Refresh an ageing laptop

imagia

Having recently bought a new laptop, I've got my old one kicking around doing very little. I'm thinking about options to put it to use, possibly giving it to someone via freecycle. If I did that though, I'd like to upgrade it a bit if possible, so that the next person can get some decent use out of it. Here are the specs:

Aries Precision 1700
Pentium 4 1.7Ghz
256 RAM
80Gb Hard drive

The fan on this is pretty noisy, so I'd like to do something about that if possible. I suspect it'll be next to impossible to find a replacement and install it though. Same goes for the CD/DVD drive which is quite hit and miss when reading DVDs. Is it possible to do anything about these two things?

Apart from that, I'd probably put in some more ram and a new hard drive. And Linux, of course! Where should I start with this project? Any advice would be much appreciated.

fwor

imagia wrote: »

Apart from that, I'd probably put in some more ram and a new hard drive. And Linux, of course! Where should I start with this project? Any advice would be much appreciated.

You've pretty much covered it in that sentence. Not really much scope to upgrade the CPU as P4's generate lots of heat. Go to the crucial.com website to find out how much memory the board will take and what spec required. Double the memory if you can. Going up to 1Gb probably isn't necessary if you're going for Linux.

Personally I wouldn't bother to replace the hard disk unless you think it's on the way out.

devizes18193

i would not mind it my self if your stcking it on freecycle i will gladley pay for postage or if local pick up . compared with what i have now it would be a rocket

imagia

fwor wrote: »

You've pretty much covered it in that sentence. Not really much scope to upgrade the CPU as P4's generate lots of heat. Go to the crucial.com website to find out how much memory the board will take and what spec required. Double the memory if you can. Going up to 1Gb probably isn't necessary if you're going for Linux.

Personally I wouldn't bother to replace the hard disk unless you think it's on the way out.

I did check at Crucial but it didn't find me anything using their online tool. I guess I'll do better to contact them like they suggest. The hard drive is in good condition but about 4 years old now. I was thinking of replacing it more for security purposes than anything else. To be honest though, it's the fan I want to do something about. Too darn noisy!

marms

The fan won't be as easy to fix, usually you have to take the laptop apart to get access to the fan, and even then sometimes it'll be a custom fan and a replacement would be hard to find. If you do take the laptop apart a good clean out of dust and cleaning the fan will probably help a bit though.

fwor

Incidentally you can buy "generic" slimline internal DVD-writer drives like this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132742

Although there's a good chance it will fit in the space, there's also a good chance that the casing won't match and it will look a bit of a bodge. For just a few quid extra it would probably be easier to get an external DVD drive like this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133100

wakandem

devizes18193 wrote: »

i would not mind it my self if your stcking it on freecycle i will gladley pay for postage or if local pick up . compared with what i have now it would be a rocket

count me in!

wakandem

seriously though if it works, stick it up on e-bay with/without hard drive, it will sell & for probably more than you would imagine.

imagia

Having a look at upgrading the RAM at the minute. The Crucial advisor tool doesn't see all my ram, and says I've only got 128mb installed. I mean, I've had the back off and it says 256mb on the sticker!! :rotfl:

Anyway, there are 3 slots as confirmed by the chipset page, which also says I can stick 3Gb in there. Seriously??? Anybody more techie than me want to suggest what to try?

Incidentally you can buy "generic" slimline internal DVD-writer drives like this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132742

Although there's a good chance it will fit in the space, there's also a good chance that the casing won't match and it will look a bit of a bodge. For just a few quid extra it would probably be easier to get an external DVD drive like this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133100

Thanks for that! I might try snagging one off eBay as that looks like a fairly easy job if the size is ok.

Zagu

imagia wrote: »

Having a look at upgrading the RAM at the minute. The Crucial advisor tool doesn't see all my ram, and says I've only got 128mb installed. I mean, I've had the back off and it says 256mb on the sticker!! :rotfl:

I dont know about the make of laptop that you have, or how Crucial scan the system memory, but some laptops allocate memory exclusively for the graphics, so although you may have 256Mb, the graphics might be using 128Mb.

Just a guess.....

imagia

Zagu wrote: »

I dont know about the make of laptop that you have, or how Crucial scan the system memory, but some laptops allocate memory exclusively for the graphics, so although you may have 256Mb, the graphics might be using 128Mb.

Just a guess.....

32 of the 256 is allocated to graphics, so it shows up in Windows as 224mb.