# So I am getting an old Dell Inspiron 2650 and I have a few ideas...



## kingmathyou (Apr 15, 2006)

It only has 256mb ram, cd/rw drive, 1.6ghz intel celeron cpu, and 20gb hdd. 
Which of these would be best and least expensive to upgrade? 

RAM - I was thinking about adding in 1gb of ram. Does anyone know what socket type, and would it be shared memory (512mb x 2) or just a single stick. And would the laptop even be able to run and fully use the 1gb of ram?

CPU - I doubt i'll upgrade this, but I am just curious. What is the socket type for that, and would the rest of the computer function with a faster cpu?


What do you guys suggest?


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi,
the maximium memory you can install on the 2650 is one single 512MB DDR200 SODIMM module.

The processor could be upgraded to a Mobile Pentium 4 FSB400mhz

CD/RW could be upgraded to DVDRW.
Hard Disk you can upgrade to whatever size you fancy.

Here is the Dell page for your laptop....
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins2600/en/sm_en/index.htm

The memory max of 512MB and the GeForce2 graphics this laptop has really limits what you can do with it.


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## kingmathyou (Apr 15, 2006)

Wow thanks a lot for the help.

Do you think that installing a new CPU and RAM would be worth it? I would probably install a 2.0ghz cpu and 512mb of ram. 

I have a question about the ram. There are two places to put the ram in the 2650 laptop. There is the easy accessible ram slot on the bottom of the laptop, and then there is another ram slot, not so easy accessible, that is underneath the keyboard. You said I only need one 512mb stick? Which ram place should I put it in then, and shouldn't the other one be empty?


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi,
First to do, is test it to ensure the components are all working well together, and what sort of battery life it gives.
I've read you can only get two hours of battery whilst having a Pentium 4 1.7ghz installed, so you'd need to think about that.
If you can get 3 or 4 hours from the Celeron that's already installed, then the Celeron wins. 

The easiest and best upgrade you can make to any computer is memory.
512MB installed into the easy access back socket sounds good.


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## kingmathyou (Apr 15, 2006)

Alright. If I install a 512mb stick into the easy access slot, won't there still be a 128mb stick underneath the keyboard? Making 640mb of ram, which is more than this laptop says it can handle in the specs?


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi,
I was taking it for granted the total 256mb was on one module located at the back, sorry, I should have asked you.
Check the bios or windows system info to see where the 256mb it has is located. It will either have two entries saying 128mb each, or one 256mb.

You could also just open the little back door and have a look at the one that's in there.
Look at the brand & details on the module and buy the same type.
And I'd recommend eBay, from a seller with great feedback.


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## Don Jones (Dec 27, 2008)

Houndog777:

Your memory information is totally wrong. It probably came from the DELL website though so that is understandable.

According to most of DELL’s techs there is only memory slot that will handle 512 of PC2100 but there are actually 2 slots, one in the memory opening in the back/bottom of the case and a second on the top/front of the motherboard that requires careful removal of the keyboard and EMF shield, that would give you a total of 1 gig, However, the 2650 shares the motherboard with a later higher performance laptop, which model I do not know, and I finally found a tech that would research the motherboard, not just the 2650 upgrade manual – which only lists the maximum that DELL offered. He took a test 2650 and installed a 1 gig PC2700 stick in the back slot and the computer worked great. I lost the parts number, but we have moved memory between my 2650 and my son’s 8500 and they seem to work interchangeably and flawlessly.

Now to the issue of upgrading the processor, where can I get accurate INDEPENDENT information on specifically what 400 MHz FBS processors will work with this motherboard?

Thank you.

Don Jones


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## Robert_Rath (Feb 19, 2009)

Don Jones said:


> Houndog777:
> 
> Your memory information is totally wrong. It probably came from the DELL website though so that is understandable.
> 
> ...


I suspect you're right, I have gambled (about 5 min ago) on ebay and bought a 1GB SODIMM module... I should have it in about 2-3 days. I will post the results...

Great thread... ray: when I send this query to Google I thought I would be a bunch of BS... I will try to be an active user, I was an admin in my past life, so I have see it all. I would not be surprised that a 1GB stick will run just fine in this :upset::upset::upset: Dell.


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## txjimbob (May 6, 2009)

Did this work?

I have a 2650 with 256 and I was going to upgrade to 512 but 1g would be better!


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## Bubba10 (May 10, 2009)

Robert were u able to upgrade it to 1gb in the back slot?, ive already got 512mb but if it works and boosts performance i will use a 1GB card please reply with ur results, thanks


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## heinrichs (Jun 8, 2009)

Socket 478 CPU's:
I tried a 2.7GHz Mobile Celeron at 400MHz FSB and the computer would not boot. I then installed a regular P4 1.6GHz and it runs fine but much hotter than the celeron the machine came with.

Memory:
I've tried PC2100 512MB sticks and one at a time they will boot, but not together. I'll try PC2700 sticks next. I have 2x256 in there now and they boot fine (PC2700).


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## heinrichs (Jun 8, 2009)

I don't think the little heatsink and fan are keeping up. They are really small and weak compared to my other systems. There is an auxiliary fan in the rear centre of the laptop but it is almost useless, it's so tiny. The laptop is HOT, parallel port is hot; under CPU the plastic is hot. Imay have to switch the old celeron back in


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## heinrichs (Jun 8, 2009)

Tried 2x512MB PC2100 sticks, no boot. Tried 1x1025MB PC2700 stick, no boot. Returned the original 1.6GHz Celeron CPU and the laptop now runs cool again.


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