I bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro M40 for 150$ around September.

Since then I have replaced several items and here is a list of them and my struggles.

1) CPU - Celeron M 380 1.6ghz ------> Pentium M 750 @ 1.86ghz. ~$40

I checked the best CPU of of the satellite series, called tech support, and confirmed what was safest to go with. I ordered a Pentium Dual Core originally, but I hadn't done enough research to realize the minor socket difference, which is a big difference. Turns out theres has been a few mistakes regarding these socket types in the past. Socket 478 and 479, something to pay attention to if changing CPUs.

2) Ram - 512MB DDR2 PC2 4200 Hynix ------> OCZ Value 2GB PC2-5400 DDR2 Kit.~$50

Me being the cheap bastard that I am, bought the memory of higher speed for a cheaper price. I figured the laptop would naturally downclock the memory on its own, I was wrong. The laptop would not boot with the memory. I isolated the problem to the speed, considering it would boot with 1 old stick. I then stumbled upon this utility called SPD Tool. Beware this tool is for advanced users, you can really take out your ram with this tool. I re-wrote the SPD timing so the max speed was 266mhz (aka 533mhz) and boom it booted with both sticks of 1Gb. Note you wouldn't have to change both as the laptop references the lowest speed stick as the default. Also note: I tried reprogramming another set of 1Gb sticks and these WOULD NOT reprogram. It seems that OCZ has allowed this on their ram sticks even providing a tool which is very similar to what I had used originally.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/M.../SPDTool.shtml
http://downloads.guru3d.com/OCZ-SPD-...load-1696.html

3) Battery - 6 Cell Toshiba 4400MAh ------> 12 Cell 8800MAh (1hrs ---> 6.5 hrs) ~$85

Again, doing as much research as I can tolerate, I looked through the intertubes for a better battery to improve my ~1hr battery life. This one was supposed to be compatible with M40 series, (not pro I'm assuming) and compatible with S4000 series, which I think it was, I can't find it now. When the battery came in and I put it in, I noticed it didn't work after I had put it in. Turns out the connector was *Almost* identical, just ridiculous. It had the same shape, but the pins were mirrored from the original. At this point I was pissed and decided to mod it in. I de-soldered the battery connector from the motherboard, replaced it with 5 wires leading to the 5 nubs of the removed part. This now enables me to rotate the battery plug 180 degrees to adapt to both batteries if I need to.



I'm sorry for the pictures being the most terrible thing in the world, but it is all I've got. I'll upload another of the final product a bit later, just dont feel like pulling it apart right now.

4) LCD - Toshiba 1280x800 "15.4 Matte (damaged) -----> 1280x800 "15.4 Glossy ~$100

This was probably the most smooth going change I made to the laptop. Basically popped rubber nubbys from the screen, unscrewed the screws beneath and popped the plastic around the edges with a fine straight edge. Then just removed screws and plugs and swapped out with the new screen. Personally I find the glossy screens look much better even though they have more glare.

In conclusion, manufacturers try to prevent upgradability of laptops and it is apparent. It wasn't easy getting this laptop to where it is, and frankly it is much better just to go out and buy a new one. Between making mistakes with parts and researching problems, the time just wasn't worth it by any means. I could have purchased a new laptop for around $500-$600 and threw in a 12cell, saved myself the trouble. It is easy to slide down the slippery slope of upgrading parts. But I took it more so as a learning experience as I fix a lot of my friends computers.