Tom's Hardware > Forum > Laptops & Notebooks > General Laptops & Notebooks > upgrade my laptop
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hantaah   08-15-2008 at 07:18:14 PM

i have a dv5031ea and i want to upgrade it from a single core to a dual. i also want to upgrade the memory. I've never done it before and I'd like to know how? Can someone advise me. Also the usb ports do not work and apparently it is a hardware issue how do I fix that? Also what's the cheapest way to upgrade to vista and if I buy an upgrade can I use it on more than one laptop?
Many thx

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Bronze Laptops badge frozenlead   08-17-2008 at 10:57:51 PM
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I do not advise upgrading from single core to dual core in a notebook. if your notebook came with a single core, it's cooling system is probably too small to handle the heat. Upgrading a processor in some notebooks is a chore, sometimes it's very easy. Depends on the notebook.

Upgrading ram i easy enough, you can do that. There's a small panel at the bottom of your machine that has usually one or two screws in it - removing it will reveal the memory.

What do you mean "the usb ports won't work" and "aparently it is a hardware issue"?

The cheapest way to upgrade to vista is the only way to do it - buy it.
No, you cannot use an Vista copy on more than one computer.

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killernotebooks   08-17-2008 at 11:42:22 PM
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Here is a multicore primer on how they got so much performance out of dual (+) cores.
http://www.killernotebooks.com/mul [...] ssors.html
There shouldn't be a tremendous amount of extra heat generated, and just going from the stock thermal pad to a good thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 should give you 2-4 C on the machine to help make up the difference.

That said, make sure your system can take a dual core. It's been a while since I have worked with the AMD mobile chips myself, so just do your homework and look on Google for someone that may have had your same system and updated it. As far as the RAM I think those used DDR-333 if I remember right, but again... do your homework. I think I may have some of that old stuff laying around if you can't find it anywhere else.

I also have Vista Business 32 bit that you can have for $100, that's about 35% less than anywhere else... I got them, and have no use for them. Unfortunately it is one per computer according to Microsoft, so other than your notebook, you can't install it on anything else.

As far as the hardware issues with your USB. Are you sure it isn't driver related?

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