Upgrade or down and out?

I`m back again.

Having had my laptop for the best part of 18 months now and it suffering from
an overheating Turion X2 Ultra so that I can`t run much of anything with even a
1280*720 medium gfx setting without grinding to a frazzled halt I`m thiinking maybe
a new faster/cooler cpu and memory/video card might help.

At the mo I`ve an:
AMD Turion x2 Ultra 64bit in a S1(638) socket, and
2Gb DDR2 @ 333 MHz (Two of)

Also an:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 with 512MB Dedicated RAM
with 1600 * 900 32 bit screen.

My questions are:

1) Can I install faster RAM and will it make much difference?

2) Can I upgrade the video card and how much diff would that make?

3) Is there a faster/cooler cpu I can install and (Have you guessed yet?)
will that make much difference?

I`ve done as much as I can with Win7. My passmark rating is at around 800. Way
above all the other 7535g scores and raised from the freshly installed score or 680.

I`d like to play a few games with the settings over medium as I hoped I could,
but mostly I just want to be able to have the system run with a heavy load without it all but melting the table.

Hoping for good news but have my doctor on hand just in case,

Stoo.

1. Yes but won't really make that much difference

2. No you can't

3. No can't upgrade that either.

4. If it's having heat issues check all the vent's. You could also dismantle the laptop and clean the cpu cooling and apply fresh cooling compound in it.

It sounds like it needs to be professionally cleaned. That's why I don't really like notebooks - the makers do not make cleaning easy for "normal users". You can't just open a side panel to expose the whole interior as you can with a PC.

TIM - thermal interface material - does not go bad or wear out. It only needs to be replaced if the cured bond has been broken by rough handling or if the heatsink is removed. Replacing the OEM TIM, typically a pad, with a high quality TIM may result in a few degrees difference, but if it ran cool when new with the OEM TIM and now it is not, then TIM is not the problem - assuming the bond is still in tact.

Note that malware can tax a computer, consuming resources, thus generate more heat. So make sure your system is free of malware too.

I`m so very disappointed, but thanks for the advice

Unfortunately all the vents are fine, just tiny, badly placed and partially obscured by the casing.
They seem to be added as an afterthought because even with the fan running at full nothing
much comes through them.

I think I`m going to carve a few myself. At the moment I`ve had to prop the laptop on several
books ,open up a large panel and sit another fan underneath it, leaving the RAM fully exposed
and rendering it completely immobile.

Acer really have a cheek calling it a laptop. If I wanted to get second degree burns to my lap
I`d have jumped into a fire.

Sigh.

Originally Posted by Stoo

Acer really have a cheek calling it a laptop. If I wanted to get second degree burns to my lap

Thats why Digerati calls it a Notebook not a Laptop. Placing the Notebook in your lap will block air vents and cause the machine to overheat. Notebooks are not designed to be placed in your lap even though they are also called Laptops.

Thats why Digerati calls it a Notebook not a Laptop

That's exactly right! They don't belong in your laps, on carpets, or beds either. If you need to use them there, get a Notebook Cooling Pad w/ext. power supply. I prefer those with their own external power supplies so you don’t put more strain on the notebook, causing it to generate even more heat.

PS - Good to see you here Clifford!

I tell my customers who are in the market for a portable computer, whether it be a Notebook, Laptop, etc., buy what you need, because you won't be able to upgrade it later.
Then I tell them to get all the RAM memory that the unit will hold.

The PC controls the speed of the RAM, not vise-versa. So adding faster ram will do you NO GOOD at all.
Get what the PC calls for and nothing more.
www(dot)crucial(dot)com is an excellent source for replacement ram.
Just take their Ram-Scan and they will tell you exactly what you have, what you need and if you want, you can buy it right there. I do this for my customers all the time.

I just want to DITTO, the admonition to NEVER set any portable computer on any soft surface that could block the air intakes. Keep your little PC on a clean, hard surface.

And if you take your Netbook, Notebook, Laptop with you, protect it with a HARD CASE.
A soft case can allow your little PC to be broken in half, in a car accident, etc.

I found a great Hard Case for my Netbook, at Harbor Freight Tools, for less than $20.
Pictures available upon request.

Cheers mates!
Old Timer

PS: I won't give away all my secrets, but on any laptop, I try to absolutely Minimize the work load on both the CPU and the hard drive.....the two largest heat generators.

I shut down every TSR or Service that's not absolutely necessary to run the computer.
Get the program load on the CPU down to a bare minimum. Then get every file off of the HD that's possible and keep it clean and defragmented on at least a weekly basis.
I run a script to load the 'Kernel' into RAM on boot-up, which greatly increases the efficiency of the OS. I keep all my computers, Clean, Lean and Mean!

Hey old timer, thanks for the pointer. I ran the Crucial memtest and got this result:-

DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-5300Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 4GB
Currently Installed Memory: 4GB
Total Memory Slots: 2
Available Memory Slots: 0


2GB 2GB
DDR PC2-5300 DDR PC2-5300





Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-5300 with a maximum of 2GB per slot.*
*Not to exceed manufacturer supported memory.

Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.

Memory or DRAM is the 'working' memory of the computer. It's used to store data for programs (sequences of instructions) on a temporary basis.



From this I`m guessing that I have 2* DDR PC2-5300?? Is this correct and would changing to 2* PC-6400 be viable and make a difference
or would it be so small as to be unnoticeable??

Thanks, Stoo

No, look at the amount of memory, not the speed. If you already have the maximum amount, the speed will most likely be OK. Unless someone really screwed the pooch on setting up that computer and put in ram that was way below the clock speed.

When they say 5400 or 6400, for instance, that means the computer will actually run it at the slower speed, but the faster speed memory will clock down to the slower speed without any decrease in performance. Sometimes, faster ram is all that's available at the time. No problem. Just don't mix ram of different speeds. It should be as closely matched as possible, for best performance.
I try to buy matched pairs from the manufacturer, whenever possible.
Many of the better companies will sell you Matched Pairs, if you ask.

Good Luck,