Upgrading a compaq laptop 1685

[no]

I bought this in 1999. I am thinking of adding some memory, before I install window XP (it has windows98). Is it a good investment? It is little heavy to carry, but I will not be able to buy another one for 1.5yrs.

[glenn]

Is the memory or the OS upgrade the investment you are questioning? MS products are big piggies when it comes to memory, so more memory is always good.

I don't use XP so can't speak from experience. However what little I see on it tends to be positive. It's apparently more stable than previous Windoze versions.

However, I wouldn't suggest upgrading an OS unless you have a very specific reason for doing so. You're just asking for trouble (you talkin' to ME?). They also had some hardware issues when XP was first released - laptops are prime candidates for hardware issues - not sure if they have been resolved. I would suggest you make sure your specific laptop will handle XP before you jump (course, that's what you just asked, right? :) ), and that you have software that has to have XP to run.

[no]

Is the memory or the OS upgrade the investment you are questioning? MS products are big piggies when it comes to memory, so more memory is always good.



Thanks Glenn. I want to use Excel 2002 on my laptop, I have not even checked whether Excel 2002 (or office XP) will work on Win98.

Anyway I looked around I could upgrade RAM to 128MB from 32MB that I have for about US$60 (?). I have some Excel Macros that run very slow on my laptop. I'll upgrade, and see how it works.

[glenn]

Memory is your problem. You should upgrade to 128 at a minimum. If the price is feasible, consider going even to 256K. Your speed will increase substantially.

[MathGuy]

Office XP runs on Win98:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/sysreqs.asp

[no]

Thanks mathguy.

I got the memory from a place call Kingston Technology for CAD$54.05.

Now here comes the difficult part. Do you think I would able to find a diagram showing how to install it on the web? I did a limited search but was not successful. (I know in theory it is open the case, find a slot and stick it, but ..)

[glenn]

Kingston memory's the place for sure, but uuuuuuuh... you didn't have a shop do this for you? You should spend the extra few bucks to get this done by a pro. Laptops are a nightmare inside.

[Michel de Nostradamus]

The beauty of the <Search> button.:wave:

I needed advice as to why my almost-4-yr-old laptop is so slow. I think I'll upgrade my memory to 512 MB.

Here's the Kingston Technology Installation Guide for the benefit others.
http://www.kingston.com/support/install/memory/default.asp

[Brad Gile]

1. You can never have too much RAM.
2. Windows 98 is probably the worst operating system ever created by MS. It is an abomination and is difficult to upgrade from. If you have it installed, wipe off your HD and do a clean install of Windows 2000 or XP. Note: Forget Windows ME because it is almost as bad as 98.

Brad

[Wannabe Actuary]

And you can get a complete version (not just an upgrade) of XP Home or Pro pretty cheap from either newegg.com or tigerdirect.com

That way you can do a clean install and get rid of the traces of 98

[vbnut]

If you're running Windows XP, you probably need at least 512 MB of RAM. I have seen several friends with SLOWLY running computers. They only had 256 MB of RAM installed, and Windows XP was using ALL of it. That means it was using the Swap File (on the hard drive) when they ran ANY program.

In Windows XP/2000, it is easy to see how much RAM you're using (not so easy under Win 98 / ME). Press Control-Shift-Escape to bring up Task Manager, and look at the status bar at the bottom of the window.

It shows something like Commit Charge: 123M / 4567M. The first number is the memory you are using. On My PC it is about 300M after Win XP starts up, without loading Office, etc. The second number is the sum of your physical memory (RAM) and the swap file (on the hard drive).

You can see your actual RAM shown in the "physical memory" area on the Performance tab of the Task manager window.

[Wannabe Actuary]

My laptop is about 4 years old and XP uses about 200 MB of ram...the system has 256 in it. It runs a little on the slow side, but not bad.