the internals before, so i am comfortable with it.

Thanks for any information you folk can dig up, I hope it isnt too much trouble.

I do have this so far for the specifications if it helps any: Acer Support: Aspire 4330 Series Specifications


I have dug up this information so far: The motherboard uses Mobile Intel® GL40 Express Chipset. This means the max ram on it is actually 4GB instead of the 2GB the site insisted was its maximum. After digging around and checking compatable processors using http://ark.intel.com/products/35501/Intel-82GL40-Graphics-and-Memory-Controller-Hub i was able to figure out it uses Socket P, which means the processor i accidently bought for the 3680 that is sitting on my shelf (the 3680 is a socket M) is perfect for it.

Here's to hoping this will work, any advice or related info/stories are very welcome, i wish to make this into a learning page for everyone to use.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I just want to point out that I have this exact computer and I just successfully upgraded the Celeron 575 (2Ghz single core, 1Mb, 667Mhz FSB, 65nm) to a Pentium Dual Core T4500 (2.3Ghz dual core, 1Mb, 800Mhz FSB, 45nm).

I haven't really done any stability testing or anything like that, but the BIOS does recognize the chip with all the correct specs. My system has the latest v1.22 bios as well.

I bought this CPU for $8 on ebay... EIGHT DOLLARS! Anything that offers a reasonable increase in performance over this CPU costs $40-$100, and honestly the difference probably wouldn't be noticeable unless you were using this thing for something really intensive. This is an absolute STEAL, and I highly recommend this upgrade to anyone with a bit of experience tearing down laptops and replacing CPUs.

Not only will this thing run cooler and use less power (45nm) it will be significantly faster due to it being a higher clocked dual core.

Hope this helps others with the same system who (like myself) found it nearly impossible to figure out what CPU they could upgrade to.

If I run into any stability problems or other issues, I will post back here again... if not, assume that it went well.

Also, here is the teardown instructions. You will have to remove the screen, remove the top cover, disconnect everything from the mainboard and remove the mainboard from the chassis... its a bit involved, but not too bad. This thing is surprisingly well designed.

Enjoy!

 

Well, the system has been running strong for several days now. The WEI score in Vista Basic x64 went from 4.1 to 5.2... not that that matters much. I didn't use the system enough before to really tell if there is a huge performance improvement (it was just given to me recently), but with this CPU in there I feel much more comfortable either selling it to someone or using it for myself. Also, the fan hardly ever kicks on... it seems to run cooler now due to the 45nm CPU and the added EIST capabilities. Don't let the T4500's TDP of 35w vs the original CPU's 31w deter you... these newer CPUs are a no-brainer upgrade.

 

I was wondering if someone could help me. I cant seem to do a recovery on acer aspire 4330. Is there any way that I can fix the recovery partition. I press the alt+f10 and something comes up about windows 7. It had windows Vista and I installed windows 7 but I believe I kept the recovery partition on here. But I cant seem to get it to work. Please help and thank you.

 

my acer 4330 has the exact same specs as yours, except where yours is a 4330 2403. Mine ie a 4330 jal90. will this upgrade work for me as well.

 

Do you have recovery discs? A factory recovery image process is usually pretty self explanatory. You just follow a few prompts to proceed and then play the waiting game.

Can you elaborate on this? A factory recovery is set in place by the system manufacturer, so you should instead see the Acer recovery window, not a Windows system recovery window.

 

Ok, this is what I get when I press alt+F10

Edit Boot Options


Edit Windows boot options for: Windows 7

Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Partition: 3

[ /NOEXECUTE=OPTION ]


Enter=Submit ESC=Cancel

So I hit enter and it starts loading windows 7.

 

Is it enabled in BIOS? I can't find a screenshot of what the option is listed as within it, but you can download the user manual and see if you can figure out how to re-enable it.

Otherwise, you may need the discs - which you should be able to order from Acer if need be.

 

Yes D2D Recovery is enabled in bios

 

It's probably because you did the upgrade to 7, then. The recovery is tied to Vista. Try using F8 at start up to get to the advanced boot options, then opt for "Repair Your Computer". In the Advanced Recovery options, you might be able to access your factory recovery - I know Dell often does it this way.

You can also try Shift+F10 at start up.

 

ok great thank you. What I need to know now is the difference between the 4330-2403 and the 4330-JAL90, for cpu upgrade. It says that the 2403 can be upgraded, Can the JAL90. My specs are the same as the 2403?

 

If the boards are the same chipset and BIOS, then you should be able to. I'm not sure what the difference is with the two varying suffixes though (2403 vs JAL90). As far as I could see, the 4330 series seems pretty much the same across the board.

You might want to ask Acer support just to make sure.

 

I must say that I did the CPU upgrade, and it has really did a turn around for my laptop. Thank you very much for the forums. I have learned a lot from them but still have a lot to learn. Again thank you all for the help.

 

sorry duplicate post

 

yes I have the jal90 and the T4500$9.00, 2x2GB RAM$28.00, and a Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (wireless-N and Bluetooth)$7.50 BIOS v1.22 Win7 Pro 64-bit