Thinkpads Forum

How hard is it, or is it possible, to swap out the CPUs on a T61P?

I ask because my 6459 has the "base" 2GHz CPU, and while it was in hospital (so to speak) I picked up a 6458 with a 2.6GHz CPU, which I was thinking of swapping into the "better but slower" machine before I sold one off. (Won't need a spare spare, since I will be upgrading soon anyway.)

Are they just in a ZIF socket of some kind, or...? How hard has Lenovo made this?

Reasonably easy swap...just follow the directions in the Hardware Maintenance Manual, and all will go smoothly.

Thanks, Neil. Somehow I never stumbled across that manual before. It looks like the CPU is in a standard ZIF socket with just one lock screw to hold it in.

No "gotchas" with the BIOS objecting if it finds a slightly newer faster CPU when it wakes up?

hellosailor wrote:
No "gotchas" with the BIOS objecting if it finds a slightly newer faster CPU when it wakes up?

Is the 2.6 GHz T7800 or T9500?

Do you have Middleton's BIOS installed?

Stock BIOS.

Silly question, there must be some simple way to see the CPU type in...?? where?

If the CPU is installed in the machine, check the BIOS page.

If not, it will say on the CPU what it is, along with the code such as SLQ7B or something along those lines...

Right, but I was hoping to read that info from Windows, without going into the BIOS or disassembling the computer.

I'll poke around and find something to do that.

Found one at Intel, which says the 2.6G CPU is a T9500 series.

OK, you can find that info in Control Panel>System

THanks, George. I knew it was around someplace.

CPUZ is a great free program that will tell you a lot about CPU and memory. As previously said, it's a pretty straight forward swap if you follow the maintenance manual. Even if you are not planning on swapping the CPU, after all this time, it's a good opportunity to clean/blow out the dust and reapply thermal paste.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

If the recepient machine was built in 2007 or very early 2008, it will likely "bark" at a newer CPU with a "thermal sensor warning" on boot and you'll need Middleton's BIOS to overcome that.

George-
Both machines could be from that vintage. The 6458, I got secondhand so I don't know the build date unless it is encoded or printed somewhere. The 6459 is probably 2007, without looking for receipts it is probably 5-6 years old now.

Middleton's BIOS? Available for downloads? Any threads around that go into pros and cons on that?

One series of CPUs had a thermal sensor built in and the other didn't?

The same sticker on the bottom that holds the serial number will tell you the production date

07/11 is November of 2007

08/02 is February of 2008 etc.

The boards designed for Penryn (T8100/8300/9300/9500) CPUs will run both Merom and Penryn CPUs.

Boards designed for Merom (T7100/7300/7500/7700/7800) CPUs will throw a "thermal sensing error" when a Penryn CPU is installed.

You can get the FRU of the board by removing the palmrest and looking by the RAM slots.

The 6459 is 07/12, 2GHz CPU.
The 6458 is 08/05, 2.6GHz CPU.

So if the 6459 (not accesible right now) shows a 7xxx series CPU, it would need a BIOS update. Yes?

Yes, you'll need Middleton's BIOS...google for it, download is at notebook review...

Thanks for the pointers! I won't say it was painless, but I did the Middleton BIOS upgrade.

I downloaded the files on one machine, burned an ISO CD that should have been self-booting.
Booted the "victim" from that CD and was told the existing BIOS was locked out from LAN updates.
Hmm, OK, the CD drive is a LAN connection? I don't think so. Went into the BIOS, disabled all passwords and made sure BIOS updates were all enabled, tried again. Nice C: prompt, failed again.

Bogus error messages during something critical like a BIOS flash scare me. So much for clean reliable self-booting flashes.

But in for a penny in for a pound, copied the files to a USB drive and...
Ooops, that flash failed, under Vista Ultimate.SO I copied them to the C: drive and tried again...
Aborted partway through. Lacking any better ideas I said "Do it again." and this time it worked, completed the flash and the computer seems to be working just fine. (CPU swap won't happen until the new machine gets here & configured & burned in, a couple of weeks away from all that.)

Meanwhile...Can I rashly assume SATAII on the internal drive is enabled with the Middleton BIOS, that this isn't something I have to go in and setup? Anything else that i would need to manually go into the new BIOS for?

In the BIOS, select Network/Flash over LAN and set it to Enabled.
Then Middleton's BIOS will work.