Am I just lucky or what?!

[Mark Blue]

I ordered a dual channel OCZ memory kit for my laptop from ZipZoomFly and it arrived today. It's a 4 GB kit, consisting of two 2 GB modules, PC 5400. I installed it, booted up, and what did I find? Windows Vista Ultimate is reporting all 4 GB, way cool! I was totally expecting anywhere from 3 to 3 1/2 GB to be showing up, especially since I'm running the 32 bit OS, but to my surprise all 4 are there.

I also bought a 500 GB Hitachi hard drive that I need to install once I have my crucial files backed up. I'm going to go into this chase season with a clean install of Vista, so everything is running lickity split, just the way I like it. That will be my project this coming weekend.

My last project is to tear this bad boy apart and upgrade my CPU to the fastest model within the line compatible with my mobo. My laptop is a Toshiba P105-S9339 and currently has an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 which runs at 2.00 GHz. I recently bought a T7600 off of eBay and am planning on upgrading. I just can't decide whether to do it now or wait until after the chase season is over in case something goes wrong. I've built my own rigs before, but I've never torn into a laptop to the extent of replacing the CPU, so I'm a little bit tentative about it. I've done my research and discovered that my model can be upgraded (others on the internet have done so) so that much I know.

A couple of weeks ago I found a step by step disassembly guide here for my specific model:

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-p105/take-apart-1.htm

I made it about half way through this process and then I chickened out before removing the LCD display. If anyone has any words of encouragement or better yet words of wisdom I'd appreciate it. I don't want to brick my only laptop and end up with nothing but a bruised ego before chase season. Cheer me on boys, I need some building up about right now!

 

[Dan Cook]

IIRC even though it shows 4 it only uses 3 since it's a 32 bit system.

 

[James Langford]

Yeah, what Dan said. Even though the system will recognize 4 Gbs of RAM, Vista 32 Bit can only allocate around 3.2 Gbs of it:

http://digg.com/software/Maximum_Memory_in_32_bit_Windows_Vista

James

 

[Mark Blue]

Strangely enough, I installed the hard drive I mentioned in my original post yesterday, then did a clean install with the factory disks that came in the box. Now Vista is reporting 3 GB of memory. The link you mentioned in your post James, if you click on the article at the top, then follow the link for the "official answer from Microsoft" you wind up here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa366778.aspx

There is a lot of good information about how Vista (and other Microsoft O/S's) maxes out at 4 GB, but some of the memory has to be allocated to other features like the PCI bus, I/O, networking, video/graphics, and other mobo functions, so you end up with something less that Vista can use. I'll be curious to see if when I install SP1 if Vista will again report 4 GB versus the 3 GB it is currently reporting. I was just happy it saw all of it as most users report that it sees much less after upgrading their memory, as evidenced by the numerous posts on the web.

Is there anyone here who has torn apart an OEM laptop and upgraded the CPU? Let me know if there is.

 

[Augie Rall]

I have completely taken apart and rebuilt 4 laptops. Models Fujitsu T3010D and a Compaq ...??, shoot, can't remember the model number, maybe r3000. All needed new power jacks soldered to the board. Anyway, I did not take the lcd displays apart, just separated them from the bottom half. I have a few suggestions...

Sounds like your computer has a slotted cpu, meaning the cpu is not soldered to the board in a grid array. That means the cpu is easily upgradeable as long as your chipset is compatible with the new cpu. I guess your BIOS would play a part in that too.

Recommend as your taking apart the laptop to take pictures as you go along so you have a reference when putting it back together. If this is your first disassemble of a laptop, chances are you will forget where at least one component fits in or the order to put it back together.

If you have a piece of sturdy foam or posterboard (something to that effect), it is a good idea to stick the screws, as they are removed, into the foam with the same pattern as the laptop. Much easier to see where the screws go during reassembly. There is plenty of them.

Be extremely careful with the clips that secure the ribbon wires to the connections on the motherboard. They are fragile. More than likely you will have different clips that unclip in different ways.

Like any computer, make sure you clean the old thermal compound from the cpu and heatsink and reassemble with new thermal compund.

You will get frustrated, or at least I did my first time taking one of these apart. I really did not know what I was doing my first time, but everything was working when I finished. It will probably take a while to figure out your first tear down and rebuild, so I guess I would make sure you have plenty of time to spare (a few hours maybe) just to make sure you don't rush yourself.

Good Luck!!

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Augie is right about changing out the CPU. But there is one caveat; you need to remember that all laptop CPU's are chosen for their ability to handle heat, so you will need to get the fastest LAPTOP or 'mobile' CPU that you can. Desktop PC's are often modified and overclocked by using mobil CPU's. Because - they can turn up the speed on them and run far more cooling that any laptop can provide in such a small space. Laptop mfr's use a faster cpu in every laptop, sp when they are turned down a few notches, they will run very cool at a given Ghz/speed for laptop conditions. My Hp laptop has a x64 1.8Ghz AMD CPU; but I were to take it out and put it in my desktop PC with a really efficient cooler/heatsink installed - I could turn the speed up from 1.8 to 2.2Ghz with little or no problem. Computer overclockers -myself included- often seek out deals on eBay for the 'moble processors' for this very reason.
I hope that I explained it correctly and there isn't any misunderstanding!
Just thought you should keep that in mind whe picking a faster CPU.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

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