Toshiba Satellite U840-10X CPU upgrade question

[canadiantree]

I inherited this laptop from my sister.

I've succesfully upgraded both RAM and HD as it is something I know how do do. But her CPU is an i3 which is slow and I would like to upgrade it to an i5 or i7. Now this is something I've never done before so I don't even know if it's possible, so my questions are as follows:
- Do I need to re apply thermal paste or can I use the one already on the mothetboard?
- What are the limitations in terms of CPU upgrades? Do I have to stay within the same CPU generation? It is an Intel i3-2377M @1.5 GHz.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[ajhockey3]

You probably can't upgrade the CPU. Most CPU's on laptops (even more on the lower on such as the i3) are soldered on the board. Even if you were extremely lucky and it was a socketed CPU as you know laptop cooling isn't good and a more powerful CPU would heat it up more and it probably couldn't handle it. Also the power system probably couldn't handle it and the BIOS would 90% likely reject it. Sorry to crush your hopes. If its slow I would recommend an SSD as laptops always benefit from them.

 

[ajhockey3]

Actually I will confirm that CPU is "socket" FCBGA1023. And that means its soldered on the motherboard itself.

 

[canadiantree]

Thank you for your prompt reply, well that's that lol