Upgrading Laptops

dub1dude

I have compaq laptop recently bought. It has 128mb graphics card intergrated into the board. Is there a way to upgrade to 256 mb card.

Also the machine gets very hot when playing high graphic games such as GTA San Andreas.

Any ideas?

Nukem

Integrated usually means no!

What graphics card is it? HAve you the latest drivers for everything. Might improve quality slightly? What CPU do you have?

dub1dude

It's a desktop processor. 3ghz. That's why it gets so hot me thinks. The battery only lasts two hours. But it kicks ass for playing games on except that the graphic card needs to be upgraded to play that new game coming out called F.E.A.R. It looks like it rocks. But I would love to play it on my laptop so I'm not restricted to playing at home.

The whole laptop is top notch, i just forgot to check out how the graphics card was on the motherboard, and as I don't have much experience upgrading laptops I was wondering if anyone had any bright ideas.

Would it be possible to link another graphics card into or perhaps get a daughterboard for it. I'm not too sure on the technical specifications for this. Or is there a store where I can bring the laptop and they replace the motherboard and the graphics card and keep everything hunky dory for me?

Zapho

You're best bet is to ring Compag customer care and ask them .Graphics cards can be upgraded in certain laptops (Dell 9100 for example) but they usually boast about that on their ads.
I've never heard of a daughterboard for a graphics card, or any other easy plug in option. It would be pretty cool though if you could just slap a new graphics card into the PCMCIA port or 2 usb ports or something!

Nukem

Well the the 3Ghz will grind down the battery and runs quite hot so thats that explained. Whats the exact spec for the lappie? Link please.
Replacing mobo and gfx maybe more trouble than its worth.
Any chance you could return it and try get a better lappie? Always worth a try!

dub1dude

Yeh why can't they make a usb stick pen a graphics card. Just plug it in the usb port and away you go. That would be awesome.

I'll post the exact specs of it when I get home. I didn't buy it online. The laptop kicks ass though. It's the best one I've ever see and it was relatively cheap too. I tried making the same one on Dell, Alienware, Komplett etc. and they all come up 1g dearer.

So wahey to me.

Is there a way to heat-sink the processor, heat-sinks don't use power?

Zapho

I think I saw a thing in maplin that might help you with the heat problem. Its a "fan mat" something about as think as a mouse pad that has a load of fans scattered around that you sit your laptop on if it starts to get really hot.
If you're thinking of changing your laptop then I would recommend Alienware if their prices reflected the product (waayyy too expensive!) but you can get a similar spec laptop from Dell, I know Dell as a company are sh!te but infairness they're gaming laptops rock!

Zapho

dub1dude wrote:

Is there a way to heat-sink the processor, heat-sinks don't use power?

Shouldn't a 3gig processor already have a heat sink? My old laptop had
poor cooling, and a rubbish heat sing and I had all sorts of problems, and that was an AMD k-6 1.4ghz.
My new one is a 3gig aswell and it has 3 fans, one for the processor and 2 for the machine itself, so I've
never had an overheating problem. Just be sure not to cover the air holes when you've got it sitting on
your lap, and don't leave it on your bed when its powered on, stuff like that!

dub1dude

Problem is it with fans is that they eat the battery. Just looking for something to ease my pains. Anyway of hooking a separate battery up to the fan for the processor? Surely someone out there has tried to pimp their laptops with some success.