THIS WILL NOT WORK WITH THE FACTORY 533FSB CPU. YOU MUST PURCHASE A 400FSB CPU.
This guide shows you how to replace your existing 533fsb CPU with a 400fsb CPU that you have purchased elsewhere (eBay seems to be the best choice.)
I wanted to write a hands on guide with pictures for doing the pinmod and applying thermal compound to the GPU. I recommend Arctic Silver compound. For the CPU, you must have a 400Mhz bus Pentium M. They are readily available on eBay. Be careful, they come in cache sizes of 512K, 1MB and 2MB. I purchased my 2MB, 1.6 CPU for $129 on a buy it now.
Here is a link to another guide. It is better written and more technical than mine.
Another Good PinMod Tutorial
This is a link to Dell’s very good documentation. Follow the steps there, I am not going to rewrite them, because they are good. But I will include some real pics.
Dell Technical Docs for the 9300Dell Technical Docs for the XPS2
OK, now on to the good stuff. First open your screen all the way and use a small screwdriver to pop the hinge cover. This was the hardest part of the operation. It was a biatch and didn’t want to come off. Slide in the side first as pictured, make sure you get a good pop. Then, place the screwdriver inside the first hinge and pop it off, should be easy from there.
Follow the rest of Dell’s instructions. Here are some pictures at various stages:
Now prepare your jumper wire. I cut a lead off of a dead power supply and used a small piece of aluminum wire from that. This thing is SMALL. Here is a pic for reference:
Once you have removed the CPU cooler, take a razor blade and clean the thermal pad off. After you have cleaned the pad off, iso
propyl alcohol is the best method to clean off the residue. Please refer to the below link on the proper way to apply thermal compound. Both the CPU and GPU cooler could stand to be lapped (smoothing them with sandpaper), but you will have to look elsewhere for a guide on that
Arctic Silver Application Tutorial
Here is a pic of the cooler after applying compound. It looks rough, but it has been rubbed in good. I did use the bag method to rub compound into the cooler, the surface was pretty rough.
Here is a picture of the socket with the jumper in. It is the 3rd set of pins down on row 15 and 16. It is clearly labeled at the top of the socket. The other guide I linked at the top has different pins jumped, they both work because the jumper is just grounding the pin. Either way will work properly.
Here is the CPU inserted with compound applied properly.
Put the cooler back on and that is done!
Doing the GPU
Remove the screws around the GPU. You do NOT have to unseat the card. Now, take a Torx driver and loosen the 4 screws around the heatsink itself. This is a smaller than normal Torx, mine is labeled T-8. Most “computer toolkits” have a driver with 2 sizes, this is smaller than either of those. Here is a pic of the cooler removed and with the thermal tape scraped off.
Here is the cooler with compound rubbed in.
Here is the GPU after cleaning off the thermal tape. You MUST do this before applying compound. I wound up gently using my fingernail. Hope you don’t bite your nails
Here it is with compound applied properly.
Also, a word of warning on the GPU heatsink screws. Be sure they actually catch. When I started turning, some of them felt like they were in, but they never caught properly. It will crank down pretty tight when they actually catch. It is spring loaded, so you shouldn't be able to overtighten. Put it all back together and that’s it!
Here is a screenie of my 1.6, 400fsb, 2MB cache chip at 2.13.
Applying compound to the GPU dropped my idle temps from 49C to 41C. Worth it while you are in there. Feel free to post any questions. Hope it helps some folks.
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