Sony CR-120 CPU Upgrade Advice Needed

I'm new to upgrading laptops, so bear with me. I have a Sony CR-120 w/ T7100 (1.8 ghz) CPU. Can the CPU in this laptop be upgraded to a 45nm T8xxx or T9xxx series CPU? It does have the GM965 express chipset (800mhz fsb capable). My guess is the bios would be the weak link in any such upgrade.

I know the CR-120 probably isn't the greatest laptop to dump money into for upgrades, but I find myself needing more mobile computing power and don't have the budget for a whole new laptop right now. I've already ordered 2 x 2 GB of DDR2 and a Hitachi Travelstar 200 GB 7200 rpm drive to help speed things up. I figured the CPU would be the final area to boost performance and maybe improve battery life with the smaller 45nm die. The factory Sony bloatware has been purged and I've optimized Vista as much as I can. Any advice would be very helpful.

Ken

 

Yes the processor can be upgraded.
However, you must check and see if Sony released a new bios revision, which accepts the T8xxx or T9xxx series processors.

If the processor is able to be upgraded, I recommend getting the T8300 or T9300 since they are pretty good bang for your buck processors.

Please wait on the cpu upgrade for a bit. I am sure your system will be much more responsive with 4gb of ram and a speedy 200gb 7200rpm drive.

K-TRON

 

K-Tron is right again,, your CPU should be upgradable to any SOCKET P CPU,,

but you need to besure your BIOS supports the CPU you are going up to..

if the latest BIOS release is fairly recent you are probably OK for a T8100 or T8300 and maybe even the T9xxx series... but verify that for your self

GOOD RAM and a FAST HDD will suprise you if you give them a chance

later,
bigO

 

Thanks for the advice. I have high hopes for the RAM and hard drive. They will probably give me what I need now.

As far as determining if the bios supports a certain CPU, exactly what's the best way to find that info? Sony doesn't exactly give you a whole lot of info with their bios releases (unlike after-market desktop mobos manufacturers). The latest release is dated late march, which is what is what I have loaded.

Ken

 

see if any CR-120 models are/were configured with a newer CPU than your current one,,,

but if you have support for T7100,,, you should have no probs w/ any T7xxx that is a SCOKET P,,, and most likely you have support of all Socket Ps included,,, unless sony just wanted to be real D!@Ks

later,
bigO

 

Yea, I did some homework and the fastest processor Sony sold with my exact config (and same bios file) was a T7700. Just for grins, I asked Sony via chat if the latest bios would support the T83 or T93. They were completely useless. They claimed that the CPU was permanently installed in the motherboard…which is totally false. It's easily accessible from the bottom via the memory cover. I explained to the rep that he was wrong, and explained my bios file research. I ended up getting a canned "Sony doesn't not provide support for the upgrade of a laptop CPU" response.

I like Sony and their products, but it would have been nice for the guy to tell me what CPUs were supported by the latest bios release. The family of CR laptops have three different bios files available. The last release for all three came out at the same time to support a sound bug fix related to Vista SP1. The later models did add bluetooth, but all the other chipset specs are the same. My guess is I probably could drop a T9300 in there without any problems. I'm probably going to hold off for now to see how the RAM and HD upgrades improve my Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver performance.

Thanks Again,
Ken

 

that sounds like every laptop manufacturer out there... but sometimes inside the BIOS zipfiles you may see a text file.. CHANGELOG.TXT for example is usually the one in the acer BIOS ZIP file... that text file may have info on CPU ID SUPPORT being added.. the CPU ID is a number/letter combo that can be searched thru google to see what CPU support was added!!

you don't need to find one w/ your EXACT SPECs.. but any system BASED on the SAME MOTHERBOARD.. WHICH USES THE SAME BIOS FILE.... and supports a higher CPU would indicate that the BIOS does support higher CPUs

i have a feeling a T9300 will drop in and work fine,, but that's too much cash to be working off a hunch..

good luck,
bigO

 

Thanks for all the advice. I was successful in upgrading to a T8300 CPU. It took all of 15 minutes to drop the new CPU in and fire it. Noticeable improvement in performance overall, including boot up time. I'm sure a T9300 would have worked fine as well, but the price difference just wasn't worth it in my mind.

Ken

 

I also bought a sony vgn cr 120e and I was also wondering how to replace the cpu..untill I saw this thread. Can you please give me more details on how you replaced the cpu, some photos of the mainboard...etc..I also want a t 8300 replacemet for t7100...Thanks in advance

 

Your best bet, is to send a PM message to sigtauez, since he is not a frequent visitor, and will not see your post.
Just click on his username, and click the send a private message link.

Usually it is very simple to swap the processor. The hardest part is taking the laptop apart. Sometimes that means its the entire laptop, and sometimes you remove 5 screws and bam your ready to swap cpu's.
What you need to do, is make sure you have the proper screwdrivers, a clean open space for screws, a camera, so you know how the system fits together, some rubbing alcohol to clean the cpu and the heatsink, and some arctic silver thermal paste, to interface between the cpu and the heatsink.

The installation of the cpu is simple, just make sure you turn the screw on the zif socket, (the one which holds the cpu to the board) about 180 degrees, to free the processor. Then after installing the new processor, rotate the screw 180 degrees in the other direction to lock it back in.

If you need any more help, just repost and we can go into more detail.

K-TRON