Older Laptop Upgrade

mccoady · 04 Jul 2012

My son bought a Satellite Pro A210-EZ2203X (XP Pro Service Pack 3) back in 2008 and has mainly been in storage... he doesn't remember if it came with a Windows or driver's disk but if it did he can't find them. Here's my questions:

1. I have an extra Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade license that I would like to install but would I run into any problems not having the original XP Pro disk since I would be doing a Windows 7 Clean Install?

2. Should I have any trouble not having a driver's disk since I can get them from here Model Content Page

3. I'm not that familiar with AMD CPU's and this has a AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60; 2.0 GHz, 512KBx2 L2 Cache; 2GB RAM but it appears to me it might be rather slow.

Considering the CPU would there be a noticeable improvement in adding another 2GB of RAM or would I be wasting $50-$60 for a 2x2GB kit?

Arc · 04 Jul 2012

Run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Download - Microsoft Windows to make it sure that the hardware etc are capable with windows 7 home premium or not. if so, Download the home premium iso form Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life . For installation and activation , follow the (option three mainly) tutorial Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version .

karlsnooks · 04 Jul 2012

Follow the accurate and complete advice you received from Archie.

My only question is:

I have an extra Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade license that I would like to install

Where is the 25 character Product Key for the Win 7?
Where did you get the the extra license?
Where is the Win 7 DVD for this "extra" license?

mccoady · 04 Jul 2012

Yeah I already ran Windows Upgrade Advisor and the laptop is compatible.

I guess I wasn't very clear I have a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3 User) and I have one install left to use thus I have a license and physical disk.

What about adding RAM or not?

karlsnooks · 04 Jul 2012

mccoady,
Install the maximum amount of ram that the laptop permits (probably 4 GB).

karlsnooks · 04 Jul 2012

McCoady,

Upgrading the processor is probably impossible. You are talking about a laptop and, as a general rule, they are designed to tight and close specifications. In other words, forget that idea.

What you can do is to replace the HDD with a SSD.
Hdd=hard disk drive
Ssd=solid state drive.

128 GB SSD will be enough.

The SSD will bring a very measurable and noticeable performance increase. I use on in my laptop.

Replace the HDD with a SDD BEFORE installing Win 7. This will make the drive upgrade smooth and effortless.

karl

Arc · 04 Jul 2012

mccoady said:

Yeah I already ran Windows Upgrade Advisor and the laptop is compatible.

I guess I wasn't very clear I have a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3 User) and I have one install left to use thus I have a license and physical disk.

What about adding RAM or not?

If you install the 32 bit version, your existing 2 GBs of RAM is enough there . As you have a pgysical installation media, you need not to download it, install it follow the (option three mainly) tutorial Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version .

karlsnooks · 04 Jul 2012

Archie,
2s GB is enough, but 4 GB is much more enjoyable.

I had only 2 GB in this laptop when I first installed Win 7 32bit.
The upgrade to 4 GB brought improvement in performance.

I now have 64 bit Win 7 installed, but I cut my teeth on the 32 bit version.

Arc · 04 Jul 2012

karlsnooks said:

Archie,
2s GB is enough, but 4 GB is much more enjoyable.

Yes that's right :)

bobkn · 04 Jul 2012

mccoady said:

My son bought a Satellite Pro A210-EZ2203X (XP Pro Service Pack 3) back in 2008 and has mainly been in storage... he doesn't remember if it came with a Windows or driver's disk but if it did he can't find them. Here's my questions:

1. I have an extra Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade license that I would like to install but would I run into any problems not having the original XP Pro disk since I would be doing a Windows 7 Clean Install?

2. Should I have any trouble not having a driver's disk since I can get them from here Model Content Page

3. I'm not that familiar with AMD CPU's and this has a AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60; 2.0 GHz, 512KBx2 L2 Cache; 2GB RAM but it appears to me it might be rather slow.

Considering the CPU would there be a noticeable improvement in adding another 2GB of RAM or would I be wasting $50-$60 for a 2x2GB kit?

1. No problem. You'd launch the upgrade from within XP. The only issue would be if you ever needed to install the upgrade copy of Win7 on a blank drive. (There are work-arounds for that.)

2. Looks OK, although I wonder why there seems to be no graphics driver for an nVidia device for X64.

3. I have a similar vintage notebook with a QL-60 CPU. The rated performance is similar. It's entirely usable.

I doubt that you'd see a major performance improvement in taking the RAM to maximum (4GB). However, I did that with my old Cmpaq CQ50-105NR, and it runs Win7 X64 Home Premium well enough. (I needed to run some 64 bit software.)

I also have a 120 GB SSD (a hand-me-down) as its boot drive. That was the most significant upgrade possible for it. Whether it'd be worth $100 to you to get that, I can't say.