Dell 1545 - t7500 CPU upgrade + BIOS problem - Help Please

Assistance Please
I have a Delll 1545 as standard from factory :-
OS - Vista Home Premium
CPU - T4200 (SLGJN - 2.0ghz / 1Mb cache / 800FSB)
Graphics - On board Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD
BIOS - A11
RAM - 3Gb
HDD - 160Gb (5400rpm)

I decided to upgrade CPU and went for a middle of the road choice that I thought was compatable (same socket, FSB,,,etc) a T7500 (SLAF8 - 2.2Ghz / 4Mb / 800FSB)

I updated BIOS to A14 and installed CPU, on reboot got the following message :-

*******Processor Mcrocode Update Failure********
The revision of processor in the system is noy supported
Strike f1 to continue
F2 to run the setup utility

F1 goes into normal windows after +3 minutes wait (restarting again runs throught the same above sequence)
F2 takes me into utilities and shows the updated BIOS (A14) and the T7500 CPU in place
---------------------------------------------------------
Please advise :-
1] resolution of the above start up issues (basic stuff only, I don't want to go looking for and obscure file in the registry or something to retype certain lines of text,,,etc)
2a] If not compatable, a list of alternative CPU's that won't give me the above problems
2b] Can the P series 1066 FSb CPU's be used if so which ones
3] Can a proper graphics card be fitted
4] Any other suitably cost effective improvements you could recomend
--------------------------------------------------------
Thanks in advance - Archie-Boy

 

It just means that the 1545 doesn't officially support the T7500. If you can still get to BIOS and all, it'll probably work fine. I don't actually know if there's a danger to doing this, but I doubt it.

 

Thanks for your reply commander Wolf
---------------------------------------------
Start up at +3 mins is a bit of a pain when the original CPU takes 1 min
--
Does anyone know where I can find a list of supportred CPUs

Regards: Archie-Boy

 

On the official Dell Website it states that it can take up to really any Intel Core 2 Duo Processors. However, you want to make sure that it is compatible because they did make a different set for another socket according to the list of microprocessors I found on Wikipedia.

But the problem you have is that the processor you previously had was not an Intel Core 2 Duo, the processor you were using was a T4200 which is of the Intel Pentium-line. The problem actually lies in the fact that your processor may not be compatible with your software at all because of the differences in its' name. As you can see the differences when you compare both processors, the ones I would like to highlight are the temperatures at Tjunction and the Lithography, while your original processor worked at a smaller wavelength, to be precise 45 nanometers, the newer on works at a larger wavelength, this maybe one of the reasons as to why your start up time is taking so much longer.

Usually, you have to match up sockets and etc, but you can upgrade to pretty much any of the T4000 series because the only difference is in their GHz. I would recommend the T4500 as it is your best option at this point, it'll be faster than the T7500 but you'll still be limited to the 1MB Cache. It's a complicated process because you want to make sure you find the right stuff, but honestly, structurally I don't really see much off with the processor except for what I mentioned above. It would have been an ideal replacement if not for the lithography category. Perhaps someone who really knows about processors can explain this better than I could, I recently dabbled into this as I am looking for a T7000+ for my Inspiron 1520.

I found a T4500 listed under "New" at EBay for approximately $70...but comes out to like around $80 USD w/shipping and etc.

 

I don't think it's that complicated. Any 800MHz FSB Penryn should work fine... you can find plenty of 1545 with T3x00, T4x00, and T6x00 on eBay. 800MHz FSB T8x00 and T9x00 will probably work as well, and maybe even the 1066MHz stuff.

Data for the Merom chips probably just wasn't put into the BIOS, etc.

 

Oh I don't know the really technical details behind it, perhaps you are indeed right, I just recently got into this stuff, but I did the best I could to point out a problem. But what you said makes sense, it's possible Dell was trying out a different processor line with the 1545 and although they are compatible, they computer just may not have the data.

 

From memory the Penryn P8xxx, T9xxx, P9xxx are supported by the intel chipset of 1545, the Merom CPU are not supported (so T7xxx CPU is not going to work).