Upgrade/Replace CPU in 8930

Replacing/upgrading the CPU on an 8930 is not so difficult. With care, a small cross head and flat head screwdriver and some thermal grease the following procedure can be carried out in less than 20 minutes. The description here is for information only; if you choose to try it out bear in mind that things can still go wrong and you do it at your own risk.

The linked photos show my upgrade of a T6400 to a P8600.

A list of CPU benchmarks at NOTEBOOKCHECK shows the relative merits of these two (and other) CPUs. Whilst the P8600 is not cutting edge technology it is significantly better (in my mind) than the T6400. In addition (BIOS permitting) the P8600 also supports VT, hacking the BIOS is my next step; I have not covered it here as I have not done it yet and anyway others have already covered potential approaches Add to that the fact that I got a good deal on eBay (under 70 GBP) and you can see why I chose the P8600 above possible replacements. Most of my use is development and design so I do not need to be at the expensive cutting edge, but superior performance and hopefully virtualization are key for me. One interesting difference in the choice of CPU is that the FSB should increase from 800 to 1066MHz.So on to the CPU swap out...

First shutdown the notebook and disconnect the mains power adapter. Turn the notebook over so the base faces upwards with the screen hinge nearest.



Unlatch and remove the battery (1). Unscrew the 7 screws holding the access panel in place. If you are careful the screws can remain in their locations as the panel is removed to avoid needing to record where they each came from.
Carefully release the panel by lifting the edges gently releasing the internal clips, start at the recess (3) and work round both sides to the side opposite the recess. The side opposite the recess has lugs not clips and so this edge should be slid out when the others sides are all unclipped (like opening a door with the recess at (3) representing the handle and the opposite side the hinges).
Once released the panel comes away easily and completely, most force is required releasing the first few clips but this need not be excessive and can be helped with a well placed thumb nail.
From now on static discharge is an issue, make sure you are careful to avoid damaging your laptop. Tweezers may be useful as the screws are small, avoid dropping them as they could find there way further inside and become difficult to rescue.



Disconnect the fan connection (1). This should be done by pulling the white socket not the wires. If you pull the wires there is always the possibility of breaking them.
Unscrew 3 screws holding the fan (2); again the screws can be left in the fan if care is taken when removing the fan.
Remove the fan in the direction of the arrow, lift away from the main board and set aside.



Locate the U-shaped clip that holds the CPU heat sink in place. It is retained by two screws (circled) and locates at one end under two posts (squared). Undo the two screws, take care as the clip is under pressure and could fire the screws across the room as they come loose. remove the clip in the direction of the arrow and set aside with its two screws.



With the clip removed the heat sink is help in place only by the thermal grease/paste. Take old of the heat sink between the squares and circles with thumb and finger and gently lift the heat sink up away from the main board to release the thermal bond (this does not take much effort at all). Do not continue to lift once the bond is broken; instead carefully slide the heat sink in the direction of the arrow.



Continue to move the heat sink in the direction of the arrow, notice how the radiator fins come into view at the other end of the heat pipe.



With care the heat sink and radiator assembly are released and can be lifted easily away from the laptop. With the heat sink out of the way the CPU and north bridge can be seen (circled) clearly these need to be cleaned off.



Flip the heat sink over to reveal the CPU thermal paste which needs to be removed and the north bridge thermal pad. At this point I got out the cotton buds (q-tips) and the isopropyl alcohol and cleaned off the CPU (may as well clean the old one while it is socketed as it makes it easier). Then clean the north bridge chip and the thermal paste off the heat sink. I left the thermal pad for the north bridge intact.



Once everything is clean turn the screw on the socket a half turn counter-clockwise to release the CPU (note the location of the triangle on the CPU corner so that the new one can be oriented correctly, top left corner in the photos). With the CPU unlocked remove it and put it safe in an antistatic bag or similar. Carefully drop the new CPU into the empty socket taking care to orient it so the triangle corner is in the right place. Gently press down on the new CPU whilst turning the locking screw a half turn clockwise to lock the new CPU in place.
With the new CPU held firmly in the socket apply a smear of thermal grease as directed by the product instructions to the CPU. I used a Zalman paste which is applied thinly to both the surface of the CPU and the heatsink, though other products have different approaches. I also applied a thin smear to the north bridge and the thermal pad that I left in place in an effort to ensure a good thermal interface. Once the thermal paste is applied the re-assembly process is very simply the reverse of the above steps. It really is that simple.

The P8600 was recognised instantly without any action from me (BIOS 1.09). I have not carried out proper comparative benchmarks as performance was not my main reason for upgrade though it was a consideration. I have run some tests to make sure all is working okay under stress and maintaining sensible temperatures. Windows experience figures increased, though the overall figure only went up by 0.1 as a result of the Aero performance not improving any (GPU limited I suppose I have the 1GB 9600m GT which is DDR2 I believe). I also saw a small increase in the overall 3DMark06 number, but nothing to get too excited about. In my personal experience using the machine it does seem faster. Fingers crossed for getting VT enabled.

 

nice work....................

 

Good job. I have a P8400 in mine and have enabled VT on 1.13 bios. What method are you using?

 

g60force: thanks

atmadden: thanks, I am bit late to the party regarding the VT enable topic and it appears the serious legwork has already been done. So I am thinking of trying the EFI application approach ("google for "enable-vt-on-insydeh2o-based-sony-vaio"). But I may fall back the the other common approach documented by marcan (google "Enabling Intel VT on the Aspire 8930G (and other InsydeH2O-based laptops)").
At least I have the hardware support now:


I am not getting a lot of time to mess about with things like this at the moment so I am not sure when I will be giving it a go, but soon hopefully. How did yo go about it?

 

I used marcans approach as you can use python and do it in windows was a lot easier than I thought.