dell inspiron e1505 upgrades??

so im a noob to computer upgrading and such, but i have a dell inspiron e1505 that runs on vista home premium, the description of it on the welcome center reads exactly like this:
Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU T2250 @ 1.73GHz
0.99 GB RAM
Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family

what i want to kno is there any way i can upgrade it to make it run like new? i kno i would need to upgrade the ram but i've heard that it can only run on a 2gb ram, but can i run a better ram if i upgrade the OS to windows 7? any advice on how to make it run faster and more like new would be great.
thanks,
mark

 

That is an older laptop so it is not worth spending a lot of money on upgrades. At most I suggest upgrading the RAM to 2GB (2x 1GB sticks) and the hard drive to something bigger and faster. Together that should be a little over $100.

So this:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model VS2GSDSKIT667D2
And I like this hard drive -- fast and reliable:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

What would really make your system run like new is a clean install of Windows and your programs. See this guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...05-windows-vista-clean-install-step-step.html

Would you be able to afford a new notebook by any chance? You can get a system for $450 - $550 that would easily be better than your E1505 . . .

 

thanks, could i put in a bigger ram if i upgraded to windows 7? And yeah i could buy a new laptop, but this one was given to me by my mom who passed away, so it means more to upgrade it than to buy a new one all together.

 

No. You are limited to 2GB regardless. Just buy some cheap stuff on ebay. Any cheap DDR2 2x1GB sodimm kit will do. If you want to spend the money on a drive, just get some cheap but new 7200rpm drive.

 

I'd get a 7200rpm 160GB hard drive for $37: Hard Drive

And 2GB (1GB X2) for $27: OCZ 2GB (1GB X2)

Also if you're a student you can get Windows 7 Pro for $30, I think.

 

Sorry to hear about your mom -- I can understand you wanting to keep the laptop.

Definitely upgrade the RAM to 2GB -- the products people are linking to will work fine. The hard drive will also bring a very noticeable performance boost. Make sure the drive is 7200RPM; I recommend Western Digital.

Windows 7 would be a nice upgrade. Where do you guys see it for $30 for students? I see Professional for $64.95:
Microsoft Student - Windows 7

 

I'm not sure where it is, but I have bought the windows 7 pro for $30. It is download only. You can have them send you a disk for another $13 though, which I did. It's the anytime upgrade. I think the one you linked to might be the retail packaging?

 

What? RAM can be upgraded to 4GB, only 3 1/2 of which will be usable. However, it's not a cheap upgrade. Better to keep the money and use it toward a newer machine. A laptop that costs as little as $500 will outperform the e1505 with any memory upgrade.

 

The Momentus XT might be worth a look too.

 

His laptop has a limit of 2GB. Although the chipset might support 4GB, the manufacturer did not build in support for that amount and there is nothing that can be done about it. About buying a new one:

 

I had the same model laptop. The max capacity, with the latest BIOS updates, is the same as all the rest of the x86 platforms - 3.## GB. Many people have successfully upgraded the e1505 RAM to 3GB or slightly higher, for quite some time now. The only reason I bothered to even try above 2GB on mine was because others had done it on this forum without any problems at all.

I understand the laptop has sentimental value, but even with massive upgrades, the laptop will have limited use for new applications. I would have suggested reinstalling the OS to get back "like new" performance, but that will erase all the customization the past user performed on the machine. As more parts are upgraded to keep and software replaced, you run into a Ship of Theseus problem, where it's not necessarily the original object anymore.

 

If it has sentimental value, frame it and hang it on the wall, or put it on the mantle. Its really not worth upgrading, besides HDD or Ram.

 

My wife and my mother both have an e1505. Both have been successfully updated to 4GB of RAM with the newest BIOS installed. one shows 3.25GB of useable RAM and the other shows 3.5GB. The lesser (my mother's) is running Vista Home Premium 32 bit and the higher (my wife's) is running Windows 7 64 bit. Both are running the same T5500 Core 2 Duo processor.

 

Amazon on occasion offers a 320 GB Hard drive for $50.51. it's completely worth scouting for as there are usually only a few sold at this amount and rather quickly. I got mine at 3 am and purchased 1 out of 3 offered. The hard drive is made for a slew of notebooks including the Dell Inspiron E1505.