Adding memory to HP laptop.... [Archive] - Glock Talk


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12-19-2005, 18:01
How hard is it to add memory to an HP zv6000 laptop. It currently has 512 mb, but I want to add at least a gig to it. I have never taken apart a laptop before but have quite a bit of experience on desktops. Please let me know if you think I should try to tackle this project myself or have someone else do it.



12-19-2005, 18:30
looking at the service manual (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00364919.pdf) I don't see any issues. There's one SO-DIMM under a door on the bottom of the PC (pg. 5-11), and a second SO-DIMM under the keyboard (pg. 5-31). Chances are they have a 256MB SO-DIMM each currently.

Not sure which CPU you have, but the Athlon 64s it can come with are dual channel memory CPUs. Regardless, I'd highly reccommend you just swap out both SO-DIMMs with 1GB each and be done with it. It's just not that expensive anymore.

Unless I'm totally off base (the specs are useless), that machine needs 200pin, DDR400/PC-3200 SO-DIMMs, which in 1GB are a hair over $100 each.

The swap, total, should be like 10 screws, max. The above linked guide shows yo uhow to do it, step-by-step, and unless you're seriously ham-fisted, should pose no trouble.

12-19-2005, 18:38
Thanks so much for that link. I thought I would have to take the whole laptop apart. I think I will just add one gig in the external compartment for now and have 1.25 gigs. Also, can I replace the hard drive with a higher rpm one? Mine is currently 80 gig 4200 rpm. Do you think it will accept aftermartket 7200 rpm hard drives?

Thanks again for the advice.


12-19-2005, 18:50
Be aware... if that CPU has a dual channel RAM controller, mismatched SO-DIMMs can cause all sorts of annoying little problems, and is not reccomended.

As for the hard drive... anything that will fit, will work. The only possible issue is if the BIOS can handle a 100GB or 120GB newer drive, but as it can be equipped from the factory with a 100GB, I doubt that's an issue. The spindle speed is a non issue.

Do check the type of drive that it has now. From HP it looks like it's a normal ATA drive, but the chipset it uses can support Serial ATA, just have to make sure you get the right interface.

12-19-2005, 18:56
Sorry, i guess I should've said I have the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ at 2.0 GHz. So if I added 2 gigs of ram and a 7200 rpm drive, it should speed my computer up quite a bit, right? Also, would you recommend sticking with regular ATA or switch to Serial?

I promise I will quit bothering you after this :)



12-19-2005, 20:06
Unfortunately there's like 12 different Athlon 64 "3200+" CPUs. Some are dual channel, some are not. Short of using CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php) to find out, I'm not sure how to tell the difference. If it's a dual channel setup, you want matching size SO-DIMMs. If it's not dual, then it doesn't matter all that much, but you should try to match the timings. I'm not sure how happy A64s are with dissimilar DIMMs in general.

It's not neccessarily your choice for ATA or SATA. I don't know if they setup the connection for both. Unless you are sure they are both there, I'd go with the same interface as you have now. You know that'll work. But given a choice... I think I'd stay with ATA in a laptop, SATA drives are (a little) more expensive, and have less selection at the moment.

As for performance with the upgrades? Dunno... depends on what you do. Could be noticable. Could be insignificant. I doubt it'll be earth shaking in any event.

512MB is enough for common tasks on XP. If you're not having to swap all the time, more RAM won't help much with day to day operation. If you're doing anything interesting, including some newer games, an upgrade to 1GB can definitely make a difference. As for 2GB v. 1GB... not so much. I like 2GB so I can't even think of worrying about it for the life of the machine.

The HDD is much the same. 7200 looks good on paper and in benchmarks, but I'm not sure how big a difference it will make if you aren't hitting the drive all the time. Word, email and internet aren't generally hard drive intensive.

Now, as a computer geek, I definitely WANT 2GB and the snazzy HDD. My D800 has a different BIOS, 2GB of DDR333, 2 x 100GB 5400RPM drives (100GB 7200s weren't out yet), Bluetooth and various other gizmos. Do I need them? Not likely... Do they actually improve the function of the PC... ehhh... dunno.

And I really don't care.

12-20-2005, 01:32
Once again, thank you for all your help. I play World of Warcraft on my laptop quite a bit. It has a little lag in it and I figured upping the RAM and HDD would help a bit (not the modem as I am running over 2MBs download speed). I only have the ATI Radeon 200M w/ 128 MB of dedicated memory, so it is not a gaming laptop anyway. I think I will upgrade to the 2 gig RAM and 7200 rpm 80 gig HDD and see what happens.

Just out of curiosity, can I upgrade the motherboard/cpu when I need to instead of buying a new laptop?

Thanks (and I am sorry about breaking my promise for no more questions).


12-20-2005, 09:33
You can probably upgrade the CPU, to at least the fastest that laptop can be bought with.

The chances of a new motherboard fitting very closely approach zero, however.