Dell Latitude E5420 with an i7-2720QM CPU

[SpamProtect]

Hello,

I just bought a used i7-2720QM CPU for cheap on eBay to see if it can run on a Dell E5420 with the HM65 chipset.

It booted up fine for the first time, and the OS even installed the video drivers. But after rebooting, it won't boot up anymore. The PC turns on, power LED is lit and so is the power button. The screen is blank and the fan is not running. Pressing the power button again, turns the fan to full speed for few seconds and then the PC turns off. The cycle repeats itself...

Putting the old i5-2520M CPU back in works fine.

Anyone else running the same setup? Does it work fine for you?

I just want to make sure that the it's not a CPU issue so that I can return it if it is.

Thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

Did you check for a BIOS update before installing the other CPU?

 

[SpamProtect]

Yes, always.

The CPU is most likely not meant for this PC, in theory it could support it, but since Dell Support has no knowledge about their own systems, I’ll never know for sure until I find someone that got it working, which might be never.

 

[hang-the-9]

The issue with calling support to find out about this is you will almost never be able to reach an engineer that knows what has been tested or what may possibly work. Support is there and trained to work with Dell stock products, not to sort out what upgrades will work or not.

If that CPU is on the list of options for your laptop model, then the support people may be able to sort out what the issue is, and even if it is, since you did the upgrade yourself, they are not obligated to help you even if the system is in warranty. A CPU replacement is not a field replicable part for an owner, RAM is, probably the hard drive, not the CPU.

 

[SpamProtect]

Spoke with Dell Support again, this time I got an agent that knew his stuff and gave me a big list of all of the CPUs that are supported by the Dell E5420 system. Not sure if that is the whole list, but it is good info for other people that need it.

Part description:
PRC,B710,1.6,SNB,1C,J1,P
PRC,B800,1.5,SNB,2C,Q0,P
PRC,B840,1.9,SNB,2C,Q0,P
PRC,I3-2310M,2.1,2C,SNB,J1,P
PRC,I3-2330M,2.2,SNB,2C,J1
PRC,I3-2330M,2.2,SNB,2C,J1,P
PRC,I5-2410M,2.3,2C,SNB,J1
PRC,I5-2410M,2.3,2C,SNB,J1,P
PRC,I5-2430M,2.4,SNB,2C,J1
PRC,I5-2430M,2.4,SNB,2C,J1,P
PRC,I5-2520M,2.5,2C,SNB
PRC,I5-2520M,2.5,2C,SNB,J1
PRC,I5-2540M,2.6,2C,SNB,J1,P
PRC,I7-2620M,2.7,2C,SNB,J1,P
PRC,I7-2640M,2.8,SNB,2C,J1
PRC,I7-2640M,2.8,SNB,2C,J1,P
SVC,PRC,I3-2350M,2.3,SNB,2C,J1
SVC,PRC,I5-2540M,2.6,2C,SNB,J1

Looking at the list, all of these CPUs are 2 cores, while the one that I got from eBay is a 4 core. I asked him if Dell will update the BIOS to support CPUs like that one, of course he said yes in the future, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m still going to try to get that i7-2720QM CPU to run on my E5420 since it looks like it can run, only something is missing or blocking it from running, which could be the BIOS.

 

[DeepPuddles666]

Hey, ever have any luck with the i7? In a similar situation myself, now, lol 4 years later