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Laptop Video Upgrade
captainstupid writes "The friendly folks over at GotApex? have a walkthrough of an interesting hack. They upgrade
a Dell Inspiron's viedo card! It's cool to see the heat transfer mechanisms that they use to pull the heat away from the CPU as well as the GPU. Another fun way to void your warranty!"
There's no way I'd try it until my warranty ran out-- I've sent my Inspiron 7500 back to the depot six times in a year and a half. I guess I'm just not that brave.
Now if we could only get them to upgrade their web server...slashdotted already. :(
I've learned to never, ever, use my 7500 as an actual "lap top" -- after a while the hair burns off, your skin starts to melt, and you can read the word "Inspirion" backwards on your right leg. Interesting early engineering solution to dissapating heat though.
It's wonderful to see they're handling the CPU/GPU thermal load much more intelligently in the 8500.
Back when I bought my inspiron 5000 a lot of folks on the dell groups were talking about upgrading the video card since it seems it was on a daughter board. I am not sure if anyone ever made this happen. Anyone know? My 5000 is showing its age and a new video card would let me get another yer out of it.
Malice95
The rest of the article details the performance difference. This isn't a hack - it's a standard upgrade. The article isn't that bad, but the Slashdot editors have SORELY misrepresented it.
(And before you tell me that the Slashdot editors didn't write that blurb, keep in mind that I know that. The writer of the blurb, however, did not post it to the front page. EDITOR. The job of an editor is to proof-read the submisson for accuracy and legibility.)
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
is that to say Rob is a "Cereal Killer?" (sorry, but the reference was way too easy...)
Any info out there on converting laptop LCD into something with a VGA or DVI plug? I got some old rather worthless or broken laptops with nice displays that just seem like such a waste.
Not true. I am sitting here typing on my Dell Inspiron 8000 that has a GF2go. Close, but no cigar apex.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I don't know, with me it's usually:
Cool, Look at this, one laptop with crap video. another with a bum motherboard. Whatever will I do? Void the warrenty? Wait, these laptops have been out of warrenty for quite some time now.
Then again, I'm usually working with the Latitude CP series, which is much harder to hack (everything is integrated or not there).
I read the internet for the articles.
Mirror here:
http://kwak.polpo.org/mirror/gotapex/
I had to do some quickie html hacking but it mostly works.
I've got a Presario 2700, and while it's not a bad laptop at all, I'd really like to ditch the Radeon Mobility and move to the GeForce2Go, just for better drivers alone!
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any of the Compaqs with this same basic mobo that used anything other than the Rage Mobility, and I haven't been able to find any links to see if Dell and Compaq used the same supplier for the mobos. Are these daughterboards reasonably standard, since they're all coming from the same two or three suppliers in Taiwan?
Anyone? Anyone?
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
Dewd, what is wrong with your laptop?!
I had to bring in my wife's laptop once in two years- and that was because I broke the pc card slot (don't drop the laptop on its side when the 802.11b card is sticking out...) I think that pretty much equalled out the price of the extended warranty!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
People have been doing this since last year. The 8x00 series systems all share the same video card interface. No you don't void your warranty (the delltalk moderators have confirmed this) however it is strongly advised that you replace your old card if you have to send it in for service. One guy reported his GF4GO card disappeared after it being serviced.
To order the card call Dell's spare parts line. More information is available in the Delltalk forums at http://delltalk.us.dell.com Please be smart and use the search function before asking a question that is answered 9000 times already. We'd appreciate it. I'm known as Stonent in the delltalk forums.
I'm actually voting for a meltdown into a slag of molten ash, with the scream of twisting metal collapsing under its' own weight.
but I'm willing to consider other options ....
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
/me watches gotapex's redlined webserver go nova from a safe distance.
Betcha they wish they'd just spent $30 on a better processor rather than overclocking a cheaper one.
(Disclaimer: Yes, I know bandwidth has to do with it as well, but its supposed to be a joke, since they're site touts its 'redlined' hardware.)
http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
I'm typing this on an Inspiron 8200 at the moment, and I must say, its a seriously cool machine. Not cool in that sense (it'll burn your lap if you use it on your knees) but quite hackable. Check out the Dell forums, there's all sorts of help about doing everything from upgrading your video card (there is talk about stuffing the mobile NV30 in Inspirons when it comes out) to upgrading your LCD screen. One thing, though, that pissed me off about the article was its response to my font sizes. The 8200 (and the 8100 that the article is about) have ridiculously high res (SXGA+ and UXGA) screens. On my 1600x1200 screen, the fonts are turned up quite large. Everything on the page wasa screwy. Oh when will vector graphics GUIs come out?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
aww don't get all pissy because you didn't think of it first.
One of the things I'd always wanted on my machine (VAIO F-series) was the ability to use the machine as the "head" for another computer, i.e. use special cables to plug the laptop into a standard desktop, and use the laptop's keyboard, pointer, and display as the input / output for a desktop. You could even have some Function Key to switch between the internal machine and the external.
Anyone seen this?
Michael C. Hollinger
Oh c'mon. There's room for dweebs, too. Many suffering Dell Insipidon users are thrilled with the info in this article. Lighten up!
dweeb
An even lower form of life than the spod, found in much the same habitat as the former. though more prevailent on talker systems. Unlike spods, upon receiving the desired response to the question "Are you male or female?", dweebs will then engage upon a detailed description of themselves and how wonderful they are, often in the hopes of truly impressing the other with their "charm" and "wit". Nearly all dweebs are male, but very few actually live up to the image that they present. Dweebs, unfortunately, are often the cause of ill-will, and may well bring a bad reputation to the system in question. They are often, however, easy to wind up and can be the source of great mirth to the seasoned user.
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman
I also own a Inspiron 8100, and was very happy when I found that Dell has docs telling you exactly how to take it apart. They must consider it user serviceable.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
The Inspiron's are bigger and bulkier than
the Latitudes; it's always been this way because
they bring out the newer hardware on the Inspirons
first, do the engineering to get it all on a
single board, and then release the equivalent
Latitude. If you change the video chip on a
Latitude, it's maybe interesting. Changing the
video card on an Inspiron is about as amazing as
changing the disk drive or upgrading the RAM.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.