Have an HP Pavillion 8370 PC (oldie) with P2, any CPU upgrades possible?

[Robert Casey]

Yeah, it's an old box (1998) with a 333MHz Pentium 2
CPU. I could get an upgrade CPU for not a lot of $
from a web site "computergeeks.com" IIRC but I don't
know if the motherboard would support it. Anyone know
of this line of HP machines?

I replace the hard drive with a much bigger one recently
(needed more storage space, old HD still runs but was retired).

I know that the "real answer" would be to replace the
motherboard with something more modern, but I'm not
that ambitious right now.

 

[JK]

It is a 6 year old computer. Extremely old. Just replace it.
There isn't much there that would be reasonable to
reuse except perhaps the floppy drive, and new floppy
drives are very cheap.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

According to HP, you ought to have a 350 MHz PII, if you have an 8370:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...9&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph04406

(link may wrap). The 350 is better than the 333 because of the 100 MHz FSB
(front side bus) rather than the slower 66 MHz memory access of the 333.

I see no indication that there's a BIOS to take a newer CPU than a 450 MHz
PII. It would not be life-altering to upgrade from a PII 350 to a 450, I
fear. It may be possible to do better, but not by an HP-supported upgrade.

That mainboard/CPU/memory upgrade might be a good idea. (You may need to
replace the case and power supply while you're at it, if HP appliance PCs
are as proprietary as Dell or Compaq machines. At some point, it might be
cheaper to buy an entire new system. A used system might be the lowest-cost
upgrade.)

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Robert Casey]

According to HP, you ought to have a 350 MHz PII, if you have an 8370:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...9&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph04406

(link may wrap). The 350 is better than the 333 because of the 100 MHz FSB
(front side bus) rather than the slower 66 MHz memory access of the 333.

I see no indication that there's a BIOS to take a newer CPU than a 450 MHz
PII. It would not be life-altering to upgrade from a PII 350 to a 450, I
fear. It may be possible to do better, but not by an HP-supported upgrade.

That mainboard/CPU/memory upgrade might be a good idea. (You may need to
replace the case and power supply while you're at it, if HP appliance PCs
are as proprietary as Dell or Compaq machines. At some point, it might be
cheaper to buy an entire new system. A used system might be the lowest-cost
upgrade.)

Looks like you're right in that I should just get a new machine.
That would mean that I have to find all my installation discs and
whatnot for my software. Though I saw a software package that
supposidly will transfer software from one machine to another.
Will have to give it a closer look. But there's always the issue of
what software is not gonna like the latest thing from Microsoft....

 

[Robert Myers]

Looks like you're right in that I should just get a new machine.
That would mean that I have to find all my installation discs and
whatnot for my software. Though I saw a software package that
supposidly will transfer software from one machine to another.
Will have to give it a closer look. But there's always the issue of
what software is not gonna like the latest thing from Microsoft....

If you do indeed have a 100MHz FSB, the PowerLeap Slot 1 adapter might
be a reasonable option. I had good luck with the the PL-ip3/T upgrade
to a Pavilion of that vintage. You can get a 1.4GHz Celeron with the
adapter just at the moment for less than $100 (www.powerleap.com).

RM

 

[Tony Hill]

Yeah, it's an old box (1998) with a 333MHz Pentium 2
CPU. I could get an upgrade CPU for not a lot of $
from a web site "computergeeks.com" IIRC but I don't
know if the motherboard would support it. Anyone know
of this line of HP machines?

Go to www.powerleap.com, you'll find that they have a 1.4GHz Intel
Celeron processor listed as being compatible with your system (err,
actually they only list the 8380, but it's the same motherboard).
Their list price is $100 and includes everything you need to upgrade
that board.

Drop in this processor and an extra 256MB of memory in that system (2
x 128MB) and you should have a respectable system for fairly cheap.
To find some compatible memory upgrades for your system, check out
www.crucial.com. Plug your system into their product finder and
they'll bring up some 128MB modules listed at $40 a pop, guaranteed to
work with your system and warranted for life.

 

[Robert Casey]

Go to www.powerleap.com, you'll find that they have a 1.4GHz Intel
Celeron processor listed as being compatible with your system (err,
actually they only list the 8380, but it's the same motherboard).
Their list price is $100 and includes everything you need to upgrade
that board.

Drop in this processor and an extra 256MB of memory in that system (2
x 128MB) and you should have a respectable system for fairly cheap.

Did this, seems to work except a registry problem (which Norton
can't fix) bugs it. It did fix about 126 other problems though.
Not enough to not bother the upgrade though. Looks like I need
a better registry fixer....

 

[Tony Hill]

Did this, seems to work except a registry problem (which Norton
can't fix) bugs it. It did fix about 126 other problems though.
Not enough to not bother the upgrade though. Looks like I need
a better registry fixer....

Here's a link to tons of good "registry fixers" :>

http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major


Seriously though, if upgrading a processor and/or memory causes
problems with your system, something is seriously messed up in there.
More than likely it's messed up because of Norton, generally their
tools cause a LOT more problems than they fix. Same goes for most of
the other registry fixers. The registry is a VERY fragile thing.