Upgrading Laptops

Posted by Dragan on December 1st, 2006 at 05:04pm

By Andrew Holmes

The most serious difficulty related to portable computers upgrade depends on their nature. In chase of portability, small size and minimum weight, laptop developers have to step aside from standard slot-card technology. Most of laptop devices are usually integrated into motherboard and the internal configuration may differ greatly depending on a model. That’s why laptop parts are rather expensive and laptops are less upgradable than desktop PCs.

But, fortunately, there are still some ways to upgrade a notebook or to enlarge its abilities. The most common features are listed below:

• Additional RAM.
• Smart batteries.
• Hard disk drive.
• CD/DVD drives.
• PC cards (16-bit PCMCIA) and CardBus cards (32-bit PCMCIA).
• External devices.

RAM Additional RAM (Random Access Memory) gives more functionality, especially when you keep multiple windows opened. It also reduces the usage of hard disk drive. Windows XP needs at least 256 Mb of RAM to work properly and some graphical chips use system RAM too, so you should aim 512 Mb or more. There are two necessary things to perform such kind of upgrade: a spare slot and a correct SODIMM (Small Outline Direct In-Line Memory Module) module. The slot is usually protected by an access panel on the bottom of your notebook.

Advice. Before you start an upgrade make sure:

• that your laptop doesn’t already have the maximum amount of memory installed,
• that you’re buying the right SODIMM module.

You should visit your vendor’s site or get this information by searching it in Google with the model of your laptop as a search string.

Smart Batteries Smart batteries contain internal microprocessors, allow to get an advanced control of charge and provide extra safety. ÓSmartÔ battery is able to inform the notebook about its charge level and to prevent overcharging, which greatly reduces the battery life terms.

Hard Disk Drive Some models of laptops support the hard disk drive (HDD) of a larger size. For example: if your notebook had come with a 40Gb hard drive, you can upgrade it by installing 80Gb drive instead. You should contact your vendor to make sure that your BIOS supports 80Gb drives and that there are drives compatible with your model in sale.

But if lager size of HDD is not supported, there are external hard drives still available. You might be interested in such solutions as Firewire or USB drives. That kind of upgrade may slightly lower the portability, but is cheaper and available for using with all laptops supplied with USB/Firewire ports.

CD/DVD Drives Installation of CD/DVD drives is available only if the drive matches the body of notebook (fits the form of original CD-ROM), provides the right connector and is supported by laptop BIOS. Note that laptop CD/DVD drives are much more expensive than desktop ones. As in case with HDD, alternative solution is to use external drives.

PC Cards (16-bit PCMCIA) and CardBus Cards (32-bit PCMCIA)

Those cards are expansion adapter cards used to add some useful features (dial-up modem, wireless networking, additional ports and else). PC cards are older and have much slower data transfer than CardBus cards. But beware of buying CardBus cards until you are sure that your laptop has a 32-bit bus.

External Devices Using external devices requires external ports. All laptops have at least one USB port (universal port for a wide range of peripheral devices), and other ports are available depending on a model: PS/2, Firewire (IEEE 1394a) or Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b), D-sub VGA (connection to analog monitor), DVI-D (connection to digital monitor), Bluetooth (for Bluetooth wireless connections) and other.

Those ports allow to connect external drives, monitor, TV-tuner, dial-up modem, wireless networking, mouse and keyboard, joystick and so on. Before buying an external device please make sure that your laptop has a required port. If it has not, you may need to install a PC card which provides that port if it’s possible. Firewire devices may be connected to USB port via a special cable - Firewire to USB 2.0 DV Transfer CableÔ.

Andrew Holmes. All needed laptop parts and accessories you can buy in LaptopUpgrader.com

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