GL960 Chipset Processor Upgradability

Thanks for the info.
I wonder if the problem is related to FSB/DRAM divider? Can you remove the 512MB and run you're laptop with the 2GB only. Install CPUZ and let us know what's you're FSB/DRAM divider. You'll find it in the memory tab...thanks

 

Wish I'd read this thread before I began upgrading a HP 6720s. Exact same problem as you describe with the video corruption and exact same solution of PC4200.

I don't think so: with PC5300 the memory divider was 3:5, and with PC6400 it was also 3:5. It seems less an issue of the memory divider as it is the X3100 on some GL960s just crapping out with anything above 533.

 

I was checking the GL960 datasheet yesterday, and its x3100 is clocked at400MHz. On the PM960 the x3100 is clocked at 500MHz.

When I did a pin mod on a celeron to force an FSB of 200MHz, I noticed that games were running smother. With an FSB 200, the RAM divider is 3:5 (i.e. RAM operate at 2 x 166MHz). I think the VRAM divider is 1:3 (i.e. the x3100 is pushed up to run at 3 x 166 = 500MHz).

I don't know of any tool that can monitor Intel GPU/IGP. So the above is just an assumption regarding what happens to the IGP after CPU upgrade

 

The strange thing is that if you launch into bios first, then there's no problem and everything works fine. So it sounds as if it isn't initializing the hardware properly.

 

With the HP6720s, we had to switch the laptop a first time. Force it to turn off by holding the power button for 5 seconds. Then turn the laptop back ON.

 

HI,

I have successfully upgraded my VGN-NR110E Sony VAIO
CPU from T2310 to T7300
Memory 2x512MB to 2x1GB
HDD from 120GB to 500GB

About CPU look on CPU-z reports:
With T2310
CPU-Z Validator 3.1
With T7300
CPU-Z Validator 3.1

 

vaio vgn-nr230fe

t2330---->t7700....Ok

 

I think maximum GL960 will support T7800 CPU,

Somebody tried?

 

You're wrong,

Yes it will support t7800. Also, it usually supports t8*00 CPUs, t9300, and t9500 (800mhz FSB).

Furthermore, with a pinmod you can use 1066mhz FSB CPUs like the P series downclocked at 800mhz, so example: t9900 @ 3.06ghz has 11.5 x 266mhz usually, so it will be 11.5 x 200mhz = 2.3ghz.
200 is just 1/4 the 800mhz on gl960 and gm965.

There are a few iMac specific CPUs that are like the T series with 1066mhz FSB. e8435 is also 3.06ghz.

And lastly, there are the X series x7800 x7900 and x9000, and x9100 with 1066mhz but all with unlocked multipliers.

I wont bring up quad cores because that is still quite distant, but suffice to say, don't feel limited to the t7800!

 

with the right BIOS the GL960 supports the Pentium Dual Core T4*00 series and the Core 2 Duo T6*00 series too. For instance the T4200 works perfectly on the Acer Aspire 4315. Actually even the T9900 works after applying a BSEL mod (see here).

 

Hi all,

Im new to the forums.

Just wondered I have a Asus X58L Notebook, that has a Celeron-M575 CPU in it i know that it has a GL960 Chipset so would I be able to swap the CPU out for a T7300?

Cheers

 

Yes, it should work.

 

Hello, guys,

I got Asus X51L. Upgraded from Celeron 550 (FSB533) to T5850 (FSB667) successfully.

Anybody got X51L? what do you have?

 

so just to be clear, if you get a late model cpu with 800mhz fsb support on an intel 960, it'll automatically downclock to its 677mhz limit? also has anyone succssfully tried 4gb of ram on this like they have with the intel 965?

 

No it will run at 800mhz

See my cpuz sig

 

Hi All,

Just wanted to say a big thank you for giving me enough information here to attempt and succeed at upgrading my Toshiba A205.

I've added in a 500gb 7200rpm HD, switched out the T2370 for a T7700 and upped the RAM to 3GB of DDR800.

Worst part was tearing the thing apart to change the CPU, otherwise, no trouble at all.

I did update the BIOS before doing anything, and this runs the GL960 chipset so it's running the T7700 at full speed, but the ram is downclocked to something odd according to CPU-Z, 330MHz. So the faster ram is pointless, but was cheap so. Be nice if I could make that ram run faster without doing more minor demolition work.

Gone from being a reasonable laptop to being somewhat more 'snappy' and much nicer to live with.

Heat wise, used to run from 30-55*C, now runs at 40-65*C, but the air coming out isn't anywhere near as hot as it was, and the heat through the keyboard area is gone. I blame the better paste I used (GC extreme) and it's still nowhere near enough to be concerning, even when encoding/decoding HD video files.

Thanks all. I'm just wondering if I can switch out that danged GL960 for a 965 and milk a little more life out of it before replacing it.

(Or snaffle a cheap and nasty Fujitsu here in Japan that's running the GL40 chipset and go to town.)

Stu.

CPU-Z thingy:

 

Have any og you tried 4gb of ram yet?

-Blame my typos on my fat fingers & Droid Charge

 

Your memory is DDR2(double data rate), so it's actually running at 667MHz. Not the full 800MHz the memory is rated for though.

The chipset is soldered to the motherboard.

 

I know about the chipset being soldered, but not whether it can be switched out for the 965, circuitry and bios wise.

If so, I might be sorely tempted to give it a shot. Perhaps it's just asking too much and I should be glad for what I have right now.

But I dislike leaving anything alone if I can make it better/faster/stronger.

Stu.

 

acer aspire 5715z, gl960, win7 and win_xp
t2310 CPU was exchanged to t4200.
first.
bios not load before it was updated from insydos V1.18 to V1.45
then work almost ok. except one thing, when notebook go to shutdown, windows freeze and no power off,
if install t2310, power off work correctly with bios v.1.45
everything else with t4200 was fine.

then, one week after, new problem appear.
OS not load, it freeze at the time of choice a user account.
in safe mod load normaly.
with t2310 works normal in any mode.
what could be the problem ?

 

You would need some majorly expensive machinery to replace it and I am certain it wouldn't work. It is not worth it.

Buy a new laptop if you still aren't happy.

 

Re-install windows, I recommend losing XP.

 

Quote myself because another upgrade in same laptop:

Acer Aspire 4320

Original:

Processor: M530 1.73 GHz/533 MHz/1 MB (SLA2G)
RAM: 512 MB 533MHz
HDD: 80 GB
Optical Drive: DVD + CDRW
WiFi: 802.11g
Bluetooth: No installed

Last upgrade:

Processor: T7300 2.0 GHz/800 MHz/4 MB (SLA45)
RAM: 3.0 GB 667MHz
HDD: 250 GB
Optical Drive: DVD +/- RW
WiFi: 802.11n
Bluetooth: Internal

 

I'm in the process of upgrading a Toshiba Satellite A205-S5851 with a T8300 which seemed to work here for a Satellite L40-14N (which came with a T2310 & 1GB RAM versus the T2370 & 2GB on my A205) - the T8300 was released Q1 08 & the last BIOS update for the A205 was Jan 09 - in theory the T8300 should be supported by the latest BIOS ?

CPUZ reports a GL960 chipset & the Intel tool reports a GM965. CPUZ also reports a Maximum Bandwidth for the RAM of 333mhz (which would indicate a GM965 chipset running DDR2 @ 667mhz & not a GL960 with a maximum of 533mhz) so I'm also upgrading to 4 GB of PC2-5300 RAM with a SODIMM configuration of 256Mx64 as shown on page 18 of the Intel specs for the GL960/GM965 chipset.

Looking at the latest BIOS in the Phoenix BIOS Editor - is enabling VT as simple as just setting the option to "enabled" & rebuilding the BIOS image ?

 

Just a quick note to confirm the T8300 Penryn works in a Toshiba A205 - I successfully modded the BIOS to enable VT-x support. If anyone wants a copy of the BIOS for the A200/A205 just pm me.

 

Hello guys, Newbie here. So, my sister got this cheap Acer 4315 and I stumbled upon videos of CPU upgrades and got very interested about doing it myself. After some hours of searching and reading this forum, I have questions which I would really appreciate to get answer from you are at least just lead me to the right direction. This is the laptop's current hardware configuration:
Processor: Intel Celeron (550) M 2.0 ghz (stock)
Chipset: GL960
RAM: 2 x 1GB PC2-5300
HDD: 80gb

What I want to know is if I could upgrade it's processor using the T9500, then use 4gb RAM PC2-5300, and HDD to 320gb or 500gb.
Please help me with specific details on this, because after reading so many things here and on other forums, it is still unclear to me (1) if this laptop's BIOS could support the said processor, (2) if GL960 and this laptop could support 4gb RAM, and (3) if it could also handle HDD of more than 120gb (as opposed to what's stated in the manufacturer's site, as it says there that it can be upgraded upto 120gb)

Thank you guys for the knowledge and the future help.

 

From what I can see, you can upgrade the HDD on this system.

See:
Mobile Intel® GL960 Express Chipset

 

320gb and/or 500gb will not be a problem?

How about the RAM, any idea whether it can go stable with 4gb?

Thanks!

 

The size of the HDD should not be a problem (it is SATA and not IDE, right?).

The link indicates 2GB RAM maximum. But you can try to install 3GB (1x1GB plus 1x2GB Sodimms) or 4GB (2x 2GB Sodimms) with a 100% return policy to see if they work in your particular system (make sure you try every combination you can with the 3GB capacity in the two slots the system has).

Good luck.

 

If you are going to try 4GB RAM with the GL960 the most likely to work is 2 x 2GB Samsung M470T5669AZ0-CE6 (with 4 banks of RAM on each side). The T8300 is the best value Penryn upgrade, with this L4D / L4D2 / COD4 become playable on low settings.

 

Oh, thank you very much for this. I am noting this and will try this as soon as possible, then I'll get back to you guys and report it. It will be for a while though, because it's hard to order them here. Anyway, thank you once again.

 

I've just ordered 4GB of the Samsung RAM from Ebay for $56 - (search for "
2GB Memory RAM 4 Toshiba Satellite A205 Series Notebook" & buy 2 sticks) - I'll post again once I've tried it.

There's a T8300 for $35 versus $99 for a T9500 (an extra 10% or so performance) - both will give you Virtualization Extensions which are handy for running VM's in Virtualbox / VMware / KVM / XEN (when you update your BIOS before installing the new CPU you may need to mod your BIOS to enable this - if your BIOS is made by Phoenix it is very simple to do with the Phoenix BIOS Editor)

 

Thanks! I'll wait for your update on this. By the way, what sort of modification should be done to the BIOS and how exactly?

Edit: I have just checked and my BIOS is Phoenix, so that's good news right?

 

Search google for "download, phoenix bios editor"

Grab the latest Acer 4315 BIOS from here or v1.16 from here & unzip the files.

From within the Phoenix BIOS Editor ----> File ---> Open & select your VV2-116.WPH file (as looking in BIOS.bat this is the ROM file that is loaded)

& a bunch of modules / windows will open, the one you are looking for is "Setup Table" in the left Project Pane - or maybe the setting to be changed will be under "Advanced" of the Root Table in the middle of the application. You can also click the hammer icon near the menus.

Next in the "Description" column look for "Intel(R) Virtualization Technology" & you will notice 2 rows below it for "Enabled" & "Disabled" - just double click both boxes to the left of "Enabled" so they both have stars in.

To finish -----> File -----> Build Bios

See here for the utilities to flash your BIOS - I used the HP utility to create a bootable DOS USB stick & then copied the "bootme" files & all of the manufacturer BIOS files onto it. If it boots into DOS but does not run the flash utility you can do it manually using the command in your BIOS.bat:

Code:

phlash16 /x /s /C /mode=3 VV2-116.WPH

(Type the above at the DOS prompt & press enter)

To be on the safe side before you flash your BIOS also grab the files to recover from a failed BIOS flash from here - flashing from a USB stick is quite safe & is recommended over flashing the BIOS from within Windows. When my flash was done the machine turned itself off after beeping a lot.

 

Thanks very much for this detailed process. I'll save this and try it out as soon as I get to upgrade the laptop.
Were you able to run 4gb RAM already?

 

I tried 4GB of Hynix pc2-6400 & 4GB of RAM for a Mac & both would only boot with 3GB - the Samsung RAM is is pc2-5300 (which is the fastest speed the GL960 chipset supports) - but has 4 banks of RAM on each side of the stick versus 8 on the other 2. I should know by Friday next week if the Samsung works with 4GB or not.

The CPU upgrade alone to a T8300 made a massive difference - I dual boot & compiling WINE in Linux used to take 1 hour & now takes around 20 minutes. In Windows games are much more playable (previously Left4Dead & L4D2 were not playable)

 

Wow! Sounds good. I just wish my processor comes sooner and hope that the Samsung 4gb would work. I'll just wait for your update then. Thanks!

 

I was sent the wrong RAM by the Ebay Seller & am getting a refund. The CPU-Z tool identifies my chipset as GL960 but the Intel Identification Tool identifies it as GM965 so I am going to try 4GB of this RAM with 4 banks on each side of the stick.

If you run both tools & both show GL960 just get an extra 2GB of RAM as 3GB is the maximum that will run on GL960.

 

I have also just run the Intel Chipset Utility software and it say GM965 as well...Now, I am confused. Anyway, how did it go with the 4gb?

 

I have Acer Extensa 4220 with GL960, BIOS 1.33 (latest available). As I found here and in a few other forums, GL960 often works well with 3 Gb, but in my case it can boot it with 2.5 Gb only. With 3 Gb, when booting Vista I get BSOD after a few seconds of the boot, and with Linux (Ubuntu 12.04) I also get some error (probably kernel panic). In both cases the laptop restarts immediatly after error. Memtest86+ hangs almost immediately after it starts. However, BIOS menus work well and all 3 Gb are detected correctly during POST.

Although 2.5 Gb is still larger than the official maximum of 2 Gb, I am a bit disappointed. What may be wrong so that my laptop can not work with 3 Gb? Is this a BIOS problem or something else?

 

I think the 2gb stick needs to be inserted into the first slot - try swapping the sticks around. At the POST screen enter the BIOS & check 3GB is detected - then boot.

 

If switching RAM modules between the two slots don't help: try using identical 2x 2GB RAM modules.

This should work (although it may only give you 3GB usable RAM in the end anyway).

Good luck.

 

Thanks very much for the hint! You were right exactly the opposite
The 1 Gb stick must be in the first slot, and 2 Gb in the second one, otherwise it won't work. I am skeptical that 2+2 Gb will work, maybe I check this sometimes when another 2 Gb stick will pass to my hands somehow.

I have finally received my new Core2 Duo T9500, and it works perfectly!
It works at its native FSB 800, at its full frequency of 2.6 GHz!
The computations, when they are split in two parallel processes, now run 5.5-6 times faster than on my old Celeron M550!
Besides, the memory now operates at its native 667 MHz, while previously the DRAM frequency was only 532 MHz (so the memory was basically underclocked).

The only bad thing is that 3D graphics does not demonstrate a significance increase in the performance, obviously because the graphics card is still the same slow.

I remind that all this is related to Acer Extensa 4220.

P.S.: The new CPU does not heat as much as previous Celeron. Its temperature varies from 25 degrees (no load) to 60 degrees (full load), while the old CPU temp was in the range 45-65 degrees

 

I'm still having the same problem, CPU-Z says my board has GL960 chipset, Intel says it's GM965, Everest says it's unidentified, so which is it? It's ACER Aspire 4315...

 

CPU-Z can identify GL960 & GM965 chipsets so I would trust CPU-Z's answer.

 

Tried to place 4GB of RAM, 2x2GB into Sony VAIO VGN-NR110E,
BIOS accepted 4GB but Windows7 64bit fail to load with blue dead screen.

Finally 3GB working OK,
1 slot: 1GB
2 slot: 2GB

Next week going to put T7700 instead of T7300 CPU.

 

Final upgrade for my Sony VAIO VGN-NR110E worked fine and here the results:


CPU-Z Validator 3.1


CPU changed from T7300 to T7700 and
Windows Rating raised from 5.0 to 5.9 for CPU and for Memory.


So finally laptop was upgraded:
CPU from T2310 to T7700
RAM from 1GB to 3GB
HDD 120GB to 500GB

 

I have Toshiba satellite L300-145
It has GL960 chipset ,2x 1gb ddr2667 rams and T2390 65nm ,I have ordered a T8100 45nm CPU and will test it when it arrives to see if this model supports it (I hope it does) I will post here when I do the upgrade.

 

I managed to find the service manual for my laptop and others eg: satellite pro 300 ,equim L300 and it states the T8100/8300 ,T9300/9500 as supported CPU's and I checked that the laptops all use the same bios version.
So I am feeling safer now that is will work.

 

I received the T8100 and it works great.
windows index jumped from 4.8 to 5.0 (minimal but core2 duo will be more powerfull in other applications)
the huge increse was the ram from 4.4 to 4.9 because of incresed FSB from 533 to 800.