Background
I was lucky enough to work as a consultant for a company that was very generous with its 'old' equipment. So when it was time to replace the laptops in the organisation i was fortunate enough to get a couple for my personal use. Although these were approximately 3 years old they were still in very good condition and as they came from HP's business specification range of laptops they were rugged and well made.
I was looking to develop a good specification laptop for my Microchip, Arduino and Visual Basic development needs so i decided to upgrade the HP NC6000 machines i had acquired. In the specification they were originally delivered in early 2006 the NC6000 did not have built in wireless networking nor Bluetooth connectivity.
I wanted to upgrade the machine as follows:
The objective of the upgrade was to improve the performance and specification of the laptop at a 'value for money' cost that would prolong their operational life for the use they were intended, i.e web browsing, word processing, Visual Basic, Microchip and Arduino project development. The upgrade outlined on this page was completed at a cost of approximately GBP35 per laptop including the cost of the docking station.
I was looking to develop a good specification laptop for my Microchip, Arduino and Visual Basic development needs so i decided to upgrade the HP NC6000 machines i had acquired. In the specification they were originally delivered in early 2006 the NC6000 did not have built in wireless networking nor Bluetooth connectivity.
I wanted to upgrade the machine as follows:
- Install the HP specified W500 internal Wi-Fi adapter.
- Install the HP specified Bluetooth module.
- Upgrade the memory to at least 1GB.
- Acquire a docking station to use the laptop at home.
The objective of the upgrade was to improve the performance and specification of the laptop at a 'value for money' cost that would prolong their operational life for the use they were intended, i.e web browsing, word processing, Visual Basic, Microchip and Arduino project development. The upgrade outlined on this page was completed at a cost of approximately GBP35 per laptop including the cost of the docking station.
The list price for the HP W500 wireless networking module was a couple of hundred dollars. As the laptop was no longer in production by HP i searched the surplus and spares market using EBay and found a supplier based in Hong Kong who could supply used modules for GBP9.99! I ordered two of these modules as i also had a Linux laptop i wanted to upgrade. It took a couple of weeks for the modules to arrive. The Wi-Fi board installs on the underside of the NC6000 behind a plastic panel. A little care has to be taken to connect the antenna wires as the connectors are very small. Once installed the laptop was powered up and the previously downloaded driver software was installed and the WiFi configured for my own network.
As with the Wi-Fi modules i found the Bluetooth modules to be somewhat expensive.
Again i used EBay and found a supplier who could supply the modules for GBP6.99 each. They were used items but i ordered two, again the second one was for the Linux laptop and they arrived withing a few days as the supplier was based in the UK.
The securing screws were not supplied with the module and i did not have any available of the correct size so i attached the module to the plastic panel using a double sided sticky pad.
The wire and connector for the Bluetooth module was already part of the NC600 chassis.
Once the hardware was installed the previously downloaded driver software was installed and tested.
Again i used EBay and found a supplier who could supply the modules for GBP6.99 each. They were used items but i ordered two, again the second one was for the Linux laptop and they arrived withing a few days as the supplier was based in the UK.
The securing screws were not supplied with the module and i did not have any available of the correct size so i attached the module to the plastic panel using a double sided sticky pad.
The wire and connector for the Bluetooth module was already part of the NC600 chassis.
Once the hardware was installed the previously downloaded driver software was installed and tested.
The memory modules for the NC600 were relatively easy to acquire from Ebay.
I was able to purchase two modules, one for the Windows XP laptop and one for the Linux laptop for GBP9.99 each.
This took the memory of each laptop from 512MB to 1GB.
The memory is installed under the keyboard which requires a few screws on the underside of the laptop to be removed and the securing tabs on the top of the keyboard to be moved. The memory modules slot into a standard connector.