Toughbook CPU Upgrades BGA Rework

Hey man, nice to see your still among the living :hi2:

 

I've got a dead 30 and 19 MK3 board here if that will help you out.

What are the possibilities of doing a i7 upgrade on a i5 CF-19 board?

When I check the 3320m listed as the cpu in the MK6 19
it states a Socket G2??? I highly doubt it has a socket
as most TB's are BGA.

Maybe someone here can verify this? But I really would like to build myself a i7 CF-19 so please let me know what you think is possible.

 

The bios would be the only thing that I THINK would prohibit an upgrade
360s and PS3s have different nm chips, and with each nm revision the board is changed but using any nm model on the same nm size works fine
For example when replacing the GPU there are about 9 different revisions and i can use any of them

Not sure if thats of any use to you, but as long as you are sure of compatibility i can do the reworking and if i had time i would actually research compatibility but at this point i dont

If somebody has a working mainboard and wants to supply several different chips i can install them and note which chips worked and those did not
I can then post the data and you guys can create some compatibility chart

 

Hello there
I've been looking into tablet PCs and I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade the X230T CPU/MOBO to the most powerful setup possible (including an upgraded fan.) A service like that would be very popular as tablet PCs don't pack very powerful hardware (usually).

 

Your best bet would be to PM him or go to his youtube page.

 

Is there any hope of upgrading a CF-73 to a dual core?

 

Nope, Pentium M is it for that chipset and that goes up to a max of 2.2 GHZ. You won't see any real gains since you already have the 2.0 in yours. If you like the size and style of the 73 it's time to start looking for a 74 if you want dual core.

CF-74
Mk1 1.8 core duo, 4gb ram max, sata drive interface
Mk2 2.0 core duo, 4gb ram max, sata drive interface
Mk3 2.0 core 2 duo, 4gb ram max, sata drive interface, X3100 graphics
Mk4 2.4 core 2 duo, 4gb or 8gb ram max, sata drive interface, hd4500 graphics

The 74 is still the same size. It's the last model like it. All 74's have integrated graphics and soldered on CPU's. If you want the same thing but wide screen you need a 52 or 53 model. (some 52 models have ATI dedicated graphics)

 

Am I correct in assuming I can change cpu's on the CF-73 the same as in the CF-51? I bought a 73 dirt cheap and have a 770 cpu at 2.13ghz to replace the 1.7.

 

Nope, you are stuck with that cpu

 

Ok,paid $26 for it,I'll play with it,thanks for getting back on this.

 

Maybe desoldering the onboard 512MB RAM and replacing it with a 1GB stick would help on a CF-73. Maybe upgrade the graphics chip would help.

 

Another member in the past experimented with this already. He couldn't get it to work. The toughbook in question was a CF-28. The onboard ram was going bad. He cut out the bad chip that was on the motherboard. The Toughbook still showed the full amount of ram even after part of it was physically removed. Soon after the motherboard became very unstable. If you have a extra unit lying around and want to experiment go ahead, just don't do it to your main unit.

On the graphics card I know the Mk1,2,3 models with ATI graphics are removable.

From the TBT CF-73 guide

I haven't tried it. You may be able to upgrade a Mk1 or Mk2 to the ATI 9000 card. I have tried a similar swap on a Clevo CL50. It is a older gaming pc with about the same specs and hardware as the CF-73. Pentium M and ATI 9000 that is removable. And is hooked up to the motherboard in the same way. The upgraded model is the CL56 with ATI 9600. The one I tried it in was a Voodoo M360 based on the CL56. It uses the same case as the CL50. CL56 motherboards are very hard to find. I wanted to get it back working so I purchased a CL50 base model and put it's board in there. I tried to boot it with the ATI9600 card and it wouldn't work. It still works fine with the ATI 9000 card. I never tried to see if there was a bios update.


I haven't had a Mk4 or Mk5 apart yet that has the Intel integrated graphics.

 

Hi guys, been "prepping" as of late. Wondering if anyone tackled the cf-74 with a C2D upgrade. Anyhow hope all you guys are doing well and sneak in from time to time to check out the latest. Got a few more "greys" and a new grand daughter. No, the greys are not from alienware. Still love my old toughbooks and most are holding up well with high hours.. Driller

 

I have a 74 that I have never even looked at,got a lot of toughbooks. I wonder what will fit as it is home right now and I'm not,getting ready to do a couple of 51's with T7200's.Is a 74 a socketed cpu?

 

No it is not, the 74 is solder on the board...sorry

 

I was going to try this on a CF-W5,then I took one apart.....holy buckets what a pain in the rear to disassemble.

 

yes some Toughbooks are a nightmare to take apart

 

Where did I put that 4 ft crowbar?...."Honey, just call the rental place..See if they have the Hurst Jaws of life tool available."

View attachment 98386

 

The Mk1/Mk2 should handle the CPU, but besides the core2duo cpu that is all you would really gain. The Mk3/Mk4 have been selling at about the same price or cheaper it would take to put the C2D cpu in to a CD 74 model. And with the newer toughbooks you get hardware upgraded over the Mk1/Mk2.

 

Hi, I've been wondering, if the CF-M34 MK2 could be upgraded.

The memory seems to be always 192 MB, but I'm mainly interested about the cpu. The M34 MK2 is packed with a Pentium III (single core, 400Mhz) but the later models such as the MK6 has 933 Mhz Pentium III and the MK7 has a 1.0 Ghz Pentium M

I believe all of those computers are passive, and has the same case, but i'm still interested if that kind of upgrading is actually possible in this -99 model.

 

I have seen a few threads where the motherboards have been swapped out to "upgrade" that model. The case is pretty much the same on 17 Mk1 to M34 Mk7. Yes the 17/M34 is passively cooled. The Mk2 should take a faster CPU but their is no guarantee it would work. If you want a Mk7 there has been some cheap ones (between 65 and 95 dollars) on ebay that no one has gotten yet.

 

swapping a processor is a whole lot of work and risk, if you can get mk7's for 65-95 dollars?!

 

So i can proudly say we are now confident in offering cpu upgrades, bga reworking has become our specialty and we are including circuitry into our repair offerings
A project we are working on now is a universal fan controller that is not dependent on the bios

We will offer all members 15% off anything since this is a great community that i have benefited from

 

That is good news.
It may help to post a few more details about which models are cpu upgradeable.

 

I came into this late! Do you need any more dead boards? I have several....

 

Lol, as of right now we dont. Unless somebody needs a BGA swap we can salvage it from the boards.

Thanks for the offer

 

Thats something we do not know. I would say this forum has more information on that.

We have a list of nvidia GPUs which are compatible but obviously that is not helpful for this. Typically with regular notebooks, if a customer buys say a 6400 model and there are different versions 6430 or 6470 etc; we can find out the specs from that unit and apply them to the lower unit. So for a notebook with say a nvidia gtx2 128mb we can upgrade the chip itself and put more ram to make it a nvidia gtx5 256mb as an example.