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HP Recommended
Pavilion dv7 3112eo
Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

Hello my name is Anders and i have reasently aquierd a HP Pavilion dv7 3112eo that i´m trying to make as good and fast as i can. Can you help/advise me on a fiew issues? I have orderd a new power brick and a kit for mounting a 2nd sata (ssd). I found under the cover next to the 2nd hdd a expansion slot that looks like a m.2 slot but no matter how i search i find no specs for it, can you identify it and tell me what types of expansion options it can support? I included a picture of it.

What can you tell me regarding running it with out a battery, does it matter if a battery is pressent at all? can having a battery in but not using it damage the battery by constant charging, making a battery a non esential option as long as you have acces to reliabel ac? Have you any idea why the 4Gb ram chips are so much more than the 2Gb´s? (several times more) Would you recomend replacing the hdd with a smaller ssd or use the ssd as a swapfile location for system boost in the 2nd hdd slot?

Thank you for taking your time to help me/Anders

hp dv7 3112eo b.jpg

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

That is an oldie but a goodie, my friend. I guarantee you that is not an M.2 slot or really any other kind of slot. M.2 was a Buck Rogers future thing when that laptop was made. Did not exist. Secondly that is the traces the motherboard manufacturer would use to attach a slot, which was obviously not done. I believe it would have been a TV tuner card which was only offered on the higher end models. 

 

This is the relevant service manual. See p. 4-20

 

Manual

 

It does support up to 8 gigs (2 x 4) of DDR2-800 SO-DIMM. Why are 4 gig modules so expensive? Supply and demand. DDR2 is long obsolete now and they are not making any more. Only a few DDR2 models could use 4 gig sticks so not many were ever made. And, as you are finding, people who hope to wring decent performance out of these older machines need to max the memory so the few sellers who have them charge big bucks. I sold a pair of 4 gig DDR2 modules a while back for over $100 I recall. You can buy 2 gig modules for a few dollars. 

 

Get yourself an inexpensive 120-256 gig 2.5 inch SATA SSD and use that in the primary bay. On that model only the primary bay can be bootable. The second hard drive bay is more like a usb external drive adapter. If I recall it does not show up in the BIOS as bootable but a drive in that bay will be visible to Windows and can be used as pure storage. So get maybe a 500 gig SATA hard drive to put in the second bay. Windows 7 is your optimal operating system, not Windows 10 on that laptop.  

 

Get yourself an inexpensive compatible thrird party battery and put it in the battery bay and use it and forget about it. Don't worry about taking it out and putting it in to try to extend its life.

 

(27)
Battery 8-cell, 73-Wh, 2.55-Ah Li-ion battery for use with all computer models
480385-001
 
6-cell, 47-Wh, 2.2-Ah Li-ion battery for use
only with computer models with a UMA system board
486766-001
 
 
 
Your name makes me think maybe you are not in the USA (Scandanavia or Netherlands?) and if you need any help focused on where you live let me know where that is and we can certainly try to find local upgrade goods. 
 
Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if its the info you needed. 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5
HP Recommended

That is an oldie but a goodie, my friend. I guarantee you that is not an M.2 slot or really any other kind of slot. M.2 was a Buck Rogers future thing when that laptop was made. Did not exist. Secondly that is the traces the motherboard manufacturer would use to attach a slot, which was obviously not done. I believe it would have been a TV tuner card which was only offered on the higher end models. 

 

This is the relevant service manual. See p. 4-20

 

Manual

 

It does support up to 8 gigs (2 x 4) of DDR2-800 SO-DIMM. Why are 4 gig modules so expensive? Supply and demand. DDR2 is long obsolete now and they are not making any more. Only a few DDR2 models could use 4 gig sticks so not many were ever made. And, as you are finding, people who hope to wring decent performance out of these older machines need to max the memory so the few sellers who have them charge big bucks. I sold a pair of 4 gig DDR2 modules a while back for over $100 I recall. You can buy 2 gig modules for a few dollars. 

 

Get yourself an inexpensive 120-256 gig 2.5 inch SATA SSD and use that in the primary bay. On that model only the primary bay can be bootable. The second hard drive bay is more like a usb external drive adapter. If I recall it does not show up in the BIOS as bootable but a drive in that bay will be visible to Windows and can be used as pure storage. So get maybe a 500 gig SATA hard drive to put in the second bay. Windows 7 is your optimal operating system, not Windows 10 on that laptop.  

 

Get yourself an inexpensive compatible thrird party battery and put it in the battery bay and use it and forget about it. Don't worry about taking it out and putting it in to try to extend its life.

 

(27)
Battery 8-cell, 73-Wh, 2.55-Ah Li-ion battery for use with all computer models
480385-001
 
6-cell, 47-Wh, 2.2-Ah Li-ion battery for use
only with computer models with a UMA system board
486766-001
 
 
 
Your name makes me think maybe you are not in the USA (Scandanavia or Netherlands?) and if you need any help focused on where you live let me know where that is and we can certainly try to find local upgrade goods. 
 
Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if its the info you needed. 
HP Recommended

Thank you for the information, it was verry healpfull. Yes I am scandinavian, Swedish in fact. I understand that the internal slot is most likely a port for a tv tuner, but I wonder if that is all it is capabel of, is it a mSATA port that can handel other cards as well if softwaere is provided? I have a sorce for 3´rd party battery at reasonabel prise, does the 12 cell version give a significant usage time boost? So $40 is a ok price for a single 4 gb ddr2 sodim? So 8 years is near antique in the laptop world? It still seams fully usabel sepesially if I get 8Gb ram and 2 ssd drives, I do not like win 10 so I would never buy it, or use it if it was free, win 7 is all I want. Thank you for your answer. Sorry for anny spelling errors.

HP Recommended

Firstly as I said there is no slot. The part that holds the card in is not soldered on. Even models that had the TV tuner could only use the slot for a TV tuner. Single purpose. If a dog year is equal to 7 human years a laptop year is like 15 so yes an 8 year old laptop is old. And $40 for a 4 gig DDR2 is not bad. Here is a little cheaper:

 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/4GB-PC2-6400-Fur-Hynix-DDR2-800MHz-Laptop-Notebook-200pin-So-dimm-Memory-ARL...

HP Recommended

I apresiate the link but due to sale tax isues the Swedish "post nord" post office they "kidnapp" all packages from China to add a sales tax of 25% and a $8 inspection fee on each one for doing it.  When did the sodim ddr2 go out of comon usage? How old must a "junked" laptop be in order to contain some for "resycling"? Shuld I replase the cmos battery eaven if it has not failed(yet)?

HP Recommended

DDR3 was released in 2007 and DDR2 went out of common usage in maybe 2010/2011 or so. 

 

I saw some DDR2 modules from the EU but they were more expensive; at least $50 apiece for 4 gig modules. 

 

Yes while you are in there it is a good idea to replace the RTC/CMOS battery. 

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