help needed with old laptop

Hi,
i have been given an old compaq presario 1200 laptop series CM2060.

it came with win xp installed (somehow as only has 64mb or ram) but i want to get damn small linux up and running on it and give it to my daughter for cbeebies website so i need some more memory for it.

only thing is i cant seem to find memory anywhere for it and not sure what kind it is actually (there is a sticker saying replace with compaq spare 217832-001)? anyone either got any memory they want to off load or point me in the right direction.

(also quite annoyingly this old beast of a laptop has a much better battery life than my new netbook too)

if the laptop is working you could try http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner/
it probably wont be able to offer you any memory for sale but it might tell you what the max you can put in is and what type of memory it is.

this type of stuff, max for your machine is 160mb

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/128MB-PC100-14...item1c0f4122eb

I am pretty sure that your Presario 1200 uses 144 SODIM modules (upto 128MB)

Pending on your model you may have 64MB or 128MB installed.

---------------------------

however to ensure you get the right module -

Most types of SO-DIMMs can be recognized at a glance by the distinctive notches used to "key" them for different applications

• 100-pin SO-DIMMs have two notches,
• 144-pin SO-DIMMs have a single notch near (but not at) the center,

That should help.


@JuvUK is a Ninja today..... a Ferrari Ninja :ninja:

If its the standard model it should have a 500MHz AMD processor (the other models had faster processors from 566MHz and higher). And will have 32MB 'onboard RAM' built into the motherboard.


The RAM you need should be 144-pin PC-100 SDRAM SODIMM of which you can upgrade to a max of 128MB bringing the system total to 160MB.


:thumbsup:

I actually have two simms here that might help, 2x64meg

PC100 64MB CL3 144-PIN SODIMM SDRAM MEMORY
Double side 8 Chips High-density

so a total of 128meg

Check what other cpu's it takes, I also have a Intel Pentium III 650mhz Mobile SL4JW 495 pin micro-pga2

Cheers

hi guys, thanks for the help, thought i'd best upload some pics see if thats better
http://mainvein.co.uk/sale/laptop1.jpg
http://mainvein.co.uk/sale/laptop2.jpg
http://mainvein.co.uk/sale/laptop3.jpg

sorry about the massive pics, looking at the back im assuming the right hand side panel is for the additional RAM but not sure what the panel on the left is all about.

i tried the site with the system scanner but it kept crashing the laptop.

Would the ram you have jimbo work in this ok? only appears to be space for one ram stick so you know if that would be good enough to run damn small linux?

sorry to be so thick about all this, used to build towers years ago for people but never really tinkered with laptops before

that ebay link i gave you will give you the 128mb you need in one stick for £11 something, job done :)

I have a 128mb chip that will fit.

the left pic is probably a modem, you could replace it with a wifi card or bluetooth, off hand I can`t remember which pci standard it is though but I`m sure you could find out with a quick search