Re-energising a Samsung R530 Laptop?

HappySeagull

I have my Mum's old Samsung R530 laptop, running Windows 7, and it is showing the expected slow-down. The HDD needs wiping, and the battery only retains 25% charge - 30 minutes at most.

But it's got a decent screen and keyboard. The processor is a Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU T4400 @ 2.20GHz × 2, and it has 2gb DDR3 ram.

I've swapped in the SSD from my old Samsung NC20 netbook, and now it's running Linux Mint beautifully!

But is it worth spending any time and money on?

I've found a replacement battery for £10.79 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DTOO1KO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=24FFFGTRZD5ZP&coliid=I32D2T1ZU1H22S

Also, I've found an extra 2gb of memory for £15.90 - https://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ram-upgrades/samsung/laptop-notebook/np-r530

Ideally, I'd like to re-install Windows 7 on the SSD and "upgrade" to Win 10, and dual-boot it with Linux Mint. (This is for me, as my Mum now has my "better" laptop.)

Does that all sound reasonable and sensible? Please stop me from spending a fortune on a flashy new laptop! Thanks.

I_have_spoken

Sounds like a plan. Just be sure it's not fitted with 2*1GB RAM sticks.

I run Windows 10 on a dual core i5 M540 from about 2010 and it's perfectly fine, so I'd expect a T4440 be OK outside of gaming.

With older laptops, the show-stopper might be no WIndows 10 drivers for GPU or other h/w

HappySeagull

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Sounds like a plan. Just be sure it's not fitted with 2*1GB RAM sticks

Thanks. It has a spare slot, so it's just a case of matching the 2gb stick already in there.

Mind you, I'm not sure I can face the thought of installing Win 7 AND Win 10 - without those, I probably don't need the extra memory!

...especially as I'm currently using TeamViewer on Linux to remotely control my Win 8 desktop!

londonTiger

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Sounds like a plan. Just be sure it's not fitted with 2*1GB RAM sticks.

I run Windows 10 on a dual core i5 M540 from about 2010 and it's perfectly fine, so I'd expect a T4440 be OK outside of gaming.

With older laptops, the show-stopper might be no WIndows 10 drivers for GPU or other h/w

ditto most like will have 2x1GB stocks, DDR3 works best paired so I'm sure it would be 2x1GB.

Incidently bought a laptop recently for £150 (dell e6230), really good bargain. It could take 16GB ram - but I wanted 8gb tbh. the laptop had 4GB ram in and I assumed a pair of 2GB. To my surprised it had 1x4GB inside!!! I googled the serial and bought a matching stick off ebay for £16.

londonTiger

sorry idnt read your message above, well it's good that it only has 1 stick of 2GB. Just buy another used one off ebay matching your serial number as yours. To be honest goinging second hand is fine - memtest will sort you out.

just do memtest for a few cycles and after running for 8 hours without errors the stick is fine. when yiu get any errors return it.

loads of ppl upgrading to 2x4gb so used deals aplenty

With laptp batteries - it's not worth it, your chienese £10 battery will only last for 30mins in 6 months time. I've bought generic batteries for dirt cheap and they all degraded quickly like that.

It's not poor quality batteries it deliberate scams. The chinese sellers know shipping back faulty batteries to china is ecnomically unviable for buyer so they just supple really poor quality cells that degrade rapidly.

HappySeagull

londonTiger wrote: »

With laptp batteries - it's not worth it, your chienese £10 battery will only last for 30mins in 6 months time. I've bought generic batteries for dirt cheap and they all degraded quickly like that.

It's not poor quality batteries it deliberate scams. The chinese sellers know shipping back faulty batteries to china is ecnomically unviable for buyer so they just supple really poor quality cells that degrade rapidly.

Thanks, I realise the quality won't be the same as the original (especially at that price), but surely a retailer such as Amazon would have to honour a 12 month warranty period?

Strider590

HappySeagull wrote: »

Thanks, I realise the quality won't be the same as the original (especially at that price), but surely a retailer such as Amazon would have to honour a 12 month warranty period?

Do you have any idea what will happen if a cheap lithium battery fails? Any idea how silly a 12 month warranty sounds?

Even Sony managed to make laptop batteries (in 2006, 2010 and 2014) that exploded into a ball of flames, I would NOT trust a cheap unknown brand, maybe at a push if I had damn good home/contents insurance.

HappySeagull

Point taken, but that wasn't the question. If it fails in the same way as my original Samsung, but within 12 months, surely it would have to be replaced by the retailer?