Take your Toshiba to the next level. Upgrade RAM!

I have the M40 with 512mb ram, and I recently upgraded to 1gb. The performance increase is so big its unfair. When I upgraded from 256 to 512 on my old desktop, I noticed a slight difference, but not much. However, 512 --> 1gb is HUGE!! If you're wondering why, press CTRL ALT DEL and go to Performance tab. There are four boxes on the bottom, tjhe upper right one should tell you how much available ram you have left. If you have 512, you should barely have 250-280 left. This is because XP takes a huge chunk. Now if you add another stick of 512, you double your capacity and right now I have 750 sitting free.

When you played HL2, did it take forever to load? When you ran it the first time, and changed the resolution or set it to windowed mode, did it freeze for about 2 minutes? Well, with 1gb it takes barely 5 seconds. Almost instant. Its amazing. When you shut off a memory hogging program, it usually takes up to a minute to fully shut down, because its trying to free up the memory it took. Now it takes about 5 seconds.

We all know what happens when your system runs out of memory... the program tries to access your Virtual Memory, which is on your hard drive. And we all know our 4200rpm hard drives are not the greatest thing in the world. I recently ran a benchmarking program and it turned out my CPU beat a P4 3.2ghz, but my hard drive performance was very poor. With enough physical memory, you wont have to access Virtual Memory very often. Now, you wont notice a huge increase in FPS for games, but you will certainly cut down loading times and elinimate "choppyness" you sometimes get. For video editing software, 1gb is a must.

Now if I can only get that dual channeling activated.. I tried pressing Esc, F1, or F2 during the PxE bootup, it just hangs for about half a minute then continues loading XP..... how do i get into the BIOS!! [?][?]

 

This is very exciting news.

I have the A70 and am eagerly awaitng the stick of Kingston 512 I jsut ordered.


www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/117

 

where did you get your stick of 512 ram. ive been looking for memory for my M40 but i dont know which kind it takes and where to get it from. can you tell me where exactly you got it from?

Thanks!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
Now if I can only get that dual channeling activated.. I tried pressing Esc, F1, or F2 during the PxE bootup, it just hangs for about half a minute then continues loading XP..... how do i get into the BIOS!!
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

It works when you first press F2 or ESC, and then press F1 and it should get you into the BIOS.

WHen I do the RAM upgrade, I'm going to get a pair of 512 and then ebay the Toshiba 512, or I could just sell it on here. Then the dual channel should work fine.

Let me know if you never get the dual channel activiated because my PC lags when I multi-task....

 

Ok thanks, I'll try that again.

I bought a stick of Kingston notebook memory from a local authorized dealer, 512mb 333mhz CL2.5 it should be identical really.

Toshiba is commiting a major crime by installing only 512 on their systems... IMO 1gb is needed to truly experience the M40 like it was meant to be!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Sky

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Sky

 

My box must be wierd, i cannot get into BIOS no matter what combo i try. It does respond though, for example when I press Esc or F1 or F2 it stops for a couple of seconds, then loads XP as normal. I have the M40-JM3 btw, one of the earliest ones from production.

 

Isn't it F8? I have one of the very firsts M40 too and I did get into BIOS once, I'll just have to try it again.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Sky

 

Im downloading a movie off P2P right now, will post after I try again.

 

Wow, sounds great...I want to upgrade it now ^_^

But I don't really understand all the different varieties of memory, there seems to be so many -_-. Does brand matter? If someone doesn't mind posting the important aspects of the memory necessary for it to be compatible with the m40, that would be great. All I know is that it has to be 512 and DDR...

 

For the best compatibility, you have to get the closest to the other DIMMs in your system.

For the M40, it's a 512mb DDR333 SODIMM (not DIMM) and I think it's CL2.5 .

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

woohoo...finally got around to upgrading the m40 ram to 1gig and man, you guys were right ^_^. Runs very smoothly now, i'm quite impressed.

One thing though, has anyone had any problems with overheating? I've recentely been trying to watch a video while playing a moderately graphically intensive game, and although both programs run fine (no lagging) after a while the system suddenly freezes, and I've also gotten a black screen of death. Seems like maybe it's overheating but i'm not sure...anyone else had any problems?

 

I bought a piece of 512 ram in Hong Kong last week. The package is under the brand of Buffalo, and it uses the Hynix ram which is exactly the same ram as the ram in the Toshiba M40. I know Kingston or Kingmax may work the same, but it is better to use the exact ram to get the max. performance.

 

If performance leaps when doubling to 1GB from 512 ...
consider- instead - minimizing WinXP's startup processes -
many are excess baggage, and you'll run cooler w/ less RAM.

Websites exist with advice on how to do this -
e.g. http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

But the package to get seems to be XPLite:
http://www.litepc.com/
... XPlite and 2000lite are powerful configuration utilities for Windows creating a modular Windows operating system where YOU are in control. The new version 1.5 gives you more than 150 ways to reduce the size, improve the security, . . . .

 

Doesn't the M45 come with DDR RAM instead of DDR2 RAM. Could this be part of the reason why it's overheating and has such a short battery life?

 

I dont know about M45 but my M40 has never overheated..... and i live in humid 32C weather conditions. I sweat like crazy yet but my laptop has yet to choke. Sometimes the area next the the touchpad (and the touchpad itself too) gets unbearably hot to the touch, i cant even type, i just blow a fan at it and it drops temp like 5-8C.

Only time it ever overheated once, was when a program f*cked up and went into a memory loop, whole thing froze and thank god the laptop rebooted itself or i would have fried something.