Upgrade laptop - is it worth it and whats my options

shamu2new

I would really appreciate some opinions on this please
My laptop is old but cant really afford a new one at moment.

Heres what I have,

Toshiba SM30 604

Intel Pentium m processor 1600MHz
1.60GHz, 512MB ram
Os is Microsoft windows xp home ed. 2002 SP3


Lately Im getting messages saying things like hard drive running out of space - its crashing sometimes using mozilla on the net etc.


I use it everynite for internet browsing - downloading music, films, photos etc also have fair amount of documents etc.


Is it worth upgrading this - Ive never upgraded a laptop before but Im pretty handy with most gadgets so I would give it a go.


Ive a very basic knowledge so please any help would be really welcome.
Oh and the battrey has been non existant for at least 2 years so Id be looking at replacing that aswell.


Ive ordered a portable hd to store important docs photos etc in case the hd crashes but what else could I upgrade and is it worth it.


Thanks

Moon54

First get CCleaner;
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Run that to clear out a lot of temp/unnecessary files on the laptop.
That should give you a bit of breathing space with the hard drive warnings.

Also, within CCleaner, use the reg cleaner and the startup section to stop unnecessary programs running.

Then defrag the hard drive fully.

See how your laptop performs after doing all that.
It should be a lot zippier to use.

You should definitely look into backing up all your stuff onto an external hard drive and keeping your laptop
less full, as this will also help to improve laptop performance.

More RAM would definitely help the laptop, 2 x 1GB sticks would be ideal, I'm guessing you have 2 x 256MB installed.
With the RAM upgrade, it may even be possible to get laptop upgraded to Windows 7.

Jonny7

You could try this free app too.. handy to have on machines, does the above and a few extras, clear out all the trash on the pc.. should be running a little faster after

http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?tag=mncol;3

TheReverend

shamu2new wrote: »

I would really appreciate some opinions on this please
My laptop is old but cant really afford a new one at moment.

Heres what I have,

Toshiba SM30 604

Intel Pentium m processor 1600MHz
1.60GHz, 512MB ram
Os is Microsoft windows xp home ed. 2002 SP3


Lately Im getting messages saying things like hard drive running out of space - its crashing sometimes using mozilla on the net etc.


I use it everynite for internet browsing - downloading music, films, photos etc also have fair amount of documents etc.


Is it worth upgrading this - Ive never upgraded a laptop before but Im pretty handy with most gadgets so I would give it a go.


Ive a very basic knowledge so please any help would be really welcome.
Oh and the battrey has been non existant for at least 2 years so Id be looking at replacing that aswell.


Ive ordered a portable hd to store important docs photos etc in case the hd crashes but what else could I upgrade and is it worth it.


Thanks

You could order a new HD(internal) and more ram, other than that you can rarely upgrade a CPU or GPU in a laptop

shamu2new

@ Moon: Thanks for that - I did the ccleaner and defrag last night and it did improve a bit alright no HD messages so far but Im still aware im very tight on space so will check out what I need to do to upgrade the ram - Ill do a bit of googling as ive never done it before but hey how hard can it be!!

@Jonny: thanks for the link - going to check that out tonight - cheers!

@ The reverend - thanks for your suggestions - I think i will look at pricing a new internal HD for it aswell.

So at the moment im looking at pricing;
2 x 1 g ram
New HD
New battery

Thanks for the help - keep the suggestions comming!!

shamu2new

Moon54 wrote: »

First get CCleaner;
More RAM would definitely help the laptop, 2 x 1GB sticks would be ideal, I'm guessing you have 2 x 256MB installed.
With the RAM upgrade, it may even be possible to get laptop upgraded to Windows 7.

Hi - following a bit of googling I think this is what I need

200 Pin SO DIMM DDR2700 333MHz (2 x 1gb sticks) at mr memory costing 56stg with delivery - am I on the right track?

scotty_irish

try crucial.co.uk for the ram.

i wouldn't bother with the hardrive, an external one is the way to go. and maybe try putting ubuntu on it. Easy to use, free, and really quick! Linux it, your life will become so much easier!

A cheap battery can be found on ebay, plenty of new, non-brand name batteries there for like £30-40.

Jonny7

Clean out the PC first.. all the junk, and temp folders, and spyware using the above software

See how the PC feels

For the ram upgrade - use Ebay to compare prices - 4 gigs of ram nowadays is 35 euros - however older ram is a bit more expensive

Make sure to buy the correct sizes, 512 or 1 gb modules depending on what your laptop takes

An external HDD is much better value, move stuff onto that

On a side note new laptops are incredibly cheap now
www.saveonlaptops.co.uk

300 euros - fast dualcore proc, 4 gigs ram, 500 gb hdd, win 7, etc

Plus ultraportables with 8 hour batteries stupidly cheap

shamu2new

thanks jonny7 - would I be better getting a powered external drive or a usb powered one for my old laptop?

I will prob just clean up the HDD buy some ram if I can get it at right price and external HDD till I can afford a new one - great prices on that site you gave me though.

Jonny7

shamu2new wrote: »

thanks jonny7 - would I be better getting a powered external drive or a usb powered one for my old laptop?

I will prob just clean up the HDD buy some ram if I can get it at right price and external HDD till I can afford a new one - great prices on that site you gave me though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=amb_link_157558467_24?ie=UTF8&node=430544031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=14VM5TVXDVM85QJH4QZ8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=240771967&pf_rd_i=428654031

take your choice.. USB powered is more portable but a little more expensive

Fluffy88

If your going to be bringing the HDD around and plugging it into your laptop in different places the USB powered one might be the better choice. If you don't do much travelling and have plenty of power sockets around the house go for the cheaper option.

A few sites worthy of checking are
http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/hard-drives-ext/409/43/239/173/461/525
http://www.dabs.ie/category/components-and-storage,hard-drives,external-hard-drives/11157
http://www.memoryc.com/storage/externalharddrives.html
I can't tell you which will have the best deals or whats a good price as I haven't really looked into Ext. HDD's before.

shamu2new

great ideas here - thanks guys - am mad busy for the next week now in work so I will be a little while getting back with an update - but really appreciate the advice!:)