Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

[bigozone]

Hey everyone, I read every Single Page of this forum! I was thinking about turning my computer into a gaming computer so im thinking about getting a T7400(2.16 Core2DUO). Ive read that the T7400 is compatible with i943GML chipset. I ran the everest utility and it said that I also have 943GML. Does this mean I can get to upgrade??!!!!

Ive recently upgraded to a core Duo T2060 and it diddnt do justice for Team Fortress 2. Note: I have BIOS : 3.50

I know this disscusion is about Acer Aspire 3680, but read something this guy said on this forum asking about the 3690 upgrade. Someone told him to upgrade bios, and ive never seen him write on the forum again...I think you guyes gave him the wrong info and turned his computer into a paper-weight >_>

Acer Aspire 3690-2050

was that guy YOU??? i have over 2000 PMs in my message folders...

but if asked i try to go the extra mile to help people even when i had nothing to do with causing thier problems... and i always warn of what a BIOS flash might do!!!

ASPIRE 5315 BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

see those PMs listed in the thumbnail below...
that is where i spent half the day trying to help a guy flash his bios USING DOS,,,, turns out he burned his CD with the DOS BIOS FILES in a format that is not readable by DOS.... but we finally figured that out.. after figureing out how to RECOVER his BIOS w/o a USB FLOPPY!!!

[AcerAspire 3690 guy]

was that guy YOU??? i have over 2000 PMs in my message folders...

but if asked i try to go the extra mile to help people even when i had nothing to do with causing thier problems... and i always warn of what a BIOS flash might do!!!

ASPIRE 5315 BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

see those PMs listed in the thumbnail below...
that is where i spent half the day trying to help a guy flash his bios USING DOS,,,, turns out he burned his CD with the DOS BIOS FILES in a format that is not readable by DOS.... but we finally figured that out.. after figureing out how to RECOVER his BIOS w/o a USB FLOPPY!!!

No its not me.

So is it really my graphics card causing all the trouble cause when im playing games like CounterStrike, and HalfLife 2 Death Match in closed spaced enviroments the game runs fast along with the enviroments looking smooth. The place where I have FPS problems in Wide enviroments and alot of players and explosions going on in 1 area.

Just throwing it out there. Can I bump my 2Gig Ram up to 3 or 4 gigz?
Oh and also tell me what kind of 160 HD you have in your acer I wanna get one too ^_^.

[bigozone]

what graphics does your laptop have??

i think your motherboad may be limited to 2 gigs,, there is a remote chance it can take 3 gigs,, but i'm not up on the 3690.. the 3680 i know more about...

but without a 64 bit OS like VISTA 64 or LINUX 64 your laptop can only address a max of 3.3gig of ram and most PC makers just write BIOSes that limit the RAM to 2 or maybe 3gigs if your CHIPSET can support it,,, then the BIOS must also support it....

try www.crucial.com
download thier little system examiner, and it will probe your system to detect your chipset,, and then check your mobo and BIOS VERSION against thier database to give you the OFFICIALLY supported RAM.. but even if it says 2gig total is your max it may be wrong..

it says the same about the aspire 5315 and i know there are atleast 5 members here who have tested 3gigs and verified it works (but the 2 gig has to be in the top slot)

your board may be different... ANDY or HOGGIE may know more about it than i do...

give me your VIDEO CHIPSET INFO so i can find you some info on it's performance when compaired to other systems

[Andy]

AcerAspire 3690 guy - The i943gml is compatible with all socket M Core 2 Duos....Go for the T7200, since the difference in frequency from the T7400/T7600 won't do you any good, except in CPU-intensive tasks, such as encoding/decoding, photoshopping, etc.
The 3690 with the i943GML supports a max of 2GB DDR2-533 RAM.
Go for the WD1600BEKT or the Hitachi 7K200. (A deal is available for the 7K200 for $90 in the Notebook Tech Bargains Section)

[bigozone]

AcerAspire 3690 guy - The i943gml is compatible with all socket M Core 2 Duos....Go for the T7200, since the difference in frequency from the T7400/T7600 won't do you any good, except in CPU-intensive tasks, such as encoding/decoding, photoshopping, etc.
The 3690 with the i943GML supports a max of 2GB DDR2-533 RAM.
Go for the WD1600BEKT or the Hitachi 7K200. (A deal is available for the 7K200 for $90 in the Notebook Tech Bargains Section)

you are a wealth of socket M knowledge... i hate that the T5600 didn't work for you due to your original MB's chipset.... but look at all the INFO you have added to the ACER FORUM (not to mention the knowledge you've gained because of it).

sorry my info was incorrect, but it's turned out to be a blessing in disguise!!

BTW,, how is the CUSTOM BIOS EDIT going?? any luck???
i'm gonna start playing w/ custom bios edits seriously very soon,, since i have found a fool-proof way to recover my bios should i screw the custom file up!

[AcerAspire 3690 guy]

what graphics does your laptop have??

i think your motherboad may be limited to 2 gigs,, there is a remote chance it can take 3 gigs,, but i'm not up on the 3690.. the 3680 i know more about...

but without a 64 bit OS like VISTA 64 or LINUX 64 your laptop can only address a max of 3.3gig of ram and most PC makers just write BIOSes that limit the RAM to 2 or maybe 3gigs if your CHIPSET can support it,,, then the BIOS must also support it....

try www.crucial.com
download thier little system examiner, and it will probe your system to detect your chipset,, and then check your mobo and BIOS VERSION against thier database to give you the OFFICIALLY supported RAM.. but even if it says 2gig total is your max it may be wrong..

it says the same about the aspire 5315 and i know there are atleast 5 members here who have tested 3gigs and verified it works (but the 2 gig has to be in the top slot)

your board may be different... ANDY or HOGGIE may know more about it than i do...

give me your VIDEO CHIPSET INFO so i can find you some info on it's performance when compaired to other systems

Im running on windows vista 32-Bit System. The Graphics card that I have is the Intel Mobile 945 Chipset Family wilth 1280 x 800 res and 60 Hertz refreash rate. The utility I can toy around with it settings is Intel graphics media accelerator

[Andy]

BigO - I just upgraded to the T5200....($18) (Running a few diagnostics, before I update my Sig Specs )
Will probably be looking for a cheap T7200, or a C2D ES..

BIOS Edit is kinda slow atm. Looking for some old BIOS files for the 3680.
I'll maybe bribe someone at Wim's BIOS or BIOSMAN, to make me a custom BIOS
The BIOS chip on my mobo is PLCC, so it is removable and replaceable

And thanks for the reply to the PM..

[bigozone]

Im running on windows vista 32-Bit System. The Graphics card that I have is the Intel Mobile 945 Chipset Family wilth 1280 x 800 res and 60 Hertz refreash rate. The utility I can toy around with it settings is Intel graphics media accelerator

sorry to hear about the INTEL GRAPHICS,,, i have the NEWER intel GM965 and the intel X3100 graphics onboard,, and even with a T5450 CORE2DUO and 2gigs, i can barely play the DEMO of HALO... it plays ok,, but sorry looking graphics, and random lags and stutters... but it works better than it did when i had vista and a CELERON cpu.

you may wanna download the TRIAL of HALO and see how it performs now...
that will give you an idea of what 3 y/o software looks like on that graphics chip, and while your CPU, RAM & HDD upgrades will result in some noticable performance gains,, you will never be happy running newer GRAPHICS intensive games on that laptop (or atleast i wouldn't)

BigO - I just upgraded to the T5200....($18) (Running a few diagnostics, before I update my Sig Specs )
Will probably be looking for a cheap T7200, or a C2D ES..

BIOS Edit is kinda slow atm. Looking for some old BIOS files for the 3680.
I'll maybe bribe someone at Wim's BIOS or BIOSMAN, to make me a custom BIOS
The BIOS chip on my mobo is PLCC, so it is removable and replaceable

And thanks for the reply to the PM..

CONGRATS on finally getting a C2D running in that laptop.... glad you got it CHEAP... $18us or 18euro or 18pound?? either way it is a good price.

glad to hear your BIOS is socketed... pc wiz says mine is too,, but i have yet to look,
and as for the PM... no problem... we gotta try to help each other,, that's what NBR is all about!

[Andy]

$18 shipped..

Check out the detailed specs in the 7720 SG (shows the BIOS package as 32-pin PLCC), it should be removable.

[AcerAspire 3690 guy]

sorry to hear about the INTEL GRAPHICS,,, i have the NEWER intel GM965 and the intel X3100 graphics onboard,, and even with a T5450 CORE2DUO and 2gigs, i can barely play the DEMO of HALO... it plays ok,, but sorry looking graphics, and random lags and stutters... but it works better than it did when i had vista and a CELERON cpu.

you may wanna download the TRIAL of HALO and see how it performs now...
that will give you an idea of what 3 y/o software looks like on that graphics chip, and while your CPU, RAM & HDD upgrades will result in some noticable performance gains,, you will never be happy running newer GRAPHICS intensive games on that laptop (or atleast i wouldn't)



CONGRATS on finally getting a C2D running in that laptop.... glad you got it CHEAP... $18us or 18euro or 18pound?? either way it is a good price.

glad to hear your BIOS is socketed... pc wiz says mine is too,, but i have yet to look,
and as for the PM... no problem... we gotta try to help each other,, that's what NBR is all about!

The Demo was running fine. At the beginning when I was in the open field everything was runing fine. But once I got in that cliffside base all these random colors started to flash around. Im confused cause I can run TF2, Guild Wars, CounterStrike, HL2 Deathmatch, Fear Combat and the visuals look fine. My only problem is the random FPS lagg in open spaces. Will a better cpu fix that problem?