Notebook memory Help

[Rock]

Hi,

I have a friend who wants to upgrade her IBM ThinkPad 600 from 128 Ram
by adding a 128 stick.

She has 98 on it and it is quite slow at times especially when she has a
couple of progs open at the same time.

A couple of q's...

Can one use regular PC133 or 100 128MB sticks ? I have a couple of these
I can give her to save her money.

Is is EZ to insert, by that I mean does one have to pull the whole thing
apart?? I had a notebook B4 that was a nightmare to do this to.

Anything thing I should know about RAM types etc as she does not have a
manual.

Finally..

Will that make it run faster ??

Next step up is a larger drive for her swap file as well I think, then CPU.

Thanks..

Rock

 

[MCheu]

Hi,

I have a friend who wants to upgrade her IBM ThinkPad 600 from 128 Ram
by adding a 128 stick.

She has 98 on it and it is quite slow at times especially when she has a
couple of progs open at the same time.

A couple of q's...

Can one use regular PC133 or 100 128MB sticks ? I have a couple of these
I can give her to save her money.

I doubt it. Notebooks generally have to use SODIMMs. PC133/100
sticks that most people just have lying around tend to be DIMMs or
SIMMs. These won't even physically fit.

Is is EZ to insert, by that I mean does one have to pull the whole thing
apart?? I had a notebook B4 that was a nightmare to do this to.

Must have been an ancient notebook. More modern notebooks that use
SODIMMs typically involve removing a cover on the top or bottom of the
unit (There's sometimes a retention screw or clip). One this small
cover is off, the memory module is angled at 45 degrees into the slot
and rotated in unti lit's parallel to the motherboard. It will click
when it's in, and it only goes in one way.

Anything thing I should know about RAM types etc as she does not have a
manual.

Yes. Definitely. Make sure you know what type of memory it takes.
Most notebooks take SDRAM SODIMMs and based on the model#, I'd guess
this to be true for the Thinkpad too. Some of the more recent ones
use DDR modules (haven't seen these, so I don't know the form factor
for these). Notebooks also tend to be somewhat picky about memory.
My Compaq seems to like modules made by Micron and Kingston, but
chokes on Toshiba modules. If you can, root around on IBM's website
and see if they have an approved list for memory manufacturers.

Finally..

Will that make it run faster ??

Depends on what she's running, and intends to do with the machine.
For 98, anything over 128Megs is a good idea, as it reduces the
swapping. In that respect it will be somewhat faster. It would do
nothing for drive transfer speeds, or CPU processing power though.

Next step up is a larger drive for her swap file as well I think, then CPU.

Might want to think seriously about this. A laptop hard drive is
going to be quite expensive to replace, sometimes 3-4 TIMES the cost
of an equivalent desktop drive.

Upgrading the CPU probably isn't an really an option for laptops.
Most units don't even have ZIF sockets, and even those that do, the
ZIF socket design is meant for ease of repair, not upgrading.