Upgrading RAM and/or Processor on a laptop?

Ok, my laptop is starting to show its age now. Its a couple of years
old, and id like to update it. I have a TIME TRAVELLER 1800+, which
has a 1.5GHz alathon mobile processor in it, and either 256 or 352mb
of RAM (it says 256 on bootup, but 352 if i view System Information in
"my computer". Why it does this, i dont know. Ill assume it has 256mb
of RAM though.) Im using Windows XP as an operating system.

Anyway, id like to put some more RAM in the damn thing. As much as
possible really. I dont use it to play games, except Championship
Manager, which is basically a glorified spreadsheet. (Its stopped
running Championship manager, due to a constant "low virtual memory
error" which even formatting the entire computer didnt solve, but, i
digress) I do however use it to store a hell of a lot (ie, many
gigabytes) of music files. And i download a lot of music, but other
than that, its basically only internet browsing and managing my .mp3
player that the computer gets used for.

Aparrently, Laptops are a bit of a bugger to upgrade, arent they?
Certainly more of a specialist job than a normal PC. Can anybody point
me in the right direction though? Can anybody explain what DDR RAM is,
and whether it is of any use to me? And can anybody tell me about
processor upgrades too?

I hope ive included all the details you need.
beaucoup fish!

In comp.sys.laptops The Fish <> wrote:
: Ok, my laptop is starting to show its age now. Its a couple of years
: old, and id like to update it. I have a TIME TRAVELLER 1800+, which
: has a 1.5GHz alathon mobile processor in it, and either 256 or 352mb
: of RAM (it says 256 on bootup, but 352 if i view System Information in
: "my computer". Why it does this, i dont know. Ill assume it has 256mb
: of RAM though.) Im using Windows XP as an operating system.

: Anyway, id like to put some more RAM in the damn thing. As much as
: possible really. I dont use it to play games, except Championship
: Manager, which is basically a glorified spreadsheet. (Its stopped
: running Championship manager, due to a constant "low virtual memory
: error" which even formatting the entire computer didnt solve, but, i
: digress) I do however use it to store a hell of a lot (ie, many
: gigabytes) of music files. And i download a lot of music, but other
: than that, its basically only internet browsing and managing my .mp3
: player that the computer gets used for.

: Aparrently, Laptops are a bit of a bugger to upgrade, arent they?
: Certainly more of a specialist job than a normal PC. Can anybody point
: me in the right direction though? Can anybody explain what DDR RAM is,
: and whether it is of any use to me? And can anybody tell me about
: processor upgrades too?

My Toshiba Satellite 1415 is easier than my desktop to upgrade, at
least the RAM. Pop out one screw on the bottom to get to the DRAM
DIMM. Perhaps yours is just as easy? Does your laptop's users manual
show you were upgrade stuff is, like my Toshiba's does?

A memory upgrade will do you the most good. (FYI, if your laptop uses
shared video RAM, it will eat some of your DRAM, so if you have 256MB
of physical RAM and have video set to use 32MB, it would show as 224MB
of system ram in Windows). Your CPU really isn't that slow - it's
probably not worth upgrading, but I would upgrade to 512MB of RAM if
you really have only 256MB in there - that would help.

Open up the laptop, find the DRAM as discussed above, and see if
there's an open slot. If not, you'll be faced with yanking out the
smaller DIMM and replacing it with a larger one, instead of sharing.

Andrew
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The Fish wrote:

> Aparrently, Laptops are a bit of a bugger to upgrade, arent they?
> Certainly more of a specialist job than a normal PC. Can anybody point
> me in the right direction though? Can anybody explain what DDR RAM is,
> and whether it is of any use to me? And can anybody tell me about
> processor upgrades too?

Upgrading the memory and hard disk is easy, anything else is not.

Regarding the RAM: no, you're already maxed out. Your machine only supports
256MB of RAM. I'm guessing that Windows is showing you physical + virtual
memory.

You might consider replacing your hard disk. Get rid of that low-capacity
4200RPM drive and replace it with a Hitachi TravelStar 7K60 (7200RPM, 60GB)
drive. It really can perk up a notebook machine.

Finally, it is possible that the CPU can be upgraded, but not likely.
Certainly the vendor of your machine will not help you. You'll have to
find out if the CPU is socketed, likely by actually opening the machine and
visually inspecting the motherboard. If it is socketed, and if a higher
speed processor is supported (higher clock multiplier either auto-sensed or
via jumpers), then you can drop a faster CPU into the machine. Not much
faster, though, because you will be generating more heat than the vendor
anticipated having to exhaust from the box.

Hope this helps.

--
Please respond to the group, not by e-mail.

try www.crucial.com to get the right memory.
"The Fish" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Ok, my laptop is starting to show its age now. Its a couple of years
> old, and id like to update it. I have a TIME TRAVELLER 1800+, which
> has a 1.5GHz alathon mobile processor in it, and either 256 or 352mb
> of RAM (it says 256 on bootup, but 352 if i view System Information in
> "my computer". Why it does this, i dont know. Ill assume it has 256mb
> of RAM though.) Im using Windows XP as an operating system.
>
> Anyway, id like to put some more RAM in the damn thing. As much as
> possible really. I dont use it to play games, except Championship
> Manager, which is basically a glorified spreadsheet. (Its stopped
> running Championship manager, due to a constant "low virtual memory
> error" which even formatting the entire computer didnt solve, but, i
> digress) I do however use it to store a hell of a lot (ie, many
> gigabytes) of music files. And i download a lot of music, but other
> than that, its basically only internet browsing and managing my .mp3
> player that the computer gets used for.
>
> Aparrently, Laptops are a bit of a bugger to upgrade, arent they?
> Certainly more of a specialist job than a normal PC. Can anybody point
> me in the right direction though? Can anybody explain what DDR RAM is,
> and whether it is of any use to me? And can anybody tell me about
> processor upgrades too?
>
> I hope ive included all the details you need.
> beaucoup fish!

The CPU may well be easily upgraded, but with an off brand like that, it
will be very hard to find someone who is familiar with the innards.
Some IBM's can upgrade the CPU in less than 3 minutes!
"The Fish" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Ok, my laptop is starting to show its age now. Its a couple of years
> old, and id like to update it. I have a TIME TRAVELLER 1800+, which
> has a 1.5GHz alathon mobile processor in it, and either 256 or 352mb
> of RAM (it says 256 on bootup, but 352 if i view System Information in
> "my computer". Why it does this, i dont know. Ill assume it has 256mb
> of RAM though.) Im using Windows XP as an operating system.
>
> Anyway, id like to put some more RAM in the damn thing. As much as
> possible really. I dont use it to play games, except Championship
> Manager, which is basically a glorified spreadsheet. (Its stopped
> running Championship manager, due to a constant "low virtual memory
> error" which even formatting the entire computer didnt solve, but, i
> digress) I do however use it to store a hell of a lot (ie, many
> gigabytes) of music files. And i download a lot of music, but other
> than that, its basically only internet browsing and managing my .mp3
> player that the computer gets used for.
>
> Aparrently, Laptops are a bit of a bugger to upgrade, arent they?
> Certainly more of a specialist job than a normal PC. Can anybody point
> me in the right direction though? Can anybody explain what DDR RAM is,
> and whether it is of any use to me? And can anybody tell me about
> processor upgrades too?
>
> I hope ive included all the details you need.
> beaucoup fish!

"Bruce Markowitz" <> wrote in message
news:...
> The CPU may well be easily upgraded, but with an off brand like that, it
> will be very hard to find someone who is familiar with the innards.
> Some IBM's can upgrade the CPU in less than 3 minutes!

I don't think "Time Travaller" is the name of the brand, just the name of
that particular model series..

"Andrew" <> wrote in message
news:.. .
> In comp.sys.laptops The Fish > of system ram in Windows). Your CPU really
isn't that slow - it's
> probably not worth upgrading, but I would upgrade to 512MB of RAM if
> you really have only 256MB in there - that would help.

I agree. If he only uses it for Internet, music and Championship Manager, it
would be a waste of money, even if he uses it for more demanding things..

agh wrote:

> I don't think "Time Travaller" is the name of the brand, just the
> name of that particular model series..

Right, the brand name is "Time Computers" http://www.timecomputers.com/,
which certainly is just a rebadget noname unit.

It might be possible to get the real model name and manufacturer by the FCC
ID that's for sure printed on a sticker at the notebook somewhere. After
entering the number in the FCC ID Search database at
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/Welcome.html it should come up with the
manufacturer name and real model no. And with that it's for sure much easier
to get informations or documentation...

Benjamin

Spam Averse wrote:

> Regarding the RAM: no, you're already maxed out. Your machine only
> supports 256MB of RAM.

I really doubt that any notebook with AMD Athlon CPU will be maxed out at
only 256MB RAM...

> I'm guessing that Windows is showing you
> physical + virtual memory.

Windows usually shows only physical RAM in "My Computer" -> Properties. More
details can be found in the Windows System Information program...

Benjamin

(The Fish) wrote in
news: om:

> Ok, my laptop is starting to show its age now. Its a couple of years
> old, and id like to update it. I have a TIME TRAVELLER 1800+, which
> has a 1.5GHz alathon mobile processor in it, and either 256 or 352mb
> of RAM

> And i download a lot of music, but other
> than that, its basically only internet browsing and managing my .mp3
> player that the computer gets used for.


Call me crazy, but I see no need at all to upgrade if those are your main
uses. Faster processor and RAM will not affect those things at all, except
maybe application start-up time. Unless you're encoding audio/video or
playing games, why would you want to upgrade? What improvements are you
looking for?