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    fixing an old compaq

    Discussion in 'HP' started by potsy, Mar 20, 2008.

  1. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    hi there.

    I have an OLD compaq R4000, brought approx 3years ago.

    Now, whenever i play games the whole thing jams up every 5 minutes or so. Games like warcraft 3, and CS1.6, which was working completely fine before.
    when it jams it sort of drops from a regular 28fps or so to around 5fps then 1fps and jams there for 5seconds, and then goes back up to normal.

    is there anyway to fix this? i'm thinking about opening up the whole laptop to manually clean out the dust and gunk inside, but my past three attemps have failed cuz i can't open the cover.

    any ideas?

    thx
     
    potsy, Mar 20, 2008
    #1
  2. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    You have this in the wrong sub-forum, but yes, that would be a good idea. Also reinstall your operating system and start fresh again.
     
    Lithus, Mar 20, 2008
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  3. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    whoops.. my bad.. how do you move it?
     
    potsy, Mar 20, 2008
    #3
  4. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    The mods will take care of it.
     
    Lithus, Mar 20, 2008
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  5. damnit29

    damnit29 Newbie

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    lol i have the same old beater laptop mine is sporting an x300 128mb for video

    has the power cord broken on you yet?
     
    damnit29, Mar 20, 2008
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  6. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    nop. but the battery is completely dead and the optical drive stopped fuctioning a few months ago. mine has the 200m 128mb for video.. which is.. worthless at best..
     
    potsy, Mar 20, 2008
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  7. mujjuman

    mujjuman Notebook Deity

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    ^^ damn. i rem having to use a useless laptop like that before i got my dv9500. you should do a format and reinstall. also your hardware may be worn out due to wear and tear or something
     
    mujjuman, Mar 21, 2008
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  8. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    thinking of reformating too but thats like.. my last resort.. don't really feel like dumping all the stuff i had on it back on it. i wanna try cleaning out the dust and stuff 1st.. but compaq puts the whole thing soo stubbornly together that i can't even get the bottom off. theres like.. at least 2 more screws hidden somewhere i can't get to.
     
    potsy, Mar 21, 2008
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  9. brianstretch

    brianstretch Notebook Virtuoso

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    The service guide should help. Go to the hp.com downloads page for your notebook and click the Manuals link on the left-hand side.

    Cleaning out the heatsink is a very good idea. It's probably choked with dust at this point.

    Replacing the optical drive is trivial, if you want to. Pick any decently rated internal slimline drive on Newegg, etc.
     
    brianstretch, Mar 21, 2008
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  10. Wirelessman

    Wirelessman Monkeymod

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    Compal is the the cousin of Compaq :D
     
    Wirelessman, Mar 21, 2008
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  11. R4000

    R4000 Notebook Virtuoso

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    It was hot, heavy and chunky, but it was a beast when configured to high-end (and also ran Vista Ultimate quite well). Sometimes I feel that my dv6400 was not much of an upgrade over it.......
     
    R4000, Mar 21, 2008
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  12. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    haha yea.. still remember it when i first brought it.. ran anything applications with no prob at all. gotta love em Athlons..

    onli grip was the WAAY below par graphics card.. other then that was perfect.
     
    potsy, Mar 21, 2008
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  13. R4000

    R4000 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yep, but the dedicated ram version of the x200m was much better in performance than the standard x200m. I saw little difference between it and my current Go 7200......
     
    R4000, Mar 21, 2008
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  14. potsy

    potsy Notebook Enthusiast

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    dang.. didn't know that.. guess i didn't have such a crappy one after all.

    oh and Thx Brainstretch. got the manual and will start working on it now.
     
    potsy, Mar 21, 2008
    #14