On Jan 11, 5:09 pm, John Williamson <johnwilliam...@btinternet.com>
wrote:
> Jonathan Busby wrote:
> > It's out of warranty and they discontinued it in 2005 so I don't see
> > why they haven't
> > released the manuals. As for problems, it's currently a brick due to
> > overheating,
> > and also due to the fact that I've completely disassembled it using
> > the
> >http://www.irisvista.com/Toshiba Laptop Disassembly Guides ;) :
>
> >http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba_Qosmio_F15/open_laptop_...
>
> > I really want the service manual though for hardware hacker purposes
> > as I plan on
> > making some modifications/upgrades . And as for the overheating
> > problem, the heat sinks
> > aren't clogged with dust, so it's something else.
>
> Is the fan running fast enough, & has the heat conducting paste between
> the CPU & the heatsink dried out? If you've separated the CPU &
> heatsink, it is pretty much compulsory that you clean off & replace the
> paste, & as long as you have a continuous layer over the actual chip,
> the less paste the better. And before you put the CPU back in, unlock
> the socket, then re-lock it afterwards,or you're likely to bend the pins.
>
> Will it boot for long enough to run one of utilities that give you
> system information including the CPU temperature?

Yes. The problem is that when the load on the CPU is high for, say,
a minute or so, it shuts itself off.

>
> If it's a heatpipe type heatsink, as it looks to be in the picture, it
> may be damaged by either corrosion or impact.

It never experienced any impact as far as I know, but
corrosion...haven't
thought of that.

>The processor looks
> upgradeable within limits, & the memory & HD, but that's about it.
>
> Can't think of any other possibilies now.

I can. ;)

First thing to do is to put in two sticks of PC3200 ( I know the
memory bus is slower) memory
with ultra low latency. I've already done that. :) Next thing is to
upgrade the processor. The fastest
compatible processor is the Pentium M 765 -- 90 nm , 2 MB L2  cache ,
2.10 GHz , 400 MHz FSB.
Now it's time for overclocking it via something like ClockGen. These
CPU's overclock impressively without
excessive heat production or power consumption. You don't even have to
overvolt them. :)
The last step would be to upgrade all the mini-pci devices. My model
has 2 mini-pci slots. Using 2 bus extenders
that can be pushed to 4. I'd add a bleeding edge 802.11a/b/g/n card, a
TV tuner with hardware MPEG-1/2/4 acceleration,
a serial ATA card, and for the last slot, well, I can't make up my
mind -- maybe a GPS card. :) The only problem
are the tight space constraints, but these can be gotten around with
some hackery, especially since I now have the service
manual.

Ideally, it would be awesome if I could swap out the mainboard, but
that's not feasible. :(


Thanks,

Jonathan


>
> --
> Tciao for Now!
>
> John.