[SOLVED] What CPU's are supported on my HP Pavilion DV7 1135EA?

May 23, 2020
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Hello all.

I recently got this old laptop as I needed something portable to take to college and eventually uni. I use it for web browsing, use of all the Microsoft office applications, some other applications like cisco packet tracer (depending on the work) and video consumption (mainly on YouTube).

I was just wondering what are all the processors that are compatible with this laptop? As the information I've seen is a bit hit and miss or contradicts something else.

At the moment I have installed an SSD which has helped but the CPU is still capped to 99% when I'm doing work on it at college.

Current specs of the laptop are;
Core 2 duo p8400 @2.26GHz 3MB cache
4gb DDR2 RAM
Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT
120GB SanDisk SSD PLUS

If anyone knows it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance
 
So there is not much information about this laptop at all. :( It seems even HP has pulled any information about this model from their site. :(

The TDP of your current processor is 25w, which is very limiting since the only processors that are faster and still 25w is basically just a slight bit faster. There is another one that is 28w tdp, but anytime you increase the cpu tdp beyond the cooling design of a laptop you risk a lot of thermal problems:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-P9600-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-P9700/973vs981vs982

But beyond these problems, I cannot find a single instance anywhere of anyone upgrading the processor to either of these choices. There could be a bios limitation or something else which keeps an upgrade from happening. Or it may just not be feasible.

Your best bet is to upgrade the ram to 8gb using rare and fairly expensive 4gb ddr2 modules. The good thing is that prices are coming down on these and if you keep your eyes open you can get a set for under $40.

While this may not directly help your cpu usage, if the cpu is busy because of a lack of ram, having additional ram will free up the cpu from being interrupted to swap to disk.
 
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May 23, 2020
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So there is not much information about this laptop at all. :( It seems even HP has pulled any information about this model from their site. :(

The TDP of your current processor is 25w, which is very limiting since the only processors that are faster and still 25w is basically just a slight bit faster. There is another one that is 28w tdp, but anytime you increase the cpu tdp beyond the cooling design of a laptop you risk a lot of thermal problems:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-P9600-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-P9700/973vs981vs982

But beyond these problems, I cannot find a single instance anywhere of anyone upgrading the processor to either of these choices. There could be a bios limitation or something else which keeps an upgrade from happening. Or it may just not be feasible.

Your best bet is to upgrade the ram to 8gb using rare and fairly expensive 4gb ddr2 modules. The good thing is that prices are coming down on these and if you keep your eyes open you can get a set for under $40.

While this may not directly help your cpu usage, if the cpu is busy because of a lack of ram, having additional ram will free up the cpu from being interrupted to swap to disk.

Okay Thanks SamirD.

Yes, this is why I couldn't find much information on the laptop, I had again getting drivers as they are no longer on HP's website.

As you say there's not really any way of knowing which CPU's the BIOS supports. There's definitely lots of processors for this socket but not all of them are going to working I'm guessing. plus as you say going a higher wattage causes problems with overheating.

Thanks for you help anyway I'll lookout for some cheap 4gb sticks to upgrade to 8gb
 
May 23, 2020
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Thank you so much Unolocogringo. This is exactly what I was looking for.

I think the model in the manual differs slightly as there's no mention of Nvidia graphics just the ATI ones but the pictures do look like my laptop. Time to get a new processor.

Thanks again
 
Thank you so much Unolocogringo. This is exactly what I was looking for.

I think the model in the manual differs slightly as there's no mention of Nvidia graphics just the ATI ones but the pictures do look like my laptop. Time to get a new processor.

Thanks again
That's a great resource! I'm glad HP still keeps these around for those of us that want to service the machines. :)

And looks like the TDP issue isn't an issue at all. :) With you having a discrete gpu, that means you have the more capable of the two coolers available for this laptop, which means you can use upt to 45w tdp processors. :)

This opens up 2 different upgrade paths--one for pure single thread performance, and another for quad core performance. Since most modern operating systems and applications utilize multiple cores, quad core would be the way to go. And with that being said, yours can probably take an even faster quad core than the q9100 mentioned in the manual, the qx9300:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-vs-Intel-Core2-Extreme-Q9300/973vs1043vs1025

This should not only be faster overall in terms of single thread performance from the p8400, but the additional two cores will help as well. This is slighly slower than the T9900 dual core's single thread performance, but I believe the additional two cores of the qx9300/q9100 will be worth it for your use case:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...9300-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-T9900/973vs1025vs1014

I think with a quad core upgrade and a memory upgrade to 8GB, you will be able to squeeze another year or two out of this platform. :)
 
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That's a great resource! I'm glad HP still keeps these around for those of us that want to service the machines. :)

And looks like the TDP issue isn't an issue at all. :) With you having a discrete gpu, that means you have the more capable of the two coolers available for this laptop, which means you can use upt to 45w tdp processors. :)

This opens up 2 different upgrade paths--one for pure single thread performance, and another for quad core performance. Since most modern operating systems and applications utilize multiple cores, quad core would be the way to go. And with that being said, yours can probably take an even faster quad core than the q9100 mentioned in the manual, the qx9300:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-vs-Intel-Core2-Extreme-Q9300/973vs1043vs1025

This should not only be faster overall in terms of single thread performance from the p8400, but the additional two cores will help as well. This is slighly slower than the T9900 dual core's single thread performance, but I believe the additional two cores of the qx9300/q9100 will be worth it for your use case:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...9300-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-T9900/973vs1025vs1014

I think with a quad core upgrade and a memory upgrade to 8GB, you will be able to squeeze another year or two out of this platform. :)

I know its great SamirD that hp still keeps them around.

Thanks for letting me know about that qx9300 as I now know I have more upgrade options than even the manual says. Thanks for posting the links comparing them as well.

Going to try and get these parts as they are a lot cheaper than buying a laptop and I prefer using a 17" laptop which is why I'm trying the squeeze a year or 2 more out of it as you say.

Thanks for all your help with the different CPU options and for giving me hope that this laptop is still going to be useable for a couple of years.
 
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