Rd's latest Latitude

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

As I used the button it seemed to break in... I'm calling the repair a success.

[smason]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

I just got it back together... Still not 100% perfect, but much improved and satisfactory.

It's usually a failure of the plastic parts. The Latitudes aren't too bad for this, but the Inspirons are horrendous. My wife's 1525 (I told her to pay the a bit more for a Latitude but nooooo) had the palmrest replaced 3 times under warranty, and it failed again just recently. I finally muttered I told you so also replaced it with a D830 with a SSD and 4GB RAM. She's happy for now, 'cept there's no built in webcam or card reader.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

I just got it back together... Still not 100% perfect, but much improved and satisfactory.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

I would say the 640MB ram is holding you back the most. 2 slots so im guessing it has a 512MB and a 128MB stick in it now. I would go to at least 1GB for that machine.

It is.

2gb would be optimal... 1gb would be a good start though... We'll see

---

I opened it up again and removed the palmrest to get to the bad button (its not part of the keyboard after all). Once again, the contacts were kinda dirty... a little help from a clean pencil eraser fixed that. While I was there I removed the main HS and swapped the black crap/foil thermal pad for some fresh thermal compound. However, one of the threaded inserts was busted from it's tower so I am having to let some super glue cure before I can put it back together.

[brethin]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

I would say the 640MB ram is holding you back the most. 2 slots so im guessing it has a 512MB and a 128MB stick in it now. I would go to at least 1GB for that machine.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

Either that or maybe the button just needs to be re-soldered.

It's not that kind... same type as a keyboard key (it's part of the keyboard).

[momaka]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

Either that or maybe the button just needs to be re-soldered.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

The other issue is mounting it...

anyway, there has been another issue... the trackpoint's left button is dead. Not that it gets used much, but it is annoying. It feels like it is just worn out since there is an unusually low amount of button feedback when pressed... Damn.

edit- the button works if you really push it... maybe more dirty contacts?

[momaka]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

It's a 5400 RPM one though, kinda slow for desktop use.

Meh...
Bloated software and websites these days make just about any computer much slower than it should be. So I don't think you'll notice that much of a difference really. And if not, it should still be fine as a secondary storage drive for less important/accessed stuff.

Use what you have when you have it, otherwise it will just sit somewhere and collect dust, get old, and not be worth much after a while (unless it's a rare item that has the potential as a collectible).

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

Put it in a desktop computer until you find better use for it??? I did that with one laptop HDD. Works fine and is very quiet.

well, I will be needing another SATA hdd soon... It's a 5400 RPM one though, kinda slow for desktop use.

[momaka]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

ow what to do with this extra 160gb SATA HDD I have from the dead netbook... suggestions?

Put it in a desktop computer until you find better use for it??? I did that with one laptop HDD. Works fine and is very quiet.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

No problem. You can get cheap Dells on feebay now and again listed as faulty because it has a bios password on it so keep that program handy

Noted.

I think my dad will be getting this laptop for his use since he could really use the higher resolution. Not to mention that the D400 has some sentamental value, that being a few decals that I put on the lid...

Now what to do with this extra 160gb SATA HDD I have from the dead netbook... suggestions?

[gilly1984]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

You rock! Worked great. I had found a similar tool but it was useless.

No problem. You can get cheap Dells on feebay now and again listed as faulty because it has a bios password on it so keep that program handy

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

In


I don't know about that, but I do know that the graphics card makes a lot of a difference in terms of speed. I have also several T21 ThinkPads with same or very similar processors as my C600. All run like crap compared to the C600 since they all have S3 Savage (4??) video card with 2 MB or 4 MB. The C600 has ATI M3 with 8 MB. Makes a huge difference in web browsing, especially with Firefox.

That explains why my dad's T22 doesn't seem to be worth the Wireless N card I paid $15 for it OT: the wireless card is a linksys G+ card that has an N chip. Generic Atheros drivers FTW!

I just finished some work on the D800... I fixed the broken volume button (dirty contacts) and fixed a rattle inside the lid (3 screen screws) and some loose hinges.

If I come across some PC2700 for it I will flash the BIOS to the one for the precision M60, which enables 333mhz RAM usage (it will only run 266, not even underclocked).

[Wester547]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

A GeForce 5/FX is still leaded solder and pre-bumpgate issues so it should be fine. Pretty awesome that it can be upgraded, though, not every laptop has that luxury.

I don't know about that, but I do know that the graphics card makes a lot of a difference in terms of speed. I have also several T21 ThinkPads with same or very similar processors as my C600. All run like crap compared to the C600 since they all have S3 Savage (4??) video card with 2 MB or 4 MB. The C600 has ATI M3 with 8 MB. Makes a huge difference in web browsing, especially with Firefox.

Well, the Dell XPS B1000 I make reference to had a 64MB DDR GeForce 2 GTS (AGP 4x/2.0), which for its time was quite fast, so I'm sure that was more than fast enough for 2D activities.

I wonder how well that GF4 card in RD's laptop does in terms of 3D. I think it may even play some old games just fine (Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6/CZ at the very least I'm sure). I'd benchmark it just for fun.

Counter-Strike (that mod for the original Half-Life) runs on a modified version of GoldSrc/the first Quake engine, which is extremely lightweight and can even run smoothly (with OpenGL/1024x768/16-bit color, though it supports 32-bit color too) on a card as old and low tier as a Riva TNT 16MB.

[ratdude747]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

The stock GPU for the series was actually a GeForce5. The GPU is modular, so It could be upgraded.

Right now the Lack of RAM is the worst issue... Anybody have some spare Laptop DDR?

[momaka]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

The GF4 is leaded solder so the BGA chip "losing contact" is the only thing you'd have to worry about but I'm sure it can take droves of stress before that happens.

Indeed.
My C600 gets burning hot on the bottom - not just under the CPU but the entire bottom. Starts eventually smelling like burning plastic too. Yet that thing is close to 12 years old. When I first got that laptop I though the fans were malfunctioning. - Nope, it just likes to run hot.
Leaded solder FTW!

It might be because if I'm not mistaken, the mobile Pentium IIIs were rather fast for their timeframe (being based on Celeron architecture), probably significantly faster than the older, Coppermine Desktop Pentium IIIs, even, for an onset of reasons.

I don't know about that, but I do know that the graphics card makes a lot of a difference in terms of speed. I have also several T21 ThinkPads with same or very similar processors as my C600. All run like crap compared to the C600 since they all have S3 Savage (4??) video card with 2 MB or 4 MB. The C600 has ATI M3 with 8 MB. Makes a huge difference in web browsing, especially with Firefox.

I wonder how well that GF4 card in RD's laptop does in terms of 3D. I think it may even play some old games just fine (Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6/CZ at the very least I'm sure). I'd benchmark it just for fun.

[Wester547]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

Meh.
I'm still using my Dell Latitude C600 which has a 850 MHz Pentium 3 and I don't find it slow at all - not for web browsing at least. Games, Youtube, and flash-heavy websites aside, it works much much faster than all of my friends' latest Core i3's and i5's when doing simple tasks such as web browsing and word processing (of course, I keep it nice and clean, that's why).

Last month I actually had to downgrade to 384 MB of RAM (had 512 MB originally) so that I could upgrade my uncle's laptop (which is same as mine but had only 256 MB or RAM).

Anyways. My point is, if kept clean, that D800 should be quite decent. Good score for $50, especially with that battery.

It might be because if I'm not mistaken, the mobile Pentium IIIs were rather fast for their timeframe (being based on Celeron architecture), probably significantly faster than the older, Coppermine Desktop Pentium IIIs, even, for an onset of reasons. An old 1GHz Pentium III Coppermine I had with 512MB of PC700 (non-ECC) RDRAM and a 120GB Seagate 7200.7 PATA drive (originally a Dell XPS B1000 from 2000) could not browse the internet at comfortable speeds (even with relatively basic activity, with nothing but that which is required to run XP Home SP3 in the background, including no Anti-virus app), but otherwise was fairly fast in older apps.

But Ratdude's Latitude is nice, I would say. That GF4 is a solid graphics chip and anything that is GeForce FX and before is prior to the underfill issue (though even many of the GF4 chips were far superior to the GFFX chips in terms of performance in 3D apps). The GF4 is leaded solder so the BGA chip "losing contact" is the only thing you'd have to worry about but I'm sure it can take droves of stress before that happens.

[c_hegge]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

^
Agreed. My last laptop was a Toshiba Portege M300, which was a Pentium M 1.2GHz ULV, and it did fine as a word processor.

[momaka]

Re: Rd's latest Latitude

Its gonna be slow, but it'll be a fine web browser.,

Meh.
I'm still using my Dell Latitude C600 which has a 850 MHz Pentium 3 and I don't find it slow at all - not for web browsing at least. Games, Youtube, and flash-heavy websites aside, it works much much faster than all of my friends' latest Core i3's and i5's when doing simple tasks such as web browsing and word processing (of course, I keep it nice and clean, that's why).

Last month I actually had to downgrade to 384 MB of RAM (had 512 MB originally) so that I could upgrade my uncle's laptop (which is same as mine but had only 256 MB or RAM).

Anyways. My point is, if kept clean, that D800 should be quite decent. Good score for $50, especially with that battery.