Upgrading Your HP Pavilion PC: The Official HP Guide
Tom Sheldon · 2002
From the Book: Introduction Welcome to the official Upgrading your HP Pavilion guide. This book will help you get the most out of your new or old HP Pavilion PC. You'll learn the tricks of the technicians and the hard-core HP users who have already busted into their systems to troubleshoot and upgrade. Start Your Engines Desktop PCs sold through retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Staples, OfficeMax, and other nationwide stores are often designed to specifications rather than performance specifications. This minimizes technical problems and reduces support requirements. Many of these average PCs have great potential to be upgraded. But there are limits. For example, you can't put the latest Intel Pentium 4 in a system that was designed a few years ago for Intel Pentium III CPUs. Some systems limit the speed of the CPU, so even though faster CPUs may physically fit in the system, they won't work once installed. Still, with the right upgrades, you might be able to turn your street-legal machine into a race car that competes with the best. Book Roadmap Here's how this book is structured. In Part I, I introduce some computer concepts and then go over some of the benefits of upgrading. You'll learn how to inspect your system to see exactly what you've got. Then we'll look at some performance monitoring tools and troubleshooting techniques. This will help you determine if your system is running up to par and if you must make adjustments for better performance before you go out and spend money on upgrades. In Part II, you'll learn how to upgrade various parts of your system, including memory, video, hard drive, optical disks, soundsystem, and external devices like portable drives and memory. Part III includes more advanced projects like upgrading the power supply, the CPU, and even the motherboard. You'll also find out how to keep your system running cooler to prolong its life, and how to switch the case, just in case you need more room inside the box for upgrades. Finally, the Appendices. They are not to be ignored. In fact, you won't be able to ignore them because they contain general information about all the different HP Pavilion PC models. The appendices help you identify your system and show you how to disassemble your particular model. The appendices also contain technical information that not all readers need, so I pushed it to the back of the book. Appendix G contains a list of important resources on the Web where you can get more information about your HP Pavilion PC. It is important to understand that this book does not directly focus on individual HP Pavilion PC models. There are hundreds of models, too many to cover individually. Instead, I focus on the motherboards used inside these models. HP has used over 30 different motherboards in its Pavilion PC models, and by focusing on just motherboards, I can provide a reasonable amount of information in the small space of this book. Just keep in mind that what you read here is not always specific to your model, but I show you how to get your model-specific information at various HP Web sites. Appendix A is where to go to determine what motherboard your system has. There, you can look up your HP Pavilion PC model number and its motherboard. HP motherboards have names like Berlin, Cognac, Hawk, Condor, Pandora, and Samba. These motherboard names make it easy to talk about your computer with HP technical support and in the wider HP Pavilion community on the Web. Appendix A contains a description of your motherboard and provides you with enough information to appear as somewhat of an expert when chatting on the HP Pavilion user forums. Appendix G provides the Web addresses for these forums. Disclaimer: I did not have access to every HP model while writing this book, so some of the information is based on HP technical documents and manuals. Because HP models are included in a series, there are often discrepancies in the specifications. In some cases, models were built with parts different from the description. This was usually due to a transition in the parts available for building a system (some systems were built with more advanced parts than those listed in the general specifications). I have done my best to resolve these discrepancies, but you will need to use several methods to verify your own specifications as outlined in the text. The CPU upgrade guide (Table 16.1) was the most difficult, because motherboards typically have many different revisions. The newest revisions have fixes and updates that allow for faster CPU upgrades. However, I cannot tell you which revision your model contains or if it has upgrade limitations. You may need to obtain your motherboard revision number and refer to an authorized HP service representative before buying CPU upgrades. My First HP Computer By the way, I've been using Hewlett-Packard computers for a long time. Check out this picture of my old HP 41C calculator. It's really a complete computer system in a handheld design, and it is over 25 years old! The keypad and display are alphanumeric so you can type in messages and programs and use it as you would a modern PDA. The system includes a magnetic card reader for saving and loading programs and messages, and a bar code scanner for reading in program code or to make typing easier. It also includes printer and memory expansion modules. You can plug in specially designed application modules that provide a variety of business, scientific, and engineering applications. Best of all, programs and applications are still available from many sources. Updates and Alerts Here's the address of my Web site where I will post book updates and new information about upgrading your HP Pavilion PC. http://www.linktionary.com/pavilion/ Please check the site occasionally. I'm also developing some videos that I hope to stream from the Web site. These videos will help illustrate some of the upgrade procedures more clearly than the black and white photos you see here. Technical Level If you are new to PC hardware, some of the upgrade projects presented here may seem complex. My philosophy in writing the book was to provide as much information as possible rather than gloss over topics. Please refer to a qualified technician if you are confused about a project. But before doing so, use this book as a guide to learn about your upgrade options and find out what upgrades are best for your system. You will learn a lot about your PC and be able to talk with your technician on a higher level. A Word from HP This book is intended for advanced PC users who are knowledgeable about PC technology, familiar with electronic safety guidelines, and experienced with hand tools. Without this awareness, get assistance from a knowledgeable person or for best results, from an authorized HP service provider. Users of this material are advised to review and understand the terms of their product warranty. HP warrants its product only in the configuration in which it is shipped from the factory. If you alter the configuration of your HP Pavilion PC such that it terminates the warranty, and later require the assistance of HP Technical Support, you will be charged on a time and materials basis. The concepts and procedures presented in this work are those of Mr. Tom Sheldon, a noted technical author, who is not an employee of Hewlett-Packard Company. The Hewlett-Packard Company