Compaq armada 1700 upgrade advice

[-RockMan-]

Hey I'm back after a good while

I have some questions that maybe some of you can help out with.

I just now acquired a brand new compaq armada 1700 from a good friend of mine. He said he's only used it twice and never laid eyes on it again after he got a dell desktop....

I need to know if this laptop will take anywhere from 300mhz to 700mhz with speed step 3 enabled on the mobo ? I heard guy on a forum pushed his armada 1700 to 750mhz without killling it... is that possible even though I have a p2 233 running at 100fsb ?

Also I will put in a 40gig HDD in this laptop as well as increasing the ram to 160mb... The reason why I am doing this because I will be leaving behing windows 98SE and moving on to windows 2000 also I will be taking this labtop on small trips or for business usage and maybe play some games on it.

I need to know if this will be possible at all.

1.Week 1 CPU upgrade.
2.Week 2 HDD upgrade
3.week 3 final memory upgrade.

will I need a bios update to do the required upgrading tasks ?

 

[Kubel]

CPU:
Your laptop uses a MMCI style socket, so it's not upgradeable to Mobile PIII, and you are limited to 66MHz FSB. If your model was a 1750, it would be upgradeable to a Mobile PIII since it uses MMCII. If your processor is indeed running at 100MHz FSB, that might mean you have a 1750. You should double check your FSB speed and your model. But if you have a regular 1700, that means the fastest processor you can get for it is a Mobile PII at 333MHz, and those are limited to the following models: SL2WY, SL2TV, SL2KA, SL2QF, SL2QH, and SL2S5- which unfortunately are not capable of overclocking to 700MHz as this guy claimed. Conclusion: While you could increase your clock speed with an upgrade, the performance differences will likely be unnoticeable, especially if you are 'used to' a modern processor. But if you have a 1750, you should be able to go to the fastest 100MHz FSB Mobile PIII (MMCII).

Memory:
Memory usually has low limits on these old computers, and I think your model (assuming you have a 1700) has 32MB onboard, and one upgradable slot. This means you can probably only upgrade it to 32MB + 128MB = 160MB, so you will need a single 128MB 144-pin SODIMM @ 66MHz. You can install it by lifting the keyboard, pulling out the old stick (if there's one there, and clipping in the new one).

Hard Drive:
It's unlikely that your computer is limited to 8GB's. You should be able to install any reasonably sized hard drive (30GB will probably do nicely). Since this is a smaller notebook, it might take a 1.8", but I'm not sure. It's definitely PATA.

BIOS:
The big rule for messing with BIOS is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So I wouldn't bother flashing to the latest revision unless it's not being friendly with the upgrades.

Good luck with your upgrades, and most importantly: finding the parts for cheap. You may find that you might be better off investing in a new system.

 

[-RockMan-]

Thanks kubel for your help... this laptop will do for now, but I have question though, when my friend jim gave his laptop yesterday he said the LCD screen would dim down so much that I would't be to see a **** thing, not unless I tap it.... also I have noticed the screens color is weak and it seems like the LCD screen is messed up he thinks its the wiring inside the screen.

I have found the exact same screen on ebay in good condition.

COMPAQ ARMADA 1700 LAPTOP LCD 12" SCREEN w/ LID, HINGES - (eBay item 290165928597 end time Oct-06-07 12:49:59 PDT)

If the LCD screen is bad would I need to get this or possibly check and see if the video card is bad and can be replaced if its not onboard the mobo

Also I'm hoping I can get this screen, but people on ebay are like freakin wolves and can get quite nasty when bidding on a item you truly want.

Thanks again

p.s. I got the new ram already I'll install this at work later on.

 

[Kubel]

You can eliminate the motherboard/video card from being the cause by plugging it into an external monitor and seeing if it does it there. If it doesn't, it's most likely a screen issue.

It could be a number of problems (like the backlight), or simply a lose connection, but for $9.99, you might as well just replace the entire screen, since you will have to take it apart to diagnose it anyway. The saturation issue probably won't be fixed by a new screen since Compaq wasn't known for using the best of screens back in the day. But it should fix the dimming issue.

 

[-RockMan-]

sorry about the 4-5 day bump, but I need some help does anyone know where I can find a full guide on taking a apart this armada 1700 ? I managed to get halfway inside the laptop by reaching the ram, cmos battery and some other stuff... I just bought a new p2 II 366 CPU off of ebay and I'm going to install this on my laptop. I asked compaq but they don't know what their talking about when it comes to their old pc's and laptop's.

Also I almost managed to get the bottom part of the laptop open but I don't want to snap it apart and have it be destroyed....

Thanks for any help.
400133-001 / Intel Mobile Pentium II Processor 366MHz - (eBay item 150154375399 end time Oct-22-07 09:35:18 PDT)

 

[Kubel]

Index of /~ze5170/MadMikeXP

 

[-RockMan-]

Thank you kubel again for the help! I'm going to download this to my HDD if you don't mind... when the cpu comes this monday I plan working on my laptop from 7:00pm to 11:45pm and upgrade it and learn more about laptop reparing. My comptia A+ teacher said it's good to know about desktops and macs and such he said fixing or reparing laptop is a very good skill to know when doing it for you or customers.

Also one other ebay member contacted me last night he said he has a 500mhz dell cpx p3 that will work with laptop but he said the compaq would minimize it to 400mhz 433mhz.

Thanks
MadMikeXP

 

[Kubel]

I hope it helps. Just a word of advice: keep track of all the screws. I was working on my brothers laptop (Gateway) and it had so many different sized screws. We got them mixed up and he ended up driving a long screw through the bottom of the palm rest (oops).

I learned from his mistake. From now on when working on laptops, I keep a big piece of paper around and poke the screws through the paper at the approximate location they are at on the bottom of the laptop. That way I know what screw goes where when I put it all back together.

As far as the P3- I'm not aware of any P3's available for MMC1 style sockets. It would be a nice upgrade if it fit though.