HP Pavilion dv6-1xxx Series: Support For Q9100 & QX9300

[DeathBringer]

I found the motherboard's mod for quad core CPU supporting.

[Tim_Ettinger]

FYI-

--Tested on DV6-1259DX--

F.44, F.46, and F.46 with advanced options available do not support the QX9300.  They all do support the X9100.

The X9100 is a 44 watt processor, the quad cores, including the QX9300 are all 45 watt processors.  I don't think it is a power issue; I have not had any trouble with my X9100 for over a year.

[DeathBringer]

Updating microcode don't help to add support for quad cores CPU, cause dual cores and quad cores CPU use the same microcode.
It's hardware incompatibility. But you can try the motherboard's mod for quad core CPU supporting:

[Tim_Ettinger]

Maybe when the laptop is officially retired.  I'm more likely to put a T9900 to let it run cooler.  It's my GF's laptop, and she'd be pretty mad if she had to use one of the far superior i7 laptops I already tried to give her.

[Tim_Ettinger]

I re-read your link.  Can I remove those pins from the QX9300 (or any other Q9xxx), put it in the motherboard, and boot it?  Will one of the dual cores still work?

I'm going to try and find the pinout diagrams for C2D and C2Q processors to find the shortest route to run the additional voltage.  I'd like to make everything work with a C2Q and do a quick write-up of how it can be done.  It seems the process will be the same for all Intel based HP DV6-1xxx laptops.  I will try to figure out a solder-less way to do it.  If the run is short enough, a circuit writer might do the trick.

Also, 3 runs per setting on Geekbench 4 shows turning off HPET in the advanced BIOS gives faster single core performance, multi-core is the same.

[DeathBringer]

Can I remove those pins from the QX9300 (or any other Q9xxx), put it in the motherboard, and boot it?  Will one of the dual cores still work?

Yes.

[Tim_Ettinger]

Ok - so what you are saying is that the BIOS I have already supports the Core 2 Quad.  F.46 with the extra features unlocked.

I compared the pinouts of the X9100 and QX9300 to see what pins are recommended to be cut, and why.  I have a few observations and some questions.

It's clear that there will be no temperature monitoring for the second core.  Not really a big deal, but these C2Q processors are side by side, so it is possible for one to make better contact and be cooler than the other.

JTAG I/O pins for the second core will not be available.  I don't think those are normally used anyway.

Breakpoint Monitoring for the second core won't be there either.  I have no idea what that is used for.

GTLREF_CONTROL - The Quad Core book says Core 2 Duo has that pin RSVD, while the Core 2 book says it's ground.  That pin can be used to turn the second core on and off.  I am assuming grounded turns it on, otherwise it would have been recommended for removal.

D22 - GTLREF_2 - gets 2/3 VCCP (I/O voltage).  I can see why it was suggested to get it from GTLREF on AD26.  I don't know how much voltage drop would be by sharing it. GTLREF_1 should be 0.65
Either way, pending the Breakpoint Monitor, it's not a very difficult mod to do.  I am going to try it out.  In a bad case, I should be able to get the first 2 cores working, which would still be beneficial.

As it is, my 44 watt X9100 works fine, 2 cores of a QX9300 should only be using 22.5 watts, for a total of 45 with 4 cores working.  If I can get 2 cores of an unlocked processor running at 22.5 watts, it is less than the 35 watts of the T9900.  I could probably push it back to the 3.06GHz I have now at less power than the T9900 or X9100.

And at the very worse, I can cut the one tiny wire I added and put the X9100 back in.

[DeathBringer]

Better ask authors of this mod

[redbighunter7487]

Hi is it possible to add cpu support for q9100 at an hp dv6 1455sv laptop?

[DeathBringer]

A few motherboards with Socket P can boot quad cores CPUs. It's hardware incompatibility.
But you can try the motherboard's mod for quad core CPU supporting.