Is there any hope for adding RAM to a four- or five-year-old Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS laptop? It runs as well as can be expected under Windows 95, but the scant 32MB of RAM prevents upgrading to even Windows 98, not to mention the programs that are just too big to fit on its hard drive. Are the RAM chips proprietary? Is there any way to put in a larger HDD? Or what about an external HDD? In the interest of completeness, I should mention that I have a PCMCIA modem in it also. Thanks for any leads you can provide.

you can add ram. go to toshiba site, search out the ram you need [model #] you can add a larger harddrive, but the motherboard may need a flash to suceed. most all external caddies for harddrives are usb.

I have a 6-7 yr old Fujitsu Pentium 120 that originally came with 16 mb ram, 1 gb hard drive and Win 95. I added 16 mb ram and changed the hard drive to 2 gb. Win 98 runs fine, along with Office 2000 (Word, Excel, Access) and Visual Basic 6. Also has PCMCIA modem, netcard, wireless net card. Runs fine except battery life is declining. Unless you can find cheap RAM, I would forget about upgrading it. Disk drives are relatively cheaper. (10 gb less than $100)

Max RAM for this machine is 48Mb. I believe they came with 16Mb, so you may already have 2 chips installed. 32Mb chips are about $100. Saw a 10Gig HDD available (no price). A P120/32Mb computer mat not be an ideal win98 platform but it should damn sure run win98 with few problems. What's this laptop worth? $100-$200? I'd appreciate this toshoba for what it is. You can do a lot of work with win95b. I'm typing this response on a Dell Inspiron 7000. $4000 new four years ago - cost to me from Dell Auction $600 two years ago. Also had a Sharp 3030, p90/16Mb memory/850mb hdd that ran win95b, office 97 pro etc. Good little computer. Gave it to a co-worker. Cliff, I'd just use this thing until you find a deal on something else. The $200 to $300 you spend on upgrading the toshiba will buy you a good used PII machine. Good luck with this laptop. ps don't give it away. you WILL miss it.

At the top of this page is an ad for Crucial memory sticks www.crucial.com enter specifics as requested and get directed to proper maximum ram; then buy locally if cheaper.

You need to get a memory card for this machine - can not use sticks to increase ram. Machine comes with 16mb and you can get a 32mb card to increase to 48mb total. Ebay has cards. You can download user manual from toshiba site and that will tell you how to install.

Cliff here. Thanks for the info, guys. After considering the limited options available for juicing up my laptop, I've pretty much decided to spring for a new one. Gateway has a $799 promotion on right now for a laptop that makes my current one look like an abacus (not that I plan to get rid of it). I'll stop by the showroom and put it through its paces, then decide. Again, thanks for your input.