Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Don't lose those screws...
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Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

Adam was kind enough to donate his old laptop to me, as he wasn't using it and was planning on getting rid of it anyway. After a quick look at the specs, I figured I might be able to upgrade some components and use this as a replacement for the Pentium-M kitchen laptop, which is struggling to play YouTube videos.

Specs:
Compaq Presario M2000
Windows XP
Mobile AMD Sempron 2800+
- 1.6 GHz, 256KB L2 cache
384 MB DDR RAM (PC2700 - 166 MHz, single channel)
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M
- Uses shared system memory for ... performance. Currently set to the max of 128 MB.
- Has VGA and S-Video out. Fancy.
Toshiba 60GB HDD, 4200 RPM
Sony CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Realtek 8139 10/100 Ethernet
Some random fax modem (who cares)
Some random Conexant AC97 audio card with Altec Lansing speakers
A USB port.

As you can see, it is pretty standard for a mid-00's laptop. It was running a little sluggish when I got it, so I upped the memory to 1G (2x 512 MB) that I had laying around. If all goes well, this machine should be able to handle the 2x 1G sticks in the current kitchen laptop.

Naturally, I did some basic benchmarks. Running the latest Firefox, it scores 6 fps in the Microsoft HTML5 fishbowl test set to 10 fish http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/fishbowl/. I also grabbed a copy of 3D Mark 2005 to run. Since the Radeon Xpress card only supports Shader Model 2.0, running anything newer would be a waste of time (since this card doesn't have the hardware to run the newer tests). The machine scored a 465 in the benchmark suite. I saw 1-3 fps in all the graphics tests.

CPU-z for the Sempron:
sempron-cpuz.PNG
GPU-z for the machine:
m2000-gpuz.PNG
Fishbowl run with the Sempron:
sempron-fishbowl.PNG
So, I needed to see what sort of CPU upgrades were available for this machine. Compaq offered quite a few options for the AMD equipped models, including several other Semprons. Of more use were the Mobile Turion 64 options. The fastest of which is the ML-37 which runs at 2.0 GHz. Even though it is a 90nm CPU, being able to run a 64-bit OS would be a nice change. The current kitchen computer is a IBM ThinkPad T42 with a 2.0 GHz Pentium M. Those CPUs were never offered in 64-bit models. The Passmark ratings are pretty close for the two, so the Compaq should perform about the same, while offering a slightly larger screen (15" vs. 14") and an improved sound experience. I found one of the Turion 64 CPUs on eBay for $10 shipped, so now to test things out.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php ... cmp[]=1171
- Kevin, how can I include braces in a web address in this forum?

One thing I will say about this machine is that it runs very warm. Even when the thing is at idle, the palm rests and especially the base of the machine are warm to the touch. If the CPU is maxed out (which it is frequently), it is even hotter and the fan will spend its time audibly running. That may be a setback from the ThinkPad, whose fan rarely runs and which stays pretty cool (unless you are trying to run YouTube).

Stay tuned for more exciting details.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

Great success!

CPUz with the Turion:
turion-cpuz.PNG
Fishbowl now runs at 7 fps!
turion-fishbowl.PNG
3D Mark score is now 499.

The machine still runs warm, even with the upgrade to real thermal paste from the OEM pad. General web use seems a little snappier. Now to install Linux.

Teardown pics in a bit.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by kevm14 »

Did you blow all heat exchangers out of dust/junk? I have the best luck when they are out of the system.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

kevm14 wrote:Did you blow all heat exchangers out of dust/junk? I have the best luck when they are out of the system.
Yes. There actually wasn't that much dust.

So here is why 64-bit wins. Fishbowl using a slightly older Firefox (24) and the same H/W under CentOS 6:
fishbowl-linux.png
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

Repair pics.

The laptop.
DSCN5712.JPG
Keyboard/screen.
DSCN5713.JPG
First, remove the battery. Slide the lever all the way to the side and the battery pops up a bit.
DSCN5714.JPG
Remove the hard drive cover and the hard drive. Just pull straight up on the HDD to remove it.
DSCN5715.JPG
Remove the covers on the RAM and mini-PCI card slot. Swapping out RAM on this machine is very easy.
DSCN5716.JPG
Remove the CD/DVD drive. It is actually held in by a screw instead of the typical latch or switch.
DSCN5717.JPG
Remove the two lower screws in the battery compartment (already removed in this shot).
DSCN5718.JPG
Now its time to remove the keyboard cover. This is a little tricky. There are pry points above F4, F12 and Insert. Once those are popped up, the panel comes right out. I used a fancy plastic pry tool from my iFixIt tool kit.
DSCN5719.JPG
Now for the LED bar. There are two screws and a ribbon cable. The white cable retainers slide toward the cable side.
DSCN5720.JPG
Now for the keyboard. There are four screws holding it in. You can see two in the above picture. Remove them and then detach the ribbon cable. This shot shows the underside of the keyboard and the ribbon cable after being removed.
DSCN5721.JPG
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

The next big part is the screen. First, disconnect the antenna cabled from the wireless card. They will need to be pulled through the laptop from the other side.
DSCN5722.JPG
The cable snakes through a channel then goes straight through that hole.
DSCN5723.JPG
Remove the display connector. It is a little tough to pull off, I used that plastic pry tool under one side.
DSCN5724.JPG
There are three screws on each side where the hinges attach to the body. Then the screen comes right off. In hind sight, you could probably get away with not removing the screen for this repair/upgrade, but separating the body in the next part would be fairly difficult. Probably not worth it. Screen removed in this shot.
DSCN5725.JPG
Now, remove the rest of the screws. There are 7 on the top and 15 or so on the bottom. After they are all out, you need to pry the rear of the case apart. Once the rear edge is apart, the bottom comes right off. Notice the M/B is pretty small in this machine.
DSCN5726.JPG
Now unscrew the 4 screws on the heatsink and one on the left side (in the picture). Also, don't forget to unplug the fan connector. Now the CPU and GPU are exposed. The OEM attachment uses a thermal pad on both, I am replacing the CPU thermal pad with heatsink compound.
DSCN5727.JPG
Check out the die size difference between the Sempron and Turion processor. The extra size is mostly the 4x larger cache, but some is also the AMD64 components.
DSCN5728.JPG
The CPU socket has a half-turn lock on it. Make sure you lock the new CPU in. Add some new thermal compound, then start reassembly.

More evidence of the benefit of 64-bit, on the ThinkPad, it plays 720p YouTube at ~7 fps when watching the Transformers 4 trailer. The new machine gets ~15 during the same trailer. Remember, this new CPU benchmarks slightly slower at the same clock as the Pentium M in the ThinkPad and has half the L2 cache (1M in the Turion vs. 2M in the Pentium M).

Overall this machine seems faster than the ThinkPad, even with only 1G of RAM. I will run it for a few days, and if there are no issues, I will swap the ThinkPad's 2G of RAM into this machine for some additional performance. The 64-bit OS does use more memory and should have 2G or more for proper operation. As it is, it is running about 75% memory used when running Firefox with a couple tabs open. The 128 MB used for the GPU probably isn't helping in this state.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Compaq Presario M2000 Upgrades

Post by Adam »

It is working well after a few days. Swapped in the 2x 1G sticks of RAM. The thing that is holding it back is its HDD. Its not too bad once it starts and Linux has a chance to build a file system cache, but booting and opening Firefox right away is a bit sluggish. The 4200 RPM drive leaves something to be desired. I guess I could "upgrade" to the 40 GB, 5400 RPM drive from the T42. Or I can do nothing.

Fast? Not so much.
Screenshot-60 GB Hard Disk (ATA TOSHIBA MK6025GAS) – Benchmark.png
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