CPU and GPU upgrade on Acer Aspire 6930G

[jkellz]

Hi,

I just got a 6930G and am in the process of buying an "Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile 3.06GHz 6MB E8435 SLAQD Socket P CPU" as an upgrade. I understand this is not meant for laptops but all-in-one Desktops, but that it should nevertheless work. Could someone verify this information?

I was also wondering about a RAM upgrade. I think I read somewhere that the 6930G can only have 2x2Gb RAM max, which is what I currently have. I am almost positive it is DDR2. Would DDR3 work? Could I install more RAM, say 4x4GB for example?

One final question Would I have to flash my bios in order to upgrade my new CPU? The 6930G was not "Windows 7 Ready" and I have found some minor problems running Windows 7. (Many drivers are meant only for Vista). Would an intel vista driver (if that is what I would need to phlash my CPU) work?

Sorry for the barrage of questions. The help is really appreciated.

Thanks!

[jkellz]

One more question...

I am also looking to upgrade my GPU, and have decided to go with the NVidia GeForce 9600M GT A1 512MB DDR3 MXM II VGA Laptop Video Card...

I currently have the 9600M GS and from reading this forum it seems like the GT is a good upgrade.

I am not sure whether the GPU has anything to do with this, but I have an HDMI out port on my 6930G and was wondering whether the GPU listed above will still allow me to use the HDMI out. The description of the card says VGA so I am a bit weary that it will only support VGA out, and not HDMI.

Thanks again.

[lucino]

Hi jkellz,

I would avoid the "E8435 SLAQD Socket P CPU" as it looks like it has a TDP of 55Watt - thats 20Watts more than what the 6930g was designed to house so will run very hot.

There is apparently an E8435 "SLGEA" which is only 44Watt and would work fine.

It would pay to update your bios before installing a new CPU, when I installed W7 I didn't use drivers off the Acer site, most were included with the W7 install and I updated them directly from the manufacturers wesites (eg intel, nvidia etc).

The 6930g will only accept DDR2 ram, it has two ram slots available and will accept up to 8gb (2 x 4gb sticks).

The 9600M GT DDR3 is a good upgrade, did the same myself, just check with the seller if the graphics card is compatable with Acer (eg has the Acer VBios).
Your HDMI and VGA outputs will still work fine, the output is done from the motherboard after the graphics card does its thing

[jkellz]

@lucino:

Thanks for the great feedback. I guess there is a lot of room for upgrades on this laptop. That is awesome.

I placed a bid for the processor I mentioned above and am the highest bidder... probably will win and will be stuck with it I think. How bad exactly will having such a high wattage CPU really be? I use the Acer as a desktop replacement, so do you think a cooling pad would do the trick?

Probably also defeating the purpose of getting a 3.06GHz processor, but is it possible to "underclock" it to a lower wattage in order to make it run a bit cooler? How would I do that?

One more thing... Wouldn't all 96700M GT's have the Acer VBios installed on them? Is it possible to flash the GPU with the appropriate VBios?

Thanks again!

[lucino]

I'd see if you can ask the seller to cancel the bid, I would be worried myself that such a power hungry CPU may stress other parts of the laptop- someone more knowledgable may be able to comment on this?

For not much more money you could try and pick up an X9100, 44Watt so will run cooler and you have the option to overclock using "Throttlestop".

Check out the "Undervolting Guide" here on the forums, no harm at all and will keep temps down as much as possible, I personally use a program called CpuGenie- however the program is no longer supported and the company is very very slow to reply to emails, if they reply at all! But you could use the trial version of CpuGenie and run the voltage optimisation wizard to find out stable voltages then use those in the program used in the Undervolting Guide.

Not all cards will have the Acer Vbios as far as I understand, I believe you can flash the bios but it's something I don't know much about sorry.

[inmorthex]

It is possible to upgrade the cpu with a p8700? BIOS will recognize it?? I have version v0.3221,thanks!

[lucino]

P8700 should work fine, I'm out of touch with what bios version is current on the 6930g, but it would pay to upgrade to the latest bios before installing your p8700.

[inmorthex]

P8700 should work fine, I'm out of touch with what bios version is current on the 6930g, but it would pay to upgrade to the latest bios before installing your p8700.

I would put another version of BIOS but only that I accept the NVIDIA GeForce 9500m GS ... Thanks!

[tovs]

Heya!

I have an Acer Aspire 6930g in which I have some problems with the GPU, Ati Mobility Radeon HD 4650. I'm getting constant BSOD and the corrupted file seems to be Atikmpag.sys.

I'm wondering if there's any relatively cheap replacement I can buy? I've had horrible experiences with ATI, so I'm wondering if it's possible to switch to a Nvidia graphics card?

Thanks for reading, looking forward to any answer at all.

[triturbo]

It's probably heat related.