Tips on getting old laptop to run faster?

[dville_gt]

So I have an older Toshiba Satellite 1805-S203.

It is 800mhz and currently has 256mb of ram. I have a second 256mb of ram on the way so it will soon have 512mb of ram.

I am using this computer for tuning. It is running on Windows XP. HP Tuners (the tuner I am using) recommends 1ghz w/512mb of ram so this obviously a little less than ideal.

Any ways to get the computer to run better? The video card uses shared RAM and for some reason cannot even play a video off of YouTube smoothly. I don't know how to change the amount of shared ram that the video card gets. I assume it is through the bios but I can't seem to access the bios, I have tried booting the computer up and pressing F1, F2, F12, DEL, etc. and nothing seems to get it into bios.

Any tips?

[ram57ta]

Theres really not much your gonna do to make that run a lot faster....it has a LOT working against it. Budget celeron processor, very low memory ability, shared video ram. I used to have that model and gave up on it. Sell it and buy something used that has more power on craigslist. You can find a nice working IBM T series (T-30,T42,T43) that will blow that Toshiba out of the water for probably under a hundred bucks that will be light years faster and a lot less weight to carry around.

[ceyko]

IMO, ram57ta about sums it up.

[dville_gt]

Any way to enter the bios?

[ceyko]

Google that model number and "manual" couple of places you maybe able to download it from and then, in theory it'll tell ya.

Otherwise, did not look like any easy info. Nothing on POST that tells you?

[dville_gt]

Nope, post just says press f2 for boot options (i.e. which disc to boot from)

[70Mach1]

You can make the computer faster by
1. reinstalling the OS
2. removing any unused programs in the Add/Remove programs. (there will be a lot)
3. remove/disable any windows services not needed (there will be a lot)
4. Install your HP tuner software and see how it runs. If it runs fine dont do anything else.
Dont even run windows update or connect it to the internet if this is going to be a tuner only computer.
Good Luck.
Jim

[ram57ta]

Heres another idea that I guarantee will make it faster for what you are doing with it (I am going on the assumption that you only need this computer specifically for your tuning program). Completely format the hard drive and install Windows 2000 Professional. It SHOULD be compatible with just about anything that is XP compatible and for the most part is FULLY USB plug & play ready...and is a HELL of a lot lighter in system requirements...and IMHO is considerably more stable than 98 OR XP. I have a copy of it I could let you use if you want. It would probably make the very slow processor and memory of that computer tolerable.

[bjtheman1]

I've got an old laptop I'll sell ya for $125. It's a compaq presario v5000, I upgraded the ram to 1.5gb and a new battery within the past 8months. I was using it for my sct xcal3 programs but I bought a new laptop and don't use it anymore. It works great, just collecting dust