Please Help

[2DobeMom]

I need help. I recently aquired a Sony Vaio with a bad hard drive. I am wanting to replace it, but don't know how to determine what type I need. The harddrive in the system is manufactored by Quantum. I have a NewEgg account and would like to spend under $100 for a new one. This Vaio has a pentium 2 in it.

 

[jimbo1763]

Hi, 2DobeMom, and welcome to HWC.

I assume this is a desktop, and not a laptop? Let me know if I am wrong.

If the processor is a PII, it is probable that your BIOS may have some limitations on how big a drive you can handle. However, I doubt that there are special requirements, other than it being an IDE drive. You may have to use something called a drive overlay for the machine to be able to use the whole drive. Or, in the alternative, you can install an IDE controller card and bypass that limitation that way.

How much storage space are you looking for?

The new IDE hard drives tend to have fairly long warranties-3-5 years. Folks here like Seagate, I have a few Samsung, etc.

And what operating system do you intend to use?

 

[2DobeMom]

I would most likely install windows xp. I plan to give this computer to my sister who recently had a baby. She plans to put pictures on the computer and print out copies or make disks. What do you recommend for storage capacity?

 

[2DobeMom]

Can the processor chip on the mother board be changed or is it a package type deal?

 

[DanceMan]

I would most likely install windows xp.

The amount of ram is a factor. XP should have 512Mb, even though low-end systems are sold with 256Mb.
Your PII will have a limit of 128Mb or 256Mb per slot, depending on the motherboard, specifically the chipset on the motherboard.

Your PII would use a Slot 1 style cpu, and would be limited to a faster PII. PIII's switched to a socket 370 format. Early PII's used a 66MHz front side bus (fsb). For example, 4x66= 266Mhz. Later ones used a 100MHz fsb, eg. 3x100= 300MHz. Some of the early PII boards only had the 66MHz fsb and can't use the later 100fsb cpu's.

You can download and run a free utility called Everest Home Edition which will identify most of the components in your system. There's a link in one of the sticky posts in the General forum, or just google the name and the word "download."

Tell us the model of the chipset on the motherboard and/or the motherboard model or Vaio model, and how many ram slots it has and what's in them now. Which PII cpu you have now would help.

 

[2DobeMom]

Intel pentium Ii with MMX technology. This is a very large chip approx 3x5 inches in size. it plugged into a card style slot with bar clamps to hold it in place. The numbers on the side are 80522px233512 SL264
R7360199-174
The mother board has 7 slots to plug into and only 2 are in use. 1 is the modem and the other is the video card

 

[2DobeMom]

The mother board has 3 ram slots and 2 are occupied

 

[ELF2000]

The cpu you have is a Pentium II runs at 233 mhz.
Those numbers gave it away. 80522px233512 SL264

It can run Windows XP alto it would need at least 512 mb of ram to run ok.

Does the ram have any writing or stickers on them to indicate what size they are?

 

[DanceMan]

The 233 was the first, and slowest PII, and used the 66MHz fsb. It's quite possilble your motherboard may have the LX/EX chipset that lacks the 100fsb needed for the 300 and later cpu's.
The LX will be limited to a max of 128Mb per slot, as is the early BX. The late BX can take 256Mb per slot. And the sticks of ram need to be low density, basically more smaller capacity chips on the stick. For 128, 4 chips is high density, 8 chips is low.
Try and run Everest and get the chipset info. It will also tell you what ram you already have.

 

[benny314us]

I have a PII with mmx technology too. But mine reads :

b80522p300512E Sl2QC
98040252-229 malay

does this mean it runs at 300 Mhz and allowed at most 512MB?

 

[ThreeOnTheTree]

No, the 512 in the number is the amount of L2 cache, in kilobytes. Cache acts like RAM, but only the processor has access to it.

As for what hard disk to get, go with something small, maybe 20-40GB. I say this because older motherboards have limitations on how large (storage capacity) the drive can be. Other than that, the HD just needs to be IDE. A 7200rpm drive will be the fastest.

 

[Justintime]

Also note that on those systems even the fastest 7200 rpm drive would be limited in the transfer speed, down to 33mb/sec which does hinder performance somewhat from newer ATA66/100/133 systems.