Just got a Tecra A4-S211 (arrives on Friday) - need advice on changing parts..

you can add a second stick of 512 to achieve dual channel, or you can pull both sticks a replace them with matching sticks of whatever size you want to have to utilize the dual channel.

the hdd replacement is pretty simple i dont have instructions but there is a but when it comes to hdd replacements. firstly it will totally void your warranty unless it is done with toshiba parts and toshiba's concent, do it on your own and your warranty isnt worth the paper its written on.

a usb2.0 or firewire external hdd wont void your warranty (a good thing for sure) and will also mean you can save loads more files. however dont plan to run programs off it since the usb speed it too slow. that said it is great for storing files and things like movies or pictures.

you cant really overclock the centrino p-m chip but for most uses it will be plenty fast enough. replacing the processor is pretty easy, but it still can be tricky.

1. Yes. Just make sure it's ddr and not ddr2. To utilize the dual channel you'll need to make sur that not only is the speed the same, but also the latencies. So ideally you'll want to get identical sticks.

2. Yes. Piece of cake. I think the manual (wither the online one or a printed one) will have instructions on how to get into the harddrive. There should be a single plastic cover to remove (either on the bottom, or one of the sides) that may be held in place by a screw. Removing this piece of plastic wil get you access to the hard drive and it's caddy. Just pull it out, swap the drive and rebuild. A fidget mentioned you may have problems with the warranty. Make take a good look at the documentation as I think the tecra HDD's are user accessible and changeable without affecting the warranty.

3. No. The firewire will be slower.

4. I don't know. You may want to look into one of the overclocking threads (look in notebook guides or notebook general here in the forums) to find out more about that. also look into the pinmod as there is a way to "switch" the cpu to a higher speed by adding a little piece of wire (like a jumper) to bridge two pins that the cpu connects into the mobo. From what I recall, some of the users had cotten 1.7GHz cpus to clock up to 2.1? GHz by just adding this wire. Then if you do have some problem downt he line and need to send it n for warranty repair, pull the pinmod wire out before sending it in and they should never even know!!

5. It'll be possible to swap the cpu for one that is originally offered for this model without having to fuss with the bios. So yes you could swap it, but that would definately void your warranty. Better off with the pinmod.

Congrat's on the new laptop. This is the one that I want ot get as well, and I'm sure you'll like it.

actually g00nter the pinmod is only done with older m-m processors so he would still end up replacing his processor to do the mod. although yes you can get some amazing performance out of a mod'd one. the pinmod voids your warranty and if toshiba finds that you have done it your warranty is toast.

no it does not support ddr2... not that big a loss really cause there is almost zero improvement from ddr1 to ddr2.

you can go dual channel pc 3200 i believe but no 533mhz ddr2, though the dual channel makes up for it so no biggie...

no OC ability on the chip what will come in your system so you are kinda sunk on that one. the pinmod works but not on the one you will be getting you need an older chip. look around the forums and perhaps ask for more info on p-m pinmodding in the laptop general section as they will be able to show you the way. i have no clue what the current pin count is but i can say that you wont be upgrading in the same way as a desktop for the cpu... or any other part for that matter.

Yes the FSB of the CPU is 533, but the memory will only take DDR. DDr2 is lower voltage and uses a different notch layout so you physically cannot get the chip in there. The fastest DDR out there right now is the 400, as far as I know. The good news is that by dual channelling it you can get it to raise higher than the FSB so it's all the same. There is a thread in the notebook general section on the DDR vs DDR2 from a few months back. In there are a bunch of links to benchmarks and the like.

Fidget is right, I forgot that the pinmod is used to switch a 400MHz FSB CPU to 533, thereby also increasing the overall speed of a 1.7GHz to aboiut 2.1 or so.

Yes you'll be able to switch to a 7200 HDD, but check the warranty to make sure. As for the optical drive, physically you should be able to do it, but you may have problems with the warranty if you don't have it done by a Toshiba tech.

As far as I recall, the cpu's just slip right into place, so yes it can be done and without having to get out a soldering iron. However, to do it, you have to get in all the way, taking apart pretty much the whole laptop, and that will void your warranty, unless you have it done by a certified tech.

any internal notebook hdd will work, but again the switch will likely effect your warranty. still if you want to do it the best on the market are the 7200rpm hitatchi drive in the 60gb that are widely available. if you can stick it out for a while you can get yourself a 80 or even 100gb version of the 7200rpm drive when they become more widespread.

for your laptop the switch is not present on all laptops, toshiba doesnt have it... so the dipswitch + pinmod trick wont help you. no mattter what you will need an older processor than the one that will come in your computer. there is nothing you can do to improve that one.

the lack of a boot at 1.5gb of ram is not a dual channel problem.... im not sure what it could be other than a dead socket, but assessing that to be the case could be very hard to do.

you can purchase a 7200rpm through tosihba although they are really just hitatci drives. the good thing is that if you have the tosihab 7200 rpm and get toshiba to stall it your warranty will remain.

you should be able to go up to a 2.0 ghz without trouble...

Easy way around the HDD swap/warranty issue

When I bought my T notebook I took it home booted it up to make sure it worked. Slid out the 4200 RPM HDD and put in a Toshiba 5400 RPM. Benches 25% faster than the 4200. You have to remove the pin adapter from the HDD in the notebook and slip it on the replacement. If you need warranty service just put the original back in and you are golden. there are no tamper tags or anything else to indicate anything was done HDD wise. just make sure you keep the original drive because it has a gob of stickers/decals/serial number tags etc. probably indicating that it is an original drive for that laptop. Having an extra HDD laying around is a small price to pay for the added performance.

composer: I ended up not going to Santiago this weekend because of the weather. Sorry I couldn't confirm those IRQ values for you, but it looks like you're going to get it resolved anyways.

Regarding dual channel, I found this post in the general section the other day that links to an intel comparison chart.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showpo...4&postcount=16

the bad news is that the chipset apparently will NOT run dual channel with DDR1 and will not run 3200 at 400 either, it's stuck with 333MHz.

To get into the bios press esc at just after turning the computer on (during the red Toshiba logo) then it'll give you some message to hit F1 (I think, it might be F2, but it'll appear on the screen) to enter setup.

Toshiba does make 7200rpm drives, they just don't offer them with this line. My guess as to why is a reliability/marketing issue. The tecras tend to be made based on proven reliable technology to assure longe lifecycles. Why do they offer them in the M3 then, I don't know. I guess it has something to do with hitting a certain pricepoint in the market and who these laptops are targeted at. Check you warranty info (if you care, which I'm guessing you don't since you are talking about switching/modding/overclocking the CPU), as I don't think that changing the hard drive is a problem in the tecras.

As for the CPU upgrade, you can safely go with any CPU offered by Toshiba for this model, or so I've been told when I asked about upgrading the CPU in mine. The biggest they offer right now in the A4 is the PM 770 running at 2.13GHz.