LinuxQuestions.org - how hard is it to replace a laptop's CPU?

- General (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/general-10/)

- - how hard is it to replace a laptop's CPU? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/general-10/how-hard-is-it-to-replace-a-laptops-cpu-4175645780/)

how hard is it to replace a laptop's CPU?

My Thinkpad T420 appears to be on its last legs, and I suspect the CPU. It wouldn't boot yesterday, but booted normally after I let it sit for a few hours; and now I notice the comma key frequently does not respond. (If I'm oddly missing any commas here, you can figure out why. I tried to catch them.)

I was going to buy another used T420; then I thought of replacing only the CPU, taking a gamble that I'm right about it. It would save considerable money including long-term: my habit is to buy used laptops because I'm not really a power user needing the latest technology, but of course they always die eventually; so if I got away with this, I would want to do it every time one of my Thinkpads bites the dust. I wish I had thought of this long ago. And there's the fact that I don't really need a new laptop in toto; everything else about it is fine.

Anyway, how much of a pain in the you-know-what would you say pulling out and replacing a laptop's CPU (specifically a Thinkpad's) is? I wonder what I'm in for. I hope it's not much harder than changing the CPU in a desktop tower, which wasn't particularly difficult last time I did it. But I've worked on my laptops enough times to know doing anything inside one is awkward and time-consuming. I hope I don't need to learn how to solder. On my desktop computer when I had one, all I did was apply the thermal paste and insert the chip--I think. It was six or eight years ago...

I just don't want to take my laptop apart, try to get at the CPU, and then tell myself it's too much trouble and I should have just spent the $50-100 on another used one.

Read the sensors and check temps, fan speeds and voltages. Fans are a much more likely culprit than CPUs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smallpond (Post 5946112)

Read the sensors and check temps, fan speeds and voltages. Fans are a much more likely culprit than CPUs.

I have not figured out the voltages or fan speeds yet, but the temperature readings seem quite high to me--screenshot attached.

Before considering replacement of electronics, how about ensuring that the fan is working correctly and all exit/entry ports are dust free?

My T430

Code:

harry@biker:~

$ sensors

coretemp-isa-0000

Adapter: ISA adapter

Physical id 0:  +44.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

Core 0:        +44.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

Core 1:        +42.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)



acpitz-virtual-0

Adapter: Virtual device

temp1:        +42.0°C  (crit = +104.0°C)



thinkpad-isa-0000

Adapter: ISA adapter

fan1:        3234 RPM

to get what I posted

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

Say yes to everything asked is how I install lm-sensors.

Having bricked a IBM Z series laptop by installing a used bricked Pentium M cpu from ebay.
It can be hit or miss. The clean recommends are a good one.
Yeah. Your shot shows cpu as cooking.

What does htop or top in terminal show?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji (Post 5946132)

Your shot shows cpu as cooking.

Watch again, his screenshot shows temperatures in Fahrenheit while yours are in Celsius.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehartman (Post 5946136)

Watch again, his screenshot shows temperatures in Fahrenheit while yours are in Celsius.

Yeah, now I'm not sure whether I have a temperature problem. In a terminal, the sensors give these readings in Celsius:

Code:

System:

  Host: T420 Kernel: 4.15.0-1-686-pae i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 

  Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18_386 Continuum March 12  2017 

  base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 

Machine:

  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 4177QGU v: ThinkPad T420 

  serial: <filter> 

  Mobo: LENOVO model: 4177QGU serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO 

  v: 83ET76WW (1.46 ) date: 07/05/2013 

Battery:

  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 57.8 Wh condition: 57.8/71.3 Wh (81%) 

  model: SANYO 42T4763 status: Unknown 

CPU:

  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-2310M bits: 64 type: MT MCP 

  arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 

  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 16745 

  Speed: 1370 MHz min/max: 800/2100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2093 2: 2076 

  3: 1903 4: 2092 

Graphics:

  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics 

  vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 

  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 

  resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 

  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2 

  v: 3.3 Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes 

Audio:

  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 

  vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 

  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-686-pae 

Network:

  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e 

  v: 3.2.6-k port: 4080 bus ID: 00:19.0 

  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 

  Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi 

  v: kernel port: efa0 bus ID: 03:00.0 

  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 

Drives:

  Local Storage: total: 178.37 GiB used: 63.44 GiB (35.6%) 

  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HTS725016A9A364 size: 149.05 GiB 

  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Fit size: 29.32 GiB 

Partition:

  ID-1: / size: 14.70 GiB used: 5.04 GiB (34.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 

  ID-2: /home size: 11.69 GiB used: 3.51 GiB (30.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 

  ID-3: swap-1 size: 5.00 GiB used: 264 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 

Sensors:

  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A 

  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2929 

Repos:

  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 

  1: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch stretch main

  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 

  1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 

  1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

  2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free

  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 

  1: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free

  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 

Info:

  Processes: 220 Uptime: 1d 13h 31m Memory: 7.79 GiB used: 1.87 GiB (24.0%) 

  Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 

  inxi: 3.0.29

I don't understand why the clipboard did not copy and paste exactly what I saw in the terminal (it did not copy the critical temperatures), but it said the critical temperatures were +85 C, and mine are nowhere near that.

Perhaps it is indeed the fan, because there it said 2929 RPM, and when I took the screenshot, those sensors said 1978. That doesn't sound right. ...! and now I just checked again, and the RPM had jumped up to 3221.

Now I'm confused. The XFCE 4 sensors (which gave me the screenshot) say the maximum temperature is 46 or 47 C, while the lmsensors that I checked in the terminal say "critical" temperature is +85. Apparently "maximum" and "critical" are completely different.

This doesn't look good, though...

Removing and putting back the CPU on my T400 was as easy as it would be on a desktop.

I recommend you just try dusting it and replacing the CPU's thermal paste before spending money on a replacement CPU. The part that's wearing out may well be just the thermal paste (which absolutely does wear out after 6 years).

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 5946154)

Really? I could do that. I have some thermal paste left in my box of components, although whether it's still good in the tube (5-7 years old), I have no idea.

Code:

watch "dmesg | tail -20"

Code:

dmesg | grep -i memory

might help, or not. Missed the F earlier. Flu clouds my head.

Might wanna run smart tests on your hard drive also.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/5280...ns-of-ubuntu-1

CPU temperatures should not be that high (unless you are running a job). You should check/clear the vents of CPU heatsink with compressed air then observe the behavior, then replace the thermal paste.
Instead of replacing the CPU, I would go for replacing traditional spinner disk drive with SSD.

farenheit to celcius
110 F = 43.3333 C them temps are just fine. battery, power connection keeping it from turning on? can you pull the battery and power up with just a power cord on that laptop?

comma key frequently does not respond.

bad Keyboard? xev to see what it can tell you, might be something better out there to tell or show you that the kb maybe failing.

it is 3rd gen CPU can't be that messed up.

On your T430, it's pretty easy if you decide you do want to try replacing your CPU. I'll point out if you eventually replace it with T450 or newer (or any other model from another manufacturer that's Broadwell and newer), the CPU's are (nearly always) soldered to the boards so are SIGNIFICANTLY harder to replace, and also almost impossible to purchase standalone.

As far as steps you should check first, I think most everyone has that covered in spades...