ATI Mobility 9700 VRAM upgrade

[AcapulcoRolf]

I have a Vaio VGN A117S and would like to know if it is possible to upgrade the VRAM on the graphics chip (current chip is ATI Mobility 9700 64 Mb).

I'm pretty sure the answer is going to be "no"...Having said that, I read in a notebook forum that a user sent his A117S into Sony and got it
back with 128Mb on the ATI chip.

I undersrtand that the ATI 9700 chip can indeed support up to 256 Mb

Has anyone here had such an upgrade through Sony?

For reference, I'm based in the UK

On another note, I've recently done a complete harddisk wipe/format/reinstall to XP Pro SP2 and now the A117S laptop fan seems to be spinning a lot louder than before

I've installed the latest VAIO power management utility and have tried the various settings but still the fan seems louder than I remember it used to be (although it could just be my imagination!). Is there some setting somewhere that I'm missing?

Many thanks

[Blencogo]

Hi Acapulco Rolf,

As you suspected, the answer is 'No'.

The ATi 9700 has 'on chip' memory - so the only way to increase the memory is to replace the chip. This is soldered into your main board and replacement is uneconomical.

The 9700 does come in two versions - 64MB and 128 MB - I don't think it can support any more.

Have you tried blowing some compressed air through the cooling vents - these fill up with dust over time and even a small amount can make a significant difference. Try downloading MobileMeter and post your CPU and HDD temperatures here and someone will tell you if they are normal.