rPGA 989 socket best compatible processor upgrade?

Hi, I am a newbie and first-time poster here. I hope this note finds you well.

I had (still have) a Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5134 laptop with a fixed, non-removable AMD E-240 (very slow) budget processor. Because the processor was non-removable, I looked at eBay listings and bought for upgrading purposes a used, socketed, Intel rPGA 989 motherboard, PN: 1310A2423502, V000225140. It has two slots for DDR3 notebook RAM, and included with this motherboard was a SR07V, Intel Pentium B960, 2.20GHz CPU.

I do not know the chipset of the new motherboard; I only have pictures of the socket and the sticker part numbers listed above that can be seen here:

Picture of new motherboard: https://ibb.co/5r0SKrq
Picture of B960 included processor looking to upgrade: https://ibb.co/s6bDJWB

I also have not attempted to install the new socketed Intel rPGA 989 motherboard in the laptop yet and sort out boot/compatibility issues. Perhaps there is a way to know the chipset from the motherboard part number, or from looking visually at the board? I am unfamiliar with chipsets, but I understand they factor into processor compatibility.

So my CPU upgrade question is as follows: what is the best (fastest, good quality) compatible processor I can buy that would work with my new motherboard, assuming a successful install and replacement of the old AMD E-240 motherboard?

My research pointed to--and I am looking to buy--an Intel Core i7-2860QM CPU with 4 Cores 2.5-3.6GHz 8M, SR02X. Even though this looks like it would physically fit in the rPGA 989 socket, and blow away the included Pentium B960 CPU in terms of performance, would the Intel Core i7-2860QM be compatible with the rest of the motherboard? Or would you recommend another processor instead?

If you need any additional information, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your time and help! I really appreciate it!

 

The layout of the two motherboards, including the external ports, display and keyboard connectors are probably very different, so it's extremely unlikely that the new motherboard would even fit in the old case. Not to mention the need for a proper heatsink and fan setup. I'm sorry, but I think you threw good money after bad here.

 

Hi, and thanks for responding. This is a first time motherboard swap to a different spec motherboard for me. I have done exact replacements before, but not switching from an AMD to Intel board.

The new board came with its original heatsink and original fan, so I have those already, plus some newly ordered silver thermal compound to put on the processor. The thermal compound is Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Premium Thermal Compound 3.5G Grams.

The ports looked virtually identical to me--2 USB, 2 headphone jacks, 1 VGA connector on the side, 1 Ethernet hole, etc. The board dimensions look very similar from the pictures. I also bought brass screw standoffs in case I need to adjust for different mobo screw hole positions.

Worst comes to worst, I could look for a new shell. I have a spare 15.6"(?) laptop LCD that may be compatible. *shrug*

Any suggestions on a compatible processor?

 

Assuming that new MOBO fits into the chassis, there are some things to talk about.

1. I looked up the exact MOBO, and it is an rPGA 989 MOBO. This means it accepts Socket G1 (rPGA988A) and Socket G2 (rPGA 988B) chips. Therefore, you should be able to use 1st gen Intel mobile chips, although those are worse than the 2nd and 3rd gen chips.

1a. This is minor, but from all the pics I saw of that MOBO model, the CPU socket is white not black, nothing bad, just letting you know.

2. The Pentium B960 has a 35 watt TDP, the i7 2860QM has a 45 watt TDP. The i7 SHOULD be compatible. However, it uses 10 more watts of power, if your laptop has a single heat pipe, you may have a hard time cooling a 45 watt chip. If you have 2 heat pipes on the heat sink, a 45 watt chip should be fine.

2a. Socket G2 is compatible with mobile Ivy Bridge chips alongside mobile Sandy Bridge chips. It may be better to get an Ivy Bridge Chip due to their higher clocks and because they use the 22nm process instead of Sandy Bridge's 32nm process.

CPU Recommendations: If you go through with the upgrade, the best 35 watt chip is the Core i7 3632QM, with the 3612QM right under (3612QM is 100mhz lower.) This website will show you all of the Socket G2 CPU's. If you're on a budget, there are plenty of i5's that are pretty good and have a 35 watt TDP, but they are all dual-cores.

Website: https://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket G2 (rPGA988B).html

Note: I actually have no clue if the CPU upgrade will work, so I would probably test to make sure the Pentium works before you buy another CPU just to ensure the MOBO works.

 

Here's what I found there are two type of rPGA 989 sockets a G1, and G2 you need to know which one yours have.
G1 and CPU that fits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_G1
G2 and CPU that fits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_G2

As you can see G2 CPU are some what different so you need to find this out before changing CPU. From your listing that it was B960 Pent. it looks like it's a G2 socket as that listing has a B960 listed in it.
Processors
Intel "Sandy Bridge" (32 nm)
Core i7 Quad-Core
i7-2960XM, i7-2920XM,
i7-2860QM, i7-2820QM,
i7-2760QM, i7-2720QM,
i7-2710QE, i7-2670QM,
i7-2630QM
Core i7 Dual-Core
i7-2620M, i7-2640M
Core i5 Dual-Core
i5-2540M, i5-2520M,
i5-2510E,
i5-2450M, i5-2435M,
i5-2430M, i5-2415M,
i5-2410M
Core i3 Dual-Core
i3-2370M, i3-2350M,
i3-2348M,
i3-2332M, i3-2330M,
i3-2330E, i3-2328M,
i3-2312M, i3-2310M,
i3-2310E, i3-2308M
Pentium
B980, B970, B960(Yours), B950, B940

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't rPGA 989 support both G1 and G2 Sockets?

 

Thanks for clarifying this. Yes, I was also seeing that other listings for this board on eBay had a white Intel socket, but they were more expensive (starting at $75). I got what I think was a good deal on this board for $40 total with the included one-pipe heatsink, fan, B960 processor, and socket to upgrade the processor. In the picture of the black socket in my first post, it says rPGA 989 on the socket border. I guess this board could be a prototype or a revision of some sort, given the black socket.

Thanks much for this great info. I wanted to ask--I received what I think is a great $60 offer on that quad i7 2860QM. My board only has one heat pipe on the heatsink. If I purchase an external laptop cooling tray for the chassis to sit on with fans, powered by a wall outlet (not the laptop's USB ports), and I also use that Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound I ordered, do you think I can still go ahead with the 45 watt chip? Otherwise, I might take your suggestion of the 35 watt Core i7 3632QM Ivy Bridge chip. (Though I didn't see the i7 3632QM in StormJumper's G2 socket Sandy Bridge list above; I was looking originally at a similar list of Sandy Bridge chips--including the i7 2860QM--because the B960 was also in that category, and I thought it would have better compatibility.) Perhaps there is a way I can disable, say, 2 of the cores in the 2860QM (if necessary) and use a temperature monitoring program (e.g., Speed Fan) to check the CPU temperature?

Yes, I intend to do this soon when I have time, possibly this weekend or next week, and I will update here with my progress.

Thank you to everyone who replied so far for helping and sharing your input. I will continue to monitor the thread for updates!

 

With a cooling pad and decent thermal paste, you should be able to cool it somewhat decently. Though, don't plan to do any gaming or stressful tasks on the CPU. When idling, if the CPU hits over 70C, you should probably return it. I would personally say go ahead with the 2860QM, but just be prepared to return it and the cooling pad if temps are bad. I wouldn't say disabling 2 of the cores would be worth it, because then you're getting core i5ish performance.

If everything does work, then don't worry too much about NOT getting an Ivy Bridge chip. Sandy Bridge was one of the best micro-architectures Intel ever made in my opinion, and most i5's and i7 Sandy Bridge chips still kick ass even in gaming.

 

Noted! I am not intending to do a lot of gaming on this laptop, just internet and application software, and having a few windows open at a time. I got fed up with the built in AMD E-240 budget processor on the original mobo and the system crawling like a snail, even after upgrading from 2GB to 8GB of compatible DDR3 RAM. Windows Experience Index (Win 7) gives my old laptop a 2.5 score. The budget soldered processor kind of bottlenecks that score, even if you add other improvements like SSD and more RAM... Hence my mobo swap project. I will update with any improvement to this score after the swap.

Thanks again for the follow up, and I will keep you posted.

 

Alright man, no problem!

I am also very sorry that you had to use that E-240, it has a single core! No wonder it was slow, multitasking is nearly impossible nowadays with a single core.

 

It may look it but looking at the wikipedia listing and you see some processors aren't the same.

 

@ db1210 just make sure that your current cooling fits and matches the processor some might have some slight change so if you get a higher CPU make sure the heatsink matches the replacement CPU cooling.

 

Those Toshibas will shutdown after 30 minutes if you go above anything Celeron, you need to dump your BIOS, run me_cleaner on it, and flash it again with an HW programmer to disable that stupid Management Engine, I was never able to disable that via any BIOS option, only way is to kill Intel ME.

 

Hi folks,

So here is an update. I swapped the motherboards (it was an exact fit in the old chassis) and first tested to make sure the included Intel Pentium B960 worked, and it did. I received the Intel Core i7-2860QM, bought for $60, and installed it right after briefly testing the Pentium B960.

I refreshed the Windows Experience score on the Intel Core i7-2860QM, which goes on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9, and got a 5.9 score (up from 2.5 with the previous mobo). I am happy to report it is definitely running much faster than my old AMD E-240 mobo that was originally installed!

https://ibb.co/SRq9rzT

I have used the laptop for only a few hours now. Here are some temperature comparisons:

https://ibb.co/5xp3W5f

When I ran a stressful task for the laptop--refreshing the Windows Experience Index--the temperatures went up to concerning levels (70-71C), the exhaust was pretty hot, and the fan speed increased to turbo. This is on a single heat pipe heatsink and fan setup. I bought but didn’t yet set up a KEROLFFU brand external cooling pad for $20:

https://www.amazon.com/KEROLFFU-15-6inch-Adjustable-dimmable-Speed-Alienware/dp/B08D3P9VVR

The laptop is currently idling around 50C with just Word and Firefox open, which looks good per the advice given to be careful if it gets over 70C.

The only problem I am having now is with the wi-fi--the wireless card is detected, but not working. The black and white antennas are connected properly. I can only connect to the internet through the Ethernet port currently, and not via the wireless card. I have a Realtek RTL8188CE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC #2. I tried updating the driver in Device Manager while connected to the internet, and it said it was up to date. I will need to sort this out. If it is not a driver issue, then perhaps I will need to buy another compatible wi-fi card for this Toshiba Satellite C655 (open to suggestions).

To wrap up, I am looking to keep the processor for a bit and observe the temps. The fan starts and stops every 30 seconds and runs a bit noisy. If I notice the temps getting too high, or if the fan noise bothers me too much, I might sell or downgrade it to the next best 35 watt TDP processor, instead of the 45 watt TDP Intel Core i7-2860QM I installed.

That’s all for now folks! Thanks again for all your help, and I hope this is helpful to others viewing. I will update further if there are any updates.

 

I'm glad to see that the upgrade worked, Congrats!
One thing to note, I meant in my earlier post that 70C when idling is an issue. If you're doing an intensive task and are hitting mid 70's, thats totally fine. Most high performance/gaming laptops nowadays hit 80-90C on both the CPU and GPU, so if your laptop is around 50C idle and 70C on load there's nothing to worry about, those are actually pretty good temps.

 

Hi Tenoroon!

That is great information. I was just doing more research on the i7 processor, and it looks like it is rated up to 100C max. It is good that my temps so far haven't hit near that high.

Hats off and all my best to you!

 

So I'm back at it again with a followup question that I would appreciate your help with.

I have been unable to get on the internet wirelessly with this swapped mobo. I am only able to connect through a wired Ethernet connection.

I've been trying for 2 days now to connect wirelessly with two internal Wi-Fi cards (Atheros and Realtek vendors). The cards are detected in Device Manager, and I've tried updating their drivers by right clicking in Device Manager; they were both already up to date. Each card is not detecting any wireless networks, and both were enabled/turned on while installed.

I have uninstalled the wireless cards and reinstalled them to no avail.

I also tried bypassing this, thinking it was maybe an internal issue with the Wi-Fi card slot on the board, by installing an "external" EnGenius Wi-Fi adapter USB stick from my desktop PC. The EnGenius stick and monitoring software was installed successfully, and the light on the dongle lit up, but it, too, didn't detect ANY wireless networks.

So I did some more research and looked at Device Manager. I noticed under SM Bus a yellow exclamation point. I tried updating the driver for the SM Bus automatically over the internet but it couldn't detect any matching driver for my motherboard.

I went to Toshiba's website (it now looks like they call Toshiba "Dynabook") to see if I could find an SM Bus driver. It asked me to type my motherboard's model number. I've looked literally everywhere, with command prompt's "wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer" command, the System Information utility, and searched other internet listings and still couldn't find the darn model number! My motherboard doesn't seem to have one! It lists only "Toshiba" and "Toshiba C655" in System Information. It is a Windows 7 64-bit home installation.

On the eBay listing, it was listed as "Toshiba C655 Motherboard V000225140 SR07V Pentium B960 2.20 Cpu Heatsink Fan 126." It may have come originally packaged with the B960 processor at retail if that helps. I have a picture of the numbers on the board, written out as follows:

PN: 1310A2423502
SPS: V000225140
Picture: https://ibb.co/3TM1DtN

And on the back (EDITED, WRONG PIC UPLOADED FIRST):

MN10R 6050A2423501-MB-A02
Picture: https://ibb.co/D7xTvyG

I am looking for help in locating the exact model number if anyone can help me here. It has a black processor socket. CPU-Z lists a HM65(?) chipset if I recall correctly, as I am not at the laptop right now. It may have been a limited production, as Toshiba's other similar boards all have a white or purple colored CPU socket. I may write Toshiba if no one can figure this out to see if they have a model number for the board.

Also, do you think the SM Bus not working/installed/detected (yellow exclamation point) can screw with the Wi-Fi like this? A quick Google search says that SM Bus is for checking board temperature and voltage. That is the only item with a yellow exclamation point.

Thanks for your help!

 

What O/S are you using? What specific version?

The latest Windows 10 version doesn't check anywhere for an updated driver except for one already on your computer.

 

Windows 7 Home Premium is the OS.

 

So here is the latest. I finally found the product model/serial by running a command window with wmic bios get serialnumber. It turned up:

SerialNumber
YB191979Q

Running YB191979Q on Toshiba's support site gave me the drivers below:

https://support.dynabook.com/support/driversOSResults?freeText=YB191979Q

I am happy to report that I resolved the SM Bus yellow exclamation point issue by downloading and installing the Intel Chipset SW Installation Utility ( Posted Date: 2016-10-05 | Version: 9.2.0.1021 | Size: 5.27M) from Toshiba's drivers link above.

 

Still at this. I googled the diagnostic error I was getting:

Windows couldn't automatically bind the IP protocol stack to the network adapter.

I followed the instructions at https://blog.pcrisk.com/windows/126...-the-ip-protocol-stack-to-the-network-adapter to the step of right-clicking on each wireless connection and opening the Wireless Network Connection Properties window.

I am supposed to see the following eight items all listed and checked:


Client for Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
QoS packet scheduler
Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
Microsoft LLDP Protocol Driver
Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

I see all of the above options except for Microsoft LLDP Protocol Driver. There is no entry for this.

My next steps would be to click Install... select the protocol, click Add... then select Have Disk...

I am having trouble locating a Microsoft LLDP Protocol Driver for Windows 7. Any advice where to find this? From my research, I should be seeing the accompanying mslldp.sys in Windows/System32/drivers folder, but it is missing. I hope to get this sorted soon.

Thanks!

 

Hi everyone,

I have been working on this over the past few days and still cannot solve it.

I went out and bought a new Linksys USB wireless network adapter.

I wonder if there is someone here who is knowledgeable about networking who could give me some suggestions. I really have tried everything under the sun except for reinstalling Windows or resetting the laptop to factory default settings.

To sum up my issue, I swapped motherboards. Old AMD E-240 Toshiba Satellite C655D motherboard connected fine to both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. New C655 Intel motherboard can only connect through wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi is not working through both the internal Wi-Fi network card and TWO separate, external USB network stick adapters (EnGenius and a brand new Linksys). I have spent two days doing the following:

-updated the BIOS from Toshiba site, v1.20 to now v1.30
-installed latest WLAN drivers from Toshiba site (Atheros, Realtek, etc.)
-installed latest chipset sw driver from Toshiba for my new board
-uninstalled and reinstalled WLAN device drivers from Device Manager multiple times w/ reboots
-ran all ipconfig reset/renew commands in an administrator command prompt window
-ran all netsh winsock reset commands in an administrator command prompt window
-checked to make sure the WLAN Autoconfig service was started and set to Automatic in Services
-selected "automatically issue an address" (DHCP stuff) for ipv4 and ipv6 dialog boxes after right-clicking on each wireless connection
-made sure all wireless adapters were enabled (while Ethernet was disabled).
-checked the BIOS to make sure nothing network-related was disabled
-completely reset the router with a pen on the reset button, set up a new network password, SSID, etc.

The only change is that my latest Linksys USB network adapter does pick up all the wireless networks in my area, which is slighty good news. No networks were found previously with the Realtek built-in card or the EnGenius card. When I go to enter my network password / passphrase after selecting my network, it still can't connect.

The router is working fine, though. Other devices (phone, tablet) can still connect fine via their respective Wi-Fi. It is only this Win 7 laptop with the swapped boards that has the issue with the Wi-Fi.

Note that I Googled, and someone else on the web had a similar issue after a board swap, where Ethernet wasn't connecting at his college campus:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/9vyblm/new_motherboard_cant_connect_to_ethernet/

Two folks replied:

1. "I'd bet money that your University locks down it's internet with 802.1x or something similar. I'd call the IT department in charge, let them know you have a new computer (you don't need to explain that you changed motherboards or anything, just say you replaced your old computer) that you want to get connected."

2. "I am bettin this as well, they haven allowed his MAC address to communicate on that port."

I have tried to look for settings in my router to somehow "whitelist" my Linksys USB network adapter's MAC address to no avail... Ports are a bit beyond my knowledge at the moment.

Is it some port issue? Bad chipset, even though I updated the chipset driver? Should I throw this new motherboard out the window and try buying another compatible Toshiba Satellite C655 board, with the same 989 Intel processor socket and a different mobo model number? Maybe buy an AMD motherboard with a socket for a high-quality AMD compatible CPU instead of going with another Intel board?

I am at wits' end here!
------------------------------------

Edit: Resetting the Toshiba motherboard to factory default by holding Power and the zero key "0" solved the wireless problem with the new motherboard. Unfortunately, there was no workaround for the Wi-Fi issue until the reset and subsequent reinstallation of the laptop-supplied Windows 7 Home Premium. There must have been network driver conflicts galore. My laptop was branded as AMD architecture somewhere in the diagnostics settings; after the reinstall, it is now correctly updated to Intel.