Toshiba equium laptop upgrade?

bryanb

stilltheone wrote: »

What is the full model number of your machine? e.g. PS********

I'll let you know what you can best expect.

An upgrade may still be worthwhile. For instance a larger hard drive and a clean install without the usual extra software bundled with the Toshiba.

Thanks, it's A100-147 Tosh Equium. running 32bit XP, Model PS AABE-00800EAV

spakkker

Usually only v.limited upgrade options on a laptop- what's more relevant is what prog you are trying to use.
As you've found, video files can be v.large hence you want more storage space but you could maybe change the size/quality of your video files and save any converted video to disc.(doesn't have to be dvd format)
VHS video is poor by todays standards -333x480- and not really worth putting into any sort of high def. format.It may be worth checking out how small a file you can save as without losing too much and without goink overkill.

stilltheone

bryanb wrote: »

Thanks, it's A100-147 Tosh Equium. running 32bit XP, Model PS AABE-00800EAV

It's a Serial-ATA HDD, so you have more options there.

There is also a BIOS Update available in case you need it.

Still quite a nice laptop. Most new budget laptops are missing some of the features included within.

Perhaps a clean install will speed things up.
If you have a student in the family, you can go to Software4Students in order to pick up a copy of Windows 7 Professional(Upgrade) for £38.95.
Then you'll need more RAM. Another 1GB RAM at a minimum. PC2 4200 SoDIMM(533MHz). £16 or £16.50

Then of course there is your HDD upgrade if you so choose. 320 GB for £33.50.

Just some ideas.

stilltheone

Drivers Press F5 to refresh the page if necessary)

I hope you have created your recovery discs or at least have recovery discs.

bryanb

stilltheone wrote: »

It's a Serial-ATA HDD, so you have more options there.

There is also a BIOS Update available in case you need it.

Still quite a nice laptop. Most new budget laptops are missing some of the features included within.

Perhaps a clean install will speed things up.
If you have a student in the family, you can go to Software4Students in order to pick up a copy of Windows 7 Professional(Upgrade) for £38.95.
Then you'll need more RAM. Another 1GB RAM at a minimum. PC2 4200 SoDIMM(533MHz). £16 or £16.50

Then of course there is your HDD upgrade if you so choose. 320 GB for £33.50.

Just some ideas.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to research my laptop in particular, much more helpful than comments regarding laptops in general.
If I upgrade to 2.5G RAM and 320Gb hard drive will it be OK with XP? I really like XP rather than W7.
Thanks again, your time and trouble really appreciated.

closed

Why do you want to upgrade the ram, 1GB is enough for XP to run smoothly, check your commit charge in task manager to find out how much you are using

bryanb

closed wrote: »

Why do you want to upgrade the ram, 1GB is enough for XP to run smoothly, check your commit charge in task manager to find out how much you are using

I'm looking for advice here, I'm not an expert. Stilltheone has taken the trouble to advise on my model laptop. His advice was at least 1G more of RAM, but I'm not sure if that was for W7.
Sorry but I don't know what commit charge is let alone how to interpret any answer task manager might give.
Thanks for your reply though, all input is helping me to learn.
PS Where is task manager in XP please?

closed

We are all trying to give you advice, but you ignored the questions about why you think you need it, which are pertinent. Upgrades are only worthwhile if you are going to use them.

ctrl alt del, task manager, performance.

commit charge is how much memory your machine is using now, peak commit charge is the max amount you used since boot

Is your existing hard disk full?

stilltheone

Do you have the ability to run a clean install? Discs or Restore Partition or both?

I ask as you it appears that you actually have Windows XP Media Centre Edition installed, as opposed to just XP. Windows 7's Media Centre will improve on XP's effort.

If your laptop is slow, it probably just needs a clean up or a clean install. But if you haven't a restore partition or restore discs, you will have to use generic discs. You machine will run faster than ever, but you will lose some of the software that Toshiba supplied to you for free. Not a problem, as there are good options for free.

Yes, the 1GB RAM module was in respect of Windows 7. XP does run nicely on 1GB RAM and a clean install. But more RAM won't do any harm.
2.5GB RAM does seem like overkill for your laptop. Are you using 3D design programs?

closed is good at helping you to get the best of what you already have. I call him Frugal McDougal. So a clearer picture of your usage can help us to put together an optimal package.

bryanb

Thanks for both replies, My hard disc (60Gb) is not full but only has 8GB free after putting loads of photos on CD. Sometimes things run slowly, hard to pin down exactly when though. I suppose the reason I'm considering upgrading is the advice I've had from friends etc - higher Nos = better.
Using the VHS prog I referred to was filling up the hard drive rapidly, I've downloaded fresh software for that which buffers the film and will write to D drive. It apparently then dumps it provided I don't choose to save it. So that problem is resolved.
As has been said my XP Media edition seems to run well on 1 GB RAM so I guess there is no reason to change things if I don't go for W7.
I have the Toshiba recovery disc supplied with the laptop. I have dumped Norton 365 that was bundled with it and installed Microsoft security essentials. I also have c cleaner and AML registry cleaner but not really familiar with how to use them. I run defragmenter occasionally.
My usage is mainly the usual surfing and email. I have been transferring old colour slides to CD, plus the VHS - DVD. I don't use any 3d progs.
Commit charge readings are
Total 681700
Limit 2503576
Peak 733480

Thanks again for all the help, sorry if it seems like swimming through treacle.