HP Pavilion dv9535nr CPU upgrade

The default CPU is an Intel t5250, which is a Core 2 Duo @ 1.5GHz. This is too slow to play recent games at a decent fps, so I'm thinking about upgrading it to a t7300 or a t9300. I called HP and they said it should work, but I should get a second opinion. They all have the same socket but I don't know if there would be heat issues or something. I'm mostly using the laptop to play Team Fortress 2 and do lots of math.

 

If HP says it will work, then that means the current BIOS or the BIOS updates will offer Penryn Support....I would advise you to go for a T8300....But if you need that extra punch in your math, go for the T9300..!!

The T9300 will not be better than the T8300 in gaming (apart from a 4-5 fps increase)

You will have no heat issues, since the Socket P meroms and 1st gen penryns (excluding xtremes) have the same TDP of 35W, and your notebook's cooling system will be able to handle it even under full CPU load..!!

Clean up the heatsink and apply AS-5 when you upgrade....

And if your warranty is still on, keep the T5250 around, (the CPU upgrade might void your warranty) because whenever you'll need to send your notebook back to HP, you can reinstall the T5250..!!

 

The T8300 looks good and is priced below T7300! However, it has half the L2 cache of the T9300. Since the math is usually repetitive, would the T9300 be worth an extra $70? I remember my friend saying to go for 4MB or more, and Google doesn't help.

 

Well, if you want it to be kind of super quick, then get the T9300, else go with the T8300, which will handle math and all other stuff pretty well....!!

 

For $70 more its really up to you, the T8300 is a wicked fast cpu as is, and te T9300 is only a little bit faster.
If your math calculations use 100% cpu load and it takes a long time, I would recommend getting the faster processor, to decrease calculation times, but other than that the T8300 should more than suffice.

K-TRON

 

Fellas,

I recently ran across these posts and am extremely interested in upgrading my dv9535nr cpu to something with a little more bite. I wasn't aware that it was even possible. To that end, I have a few questions. Are the cpu's in sockets or soldered on to the board in these things? I've not had the courage to take mine apart yet, I dig into and build desktops all the time, but I figure safer to not mess with the notebooks so much. Is there any major risks involved? Is there a place where I could download schematics? not had much luck on hp's site, but I may have just not searched all that well.

I apologize if these sound like basic questions, but any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

The cpu is in a socket just like desktop cpus. A good guide is the HP Pavilion dv9500, dv9600, and dv9700 Entertainment PCs - Maintenance and Service Guide at http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01295898.pdf. It has instructions on how to disassemble the entire computer and replace almost every component.

 

I have this laptop and I just went on newegg and ordered a Core2 Duo T8300 2.4ghz, 4gbs OCZ ddr2 800 and a Samsung 200gb 7200rpm 16mb cache sata hdd. I'll let you know how it goes.

And I know what you mean, hard choice since a t9300 is only $70 more. I chose the T8300 since it's only 100mhz slower, though I know the L2's cut in half.

But remember, the chip you're replacing (c2d 5250 1.5ghz) only had 2mb anyway, so you're going to see better performance.

Now, what to do about that 8600m gs...

 

nice upgrade their fabnmun, and welcome to notebook review.
Unfortunately you cannot upgrade the 8600gs in your hp, but the overall performance of your system should be much higher with the new upgrades.

K-TRON

 

Wow, HP actually said you could upgrade your CPU? And that it would work? I am impressed.

Try pulling that with Acer, and they'll tell you that your CPU is soldered to the motherboard and can't be replaced (read as: bullsh**).

 

Yeah, you can't get a straight answer from these guys sometimes! I was once told by a Gateway tech rep that in the event of an HDD crash that I should send the entire system to them! Hells NO, if I can get it done myself I'll do it. I guess they need the system just so they can look it over to see if ANYTHING had been tampered with (even something totally unrelated to the problem).

So far, my experience with HP has earned them a 5star rating, they've been really good about having to replace my screen (TWICE) and have even bended to my will about "cosmetic damage" and gave me a new keyboard. And shipping was like a week in relay, getting the unit to them and them sending back to me. Of course, I LIVE in California so maybe that has a lot to do with it.

 

Hey man, thanx! I've worked with desktops my whole life (im 23) but I bought this laptop exactly 1 year ago and have been mobile ever since. 17" isn't as portable as I thought it would be but when I'm getting stares from over my shoulder, I know I bought the right one!

However, I still dream of quad crossfire Radeon HD4850/quad core Phenomx4 9850 2.5

 

Very excited to hear that the dv9535nr is upgradable. Have you received the parts yet & tried the upgrade? I'm concerned about RAM support - you mentioned you ordered 4GB. The HP site says that 2GB max is supported - I don't think this is a chipset limitation... maybe it is a BIOS limitation? Or, is it because they ship it by default with a 32-bit OS? I upgraded it to 64-bit and would certainly like more ram if it is possible to upgrade.

Please do let us know how the upgrade went!

 

For anyone looking to try this -- I just upgraded my dv9535nr to 4GB ram. Working beautifully so far. Running the latest BIOS (F.58) from HP. I installed Windows Vista 64-bit on the machine so it is able to use all 4GB without any issues.

Waiting on the T9300 CPU to arrive tomorrow try to out the processor upgrade!

 

And, the processor (T9300) arrived today. Installing it required completely disassembling the laptop to get to the CPU (be sure to follow the HP DV9500 series service manual from their support site - it takes about an hour to do it carefully and order is important so you don't damage the parts trying to remove them. The cables inside are easily damaged as well so be careful!

If you're okay with disassembling your laptop and reassembling.... then it certainly *is* possible to upgrade the dv9535nr to a T9300.

 

yep, no easy feet! im glad to say that it went through successfully! and my warranty went out just today...so it's like im on my own from here on out! i have the f.57 bios version. old hdd went into a caddy (nice, since its a 2.5"...so portable!) memory is kept for spare parts, as is cpu though i have a friend who's buying it off of me, when he gets his cheep notebook.

oh, for those who need to know what i do with 4gb, i run vmware/virtual pc quite a lot and I thought it'd be great to have a whole bunch of OS's running while im in Vista. it keeps everything mobile (hence my choice of a laptop) and i can get by my 32 bit limits. xp running in vmware will enable PAE and it will have access to more than 4gb.

wei scores went up really well, 5.6 on hdd (up from 4.5) cpu went up to 5.3 (up from 4.6) and ram (before putting in 4gbs) went up to 5.1 (from 4.5). i think it has to do with the fsb being set higher due to the new cpu running at 800. which means that most of you out might check that out. after the upgrade to 4gbs of ddr2 800, the wei score only went up to 5.5 (sure, every little point helps)

overall well worth the time, patience, and money. but always remember that you now have parts left over, and in the laptop world it's harder to find buyers for those parts. $500 bought me this, but you could also get a whole new (cheap) laptop with the same. i dunno, to ME personally i'd take a new laptop any day. even if its cheap, even if its just 15 inches.

 

I run vmware workstation (189.99 for a license, 30 days free trial) and use it to run xp while im in vista. ms offers their own version called virtual pc, which is free and gets the job done just as well. though you may see performance differences between the two. my previous c2d was a t5250, a friggin HAIR less than what i needed (t5500) to get vanderpool enabled hardware virtualization (iVT i think its called). though both programs ran pretty reliable before the upgrade, i really do like the results that im getting right now. anyone that misses xp might look into this, considering that with virtualization you can run them BOTH and just use xp when you want to.

of course due to the way things work with virtualization, the system won't be what you think it is. i believe they both virtualize your hardware into being an intel 440bx, pentium II equivalent rig (with all the system drivers loaded in device manager). i think this has do with with that being a widely accepted/universal config??? or something like that. but dont worry the system will perform as it should. i do have sound issues with virtual pc 2007, though there are fixes for it.

vmware is king, but of course you get what you pay for. im not shelling over the 189.99 just yet, but know that the results im getting are making my wallet a little itchy. it's just that good.

 

virtualbox runs a bit faster than vmware and virtual pc in terms of hard drive access, it's also free.

 

Im all for it then, if it can offer better performance and be free. I've only tried these two and have spent a lot of time and research to get them running comfortable. I'll definitely try out VituralBox though, thanx!

The CPU upgrade was well worth it, now that I'm running 45nm, SSE4, ivt, and have gotten a good +900mhz on each core. The battery life went up to 3hrs25mins (on my hp dv9535nr) up from 2hrs40mins. Runs a lot cooler now too! If you're familiar with this notebook series, you'll know that the top left corner (where the exhaust is) would usually be the warmest area. With this cpu, I've noticed that the system runs much quieter, thanks to the fan not revving up so often.

I've gotten my 8600m gs to overclock from 550/1100/400 to 550/1620/450. I don't know why, but the core clock refuses to move AT ALL, and the shader clock goes ASTRONOMICALLY high, and runs perfectly stable. Now, it does heat up to a max of 80c, so I don't know if the tradeoff is really worth it. I've gamed on it for hours (in COD4) and have only seen the gpu get up to 80c, and there have been no crashes whatsoever. Does that mean I should keep it at those settings? Probably not!

What I want to know is if there is any way to overclock my cpu a modest 100-200mhz just to get it up to what a t9300 was. I know it probably doesn't exist, and that I should just be happy with what I've got.

The HP bios is friggin barren! I can set up my boot drive/order, run hdd smart tests and memory tests, enable/disable c4 sleep state, and enable/disable onboard sound/LAN. I can also set the time for pressing f10/f11, which I usually leave it at its default 0.

 

Also, I run in a single drive config. The other hdd bay is empty. Helps lighten the load just a tad, as well as trims the power usage significantly. If I need data that's not on the 200gb sata, it'll come from my 2 external 120gb 2.5" drives, since they can be connected/disconnected at will. This IS a 17", which isn't as portable as I thought it would have been. About 8lbs fully loaded, and was rated to last ~ 2hrs 30mins on its battery. So those looking for the best battery life should opt to go smaller, and less powerful.

On a side note, I once had an issue with getting more than an hour out of the battery, which HP said should be covered IF there is any error messages in the Health Check. There was, but then my system had crashed and need to reinstall off the image on the repair partition. Which, in turn, somehow must have messed up something somewhere and that error showed up without an ID to call them up with. Still, they said that because of my special circumstance they would get me a new one, though I had to provide a credit card no for a deposit on the battery should anything happen to the old one in transit (they called it a "collateral part").

I use HP Recommended power setting, which keeps Aero active (unlike Power Saver) and dims the screen to 37%, while other power optimization kick in with a 1/2 hour (screen off 5mins, sleep 15mins, hdd off 20 mins, hibernate 30mins). I have hybrid sleep enabled when plugged in, disabled when on battery (the time it takes to write all 4gbs of memory to the HDD can mean a delay before it actually enters sleep). hibernation is very ideal, as some of us hang on to that last minute before taking action. i have "critical battery" action set to it, percent set to 3%.

 

Here's a good one: the 174.32 GeForce drivers that HP provides us with on their website (for Vista 32 bit) actually had been giving so much problems from when I first installed them. They are now about half a year old! The problem I was getting (which I read others were getting too) was rundll32 crashing when one of security dialogs popped up. I concluded that the reason the driver was crashing had something to do with how the display locks in those circumstances. It had happened so often that my Reliability score rapidly went down from 9.5 to 4.2 in just a couple of days! But neither nVidia nor HP had any new updates. So, I've had to run inf modded 177.89 drivers since then. Which, show up as unsigned, and Windows Update keeps bugging me to install the one that it keeps finding, which from 06-07...NO!

 

Hmmm... you guys gave me an idea. That 2.4 T8300 sounds like an excellent upgrade from this slow 1.5 in my 9535. I've already updated to the new HP F58 BIOS and put in more ram. I'm currently running Home Prem 32 bit and after running PC Wizard I realized that the OS is only recognizing 3GB of ram, not all four that I installed. Oh well I kinda figured that would happen with the OS currently installed.
Here's my question for you guys, the one I'm not going to pay Microsoft $60 to answer, if I do an Anytime Upgrade on the Microsoft website will going from the 32bit Home Premium to the Ultimate 64bit wipe out the programs and stuff installed on my C: drive? Let me know what ya think.

 

I also have a DV0335nr, and am trying to upgrade the processor, and memory. do you remember the exact parts you order from newegg.

russellbaber

 

I also have a DV9535nr, and am trying to upgrade the processor, and memory. do you remember the exact parts you order from newegg., also how did your upgrade go, bt the way

russellbaber

 

Well, I also have recently completed a processor upgrade of this model (dv1935nr). In my case I upgraded to a T8300 processor as at today's prices I felt that was the best "bang for the buck" (I got my processor used on Ebay for $175). I also upgrade to 4 GB of RAM, although running the current 32 bit Vista that came with the laptop I'm only able to use 3-3.2 GB.

The F45 Bios upgrade specifically addressed the processor upgrade issue and added support for Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processors T8100, T8300, T9300, and T9500.

I wanted to respond to this thread hoping to help any others that may want to make this upgrade. You definitely will need the Service manual mentioned previously:

I have extensive experience with desktop builds and upgrades, but had never opened a laptop before other than to upgrade RAM. They are not the same animal.

Before starting, get familiar with ZIF and LIF connectors. In short, they both are used to connect rather delicate ribbon cables. The ZIF connectors have a release/attachment mechanism, with the LIF connectors the end of the ribbon cable is just pushed in/pulled out, there is no mechanism.

Other than above, the processor upgrade is just a step by step process. It took me over 4 hours of careful progress.

The only issue I can remember is the removal to the top cover. A previous step had called for the disconnect of the wireless card cables (which connect to the display screen. That step (nor any other step in the process that I recall) does not call for the removal of the card itself, but it turns out that the 2 screws that hold the card in also help hold down the cover, so when you go to lift off the cover it will be stuck in the middle unless you remove these screws... Don't force it.

You basically end up completely dismantling the entire laptop, although I ended up leaving a few of the small component boards at the front of the system (wireless and sound) connected via their ribbon rather than mess with the ribbon connection. In fact, you are directed to remove the rear USB on the right side, but in my system the wires are soldered to the board and cannot be disconnected. You also do not need to remove the front USB (on right side) connection, just unplug it from the main board.

The chipset has a "padded" heatsink that I ended up leaving in place, I used arctic silver 5 on the processor.

I did have one issue that I have yet to resolve. In my case, my HP quick launch panel buttons have not worked since my upgrade. I have rechecked the ribbon connection to the quick launch panel and reset it and it appears well connected but the reset did not resolve the issue. When I have the time I will have to remove the keyboard (or more!) to track down the other end of the ribbon. I hope to get them working again, time will tell.

That's it, can be done, but take your time and go step by step.

Rick
NH, USA

 

Hi there, first time poster, but I have been reading for a while. I have a variety pack of questions regarding the dv9535nr. I have been having problems lately with the HP network devices stopped working message. My HP all-in-one printer doesn't work wireless any more.

My plan is to reinstall Vista and upgrade the RAM to 4GB during the winter break. I am thinking about upgrading the CPU also, and I won a brand new T9300 for $218 on ebay. I am still debating whether or not to install it or resell. But I am looking to purchase the RAM now.

So this is my question: What do I match the RAM to? Does changing the CPU require different RAM, or do I stick with the 667? The CPU would be nice to add, but I am not sure I will. I never expected to win it at that price. I just want to know if the CPU affects the RAM speed needed.

Also I was going to get an External HD before starting on this process. I am torn between the Seagate FreeAgent Go and the Western Digital MyPassport Elite. Any advice on which direction to go?

 

Hey JCO497,

I've had the same issues with my HP All-in-one also. Try reisnstalling the driver disk that came w/ the printer. I called HP and they sent me a service tech driver disk that solved all my issues with it, but it cost me over an hour on the phone to India!!!
Congrats on the Ebay deal, that saved you over $110! Checkout Newegg.com for pricing. As far as reinstalling Vista goes, a fresh install is usually good. Were you going to use your restore disks that you made when you first got your laptop? Just remember that since these were brand new there has been alot of Windows updates including SP1 that could take hours updating, not to mention updating device drivers and the BIOS.
The memory you need for the stock T5250 CPU will be different than the memory for the T9300. The T5250 has a 667 FSB which if you multiply by 8 will give you the PC2-5300 sticks. The badboy T9300 has a 800 FSB that will give you the PC2-6400 which is very cheep right now!
The eSATA drives I have been using are very reliable and I would definetly recommend. A 1 TB Seagate Freeagent Extreme for over a month now, a 500 GB Seagate Freeagent Pro for over a year, and a Maxtor,Seagate company, 320 GB portable. The portables usually come with a 2in1 USB cable which I don't like all curled up on my desk but they are neccessary for power and data.
Unless your having huge issues with Vista I would recommend just updating your Windows, any drivers and flash the new F.58 BIOS from HP.com. From there get the RAM for the T9300 and have a wicked little machine that will last a long time!!! By the way 32-bit Vista Home Premium only recognizes 3 GB of RAM, so you can install 4 GB but it will only run the 3. I installed 2X2 GB sticks for when I go to 64 bit Ultimate. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it. I did end up ordering a Seagate Desktop. I can't really comment on it yet, because I hardly have used it, and I have nothing to compare it too. I seems to do the job.

I was pretty excited about the price I got the T9300 for. I did install it myself along with 4GB of RAM. I had no previous experience working on the inside of a computer, so it was a pretty big job. I have always been pretty good a following good manuals. The HP manual is pretty good, so I got through it.

I did buy the wrong RAM before I read the response. Everything is running as far as I can tell. I will put it to the test when I return from winter break. I will tackle the printer issues then. I am planning on doing a complete reinstall if time permits. The crossover cable took everything from my old computer, and stashed it on this one when I bought it. I would like a fresh start.

 

After having assempled a couple of desktop PC's this dv9535nr is my first laptop. So far it's virgin but I'm thinking of making this upgrade, too. I'm going to print out the manual and study it, and see what sorts of prices there are after the "C" day is over. Mine has 2-120 GB hdd's and wonder what would be a good upgrade in regard to them? A couple of 7200 RPM 320 GB's with 16mb cache???

I have several weeks worth of VHS tapes I want to convert. What does anybody think?

 

In addition to the CPU and ram, that is.

 

Hey GTOTRIPOWER,

I've had the idea of converting some VHS to digital also. Since the dv9535nr comes with the TV Tuner try using that. Instead of hooking up the coax from the cable TV wall outlet, try going from the out on the VCR to the TV tuner. From there you should be able to use HP Quickplay to record the input from the VCR. You will probably need ample disk space on your primary OS C drive to save the recording to, then you could move it to an eSata drive so that you can have space to do another tape. Post back and let us know how that worked out.
Follow this path to find your recorded output:
Computer/OS C:/Users/Public/Recorded TV

 

Hi HotRod74,

I've seen your posts about upgrading your notebook, what OS did you end up getting and how does it work?

 

Still at this time am running the stock 32 bit Home Premium which dosn't have all the features of the 64 bit Ultimate such as remote desktop and support for running more than 3 GB or RAM. At this point I am planning on buying two seperate Fugitsu 250 GB hard drives to install Ultimate on and keep the 120's for my 32 bit Home Premium. I've done some research on upgrading from 32 bit to 64 bit and dosn't sound like much fun so I think buying seperate HDD's to install fresh on might be the way to go. And of course go and find the drivers for everything else. This way if things go wrong or you can't find the drivers for 64 bit you can just switch out back to the 32 bit and keep running.
I have yet to hear about how easy the driver hunt is going but hopefully someone will post here.
Anyway 64 bit Ultimate is way better, reliable and overall less buggy than 32 bit Home Premium, can't wait.

 

So the drivers are different between 32 bit and 64 bit? Aren't drivers available for 64 bit in the dv9535nr like we have? I was thinking of getting a couple of large hard drives when and if the 500GB 7200's come out and doing a clean install w/ultimate 64. Expensive perhaps, but who said practical and cheap were any fun? How much trouble should it be, any ideas?

What does anybody think? I should be getting the t9300 and 4Gb ram any day now, holding off on any hard drive purchase for a while though but looking ahead.

I have a WD 500GB external Mybook I can store stuff in until things get desparate.

 

Yea I've read that some of the drivers have been a chanllenge, but that was over six months ago. Might be better now.
The 2 500's would be excellent at 7200, should search files close to the same as the 120's at 5400. Are you planning on using the secondary for backup?
A T9300 is as good as it gets, that should boost your WEI score well over 5 points! Good luck this will make for a superior machine!!!

 

Hi HotRod74, I just looked at the driver download page for our model and the 32-bit and 64-bit drivers are all the same except for a 64-bit enhancement package (whatever the *&$% that is). Do you think they are fibbing to us about the same drivers being usable for both OS's? Is there a piece to the puzzle we don't have? This is my only 'puter right now so I guess I'll back everything up in case this things fries and I have to hike down to Best Buy for something else.

About the hard drives, I guess I remember an old guy tell me about how he sized up the specs for a new building. Figure what you really need, double it, and ad 20%....

 

The more I read here, the more naiive my last post seems to be... each question answered seems to ask another.

 

I dug around and found my syringe of A-S-5 left over from my first computer build of several years ago, and got around to upgrading my CPU with the T9300 and installing the 4GB of ram I bought. It's like a new machine! I got tired of waiting for the 500GB 7200 RPM'ers to be released, I ordered 2 320GB 7200 W-D drives from Newegg and I'll try the Clean Install since I bought a 32bit anytime upgrade disc, and I have a 64bit on it's way to experiment with. My technical know-how is about a decade (at least) behind most people, but I'm getting there slowly.

 

Should have asked this first, I guess... *puts on dunce cap, sits in corner* Will the WD3200BEKT 's that I have ordered work in my dv9535nr? Has anyone else swapped HDD's into this notebook, and what were the results?

 

I'm going to replace the two HDD's in my dv9535nr with two WD3200BEKT's and would like to know if there are any jumpers to set on the new HDD's.

Thanks in advance for allowing me to ask all these beginner's level questions.

 

No jumpers. Just installed a Seagate 250 GB 7200 RPM that I got from NEWEGG. I bought it to put Windows 7 on it to try it out. Pretty cool new look and is way faster than Vista so far! Anyway, pull the HDD covers and pull the mylar plastic tab up and it will pull right out. Then unscrew the bracket and switch both the plug adapter and bracket over to your new HDD. Just remember to remove the battery and unplug all cables before you start.
Go to HP support and you can get a PDF on how to tare these laptops apart.
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01295898.pdf

 

Yeah, I replaced my processor and had the whole thing apart. The HDD's are a piece of cake. The ones I have are WD3200BEKT's and wondred about any jumpers to put on, also what about the speed (150 vs 300)....

I climb every hill and another one is right behind

 

I just pulled my twin WD3200BEKT drives and installed twin WD5000BEVT drives. No jumpers. I have no idea exactly what the spped is, but other threads here say the dv9500 series operate at 150.

As far as OSs go, I am multi booting Vista home premium 32 bit, 64 bit along with XP MCE and Ubuntu (64bit). The SWsetup folder that came with my original 32 install had both the 32bit and 64bit drivers.

I have had no problems with the HP drivers.

 

Did you configure the speed ahead of time on another computer with the CD? Apparently WD doesn't use jumpers, only Seagate does. I don't have access to another computer to set up the drive. I got a RMA for my WD's, and was going to order Seagates... but did yours work just as a direct replacement with no preparation? Other places here say that set for 3.0 it won't boot.

I asked HP and they tell me the motheboard is not 3.0 compatable, only 1.5.

*scratches head*

 

Mine worked as a direct replacement. When I did my 320's, I used the second drive bay for the new drive, cloned the old drive from the first drive bay, then repeated with the original drive from the second bay. I only used my laptop, no other computer, no pins, no settings.

When I did my 500G drives, I used an external enclosure for the new drives to clone the old drives, then just put the new drives in. Again, no settings, pins or jumpers.

Hope this helps.

 

How to change the RAID to maybe RAID 0?

 

There is no RAID capability on these computers.

 

I hadn't seen any provision for it, sometimes I overlook the obvious so thought I'd ask. I wanted to make sure I had done everything there was to do.

*puts dunce cap back on.. heads for corner*

 

I installed a new Seagate 7200.4 and tried to install XP home, it won't recognize my HDD. I didn't put any jumpers in place to denote 1.5 vs 3.0. I can't remember what I did to overcome this before, I haven't installed XP in some time... ideas?

 

Look at the guide for installing XP...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=165319

The main thing is that XP doesn't see SATA, so you either need the drivers available and push the right button (F6?) when the install asks if you need any external drivers (SCSI Etc). The other option provided it to slipstream the drivers with the install CD.