How to change processor and add RAM
 

I'm looking to change my processor from 32 bit to 64 bit and add RAM. How would I do that and what 64 processors are 100% compatible with linux

I don't think there are any issues with CPUs' linux compatibility.

The kind of a processor you can get depends on a motherboard you have now.

Can you post the exact model of it?

without knowing the make/model of your computer it impossible to say if it is upgradeable. Adding RAM should easy but upgrading CPUs not so much.

The CPU on a laptop is probably soldered and unless you have the necessary skills I would not attempt replacing it. I would also doubt the existing motherboard is designed for a 64 bit processor so even if you could replace it the computer is not going to work.

Alright I'll save up for a new computer then :(

Out of curiosity what motherboard do you use?

I have no idea how to find out :(

You'd have to open the computer and check what is written on the motherboard itself. Do you know the exact name of your computer system (it might be displayed on the computer case)?

knowing me I'll probably break it or spill water in it. But I found 2 laptops. One I have the charger for but it doesn't have a wifi card. The other has a wifi card but I don't have a charger. How would I transfer the wifi card to the other laptop?

Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QVjgKAmlQw

Without knowing make/model numbers we have no way of knowing if the wifi card would be compatable nor how easy it would to to gain access nor if it is removable.

Post output of

#lspci -v

#lshw

I've given up on my current laptop. @sycromorex the laptop w/ a charge doesn't seem to have a pannel for a wifi card. At least there's no sticker. But for the one with the card there is a sticker.

As michaelk mentioned, it'd be helpful if we knew the models of both laptops. They should be written on the laptops

The models of the laptops are:
one with wifi card 5205-S705 (Toshiba satellite)
one without wifi card i think it's WA65A7S1V554 (alienware M9700 series)

Googling alienware M9700 indicates that it does have a wifi card. WA65A7S1V554 shows no results whatsoever. Are you sure that's correct?

If you can boot the Alienware laptop with a linux live cd and post the output of lspci -v (as suggested in post #11)

Really didn't think this post through

???

I meant that the wireless card must not be compatible with Linux because distributions can't detect it.

How do you know it? Are you running Linux on your alienware laptop?

Ya. I tried Debian and Fedora.

OK, so can you post the output of:

lspci -v
iwconfig


from Fedora?

lspci -v =00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a3)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0

00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at ec00 [size=32]
I/O ports at 5000 [size=64]
I/O ports at 6000 [size=64]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nForce2_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-nforce2

00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
Memory at febfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at febffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
I/O ports at d400 [size=256]
Memory at febfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_intel8x0
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0

00:04.1 Modem: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Modem (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 23
I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
I/O ports at e080 [size=128]
Memory at febfd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f2) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
[virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
[virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pata_amd
Kernel modules: ata_generic, pata_acpi, pata_amd

00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at e000 [size=8]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=4]
I/O ports at d080 [size=8]
I/O ports at d000 [size=4]
I/O ports at cc00 [size=16]
Memory at febfb000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv
Kernel modules: ata_generic, pata_acpi, sata_nv

00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
I/O ports at c880 [size=8]
I/O ports at c800 [size=4]
I/O ports at c480 [size=8]
I/O ports at c400 [size=4]
I/O ports at c080 [size=16]
Memory at febfa000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv
Kernel modules: ata_generic, pata_acpi, sata_nv

00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: f5e00000-f5ffffff

00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00008000-00008fff
Memory behind bridge: f6000000-f67fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 000000009df00000-000000009fefffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: f6800000-f68fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=06, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
Memory behind bridge: f6900000-fa9fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 000000009ff00000-00000000bfefffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=07, subordinate=07, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
Memory behind bridge: faa00000-feafffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000bff00000-00000000dfefffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
Flags: fast devsel
Kernel modules: amd64_edac_mod

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
Flags: fast devsel
Kernel driver in use: k8temp
Kernel modules: k8temp

01:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at f5ffe800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
Kernel modules: firewire-ohci

01:06.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
Memory at f5fff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

01:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 19
Memory at f5fffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: r592
Kernel modules: r592

01:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Airgo Networks Inc AGN300 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card (rev 01)
Subsystem: Airgo Networks Inc AGN300 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 3
Memory at f5fc0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Memory at f5f00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2054
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44
Memory at f68fc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at f68c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sky2
Kernel modules: sky2

06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce Go 7900 GS] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at f9000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at f8000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at fa9e0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb

07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce Go 7900 GS] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Rioworks Device 2052
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at fc000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
I/O ports at bc00 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at feae0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb

iwconfig = lo no wireless extensions.

p4p1 no wireless extensions.

It does see your wifi card:

Well, some google search shows this:
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/alienware+aurora+m9700
and that:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/agnx80211driver/

To install the drivers would I compile from source?