CPUs Support for the Toshiba M45-S165

[rk0629]

'lo people. LONG-time reader of Tom's Hardware (I believe I found this site sometime in the late 90s ), first post in the forums.

Looking to upgrade my laptop computer's processor in order to better enable it to play back HD video. Here's the deal...

Been looking around for about a week now, trying to figure out wether or not my laptop will support an upgrade to a Dothan-core Pentium M, 400 FSB, 1.7GHz or higher processor. The socket types seem to match up and the visuals I've found of the pin layout are exactly the same..

What concerns me is whether the motherboard/BIOS will recognize the CPU and POST. Toshiba offers nothing-much in the way of BIOS updates. There's been one, and the fixes implemented are trivial.

CPU-Z report lists the mainboard as an "Manufacturer: ATI" and "Model: SB400" which is actually the southbridge as far as I can tell.

I'm pretty sure myself that I've got everything figured out, but if I haven't, I'd like to know before I make a purchase. I guess all I'm really looking for here is a little certainty before I send some stranger on eBay any amount of money.


Here's some of the more pertinent information out of the CPU-Z .txt dump..

Name:
Intel Celeron M 370

Codename:
Dothan

Specification:
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz

Package:
Socket 479 mPGA (platform ID = 5h)

CPUID:
6.D.8

Extended CPUID:
6.D

Brand ID:
18

Core Stepping:
C0

Technology:
90 nm

Core Speed:
1500 MHz (15.0 x 100 MHz)

Rated Bus speed:
400 MHz

Stock frequency:
1500 MHz

Instructions sets:
MMX, SSE, SSE2

Northbridge:
ATI RS400/RC400/RC410 rev. 01

Southbridge:
ATI SB400 rev. 00

Mainboard Model:
ATI SB400 (0x129 - 0x2D700)

DMI System Information
----------------------
manufacturer TOSHIBA
product Satellite M45
version PSM43U-00S00F
serial 75048896Q
UUID B700E3A0-EEF411D9-A70E00A0-D1227C21

All that said, it seems pretty clear that This CPU or one like it should drop right in and boot right up, right? Please say yes.

Thanks, for any answers or empathetic confusion.

 

[mattwathen]

In theory, it should work. The main thing to look at is power requirements. Anytime you upgrade a cpu, you need to be able to adjust the core voltages and multipliers. That way the board can correctly run the cpu. I had an acer that was upgradeable, but the bios wouldn't allow it. It took a while, but the manuf. finally released an updated bios that allowed me to use the new cpu. If there haven't been any bios upgrades for your system since the manufacture date of the chip, I'd avoid it for now.
As for your HD problem, what is the manuf. of your gpu? I have an nvidia chip in my laptop, and it handles the HD. It may be you can get a performance boost in playback by updating the drivers for your chipset. Also, look for a low-level player, something that takes up minimal system requirements. I recommend VLC Player, but there are others out there.
If you do the swap and it works, keep an eye on your temps! If it doesn't, well, there's always ebay!
Good Luck!

 

[rk0629]

Power requirements seem to be equal.

Only way to adjust the voltage on this board is to drop a copper wire into the CPU socket. lol.

Not counting on Toshiba to release any more BIOS upgrades.

Manufacturer of the GPU is AMD/ATI, but I'm entirely certain the CPU is the bottleneck on HD video.

Have the latest drivers for the GPU/video chipset.

Using Zoom Player Standard, my latest favorite.

Hopefully I won't have to re-list this CPU when it gets here. Purchased a seemingly very rare SL8U6 (Pentium 4 M, Dothan Core, 1.8GHz).

Model number 745
Part number RH80536GC0332M
RH80536GC0332M s-specs SL8U6
Frequency (MHz) 1800
Bus speed (MHz) 400
Clock multiplier 18
Package 478-pin micro FC-PGA
1.38" x 1.38" (3.5 cm x 3.5 cm)
Socket Socket mPGA479M
Introduction date May 10, 2004
Price at introduction $423

Crossing my fingers.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[jdc1891]

Power requirements seem to be equal.

Only way to adjust the voltage on this board is to drop a copper wire into the CPU socket. lol.

Not counting on Toshiba to release any more BIOS upgrades.

Manufacturer of the GPU is AMD/ATI, but I'm entirely certain the CPU is the bottleneck on HD video.

Have the latest drivers for the GPU/video chipset.

Using Zoom Player Standard, my latest favorite.

Hopefully I won't have to re-list this CPU when it gets here. Purchased a seemingly very rare SL8U6 (Pentium 4 M, Dothan Core, 1.8GHz).

Model number 745
Part number RH80536GC0332M
RH80536GC0332M s-specs SL8U6
Frequency (MHz) 1800
Bus speed (MHz) 400
Clock multiplier 18
Package 478-pin micro FC-PGA
1.38" x 1.38" (3.5 cm x 3.5 cm)
Socket Socket mPGA479M
Introduction date May 10, 2004
Price at introduction $423

Crossing my fingers.

Thanks for the reply.

Please let me know if this worked for you. I was given this laptop and would like to know if this worked so I can do it myself.

Thanks.
jdc1891

 

[notary_services]

I successfully upgraded my Toshiba M45-S165 several years ago. I offered to fix a friends newer satelite which had a centrino style chip in it. His board had a bad crack in it from being picked up by the corners with the display open probably like most of us pick up our laptops. It broke off like a piece of cheese and caused the strangest symptoms due to the shorts created by the break. He was nice enough to let me canablize it for parts in exchange for putting his drive in a USB enclosure for him. It is described as a Pentium M(.09) 1864MHZ. Device manager calls it a family 6 model 13. I used his dvd/rw from my old dvd, a matshita and was nearly impossible to find drivers for, maxed out my ram, and his cpu. I upgraded the wireless nic to 802.11n at some point. I now I'm checking around for cpus again to do it again years later and eek out the last bit of life from this good old machine. I wish there was an application like crucial's memory scanner for cpus to make a secondary market for old cpus. I was surprised to learn that many old laptops aren't much if any more difficult to upgrade than towers. My granddad bought me the machine, and he died in 2005, the computer is going on 11 years now. It's still fine for most tasks, particularly when "My documents" is re-mapped to a nas.