TM 8204 SDHC CPU RAM GPU and other questions

I've been happily using my 8204WLMi for a year and a half now. I've had some questions that keep coming to mind that I have not found easy answers for and hope that collaboratively we can answer them.

1 - Does the Memory card reader support SDHC? With a driver update?

2 - Running 32-bit XP Pro how much RAM are people seeing with 4gigs installed?

3 - Is the NOISY X1600 ATI card module upgradeable? (I personally use omegadrivers and it doesn't cut the noise down)

4 - Anyone figured out how to replace the "thermal pads" on the CPU & GPU with something more effective? (I want to upgrade to Core2 also)
Any other tricks for making it run cooler?

5 - Does everyone else have issues with EM interference with the on board audio? Has this gone away by switching to the optical out?

6 - Any ideas on how to make the webcam smoother?

I will be upgrading to a "Dell" Seagate Momentus 7200.2 200gig drive that I got dirt cheap. (I hate how the HDD light is the "slow" light on these things, otherwise it has strong specs)
7 - Does the SATA controller support the full 3.0 Gbit/s or just be stuck with 1.5 Gbit/s?

8 - Can anyone recommend a particular SuperDrive replacement? (Mine has never burned a DVD successfully, unfortunately didn't realize until warranty was up) There are many drive on ebay for ~$50-70 that would work, but I don't know brand reputations for optical drives.

Thanks all in advance for your help!

 

1. no clue
2. 3Gig is best if you have to go past 2 x(1gb), 3.3 or 3.6 causes the crash..
3. once again, no clue
4. just upgrading the CPU to a core2duo dropped my temps 10c idle, 20c under heavy loads.
5. no clue
6. no clue
7. i believe it will be sata1 1.5 limited my controller.
8. My NEC 6550 works great.. true 8x max, got it for $49 from geeks.com

****, i need to buy a few clues,
bigozone

 

Thanks for the help so far.
Did you successfully use thermal compound or did you reuse the pads? I read about someone who went in and swapped for Arctic Silver compound only to realize that the pads filled a noticeable gap between the CPU and sink. My understanding was using compound wouldn't work well for these lappies.
That NEC drive may just tempt me to but from a "store" instead of ebay.
I thought the OS would just not recognize the additional memory (beyond3-3.5gb) and not crash as your post suggests. Am I mistaken?

Any further help from the community would be appreciated!

 

1 - Does the Memory card reader support SDHC? With a driver update?

As far as I know, no. You need a USB dongle for those.

2 - Running 32-bit XP Pro how much RAM are people seeing with 4gigs installed?

I don't own the laptop, but 3-3.5GB should be about right.

3 - Is the NOISY X1600 ATI card module upgradeable? (I personally use omegadrivers and it doesn't cut the noise down)

No, sorry.

4 - Anyone figured out how to replace the "thermal pads" on the CPU & GPU with something more effective? (I want to upgrade to Core2 also)
Any other tricks for making it run cooler?

Read the Cooling Guide, and also look into Arctic Silver 5. Do not reuse the thermal pads or otherwise try to alter them, as just adjusting them will probably decrease their effectiveness.

5 - Does everyone else have issues with EM interference with the on board audio? Has this gone away by switching to the optical out?

Laptops that have had similar problems in the past (like the Dell 700m) had interference with the power supply. Can you try a USB sound card or an Audigy PCMCIA/ExpressCard sound card?

6 - Any ideas on how to make the webcam smoother?

You have what you have, and you can't make hardware any faster. Unless its a driver problem causing the camera to hang.

I will be upgrading to a "Dell" Seagate Momentus 7200.2 200gig drive that I got dirt cheap. (I hate how the HDD light is the "slow" light on these things, otherwise it has strong specs)
7 - Does the SATA controller support the full 3.0 Gbit/s or just be stuck with 1.5 Gbit/s?

I think only 1.5Gbps, but the hard drive won't even come close to needing all the bandwidth with either connection so you will not get slowed down.

8 - Can anyone recommend a particular SuperDrive replacement? (Mine has never burned a DVD successfully, unfortunately didn't realize until warranty was up) There are many drive on ebay for ~$50-70 that would work, but I don't know brand reputations for optical drives.

Internal? No, though you might land a pulled part from eBay. Would a USB DVD drive be okay?

 

my cpu came w/ a little PASTE more like palydough on it,, just reused it for now... it's easy for me to get to the CPU on this model so i can go backk later if i want to use AS5... i'm not sure how your cpu/heatsink is set up, but i could replace my paste since it doesn't have the "thermal pad"...

my NEC drive works great i burned 6 dvds yesterday,, yet to have a bad burn using sony dvd+r 16x from wal-mart. BTW the drive at geeks is a REFURBISHED unit,,, but it comes with a 1 yr warranty instead of 90 days most new units come with.

good luck,
bigozone