!! Warning !! CPU Upgrade of A105-101X

Just completed replacing the CPU in my A105-1013. Upgrade went fine. Works like a champ...

But guess what? You can no longer use your Toshiba DVD Restore Disk. From what I can gather, once the CPU is changed it no longer recognizes the notebook as an A105... and will not boot the restore disk. BIG problem. Fortunately it will work once you are in Windows to add the utilities and programs on the disk but it won't reinstall/restore the operating system. Anyone have any ideas how to get around this? This really puts a crimp in the whole CPU upgrade ideas floating around. I'm not even sure what you would use as a restore disk with a Frankenstein notebook... Modified BIOS is my only guess. Oops notebook type should be A105-S101x

 

I'd try updating your notebook's BIOS with an A105-S2XX or A105-S3XX, as they have P-M CPUs (assuming you upgraded to a P-M). See if that has an effect on the re-install discs.

 

Aren't the A105-S2XX or A105-S3XX Intel Based Centrino machines? If the restore CD identifies them and tries to install all the Intel based drivers then also it will be a problem right?

 

Woo Hooo. Congratulations. Hope you took pleny of pix. Did you try that pin mod too?

Why did you need to use the restore CD? Didn't it just boot up again once the CPU was upgraded?

As to the restore cd, maybe you can create a ghost image and use that to restore the OS??

 

Yes - the drivers will most likely become useless, but you might be able to use the restore discs. You can always get the drivers off of Toshiba's site if you have to. However, this depends if you have seperate discs for the OS and drivers - if you have only one disc for both, it complicates things.

 

Well first thing I did was order a new restore disk from Toshiba... No, it worked fine after the install. My motto though is if it isn't broke I haven't played with it enough. I was dinking around in the Registry trying to get the last remnantsof that McAfee POS removed and probably screwed somethng up in the process. It's working right now but it has a few "issues". I tried updating all the drivers with the latest stuff on Toshiba's website for the A105-S1013 and some require you to unistall the old version before putting in the new version. Well some wouldn't uninstall for whatever reasons... wasn't real specific except that it couldn't do it. Just said it couldn't uninstall... Heck it may just be a bad DVD for all I know... I'll have to wait and see if the new disk work and if not then start installing different BIOSs or try drivers from a diffent version of the same model.. I do have a mirror backup of the original setup on my USB external HDD. Which is great except you can't copy it all back because the notebook C: drive is the system drive. Basic Catch-22. I guess.

The problem I'm having is there are several "devices" who's drivers won't install. Specifically the "Ethernet Controller" and everything in the "Sound, Video and Game Controller" section in the Device Manager. I try installing them but it doesn't find the drivers on the DVD restore disk. Even manually installing them from the DVD results in a failed install. The RealTek drivers for the "Sound, Video and Game Controller" devices that won't install, DOES actually install... but it ends the installation saying that the drivers were installed but the device can't be found! That's a new one on me... never have encountered that message before while installing a driver.

Dont' really know where I'm going to go from here. I think the best approach, since it is "working" is to wait for the new disk. Then if that won't install start tring some other drivers or updating BIOSs. I think the closest match to the setup I now have is the A105-S171 which is basically the same notebook model and chipset with the only difference being that the S-171 has a Pentium M 1.6 GHz processor and a DVD burner. If that don't work... then we stick the old processor back in and see if that works. If that don't work... send it back to Toshiba and tell them it's FUBAR. I thought about calling tech support but my guess is since they have an open case for the DVD, they will just tell me to wait until I get it. Of couse they may question whether I opened the thing up.. but I'll take my chances. What I do know is that after the new CPU install everything was working fine in the Device Manager and everything worked so I presume these aren't software issues... just installation issues. Something is screwed up software wise and would probably still be screwed up whether I changed the processor or not. I just didn't practice due diligence on backing it up properly before starting. BTW I did try System Restore on 4 different restore points and it just said the restore couldn't be competed after it "installed" everything. Don't know what to make of that either...though System Restore has been very good to me in the past anyway.

As far as disassembly... just look at the dissassembly instructions for the M-35X. It covers the basics. There are a few sorta minor things... getting the securing strip off is different. It takes a little force to get the ends started but once you do, you want to pry a little on the back side of the strip rather than trying to get the front of it lifted up. Comes right off then but couldn't get it to break away from the front edge until I popped it loose on the back edge. I just put a small flat blade screwdriver between the back of the strip and the base of the display and pried it a little and it pops the hooks loose pretty easy. The "hooks" holding it on face OUTWARD all the way around the strip by the way... Once you get that off take out the keyboard and there are two small ribbon cables right in the middle of the now exposed hole. Disconnect these...

Then the fun starts tring to get the area around the keyboard off. You just have to pry, preferably next to the tabs that are holding it down. Once you get a few loose it pretty much just pulls up. But be careful because there are ribbon cables attached to the back side of this "plate" that are connected to the MOBO. You gotta reach in and unplug them. Also in the back left corner is the LCD monitor plug. You need to pull it out as well. There is also a white and red cable that goes from somewhere UNDER the motherboard through the passage in the cover plate which I did not disconnect, hence the need to work with the cover just lifted up rather than completely removed. I never did take the display off. No real reason to. Basically once you get this far you can lift the "hood" up like on a car and you have enough room, barely... to get the heat sink and fan out. There are two screws holding the fan down which need to be removed... which requires a short phillips screwdriver.

The CPU heat sink is completely different on this dude. But all you do is take the two screws out and just sliide it off.. it's all itegrated with the "radiator", heat pipe and heat sink. Just take the whole thing out by lifting the fan shroud up a little. YOu'll see, it's obvious. Once you get the cooling assembly out it's done. The CPU socket has a lock like the M35X that you have to turn a half turn to release the CPU. Drop the new one in and turn the screw back a half turn to lock it back down. It has a slight "snap" when you turn the screw to indicate it is locked back in. Just look at the orientation of the slot in the screw BEFORE you unlock it so you know how far to turn it back to get it to it's original position. Like I said it will have a little snap when it relocks. Must be some sort of detent in it somewhere. Don't forget the Artic Silver before reinstalling the new CPU. YOu can also take the copper cover off the video chip and put a dab on it as well.. it's held down with two phillips screws and is right beside the CPU. Can't miss it, it's about 3 inches square and made of pure copper. Then put it back to gether in the same order. Make DXXMN sure you get those little ribbon cables back in ALL the way. Might not be a bad idea to take a fine tip Sharpie or something and draw a line across the cable at the top of the socket beforeyou remove them to make sure you get them fully seated when you put them back in. Hopy you have little fingers... I use a special flat jawed needle nose pliers to better handle them. It has like 3/16" wide jaws that are perfectly smooth so you can grip stuff with out marking or damaging stuff. That's about it. YOu reboot and it now the Toshiba splash screen says Pentium M instead or Celeron M. Performance boost... negligible. I posted that stuff earlier.... Battery life increase... ZERO. Went from an hour and 25 minutes to about an hour and 28 minutes and that was running at 600 MHz... About the only thing it allows you to do is run Notebook Hardware Control so you can undervolt it so the fan doesn't come on nearly as much. Other than that... you need either a faster Pentium M or you need to upclock the bus with the pin mod.

I'll try some of the things suggested in the posts.. to see if I can get the drivers installed prior to getting my new Restore Disk. Really nothing to lose since, these devices aren't working anyway. For instance I have no sound... though it did work fine after the CPU install... When I try to run Media Player is reports the following error..

"Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly."

It's basically telling me I don't have a driver installed... which is also what the Device Manager is reporting. This is related to the RealTek drivers not installing, I believe...

Anyway, I'll try the suggestions you've all made to see if any of them work. Don't give up on me yet... any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I upgraded it from a Celeron M 1.6 GHz to a Pentium M (Dothan) 1.7 GHz. So I did't expect a whole lot of a performance increase. I was mainly looking for battery life.

 

As far as the Restore disk is concerned. the Restore disk says is it for a Toshiba A100 or A105 so presumably there are no drivers for the Intel Centrino stuff... i.e. the video chip and the wireless. This box has the Atheros wireless and the ATI X200 M video chip. I may be wrong on this though if Toshiba just sticks everything on a single disk, regardless of the model and just has the OS sort thru and figure out what it needs. But as I said I tried doing a manual install of specific drivers on the REstore disk and it tried to install the RealTek stuff but then failed the install after going thru all it's iterations of installing the drivers. SAid the deivce didn't exist... which could be a clue to something...

 

I already have two store bought copies of WinXP for my self built desktop boxes that I have. Could I just load it and then use the Restore Disk to install the "special" drivers that I need? I'd thought about doing that but right now I think that's a last resort.. I've done it before on my daughter's Compaq Notebook and it seemed to work OK... but it was a real basic notebook.. with no builit in wireless capability.

 

One more bit of information on trying to use the Restore Disk. It boots from the DVD and starts loading the RAM Disk with data then when it finishes it goes to a splash screen where you see the file progress at the bottom. It goes to the end of the indicator, then it just goes to a blank screen and then reboots and starts all over again. If you eject the disk at this point you get the following message:

Error while booting from RamDisk
Failed to open the RamDisk image
File BASE.ISO could no be loaded
The error code is 12544
Setup cannot continue

Does this look like a bad Restore Disk?

 

Hi Schleeb,
Last year, Toshiba issued a DMI update for many machines (Don't know if yours was included), because of restore disks not recognising the computer it was intended for. Maybe this would help with your machine. Also, do you have the latest BIOS version installed?
But, as another thought, With a totally different processor, maybe the restore disk is not for your computer anymore!
My suggestion would be to put one of your "clean" Windows XP's on the laptop, then download the latest drivers etc directly from the Toshiba website. Anything relating to the Centrino/wireless I would say you should get from the machine download section most similar to your hybrid.
We have used this process on two laptops here, albeit with no change of processor, as we bought them second-hand here in Germany, but wanted an Engish language OS. Both laptops have run perfectly using this process.
hope this helps a little.
sandman55

 

Hi,

Did you ever resolve the issue(s) w/your A105?

It's been three months since you've last posted.

I just purchased an A105-2091, which came w/the 1.7 GHz Celeron M, w/the same ATI chipset. I'm interested in upgrading the cpu to at least a 1.7 GHz Pentium M.

Also, do you know if the pin mod for changing the FSB from 400 MHz to 533 can been done w/the A105 series w/the ATI chipset?

Thx

 

Yeah, it was quite a saga. The new install disk did the same thing as the last one. I just gave up and put the old celeron back in. There was no difference in performance or battery life with the Pentium. It's a complete waste of time to even attempt it. You'd need substantial upgrade to make even the slightest difference, like to a 2+ GHz Pentium but I doubt the cost would be worth the minor performance boost. I doubt you'd even notice a difference. What does this tell you... Celeron... Pentium... same clock speeds equals same performance. So why buy a Pentium?