A31 FrankenPad Sucess!

[Harryc]

The PC2700 will run at 133Mhz (DDR 266), but it will work fine at that speed.

[iamadam]

Hello there, so far i have upgraded my A31 to a 2.6ghz processor and the ram is in the post. 2 gig of. So anyway, been thinking i wanted to upgrade the graphic card. I understand that it is attached to the motherboard but i do have some soldering skills. Could the graphics card be replaced and what with? Also it possible to have dual screen action on the a31?

Could someone point me in the direction of (7400) hard drives that would fit in the DVD rom slot?

Thank you for all your help so far

adam

[ajkula66]

@iamadam

Soldering skills would not be enough for replacing the GPU, you'd need professional equipment, and apart from that the planar in A31p would not accept any other GPU to begin with...so that's a no-go.

Depending whether you install a SATA or PATA bay adapter, you will have the choice of drives accordingly.

[sjthinkpader]

....Also it possible to have dual screen action on the a31?

Could someone point me in the direction of (7400) hard drives that would fit in the DVD rom slot?

Thank you for all your help so far

adam

Yes, the A31 GPU can do dual screens. 7200rpm drives are too scarce and a large, high areal density 5400rpm drive will be just as fast. It is better to use the HDD slot.

[iamadam]

I keep calling them 7400 my bad, so the ultrabay style is slower then and you would get better performance out of the hard drive slot. I'm thinking that i need some software for dual screen cause i tried plugging another screen into the back of my laptop and it just switched screens. On the topic of software/drivers i am having trouble making the Raid install properly could someone please send me in the right the direction.

cheers

[RealBlackStuff]

RAID is not possible an on A31(p).
Two screens are, if you install the proper graphics driver.

[iamadam]

Hello there, I got my two gigs of ram today and quickly threw them in. They seem to actually slow down my system a touch but i'm putting that down to my high expectations. Anyway, The one problem real problem i've had is that the laptop would not start up. I thought it had something to do with the screen connection I quickly took it all apart and everything seemed fine. So, I tried replacing the new ram for the old ram and it started up fine. I then replaced one old for one new = 1.5gb of ram and it work fine and then put both of the new rams back in and it worked fine.

Any ideas on why this would happen? Will it happen again?
I've final got the Graphics drivers and have sorted out how to get the dual screen action. Thanks very much for the help once again.

[tbartold]

the laptop would not start up

I wonder if it's a matter of patience?

When I've made changes to the system, it's taken a really long time to start up. I think that sometimes the CMOS needs to reset itself. Des that make sense? In my case, after a change (after disconnecting the cmos battery), the system does not show the F11 choice and hangs on that screen for a really long time. But eventually does boot.

If I've made multiple changes to hardware, and then change stuff back, I 've tended to be more patient, and seen that it actually does restart, and then when I make incremental changes it has seemed like it did succeed.

Not to downplay your concerns, but does this seem along the lines of what seems to be happening to you?

[RealBlackStuff]

The RAM slots have probably accumulated grid/dust over the years. Blow them out with some compressed air.
If your RAM modules are old(er), the edge contacts may have some corrosion (i.e. the gold plating looks very dull).
Clean the contacts with a rubber eraser, blow the debris off and put them back in.

[iamadam]

I wonder if it's a matter of patience?

Well Hello there, my ram issues seems like ages ago. After swapping around the ram i like i said It seem to fix the problem right up until today. So no more carrying around my old ram I agree with the cleaning of the slots like stated above,The rubber idea sounds crazy but should be fine.

But i'm sure it sounds like a CMOS issue. Which i know really nothing about. It could be that it needs replaced. If you have replaced it then well hmmmm...
I've read lots of stuff on CMOS batterys going dead/being removed and attached...
when replaced it seems to take a bit of time for the system to get back up and running. You should do a search in this forum to see what you can find. Could you please post back when you sort this so that when my CMOS battery goes dead i'll know the scene.

Well if that is the issue.

What other work have you done on your A31?

*//on another similar topic>

I was getting slagged off about my laptop today with a kid with a ACER (SN: Whatever) and pretty much by the time he finished trying to convince me to get a ACER it had badly crashed.

His main argument was that it is too big. And couldn't play games.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This may be true for a primary school kid and playing games is too addictive, so it's nice to have a break


Best of luck

A31

[cybercorsair]

Bios Flash .. I found if the bois has not been upgraded with the new flash the memory with not be seen. Did that to my newer A31 and it all worked fine. but it would not see a full 2gigs till I did the flash .

try that then add the memory.

CC

[iamadam]

Will this harddrive work in the a31?

Corsair Extreme Series 64 GB Internal hard drive - 300 MBps

General
Device Type Solid state drive - internal
Weight 80 g
Hard Drive
Form Factor 2.5"
Capacity 64 GB
Interface Type Serial ATA-300
Buffer Size 64 MB
Compliant Standards S.M.A.R.T.
Performance
Drive Transfer Rate 300 MBps (external)
Internal Data Rate 220 MBps (read) / 135 MBps (write)
Reliability
MTBF 1,000,000 hour(s)
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces Serial ATA-300
Compatible Bays 1 x internal - 2.5"
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support 2 years warranty
Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 2 years
Universal Product Identifiers
Part Number CMFSSD-64D1

[RealBlackStuff]

Not as the main hard drive.
The A31/A31p only takes PATA/IDE/ATA drives, not the SATA from your post.
However, you could try and find an internal Ultrabay Plus SATA-HD-adapter, in which to put it.

[iamadam]

Cheers