I posted this on general but I thought it might me more appropriate here:
I just added an external DVD to my Presario 1260 (an Amacon 4x) and my Presario is at the low end of required speed, it being a 333mhz. I think an increase to 400mhz will make the DVD playback of movies perfect. It's actually very watchable now but a little increase in speed might make it perfect. Any ideas on possibly changing the CPU or overclocking on this laptop. I tweaked Win98 as best as I could and disabled all unneeded drivers while using the DVD so it's pretty much maxed out...also defraged and use and empty partition...etc...
BTW....I found a person on Ebay selling an overclocked 1260 but he can't give me the exact info to do it.
Thanks DoctorFoxx, I'll use that link if I decide to add ram but with 64 mbs I don't think it will speed things up much. There is a row of dip switches so there may be a setting that will overclock by just adjusting the dip switches with no soldering needed. The guy on Ebay might be a hoax but who knows?
How much ram to you have now? I added 64Mb to my celly 600 laptop and i increased performance dramatically in load times and other things. (64mb to 128mb)
I don't you can really o/c a laptop in general especially in the case of keeping it cool enough. THey are limited in the cooling department already.
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When in doubt break out the sledge hammer....
I added 64 megs to my GF's unit and it helped alot. I take it you have 32 megs soldered and a 32 meg DIMM & no room for another DIMM which means taking out the 32 and putting in a 64 ???
If you have an empty slot, I have a 16 meg DIMM that I removed sitting here.
Where are these dip switches that you found, under the keyboard ???
Thanks for the offer DoctorFoxx, but I have 32mbs soldered in and an additonal 32mbs into the expansion port, which can be upgraded with 64mb or 128mb for a total of 160mbs. It takes SODIMM's, which I hope aren't too expensive. If you're interested in the dip switches, which are located under the keyboard, under the display, they look like this: http://www5.compaq.com/athome/suppor...5/step161.html
I checked ram price on Ebay and found that after my 10.00 coupon and the free shipping Buy.com was 103.00 for 128mb so it's on it's way and I'll be up to 160mb....that's more than my PC at 128...wow....hopefully I'll see a difference. I was a little hesitant to try the dip switch setting of 366 but I guess it's worth a try....I guess it won't screw anything up much (famous last words!!!)
Well I moved that one dip switch and guess what....Norton Utilities system information now says I have a K6-2 361mhz! It showed 328mhz before and I guess that's considered 333mhz. The benchmark went up a bit also and so far it hasn't burned up. As far as the DVD, I was interested in the performance with 32mbs so I took out the 32mb expansion and found that the DVD audio wouldn't sync with the video. I hope this means that memory is very important to viewing smooth DVD playback and that 160mb I'll have in a few days will solve my problems. And BTW the computer "feels" a little bit quicker and crisper. I might think about adding more cooling or figure out a way to keep the cooling fan permanently on. I think it's thermstatically controlled but I would feel better if it's always on. I don't use the laptop on battery power so the extra draw wouldn't be problem.
The MSG's are on Compaq's support website www.compaq5.com/support. Then there is a link for technical documents. You have 2 guide that will help you out, the Maintence and Service Guide (MSG) and the Quick Reference Guide (QRG). The page that's listed above is a page out of an MSG. I have a corporate subscription to Compaq Quick Find, and I have this all on CD.
What model Armada do you have? Most of the 7xxx series don't have any jumpers, but having worked on many dozen 7700,7790 and 7800 series laptops, it doesn't look like it would be that hard swapping the entire CPU, as some of the MB part numbers are the same for different speed CPU's. On a newer Armada, it might be more difficult, I've been inside a e500 a couple of times, and the CPU is basically integrated on the MB.
Bart, Speaking of swapping CPU's mine is easy enough to take out. Could I just by a faster CPU and expect it to work with the existing motherboard? It's not as easy to get upgrade info on these laptops since I think the manufacturers would rather you buy a new computer every time you want to improve performance. Maybe I'll try to contact Compaq but I don't think they will respond, especially since I'm out of warranty period.
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