Gateway M465-E Processor Upgrade

[Simuri]

I have an M465-E laptop that I am trying to upgrade from a T2300E Core Duo to a T7200 Intel Core 2 Duo.

The M465-E uses the 945PM chipset which should work with a T7200. I've also upgraded to the latest available BIOS that I can download (71.12).

This laptop even had the T7200 as an upgrade option at one point.

However when I install the CPU the computer will not boot. Spins up the drives and flashes the lights like a normal boot, then shuts down. Putting the T2300E back in and everything works great.

So, this should work. All the right parts are there but it wont boot.

Gateway M465-E Laptop (Rev 1.0 according to CPU-Z)
1GB DDR2-533
80GB SATA HD
T2300E Core Duo (T7200 Core 2 Duo hopefully)
ATI X1400 64MB
Intel i945PM Rev. 03
BIOS 71.12 - 03/16/2007

 

[Lmeow]

The motherboard might simply just not be compatible with the Core 2 Duo series, just the Core Duo. Even if it had a T7200 as an upgrade option, they may also might have had to change the motherboard to do so as well. I wouldn't know anything else which would cause a compatibility problem, apart from the CPU & motherboard.

 

[Simuri]

I tested it in another M465-E with the same specs and it works. Perhaps it's a different motherboard model number. I'll have to dig into it and find part numbers to figure this out.

The only known difference is that the one that works is running BIOS v71.06; the one it failed in is running v71.12.

I have had an odd power issue with the original laptop which may point to some other issues as well but other than restarting itself when the power plug is removed (Linux and Windows) it works fine. I actually hope that's the problem and I don't have to take apart every M465-E that I have to find model numbers.

I'm actually hoping that the motherboard is bad.

 

[Simuri]

I've tested the T7200 in 4 different M465-E Gateways. It worked fine in all of them. They all had different BIOS versions as well (71.04, 71.06, 71.12, 71.15) and every one recognized the T7200 and worked fine. They all have the same motherboard model # - 31MA6MB0049.

I guess the original motherboard I tested has some problems.
Stripped it down and used it for parts. Maybe I'll hack it into a case at some point and use it for something else. Still works great with a T2300E as long as you don't need to run on battery.

 

[japh42]

I've tested the T7200 in 4 different M465-E Gateways. It worked fine in all of them. They all had different BIOS versions as well (71.04, 71.06, 71.12, 71.15) and every one recognized the T7200 and worked fine. They all have the same motherboard model # - 31MA6MB0049.

I guess the original motherboard I tested has some problems.
Stripped it down and used it for parts. Maybe I'll hack it into a case at some point and use it for something else. Still works great with a T2300E as long as you don't need to run on battery.

Could you tell me if all of the ones you tested it in had a T2300?

Did any of them have a T5500?

 

[Simuri]

All the M465-E laptops that I've had or tested had T2300 processors in them.

The T5500 has the same specs (PPGA478 socket, 667MHz FSB) as the T7200 so it should work fine. I went for the T7200 because it was the sweet spot for performance and price. T5500 is a bit cheaper, but the T7200 is faster and has more cache.

There is no way that I've found to enable 64bit mode though. I did have one laptop that had the option in the BIOS, it cause system crashes in XP 32bit and 64bit Linux wouldn't load at all.