Thinkpad A31 CPU & Memory upgrade?

I have a Thinkpad A31 that I want to dedicate as a piano sampler for my wife. I am guessing that the maximum upgrade possible is something like 2 GB of RAM and a 2.8 Ghz P4M. Is that correct?

If so, where do I look for these, and what prices can I expect to pay?

 

Which ThinkPad is this - Lenovo or IBM..??
Run CPUz and see which chipset you have got....I presume it maybe the i915 or something lower, since it deals with the P4s....

 

This is an IBM A31 type 2652 with a 1.8 Ghz P4, i845D chipset.

It currently has 512 MB of RAM (2x256 MB of 133 MHz DDR w 2.5-3-3-6 timing).

 

Well, according to IBM's reference sheets, the A31 was originally sold with a Mobile Pentium 4-M between 1.6 and 2.0 GHz, and can go up to 1GB of RAM (2x512).
BUT the Mobile Pentium 4-M was sold at speeds up to 2.6 GHz. I'm not sure if they'd be compatible, or even worth the upgrade.

 

Yup, the fastest processor you can put in there is a 2.6Ghz P4m, yours uses a 400Mhz FSB, so you need to get a processor with the same FSB.
I am not sure if a 2.2-2.6Ghz P4m will work in your system, because of possible Bios limitations.
The memory can only be upgrade to 2 x 512 mb. You cant put 2 gb in there because no manufacturer put 1gb of 133Mhz sdram on a memory card. The most was 512mb, and those are going to be expensive unless you find them used.

What harddrive do you have in your laptop, cause that could be what is slowing you down. 90% of the time older systems are bottlenecked by the harddrive. Your system uses PATA drives, so if you want a much faster drive, go for the Samsung Hm160Hc, as it is by far the fastest PATA/ATA/Ide notebook harddrive. I have a review of it on the boards if you are interested, the performance was like night and day after upgrading the harddrive, and my dell i8500 had similar specs.

K-TRON

 

The hard drive is a 4200, pitifully slow, I suspect. I am considering putting the libraries on a 16GB USB stick (maybe even a 32 GB).

What is the problem with using more than 1 GB of RAM. I found someone who has claimed to do it with an A31p. Is there a physical difference between 133Mhz RAM and faster RAM, or will the BIOS choke on it?

mfseeker

 

can you please post a screenshot of the memory tab in cpu-z.
Is your system running PC133 at 133Mhz or Pc2100 at 133 Mhz (266Mhz effective)?

If yours uses Pc133, the most memory you can install is 1gb.
The largest memory card for laptops based on 133Mhz memory is 512mb, if your laptop has two memory slots, you can out in a total of 1gb of memory. No manufacturer ever made 1gb Pc133 sodimm modules, so the largest memory you can install on your system is 1gb.

If yours uses Pc2100 than that is another story, you should be able to upgrade to 2Gb of memory, however, I am not sure if the bios can support more than 1gb of memory.

AS for the harddrive, you can benchmark it with programs like hdtune.
It is free software, and you can run it and post the screenshot of the result.
If it is less than 20mb/sec, I recommend getting a faster harddrive like the Samsung Hm160Hc which I mentioned, since it is the fastest ATA/IDE/PATA notebook harddrive.

K-TRON

 

There is a lot of false info rolling around on this thread.
You might want to update your BIOS and Embeded controller whihc can be downloaded from the Lenovo support site.

You can install 2gigs of PC2100 or 2700 memory. They will run at PC2100 speeds. You want to get the fastest hard drive you can get. The 7200RPM Pata drives aren't being made anymore so this means the largest 5400RPM drive you can afford. This will make the largest difference. There is a specific series of P4M that can be used. The fastest is 2.6GHz. If you have a 1.8 or faster you should have the faster of 2 fans that were offered. This is something you should verify. I have a 2.2 installed in a former 1.6 machine with no heat issues but if you go to a 2.6 you will have excess heat, especially when gaming. 2.4 seems to be the common compromise. I don't think you need a CPU upgrade for piano sampling duty. In fact for that alone I think upgrading the HD to a 60 gig 5400 and putting a really clean install of your OS will do the trick.