[SOLVED] Is SATA3 in Toshiba Satellite A105-S4384?

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
Hi,

Can the Toshiba Satellite A105-S4384 laptop support SSDs at SATA3 speed?
It comes with a 160GB HDD as standard. I would like to replace it with a 240 or 256GB SSD, but I need to be sure SATA3 and AHCI will work.

Please help me.
 
Solution
This is the laptop running XP, that is used for email and printing?

Windows XP does not know how to effectively treat a SSD.
It will work, but XP does not know about TRIM.
It will try to defrag, which is strongly ill advised for a solid state drive.

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
Thank you for your interest in my problem.

I have seen the specification you provided before, but I do not see in it that this computer should support a maximum of SATA1. I can only see information about the installed 160GB SATA1 HDD.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Your laptop was released in 2006.

SATA II was finalized in 2004.

Possible but highly unlikely that it supports SATA II, and absolutely NOT SATA III.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Myopic.Polish

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
Windows XP Media Center.
I use this computer to print to an HP LaserJet 1000 printer that does not have Windows 7 and Windows 10 drivers.

The laptop is in my parents' house. Mum usually uses it to check her e-mail inbox through the Mozilla browser, download the attachments and print them. Well, the problem is that Mozilla does not open immediately, but a certain time. That's what I wanted to improve and that's why I wrote in this forum.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Windows XP Media Center. I
I use this computer to print to an HP LaserJet 1000 printer that does not have Windows 7 and Windows 10 drivers.

The laptop is in my parents' house. Mum usually uses it to check her e-mail inbox through the Mozilla browser, download the attachments and print them. Well, the problem is that Mozilla does not open immediately, but a certain time. That's what I wanted to improve and that's why I wrote in this forum.
Just leave it with the existing drive.

XP does not know how to manage an SSD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Myopic.Polish

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
So SSD will not be visible under Windows XP?
It will be visible and "work".
It's just that XP knows nothing about solid state drives and TRIM, and cannot effectively keep that drive in reasonable health.
It will attempt to do an actual defrag on it all the time.

In addition, the SATA I interface won't give any decent performance with a SSD.

It's a 15 year old laptop. Let it live its last days in peace.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Myopic.Polish

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
I came to my parents a little earlier than planned and today I installed 2x2GB RAM in this laptop. Unfortunately, this didn't help in time for Mozilla to open up.
Windows Media Center installed on this computer displays 2.99GB of RAM, and the CPU-Z program correctly displays 4GB, i.e. two modules of 2GB PC5300. Does this mean that this version of Windows supports a maximum of 3GB RAM?

At this link, I found this information:
Your version of Windows (XP Media Center edition) can support a maximum of 4 GB of RAM (it actually won't be able to use all 4 GB, but that's another story).

A colleague of mine told me that Windows XP Media Center 32 bit supports a maximum of 3GB. Apparently, the 64-bit version of this system has not been released in the Polish version. The conclusion is that in order to be able to use 4GB RAM in this laptop, I would have to install Windows XP 64bit on it. Can someone confirm this?
 
Last edited:

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I came to my parents a little earlier than planned and today I installed 2x2GB RAM in this laptop. Unfortunately, this didn't help in time for Mozilla to open up.
Windows Media Center installed on this computer displays 2.99GB of RAM, and the CPU-Z program correctly displays 4GB, i.e. two modules of 2GB PC5300. Does this mean that this version of Windows supports a maximum of 3GB RAM?

At this link, I found this information:
Your version of Windows (XP Media Center edition) can support a maximum of 4 GB of RAM (it actually won't be able to use all 4 GB, but that's another story).

A colleague of mine told me that Windows XP Media Center 32 bit supports a maximum of 3GB. Apparently, the 64-bit version of this system has not been released in the Polish version. The conclusion is that in order to be able to use 4GB RAM in this laptop, I would have to install Windows XP 64bit on it. Can someone confirm this?
For a 13 year old laptop running XP, whose main function in life is to be a print server, 3GB vs 4GB RAM is of no consequence.
 

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
But as I wrote before, Mom mainly prints email attachments, and for that she needs to use the Mozilla browser. However, it seems that since there is no difference in Mozilla's opening time between 2GB and 3GB of RAM, it probably wouldn't make any difference if there were 4GB of RAM.

Therefore, I finally decided and installed 3GB RAM (1 + 2) in my laptop.
 

Myopic.Polish

Prominent
Dec 3, 2020
56
0
540
WWW.pacut.eu
Do any of you know where I can download 64 bit Windows XP (with a license key)? Maybe someday I will decide to install it on this laptop, because if the processor in this laptop is dual-core, then maybe Mozilla would open faster.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
But as I wrote before, Mom mainly prints email attachments, and for that she needs to use the Mozilla browser. However, it seems that since there is no difference in Mozilla's opening time between 2GB and 3GB of RAM, it probably wouldn't make any difference if there were 4GB of RAM.

Therefore, I finally decided and installed 3GB RAM (1 + 2) in my laptop.
So make the old laptop just be a print server.
Printer shared from the XP.

Run all her applications, incl email, from their better system.
Click Print, and it sends that print job to the old laptop and the printer.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Do any of you know where I can download 64 bit Windows XP (with a license key)? Maybe someday I will decide to install it on this laptop, because if the processor in this laptop is dual-core, then maybe Mozilla would open faster.
No, there is no "download with a license key".

And as mentioned above...XP shouldn't really be run directly exposed to the outside world.