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Presario 1200 US upgrade



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 1st 06, 11:58 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade


I was very fortunate to trade my very nice, new, expensive laptop for a
Compaq Presario 1200 US* which has a very slow Celeron chip and very
little memory, 128mb is soldered in and 256mb was added making a total
of 320mb. Believe it or not, the thing is capable of doing what I need
done, I use it mostly for checking email when travelling.
It would be nice, however, if I could add a bit of memory. I figure
putting a 512mb module in place of the 256mb module would give me more
but everything I read says 320 is max.....

Anyone know of a way to increase the memory size or does anyone know
for sure what will happen if I did put a 512 module in there? So far
my answers range from "Nothing, it won't even boot" to "It will explode
with enough force to end all live on earth". Some how I think both
answers are wrong?

Any help would be appreciated, again, it does what I need, I'll
probably keep it no matter what but it would be nice to speed it up a
bit......

Oh, BTW, I'm running XP Home if that matters at all, and I have used a
bunch of tricks to speed the software up but I'm up against hardware
limits.



*My kid, the con-artist, convinced me he needed an up-to-date laptop
more than I did. sigh
  #2  
Old October 2nd 06, 01:57 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
HH
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Posts: 51
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

No, 64MB is soldered and there is one SODIMM slot that takes a maximum 256MB
144-pin SODIMM. 320MB is max. More than enough for e-mail and web surfing.
The machine will not recognize more than 256MB in that slot.
HH

"XS11E" wrote in message
...

I was very fortunate to trade my very nice, new, expensive laptop for a
Compaq Presario 1200 US* which has a very slow Celeron chip and very
little memory, 128mb is soldered in and 256mb was added making a total
of 320mb. Believe it or not, the thing is capable of doing what I need
done, I use it mostly for checking email when travelling.
It would be nice, however, if I could add a bit of memory. I figure
putting a 512mb module in place of the 256mb module would give me more
but everything I read says 320 is max.....

Anyone know of a way to increase the memory size or does anyone know
for sure what will happen if I did put a 512 module in there? So far
my answers range from "Nothing, it won't even boot" to "It will explode
with enough force to end all live on earth". Some how I think both
answers are wrong?

Any help would be appreciated, again, it does what I need, I'll
probably keep it no matter what but it would be nice to speed it up a
bit......

Oh, BTW, I'm running XP Home if that matters at all, and I have used a
bunch of tricks to speed the software up but I'm up against hardware
limits.



*My kid, the con-artist, convinced me he needed an up-to-date laptop
more than I did. sigh



  #3  
Old October 2nd 06, 06:38 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

"HH" wrote in
:

No, 64MB is soldered and there is one SODIMM slot that takes a
maximum 256MB 144-pin SODIMM. 320MB is max. More than enough for
e-mail and web surfing. The machine will not recognize more than
256MB in that slot. HH


That's what I keep hearing, I was wondering about a BIOS update or
replacement or some such?



  #4  
Old October 2nd 06, 12:26 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
HH
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 51
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

No BIOS update will fix that. There is no BIOS replacement. It is a
hardware limitation of the motherboard. If you want more memory you will
have to get another notebook.
HH


"XS11E" wrote in message
...
"HH" wrote in
:

No, 64MB is soldered and there is one SODIMM slot that takes a
maximum 256MB 144-pin SODIMM. 320MB is max. More than enough for
e-mail and web surfing. The machine will not recognize more than
256MB in that slot. HH


That's what I keep hearing, I was wondering about a BIOS update or
replacement or some such?





  #5  
Old October 2nd 06, 09:55 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

"HH" wrote in
:

No BIOS update will fix that. There is no BIOS replacement. It is
a hardware limitation of the motherboard. If you want more memory
you will have to get another notebook.


I was hoping there was something, the thing is so slow as to be almost
unusable when getting updates from Microsoft. After going to the
Windows Update site it can take 10 minutes or so to check for needed
updates... with the same internet connection and the same level of
updates my desktop takes less than one minute. Everything else seems
to work OK but, as noted, I don't use it for much..

  #6  
Old October 3rd 06, 12:59 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
HH
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 51
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

Hmmm. Check in Device Manager, IDE controllers, right click on Primary IDE
Channel and select Properties, then the Advanced Settings tab. Make sure it
is operating in UDMA mode, probably mode 2, 3 or 4.

HH

"XS11E" wrote in message
...
"HH" wrote in
:

No BIOS update will fix that. There is no BIOS replacement. It is
a hardware limitation of the motherboard. If you want more memory
you will have to get another notebook.


I was hoping there was something, the thing is so slow as to be almost
unusable when getting updates from Microsoft. After going to the
Windows Update site it can take 10 minutes or so to check for needed
updates... with the same internet connection and the same level of
updates my desktop takes less than one minute. Everything else seems
to work OK but, as noted, I don't use it for much..



  #7  
Old October 3rd 06, 02:17 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
Quaoar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 39
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

HH wrote:
Hmmm. Check in Device Manager, IDE controllers, right click on Primary IDE
Channel and select Properties, then the Advanced Settings tab. Make sure it
is operating in UDMA mode, probably mode 2, 3 or 4.

HH

"XS11E" wrote in message
...
"HH" wrote in
:

No BIOS update will fix that. There is no BIOS replacement. It is
a hardware limitation of the motherboard. If you want more memory
you will have to get another notebook.

I was hoping there was something, the thing is so slow as to be almost
unusable when getting updates from Microsoft. After going to the
Windows Update site it can take 10 minutes or so to check for needed
updates... with the same internet connection and the same level of
updates my desktop takes less than one minute. Everything else seems
to work OK but, as noted, I don't use it for much..




Also, what size HD, and how much free space does the HD have? XP
requires (some estimate) 400-600 MB free space.

Q
  #8  
Old October 3rd 06, 05:17 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

"HH" wrote in
:

Hmmm. Check in Device Manager, IDE controllers, right click on
Primary IDE Channel and select Properties, then the Advanced
Settings tab. Make sure it is operating in UDMA mode, probably
mode 2, 3 or 4.


Did that initially, it's set to auto, it's UDMA Mode 2.

No help there.
  #9  
Old October 3rd 06, 05:20 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade

Quaoar wrote in
:

"XS11E" wrote in message
...


I was hoping there was something, the thing is so slow as to be
almost unusable when getting updates from Microsoft. After
going to the Windows Update site it can take 10 minutes or so to
check for needed updates... with the same internet connection
and the same level of updates my desktop takes less than one
minute. Everything else seems to work OK but, as noted, I don't
use it for much..


Also, what size HD, and how much free space does the HD have? XP
requires (some estimate) 400-600 MB free space.


The HD is only 10G, partitioned into one 6G (IIRC) and one 4G used for
storage. There's plenty of free space but unfortunately I *need* to
have Office XP installed (for compatibility with work) although I need
only Word, Excel, Outlook and PP. I might gain some room by
uninstalling Access, I don't need it because as far as I know I'm the
only one at work who knows how to use it (!). I also need MS MapPoint
full install because it's my travelling machine. Even so I have almost
2G free on "C".

Naturally I'm VERY careful about disk space..... wow, 10G! I recall
some guy trying to sell me a 20M drive, I told him there was no way I
could ever fill up even 10M..........

Times have changed, I used to have hair, too!



  #10  
Old October 3rd 06, 05:32 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
XS11E
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default Presario 1200 US upgrade


I appreciate all the help I've received so far, it does appear I'm
going to have to live with what I've got but if any of you really want
to help, send me one of your old, discarded Acer Ferraris, OK? ;-)

There are so many GREAT deals on notebooks that meet all the specs I'd
want at very low prices but the fact remains that I use a laptop so
seldom that I can't justify spending any money at all on one. sigh


 




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