Another interesting aspect of this notebook is that it supports both the 32 bit PCMCIA slot (on the left) and the 64 bit ExpressCard slot (on the right). In theory, this is a 64 bit computer because the 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 is a 64 bit processor. However, due to the 32 bit PCMCIA slot, it's best to leave the the operating system at 32 bits otherwise, the drivers won't work.
Note the jumper configuration on the original 80 GB Seagate Momentus 5400 2 ST9808211A.
I tried to set the jumpers on the IDE to SATA mSATA adapter the same way and no luck.
Lastly, I've purchased a processor upgrade for the HP Pavilion dv8125nr. The standard 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 processor is a Socket 754 processor. I stuck with the Turion Mobile processors because of compatibility reasons. I did try to get the 2.2 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile MT-40 (25 watts), but these processors were difficult to find on the 2nd hand market. Next I searched for the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-44 (35 watts), but this particular processor was difficult to find. Ultimately, I stayed with the 2.4 GHz ML-42.
2015-06-07 Update
I got the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 this weekend from ebay.com search.
The AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 came with some thermal paste, but I'm going to use Arctic Silver 5 instead.
To disassemble the HP Pavilion dv8125nr, start by removing all the screws from the bottom of the machine. Remove the battery, optical drive, access bays, and the 2 hard drives. The memory you can leave in. There are no screws under the memory bay area.
Next pull up the panel closest to the LCD. Start at one of the corners and lift the panel up.
Once the panel is up, grab the keyboard from the center, slide upward because it's hooked in, and pull up, it will free itself from the body. It's kinda scary because it'll flex considerably from the center.
Once you get the keyboard removed, unscrew the LCD. Make sure to support the LCD as you unscrew so that you don't damage the mounting posts.
Once all the screws holding down the top case is removed, start at the upper right hand corner and pull the top case away from the bottom case. If something isn't moving, double check that you got all the screws.
Here's a picture of all the screws. I use a piece of paper to lay everything out the same way so that I don't forget anything and so that I know where the screws go back.
This is the bottom.
This is the top case. There are only a few screws holding down the motherboard so I just remembered where those went.
Once I got the top case removed, the ribbon cable connecting the top case to the motherboard WOULD NOT come off. It was like it was glued in with something fierce. Instead, I left it alone and removed the ribbon cable from the top case instead.
Here's a picture of the motherboard removed from the case from the top (with touchpad ribbon cable still attached).
Picture of the bottom of the motherboard. There's some black heat shield tape over the processor.
In PROUD tradition of HP, FULL disassembly of they notebook computer is REQUIRED to access the processor. All the case parts are stacked over to the left. I think it took me about 2 hours to fully disassemble and reassemble the notebook computer.
Start by removing the black heat shield tape, then unscrew the heatsink from the processor. The heatsink is a separate unit from the fan. Pull up the padded tape holding the 2 parts together to remove.
1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32.
2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 (left) and 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 (right).
I replaced the 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 with the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 and replaced the stock thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5.
After putting the computer back together, I noticed the ATI video processor on top of the motherboard WITHOUT any cooling. I guess generally it's ok, but in the tradition of this blog, I'm going to go ahead and put a cooling mod on it. Start with a thermal pad and place a copper shim on top it.
Once I got the whole computer back together, I started it up and the BIOS shows that the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 WORKS!
After all the upgrades, the computer is definitely FASTER, but the HP Pavilion dv8124nr still can't play 1080p movies and does a reasonable job with youtube.com. Overall, it works well for general computing tasks, but not much more than that.
Personally, I'm just happy I found a home for the Renice E7 120GB PATA SSD :)
That's all the standard upgrades for the HP Pavilion dv8125nr for now. I really need to learn to tap into power pins to add custom components like modder who customized this Asus Eee PC.
Product Name
|
dv8125nr
|
US Product Number
|
EP410UA#ABA
|
Microprocessor
|
1.8 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Processor ML-32 with PowerNow!™ Technology
|
Microprocessor Cache
|
512KB L2 Cache
|
Memory
|
512MB 333MHz DDR System Memory (2 Dimm)
|
Memory Max
|
2048MB
|
Video Graphics
|
ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M IGP
|
Video Memory
|
128MB DDR (dedicated)
|
Hard Drive
|
160GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive Dual HDD- 80GB x 2
|
Multimedia Drive
|
LightScribe 8X DVD±RW and CD-RW Combo Drive with Double Layer Support with 1 CD-R blank media
|
Display
|
17.0” WXGA+ High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900)
|
Fax/Modem
|
High speed 56k modem
|
Network Card
|
Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
|
Wireless Connectivity
|
54g™ 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM / SpeedBooster support
|
Sound
|
Altec Lansing
|
Keyboard
|
Notebook keyboard with scroll bar and integrated numeric keypad
2 Quick Launch Buttons (HP QuickPlay Music and DVD Buttons)
Calculator Launch Button
|
Pointing Device
|
Touch Pad with dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad
|
PC Card Slots
|
|
External Ports
|
|
Dimensions
|
11.1"(L) x 15.62"(W) x 1.48"(min H)/1.82"(max H)
|
Weight
|
8.1 lbs
|
Security
|
|
Power
|
|
What's In The Box
|
HP Mobile Remote Control
Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (1 pair)
|
So to start off, I'm going to over generalize and say that AMD systems are beginning to turn into the biggest pain. They're generally difficult to upgrade. The reason I say this is because the HP Pavilion dv8125nr and the Alienware Aurora m7700 are AMD based systems and I have in BOTH cases have had SSD upgrade issues. I have upgraded several older PATA Dell laptops using the Micro SATA IDE to SATA mSATA adapter, including the Dell SmartStep 250N a Pentium 4 notebook computer. The Alienware m7700 wouldn't take a SATA SSD due to something to do with the VIA VT8237R RAID controller. With the HP Pavilion dv8125nr, Windows 7 will not install to an mSATA SSD through the IDE to SATA mSATA adapter. It hangs while copying files to the SSD. I tried both a 250GB SSD and a 120GB SSD. No luck on either. To make matters worse, the Micro SATA IDE to SATA mSATA adapter didn't support master/slave PATA configuration so I had to remove the 2nd mechanical HDD.
Note the jumper configuration on the original 80 GB Seagate Momentus 5400 2 ST9808211A.
I tried to set the jumpers on the IDE to SATA mSATA adapter the same way and no luck.
However, I had a Renice E7 120GB PATA SSD that I got from mydigitialdiscount.com here that I had purchased earlier that would not work in an Intel-based laptop, namely the Dell SmartStep 250N. I set the jumper on the Renice E7 120GB PATA SSD the same way as on the mechanical drive, as luck would have it, it worked!
Below is a picture of the memory upgrade from the standard 512MB (2x 256MB) memory configuration to 2GB (2x 1GB) memory upgrade.
Lastly, I've purchased a processor upgrade for the HP Pavilion dv8125nr. The standard 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 processor is a Socket 754 processor. I stuck with the Turion Mobile processors because of compatibility reasons. I did try to get the 2.2 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile MT-40 (25 watts), but these processors were difficult to find on the 2nd hand market. Next I searched for the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-44 (35 watts), but this particular processor was difficult to find. Ultimately, I stayed with the 2.4 GHz ML-42.
2015-06-07 Update
I got the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 this weekend from ebay.com search.
The AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 came with some thermal paste, but I'm going to use Arctic Silver 5 instead.
To disassemble the HP Pavilion dv8125nr, start by removing all the screws from the bottom of the machine. Remove the battery, optical drive, access bays, and the 2 hard drives. The memory you can leave in. There are no screws under the memory bay area.
Next pull up the panel closest to the LCD. Start at one of the corners and lift the panel up.
Once the panel is up, grab the keyboard from the center, slide upward because it's hooked in, and pull up, it will free itself from the body. It's kinda scary because it'll flex considerably from the center.
Once you get the keyboard removed, unscrew the LCD. Make sure to support the LCD as you unscrew so that you don't damage the mounting posts.
Once all the screws holding down the top case is removed, start at the upper right hand corner and pull the top case away from the bottom case. If something isn't moving, double check that you got all the screws.
Here's a picture of all the screws. I use a piece of paper to lay everything out the same way so that I don't forget anything and so that I know where the screws go back.
This is the bottom.
This is the top case. There are only a few screws holding down the motherboard so I just remembered where those went.
Once I got the top case removed, the ribbon cable connecting the top case to the motherboard WOULD NOT come off. It was like it was glued in with something fierce. Instead, I left it alone and removed the ribbon cable from the top case instead.
Here's a picture of the motherboard removed from the case from the top (with touchpad ribbon cable still attached).
Picture of the bottom of the motherboard. There's some black heat shield tape over the processor.
In PROUD tradition of HP, FULL disassembly of they notebook computer is REQUIRED to access the processor. All the case parts are stacked over to the left. I think it took me about 2 hours to fully disassemble and reassemble the notebook computer.
Start by removing the black heat shield tape, then unscrew the heatsink from the processor. The heatsink is a separate unit from the fan. Pull up the padded tape holding the 2 parts together to remove.
1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32.
2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 (left) and 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 (right).
I replaced the 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 with the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 and replaced the stock thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5.
After putting the computer back together, I noticed the ATI video processor on top of the motherboard WITHOUT any cooling. I guess generally it's ok, but in the tradition of this blog, I'm going to go ahead and put a cooling mod on it. Start with a thermal pad and place a copper shim on top it.
Once I got the whole computer back together, I started it up and the BIOS shows that the 2.4 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-42 WORKS!
After all the upgrades, the computer is definitely FASTER, but the HP Pavilion dv8124nr still can't play 1080p movies and does a reasonable job with youtube.com. Overall, it works well for general computing tasks, but not much more than that.
Personally, I'm just happy I found a home for the Renice E7 120GB PATA SSD :)
That's all the standard upgrades for the HP Pavilion dv8125nr for now. I really need to learn to tap into power pins to add custom components like modder who customized this Asus Eee PC.
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