[Malikor]

I plan on upgrading my laptop sometime this year. I would like to upgrade the processor, memory and if possible, graphics card. My laptop is a Gateway MX6440. It has an AMD Turion 64 ML-32 1.8GHZ, ATI Mobility Radeon X300 (Express 200M) and 1GB of DDR333 RAM. Is it possible to upgrade any and/or all of these components? If so, would it overheat? The laptop runs pretty warm right now and I placed a cooling fan under it. The CPU runs at about 105 degrees F now. Thanks!

I attached a file that Everest created. It is a report of my computer.

Attached Files

•  Computer_Report.htm   300.52KB   71 downloads

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yeah, dont try it. laptops are difficult to work with, and taking all that hardware out, (excluding the ram) is just a hassle. you might as well get a new laptop. but if you insist on upgrading, adding that hardware would raise the temp. a friend of mine has a custom cooling solution that works great. he took 3 fans from 3 desktop power supplies, hooked them to Lego K'nex (lol), and hooked that to a power supply. the fans continuously blow cold air under his laptop.

[fortune82]

yeah, dont try it. laptops are difficult to work with, and taking all that hardware out, (excluding the ram) is just a hassle. you might as well get a new laptop. but if you insist on upgrading, adding that hardware would raise the temp. a friend of mine has a custom cooling solution that works great. he took 3 fans from 3 desktop power supplies, hooked them to Lego K'nex (lol), and hooked that to a power supply. the fans continuously blow cold air under his laptop.

[w0lverine]

actually, you can upgrade your memory if you want. There are normally openings on the underside of your laptop secured with a single screw. open them up one at a time til you find the one that has the memory. the memory should resemble something like the pic attached.

Here is a link to your specific type of memory:
http://www.newegg.co...R 333 (PC 2700)

Now, replacing is actually quite easy, if you have an empty slot then all you have to do is line up the memory at about a 45 degree angle to the slot, and gently push it in til it stops, then bring it down flush til you hear the clasps on the sides of the memory pop into place, then lightly push the memory into the slot if there is still room to move.

if you dont have any available slots, you can upgrade the 512's to 1Gb sticks simply by removing the 512's by gently pushing out on the clasps on either side of the memory until the RAM stick pops up into the air. pull it out and follow the steps for installing new memory above.

also a few other helpful hints:
Static Electricity is no good. make sure you ground yourself out well by touching a metal doorknob or something metal before performing this.
If your laptop does not post after installing the new memory, make sure you installed it properly first. then replace one of the sticks with a stick of 512, and see if it posts. if it does than theres a distinct possibility that the new 1Gb stick is no good. if it does not post, replace with the 1gb and replace the second 1gb with the 512. still no post, your laptop simply does not like the memory. rare, but it can happen.

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[fortune82]

ram is the only thing in a laptop thats worth upgrading.

[w0lverine]

not true. ram is the only thing in a laptop that can be EASILY upgraded. there are plenty of things WORTH upgrading, if it's available or possible.

[fortune82]

lol, yeah, but in most of the laptops i've worked with (a riveting 3!!) just a ram boost dramatically improved performance, along with a better cooling system

[w0lverine]

the only thing Memory will do to the computer is allow for more processes to be ran at the same time. memory is not intended to "boost performance." it will not make your computer faster. Just allows you to run winamp with a plugin and a dvd burn on one screen while you work in photoshop and browse on your other screen with minimal lockup. etc etc...

[fortune82]

my friends toshiba loaded crap faster and could multi-task, but another contributor to that was his custom cooling fan

[w0lverine]

yes, it will help windows load faster.

[fortune82]

hmmm.....i think we mightve gone a little off topic. oh well....