Ways to speed up an aging T23...

[dgurjala]

Hey all,

First time post on this great forum. I have a T23 with manufacture date 3/02 that is one of my prized possessions. I've used this laptop to its fullest, and resurrected this warrior time and again with a new hard drive, new ultrabay aluminum hardware, new bezels, the inductor fix, new keyboards, new batteries, etc. Right now it's back to mint with a new coat of Meguiar's natural finish vinyl and rubber protectant on it.

I was in the market for a beautiful Sony TZ ultraportable laptop, but have decided to stick with my old faithful due to insufficient funds. I just purchased a new Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm 100gb hard drive I'll be installing tonight. So my complete specs will be a T23 with 1.2Ghz P3m, SXGA+, 1GB RAM, and a 100GB HDD, running Vista (of course in non-Aero mode, slower than XP but works decently).

So this all got me to thinking, what are all the things that you guys have done to maximize the performance of our aging computers? I know my system is probably maxed out, but any other ideas?

Eg, I know our max memory is 1GB, but has anyone ever tried putting in 2 1GB sticks and see if it's recognized? Any other basics to be addressed or hacks? Hardware, software?

Thanks!

[chan_man]

Amazing.. I think you have max it out. If you have a Dock2, you may be able to use an external video card to get some better response with graphics but that is about it. I still have my T23 around as well, it is a nice machine to have.

[jdhurst]

A computer cannot work faster or slower than when it was first built (in its stock form). I had a T23, so in your case, adding the memory (1Gb is enough, IMHO) and putting in a faster hard drive is about all you can do from a hardware perspective.

I respect that one day (ever farther out into the future) Vista will be a decent choice. Today, however, there are too many incompatiblies to use it.

So, since XP Pro is available (and T23's were certified for it), and since it will be in support until 2014, I would have used XP.

However, since you have Vista, just get rid of all the eye candy, reduce cache's to reasonable levels, turn off automatic searching, turn off application auto updates - in short, turn off CPU-grabbing processes and you should be fine. I do all of the above in XP.
... JDH

[rkawakami]

Eg, I know our max memory is 1GB, but has anyone ever tried putting in 2 1GB sticks and see if it's recognized?

Don't believe that SDRAM PC133 modules are available in a 1GB density. If you find any, let me know!

As far as "speeding up" the system, you should probably concentrate on the software-side of the equation as JD suggests. Get rid of all the Vista eye-candy, run a lean anti-virus solution, possibly even reduce the color depth of the video driver.

[BruisedQuasar]

This probably will not go over very well but you asked if any of us know of a way to max out a T23. I did a lot to mine for cheap. I got a used 40GB 5400 Travelstar and installed the
newest distro of the Japanese version of Knoppix Linux, Accelerated Knoppix. I do not have 1GB RAM yet (I have 640MB but want a 512 module as Knoppix can create, load into and run entirely from RAM, provided I have at least 1GB). Under Knoppix, my T23 already ouperforms any 2.4 GHz Pentium Windows PC I've seen.

I waste no resources or time with registries, fragmented HDD, or W2K, XP, Vista bloat or productivity software bloat. I get automatic updates for ALL my software and utilities in one sweep and I do not have to reboot after they auto install. Firefox opens near instantly as do my other FREE programs.

I have no external virus, spyware, or firewall programs slowing my system down. I just use the Linux Core Firewall scripts & I have two hardware firewalls in my broadband router.

I run Knoppix in my 2GB desktop systems from RAM Disc. Everything works near instant.

Anyone have any tips for getting used 512MB RAM for a T23?

--Bruised

[rkawakami]

This probably will not go over very well but you asked if any of us know of a way to max out a T23. I did a lot to mine for cheap. I got a used 40GB 5400 Travelstar and installed the newest distro of the Japanese version of Knoppix Linux, Accelerated Knoppix.

While non-MS operating systems is not for everyone, yours is a valid option so I don't see any problem with that suggestion.

Anyone have any tips for getting used 512MB RAM for a T23?

Luck in hitting the right auction on eBay . About the lowest I've paid for a PC133 512MB module in the last couple of months was $33/each (shipped). I bought two lots of 4 and ended up returning three due to DOA issues. The best prices can usually be found in lots. Of course that might mean buying more than you really need but with the number of systems that I'm still trying to populate, it's the way to go for me.