Sony upgrade

Good Morning; I have an old Sony Vaio mod VGC-RA820G with a 200 GB HHD and two 512 mb memory cards. It has an ASUS PTGD2-VX motherboard. I want to increase the HHD space, by adding a second drive, as much as I can. I also want to add memory. Sony says 2 GB max but others say if I go to 4 GB I will get 3 to 3.5 GB usable memory.Sony specs
Warning! I am 72 years old and really don't understand much about computers but you don't have to be a master machanic to changs the oil. So, please small words and short sentences. Thank you, Harold.

I'm guessing your info is right, but I suggest going Here and run the Crucial scanner, this will install a component, and then scan your system, it should then tell you what you have, how many slots there are, and what the max the system can take is, that should confirm what you have found out about the ram, it will also probably tell you a bit about your hard drive, and show alternate's, it seems to be a new thing they now do, but don't take too much notice of that.

Now about the ram, 3.xgig is the max that a 32bit system can see, and use, it also shares the ram with other on-board component's, such as video, so that's why it wont see the full 4gig, it is mainly a limitation of the operating system, but the hardware may come into play as well, but ultimately to use 4gig, or more of ram, the system must have hardware capable of 64bit usage, and a 64bit operating system, then you will see all the ram, although it may still share the ram with other component's.

But it would use it all, the reason you have seen mention of 2gig as being the max it can take, is because it's what the systems were made for back then in simple terms, there is probably plenty of history about it, but that goes deeper than most need, or want to know about, but such things were written before 64bit technology was used, at least for most, there may be someone who knows about this more than myself.

As to the hard drive, again with older systems where the operating systems were not made to handle todays large capacity drives, possibly the other hardware as well for all I know, but there are a few things to figure out here, to start with do you have any idea if the laptop has more than 1, or at least the space for more than 1 hard drive ?

From what I have seen this is a tower as opposed to a laptop ?
If it is as I have seen there should be space for 3 drives as best I can make out, which makes it much easier to deal with, as it looks like it will take Sata drives, so the next question is do you have any idea how much more storage space you need ?
1TB drives are pretty cheap these days, probably around the £50 mark give or take, but I fear the system again may not be able to see the full 1TB, BUT, that said, you can still use a 1TB, but you would need to create a partition in it which means the system would see this as 2 individual drives, even though they are on the same drive, I hope that makes sense to you, if it doesn't now it will once you put it in the system, and we can talk you through all that's needed as you go.

What operating system is this set up running ?
While awaiting that answer, to put a 1TB drives size into perspective for you, it is the same as having 5 of your current drive installed, and to help clarify about adding a partition, you would take the 1TB, and tell the system to make it into 2x500gig drives, and that is how the system will report and show these as, but it will still be 1 physical drive, hope this gets you started, once we have a bit more info then we can advise further.

Hi, 8310guy; OK, I did that scanand here is the results - 📎RAM.PNG. What it tells me is that I can use up to 2 GB of RAM. If I understand correctly I can put in two 1 GB cards for a total of 3 GB and the system will work. If it messes things up I can take out the two 512's and have my 2 GB's of RAM. Remember who you are talking to and tell me your opinion. The Crucial Scan didn't mention the HHD although when I ran it on this computer (a ZT from Costco) it did talk about HHD's. By the way, the Sony came with windows XP and I have upgraded to windows 7. This is the second one of these Sony's I have owned. I gave the first one to a Nephew that needed a computer and when I saw this one at a yard sale I jumped on it. I love these Vaio's. The owner almost gave it to me because it was so laden with Malware that she didn't want to deal with it. I had a friend come over and scrub the HHD and I installed windows 7 from Costco. Almost new Sony, even the keyboard looks new. The scan in my first post in the specs for this Sony. The Sony has a 200GB 7200rpm SATA HHD and two more open bays( yes, it is a desktop). My first one had a 250GB HHD and I added another 250GB drive. I am sure I can put a 250 GB in but I would like a TB or at least 500GB. If I got a one TB HHD that is like the drive in the Sony and it doesn't work do you think it will work in this ZT? The ZT has a Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB Review (ST2000DL003) 2 TB HHD and operates at 5900 RPM. I really don't need all that much space, I just want to have as much as I can. I am the family archivist. I am the one they bring their pictures and home vids to for storage. I have scanned most of the families old pictures slides, and negatives. I have 11 external Hard Drives from 250 GB up to 2 TB. The family buys them for me. My buddy up north is an Audiophile and I took him oneof the big HHDs and over a few months he ripped his collection of 33's, 45's ,and 78's and put them in neat folders so I took him all of the cd's I could get hold of and he ripped them too. I use the Sony for the grunt work of file transfer and editing. I have a guy that knows how to do that partition thing. At least if he understood my text he can. He is a cool guy but only does software, if I take the side off a computer in front of him he gets all nervous and goes outside to smoke. I think I covered everythng in your post. Thank you for helping, I will wait for your next. Harold.

Hi, don't worry lol, compared to some of my mates your a rocket scientist lol, one mate starts to wail at the point I say press the power button lol

Right with the info so far I would say you are spot on with the ram, BUT, there are 2 points that can\could change this, and that comes back to the limitations of the hardware itself (it MUST be 64bit capable), and the operating system (it MUST be a 64bit OS to use 4gig + of ram), you said you have windows 7 on there now, but not which version it is, but to be honest given the crucial scan, and probable age of the system, I tend to doubt it could handle 64bit, but I would like to identify the motherboard before saying much more on the ram.

So treating this as 32bit, I agree that you would probably be best served getting 2x1gig of ram, but I would like to confirm the board can take 1gig sticks, as this can also be a hardware limitation of the motherboard directly, there are, or at least were, boards that could only take a max of 512meg in each slot, and as the scan didn't even mention 1gig sticks (the term for ram, as opposed to cards ), and that concerns me, I would like to try and ensure the board could take 1gig sticks before saying they will work.

So if you can go Here and download\install Speccy, then run it, we can find out a bit more with luck, on the left once you have launched it you will have various headings, click on the one that says Motherboard, then on the right it will give a load of info about it, if you can report back with the make and model of the board, I can then try and find out more about it, but the problem is often the makers of systems (Sony in this case) often pay hardware makers to produce a limited run on rebadged boards, where if you search the board alone, you can find little about it, as the board name is exclusive to that unit, but fingers crossed it has enough for us to get what we need.

Now the hard drive, given you have Windows 7 on there, it's probable that it should see the whole of a large drive, creating a partition is probably worst case here, but I mention it to raise awareness, so install the hard drive, and fire the system up (I will guide how to shortly), it should pick it up as a new device, and a wizard should open and say it needs formatting before it can be used, just accept all it throws at you and next it through, and then the drive should be visible\useable under your My Computer, so once installed go to there and see what the drive is reported as, if it shows as the full size, your laughing, you don't need do anything more, if it only shows as a lesser size, then it would need to have a partition(s) created to use the full drive.

The hard drive(s) you mention can be bettered, the ST2000DM001 has a faster spin speed, so it "should" be faster, as the best I can make out it is the updated version of the one you mention, but others who know hardware better than I may know better, and be able to suggest something even better, but 2TB is the max I would suggest for that system, once you hit 3TB the motherboards bios version comes into play, and with the age of it I wouldn't be comfortable in saying such a big drive would work on it, but I take it the idea is to have this as an internal drive (which is what I have based my info on so far), as opposed to another external one ?

But for peace of mind open the side (using guide below concerning power), and check on the motherboard visually that there are spare Sata ports, if there are none spare then the drive will need an additional card before you can connect it, the ports will be in a cluster of 2, 4 or possibly more depending on the board, the existing hard drive will be connected to one of these already, so look for a thin lead, commonly red, but that does vary, but if you see spare ports then you are good to go, but remember that number, as that is the limit of Sata devices that board can manage.

When installing ANYTHING internally you must be very careful, first shut the system down (if powered on), turn the PSU switch to off, and remove the mains lead from the tower (belt and braces approach), only after doing this you are safe to remove the side panel.

Static electricity is the enemy when working with computer parts, and the ram is among the highest at risk, and a hard drive is lesser, you can buy anti static devices, anything from a crocodile clip that clips to the case with Velcro securing it to you, to a full on mat that plugs into the mains, not to use live power, purely to use the earthing of the ring main (assuming your country uses an earth in house wiring ?), but at a minimum once you are sat comfortably ready to do the work, touch the actual case prior to touching ANYTHING inside, or the parts your adding (more so with the ram when you get it), and never touch the circuit board or any gold\brass contacts (thinking of the ram here more), and remember it only takes a couple of steps (talking about walking here) to generate more static, so if you need to move, touch the case before continuing again.

Next lay the system on it's side for ease of access, and identify the bay you want to use (there is no difference which space in the cage you use), and secure the drive into there using the screws supplied with it, anything longer can damage the drive, , then add the power and Sata leads to it, and connect the other end of the Sata lead to the free Sata port on the motherboard (there may be numerous, in which case any will be fine), and ensure the leads are laid as neatly as you can for max air flow for cooling, and check they are securely fixed, and take note about the Sata leads, if they have a kind of metal "clip" on one side of the plug, you must depress that bit of metal (press it into the plug so it becomes flush if you follow) before pulling it out of the socket\port, it's like a locking clip, just incase you need to ever remove one.

Once your happy all is well, replace the side, stand it up, plug in the power, and switch it on at the back of the PSU, now power the system on and use as normal, if all is well you should get the wizard come up as I mentioned earlier in this manual lol, so although I have written a lot here, just take it a paragraph at a time, I tried to address each point in it's own space to avoid confusion, but there is some crossover as I addressed various stages, if your stuck on any of this please just say, and I will try and clarify the bit your stuck on if needed, hope this helps you a bit anyway.

Good Morning again; First,The Sony's motherboard ia a ASUS PTGD2-VX and I am not sure but I don't think it is 64 bit capable( that doesn't look right but my spell-check is off and I haven't the time to figure how to turn it back on).The operating system is win 7 Ultimate. My thoughts on the RAM question are that 3GB (512+512+1+1) would give me maximum RAM for the system and if it won't work I can pull the two 512's and be on with it. Can you access (spell check is back on, Hooray!) the 'Sony specs' in my 1st post? it lacks the M/B but has most else. My first Vaio took a couple of 1GB sticks without any problem and I think this one was built after my 1st one. She bought it almost a year after I got mine. So here is speccy - 📎Mother_Board.PNG I thought you would get better information from a snippet📎2013_09_20_10.01.59.jpg Quality may be lowish as I am not all that good with my phone.My current thinking is maybe a 1TB drive and if it works then add another, if it doesnt work then move the drive over to the ZT computer. I Have a ritual I use when I have to go inside. Get everything ready, parts, compressed air, vacuum, whatever I might need. 1) turn off. 2) unplug. 3) push power button and hold for a sec. 4) go wash my hands, to kill some time. 5) Drop the side panel and touch the frame in a couple of places. Then I do what has t be done without moving from my desk. My next chore is to get onto Fry's site and order stuff. I think I will start with the memory sticks. I buy from Fry's in Sacramento, CA because every time I have been there they have been really helpful and nice. That place is a wonderland. So the current plan is to install two 1GB sticks and if they don't work right then pull the two 512's and it should work. Then install a 1 TB HDD and if it works, fine, if not pull it and put it in the ZT and if it won't work there then buy an external case for it. None of this will get done until next week at the earliest, Payday you know. Let me know if you see any flaws in my plan and thank you again, Harold

Right that make me feel much more confident, I always hold back from saying to people get this that or the other, not until I am as sure as can be that it is firstly required, and more importantly likely to work, from what I have seen your board can take 240pin DDR2 PC2-4200 (533MHz), with 4 slots at a max of 4gig for the board in total (but unless used in a 64bit installation you won't see the full amount), and a max of 1gig per slot, so you should have 3gig of ram doing this when done, and your system should be better for it. But make sure you buy the 2x1gig sticks as a matched pair, it gives dual channel, meaning a smoother system, I suggest putting the 1gig sticks in slots 1 and 3 (slot 1 being closest to the CPU), and the 512meg sticks in slots 2 and 4 (4 being furthest from the CPU), at least that's the most common positioning, confirmation is often given in colour coding the slots, so each pair go into the same colour slots, but if they are the same colour for all, which I think yours is, count them as I described. One thing to note before you go to get the ram though, take a look using the safe precautions covered, and see what they are, it should be on a label on the side, equally you could run Speccy again, and click on ram this time, but basically ram runs at the speed of the slowest stick, they will work with different speed ram, but if the new ram is faster than the 512meg sticks, the new ram will only run at the slower speed of your slowest stick of ram, worst case it can actually turn out that your better off just running the new ram, but it sounds like the place you go to should be able to give you solid advice as to what your best bet is, but do take the make\model of the motherboard to them, with the spec of the existing ram, this will help them advise you as to your best solution. Your picture of the drive bay clearly shows 2 empty bays, so that's plenty, but unless you want to stick at 1TB I would get the 2TB I mentioned above, it should be just fine given your running Windows 7, as it's xp that has a problem dealing with larger drives, but that said, even newer systems can have problems with drives of 3TB or more, they need to have a newer bios to handle them without any problems, but given your need for storage the 2TB is probably far better for what you need, but the choice is yours of course, but from pictures I have seen your appear to have 4 Sata ports, so again should be fine. Just make sure you have a Sata lead for it, sometimes when buying OEM there is not one, but retail there is as a rule, but they are so cheap you might save money getting the OEM drive, which is usually cheaper than the retail one, and get a Sata lead separately, but whichever way you go, you will need a Sata lead, but you have power leads there spare so that's fine, just make sure about the Sata lead. But you sound like your good to go now, and should have a faster system due to the increased ram, feel free to come back if you have any questions, and hope you enjoy the upgrade. *edit Quick note, just noticed about the vacuum, you have to be careful if it's to powerful, and to close to some parts, it could suck a jumper (kind of a peg) or something, the safest way to use a vacuum is to get a pair of the other half's old tights, and cut a section out, and fix that over the nozzle, that way if it does suck something off the board, it wont go down the pipe, better than sifting through the contents if the worst happens.

Hi; Sounds like I am ready for an adventure. I only use the vacuum to suck dust as I blow it out of the case. Anyway, Thank you for your time and effort. Later, Harold.

i'd be wary of thinking the motherboard can use more than the 2GB of memory stated in the crucial scan. 4x512mb sticks. it depends on the motherboard bios, memory controller, chipset, cpu, etc. it may be hardwired so it can only physically use 512MB sticks for a total max of 2GB regardless of 32bit or 64bit os. i'm unable to find anything definite on the subject tho, some say it can use upto 4x1GB sticks but some say max expandable is 4x512MB sticks. only thing i can say is try it and see but be prepared for disappointment.

Hi; Yeah, That is the plan. I don't think I will hurt the computer if I put in 1+1+512+512. Sony told me, in reference to my first Vaio (same model number), that I would see a small increase in speed with 2 x 1 GB as opposed to 4 x 512 MB sticks. It never occurred to me to leave the 512's in so I gave them to a buddy that had a use for them. Thanks again, Harold

Sony told me, in reference to my first Vaio (same model number), that I would see a small increase in speed with 2 x 1 GB as opposed to 4 x 512 MB sticks.

so does sound like the memory controller or something can only access 2GB of memory, so don't be surprised if when you have 3GB of memory installed it will still only show/use 2GB.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you tho that my thinking is wrong and all 3GB can be used.

:-) I'll let you know in a couple of weeks.