Amilo Pro. Am I Just stupid?

I bought my wife a new laptop and inherited her Amilo Pro V3515, She always complained that it ran slowly. Now I understand why she complained.
It runs so slowly that I have tended to abandon it, but I do need a laptop. Have I/we done something stupid? Is it normal for it to run slowly? Is there anything we can do to improve its pace? Right now I don't feel that I want to continue to try with this unit.
Although we have no recovery disk, none supplied when purchased, and the purchase price of a recovery disk is ridiculous, we have reformated the hard drive, but the situation is unchanged.
Is there a solution to the problem or is it a case of a drop kick from a high building?
I will greatly appreciate any helpful/constructive suggestions.

Details:
Amilo Pro V3515 WL1: Intel Celeron M CPU 430 @ 1.73 GHz
1.73 GHz 448M Ram

XP Pro, Service pack 3

Thanks in advance for any help at all.

 

You need 1gb ram at least, suggest 2gb.

The tiny amount of ram is what's making it slow.

448Mb ram is only good enough for windows 2000.

 

Thank you for your input, are you familiar with this unit, how complex is it to obtain a gig or 2 of ram and fit it?
I do appreciate your response.
Jouleflash

 

Just get one or two modules of PC2-4200 or PC2-5300, open the service door on the underside and add/replace the module(s).
The v3515 has official support for up to 2GB, but there are also reports of users that 2.5GB will work.

 

Thank you for your input, now I shall go away and try to find the items you suggest. seems simple enough, funny that the computer was supplied with XP pro and in sufficient ram to run properly.

Anyone know if it will run 7 on this configuration?

 

I know of a report from someone who sometimes had freezes with RC1 and VIA graphics driver 7.14.10.58. Unfortunately I can't tell you something about the final version.

 

This unit has been a regular freezer since just after a year old, regulating it somewhat with a usb cooler base, but it does still do it although less so. I am going to try that Ram upgrade, and frankly I would like to move on to windows 7. If I can get it to run at a better pace with XP Pro, I can live with that.

 

Some Amilos are prone to heat problems. At the moment I'm not aware if the V3515 is one of them. But it's quite normal that after two or three years the thermal compound of the CPU and or GPU gets worse. Maybe you should replace it. I know of people who could drop their temperature by almost 20°C this way.
What are your current CPU temperatures (idle + full load)?

 

512MB was considered as normal but not great amount back then when the laptop was new. Much like 2GB is today and 4GB will be next year. 2GB is more than enough to run Win7 with programs your laptop can handle, even 1GB works okay but not well enough for most people.

That sounds like heat issues, since extra cooling makes difference.

It's quite possible there is no thermal compound at all, it might just have a metal foil between the heatsink and cpu. Even more important than replacing the thermal compound is to remove all dust from the heatsink assembly. It will do wonders Adding thermal compound is just extra after that.

 

FTS laptops have silicone pads between CPU/GPU and heatsink in the first place. Over time this becomes brittle and loses its conductivity. I've never heard of an FTS that had a metal foil underneath the heatsink.
But you're right, cleaning it from dust would be the first step. It just seemed to be so obvious to me, that I didn't even consider this solution.

 

Want pics? Actually I don't remember which model has what in them, but I've never-ever seen those blue silicone pads used with gpu/cpu as they only barely conduct heat better than air.

Often there is thermal pad more like play-dough, when it becomes too brittle it can be brought back to life by rolling it between fingers for couple minutes. Usually that is used between heatsink and GPU or Northbridge when there's small gap between heatsink and chip itself (to me, that's a design flaw..).

On the cpu the thermal paste is often hardened over the years so it can just be scraped off, I'll usually replace it with silver-based compound. If the paste is still soft and usable, I'll just apply it back on the cpu/gpu since I don't get paid extra for using my own premium stuff...

 

This is what I was talking about. When they are new they can clearly be identified as pads and they mainly consist of silicone (this is why they feel like play-dough in the end), although they have some additives like metal or graphite.
The thermal conductivity of these thin composite pads is higher (~5.5W/(m*K) ) than the one of those blue silicone-only-pads (~3W/(m*K) ). btw: air has 0.02-0.03W/(m*K)

Now, that surprises me! When I get to see them they normally can't be deformed at all, not to mention rolling them between fingers.

Yes, it is a design flaw, but only partly of the pads. In many FTS laptops the whole cooling system is undersized for permanent heavy work. And the chain breaks at its weakest point.

There is a height difference of mostly 0.6mm between CPU and GPU which has to be bridged when assembling the heat pipe. If you replace thermal pads/paste on your own there are basically two options to do it better than FTS:
1. Use "Liquid Metal Pads" instead of the composite silicone pads. They have a thermal conductivity of 7-9W/(m*K) and are still relatively easy to handle.
2. Use a small copper sheet of the corresponding thickness covered by a tiny bit of thermal paste on both sides. Copper has a thermal conductivity far beyond 200W/(m*K) which will give you much better results but is a bit tricky to handle. It tends to slip away on the thermal paste film when applied.

 

But it keeps me employed

Too bad those aren't included with the spare parts. That's why I don't usually replace the pads, only the paste on cpu/gpu when necessary.

 

Now you have seen it

 

My sister has a laptop with the almost the same specs, and Windows 7 Runs great on it. Its a Dell Inspiron 6000: 1.6GHz pentium M, 2GB Memory, IDE hard drive.

 

Ok, you got me!
So far I've only seen Amilos, Amilo Pro and Lifebooks.
I wonder how that foil should compensate any asymmetric unevenness.

 

There is a small amount of some thermal compound under that foil. At least the parts are cleaner and easier to replace, that's what is most important to me I believe some engineer has calculated that temps do not rise too high with that setup, even tho they aren't perfect now.

I dont remember seeing those in consumer models, only on business end so far.