Inspiron 600m Processor replacement

Question

Hey guys,

I've had my Inspiron 600m for over a year now, so naturally my warranty is long gone, but a problem I have had from day 1 is now getting worse. When I play a game (most notably BZFlag or Armagetron, both OpenGL powered), everything will run great for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. After that, the frame rate drops severely, going from an average of around 50 for BZFlag to a whole 1 frame per second. This continues for about half an hour or so and then the whole process repeats.

I have also been noticing that my computer is getting quite hot lately. I have also read that people are having problems with the 600m and the processor overheating a bit, and a lot of accounts of games having problems. However, the problems are not games-related only. I also notice this in OpenOffice.org and other OpenGL-powered apps.

Hope you guys can help!

System information:
Inspiron 600m
1.7GHz Processor (735)
1.25GB RAM
Running OpenSuSE Linux 10.1

Thanks,
-Jon

HyperTangent · Answer

Whoops, I also forgot to ask how difficult it would be to put in a new processor, as per the title. Are there any other processors that would work and wouldn't require the purchase of an entirely new computer? I'm a bit short on change.

-Jon

ejn63 · Answer

You should run the Dell diagnostics (F12 at boot) to verify the operation of the cooling fan. You will also want to clear the dust from the heatsink assembly if you've never done it.

while the system can take up to a 2.1 GHz, 400 MHz bus CPU, a faster CPU will make the heat problem worse, and will likely show the real bottleneck in the system - the ATI9000 video, which cannot be upgraded.

CPUs that CANNOT be used include all with a bus speed over 400 MHz, and all Core CPUs - Core, Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo.

HyperTangent · Answer

Thanks for the quick reply. I will check out the F12 diagnostics and see if I can find anything. I also got a recommendation to flash the BIOS, which I want to do, but I run purely Linux on this laptop, and the program to do it is only for DOS/Windows. Do you know where a version for Linux might be? I've already tried using Wine to run it, but no luck.

ejn63 · Answer

Make a bootable floppy or CD.

ejn63 · Answer

Your CD writer software will have the option to make a bootable CD. Put the exe file on it and run it once you have booted the system from the CD.

It's not as easy to make a bootable CD under Linux, but it can still be done.

HyperTangent · Answer

It would have to be a CD... but how would I go about doing that? Do I just run the EXE file that Dell has in its driver downloads section on another computer and then select some option somewhere?

HyperTangent · Answer

Well, I'll try that on my parents' computer. Does the Roxio software included with newer Dells let you do this?

ejn63 · Answer

Yes, it does.

HyperTangent · Answer

Alright. Thanks. :-)

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Inspiron 600m Processor replacement

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