Old Laptop, CF for Paging File?

  • Thread starter Thread starter F3
  • Start date Start date
F

F3

Hello,

I have an old laptop, a Gateway Solo 9500, with a Pentium III 1.0GHz
CPU, 512MB RAM, and a 30GB IDE HDD. I love the laptop's 4:3 aspect
ratio 15.7" TFT display and the TOSLINK fibre-optic audio out port.
However, it is slooow.
I am thinking about doubling the RAM to 1GB, which, unofficially should
be possible, but officially, Gateway says that 512MB is the maximum.
The "unofficially" is because I've seen the 1GB maximum on an old spec
sheet from Gateway and also on a memory vendor's web site. Currently,
Gateway is saying that 512MB is the maximum.
Another Idea I have to inexpensively speed up my computer, is to
purchase a CardBus (PCMCIA) to Compact Flash (CF) adapter and a 1 or 2GB
CF card, then to move the Windows Swap File from the primary HDD onto
the CF card, which I would leave in the slot permanently.
If I clear the check-box for "removable" in the CF properties in
Windows XP Professional, is this possible to do?
Since solid-state memory can be an order of magnitude faster than a
disk drive, this should, theoretically, speed up Windows two ways: one,
by moving the swap file to another drive, program access to the hard
disk drive and swap file access simultaneously should be possible (vs.
one-at-a-time with both on the same drive); two, the solid state CF disk
should be faster than a roughly 5,000RPM spinning disk).
Feasable?
Practical?
Cost/Benefit?

Thanks,
Fred
<><

P.S.: The O/S is Windows XP Professional, SP3
 
Phil,

No, NOT a USB drive... I was thinking about putting a PCMCIA/CardBus
CF adapter in one of my two CardBus (PC Card) slots and sticking a 1 or
2GB Compact Flash card in there.
If I remember correctly, the architecture of the CardBus slot is
similar to PCI for desktops (older PCMCIA slots were more akin to ISA).
CF cards can be accessed by computers just like IDE disk drives. If
memory serves me correctly, a CF card adapter in a CardBus slot should
act like an IDE adapter and the computer should read the CF like a
second IDE hard disk drive, theoretically.

I'll go ahead and hunt down a couple of 512MB PC133 SDRAM SO-DIMMs for
my laptop and see if they work. 1GB should give this laptop halfway
decent performance (I use my laptop for more than just checking email).

Thanks,
Fred
 
Take a look at the specs for that 30GB hard drive.
If it's only a 5400RPM drive you might consider
replacing it with a newer/faster drive.

Also be aware that your laptop may not be able
to support drives larger than 137GB (48Bit LBA)
so keep this in mind when looking for a replacement.
 
If you decide to replace the drive then
first find out if your existing drive is/uses a
PATA (Parallel) or SATA-1/SATA-II (Serial) interface

From the speed of the processor it could well be
a PATA drive if you purchased it in 2003 or earlier.
 
Back
Top