3270 and athlon

Has anyone installed an Athlon processor successfully for a 3270? How about successfully put in a larger harddrive?
Thanks in advance,
bigbandan

 

What processor do you have now in there? And there shouldn't be a problem installing a larger hard drive, that is something manufacturers allow people to do.

 

I read that you are a notebook diety. Wow. To answer your question I have an Averatec 3270EH-1 with a sempron and about 50 gig harddrive. To put the Athlon in it would need a new bios and accept the socket. If you have experience please help.
bigbandan
I heard that someone named joester actually performed this feat of magic but I cannot find him.

 

This may be too old but I didn't see anyone make a reasonable response to your question. As far as I know, no one has installed an Athlon processor into a 3270. However, I installed a Turion in my 3270 using the instructions on the now defunct Averatec forum. I ordered the following chip from Teckwave_Store on eBay: TMSMT37LDWOF Turion Mobile MT-37 25W WOF AMD and updated the Bios that was also available from persons on that forum.

My unit worked very well for more than 8 months, but now I have a problem in the mainboard and am waiting for a replacement. I paid $83 including freight for the Turion, and it made a significant difference in performance. I also installed a 1GB memory 200 pin sodimm, which someone else posted today in reply to a 3250 user's question. My 3270 has been a great performer, though as everyone knows it is no gamer machine. As an all around web surfer, email reader, online bill payer machine it's been great.

 

Regarding the larger hard drive, that part is also quite easy, except the unique formatting and preinstalled applications are lost when upgrading. I've not actually installed a larger hard drive, but for other reasons have installed a smaller hard drive. The process is the same.

Remove the 6 small screws in the bottom of the laptop that connect the handrest cover and the touchpad. Does not require opening the memory/processor cover and its 5 smaller screws.

Lift off the cover and turn it counterclockwise towards the lcd screen (it is connected to the speaker cables on the left side of the laptop....there is enough play to turn the cover without disconnecting the wire).

Remove the tape from the ribbon cable leading to the USB ports on the right side of the case...you do not need to remove the ribbon cable from the mainboard or the USB header.

Remove the rubber "shock absorber/filler plate" between the right side of the hard drive and the USB header. Gently pull the hard drive housing free from the pin connector on the left of the drive (mid-point of the laptop). One of the cover screws removed in the first step passes through a retainer hole in the top left corner of the hard drive mount. Be sure that this screw is out before trying to pull the hard drive pins free.

Once the hard drive assembly is free, turn it over and remove the 4 philips head screws holding the drive to the mount. Remove the hard drive from the housing and pull it free from the black tape securing it to the mount.

Install the new hard drive to the mount and tape it in place. Reinstall the 4 screws to mount the new drive into the housing. Slide the drive back into place in the laptop, ensuring that the drive pins connect properly to the cable, and ensuring that the mounting tab of the drive housing fits under the tab that the cover screw will feed through when you close everything back up.

Replace the rubber shock absorber and re-tape the USB header ribbon cable to the top of the hard drive assembly. Replace the cover/touchpad housing and reinstall the 6 retainer screws.

Power the unit up, press <DEL> to enter the BIOS setup and ensure that the new hard drive is recognized in the BIOS. Also ensure that the CD/DVD drive is selected as the first boot device so that you can reinstall the operating system.

It is much easier, and much more intuitive than it may seem in this post. Just go slowly the first time and work with good lighting, a flat surface, and don't let any screws get away from you.

Good luck.

 

I have a 120GB HD in my 3270-eh1 that works flawlessly. QED (Quite Easily Done). Just make sure the NEW drive has the same OUTER dimensions as the old one and isn't too large for the bay. Otherwise, follow the procedure outlined previously and you are good to go. It would be HIGHLY BENEFICIAL if you are able to back up your restore partition to some CDs or DVDs and RE-install them on the new hard drive. I was NOT able to do this and had to use OEM backup disks from OTHER manufacturers that I borrowed from friends to get my 3270 limping again. I used the Averatec driver download site to get the drivers restored but I am missing quite a bit of the other stuff that came with my laptop. I really wish I had a set of backup disks. :-(

As far as the Upgrade on the CPU is concerned, I just upgraded to the fastest Sempron processor I could find. I used a SMS3400BQX3LF rated at 2.2 Gig. This works great for most things. Video ON my PC seems fine. Streaming Video can be a bit choppy depending on the source. I can watch LOST on ABC.com with almost no difficulties whatsoever. The only problems arise during the commercials (who cares). SciFi.com comes in GREAT! I cannot watch Numb3rs at CBS.com without a great deal of difficulty. I don't know if the problem lies in the processor, the 1 gig of RAM, the hideously slow DSL connection I have, or the hacked up version of XP that I am using (not a literally HACKED version of XP, but a Frankenstein build that I needed to make to get the computer working).

 

I'd like to upgrade the CPU on my 3270-ee1 but can't ID my motherboard using the tool at esupport (It just freezes part way through) and I surely don't want to put the wrong bios in the system.

hubarlow, what bios did you have before loading the Sempron 2.2?

According to System Information, I have an AMI dated 12/15/2004 and SMBIOS Version 2.3.

Everest confirms AMI and the date, with no additional info.