Upgrading a laptop cpu?

[spaceman]

an inspiron 3800 with a celeron 600.
how difficult/feasible would it be for me to upgrade the cpu.
looking along the lines of a "fast" p3-M etc.
is the cpu soldered into the pcb of the motherboard

oh and btw:Im aware this is Off topic,to me that means i can post any damn thing i want here (with the execption of an action one would do with a knife,anything about what they do in another country,and n EF)


comments from the peanut gallery encouraged
edit: if you read and dont know anything,reply for the hell of it.

 

[murphy55d]

im not so sure this is possible.

 

[silverpig]

[homer]I'm gonna need a bigger drill[/homer]

 

[Electrode]

It is probably soldered to the board. However, if the pinout is the same, and the chipset and BIOS support it, perhaps you could desolder the celeron somehow, and solder a p3-m in its place.

 

[jackwhitter]

the only way to be sure is to open up your laptop and physically check.. if it is soldered, i don't htink it is worth messing with (possibility for damage is way high) unless u r an exeptional electronic technician (or know someone who is.) sometimes those laptops r socketed and not just soldered... also, u should check your laptop's chipset to see if it is 66, 100, or 133 fsb capable laptop.

 

[AnyMal]

Check Dells support website for maintenance and repair manual. Chances are, the CPU is NOT soldered, in fact I am yet to see as laptop that has one soldered on. I am willing to bet that your lappy's motherboard will have a standard MMC2 socket. Your biggest problem is going to be the cost of the replacement CPU. Check out www.teamexcess.com, they do sell a lot of used mobile CPU's.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: AnyMal
Check Dells support website for maintenance and repair manual. Chances are, the CPU is NOT soldered, in fact I am yet to see as laptop that has one soldered on. I am willing to bet that your lappy's motherboard will have a standard MMC2 socket. Your biggest problem is going to be the cost of the replacement CPU. Check out www.teamexcess.com, they do sell a lot of used mobile CPU's.

this much is true, but if you're a big upgrade freak, then laptops may not be the best choice for you....

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: AnyMal
Check Dells support website for maintenance and repair manual. Chances are, the CPU is NOT soldered, in fact I am yet to see as laptop that has one soldered on. I am willing to bet that your lappy's motherboard will have a standard MMC2 socket. Your biggest problem is going to be the cost of the replacement CPU. Check out www.teamexcess.com, they do sell a lot of used mobile CPU's.

That's odd, as I've never seen a laptop that DID have a removeable CPU. On a related note, I've never seen a laptop CPU for sale anywhere.

 

[coolVariable]

Sure you can upgrade it.
get Sisoft Sandra and run it.
It will tell you what kind of CPU you have and which socket it is.
Then get a mobile CPU wiht the same socket from ebay.

I have a µPGA2/BGA2 Mobile Pentium III Speedstep 600Mhz that I might be willing to sell ...

 

[coolVariable]

Your biggest problem will be the heat ... your laptop probably is not made to withstand the heat from a faster CPU ...

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: coolVariable
Your biggest problem will be the heat ... your laptop probably is not made to withstand the heat from a faster CPU ...

I will respectfully disagree; his motherboard will take nothing but a mobile CPU, thus it's optimized to run inside the laptop. As long as the socket is compatible and motherboard can handle the speed, he'll be fine.

That's odd, as I've never seen a laptop that DID have a removeable CPU. On a related note, I've never seen a laptop CPU for sale anywhere.

I am not saying that ALL laptops have a removable. Pesonally, I only worked with IBM 600 series, HP N5xxx series, and Compaq Notebook 100/Armada 100s series, and all have removable CPU. I am sure there are plenty of laptops where CPU upgrade is almost out of the question.

EDIT: Looks like CPU is indeed replaceable Link

 

[lupohki]

My Inspiron 5000's cpu is detachable. Search for other models of 3800 and see what the highest cpu speed is, and search for the chip in the form factor that your lappy uses- usually mpga or mmc2. This info can be found in the tech docs at the Dell site. Ebay is probably the best bet for the replacement cpu.

 

[coolVariable]

I will respectfully disagree; his motherboard will take nothing but a mobile CPU, thus it's optimized to run inside the laptop. As long as the socket is compatible and motherboard can handle the speed, he'll be fine.

It would be nice of you read posts before writing some really dumb reply.
If you look up intels processor specifications you will see that different processors have different heat dissipation levels.
Generally faster CPUs dissipate MORE heat than slower ones.
(A 600MHz MOBILE P3 will dissipate ~20W while a 1GHz MOBILE P3 will dissipate ~37W).
Get it so far?
Now his Laptop was build with the current CPU in mind => his fan and the layout of the internal components can handle the CURRENT heat produced by the CPU => they will probably/might not be able to cope with the heat produced by a faster CPU => the CPU gets hotter than it should be and it will brake, or it will be to hot for some other components in the general area and it will destroy those.
GET IT?

AND IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU APPLY THIS TO MOBILE OR DESKTOP CPUs!!!!
IF YOUR COOLING SYSTEM CAN'T HANDLE A FASTER CPU IT WILL BURN THE CPU AND IT MIGHT DESTROY SOME OTHER COMPONENTS!!!!

 

[Kaervak]

Tada

Yes it's upgradeable. Hit pricewatch or ebay. Tons of mobile cpu's there. The mobile p4 in my Inspiron 8200 looks almost exactly like a desktop p4.