I have an Inspiron 600m Laptop, it's about 4 years old. The processor is a 2.0Ghz and I only have 1 GB of RAM. I ordered another 1 GB to add on, and it comes tomorrow. Installation looks easy, but what precautions should I take? I know about static so I'll use rubber gloves.
If your current set up is 1GB of ram, most likely it is split into 2 512MB sticks. Thats how it was on my 2 Toshibas, as well as a couple computers I sold last year working at Circuit City. So if that is the case, you'll have 1.5GB of ram after you are finished... Just take it slow and take your time, for some computers it demands patience :thumb:
That's easy then. How much of an improvement do you think it'll make? I'm trying to make the computer last another year. It's decent right now, doesn't really freeze up.
I noticed a jump from 1GB -> 1.5GB on my laptop. My computer would freeze a lot due to my programs being such memory hogs but now they run fine. I had my friends in FireDog test it out and they said that with my current set up I have maxed out everything on my computer because I can use all my programs when the CPU Usage is maxed out at 100%. To test that, I put it to the max using a program they dubbed "oil" and was able to open up all my programs on my computer without it freezing up or crashing :headbang: For me there was a substantial increase of power, speed, performance, everything. It could be the same for you :thumb:
That'd be nice. The maximum expandable memory for the 600m is 2GB so in time if it slows down then that's the end of this. I'm surprised that the processor is still somewhat decent compared to other laptops today. I guess that's what happens when you spend 2k on a laptop.
No need for rubber gloves. Just take out the battery and pop in the ram. Make sure you install it in a warm environment, cold weather tends to assist in generating static.
I'm sure it'll be a while before it finally dies. I got mine almost 5 years and its still not dead despite me falling on it while skateboarding and accidentally dropping it at times. Battery is dead though lol. I sort of want it to die already so I can get another Toshiba. Laptop manufacturers are definitely making some sweet designs nowadays :applause2:
Yeah, 60 dollars shipped for RAM from Crucial with a warranty and tech support yada yada, definitely worth it over buying another computer.
Adding another chip of RAM is straightforward; however, make sure you do it in a static free area & also ensure that you ground yourself so as to discharge yourself from static.
I plan on taking the battery out, pushing the power button to discharge the rest of the power in the system, touching a metal object, doing it on a tile floor, and wearing rubber gloves. I think that should suffice, should it not?
Upgrading ram is a good idea to increase the speed, but if it's four years old, it probably has alot of crap on it that you can't see, which over time bogs down the system, from adding and removing files, installing and uninstalling programs, which leads to it freezing up sometimes, a good idea would be to back up all your important files and have the drive wiped and get a fresh install of windows, you'll notice a big difference in speed and effectiveness.
Yeah I considered that as well. I have a decent amount of music on there so I'd have to use an external hard drive to pull all of it off. How much would a shop charge me to do this?
Rebuilding the PC as suggested abive is a good idea. However, you can frist start by deleting all temp files, run chkdsk then do a defrag, which should improve prformance as well.
Deleting temp files (and other detritus) is easily accomplished by selecting Start->Programs>All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup. The suggestion to wipe the disk and perform a fresh install of the OS will result in a greater performance enhancement. No need to pay a shop the $100 or so for this service. First find your restore disks that came with your computer, then make a good backup, including a backup of your settings in your browser and other favorite programs. Boot to the CD, select the option to delete the current partition(s) and perform a fresh install. Set aside several hours to download patches, reinstall your other programs. Enjoy a revitalized PC.
diy seriously its not that hard. buy a external drive it should be plug and play. click and drag the music files and other files you want to keep. yup do a disk cleanup and defrag the computer also improves the computers performance.
