Overclocking Picture Guide for the Toshiba Satellite Series

Detailed How-To – Frederik Costermans

This mod takes about 10 minutes !!!!

This mod works, on laptops using a 400 MHz FSB CPU. By inserting a copper wire in 2 holes in the 479 socket, the mobo will bring the FSB up to 533 MHz, running the CPU at 133% over spec. In total this gives an 25% increase without extra cooling needed.

First I would like to thank Robbie Wilson for his article “Overclocking The Dell Inspiron 6000”, Why0Why for his article on 08-02-2005 and ziddey for his article on Tue Apr 26, 2005. I used his mod to do the same for my laptop.

This mod works for all of the following Intel Mobile Celeron CPUs: 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 350J, 360, 360J, 370, 380.

This mod should also work for the Intel Centrino Mobile CPUs. This mod also works for the following Centrino Mobile CPUs:

Ultra Low Voltage: 713, 723, 733, 733J, 753, 718, 738, 758, 778
Pentium M processor: 705, 715, 725, 735, 745, 765 (765 clock at 2500 MHz max on 19/01/2005 France)
Intel ® Centrino ® Mobile Technology Specs

Remember the standard FSB MUST be 400 MHz.

For this mod 1 used the following laptop:

• Satellite M40-277 (bought it for 799 €)
• Intel Celeron M processor 360J, 90 nm, 1,MB L2, 1.40 GHz, 400 MHz
• 60 GB @ 5400 rpm (slow, I know)
• 1536 MB RAM 128 mb shared (533 MHz capable, put in 1 gig extra RAM)
• ATI radeon Xpress 200M overclocked to 594 MHz (567 MHz standard)

To get accurate CPU information, I used CPU-Z, a small and useful program. Notice the FSB set at 133 MHz.
Before you start, make sure your RAM supports 266 MHz!

Slot 1 contains the standard RAM that came with the laptop – it’s PC4300 and able to run 266 MHz.
For slot 2, I bought an extra 1024 MB of RAM (around 100€).
Now we know that the RAM is up for it, let’s get started.

To prevent overheating of the CPU, you need a program to monitor temperature; for this clock, I used Speedfan. Check it out, freeware and very usefull for this mod.

All you need is some speaker cable and some tools, besides a steady hand:

If you have all the tools and some copper wire, we can begin. Take off your pull-over and remember to discharge yourself using a ground connection! Shut down Windows properly before you begin.

This is my Toshiba laptop at 1.4 GHz – now let’s get modding!

The elegant bottom of my laptop. Take out the battery first, that way there is a lesser chance we damage components on the mobo.

{mospagebreak}

This is the Satelite M40-277 open. Lets have a look at the components inside.

1. Hard disk: 60 G Fujitsu hard disk at 5400 rpm
2. Wireless network card: Atheros AR5005G4
3. RAM: PC4300 at 266 MHz
4. This is the CPU with cooling fan before overclocking

This laptop uses the same cooling fan and software as in the satellite Toshiba Satellite (M70-DL4) running an Intel Centrino 750 @ 1.86 GHz. When opening this link, take a look at the M 750’s Architecture, Clock Speed and especially the Front Side Bus!

Good, now we can take out the cooling fan.
The CPU is ready for overclocking. You dont have to worry about the heat, just be sure to use some good thermal paste and a heatspreader!

Now whe need to remove the CPU from the socket. Turn the screw gently to the right until you feel a knock.
You can take out the CPU without much pulling – if it’s stuck, you need to turn the screw further. Be careful though, don’t touch any of the components surrounding the socket.

The CPU is now released and can be taken from its socket – be sure to discarge yourself properly before taking out the CPU.

Aah… looks like it’s a little Intel Centrino 750 90nm 1.86 GHz (M70-DL4) CPU minus the 1 MB cache…. Oops my bad, it’s a Intel Celeron M processor 360J 90 nm 1MB L2 1.40 GHz still running at 1.4 GHz.

We can cut of a piece off copperwire (speakercable) to be used in the socket, using a wire stripper pull of the insulation:

Cut down one wire to about 30 millimeter or 1.182 inches.
The wire is getting too small for my camera to pick up. Bend about 3 millimeter or 0.1186 inches in an “n” shape – you can cut off the rest.

The wire that is left is so small the camera won’t pick it up. Put the wire between 15 and 16 on row C. Make sure you put it in the right place – first take a look at the pictures below:

You can go HERE or HERE for more technical information. Pin 15 will also do for lowering resistance on BSEL[0].

Great – now whe can put the CPU back in the socket. It’s always a good idea to clean the CPU and use high quality cooling paste for conducting the heat. I got this heat spreader from a burned out P4 2 GHz CPU. Use a sharp blade and cleaning product, nail polish or such (TIP: when cleaning and putting on a heatconductor, don’t get any finger grease (oil) on the CPU or heatspreader, because the oil will start corroding the metal after two years. Depending on the size of the touched area, less heat will be conducted.)

Put it back firmly on the CPU; remember to use paste to give the heat spreader better heat conduction. Good work! see it’s very easy to do this mod. You can also use a large coin after suface smoothing as a heatspreader. The heatspreader is impotant because the M Celeron has none, but a Centrino does have one (Intel Pentium M Centrino 750 1.86GHz 533FSB 2M).

Strange… after overclocking the Intel Celeron M processor 360J 90 nm 1MB L2 1.40 GHz 400 MHz to 533 MHz 1.86 GHz, it gives out exactly the same characteristics as the Intel PM 750 1.86 Ghz 2Mo Mobile Tray. By using a standard Intel M heatspreader on a Celeron M, even the temperature characteristics are the same?
Why don’t we take a look using CPU-Z:

Core speed is at 1862 MHz using the 533 MHz front side bus with a x14 multiplier. The M 360 has 1MB cache with is very useful, as you will see later on.

Stability Testing: I ran CPU-Burn in with maximum heat generation at 21°C room temperature. First a peak at 52°C, then rocksolid at 51°C. Before I placed the heat spreader, running at 1400 MHz, The temp would go up to 56°C. This means, 462 MHz extra and -5°C with an overclocked CPU at full workload?

CPU stable? Crank up the GPU. OK we just turned up the CPU, now we need to crank up the GPU from 567 MHz to 594 MHz. The fan cooling the CPU also cools the plate on the Nvidia chip. The motherboard is designed to run at 533 MHz, so adding 27 MHz to the GPU shouldn’t hurt.

Here’s the 3D Mark2001 test:

These scores don’t say much – let’s try some Half Life 2. Here are the
Half Life 2 advanced video settings:

Half life 2 runs smoothly at 1024 x 768 using high resolution:

The extra 462 MHz CPU power and 27 MHz GPU power paid off.
The laptop costs about 799€ and the 1024 MB RAM about 100€. Now this laptop is faster than any Intel Celeron M 90 nm 1MB L2 CPU sold by Intel.

This means I’m running Half life 2 at 1024 x 768 on high detail on a 899€ + 10 minute overclocking laptop (!?) – draw your own conclusions.

My $86 dollar Intel Celeron M processor 360 90 nm 1MB L2 1.40 GHz is now running at 1862 MHz (My CPU).
Intel’s $134 dollar 380 90 nm 1M L2 cache 1.60 GHz running a standard speed of 1600 MHz (Fastest Celeron M processor 90 nm 1MB L2 CPU at 12/04/2006 sold by Intel).
This means my $86 dollar CPU is faster than the fastest Celeron CPU sold by Intel by 286 MHz.

Not bad for a 10 minute modification.

If you find errors or incorrect statements please let me know. Special thanks to Robbie Wilson, Why0Why and ziddey!
I hope you like the article.

Frederik Costermans