CQ43-400tu upgrade

[yotatrons]

Hi, I'm An,

I have a CQ43-400TU laptop with CPU pentium B960 (FCPGA988/PGA988), can I replace it by Core I7-2640M (FCBGA1023/ PPGA988) or 2620M? as checked on Intel both of these CPU also have same TDP (35W) and Sandy Bridge core.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/vn/vi/ark/compare.html?productIds=53464,59836 

Also,  can RAM of this laptop upgrade to 16GB?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Below is the link to the service manual for your notebook.

Chapter 1 has the list of supported Intel processors and memory upgrade information.

c03137261.pdf (hp.com)

According to the manual, the best processor you can install is the Intel® Core® i5-2430M.

According to the manual, your notebook supports 2 x 4 GB of DDR3 memory.

Theoretically the PC may support either I7-2640M or I7-2620M processors as long as they have the PPGA988 socket.

Theoretically, the PC might support 2 x 8 GB of DDR3 memory.

You can do this to see how much memory your notebook can support.

1. In the search box, search for cmd and click Run as administrator.

This will open the command prompt.

2. Once command prompt is opened, type wmic memphysical get maxcapacityEx and hit enter.

There, it will show the maximum RAM capacity your PC's motherboard can support.

The capacity is shown as Kilobytes, so you have to convert it to Gigabytes by dividing the number provided in the report by 1,048,576.

You would have to be willing to risk the loss of money if the 16 GB of memory and/or the i7 processors don't work.

I don't recommend going outside of what the manual indicates.

[yotatrons]

Agree! I believe all suitable components come in purposed and calculated design then it is provided to end-user by the manual.

1. RAM: look like command "wmic" does not work on my system as it pops up "Node - No1_PC. ERROR: Description = Invalid query". However, the manual says that "support up to 8192 MB of system RAM" so  I think 8GB is maximum capability.

2. CPU: document just mentions core i5-2450M, not tell the maximum supported CPU but I think this version core i5 is enough safe to avoid related issue later on.

Finally, I think the upgrade with core i5-2450M and 8GB of RAM is enough for my laptop would work on Win 10 with basic application.

Thanks for helpful manual and appreciate your interest in my question to answer so fast although my system is so old.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.