Old, but new.

[Wizard]

Re: Old, but new.

YES. That's the reasons I did not bother to mention as I knew you knew better.

And I did not say about the standby battery pack, that's easy to do. That main battery you showed here and you can't rebuild these as this is usually Li Ion or NiMh and it does have electronics in it. I tried and fried the electronics looong ago and cells is costly.

Cheers, Wizard

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

OK, I decided to go out today and buy an AC adaptor for the laptop. It's a genuine Dell PA6 one and it cost me $25AU. And I have good news as well, the laptop boots and completes the POST process but won't go any further without a hard drive. I put a ubuntu Linux live CD in and I can hear it read, but won't boot from the CD. I have set the laptop to first boot as CDROM/ DVD ROM but it doesn't do anything. It keeps telling me "Primary hard drive not found, no bootable devices detected". In the BIOS, the modular bay device is detected as a DVD ROM drive so I think the IDE controller is still working OK. What do I do to get it to boot from the CD drive?

Oh, and the modular bay battery (main battery) is charging so I know that the battery can still be charged.

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

Oh I forgot to put some pics up or my working Inspiron 4000. So here they are.
As you can see the DVD-ROM drive is detected in the BIOS setup utility, when the drive is removed it says it is "not installed", that proves that the laptop can detect whether the drive is there or not, but I can't understand why I can't boot from the CD drive.
I have also verified that the fans are working because they do actually work when the laptop gets hot.





Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

Aww shit, the drive will read my Windows XP Media center edition DVD discs, but won't read my Ubntu 7.10 live CD. That may mean the drive has suffered the same fate as the one in my Toshiba laptop where it can only read dvds and not cds.
Is there anyway to make a Windows install CD into a DVD or better still, a Ubuntu Linux CD into a DVD?

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: Old, but new.

Your options:

1) Download a DVD .iso image (large and painful).

2) Try to get a working CD or CD-RW drive for the Dell - they're cheap on EBay.

3) Get a bare caddy and install virtually any working notebook optical drive in it, and repeat the installation attempt. You can use the existing drive as the donor for a bare caddy.

4) Install the hard disk on a desktop system with a USB-to-PATA converter board (from an external USB hard disk enclosure), make it bootable and then transplant to the HD caddy and into the Dell. Do the final fixups on the target.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

Your options:

1) Download a DVD .iso image (large and painful).

2) Try to get a working CD or CD-RW drive for the Dell - they're cheap on EBay.

3) Get a bare caddy and install virtually any working notebook optical drive in it, and repeat the installation attempt. You can use the existing drive as the donor for a bare caddy.

4) Install the hard disk on a desktop system with a USB-to-PATA converter board (from an external USB hard disk enclosure), make it bootable and then transplant to the HD caddy and into the Dell. Do the final fixups on the target.

I just downloaded Knoppix v 5.3 and for some reason it won't boot from the dvd I burnt. The DVD boots from my other PCs, so far, the only dvd it will boot from is the genuine windows media center dvd disc. That's the only one that works.
And what do you mean by a bare caddy? How do I get one or make one?

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: Old, but new.

The caddy is the enclosure (with connectors) in which the bare drive sits. The connector between the bare drive and the flex pcb inside the caddy is a standardized one - it's a miniature IDE connector used on almost all IDE/PATA notebook optical drives, called a JEIDA connector or similar. However, this connector is not at the same location on all drives - which makes it difficult to fit the connector on the flex PCB to every drive, but a great majority of drives have them in a similar location.

You can get a bare caddy from EBay, or dissect your existing DVD drive + caddy to get one. If you have a working DVD drive that reads DVDs, this is probably not advisable.

Some older DVD drives will not read all CD-Rs reliably. Some won't read any CD-R reliably. Try different brands until you get one that reads on most drives. Taiyo-Yuden or Imation (OEM CMC or Moser-Baer India) seem to work the best for me, but YMMV.

You may also want to clean the lens on the drive with a soft brush, and maybe an IPA-soaked paper towel - don't overdo it, the lens is plastic and easily scratched.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

The caddy is the enclosure (with connectors) in which the bare drive sits. The connector between the bare drive and the flex pcb inside the caddy is a standardized one - it's a miniature IDE connector used on almost all IDE/PATA notebook optical drives, called a JEIDA connector or similar. However, this connector is not at the same location on all drives - which makes it difficult to fit the connector on the flex PCB to every drive, but a great majority of drives have them in a similar location.

You can get a bare caddy from EBay, or dissect your existing DVD drive + caddy to get one. If you have a working DVD drive that reads DVDs, this is probably not advisable.

Some older DVD drives will not read all CD-Rs reliably. Some won't read any CD-R reliably. Try different brands until you get one that reads on most drives. Taiyo-Yuden or Imation (OEM CMC or Moser-Baer India) seem to work the best for me, but YMMV.

You may also want to clean the lens on the drive with a soft brush, and maybe an IPA-soaked paper towel - don't overdo it, the lens is plastic and easily scratched.

Knowing my luck with fixing small things such as miniature parts in cd drives etc. I'm probably going to make the drive more worse than what it is now, so I am not even going to attempt to try and fix it. The discs I used for the Linux distribution were TDK discs, I have only used TDK discs and nothing else. I think I've used Imation a few times but not much.

I'm going out to the city with a few friends tomorrow so I will try my best to find a hard disk drive caddy for my Inspiron 4000 series laptop. Like seriously, If all 34 computer/laptop repair stores in the city don't have a caddy (or internal connector) for the Inspiron 4000 then I am very concerned at parts availability for this laptop.
Anyway, I seem to have found a 3.2GB 2.5" IDE IBM hard drive in my draw and it works as well.
I've also found a laptop to desktop (2.5" to 3.5") adaptor so I'm wondering if it is possible to install a Linux distribution on that hard drive and then bring it back into the laptop??
I'm thinking of Fedora Core or similar at the moment and I have tried in the past with success by moving a hard drive with Fedora Core from my new desktop to an old PII 233MHz desktop and it still worked. If that was XP, it would have sensed a hardware changed and gave me a BSOD, but I have more hope in Linux.
To be honest, I do not want Windows on this laptop, I am aiming for open source operating systems as I need something stable for work at school.

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: Old, but new.

>I've also found a laptop to desktop (2.5" to 3.5") adaptor so I'm wondering if it is possible to install a Linux distribution on that hard drive and then bring it back into the laptop??

It's possible, but you have to hope for a bit of luck in ensuring that the laptop sees the same BIOS disk geometry as the desktop - the safest option is LBA. You also have to ensure that a partition is made bootable, and that it actually boots the kernel on the desktop.

If the kernel loads and displays initialization messages on the laptop, then all is fine and everything else can be made to work. It's getting to this point which is slightly tricky.

[Scenic]

Re: Old, but new.

seems that this thing uses the standard Dell HDD Adapter.



you can get those on ebay. they're just simple adapters. no electronics.
they just plug onto your standard 2.5" IDE Notebook HDD.
i've got one of those. came with a 60GB Toshiba 2.5" HDD.
but as they are only 5€ incl. shipping (5€ = ~8.90 AU$) on ebay here it wouldn't make sense to send you my adapter

booting problem: does this thing have a boot menu? where you can select what to boot from? (like the usual PC BIOS when pressing F12 during POST/BIOS..)
other theory: Maybe the drive works fine with CDs and DVDs, but the BIOS has some kind of lock so it doesn't boot any Linux CD/DVD...?!

something like IBM/Lenovo does with their miniPCI WiFi Cards... (non-IBM/Lenovo branded cards do not work. BIOS stops with an error message telling you to remove the WiFi card in order to continue booting)

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

hmm....if that's the case I think i'll just install windows 98se on my desktop using the ide adaptor and then transplant the drive back to the laptop. I dunno, but I tend to notice the windows 98 is more friendly as moving the hdd from one pc to another doesn't stall it. it just detects the new hardware and then it just works.... xp on the other hand will give out a bsod and then reboot if there has been a major hardware change.

thanks.

[Wizard]

Re: Old, but new.

Yes that is the adapter I am talking about.

Dell is not only one that needs this adapter. This adapter also used in this Acer 212TXV which is celeron 800 soldered on (YUK!!). It's for sale and reportedly working and case condition is poor (right rear where power jack and hinge is broken out) but good for parts. Battery is far too gone, no power brick. No HD, missing cover/caddy but it will hold the HD with adapter (don't have one) if you don't care about the look and not use for portablity. 128mb PC66, CD drive, modem, even it does have ethernet port but it is not in use and no chipset for it. I did test run with a OS.

Cannot say about the cdrom caddy, you need to get the caddy for your model or reuse your old caddy and install a newer notebook dvd or cd drive. Test fit the new drive FIRST before BUYING!

Cheers, Wizard

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

I went to the city today in search of the hdd caddy/adaptor for my Inspiron 4000 laptop. No luck whatsoever even after looking in 30 something different stores. I managed to find one store which specialised in selling old laptops and even they couldn't find a suitable caddy. They had caddies, but not what I was looking for. I just made a phonecall to the store around the corner from my house and I am awaiting a call from them tomorrow. Hopefully they will have the part I am looking for otherwise I have to drag myself onto eBay and auction for a hdd caddy for the inspiron 4000.

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

If I just get the standard Dell 44 pin IDE adaptor in Scenic's picture above and not buy the plastic piece that covers the hdd from the outside, will the drive still be useable without the piece of plastic?
I would prefer not to buy the piece of plastic that covers the hdd from the outside because I think the hdd will cool down better and better yet, it can be easily changed on the go without a screwdriver. Though I will use some tape to hold the HDD in place of course.

Thasnks.

[Scenic]

Re: Old, but new.

it will work without that plastic caddy (as long as there's no switch triggered by the caddy.. but thats rather unlikely..)

but that laptop won't be really portable, because you risk that the HDD falls out if you don't secure it somehow...

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

it will work without that plastic caddy (as long as there's no switch triggered by the caddy.. but thats rather unlikely..)

but that laptop won't be really portable, because you risk that the HDD falls out if you don't secure it somehow...

In regards to securing the drive, will industrial fiber stranded sticky tape be good enough to hold the drive in place from falling out? At the moment I'm desperate to get a hard drive to work inside this laptop. I'll even buy a caddy from a different Dell model just to get the 44 pin IDE adapter.

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

I just noticed the hinges are a tad loose. If I have the screen on an angle of about 20 degrees, it will start falling. Uh, can the hinges be tightened up in any way? or is that not recommended?
I dunno but I have a feeling that my driving had some to do with this. I turned a corner too fast and the laptop was in a big backpack and that flew from the back seat and onto the floor.... would this have anything to do with loose hinges or do loose hinges develop through time? Luckily my laptop still boots and has no physical damage on the casing because I think the backpack offered some protection.

Thanks.

[Wizard]

Re: Old, but new.

You have to disassemble rest of way down and tighten all the screws and pop open the LCD bezel off and tighten these as well.

The structure is through this metal box that boxes in the mainboard and the LCD is held together via brackets.

Cheers, Wizard

[zandrax]

Re: Old, but new.

I dunno but I have a feeling that my driving had some to do with this. I turned a corner too fast and the laptop was in a big backpack and that flew from the back seat and onto the floor.... would this have anything to do with loose hinges or do loose hinges develop through time?

I suggest you buying a car way slower than the Holden Commodore or the Lexus you like: get a classic Holden FX, a Morris Minor, a Beetle or any vehicle slower than an average car but faster than a bycicle
BTW, the backpack should've protected your notebook: hinges can get loose over time, thighten them.
About the reinforced tape, I think it should suffice if you keep the Dell on a flat surface but it's not a definitive patch nor it's secure enough (a sharp object could cut the tape): if you care about your hard drive, then don't move the pc from your desk unless you find an hdd caddy.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: Old, but new.

I bought the adaptor today only to find that my 2.5"hard drives dont fit in this laptop!.
I've tried forcing the hard drive into it's slot but it only goes in aboput 1CM before it gets stuck. There are some rails in there which are screwed to the PCB and they need to be there. But no matter how hard I try, the hard drive won't fit. My patience is running out and I will have to sell this thing on ebay if I can't get a hard drive to fit.

Thanks.