Upgrade T9600 CPU for T400

[owen8961]

I am thinking upgrade CPU of Thinkpad T400 from Intel Core 2 Duo T5670 to T9600, an if it possible, migrate whole system from original hard driver into a new SDD, it was shipped with windows vista business, I upgraded it to Windows 7 professional and with all ThinkVantage stuffs in last year. I already finish some upgrading, add a docking station, upgrade RAM to 8G, connected it with 1920*1080 Samsung display, then I realized the CPU already reach its limit when I tried to drag any windows or open browser in the new extend display, even if I switch it into ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 on board, it still moving slow and show almost 100% CPU usage in task manager.

I have migrated a macOS from hard driver to SDD, it worked out as I expect, but never done with windows, anyone know how to do this in the windows, without damaging any data in the hard driver?

Has anyone done CPU upgrading and migrating windows before? Want some opinions and advice before I start it.

ThinkPad T400 2765MU3

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

The CPU upgrade is fine.

I would, however, suggest a fresh install on W7 as opposed to cloning the image that you currently have on the HDD.

[kfzhu1229]

The CPU upgrade to T9600 is just drop-in upgrade on these, I don't believe any BIOS updates are required.
The fastest it supports is T9900 but those go for insane amounts of money and no one should buy one at those prices, so T9600 is kinda the sweet spot.
While cloning the current installation of Win7 to the SSD will already give you a night and day difference, I agree with the fact that doing a clean installation will make another night and day difference on top of that. The junk that you have build up on older installations will dramatically slow down these things as these days the T9600 is most certainly not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination.

[axur-delmeria]

If you have to clone from HDD to SSD, you should remove junk files from the disk first. Windows has its built-in Disk Cleanup, and you can use CCleaner as well. Then defragment the HDD.

[Omineca]

Has anyone done CPU upgrading and migrating windows before? Want some opinions and advice before I start it.
ThinkPad T400 2765MU3

I upgraded from a P8400 to a T9600 on a ThinkPad R500 (so the same generation as your T400). As kfzhu1229 said, it's a drop in replacement. I didn't notice any increase in heat production either, probably because I cleaned out a completely plugged up fan at the same time.

I can't speak to the Windows issues.

[Ignorant]

I am planning to changing the cpu...it has aged to a ripe old age.. p8400.
Are there NO heat problems with the T series cpu?.
I am first trying with a p9500 cpu..will arrive in 15 days...
but i want to better that substantially if possible...

p8400,250GB SSD,8GB,1400X900 (tubelight lcd)...works fine but NO status lights.
mumbai,India

[Omineca]

Are there NO heat problems with the T series cpu?.

As I understand it, the T series do produce more heat. In my experience (which is with the T9600 only), if the fan is properly cleared out and you do a half-decent job with the CPU paste (and I'm no expert in that respect), any additional heat is dissipated very well.

[kfzhu1229]

I do imagine the T400 should have more than enough cooling capacity for a T9600 for darn sure. Its hella crappy of design if it doesnt.
I suppose the bigger downside for T9600 is a slight reduction in battery life due to higher tdp

[owen8961]

I do imagine the T400 should have more than enough cooling capacity for a T9600 for darn sure. Its hella crappy of design if it doesnt.
I suppose the bigger downside for T9600 is a slight reduction in battery life due to higher tdp

I never consider T400 as a mobile computing machine that I will carry around everyday, no worry about its battery life, it stays on my desktop for almost 12 years. just love those keyboard, cannot find it in the market anymore.

[atagunov]

if the fan is properly cleared out

Hiya, what do you guys lubricate the bearings on your fans with?

[TPFanatic]

My T400 came with a T9600. It's got a fine cooling system on par with the T500.

[Omineca]

if the fan is properly cleared out

Hiya, what do you guys lubricate the bearings on your fans with?

I don't know. I've never had to do it on a ThinkPad. I tried following some instructions to lube the fans on my wife's Macbook Pro a few years ago, but the fix didn't last long and I ended up buying replacements.

[kfzhu1229]

I don't know. I've never had to do it on a ThinkPad. I tried following some instructions to lube the fans on my wife's Macbook Pro a few years ago, but the fix didn't last long and I ended up buying replacements.

Huh really? Even when I just used unprofessional household olive oil, my T43 fans are all still perfectly working till this day.
I believe how it lasts depends on the fan type though. Lubricating has little effect or outright impossible on Maglev fans; Usually prolongs instead of quietening the bearing type fans, and works the best on the brushless type, which all T4x fans that I have had in contact use.

[TPFanatic]

Dad had some sewing machine oil on hand, I remember using that on a T42 fan back in the day.

[Omineca]

Lubricating has little effect or outright impossible on Maglev fans

It turns out that's what they were: https://laptopparts.ca/products/new-app ... medium=cpc

[kfzhu1229]

It turns out that's what they were: https://laptopparts.ca/products/new-app ... medium=cpc

Yes that's a Sunon MagLev fan exactly like what I talked about. Many of my Dell collection also used this fan and I have very little success lubricating them with most completely sealed off to begin with. For these even if you can drip inside, what it does is really to dampen the grinding noise it makes rather than fixing it.

[farfignoogin]

i just bought a T9600 for my T400 on ebay for $20. Said open box...from China...now starting to second guess myself as to quality and legit description of open box. Anyone’s experiences with similar situations is much appreciated! Thanks!

[kfzhu1229]

i just bought a T9600 for my T400 on ebay for $20. Said open box...from China...now starting to second guess myself as to quality and legit description of open box. Anyone’s experiences with similar situations is much appreciated! Thanks!

Pretty sure they are just used CPUs. It will work fine either way.
Nobody would overclock or overvolt a T9600 so even if its heavily used it wouldn't matter much.
For a T9600 its highly unlikely for you to get a fake given how many of them are on the market right now
Usually its only the best of the lineup, like PM 765, 780, C2D T7600, T9500, T9900, Core 2 extremes that might get fakes

[farfignoogin]

Thanks for advising me on that. I guess I should have asked before I got it, but good to know it should be ok. Thanks again!

[farfignoogin]

Wanted to ask one other thing about the T9600. Does it need a new driver installed? If yes, where would I find it?

Thanks!

[kfzhu1229]

Wanted to ask one other thing about the T9600. Does it need a new driver installed? If yes, where would I find it?

There is no need for a new driver to be installed, and not even a BIOS update is required since all T400 generation of mobos support Penryn natively.
However in Windows 8 and higher, you need a FULL reboot for the CPU to be detected properly within Windows.

[farfignoogin]

Thank you!

[WarMachine]

Hello,

Nice find ! I myself don't buy in China because the delays are often huge. But the prices are very attractive.

Someone mentionned CCleaner, to use beforce cloning. Like Ajkula said, cloning is not the best option, but if you wanna go down this road then I can only recommend you to clean your current installation the best you can. And for that, CCleaner is a good tool. It will be even better if you use it with CCEnhancer.

You can also do more cleaning with DISM++, a little gem which, as its name says, is basically the DISM command of Windows, but presented in a GUI. If you activate the expert options, it can really do wonders. I myself dont tick Obsolete drivers, nor CompactOS, nor Physical links (I think it's the name – my version is french). It's just below CompactOS. The rest I select and the first time I run the program, I can clean for 4 or 5 GB easily.

If you want cleaner than that, you can also try Glary Utilities (it probably won't delete a lot more after CCleaner / CCEnhancer and DISM++ but it's better than nothing). This kind of applications are often complementary. And for the end, for polishing , you can use Privazer. The same as Glary, you won't gain much after the other programs but again, better than nothing (and it's really nice for privacy).

I never do cloning because even if I have a lot of machines, I don't have much that are exactly the same. And the cloning, by definition, is for that : the installation of one system on one disk, for a lot of machines which are perfectly identical. And SSD and hard disks are not the same. Technology-wise of course, and the data are not stored the same way. So, your HDD installation will not be optimized for an SSD. At work, they cloned my HDD OS on an SSD. It's acceptable, but I have problems I never had before (the Windows applications which I must launch twice to use them). Very weird… The kind of things I don't want to have to deal with on my machines.

And I'm not sure, but to work well, an HDD must be defragmented. Not the SSD. Defragmentation is one of the worst things for this type of disks. SSD have a system named TRIM, which will place the data randomly on the chips, to limit their wear. It's the total opposite of the defragmentation. You install your Windows on a HDD : defragmentation is enabled. You install it on an SSD, it will not (or it will be, but not like on an HDD). If the cloning program doesn't disable defragmentation, you'll have it running on your SSD and this one will quickly deperish.

So, the best is to do a clean install. It doesn't take much time on modern machines with SSDs, say ca. 30 mn. The longest comes after (install the applications, modify the parameters of the system, personnalize it). And if cloning goes wrong, you'll take probably a lot of time to troubleshoot it, more time than the time requested to do a clean installation.

If you install Windows 10, you better create a new installation media, with, for example, Media Creation Tool). You'll be able to install the latest Windows version (the 20H2 at the time I'm writing this) and as it's from last fall, you won't have too much updates to install and the system will be pretty clean.



W.

[owen8961]

i just bought a T9600 for my T400 on ebay for $20. Said open box...from China...now starting to second guess myself as to quality and legit description of open box. Anyone’s experiences with similar situations is much appreciated! Thanks!

Well, you know, T400 was a model released after Lenovo aquired thinkpad. So, all the T400 was made in China.

[dimamyth]

BTW, I deliberately replaced the T9600 in my T400 with the P9600. The speed difference is only about 5-10%, but the P9600 is MUCH colder thing due of its 25W TDP (T9600 has 35 watt TDP). I recommend the OP to use a P-series CPU, if you can find one.

[jankihaii3]

I am planning to changing the cpu...it has aged to a ripe old age.. p8400.
Are there NO heat problems with the T series cpu?.
vidmate.app stream videos

[kfzhu1229]

I am planning to changing the cpu...it has aged to a ripe old age.. p8400.
Are there NO heat problems with the T series cpu?.

From my experience with laptops of GM45/PM45 and even modded 965GM/PM based laptops, the Core 2 duo T9600 does indeed run significantly hotter than a Core 2 duo P8800, which on itself also runs a hair hotter than a P8400 (due to Intel's ambiguous way of labelling TDP).
From my observation the temps will go up a bit but more noticeably your battery life will tank and the air coming out of your heatsink will be significantly hotter because the die contact area is also like twice the size.
But keeping all that in mind, going to a T9550 or T9600 is a wise choice, or you can get a P8800 if you want more battery life since in my experience and usage the 3M and 6M cache difference in real world is much less than 2x.