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-   -   DIY: Laptop hardware upgrades (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/206241-diy-laptop-hardware-upgrades-6.html)

I have a HP elitebook g1 which has had pretty much everything upgraded except the case. Being in the US, parts are cheap as it was a popular corporate model. I bought the original laptop for $160
Updates
1. Swapped in webcam module (originally did not have a webcam, only mic) ($12)
2. Upgraded ram from 4 to 8 GB ($15)
3. Upgrade to backlit keyboard ($15)
4. Added 256 gb transcend m2 ssd ($40)
5. Upgraded wifi module to ac ($8)
6. Upgraded screen from 1366*768 tn to 1920*1080 ips ($40)
7. Upgraded motherboard to discrete graphics version ($65)

Even if it's a 7 year old model, it's significantly faster than my 2 year old Inspiron with a 7th gen i3 and my office 840 g2.

Usage is mostly a mix of counter strike GO and lots of data transformation on power bi desktop, both of which it does several magnitudes better than it's original form

How dare you flaunt this souped up laptop at us and claim it is an old G1? :D
I had do a retake to understand what kind of snake oil you were selling! For a moment I thought my 12 year old laptop could be rejuvenated! Just kidding!

Just the right time i came across this thread. I have a 10 years old Sony Vaio Laptop with 3 gb ram & 320 gb HDD running on Windows 7 ultimate SP1. This was sparingly used in last few years but now due to lockdown i have to use it extensively for basic purposes like mails, excels, movies etc. The laptop is very slow and each task takes it's own set of time. Multitasking is next to impossible. I was thinking of upgrading the ram to 6 gb(2+4) to make things work but this thread changed my perspective. Here are few questions for fellow members:

1. Is SSD upgrade possible in my laptop? If yes then what brand & capacity would be ideal for my laptop?
2. Can i use SSD only for boot & HDD for regular storage simultaneously?
3. If point 2 is not feasible then can i use higher capacity SSD for boot as well as storage & use the existing HDD as external storage device?
4. If SSD upgrade is not possible then will upgrading ram to 6 gb(2+4) improve things?(existing setup is 2+1 gb)
5. Lastly, is investing on SSD/Ram worth on so old laptop? If the above solutions work then i intend to keep it for 3 to 4 more years.


I am not a DIY guy & don't have the required tools to do so.

I have been through two motherboard replacements already thanks to my son who kept spilling stuff. i had been on the lookout for a mobo with graphics (the part numbers are all there in the service manual). Finally my friends all decided to switch to CS GO instead of 1.6, and I was left high and dry - the onboard on the laptop could manager 50ish fps only with 640*480 low. I was seriously considering buying a gaming laptop when i remembered the motherboard upgrade. searched and found this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-840-G1-i...-/372283918802
and pulled the trigger. Now i can play Widescreen with medium settings! At the end of it, it's still a 7 year old gpu. albeit a slightly more powerful one.

I am now a 100% fan of corporate models now - I will never touch a consumer grade laptop ever again. Dismantling my inspirons was a mess of clips and complications. Apart from the motherboard, everything else in this laptop is just a few screws away (including the monitor). Also this thing is so durable and rugged - zero flex, and has survived several falls with ease!

the only thing in it that could not have been possible 7 years ago is the SSD. SSD's of this speed and capacity were not around then. Heck, it wasn't around on amazon last year when i got this laptop) This laptop officially supports only 32 GB (with intel rapid store ssd caching) and that's what i am running now. If i had known that, i would have installed the OS on the SSD Directly!

Team bhp and its magical threads! They make you believe in stuff you otherwise would not attempt. This is one such thing i will do soon.

My Sony Vaio is 7 years old and needs a much needed dose of upgrade.
I will attempt it soon.

I am in a similar situation as you & have sony vaio laptop as well(have posted just back). Do share your experiences while upgrading.

Hello,

I have a similarly aged laptop(Dell Inspiron 15) with an i5-430M and 3GB of RAM. It was working fine until a couple of months ago, I decided to update the Windows 10 to the latest version(this laptop hadn't been connected to the internet for 2 years :eek:), and now it is downright unusable. For most computers, an SSD + RAM upgrade will revitalize the entire system, but IMO these laptops are just too slow nowadays to be usable even with these upgrades. On Windows 10, the CPU usage was always at 60-70% even after half an hour of idling, which made it heat up and forced it to throttle, making it even slower.

I hope that due to your using Windows 7(that too SP1, which I believe came out in early 2011!), your laptop hasn't been rendered unusable, but I wouldn't be too keen on upgrading a computer that's running an operating system that has reached it's End-of-life. Maybe you can try installing Windows 10 and see how it goes, but I'd recommend just purchasing a new laptop instead. Even budget 5 year old laptops with a SSD and decent amount of RAM will run circles around laptops from 2010-11.

Thanks for your insights. Actually i won't be using laptop much after my office resumes in a month or so. That's why i don't want to spend on a new laptop right now. So i was wondering is there any way i can manage it to function properly.

I have the exact same laptop & processor which I purchased in 2010. I too updated to Windows 10 and found the system to be terribly slow. Rest everything was in good condition so I invested around 6K INR and gave it a SSD and an additional 4 GB or RAM (It had 2+1GB and I made it 2+4GB) and it is now back to its original glory. I am even getting 3.5Hr battery back up in its original battery so I think it's good to go for few more years.

So in summary, your mileage may vary and if there are no other major issues that you've noticed with your laptop, a RAM upgrade along with a faster SSD can at least bring it back to the speed at which it was working when you first brought it.

Oh, that's great to hear! Glad it worked out for you. Is this with the latest version of Windows 10? The 2018 version of Windows 10 was working well for me, but the update to a Feb 2020 version completely bricked the system.

That makes sense. Maybe you can try getting an SSD (a 256GB SSD with DRAM cache should cost 4500Rs. - https://www.amazon.in/Crucial-MX500-...6466401&sr=8-3) and see if it works out for you. Worst case, you can still use the SSD in any other computer that you want, and if all goes well you can upgrade the RAM too and maybe keep the laptop running for a year or two more.

I saw your earlier post, and you wouldn't realistically need to use a SSD + HDD combo on a laptop. 500GB SSDs are really easy to come by, and I think their storage goes up to 2TB. You can use your current HDD as an external storage device, or just copy it's contents to your SSD and call it a day. A 10 year old HDD is on the other side of the halfway point of it's life. As to whether it'll be compatible, I haven't checked in great detail but seeing as you're not into DIY much, handing it over to a shop and asking him to purchase a compatible model and installing it would be the best idea for you. :)

Yes I am running the most recent version of Windows 10. I updated from windows 7 to 10 when they were giving a free upgrade to all users during launch.
I googled about the Feb 2020 updates slowing down the system and could find many users complaining about the same. The fix seems to be to uninstall a couple of optional updates namely KB4535996 and KB4540673. You can find them by clicking 'View Update History' in Update & Security section of control panel. Hope it helps.

Hello fellow members, I want to add an SSD without replacing the original HDD of my Asus X505ZA Ryzen 5 Vivobook. It has 8 GB factory ram and I would like to add another 4 GB to it too if it won't affect the battery backup much. I have decent software knowledge but I'm completely noob to DIY hardware upgrades.

Also does anyone have an idea as to why the fan keeps running at fairly high RPMs all the time? Is it due to the AMD processor or the placement of vents because the vents are placed farely low at the back and hence they get covered a bit while placed on a table. Also the raised bar at the bottom to help the vents to dissipate the heat is very thin and barely helps in raising the vent angle. I use it all the time in an air conditioned room with fairly low temperatures, still the issue persists. Following is the raised bar I was talking about. Kindly adviseplease:

I went through the specs of you laptop. it has an onboard ram (which can mean that it is soldered onto the board or it can be in-built in the circuitry). You can add another RAM chip as it has a slot empty for that.

The SSD upgrade depends on whether there is a spare slot on the board.

Search "<you laptop model> ssd upgrade / ram upgrade" and there will be a video of someone who has done it before.

Okay, lets see.

• As per the specs your laptop can support up to 8GB of RAM and comes with a pre-installed 3GB (2GB+1GB). I would highly recommend to max it out by installing two sticks of 4GB DDR3 modules like the ones found here. This will give you the benefit of dual channel memory. If not, you can use one 4 GB stick along with the 2 GB stick.

• Your hard drive is a paltry 5400 rpm drive which is why the system is very slow. I would suggest you to swap it with a solid state drive. Keeping in view of your low usage 500 GB shall be enough. A decent example can be found here. If you don't want to go for 500GB and at the same time make use of the old hard drive, I would recommend installing the old hard drive in the optical drive port using a caddy and use a 240 GB SSD for installing the OS.

• Keeping in view that your laptop comes with Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor 2.40 GHz, I would highly recommend you to install a Linux distro. Trust me when I say that it is as usable as a windows system and uses way less resources than windows 10. Besides, it is not as prone to viruses and malware as windows and there is no need for any anti-virus software. The best part is that it is free. You may try Ubuntu or Manjaro in the beginning and try other distros as you develop your own taste.

You can see, with the first two points done, a drastic increase in speed and with all three done, a dramatic increase speed. The total cost will be between Rs. 5000 to Rs. 8500 depending upon your needs.

Regards.

Thanks for the inputs:)

Also can you please throw some light on battery performance with upgraded ram? It would be very helpful if something could tell about the fan issue as well.