Core 2 duo and compal hel80. Do i need a yonah?

Hi,
long time reader, first time writer! I am thinking of ordering a compal Hel80 with a core 2 duo 7200. However I am unsure atm if it is a viable option as I don't have a yonah processor on hand. So my question is the following, Will the Comapl Hel80 with the default BIOS boot on a core 2 duo or do I need a core duo yonah processor to flash the bios and then upgrade to a Merom?

Thanks for the answers in advance!

Otto.

 

I would be sure if you order The Compal with the processor the Bios would already be updated.

 

What springr said A manufacturer better not be sending you a machine that doesn't work out of the box (unless you do like I do and order your machines without an OS). I will guarantee you that www.powernotebooks.com will take care of you, and I'm pretty sure www.xoticpc.com are good guys as well (no experience with the latter, though)

 

I was thinking of buying the notebook from a source and the processor from another. Since I am in Canada I only found 2 place carrying the notebook. Milestone and NCIX. Milestone hasn't aswered a single of my 4 emails so I do not feel too good ordering from them. As for NCIX, I'm pretty sure they would ship the laptop as IS from the ODM.

So basically, no one has first hand experience with plugging a merom processor in a straight out of the odm notebook?

Otto.

 

It will depend on what BIOS with which your barebones is shipped. So, this is really a question for the vendor from which you intend to buy the barebones.

 

I agree with Donald. That is a question to ask the vendor that you end up going with. They should be able to tell you which version of BIOS the system will be shipped with.

 

To expand on what others have said, if the BIOS is v104 or earlier then Merom won't work in it. You'll have to buy a cheap Yonah-core CPU (maybe a Celeron-M 410/420/430) to flash the BIOS with, or borrow one from someone.

If the BIOS is v105 or later then Merom will work fine.

Ask the vendor what BIOS it ships with - hopefully they'll know.

 

What SLATE says is accurate to a point.

You will need v107b for the T1350/T2050 & T2700/T7600 processors. All others are covered by v104b

 

Hi Otto,

Just wondering what happened with your HEL80 + Merom purchase, as I'm looking to do the same thing from NCIX.

Any news on Merom support out of the box?

 

I bought the laptop from ncix.com, and it shipped with bios 1.05, so I guess it would work without needing to put in a yonah first.

 

Awesome, thanks...

Oh, also, did you ask them about the wsxga+ ? it's not on their site, but I don't get why they wouldn't carry it too. If it's just a hundred bucks or something to get the high res screen its probably worth it.

 

The VBI EL80 only comes with the WXGA screen. That is probably why you don't see them carrying the non-VBI WSXGA+ screen.