Getting and older Dell soon...

[mdameron]

...and for FREE to boot! My sis has caught the 'looks good' craze and will be getting and iBook or something, so I get a double hand-me-down Dell (Dad ---> Sis --->Me )!

Anyway, I don't know the model number yet... but I have a couple general questions.

1) I know that the fan is VERY loud, and I'm going to try to clean it when I get it to see if that helps... if it doesn't I'll get a new one... where is the best place to get a replacement fan on the inter-web? I might end up getting one even if cleaning it quiets it down, because I believe it's the original fan in it, and I want peace of mind.

2) BATTERY! I'll want to get another battery for it, because it won't be plugged in a lot, and I believe it's also very old... where is the best place to get one for it?

Thanks guys! <3 free stuff, especially a lappy! I'm going to wipe it and put 2000 pro on it, and upgrade the RAM to the max when I get it, but that'll be a whole 'nother question when I can get the model number for it.

Thanks again for all links & advice!

 

[Kevin007]

nice, free stuff is awesome

 

[billb]

.. but I have a couple general questions....

Anyway, I don't know the model number

2) BATTERY! I'll want to get another battery for it, because it won't be plugged in a lot, and I believe it's also very old... where is the best place to get one for it?

I assume this is a laptop. Get the part number for the battery (it should be on the battery) and google it. The longer you search the lower the price you will find.

 

[mdameron]

Yeah, laptop

 

[mdameron]

*Update*

It's a Latitude L400. 700MHz P3, with 256mb of RAM (I think that maxes it out). Small and light, and I have both the floppy and CD-Rom drives to boot! (they're external.)

Formatting as we speak w/ 2k Pro.

Can't figure out how to mess with the cooling fan at all! It really is loud... definitely couldn't sit in a classroom with it.

Help!

 

[Lionsault_100]

Put a fork in it, it's done...

No seriously, sell it on ebay and get a latitude CPx series or a T2x thinkpad - those l400's feel like they are made out of communion wafers anyway

 

[mdameron]

Uh, no thanks.

No money, and a free laptop. What could I get for it anyway, $200? This thing is perfect for my needs. And I like its lightness.

 

[mdameron]

Bump, anyone know how to get to a laptop fan?

 

[=ACID RAIN=]

Seems to me like you're doing everything but the obvious

EBAY. Ebay for "L400 fan" and "L400 battery new" and you'll have exactly what you want. I just inherited an older dell too, an inspiron 4000. It needed a hard drive, so I bought a 40gb at the egg, and it needed a nic so I bought a mini-pci nic off of ebay. Later I'll get a battery and memory, but right now the battery lasts an hour and it has 256mb of ram, so I formatted a 15GB partition with win2k like you, then added slackware to a 10GB partition (includes swap). Not sure what I'll do with the rest hehe.

Think I'm gonna buy a wardriver pcmcia card for kicks

 

[mdameron]

Oh yeah, trust me, I went to ebay. I found two entries for a fan for this lappy... But I don't want to buy something and then just let it sit there cause I don't know how to put it in. Googling brought up guides that you have to pay for, and nothing specific to this.

I looked around on the lappy itself. Battery and hard drive are a piece of cake... but the last thing I want to do is damage something by fiddling too much with it...

 

[Pyros]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latl400/sm_en/67cuj0.pdf

Page 29 and 30 of 40 shows the fan removal and procedures.

 

[mdameron]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latl400/sm_en/67cuj0.pdf

Page 29 and 30 of 40 shows the fan removal and procedures.

Dude, you're awesome! I just found that too, about 15 minutes ago. I just ebayed a fan too... maybe it'll be here saturday, but I doubt it. Thanks again!

 

[Pyros]

Your welcome. To the best of my knowledge, Dell has pdf service manuals for all there laptops.

 

[=ACID RAIN=]

I know some models also have screw lables on the bottom, such as K for keyboard etc. Most laptops only require you to pull the keyboard to get to the CPU/heatsink, but that's not a hard rule. But if it's a dell, I'll betcha all you need to pull is the keyboard .

 

[mdameron]

From looking at that pdf, it seems not too hard at all. Can't wait to do it. I should also replace the hard drive too, that thing is ultra noisy! Are they all the same? From browsing newegg, i see ata-6, ata-7, sata... i know it's not sata. I'll just have to look around a bit more.