Thinkpads Forum

Planning on upgrading my T60-1952AP2 processor to a T7200, currently a T2400

I assume it is fairly straightforward as I have done some older Dell laptop cpu upgrades but never have done a Thinkpad.

Any advice on thermal paste, or should I use new thermal pads instead?

Any other issues to look out for?

TIA to all who answer.

I made the same upgrade and it certainly made things *seem* zippier at least. At the time I just cleaned off the existing heat transfer material and used a dab of normal heat sink compound (I'm not cool enough for Arctic Silver). I'm going on three years, I believe, no problems.

It's a pretty easy upgrade to do. A couple of notes though:

1) After you install the new processor (make sure you are grounded and you don't bend the pins!), make sure you clean the top of the processor thoroughly with a lint free cloth (a coffee filter can work) and isopropyl alcohol. Make sure the alcohol evaporates before applying the thermal paste. Make sure you clean the corresponding portion of the heatsink/fan too

2) Regarding the thermal paste, in this case less is more. Artic Silver 5 works nicely, You want to use an amount that resembles an uncooked grain of rice. Spread it over the core evenly with an old credit card.

While your computer is apart, you may want to opt for a T61 fan if you can find one that fits in your computer (~$15). It's quieter and I've found that my machine runs cooler with it.

The thermal pads I believe only contact the GPU and Chipset. If they are in good condition, you shouldn't have to change them...

All you need is some Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) thermal paste for the CPU. Clean off the old gunk with isopropyl alcohol (91%).
If there is a thermal pad between fan and GPU, and it is still OK, reuse that or replace it, it's not critical for an Intel GPU.

LASTGUY2GETPS2 wrote:It's a pretty easy upgrade to do. A couple of notes though:

1) After you install the new processor (make sure you are grounded and you don't bend the pins!), make sure you clean the top of the processor thoroughly with a lint free cloth (a coffee filter can work) and isopropyl alcohol. Make sure the alcohol evaporates before applying the thermal paste. Make sure you clean the corresponding portion of the heatsink/fan too

2) Regarding the thermal paste, in this case less is more. Artic Silver 5 works nicely, You want to use an amount that resembles an uncooked grain of rice. Spread it over the core evenly with an old credit card.

While your computer is apart, you may want to opt for a T61 fan if you can find one that fits in your computer (~$15). It's quieter and I've found that my machine runs cooler with it.

The thermal pads I believe only contact the GPU and Chipset. If they are in good condition, you shouldn't have to change them...

Thanks for the tips, i have the integrated graphics so the fan noise/heat is not an issue on this model, but If I can find one on the cheap I may do it anyway.

Does anyone know what bios version I need to install the T7200, currently at 1.10 (79ET66WW)

Do I need to flash to the current 2.27 before I install the T7200, I prefer not to flash If I do not need to.

Also, what is the max processor support if I flash to 2.27?


If I decide to upgrade the cpu fan, do I need the heatsink from a T61 or just the fan?

Thanks again.

It should work even without a BIOS update, although I'd suggest updating the BIOS anyway.

Max CPU is T7600 regardless of BIOS, that's the highest you can go.

Thanks to all who answered, all went well and now back up and running.

Just for the record the old bios v1.1 does not support a T7200 processor, got 4 short beeps and no post, put the T2400 back in and flashed to v2.27, swapped the T7200 back in, rock and roll.

Hi, I hope this fits in here.

I've got a T60 1951-F5G with a T2300 processor and wanted to replace it by a T7600 I just bought.

Now I've put in in and tried to bot, but nothing happened, not even a beep or anything, the screen remained black, too. Does anyone know what this could mean?

At least when I put the T2300 back in and renewed the thermal compound it stays way cooler under load than before.

Some more information:
BIOS Version: 79ET62WW (1.07 )
Processor Information T2300
Socket Designation: None
Type: Central Processor
Family: Pentium M
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 14, Stepping 8
Version: Genuine Intel(R) CPU
Voltage: 1.4 V
External Clock: 167 MHz
Max Speed: 1667 MHz
Current Speed: 1667 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled

Any help is much appreciated!

See one post above yours; update the bios

Thank you Backslashnl1 !

Updating the BIOS to v2.27 (from 1.07) has been quite scary as it beeped a lot and took a few attempts to reboot, but worked fine. I was just wondering that no beep came at all with the old BIOS. The T7600 is runnign smoothly now, but has quite a high idle temperature at about 45-50°C. Replacing the CPU has been fun!

Thanks for the advice!