Can I upgrade my laptop with a Low Voltage Pentium M?

[imported_smilingcrow]

Can I upgrade my laptop with a Low Voltage Pentium M?

I have a Dell D600 which has a standard Pentium M. I noticed that the Low Voltage Pentium Ms (as opposed to the Very Low Voltage CPUs) use a voltage range that is contained within the standard Pentium Ms voltage range. The following figures are for the 90 nm Dothan versions:

Pentium M 0.988 ? 1.356
Low Voltage 0.988 ? 1.116
Ultra Low Voltage 0.812 ? 0.940

This got me wondering if it?s possible for laptops to easily support a low voltage version. Or does the voltage controller need to be of a higher quality, to accurately provide the very fine voltage differences that the low voltage versions require? Different speed steps can require as little as 0.016 of a volt difference when switching.

I assume that the BIOS has to specifically support a particular CPU, which is probably going to be the stumbling block if the voltage controller isn?t.
Or can you use something like RMClock to setup custom voltage steps?

Hmmm!

 

[Jiggz]

This is a very hard one. I would have to go on the negative side and say NO. You cannot change to the lower voltage CPU due to the nature of the voltage controller on the mobo.

 

[imported_whatever]

I would guess that you could, but am not sure. After all, the CPUs are the same, it is just that the LV ones are rated to run at a lower voltage - there will be no problem running them at the normal voltage if that is what it ended up doing (like OCing the XP/M)

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
This is a very hard one. I would have to go on the negative side and say NO. You cannot change to the lower voltage CPU due to the nature of the voltage controller on the mobo.

I second that.

Your best bet would be to ask dell if it could be done and if you did do it you may need to flash the cmos to the latest bios revision.