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2 Qs regarding my laptop


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#1
Dragon306

Dragon306

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first question: is there any way to repair the pins on a laptop hard drive?? two of the pins have broken (numbers one and two, i think) and i have a lot of files and wtuff related to school and work on there as well as some personal stuff and the fact that i relied on that hard drive because without it i am stuck using the 5gb drive that came in the laptop which has obviously much less space but also performs slower (latency or cache size, maybe?). so anyway, is it at all possible to repair laptop hard drive pins (they are boken down to the plastic but i can still see the base of the pins)???

second question: is it possible that i could upgrade my laptop's CPU?? my laptop is a IBM Thinkpad 380XD. now, i am aware that IBM made three 380-series thinkpads: 380ED w/ 166mhz P1 MMX, 380XD w/ 266mhz P1 MMX, and 380Z w/ 300mhz P2 (MMC-1). these were made right at the end of the P1 era, when P2s were taking hold (as evidence by the highest end version having a P2). what i was thinking was maybe they were all actually the same thing, as many laptops of the same series are. and if they are actaully the same thing, just sold with differant options, then what is to keep me from popping a Pentium II 300mhz MMC-1 processor in my 380XD?? any thoughts on this idea and whether it is possible???
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#2
SRX660

SRX660

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Resoldering pins back on is very hard to do. What i have done to save data off a laptop drive is to solder some copper wire to the stubs of the broken pins and carefully put a laptop to desktop adapter on. I was able to get a connection to be able to save the data. Even after trying to be very careful taking the laptop drive out of the desktop computer the drive never ran again as i could not get another good connection with the copper wires. It is rather extreme solution and for someone to pay me to do this for them would be big dollars as i spent a day trying to get this to work ( think $35 per hour for 8 hours).

Trying to upgrade a old laptop computers CPU is not worth the effort. It would take you a day just to dissemble the laptop. The speed increase you would see going from a 233 to a 300 isnt hardly worth the effort. Parts are so hard to find for older laptops that i have given up trying to repair them. Its far easier to just buy a new laptop for $500-600 and be done with it. I have 15-20 laptops laying around here that i save only so customers may get lucky and find i have a small part they broke off their laptop. I usually give the part away free since the laptops were just given to me. Its all possible to do but only if the time spent is on yourself. It's a good learning experience but people can't really afford to pay someone to do it.

SRX660
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