CPU upgrade - Toshiba Equium L40 (A Tutorial)

UPDATE: 10th July 2011
The laptop was upgraded to a T7300.
I've tested a T4200 and it doesn't work. The BIOS doesn't support a T4*00 and T6**0 series CPUs.

STEP 1:
1- Unlock your battery and remove it ( red rectangles)
2- Remove all the screws marked with green circles


STEP 2:
1- Remove the express card cover. It is located on the right side of the laptop
2- Remove the optical drive:
2.a- Remove the cyan screw
2.b- Introduce a small screw driver in the cyan rectangle and push a little bit to the left.
3- Remove all the green screws
4- Unplug the display cable ( red rectangle)
5- Remove the tape ( blue rectangle) and the two bleu screws.


STEP 3:
Remove the screen's hinge covers ( red rectangles). For this use a flat screw driver as in

the pictures below.




STEP 4:
1- Remove the screen assembly
1.a- Turn the laptop upside down and remove the two green screws


1.b- Turn the laptop over and remove the two green screws


1.c- Turn the laptop upside up. Open the laptop and remove the screen assembly

STEP 5:
Turn the laptop upside down again and remove all the green screws


STEP 6:
Push the three green clips inside to lift up the keyboard, and then turn it over upside down


STEP 7:
Detache the keyboard and remove it ( red rectangle)


STEP 8:
1- Remove/detach the touchpad cable ( red rectangle)
2- Remove all the green screws


STEP 9:
Remove the tapes marked with red regtangles


STEP 10:
Detache the cables marked with red rectangles, and remove all the green screws


STEP 11:
Remove the motherboard



STEP 12:
Turn over the motherboard and remove all the green screws


STEP 13:
Clean the graphics chipset, and both heatsinks


STEP 14:
Replace your CPU, and cover both the (new) CPU and the graphics chips with a thin layer of good quility thermal past. Then, re-asseblem your laptop following the above steps in reverse order.

Good luck

 

Thanks + rep. I like useful posts although it is not useful to me... I don't have a Tosh. laptop.


--

 

+1 rep. That's the way all tutorials should be done.

 

ramgen & PapaSmurf69... thanks

 

Thanks for this nice Tutorial, rep for you.

 

your welcome

 

I see a good spot beside the expresscard slot for internal usb hub
if you ever needed one

 

Thanks crayonyes but this laptop is not mine , and besides I'm not that good with a soldering iron.

The thing that anoyed me the most with your mod is that you've lost your external USB port . I think you should have followed the Eee PC USB hobe mod by re-routing the external USB port to one of the hob (unless you've already done that). I mean something like this http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades.This way you've a functional external USB port + 3 internal ones

 

Nope, the external port is still usable
because it's connected to one of the usb hub's output

simple explanation: I route the line into a hub then give it back to the external port
Edit: Yes I have already done it hehe

 

So now your external is working too?

 

Yes working perfectly. I would not give it up

 

That's good. The advantage you have is that your USB ports are on a dedicated PCB, so even if you mess up the mod you have the option to replace the PCB that contains the USB ports.

I don't have that option on my Acer AS 4315 , nor on the Toshiba that was documented at the beginning of this thread

 

Hi Naton,

What CPU did you use on that toshiba?

 

The upgrade was a manor one T2330 to T2370. that said this laptop should support any Core 2 Duo with FSB 133, 166, and 200. The fastest CPU that would work on it is the T9500.
You can use among others a T7250, T7300, T7500, T7700, P8100, P8300, T9300, and T9500.

How did you OC your travelMate by the way?

 

Mate 10/10 for the brakedown i'v been looking all over for a tutorial like this.
But now I think I need your help, so I followed your tutorial step by step i got a intel T7700 processor,put it all together but nothings working! I get no power to the processor, the standard power light goes on but that it.
The processor I removed from was a T2080 1.73ghz now have I just brouht the wrong processor for my laptop if so which one do I get now, or is there
Any one out there can help me.

 

Yes, you bought the wrong processor. The T2080 is a socket M processor; the T7700 is a socket P. You need a socket M processor. Socket M processors include the T5200, T5300, T5500, T5600, T7200, T7400, and T7600 Core 2 Duo processors.

 

Great breakdown...but what happens to this? Does it get stickied? Will it be archived? It would be a shame to see such a good breakdown get buried in the forums!

 

Hey thanks for that, il give it a go.
So is anyone out there looking for a T7700? I'v got one kicking around! ;-D

 

Hi guys and thanks for the feedback. I appreciate. I didn't know that the L40 came in two flavour; socket P and socket M.

singhd06
It seems that the T7200 is your best bid. You can get one off ebay for £40. The T7400 and T7600 are too expensive. If you're into undervolting I would suggest the T5300. With Pin Mod you might be able to run most to all its multipliers between 0.75v and 0.9v. The T5600 is also good performance wise, but it wont undervolt as much as the T5300.

I have a question: Do you really need to upgrade the CPU? I've used a T2080 quite recently on a Lenovo C200 laptop, with Vista and only 1GB of ram, and that was okey. If you're not using CPU intensive applications such as video editing, rendering and so on, upgrading the RAM and going for a faster harddrive would be better upgrades.

 

Nice Work .

 

thanks ...

 

The Toshiba has been upgraded today to a T7300 .

I tested a T4200 I can report that the T4*00 series and the T6**0 won't work. The laptop posts but freezes at the logo screen. I wasn't able to boot into the BIOS either. Those CPUs are not supported by the BIOS.

 

Hello

I owned a Toshiba Equium L40-14I for a while and it was mainly used by my father fos some basic web browsing.


However I use this laptop at my summer job so I thought ill give it a little boost.

Successfully upgraded the CPU from Celeron 530 to Core 2 Duo T7500 running at 800MHz fsb.

Successfully upgraded RAM from 1GB to 2GB same spec. (667MHz).

 

That RAM can be upgraded all the way to 4GB. 4G is good with a 64bit OS. With a 32Bit OS it is better to install 3GB only .

To all Equium L40 owners:

In the case of my friend's laptop the T2330, the T2370, and T7300 reaches 90c under load. The fan doesn't start spinning around 45 to 50c like in other laptops. I can hear it spinning around 70c at low speed.
Is it the same for you?

Also there is an option in the BIOS to activate and disactivate virtualisation. I don't know why but it is grayed which is strange since the T7300 is VT enable. Is it the same for you?

 

In my the fan works exactly the same as it would with the previous CPU, under heavy load it will reach max 78c. that is the T7500.

What I have noticed that when the laptop is plugged to the charger it works great however when working on battery it tends to freeze and restart itself, this was not an issue with the celeron however the T7500 is 35W instead of 27W which I think may be the issue as the motherboard may not be designed to handle it as good as the low wattage one?

Just checked the VT is grayed too on T7500 with bios 5.50

EDIT1

I just played with the bios selected always low instead of dynamic cpu multipler saved and exit the bios.

Next time I entered the bios the VT option was BLUE and I could enable it

Dont know if I need that thou left if disabled for now and switched back to dynamic multipler.

Computer still crashes seconds after I remove the power lead , starts ok after a reboot but will see for how long

EDIT2

Re entered bios after setting it back to dynamic and the VT is grayed again.

Disabled all battery beeps/features it does not crash any more however will post again after I test it for a bit longer.

Ordered INTEL WIRELESS 4965AGN 802.11N card will post up again after upgrade.

Thinking about Windows 7 now.

 

is 78c with undervolt or stock voltage?
With RMclock the T7300 is around 80c.

This laptop has 2 BIOS, the v5.50 for Windows XP, and v2.20 for Vista. The v2.20 was optimized for Vista. Before the laptop had v5.50 and I upgrade it to the v2.20. The OS on the laptop is Windows XP and I didn't notice any difference between both BIOS.

If you've undervolted your T7500 you should up the voltage a bit. This might fix the stability issue. Also I've noticed that with T7300 (tested on 3 different laptops with 3 different CPUs) IDA mode require more voltage than the highest multiplier. For instance x10 is stable at 1.0250v. I had to put IDA at 1.1000v to avoid BSOD, freeze or reboot.

Celerons are also ranked with a TDP of 35W. In most cases Celerons are defective Core 2 Duos. I saw a T7800 sold as a Celeron M 530. The second core was faulty.

Win 7 should run smoothly in this laptop even with 1GB of RAM

 

Im running completely stock volts and never really had anything to do with undervolting what would you suggest I should try? and also my cpu is set in dynamic mode and the voltage changes dynamically with the multipler?

Dont know much about this honestly.

 

My bad I assumed that you've undervolted your laptop.

I suggest to check if your RAM is happy running at 667MHz instead of 533MHz. You can do this by stressing it with Memtest. You can download it from here.

Did your CPU reach 78c when stressed with orthos?

 

Well just tried orthos CPU hit 93c max.

And about the ram I think it is 667MHz already?

 

you should try undervolting as it will help reduce the temperature by quite a bit. Using a good thermal past also helps. The max temps I saw with orthos was about 88-89c before undervolt. The thermal past used is Arctic MX-3. It is good but hard to apply. The MX-4 seems to be a better choice. After undervolting the max temperature now is about 80c.

I know that your ram is running now at 667MHz, but what type of RAM do you have? is it PC4200 or PC5300?
PC4200 is designed to operate at 533MHz. It might or might not be stable at 667MHz. Memtest will help to check the RAM.

 

Well I have ordered T8100 CPU which is 45nm instead of 65nm T7500 will see perhaps it will solve this issue.

 

I hope you're not getting the T8100 to solve you're random restart or freezing problem. I really don't think they are caused by the CPU.

The above said, the T8100 should run cooler than the T7500 . If it works in your laptop (i.e. if it supported by the bios) I'll get my friend to buy one for his laptop

I really hope it will work since the T4200 (also 45nm) didn't work

How much did the T8100 cost you?

 

Not a lot 24 pounds posted!

Im wondering if a new battery could possibly solve the issue? It works great on the AC but plays funny when on battery :/

 

It's a good price indeed.

This freeware is good for battery monitoring. Besides other things it shows the wear level of the battery. If the wear level is high then it is time for a new battery. The battery on the Acer I sold a few months back was acting funnily with a wear level of 44%.

 

Got the T8100 In.

It works however the dynamic cpu miltipler is not working straight away and stays at the lowest multipler. I have used RMclock to enable dynamic multipler change.

What I have noticed is that the fan is not spinning at all. it runs at 70C. I am quite sure that the fan is connected but I will check that again.

The issue with working on the battery is no longer present with this cpu.

 

Thanks for leting us know that the T8100 works.

Sometimes a new processor is not detected and installed properly. Check your 'Device Manager'. Under the 'Processors' section you should see the T8100 twice if Windows has detected the T8100 and installed its drivers. If it hasn't you'll see the T7500 twice. If you see the T7500, all you have to do is select each instance and press DELETE. You'll be prompted to restart your computer.

If the T8100 is detected properly, it shouldn't lock in its lowest multiplier.

Before taking the laptop apart, run orthos and see if the temperature goes any higher. If the fan is not connected the temperature will increase until about 120c I think before the laptop shuts down.

 

Long delay but....

I have took it apart again and one of the fan cable was damaged, it does spin now as soon as the laptop reaches about 55 degrees.

This did not solve the issue with the clock speed being locked at the lowest but...

I have used rightmark CPU clock utility and it unlocks it, so I did an undervolt at the same time.


I can state that this laptop is fully stable with T8100 but you might need to speedstep it with additional program like I did.

I dont seem to exceed 70 degrees in stress so its all nice and cool now.

Dont think that I will be doing anything else with this laptop, its a much different machine compared to stock ;]

In the end the upgrades are

T8100
2GB 667Mhz
Intel 4965AGN with additional third antenna

I think I will upgrade it to Windows 7 soon and perhaps this will solve the speedstep issue but not sure, will let you know!

 

It seems to me, you have the same problem as I, as I upgraded the CPU in my Satellite SA50. The new CPU ran only at the lowest multiplier. BIOS has to support the CPU. Look in the BIOS if there's microcode for your new CPU.

 

Krizzo

Thanks for the update. I do share maximinimaus opinion. I do believe that the L40 BIOS is limited. It is a shame that it doesn't support the T4*00 and T6*00 CPUs.

Are the temperature you listed at max throttle? What program did you use to stress the CPU?

 

Hi, I'm new here but can I just say thank you to the OP for this very useful tutorial. New to opening up Toshibas so faffed about for ages before this thread showed me I had to take the whole lid off to get at those last few screws!!

Thank you!

RR

 

Orthos,

 

those temperatures are amazingly low compared to those of the T7300.

Krizzo, thanks for the images.

 

Just to give you another idea of what's the performance like



I am very happy with the performance gain, it is really totally different experience now!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/749979-l40-17s-3gb.html#post9621843 L40 with 3GB without problems