HP DV7 Upgrades

I'm currently sporting an HP DV7 (1273cl) as my daily system while out of country. I want to make it better. Right now, I've covered all the basic upgrades such as ram and hdd.

I was reading the specs and seen it has an Intel 5100 AGN and I was wondering if I could upgrade it to something faster? Read some articles on this concept but still not sure if it will make a difference.

The internet connection is rather slow where I'm at so I'm trying to basically "steal" a bandwidth boost so I can get faster connection speeds.

Can anybody help with this? Perhaps just leave it alone and go with a slot upgrade or USB wireless? Thanks!

That's already a pretty good card that you have in there. I don't think there's much you can do for the slow internet other than get faster internet or MAYBE a better router.

Alright... So I just ran into another issue. The other day I was removing one of my hard drives (to help a friend out cause his burned out) and when I put everything back together, I went to start it back up. It powered up but the screen didn't display anything (nor did it power on). I switched back to my old laptop and researched the problem.

I found out that a lot of people were having this issue and it's the graphics card. I had to removed the inner most ram chip and tried it again. The system powered up and loaded as usual. Once turned on, I noticed that the display was set to 800x600. I immediately switched it but couldn't get the max out of it without the system running super ugly. I thought maybe reinstalling/updating the NVIDIA driver but than realized that my computer is running on the VGA integrated graphics accelerator.

Basically what I'm saying is that the inner most ram chip that was removed was the GPU main memory source and now the GPU isn't working at all

If anybody has any insight or know of a solution to this problem, I would be most appreciative. Thanks!

Need info/help asap. Thanks!

flodubba said:

I thought maybe reinstalling/updating the NVIDIA driver but than realized that my computer is running on the VGA integrated graphics accelerator.

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Your system can't communicate with your GPU. Reinstalling drivers is usually the first thing you try.

Basically what I'm saying is that the inner most ram chip that was removed was the GPU main memory source and now the GPU isn't working at all

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If you were able to remove the ram dedicated to the gpu, you would need a screwdriver of some sort to pry the memory off the motherboard. I don't think that is the case, thus, you only removed a RAM module that is independent of the Nvidia GPU. Shared memory or not, it is not dedicated to the GPU itself.

If anybody has any insight or know of a solution to this problem, I would be most appreciative. Thanks!

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Put the ram stick back in and try to update your video drivers.

I'm not sure why this would happen when you removed your drive (depending on how your removed it of course). You should try a system restore as well.

oK SHARED ram CAN cause this issue.


Shut the system off, swap the 2 sticks of RAM and put it all back together and see what happens.

HP DV7-3085DX is what I have.

You can upgrade the WLAN card, but it really doesnt net you all the much benefit.

Speed = heat
heat + laptop = fried lap/components.
you will not get top end superfast speed out of a laptop OR you will burn up the laptop in the process (pinmodded CPUs created too much heat and basically torched the internals on older systems)

Adragontattoo said:

oK SHARED ram CAN cause this issue.

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Then it could be a faulty ram stick then eh? Or he could have accidently broke something that is used to have the GPU communicate with the ram module.

9600m GTs were nutorious for overheating issues though.

Speed = heat

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Not neccessairly.

heat + laptop = fried lap/components.

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Unless properly cooled.

you will not get top end superfast speed out of a laptop OR you will burn up the laptop in the process (pinmodded CPUs created too much heat and basically torched the internals on older systems)

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Not true at all. There are laptop's with desktop CPUs and enough GPU power that is equavalent to a modern day GTX580/HD6970 (slied GTX580m for example). They are also armed with proper thermal paste applying proceedures and armed to the teeth with fans. They are just expensive.

On a more cost effective side, you can even grab 2 GTX560ms or crossfired 5870ms that will perform similar to a HD5850/HD5870 desktop GPU.

I haven't done anything to the laptop except I swapped my old laptops hard drive into this one, since it didn't come with one when I initially got it for $60.

When I get the chance, I'll put in the ram and reimage the computer and see if that works. I'm running a 32-bit OS anyways... Yeah.

Also, this isn't a laptop that the GPU can be swapped out. The CPU can be upgraded but that involves disassembling the the keyboard, face surrounding the keyboard, and disconnecting the screen. Way too much hassle to do just that for 1/2 a ghz increase.

Or... do you know something I don't, Domino?

Double post edit.

Domino said:

Then it could be a faulty ram stick then eh? Or he could have accidently broke something that is used to have the GPU communicate with the ram module.

9600m GTs were nutorious for overheating issues though.



Not neccessairly.



Unless properly cooled.



Not true at all. There are laptop's with desktop CPUs and enough GPU power that is equavalent to a modern day GTX580/HD6970 (slied GTX580m for example). They are also armed with proper thermal paste applying proceedures and armed to the teeth with fans. They are just expensive.

On a more cost effective side, you can even grab 2 GTX560ms or crossfired 5870ms that will perform similar to a HD5850/HD5870 desktop GPU.

Click to expand...

He is asking about DV7 upgrades.

The DV7 does not support SLI, and using the in place cooling, HEAT = dead Hardware.

You could probably upgrade the cooling with some bondo, bolts, and ingenuity. The problem is that he is not looking to turn the laptop into a frankenstein.

I have redone the TIM in my DV7, and most of my other laptops. Most benefited from the better TIM that was properly applied.

EXCEPT one, which is a known issue and the biggest complaint about the system. I9300 aka XPSm170, it was able to be pinmodded for faster Processor speeds using lowerend chips but the in place cooling wasnt sufficient. It also had a few GPU choices from ATI and NVidia, problem was that the 7800 it was able to run, but it was also running extremely hot.