Acer Extensa 4220 : CPU Upgrade

[gamer388]

Hello,
I wanted to share my experience trying to upgrade the CPU of an old Acer Extensa 4220.
This is a laptop of an old lady who I am trying to upgrade what I can and refurbish the rest. Some people are very possessive and want to keep their stuff as much as possible.

So the laptop specs originaly is :
CPU : Celeron 550 2GHz single core (533MHz FSB 31W TDP)
RAM : 2 GB DDR2-5400s (667MHz)
Bios : Phoenix V1.33
CPU socket : mPGA479M

The computer was using Win10 but was completely unusable so I installed Zorin 17 Core.
It's usable but slow.

After few research online I found out that this laptop uses socketed CPU instead of soldered so maybe the CPU could be upgraded to a dual core CPU like Pentium or Core 2 duo.
Apparently the motherboard is using the Crestline chipset (GL960 - info found on the schematic).
At first I looked online and found out video of people swapping the Celeron in their Extensa 4220 for CPU like T8100 or T8300 which are 800MHz FSB and also newer gen (Penryn vs Merom). So I was enthusiastic and purchased from ebay a used T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 35W Merom CPU like the Celeron 550).

After installing the T7500 the laptop was unable to boot into the OS even though the CPU was detected in the bios. I was only prompted a blinking underscore symbol.

I put back the Celeron 550 in the laptop and it boots fine and is usable even tho very slow using Zorin OS Core 17 (not the Lite version).

In a second attempt I then decide to choose and buy a 533MHz FSB dual core in Merom familly.
I find that the pentium T2390 meets all these requirements.

I install the T2390 into the machine and it boots into the OS just fine. But I get some weird graphic glitch where it shows random colored color in like a pattern covering the whole screen.
These glitches don't always happen but more often when CPU-X is running (CPU-Z) and trying to open another app.
I first did run the laptop in like partially assembled mode where I only plugged the screen which was laying flat on the bed. Using a USB keyboard and mouse. The power button is also dead (always open) so with small metal tweezers I could jump start the machine and switch the laptop on.
At first I thought these glitches would happen because of EMI interference due to the charging port being close to the CPU which I didnt put the cover on yet.
It was little bit more stable when putting the AC adapter and DC cable farther away from the machine.
Tonight I tried a more assembled test with the T2390 (using the internal keyboard of the laptop).
To start the computer I have soldered 2 wires to the power button on the motherboard and going to an external switch. Which works better now at least I have a working power button.

During the test it was promising CPU temps were never above 45°C even in my previous test with the T2390. But graphic glitches still occured.
I dont know if CPU is bad or just not 100% compatible with this Acer Extensa 4220.
When I received this T2390 I wasnt very pleased of how it looked. I tried cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol but didnt remove the mark / residue of paste.

It can run smoothly without a problem and still crash with these graphic glitches which renders the machine unusable and unreliable.

Now I switched back to the original Celeron 550 and everything works fine but slowly.
Guess I will have to install lighter OS on it so it doesnt feel too slow even with this Celeron 550.

Dont think glitches come from unconnected mic wire or wifi antenna.

[dmill89]

Did you make sure the BIOS was updated to the latest version?

Did you verify there isn't any thermal paste or other foreign substances (dirt, etc.) on the CPU pins (this is fairly common when buying used CPUs)?

It is possible there is a CPU "white list" in the BIOS and only supports certain CPUs even if the chipset theoretically can support others, I don't know enough about the Acer Extensa 4220 specifically to confirm or deny this on that specific laptop, but it is fairly common for "hardware white lists" to exist on OEM-built systems (Lenovo, Dell, etc. are known for this).

[gamer388]

The CPU pins are in very good conditions (no missing pins or bent, no contamination with foreign material on the pins side).

The T2390 is showing some residue or mark of something I couldnt get rid of with isopropyl alcohol and rubbing gently with towel paper on the top of the CPU after it was installed on the socket.

About the BIOS, good point. In videos where I see people upgrading the CPU of similar model Acer Extensa 4220 they don't have the same version as me sometimes it is V1.30 or V1.31.
So the laptop I have apparently got V1.33 so newer version.

I looked online but couldnt find any info about the lastest bios version or any official download from the Acer website for this model.

I perfectly know that trying to change the CPU of a laptop is a gamble. I tried because the CPUs i bought from eBay where really cheap (7€ for the T7500 and 5€ for the T2390.) And also was a fun project.

Another point also is that any decent compatible candidate CPUs are 35W which is more than the 27/31W advertised on CPU-world or ark-intel.
So maybe it is possible that the circuitry that powers the CPU is not stable enough and sometimes there is a high power demands that create those graphic glitchs I see from time to time on the screen when using the T2390.

Using CPU-X (linux version of CPU-Z) I can see the CPU frequency going up and down very quickly from like 750 or 850 MHz to 1.8GHz (using the T2390).

[piernov]

So maybe it is possible that the circuitry that powers the CPU is not stable enough and sometimes there is a high power demands that create those graphic glitchs I see from time to time on the screen when using the T2390.

I'd say this is more likely to be the problem. Happens with failing NEC Toking capacitors although I doesn't seem like your board uses one.
But I also had a similar problem on a specific board (I think it was a LA-3551P) where some CPU would be mostly ok, others would crash soon after loading the kernel or other random crashes. A workaround was to add `idle=poll` to the kernel command line which has the effect of preventing the CPU from entering lower power states, which is what looked like was causing the instability. I replaced a few components in the CPU VCore circuit but that didn't help. Couldn't get to the bottom of it as I already spent *way* too much time on this machine (it started with an AMD board with a dead MCP, swapped to an Intel board with a dead ICH that I replaced and it required some other modifications as well).

I've never ever seen a dead Intel Core 2-era CPU, unlike the newer stuff which is much less reliable. Also, I've never seen a whitelist for CPUs. However there can be a lot of compatibility issues with the Core 2 CPUs, coming from chipset, BIOS, CPU VCore design or FSB layout on the board, even RAM frequency vs. FSB can produce unexpected behaviour.

[gamer388]

Here is what the T2390 heatsink side looks like.
It is not particularly perfect.
Couldnt get this mark or residue leftover with isopropyl alcohol.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Apparently the motherboard is using the Crestline chipset (GL960 - info found on the schematic).

At first I looked online and found out video of people swapping the Celeron in their Extensa 4220 for CPU like T8100 or T8300 which are 800MHz FSB and also newer gen (Penryn vs Merom). So I was enthusiastic and purchased from ebay a used T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 35W Merom CPU like the Celeron 550).

In a second attempt I then decide to choose and buy a 533MHz FSB dual core in Merom familly.
I find that the pentium T2390 meets all these requirements.

according to intel official specs, the gl960 chipset only supports fsb 533 cpus and only celeron or pentium dual core cpus. so im not sure how those ppl online managed to get a 800 mhz fsb core 2 cpu working there. they would be overclocking the chipset and that is not officially supported and would lead to system instability. so always do your own research first. dont blindly follow others.

however, it could also be that acer used different motherboards with different chipsets for that same laptop model thus they could get away with using a higher fsb speed cpu.

After installing the T7500 the laptop was unable to boot into the OS even though the CPU was detected in the bios. I was only prompted a blinking underscore symbol.

as i recall, upgrading from a single core to multi core cpu requires some bios and os settings changes to support multi core cpus and get them working. e.g. acpi apic controller must be enabled in the bios or the os wont properly detect the multi core cpu causing either a blank screen bug or blinking cursor bug when booting the os.

I install the T2390 into the machine and it boots into the OS just fine. But I get some weird graphic glitch where it shows random colored color in like a pattern covering the whole screen.

it could also be that due to the age of the components, the motherboard chipset is dying and is on its way out. using a more powerful cpu exposed potentially failing components. so it could also be that the system is a dead end machine and not worth upgrading since it only supports low end celeron and pentium dual core components.

it could also be that the cpu microcode in the bios only supports single core cpus. the dual cores might not have the right microcode for them in the bios thus the glitchiness. once again, im going to repeat an often ignored piece of advice on here. just because it fits in the socket, doesnt necessarily mean it will work. whether a cpu will work depends on many factors like bios support, microcode support, chipset support etc.

for me, if a client came in with such a system, i would just tell them its not worth upgrading. u'd just be going from slow junk to less slow junk and its still slow!

I put back the Celeron 550 in the laptop and it boots fine and is usable even tho very slow using Zorin OS Core 17 (not the Lite version).

Guess I will have to install lighter OS on it so it doesnt feel too slow even with this Celeron 550.

for a lightweight os, i would use lubuntu or puppy linux. not an os that isnt popular, i havent even heard of it!

Here is what the T2390 heatsink side looks like.
It is not particularly perfect.
Couldnt get this mark or residue leftover with isopropyl alcohol.

the thermal paste has hardened and stuck onto the die. try zippo or ronsonol lighter fluid it works much better than ipa and try not to smoke while working on computers. hahahaha! . u can also try arctic articlean.

[gamer388]

Yes I figured that 800 MHz FSB CPUs weren't compatible.
That's why I tried the pentium T2390 because it is 533 MHz (2 core pentium Merom) but the machine doesn't run stable enough because of power draw or other things.

When I mentionned lighter OS it wasnt the name of the OS itself just saying I would like a light dristro.

I did my research before trying to upgrade but as I said I already know the percentage of success would be low but I was OK taking the risk.

When this lady came to the association I already told her when I realized it was a single core CPU that she would be better to buy a new laptop than to continue using this slow machine.