Can I upgrade the CPU in my R31?

Message

Des · #1 Post by **Des** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:15 pm

Hi,

I have an R31 2656-25u with a 1.06 ghz Celeron and was wondering if it can be upgraded to a Intel Pentium III M 1.13GHz Mobile Processor Socket 478 133MHz Front Side Bus 512KB L2 Cache SL5CK?

Or is a different motherboard used for the Pentium chips?

Also, if it is upgradable would it be a socket drop in or is soldering involved?

Curious and itchy.

Des

LtTPfan · #2 Post by **LtTPfan** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:23 pm

It appears your TP has a 370 pin socket rather than a 478 pin. Do you have the eSpec code for your current CPU?

Des · #3 Post by **Des** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:33 pm

LtTPfan wrote: Do you have the eSpec code for your current CPU?

I dont mind hunting for the code. Is it something I can research out on the net or find via software or do I need to open the machine?

Thanks.

LtTPfan · #4 Post by **LtTPfan** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:56 pm

The reason I asked for the eSpec is that is the surest way to find the exact specifications. Then those can be compared with other CPUs. The eSpec and order code can be found on the top of the CPU. I don't know how hard it is to get to your CPU, mine takes two screws on the bottom to relaease the keyboard, then three screws to remove the fan. However, you really need to apply heatsink compound (available at Radio Shack) when you reinstall the fan. I looked at IBM's site, which showed several Celerons and P-IIIs. Using Intel's processor finder it appeared that those are 370 pin but it's really difficult to be certain exactly what CPU is actually referred to without the eSpec or order code as there are different types of Celerons and P-IIIs.

Des · #5 Post by **Des** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:39 pm

Hmmm, I'll open the machine up this weekend and post back. I had it apart (though I didn't remove the fan) a few weeks ago so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Thanks.

--Des

Thane_Bitter · #6 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:37 pm

Des,
There are 3 variations of the R31 (not including the security chip & IEEE 1394 port option). Take a look at the HMM and see which option part numbers your system is in.
After checking the HMM, both our models are listed in the first R31 section (series I) and list the same planar (or system board), assuming that you don't have an IEEE 1394 port so it should work.
LtTPfan’s suggestion will give you the final confirmation as to the exact model of the processor; unfortunately Intel does not offer a tool to give you this information so you’re going to have to open your ThinkPad up to know.

Useful link http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-41266
Oddly enough, IBM lists a 1.266 GHz PIII processor, however I have never seen an R31 with anything over 1133GHz – not sure if the listings a fluke (or reserved for limited edition special order models) or I haven’t searched enough.
Good luck.
Thane

Des · #7 Post by **Des** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:56 pm

Well, probably against better advice...I ordered a P3 1.13ghz on Ebay for 19.99 plus Shipping. It's listed as being for R31. Thane_Bitter I found the variations Matrix on IBM and this CPU seems to fall within the spec (as I choose to see it

I figure that for the price and since I have to open the machine anyway to find out more I would take the chance and hopefully have 'one-stop-shopping.' So to speak.

Will post my triumph or failure along with more details probably by the weekend.

Cheers!

--Des

Des · #8 Post by **Des** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:57 am

Installed the p3 1.13 ghz CPU tonight. Works great! It is FRU 26P8284

Everything went well, probably because I took my time.

At first the CPU read as only 733mhz with Mobile Meter. Then I realized I needed to set the CPU management in the bios. Enabled speedstepping and management in the bios and now everything is ticking along smoothly.

A dab of thermal grease has my running CPU temp at around 48C.

For $25 I'm very happy! Now if I could get USB2 and firewire built in I think I will have my ultimate laptop.

I love the Thinkpads. This is like the Amiga days where you could practically beat the machine up and it still kept working.

Cheers.

--Des

Thane_Bitter · #9 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 3:25 pm

Des, that’s awesome!!!

Glad you got it working!
I miss Amiga - pity they didn't last long enough to make a laptop, I realise that the name lives on, well sort of - it's just not the same. Use to own an Amiga 500 with a blistering clock speed of 7.2 MHz, immeasurably slow by today’s standard; still, it was amazing what it could do back then.

Thane

Des · #10 Post by **Des** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:19 am

Still running with no problems (except the lock up with wireless issue I have posted) and nice and cool.

I had a 7.2 mhz Amiga 500. Bought an extra case and cut it in half to mount the keyboard in to have it 'detachable'. Did a lot of things to that machine. Later on got a A1200 at a thrift store for $5 and put a 68030/40mhz card it with 32 megs of ram; the thing flew! (comparatively speaking).
I may still have it in the basement.

Ah the good old days where things worked even if you took a soldering iron to them...

Des

led_snapper · #11 Post by **led_snapper** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:10 am

I've come across a 1.26 GHZ Pentium III on ebay SL5QL socket 370 and I have bid but am unsure if it's the right one to go into an r31? I did check the Intel site but it doesn't appear v helpful as does not even list the original specs of the 1133mhz celerons like my current one. The PIII has 133 FSB and is 1.45v so am hoping it's compatible, any ideas?? Do you know e-spec of the 1133MHZ celerons at all - I don't really want to take the laptop apart at mo.

Cheers !

PS I did have an Amiga A500 to which I remember adding a (then) huge 49MB HDD quantum HDD drive to and using a soldering iron on some solder pads inside! Did a lot of my undergrad uni work on it...ah well...nostalgia

Thane_Bitter · #12 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:24 pm

led_snapper wrote:I've come across a 1.26 GHZ Pentium III on ebay SL5QL socket 370 and I have bid but am unsure if it's the right one to go into an r31? I did check the Intel site but it doesn't appear v helpful as does not even list the original specs of the 1133mhz celerons like my current one. The PIII has 133 FSB and is 1.45v so am hoping it's compatible, any ideas?? Do you know e-spec of the 1133MHZ celerons at all - I don't really want to take the laptop apart at mo.

Hi,
If you can get a chance download the Hardware Maintenance Manual from Lenovo. Because there have been three variants of the motherboard, actual CPU compatibility varies slightly between them. In the HMM, "Part II" units seem to support a PIII (not Celeron) 1.266GHz CPU (IBM FRU 26P8363) - hopefully your R31 is in the "Part II" list (you can check by searching for your exact model number).
I can't find any other information on that CPU part number other then what is listed in the HMM. A couple of suggestions you could try:

Call Lenovo/IBM PC Support (Get your local number via the Lenovo worldwide support page) - ask them what machines supported that processor.

Call IBM Parts directly and see what they have to say. I spend a few minutes randomly checking out the specs of various R31's from Lenovo's support website, the fastest machine I happened upon where 1.2GHz Celerons, or 1.13 PIII’s.

Find the Intel application "CPU ID" and install it on your machine, it will provide you with detailed information about your current CPU (I don’t recall if that data includes voltage and s-specs but it’s easier that taking the laptop apart).

I know that other computer manufactures (specifically HP on NetServer Series Servers) only allow a small list of "approved" CPUs by selectively including only such units microcode into their systems BIOS by way of the CPU stepping number. Quite naturally supported CPU’s could only be purchased from HP (and resellers), and of course cost considerably more then non-approved processors. The plus side to this, was that HP could ensure there customers guaranteed compatibility with their machines because each of the approved processor lots (s-specs) had been tested, which is very expensive. I doubt IBM would have done this on the R31, although they did do something similar on latter models with the wireless cards

.

Anyways Good Luck,
Thane

led_snapper · #13 Post by **led_snapper** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:58 am

Thanks Thane, I won the auction and got it for just over 20 quid. I have found that my r31 is a 2GG which I think equates to the 2Gx ,assuming the x is a wildcard designation. The 2Gx can be a Series II or III but since it originally has a 1.13Ghz celeron then that means it is Series II from what I can gather.

I just hope the new cpu fits right. There is some info out there to suggest the celerons have a uFPGA package and the Pentium III's a uFPGA2 package - the ones with PGA2 having a inbuilt slab of metal covering the core like on a P4. I just hope it will mate with the heatsink assembly in the r31 now.

Do you know what thermal compound to use for these that works best?

Thanks

Thane_Bitter · #14 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:05 pm

Do you know what thermal compound to use for these that works best?

Before you begin, if you have a camera, take a picture of the underside (CPU side) of the heatsink, you can use this later on when applying the new compound to see where it should be applied.

You will have to complete remove all traces of the old compound, have lots of non-lint wipes handy, and it is also a good idea to wipe the heatsink and CPU with a damp cotton ball that has been dipped in a solvent (Isopropyl alcohol, for tough residue try pure acetone - not the diluted fingernail paint type and be extremely careful as acetone will dissolve most plastics). The key word is damp; you don't want it to drip liquid on anything when you apply pressure.

As for thermal compounds, I have used artic silver and was happy with its performance http://www.articsilver.com. In some cases the compound might separate slightly so it’s a good idea to find an absolutely clean glass/ceramic saucer, put a small amount of the compound into it and carefully mix; the trick is to mix it slowly, avoid whipping it like an egg. A little tube of the stuff will last you a long time, avoid compounds that use silicone as a filler, most white coloured compounds use zinc oxide as the key thermal transfer material, Artic silver as the name implies uses metallic silver which does have better thermal conductivity.

The critical phase is actually applying the stuff; the goal here is to make the layer of thermal compound as thin as possible. Using the picture you took of the heatsink before it was cleaned, mark in pencil on the heatsink the approximate size of the CPU; it's safe to go bigger. I take two pieces of box tape (clear celluloid tape similar to regular adhesive tape but thinner - and a bit trick to work with) and place them parallel to each other, position on the outside of the pencil marks. These will ensure that the compound is evenly spread across the heatsink, and also keep the stuff from getting all over the place. Transfer the compound onto the heat sink with a toothpick or even a tiny paint brush, once you have enough on, take a razor blade (or utility knife blade) position it at the end of the heat sink so that either end rests on the tape and then slide the blade along like a squeegee, if there are areas where the compound is too thin just add more and squeegee again. Gloves are a good idea too when handling the compound, should have mentioned it sooner - sorry

. Remove the tape and then use a non-link wipe to remove excess compound that is outside of the CPU contact point.

Its advisable to feel the heatsink just above the CPU the first time you power up, just to verify that it and the CPU have good contact, unfortunately the keyboard blocks access, but you might be able to get a finger underneath, I don’t recall how long the keyboard connection leads are.

Good luck with the upgrade, you are going to have to do quite a bit of disassembly so take your time, patients is key.

Thane

led_snapper · #15 Post by **led_snapper** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:59 pm

Had the TP apart now, turns out it is a SL642 - a 478 pin Mobile Celeron 1.13. The socket 370 looks like a monster in size compared to it! Just hoping the ebayer that sold me it accepts it back... Otherwise I will have one for sale...
Now gotta get the old cpu seated back in with heatsink. Shall need some of that compound as the syringe I had I discovered to be empty, typical! I have tried and tried to clean the old gunk off the heatsink but it just won't budge. Used special purity optical cleaner and contact cleaning spray, but it doesn't shift. Any ideas?

Otherwise I will just have to apply a bead of the new stuff and hope it all beds down ok all the same.

At least I know now that it should be a socket 478 cpu. I think the Pentium III is the SL637 and the 1.33Mhz Celeron is the SL6HA If I can locate either that would be great. Ah well.

Thane_Bitter · #16 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:36 pm

Oh that sucks!! - I remember when Intel declared that socket technology had reached it limits when they unveiled the slot interface - ya ok sure

.
Found a good description of the various mobile socket designs on Intel's site http://www.intel.com/support/processors ... 007505.htm
Another useful link for Sspec, CPU freq, etc. http://processorfinder.intel.com/Default.aspx

Sounds like IBM (actually Lenovo make the R series) used a pad style compound. I don't recall what they are really called, but they are very common on "Boxed" processors and OEM equipment because they are easy to apply and less messy then the paste compound, though they are less efficient at transferring heat. As the compound heats up it becomes soft and pliable (on a new setup the compound will flow out of the cpu/heatsink interface filling in any gaps), but at room temperature its quite hard. I recall removing a few CPU's where the heatsink and CPU where still attached so firmly I had to pry them apart with a putty knife. Sometimes you can reuse them if you can reposition the CPU and heat sink exactly the same (assuming no material was removed), this can be done if your in a pinch but generally the interface is less effective and the CPU will be hotter.

Isopropyl alcohol (commonly found in pharmacies as 'rubbing alcohol') should remove the stuff. Warmth may help the process; maybe a few quick blasts with a hair drier could help soften the compound. If those ideals fail, you have an old credit card you could try to gently scrap off the old material taking special care not to scratch the heasink.
It's not uncommon to have a white haze, basically the old compound has filled in small pits and scratches in the metal - this is perfectly fine, so long as all the lumps and bits are gone and the surface is smooth.

Thane

led_snapper · #17 Post by **led_snapper** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:17 pm

Thanks Thane. Just got the machine back together. Was a bit tricky getting rid of the old gunk but prized the heatpad off - I worked it out eventually that it was actually a pad rather then some sort of template. Used a real combination of stuff to try and get it cleaned up as best I could - Acetone (pure from pharmacy 97p per bottle) plus cellulose thinners - have to be v careful with both as will damage plastics. The adhesive is really attack by the cellulose thinners

Thankfully the acetone doesn't damage the pcb of the processor top. I found some marks in the core-top of the cpu which couldn't be moved. Carefully tried a fingernail even to no avail. I had a antistatic wrist strap on btw. Used some silver based thermal compound on cpu and used a credit card to smooth it a flat as poss and got some well rubbed into heatsink and smoothed off to a v thin layer before putting them together.

It all went back ok. On booting now my diagnostic bits and pieces is set on a smaller screen size for some reason (with consequently smaller text too- higher res in effect) but windows loads up fine as normal.

I would love to know what temp the CPU is running at now. All seems to be well , the fan cuts in occasionally and then winds back down.

Anyways now to locate a 478 pin cpu....

Cheers for the help. I'll keep you posted of further devs.

Ian

Thane_Bitter · #18 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:47 am

Good to here your ThinkPad is all buttoned up again.
For CPU/MainBoard temperatures I like MobileMeter, the application is a few years old but its still a great little application that doesn't have to be installed to function.

http://tamaru.homeip.net/~shingo/mobile ... adme-e.htm

The fan sounds normal, typically mine is either off, or at the lowest speed, the little rev up and spin down thing is normal as well.

…is set on a smaller screen size for some reason (with consequently smaller text too- higher res in effect) but windows loads up fine as normal.

Turn on screen expansion, you can activate via windows by using the "ThinkPad Configuration" program (via the LCD icon - top right column), or if I am not mistaken it can also be turned on within the system BIOS program.

led_snapper · #19 Post by **led_snapper** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:51 am

Hey thanks Thane. Tried the mobile meter - am getting 50 deg C for the CPU and the clock is running at 1.13 Ghz as expected

Ian

led_snapper · #20 Post by **led_snapper** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:40 am

On idle am getting 35-36 Deg C for both temps and HDD. Nice 1!

Thane_Bitter · #21 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:53 am

Sounds like you have your system running very cool. My temperatures, after the system has been on for several hours are at idle: CPU 45-48, MB 43, and HD 59. Should the CPU ever go above 95 to 98, the fan revs up to maximum (quite loud) and the processor is forced to run at its slower speed. You have to be in a very hot environment running some processor/HD intensive work for this to happen. My hard drive temperature is high because the drive is failing; right now I am looking for a reasonable priced replacement.

Anyways hope you can find the CPU your looking for.

Thane

led_snapper · #22 Post by **led_snapper** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:35 am

I can recommend the hitachi I put in this one - see other forum topic I started on this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=34235

That explains why this drive runs much cooler than the one that I took out then

I had a HD health thing running which suggested it was on it's way out that monitors SMART. The only prob with the software is it alerts some strange 'faults' from time to time on drives which are fine.

BTW am running R31 2656 2GG 1.13 Celeron, 60 GB Hitachi 7k drive and 376 MB RAM

led_snapper · #23 Post by **led_snapper** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:49 pm

Hey, got a 1.2GHz PIII-M SL6A7 on Ebay for £12.50 and swapped the old 1.13 celeron out, nicely got myself gunged up with heatsink comp, but got the new one well seated. Hey presto we have 1196GHz with proper stepping and a little less power usage

I had checked all the specs and it seemed to match up ok even though these 2656 machines were never fitted with that chip from what I could tell.

The new CPU is running stable and benches just a bit faster than the old one

Battery life seems good esp since it supports dropping clock cycles & clocking back too etc when you set the BIOS up (which you need to do, well I did since I took CMOS battery offline for long enough

It would be a good idea anyway even though the chip is recognised by the BIOS ok). All in all a good upgrade.

Thane_Bitter · #24 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:25 am

Glad to hear that you where able to find the chip and make the upgrade happen. I think you will be very happy with the PIIIM, it was one of Intel's better processors, and in some respects exceeded the performance levels of the early P4's. I am not a fan of Celeron CPU's mostly because of the castrated cache, and sluggish performance; I never fell the lower price was worth the loss of performance.
Thane

led_snapper · #25 Post by **led_snapper** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:40 pm

Thane - which wi-fi card do you have in you mini-pci slot? I was thinking of getting one and not sure which. I would dearly love to slot a 802.11g one in but lenovo won't say anything about backwards compatibility of the newer cards to older models.

Thane_Bitter · #26 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:23 am

Responded in

":? Wireless Cards Compatible with R31?"

Doc Therbligs · #27 Post by **Doc Therbligs** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:11 pm

Ran the Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility on my 2656-AGU and got the following results:

Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility
Version: 7.2.20041115
Time Stamp: 2007/07/29 16:58:22
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Celeron(R) Processor
Type: 0
Family: 6
Model: B
Stepping: 1
Revision: 1D
L1 Instruction Cache: 16 KB
L1 Data Cache: 16 KB
L2 Cache: 256 KB
Packaging: µFCPGA
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
Expected Processor Frequency: 1.06 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 1.06 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 133 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 133 MHz

So which P3 can I upgrade to? SL6A7 maybe or any other cpu's

Can I upgrade the CPU in my R31?

Can I upgrade the CPU in my R31?

Bought it, hope it is right one now...

:( CPU sent to me is wrong socket :(

All together now.... :)

Running mobile meter...

Nice low idle temps

HD replacement

New CPU Installed!

Good Job!!

Wireless....

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