From what I’ve heard (from my brother, who is relatively knowledgable, but has the habit of only telling you parts of what you need to know), it’s possible to upgrade a laptop processor, but it’s also very tricky. You need to know exactly which one to buy, etc. etc, and that if you buy the wrong one, you won’t find out until you try to install it, and then you won’t (likely) be able to return it because you’ve used it.
My laptop is too slow for me, but I can’t afford to chuck it and get a whole new one. I was hoping to find a way to upgrade the processor. I have a Dell Inspiron 4000 that has an Intel Celeron 600 (MHz). I’d like to go with AMD, but as long as I can somehow upgrade it, I won’t be too picky.
Is there a way to find out if I can replace it (which my brother said was likely, with this model), and if so, which processor I’d need to get?
The only thing I can think of with almost absolute certainty is that you won’t be able to upgrade to an AMD processor. You’ll only be able to upgrade to a processor that works with the motherboard in the laptop. I don’t know how much information you can find about your motherboard, though, unless you can get it from someone at Dell (or a repair shop). I would think a faster Celeron or maybe a PIII might work in that board, but that’s only a guess. With a laptop you have to pay attention to the power consumption so it’s not always a simple drop-in without a drop in battery lifetime. (Sometimes newer processors can beat the power consumption of older ones, especially mobiles, but this may be due to a lower operating voltage, which again won’t work with the motherboard).
The other thing to check – are you sure that only a processor upgrade will help you? More memory, even a better hard drive might get you what you need without as much difficulty.
I wouldn’t try upgrading a laptop CPU. The laptop CPUs are different from desktop CPUs - they are usually low-power versions and use different packaging. I’ve never seen those for sale. Even if you can find them, and could get the motherboard to recognize it, you may have problems with power and heat. Your laptop is designed for a 600MHz CPU, and probably has inadequate cooling for a faster, higher power CPU.
I agree with panamajack that a CPU upgrade may not even help. If you have less than 128MB memory, I’d try getting that. A faster hard drive would probably help too, and replacing a laptop hard drive is usually very easy.
Per scr4 this is not a particularly wise project. There are a lot of variables involved and dissasembling a notebook to try to upgrade a processor is fraught with difficulties.
BTW a 600 mhz Celeron notebook with WinME and 128 or 256 megs of RAM is generally plenty speedy. I’m going to bet that at least some of your slowdown is because of all the stuff/crap you have installed over time that is clogging your registry. Saving critical data and re-installing ME with just the mission critical apps and data would probably give you a significant performance increase. A memory increase might help too and RAM is very cheap currently.
Yeah, I figured that it was risky. Oh, but I don’t have WinME (ew!, sorry), I’m using Win2k Pro. Apparently, according to Dell, I could theoretically go up to 850 MHz… I doubt I’ll do that first.
My first priority is to get a new battery. I bought the laptop used, and I don’t think that the previous owner (it was a business lease) “broke in” the battery properly (I literally have about 15 minutes of battery life on a FULL CHARGE). Next is a new hard drive (I only have 4.65Gb, and only 1.1Gb of that is free, and I need to install some more programs). I have 192MB memory, but I’m planning on taking out the 64MB and replacing it with 256MB for a total of 384MB. I think that the memory upgrade alone should help (?).
I’m upgrading mine either tomorrow or Monday. I’ve got the good fortune to be using a laptop in which the processor is on a daughtercard (WallStreet PowerBook).
IF dell used a socket CPU with those laptops, then upgrading is relativly trivial. However, if they solderered it into the socket, your flat out of luck. Since the laptop was designed for up to 850Mhz, cooling shouldnt be all that much of a problem. Find out somehow whether the processor is soldered and search on the net for a 850Mhz Mobile P3
as Shalmanese says, the first thing you need to do is identify whether your CPU is socketed or soldered, or if it’s on a daughterboard, like AHunter3’s.
If it’s soldered, you’re out of luck. If it’s one of the others, you still gotta find out whether a compatible CPU is available in the market.
So, step one would be getting someone to disassemble the laptop to check (or ask DELL). Go to the DELL site and download the Service Manual .pdf to help you disassemble it.
The best thing to do, to speed up your computer, is get a full computer maintenance program that defrags the registry (yes, thats important) & HD, cleans registry & a whole bunch of other things. This speeds things up. Also in computer properties, change the role of the computer to ‘network server’. Doing these things keeps my computer going pretty fast.
As for your laptop, I would call the people who made it & ask.