Upgrading an older Sony laptop?

Danbo

Danbo

Joined
Nov 28, 1999
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I've got an older Sony VIAO laptop. Pentium three 1200 mhz, I believe. Memory is 256, and I don't know what kind either. Has a decent 32mg video card instead of the usual onboard video, but probably could use a better one. Hard drive is 20 gig. The question I have is; what kind of upgrades can I do to this laptop? Buying a new one is not gonna happen right now.
 
Danbo,

Most laptop manufacturers have lookup tools on their websites which when supplied with a serial number or service tag number will actually show you the configuration of your laptop and the type of memory it takes.

If you want to shoot me an email with your laptop's model number and/or serial number I can see what type of upgrades you can do.

On dell laptops its called a service tag number. sony i believe goes by serial number.

AngryFish,
(James M.)
 
I have a new Sony Vaio P4 laptop that won't work, the LCD is blown, etc. It does have a 32MB Video card and is pretty new technology. Why don't you trade me something for it Danbo and build one laptop that works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
 
max out the ram in your laptp and it'll behave like a new computer.. peppier performance : faster load times...

cheers

lem
 
You may be able to drop another 256+ megs of RAM in there. Generally Pentium 3 systems can take this much or more. Check the manual or visit the manufacturer's web site to find out what kind. I've had good luck with Crucial memory, as well as Corsair.

Defrag your disk on a regular basis if you don't already. Uninstall any auto-starting programs you don't need.

You may be able to get a faster disk but it will likely use more power. Again, check the manufacturer's specs.
 
Generally outside of a memory upgrade laptops are like a snapshot in time.Their not really built to be upgraded. If you're running Win98 or WinMe, even more memory won't help as those OSs don't really recognize more than 256mb. If you wanted to go through the trouble, going to a faster 7200rpm hard drive would make the machine boot faster and apps load faster, but would require that you do a complete clean reinstall of everything on your machine and have all the right drivers.

I think you're be better off working a deal with Ira and trying to find a salvage screen for his machine. There are laptop salvage joints out on the net, my boss once was able to find a salvage screen for an Apple laptop he accidentally frove over. You'll have to get lucky and find the same replacement part as the screens are pretty model specific too. If you don't really need to take it places, but want the small footprint of a laptop, you can probably hook up an external monitor and just use it as is.

It's only recently with teh higher end gaming laptops like Sager and Alienware machines that there is any upgrade path at all for portables.
 
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