Posted on February 22nd, 2010Netbooks are universally praised for their light weight and compact size, however no two models are completely the same, and each comes with different trade-offs. Your netbook may have a superior battery but with an ugly keyboard arrangement; a netbook with a SSD might slip out of your budget; a netbook with an amazing list of specifications might be missing the 802.11n WLAN connectivity.
Get a Better Battery: A typical netbook lasts around 4 hours. That’s not too shabby if you have a four-cell battery, however you can do better. Although you may find a few online guides for creating a laptop battery assembled from a number of aftermarket batteries all connected together, that’s often a recipe for disaster. You may get an eight-cell battery to double the netbook longevity.
Upgrade the OS: Netbook is a fully functional computer; so it will be easy to upgrade the OS. Just insert the installation CD/DVD into an external optical drive. Get the GParted utility to dual boot your netbook. A typical netbook CPU with N270 and 2GB RAM should have enough juice to power a Windows 7 environment, but if you don’t have 16 GB of empty hard drive space your experiment basically ends here. Many Linux distributions run well on netbooks, for example the 50 MB ‘Damn Small Linux’.
Rearrange the Keyboard: If your netbook have an awkward keyboard layout, just pop any offending keys by wedging a small screwdriver under the keys and carefully applying upward pressure. Provided that the keys you are swapping around are exactly the same size, you will be able to interchange them easily as you please. Write down all the changes. Once you have made the physical reassignments, use the ‘Sharp Keys’ utility to redefine how the OS interprets the keystrokes. Refer to your note when redefining the keyboard layout.
Upgrade Hard Drive: To properly upgrade a netbook hard drive you may need another computer to transfer the old hard drive image to the newer, bigger hard drive. This way, you don’t have to reinstall the OS and drivers, and everything will be left intact. Ask a professional to transfer the image and replace the hard drive.
Upgrade the RAM: RAM is one of the principal areas of a netbook where computer makers can jack up the price. Don’t let a netbook vendor empty your wallet by selling you memory chips that you can find for a lot less on the aftermarket. When buying a netbook look for a model with 512MB of RAM and write down the memory chip clock and brand. Ask a computer parts store if they agree to swap the memory chip with a 2GB memory chip. If possible, swap it for the one with higher clock, but first check your motherboard specs to know if it can support the DDR2-5300 or the DDR2-6400 type.
Upgrade the Wi-Fi: Upgrading the built-in Wi-Fi version from 802.11g to 802.11n may sound like a simple task at first. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. When buying a replacement Wi-Fi card, you should know whether your netbook use a half-height or full-height type. As for the specific manufacturer of Wi-Fi card, you won’t find hard-and-fast rule to figure out the compatible card, but it would be a better idea to choose a new card from the same manufacturer. What seems perfect on paper might not work properly with your netbook configuration. Read commentaries on others’ successful Wi-Fi card upgrades of a specific netbook model. It’s the best way to know if a Wi-Fi card upgrade can work.
Overclock the Processor: Overclocking a CPU represents the pinnacle of computer upgrades that ordinary users can do without physically deconstructing their netbooks. It’s also among the more dangerous enhancements for a netbook, given that these mini systems don’t have the best cooling system around. Users of older Asus Eee PC models can download the Eeectl utility, which allows them to adjust the FSB within Windows environment and, consequently, change the processor clock. Dell netbooks users can rev up their processor through the SetFSB utility. For MSI Wind owners, they may find that the manufacturer officially supports their overclocking habits. However, these are waters best navigated warily, lest you may turn your netbook into a cheap plastic toy. Other netbook brands may need different overclocking utilities or other techniques.
Add a Touchscreen: Before the invention of easy, no-soldering-required, all-in-one kits, the screen removal procedure used to require patience, extreme care, and steady hands. Thankfully, in Internet you will find many kits that give you the necessary parts–and, most importantly, the step-by-step walkthrough–for this challenging procedure. While the task of replacing a netbook screen is no longer solder-filled moments of yore, this still isn’t for beginners,
Add an Internal GPS Receiver: Inserting a new GPS receiver into a netbook sounds like a simple job, given the size of the receiver in question. Since it is no larger than a small flash drive, you might think that adding a GPS receiver into a netbook is as simple as plugging it internally to the motherboard and install the driver. You could be right, but only on a small part of the process. Certain netbook models may have plenty of room inside for a new built-in GPS receiver, but they may not have an open USB connector on the motherboard to power the receiver. Adding an internal device is a tricky upgrade that needs some advanced hardware hacking for using it at a whim, but it is a small price to pay for having a hybrid GPS device/netbook inexpensively.
**Do Not Attempt any of the Methods Listed Here, without certified guidance !!! **