Advice and Answers?

[PP Mguire]

No problem, you should see some of the others I do lol. Yesterday I was a bit rushed due to packing.

 

[texas]

Optimized properly Windows 7 can be run on almost anything. The biggest deal here is just only having 2GB of RAM.

Any 2.5" SSD will fit in there. As for suggestions, that depends on if you want to spend the money on one. They are more expensive than a HDD but very worth it. It doesn't matter what SATA port is in the laptop, as either SATA2 or SATA3 SSDs will work, and either kind will give a huge boost in performance. With a budget in mind, I can make suggestions based on that.

If I may, just a few last questions to wrap this up:

I bought a Samsung 2.5" SATA III SSD - SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120KW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

And, I was looking at buying this Windows 7 package: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 32-bit - Newegg.com
understanding that I can only install it on the one computer.

Any suggestions or comments?

Thanks again!

 

[PP Mguire]

It has 2 memory slots and may be able to run more than 2GB of RAM. For that reason I suggest getting the 64bit version instead.

 

[texas]

I can't thank you enough!

 

[texas]

It has 2 memory slots and may be able to run more than 2GB of RAM. For that reason I suggest getting the 64bit version instead.

I have one more question, pertaining to this, if I may:

I had a pretty limited budget for this little endeavor so, I had no intention of trying to further upgrade the ram. I just didn't jack with it. I know my cousin won't jack with it, either. So, I just went with the 32bit version of Windows 7. I am actually writing this using the computer I upgraded. I installed the SSD and installed Windows 7, then I changed the settings to optimize performance. But, I'm having one issue in that, this new setup doesn't recognize my webcam. This pc came with a built-in webcam and, it doesn't show up in my devices and hardware. Is there any way for me to correct that?

 

[Yevrag35]

I installed the SSD and installed Windows 7, then I changed the settings to optimize performance. But, I'm having one issue in that, this new setup doesn't recognize my webcam. This pc came with a built-in webcam and, it doesn't show up in my devices and hardware. Is there any way for me to correct that?

I would try installing Skype on it (temporarily if you want), and see if it recognizes that you have a webcam. If it does, then the webcam is enabled but only when software calls for it. If you want standalone webcam software (for taking pictures or whatever) you can download Cyberlink YouCam and install it: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45501-46000/sp45825.exe

But if those programs still can't read it, try manually installing the driver for the webcam. Here's the driver for it for Vista-32bit (which should work for Windows 7-32 bit): http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34501-35000/sp34746.exe

 

[PP Mguire]

I have one more question, pertaining to this, if I may:

I had a pretty limited budget for this little endeavor so, I had no intention of trying to further upgrade the ram. I just didn't jack with it. I know my cousin won't jack with it, either. So, I just went with the 32bit version of Windows 7. I am actually writing this using the computer I upgraded. I installed the SSD and installed Windows 7, then I changed the settings to optimize performance. But, I'm having one issue in that, this new setup doesn't recognize my webcam. This pc came with a built-in webcam and, it doesn't show up in my devices and hardware. Is there any way for me to correct that?

Since you went with the SSD there are things you need to do to make sure it stays in tip top shape. Follow this guide.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

Also, when you're in the services menu disable:
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Volume Shadow Copy

You need to go to the website and download the latest drivers for the laptop if it has any Windows 7 drivers. Also, Windows update may have the webcam driver so you can check there as well.

 

[texas]

Since you went with the SSD there are things you need to do to make sure it stays in tip top shape. Follow this guide.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

Also, when you're in the services menu disable:
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Volume Shadow Copy

You need to go to the website and download the latest drivers for the laptop if it has any Windows 7 drivers. Also, Windows update may have the webcam driver so you can check there as well.

Awesome! Thanks again, man!

 

[texas]

Really, I can't thank y'all enough.

I went through the steps on the SSD tweak guide, which was an awesome help, and, I disabled the Microsoft software shadow copy provider and the volume shadow copy. But, I was unable to download the Guru SSD tweak guide. I just got a bunch of garbage programs and never a successful download of the tweak guide.

I'm assuming all of the steps for the SSD tweaking just prevent the computer from handling the SSD like a spinning platter drive, correct?

Thanks again, y'all, for all of the awesome assistance!

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea don't worry about the utility. All you need to do is the steps which actually makes Windows refrain from doing lots of I/O in the background for certain tasks like the pagefile. Constant reads and writes will kill an SSD after years of thrashing. By constant, I mean like on a laptop that has a low amount of RAM and the pagefile is in constant use.