Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

[mikeinjersey]

I am not a regular member of this forum and logged on today because I really need help. Ive reposted this in several forums (HP, Overclockers, etc) and have not received any decent answers. I have tried various troubleshooting techniques and am about to go to an expensive laptop repair place which may or may not fix the issue.

Here is the story. I wanted to upgrade my old HP HDX18 to the Q9100 processor which is the highest one listed in the service manual. I studied the manual intently and made sure this was an ok upgrade.

I disassembled the notebook exactly as it was done in the manual down to the motherboard. I installed the Q9100 and then reassembled exactly as it was in the manual. I found with the hard drive connected, a Crucial M4 SSD-solid state drive, the computer came on for about 10 seconds getting to the windows logo and then shut down. However, with the drive disconnected I found that I could access the bios and the computer would not shut down.

I decided to reinstall the old processor and the exact same thing happened. I ran diagnostic tests while in the bios screen with the drive connected and it appeared all was ok. When the drive was reconnected I got this error screen.

I did use Phobya HeGrease. The Q9100 processor was a used processor off of ebay. I looked on the Intel website and it is unlikely this is an engineering sample.

I searched the internet and found that some others have had this exact same problem and they corrected by reseating the CPU. I looked at the CPU again and found that this seems fairly simple. It seems like its in their securely. Its just a drop in and screw. When its locked, I cant seem to get it out with my hands.

I read some articles about how too much Thermal paste might cause this to happen and I probably had on a bit too much.

So please help me out with any ideas. Right now my HDX18 is in a pile on the floor.

Thanks for your help!

Here is a video of exactly what is happening and you can see an error code in the diagnostic log which comes up towards the end of the video.

http://youtu.be/0Uup-iTRIaI

[Lumberjack777]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

ok, so the problem occurs when you connect the hard drive. If Vista detects a major hardware change it won't start the operating system. BUT, it should have started when you put your old processor back in. You can try a couple things here. Take out the CMOS battery for 15 minutes or so. Take out the main battery, and make sure it's unplugged and hold down the power button for 60 seconds. This will reset everything. Then put the CMOS battery back in. Power up using only the plugin.
By watching the video and your description the problem seems to be with the hard drive. Or that Vista on the hard drive is rejecting this new setup. Try burning a linux live CD and see if you can get video and graphics in it.
Also, try using a different hard drive. If you have a spare, try loading Vista onto it and see if that works. I believe the operating system (on the hard drive) is rejecting the hardware setup for some reason.

[evo112]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

Hi Mike,

I was trying to do the same thing and upgrade my HDX18t to a Q9100. How did you get yours to work? Mine won't boot and flashed caps/num lock twice (from further reading it says bad bios).

I'm wondering if there is an issue with the CPU itself. It seems that it won't drop in directly like my P8700 and needs a little force to get it in. You said reseating may help but I've reseated plenty of times to no avail.

I was wondering if you or someone else could provide some input

[spidey]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

Hi Mike,

I was trying to do the same thing and upgrade my HDX18t to a Q9100. How did you get yours to work? Mine won't boot and flashed caps/num lock twice (from further reading it says bad bios).

I'm wondering if there is an issue with the CPU itself. It seems that it won't drop in directly like my P8700 and needs a little force to get it in. You said reseating may help but I've reseated plenty of times to no avail.

I was wondering if you or someone else could provide some input

compare your bios version with mike's. probably a bios update will work.

Mike, did you try to start your laptop from a DVD with windows installation disk ? or linux ?

[evo112]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

compare your bios version with mike's. probably a bios update will work.

Mike, did you try to start your laptop from a DVD with windows installation disk ? or linux ?

I have the same BIOS F.34. It might be because I have a QAVK ES instead of an SLB5G.

This may sound stupid, but check the time and date on the CMOS, in BIOS screen. When trying to get my Q9100, the time and date reset in the BIOS and wouldn't boot when I put my P8700 back in until I fixed that.

[gilly1984]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

Its over heating. You either used too much or too little thermal compound.

The fan is a clear indicator, it should not be running that fast when you have just switched it on.

It goes off when booting windows because the cpu is under more stress and getting even hotter, go into bios and check cpu temps.

[JameySewell]

Re: Please help me with HDX18 CPU upgrade gone wrong

I am also trying to replace same Laptop computer with qx9300 and was wondering if you ever got your problem resolved? what did you end up doing?