R50e parts...

I didnt give this laptop much credit when I got it through the eARMYu program, but almost 6 years later it has faithfully trucked on through deployments, travels, and is currently the laptop my kids (3 and 5) abuse to play online games on nickjr and mynoggin. I upgraded the RAM to 512MB a few years back and would like to know if there is anything else I can upgrade to help the computer out performance wise, and I need a replacement keyboard since this one is missing a button and has others that either need to be mashed or are too sensitive. What are my options?

 

You could bump it up to 2GB of memory, but I'd say 1GB is sufficient for XP.

 

You might be able to find the keyboard on eBay???

Did that model have built-in bluetooth? Or just USB?

 

I thought 512MB RAM was my limit? Doesnt have bluetooth, Ive been using a Belkin wireless card. Its pretty barebones but its outlived my Sony Viao AR series that I bought 2 years ago to replace it, and Ive ran it hard in hot dusty environments, bumped it around, spilled stuff on it; the IBM takes it all.

 

i think there is one free slot that takes one gig... if there is two ram slots then it will take 2 gig max.

 

I did a little research and found the RAM I need to buy, there are two slots and if I remember right they are under the keyboard. What type of HDD should I buy? I want to use a 7200rpm drive if possible, nothing fits on the 20gb HDD I have now.

 

Well, make sure it's PATA and not SATA.
R50 series is a tough machine. Mine is on its 7th year now and still going strong.

 

the largest PATA hdd was a 250 gig, but they are quite hard to buy now, as long as they are 2.5 inch form factor with a thickness of 9.5 mm then they are okay.

 

There's one under the keyboard and the other is on the underside of the notebook. There is a 320GB Western Digital PATA drive, the WD3200BEVERTL. 7200RPM PATA hard drives are not being made any longer. The last two were the Hitachi 7k100 and the Seagate 7200.1. They'll give you a bit better access times, but since they're in relatively short supply, they command a bit of a premium on eBay and the like.