compaq presario c301nr core2duo upgrade possibly? - Page 6

Hi ChrisDead,

Welcome to the forum!

I'm glad the information could serve to help save you some hassle in the upgrades. Depending on your motherboard, the T1350 may indeed be your only option.

You could always try and upgrade the motherboard if you wanted, but if the machine isn't going to be a heavy-hitter for you, the T1350 works well for what it is.

Let us know how it goes for you!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

I did it, and it works FANTISTIC!

I run Win7 with ease.

This lappy is mainly used for websurfing and other non-intensive tasks ( webdev, light photoshop, putty, etc )

I am extremely happy, and grateful to all that posted here. My upgrade took about 3 hours - working at a slow pace on a day off.

Thanks again!

-Chris Dead

www.absolutehorror.com

Hello again, ChrisDead,

Glad to hear the upgrade went well. For what you're doing with it, that T1350 should definitely be sufficient.

Enjoy, and don't hesitate to ask if more questions come up!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

Bringing this back from the dead. I brother has this laptop sitting in his closet for a long time so he said I could have it. First order was to upgrade from 512MB to 2GB of RAM. Then I wiped Vista off and installed Win 7 Ultimate ;) Once I had it up and running I discovered that it would not play online games or HD Music videos, very jerky. So I looked into upgrading the proc and stumbled acorss this form which help a lot, wish I would have seen this before I ordered the T2550 but it was only $13. Anyway, I successfully installed the T1350!

 

Question: has anyone tried the T1500? Are we stuck with 533 FSB? I wasn't sure after reading through the forum.

 

Also, would you recommend installing a 64-bit version of Win 7?

Edited by spaceghost711 - 9/20/12 at 10:11am

Hi Spaceghost711,

Welcome to the forum!

The answers to your questions depend entirely on which motherboard you're running.

To paraphrase the information in the C500 thread: If you are running 441696-001, you are out of luck. The T1350 is the best you can do. You are limited to a max of 2 GB, 533 MHz FSB, single-core only, and 32-bit.

If you have either 445605-001 (second best) or 441695-001 (best), you're in much better shape. 445605-001 will get you 64-bit, 667 MHz bus support, and dual-core support. 441695-001 has all that plus support for 4 GB RAM (3.25 GB usable, 2.99 after video RAM is taken out).

The 3.25 GB usable RAM in this system has nothing to do with 32-bit vs. 64-bit OS, it's a limitation of the hardware. Again, that'll only matter if you have motherboard 445695-001 though. The other two limit you to 2 GB usable no matter what.

My advice to you before making more purchases is to check your motherboard model: Open the bottom cover and remove your RAM (after powering the system off, of course). You should see a label on the motherboard under the RAM that will list one of those three numbers.

Hopefully that helps you out!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

Hi O Shadow Fox O

 

I am very much a newbie to forums like this... so I hope that posting here and now is all in proper form. I have read this thread from first page to this last one and was getting ready to head to the other thread (C500). Quite honestly, it is all waaay over my head. So I was delighted to see someone involved in this thread actually online.

 

I have two C303NR laptops for which I have been scouring the internet for information about. Their only modification from original specs is a new upgrade to  2gigs of ram. 

 

All I am trying to figure out is if they will run the new Win 8 and if you could recommend a reliable source for which to obtain any necessary driver updates. HP's website offers no assistance for machines this old. Also, the website generally declines any help to anyone changing the shipped OS. And so many driver sites appear to have incorrect drivers. I tried a couple of the trial driver updaters with the XP I am currently running and they suggested as many as 27 of my drivers were outdated. There isn't even that many updates listed on HP's website for XP.

 

This is sooo confusing. Do you have any help to offer that your experience could provide me with?

 

Many sincere thanks for your time and consideration... or on a sunny note, "cheers". :)

 

t

Just minutes later I see that I am now the only member reading this thread. This may simply be a coincidence, but I must write that if I commited any errors with my previous post, then I most humbly apologize to all.

 

t

We are just slow in reading posts and replying here at NBF ... Also it is the weekend

Welcome to NBF

cheers ...

Read this, it should answer a lot of your questions re: Win8 on your old laptop
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/recommended-system-requirements-for-windows-8/

My gut reaction would be that if it did run, it would run very poorly

As for your Graphic Processor Unit here is the list from best to worst...I would imagine that your GPU would be way down the list most likely below the min requirements
Check what is recommended and check where yours is on the list
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

Hi all,

To address your points, hartmisc:

The short answer is that, driver wise, you're best bet is likely to ignore HP completely and visit the manufacturer websites for drivers for the individual pieces that need them. Several bits of hardware will be automatically installed by Windows 8 (I don't recall there being any especially exotic hardware in these laptops), but it's fairly easy to track down any that are "unknown" by using the Hardware IDs from Device Manager (or whatever the new Win8 name may be for it).

Addressing hardware requirements for Win8 in specifics, as Saugen did a bit of:

CPU - Depending on your processor, you may have some headaches. My C500 has a Core 2 Duo thanks to my extensive tinkering and modification. If you're running the stock Celeron M 420's that HP's website says for the C303NR, it's likely going to be uncomfortable. I ran Win7 a bit on my stock Celeron M 430 and it WORKED but it was not comfortable at all.

RAM - 2 GB is definitely needed. Depending on your motherboard (see my above post), that may be the most you can run without tinkering. It will be enough, but again may not be the most comfortable.

Video - Your video is an Intel GMA 950, and potentially the slowest of the lot (there are three levels in the C300/C500 line that I know of), so that will not be great either. My GMA 950 in my C500 handled Win8 just fine, but I also had more CPU muscle and more RAM, so your mileage may (and likely will) vary.

HD - Not much to say here except that if you're running stock it may get a bit cramped. A 7200 RPM drive would help but isn't 100% necessary.

So that's my input. If you're running everything STOCK, I would agree with Saugen in that your prospects are not great. It WILL run, but it may not be a good experience. If you're up for some tinkering, find out which motherboard you have and go from there. Parts for upgrades can be fairly cheap for these machines, provided your system will support them and you have the know how to install them.

If you need anything else, just pop back in. Someone will jump in!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

Hi all,

 

First I want to thank you for the nice thread, it was very helpfull.

 

I have a C300EA laying arround, but unfortunatelly it is equipped with the worse of the 2 mainboards available 435765-001 - 940GML.

 

I have also a T7200 Core2duo so I plan to get an 441695-001 945GML mainboard and try to make it work. According to Intel 945GML supports T7400 so it should work with T7200 although it may require custom BIOS. When I find a decent mainboard for a reasonable price I'll test it and I'll post the results.

 

Cheers,

Rado

Edited by radinrj - 12/7/12 at 12:16pm

Hi Radinrj,

Welcome to the forum!

Whenever you get a chance to post the progress, we'll be happy to hear.

On the custom BIOS thing: At least with the boards being discussed, no custom BIOS files SHOULD be needed. Support for the Core 2 Duo was added as of one of the earlier files, and the i945GM explicitly supports Core 2 Duo in official documentation as does the i943GML, though that one is UNofficial.

Let us know your results!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O

Still looking for a mainboard. The goal is to put in it the 945GML mainboard, C2D T7200, 4GB of DDR2 667MHz and 250GB hard drive and It will be a wolf in sheep's clothing :D

 

Lets see how much money I'll have left after the holidays and maybe I'll buy the mainboard in the begining of January. The only thing that wories me is that most of the offers on ebay are for faulty mainboards. Now I'm not sure if should buy refurbished mainboard or mother board taken out of a working laptop.

 

cheers,

Rado