Upgrading a HP DV1207us??

I bought my HP dv1207us (dv1000) a few years ago and have found it to be lagging a bit as of late. It has a 1.3 Ghz celeron M 350, 1mb l2 cache, 60 gig hard drive (4200 rpm), with 512 ram.

I put another gig of ram so now it has 1.2 gig and that helped a bunch but wouldn't mind a bit more. I don't play games but i regularly run 4-6 programs at once so I want it a little faster if possible. Is the CPU upgradeable in these? If yes,,, what would you all recommend. Also I would imagine a faster hard drive would be beneficial so any help there would be great as well!! Thanks

Leon

If it helps intel says my chipset is,
Intel (R) 852/855 gm/ gme

 

Yes, your assumptions are corect. A faster hard drive will certainly help out in load times, and sometimes in general responsiveness. You can purchaase a 7200 RPM drive,and tha should serve you quite well. A processor upgrade is also possible, however, it probably won't help all that much. Have a look at the processor usage in Windows, and see if it nears around 100 %. If that is the case, then perhas it will boost the performance. A possible candidate for upgrading would be a Pentium M processor.

 

It hits 100% almost all the time. lol. I thought it was normal it happens so often on this pc.

On the hard drive, what brand(s) would you recomend?

On the Pentium M processor, what would be the fasest I could get? I'm a PC novice so sorry If these are lame questions. I really apreciate your help though!

Leon

 

If I was in your position i would be tempted to flog what you have, save the money you are planning to invest on upgrading it and buy a brand spanking new notebook. Budget notebooks nowadays are surprisingly quick(and pretty cheap) and you should be able to pick up a bargain with a core 2 duo processor-that is really beneficial when you are running multiple programs.

If you require any help on looking for a new notebook check out the "what should I buy" section where there are many very knowledgeable members who will be more than willing to advise you.

 

I wouldln't go as far as getting a new notebook, unless you just have $750 to spare. If you are in that position, then yes get a new notebook.

But if u don't want to spend nearly that much on computer hardware, then I would suggest u pick up a 60gb or so 7200 rpm drive and a cheapo Pentium M off ebay. Bot those upgrades will make ur system a lot speedier, specially with that 1gb of ram u have and seeing where ur sitting now (lowly celeron + 4200 rpm drive)

 

I would like to buy a new laptop but I don't have the funds at the moment, kids in preschool and all. That's why I was kind of just trying to give this one a little boost to last another year or so and then save for a new one. Those new Quad cores coming soon look interesting and may be in my price range when I finally retire this one. lol.

Thanks again to everyone!!! I will check into Ebay. I always forget about that place, but man it seems it has everything. lol.

Leon

 

If you do want to upgrade, then your chipsrt will support a 400 MHz FSB. That means that you can go for some of the more powerful 7X5 models, however it depend on the BIOS. You will probably require a BIOS update to support the newer processor. Read up on the details of the BIOS, and it should say whether it supports the Pentium M processor, and also which model it supports up to.

 

Any ideas on where could I find info on the Bios update?

Playing on the net, I found a 755 Pentium M 2.0 ghz, 400 fbs, for like $180 so not bad if it will work? and I found an 80 gig 7200 rpm hard drive for like $100. I thnk with these two upgrades I can squeeze a few more years out of this laptop and then work on getting a new one. lol

Thanks for helping, your awesome!

Leon

 

After having a look at the BIOS, there appearsa to be no mention of Pentium M support, which means that it doesn't support it, unfornately. The specifications also confirm this, because if there was any support for it, the Pentium M would have been mentioned. An upgrade to either the hard disk or RAm, or both, is till possible. If a hard disk upgrade is wanted, then you will have to look for a hard disk with an IDE interface, or ATA-6. Those interfaces will be accepted by the notebook.

 

That kind of stinks on the Pentium M, oh well. Do you think I could put a faster celeron in it, like 1.7 ghtz celeron 390? Or would that be a waste of money?

I upgraded the ram with an additional 1G already and that was a big help over the 512 it had.

I was thinking of getting this hard drive. It should work, yes?

http://www.computerhq.com/SEAGATE_8...00/ST980825A/hardware/partinfo-id-551504.html

I appreciate all your help!

Leon

 

I'm not entirely sure on the processor. it might be able to, but there is no mention of it on the HP web page. But, the hard disk you have linked should have no problem working in your notebook. Other than that, there is very little to upgrade, considering you have already upgraded the RAM.

 

Cool, Thanks again Zero. Even if I can't do the pcm I think the hard drive and the ram will make this thing good enough for another year or so and then I'll get a new lap top. Again, I appreicate all your help!!!!!!!

Leon

 

No problem for the help. If theres anything else you wish to ask, then don't hesitate to post back.

 

I just bought a used pentium M 1.6ghtz on ebay for $40 so I'm going to try it. I figure if it works cool, but if not it was only $40. lol.

I did look up my chipset on intel's site and it supports both celeron and Pentium M so we'll see. I'll post up if it works/don't work so maybe it will help the next person who trys to do this.

Also I just ordered a seagate 7200rpm 80gig hard drive to replace my 4200rpm 60gig one, so I'm sure that will help some!

Leon

 

I finally received my cpu and installed it. I updated my Bios to F20, and installed the 1.6 Ghtz Pentium M and it is working perfectly. It recognized it right away. I also installed a 7200 rpm Seagate HDD and I already had 1.2 Gig of ram and all I can say is this thing is like a new pc. Everything is faster

Previously my Super Pi score on 2M was 3.14 seconds. the fresh install got me 2.58 seconds and the cpu upgrade for $40 got me 2.22 seconds. It ain't the fastest but it is a big improvement and I think I can squeeze another year or 2 out of it now. Also I should have longer battery life with the speed stepping in the Pentium M. It goes all the way down to 600mhz at idle.

Anyways, just thought I would let you know Zero, and to anyone else thinking of doing this. It can be done.

Thanks again for the help,
Leon

 

Nice to see that you upgraded the processor. Is the Pentium M a Dothan or Banias core and how much did the battery life go by? The fast 7200 RPM drive would have certainly made a difference to the boot time of notebook.

 

My batt. has lost 34% of its life according to NHC but when I had the Celeron M it was only good for 1.5 hours give or take a few minutes. The only diff. being the Pentium M and NHC (NHC don't work on celerons) and it now says 2.5 hours give or take a few minutes. So I picked up an hour!

When my 6 cell batt. was new it gave me roughly 2.0 hours on the Celeron M so it'll be interesting to see what it gets when I get a new batt.

The 7200 rpm hdd is sweet. It boots much, much faster and loads big files much quicker as well! And the Seagate is just as quiet as my original Hitachi 4200rpm. I couldn't be more pleased. Thanks again.

Leon