Anybody here upgrade a laptop?

[echelonphoto]

I have a two year old Sharp actius computer with an AMD chip that still runs pretty well..it is compact, so its ideal for travel. I have since bought a new larger machine, but I would like to use the Sharp for trips. The problem is that the HD is really too small and I would like to substitute a DVD burner for the existing CD burner. I know you can buy components for these...but getting it to run is the problem. Has anyone here done this kind of thing?

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[TheStu]

Your Sharp is likely using an PATA (IDE at the store) hard drive since SATA wasnt that big 2 years ago. You can get these on newegg (look under notebook hard drives) for relatively good prices. Less than $1/GB.

A DVD burner can also be acquired on Newegg. As far as replacing them goes, depending on how adventurous you are, you can replace them yourself (will most likely require you to really, really open up your laptop) or you can take it to a shop and have them do it. But I would recommend buying the parts for yourself first.

 

[slugg]

ive replaced hard drives on laptops that don't have an "accessible" hard drive bay (small, portable laptops just like yours) and it STILL wasn't that bad at all. Never done an optical drive, but your harddrive should be cake

 

[TheStu]

I may have overstated the difficulty of it, but I am of the opinion that it would be better for one to be over-scared about opening their laptop rather than thinking that it is easy as a desktop. Some are, but other seem to be intentionally difficult to open. I remember this Toshiba I had to fix once, dead hard drive... i had to just about remove every single screw on the machine, and even then had to work a thin screwdriver around it to pop all the little plastic retaining points. It was ridiculous. Replacing the hard drive in my macbook requires me to remove the battery, and then pull three screws. Bam, hard drive and memory access all in one fell swoop. If I want to replace the optical drive, i have to remove an additional roughly 20 screws on the left, right, back, bottom and in the battery compartment.

So, I may have overstated the difficulty, but I may not have.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: TheStu
I may have overstated the difficulty of it, but I am of the opinion that it would be better for one to be over-scared about opening their laptop rather than thinking that it is easy as a desktop. If I want to replace the optical drive, i have to remove an additional roughly 20 screws on the left, right, back, bottom and in the battery compartment.

So, I may have overstated the difficulty, but I may not have.

I've upgraded the hd (pata) from a Toshiba 60GB 5.4k to a 100GB Seagate 7.2k(about same difficulty as your macbook) and just recently the dvd/cdrw to a Samsung sn082 on my hp zv6000 ..1 screw on the optical drive and it was in my hand ...now the faceplate...:frown: ... as always ..ymmv ..gl

 

[DarkThinker]

You can't be certain that the optical will work, some manufacturers resorted to using proprietary connections for their optical drives!

 

[JWade]

all teh laptop cd-roms i have switched out, from a p3 latop on, if they used a proprietary connector, it would hook onto the back of the standard laptop dvd drive and then hook up inside to the actual laptop.

 

[echelonphoto]

Thanks you all! What about reinstalling software and drivers? Can I do it from scratch, or do I have to use factory settings.

 

[TheStu]

What do you mean about the factory settings?

Basically, drop in the OS disk, install the os, install the drivers, verify everything is working to spec, install your software... and you're done