Memory upgrade for 5yr old laptap?

[Normy]

Listen: My last laptop became terminal in October of 2004. I upgraded the memory of this computer to the maximum it would hold about three months prior to this. The hard drive started to give trouble in October along with the key board, and the technician that I took it too charged me $120 to make it work and move all my data over. He wasn't 100% successfull, and he spent about 10 hours working on it!

[I told him he could have all of the pictures on my hard drive. Since most of those were pictures of me sans clothes...well, you get the idea regarding his orientation and my cheapness...since they normally charged $40 per hour~]

(If you've got it, flaunt it. Especially when it saves you money-!)

Anyway, he told me that he would NEVER upgrade any computer that he owned. He said it is typically a nightmare to get components to work together if they haven't been working together before. I still have my old laptop- it works if I hold the "Fn" key down full-time, and I keep it around as a backup.

Laptops are so cheap these days that it doesn't make any sense to upgrade them, unless the upgrade is dirt cheap and sure to work.

N!

[p911dad]

I just updated my old Thinkpad T40 (XP)(276MB). I added a 512MB chip from Crucial.com for $43.18 including shipping, I had it in 4 days. Popped right in a little door on the back. The unit runs much faster and I figure I just added a few years of useful life to the Thinkpad. Glad I did it. Luckily we have a 21 year old around here on college break

[Jandrews]

While my laptop has two memory bank slots, and a max of 512K, I have read that it must be 512K achieved through (2) 256K cards. And since my slot A is dead, it doesn't look like I can put a single 512K card in there. Can anyone confirm this on a Toshiba Tecra 8100?

Thanks

JA

[p911dad]

JA, try the Crucial site, it is pretty complete as it goes, and you might find the answer there if you fish around.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Jandrews

While my laptop has two memory bank slots, and a max of 512K, I have read that it must be 512K achieved through (2) 256K cards. And since my slot A is dead, it doesn't look like I can put a single 512K card in there. Can anyone confirm this on a Toshiba Tecra 8100?

Thanks

JA

Looks like you may be right. There was a suggestion to put a piece of thin cardboard between the memory and the cover. I'd give that a try. The cardboard should be thick enough put a little pressure on the chips. Actually, I'd make the cardboard wide enough to cover only the bad side.

[Jandrews]

I saw that suggestion Dave...will give it a try. Thanks again for being my personal Tech expert on this!

JA