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[Bowdon]

I'm wondering as anyone built or updated a laptop?

I've got an old laptop in the cupboard. It barely starts up with winxp on.

I was wondering if I replaced the hard drive and somehow got winxp on there again (or another OS).. if I had to replace the motherboard or other parts, as anyone ever done that before?

I see a lot of videos on building PC's (I've built one myself). But never anything on laptops. Can ordinary people build laptops?

[gt94sss2]

Yes, you can upgrade a laptop - i have. However, whether it is worth it depends on the laptop you are upgrading and how much you want to spend before its cheaper to invest in a new system.

In my experience,the following upgrades can be worthwhile:

- replacing the HDD with an SSD;
- a RAM upgrade; and
- a CPU upgrade

As you mention, another option is just to try a different OS on it (or reinstall the the existing one)

When you get to wanting to replac the motherboard etc - that's a sign you need a new machine which will be so much better than an old one.

[Weaver]

Laptops are tricky beasts though - power management states. If I were doing it I would put an SSD in it, plenty of fast RAM, and if the machine is a bit sluggish, think about putting Linux on it as it might run faster than Win7, say. It's all well and good thinking about CPU upgrades, but I wouldn't go there because of problems with the existing BIOS and with possible overheating.

[c6em]

Some laptop's RAM situation can also be "difficult"
They may have two slots....but
One slot may be soldered in and the other user-accessible one therefore only available for another 'sort of' matching stick.
So the idea that one can take out all the ram and replace it with a much bigger/faster set is often a non-starter.

[Ronski]

If putting an SSD in be sure to check the interface,  it might be IDE in which case an SSD  won't even fit. Also if it is SATA you might not get the full benifit of the ssd as it could run much slower than its full potential depending on if the interface is sata 1, 2, or 3. Even if it is SATA the interface may well run in ide mode.

Same goes for ram, it depends on what options the bios supports.

Some CPUs can also be changed but this depends on the laptop.

[Dray]

Plenty of PADA/IDE SSD drives available http://www.amazon.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-inch-Solid-SM2236-Controller/dp/B008RWKFYE

I've upgraded laptops to have new disks, more memory, better wifi cards and new batteries, but whether you can depends on the laptop.

[HPsauce]

I've upgraded laptops to have new disks, more memory, better wifi cards and new batteries, but whether you can depends on the laptop.

Same here plus OS upgrades, but anything beyond that tends to be either difficult/impossible and/or defeated by the law of diminishing returns.

[Bowdon]

I'll have to have a poke around. I'm going to use Belarc's software to scan what motherboard is in there and what the current HDD is... then I guess I'll look for the motherboard manual to see whats possible.

It just seems a waste the laptop just sitting there. It is very slow to load up. I was watching a computer expert from newegg say that sometimes the slowness (excluding malware/virus) can be caused by an old hdd thats nearly full. Which is probably the situation in this case.

I have a SSD around some place that I was going to use on my other computer but decided not to at the last minute. So it would be good to get that in there. Hmm I just thought, I'll have to update the OS if I use an SSD as WinXP can't wipe the SSD deletes?

[HPsauce]

The first thing to check is the ram capacity and upgrade limits, bearing in mind (as noted above) that often only one of the (usually) two slots may be swappable.

If you want to run a modernish OS it needs to be 2GB or thereabouts, even "good old XP" ran better in that space.

I've got an old laptop in the cupboard.

What make and (exact) model is it?

[licquorice]

Just stick Ubuntu or Mint Linux on it and see how it runs then.

[Weaver]

Presumably a modern flavour of Linux is going to run happily if 512MB RAM?

[Ronski]

Plenty of PADA/IDE SSD drives available http://www.amazon.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-inch-Solid-SM2236-Controller/dp/B008RWKFYE

I've upgraded laptops to have new disks, more memory, better wifi cards and new batteries, but whether you can depends on the laptop.

So there is, but is it really worth it, would it be any faster than a good and probably larger HDD?

[licquorice]

Presumably a modern flavour of Linux is going to run happily if 512MB RAM?

Something like Lubuntu should run on 512MB http://lubuntu.net/

[tonyappuk]

I upgraded an old Thinkpad with a faster CPU to use on my boat. The howtos on the Thinkpad forum were very helpful and I learned a great deal about laptops, mostly how cramped it is in there, but the upgrade was only marginally beneficial. I was starting from a very slow CPU to one that although 60% faster still didn't make a lot of difference. My conclusion was to make any great improvement, you need to have a new motherboard to take a more up to date CPU, more RAM and a bios that accepts an up to date (now) SATA drive. There is no way you or I can make a new motherboard to fit in the space available so you would have to buy it if such a beast was available. So a new laptop is the answer. Linux would extend the existing hardware's life a bit (I would chose LinuxMint), but what you would use the laptop for, would decide if any of these changes was worth doing. Interesting though!
Tony

[Bowdon]

I think I need to buy a good (and simple) book on Linux.

It kind of reminds me of the old Unix systems I used in college, though with a graphical front.

I'll have an experiment.