Zack_H wrote on 2022-04-09, 09:22:

I'm very happy. The laptop runs much better now. Getting my Windows Me/2000 dual-boot reinstalled was time consuming, but it was well worth it. I also have it set-up with Acronis OS Selector now instead of the built-in Windows loader, so now no matter which partition I boot from, the boot drive is always C:

ah that's a good step for usability!

I've been thinking about possibly getting one of the 1GHz Coppermine PIII Mobiles for this laptop, since that would pretty much max it out, but they seem to be impossible to find! And really, it's only 100MHz of difference at the end of the day, so I probably won't bother unless one comes up for really cheap. I'm perfectly happy with the 900MHz chip.

indeed, wouldn't offer much more performance and i think you've got this machine pretty much optimised!

gerry wrote on 2022-04-12, 08:44:

ah that's a good step for usability! […]
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Zack_H wrote on 2022-04-09, 09:22:

I'm very happy. The laptop runs much better now. Getting my Windows Me/2000 dual-boot reinstalled was time consuming, but it was well worth it. I also have it set-up with Acronis OS Selector now instead of the built-in Windows loader, so now no matter which partition I boot from, the boot drive is always C:

ah that's a good step for usability!

I've been thinking about possibly getting one of the 1GHz Coppermine PIII Mobiles for this laptop, since that would pretty much max it out, but they seem to be impossible to find! And really, it's only 100MHz of difference at the end of the day, so I probably won't bother unless one comes up for really cheap. I'm perfectly happy with the 900MHz chip.

indeed, wouldn't offer much more performance and i think you've got this machine pretty much optimised!

Thanks! I've tinkered with it quite a lot in the time I've owned it, and I've done my best to get the most out of it. It's definitely one of my favorites for sure. It's a reliable and well-designed laptop, very powerful for the era too.

Another small update:

Since I replaced the shell on this laptop, the service tag on the bottom no longer matched the one in the BIOS. So a few weeks ago I finally ran across a Disc I had with the DSTCD utility that I thought was gone forever, but it was in among a bunch of other CDs, so I made an image from it since it seems damn near impossible to find online right now.

The DSTCD utility is a Dell internal use only program that allows you to do several things, such as completely remove a BIOS password and change the service tag, among other things.

So with this utillity, I cleared out the old service tag and programmed in the one on the bottom of the laptop, so it now matches again!

Could you post that utility here or in the vogonsdrivers thread?

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-04-20, 15:02:

Could you post that utility here or in the vogonsdrivers thread?

Seconded, it would be nice to use to fix the service tag setting on my Dell Inspiron 8000 since I had to replace the motherboard in mine due to the 1GHz CPU upgrade constantly overheating on the old one, drastically reducing its lifespan to the point where it stopped working. Matching the service tag would be a nice touch, but it isn't essential.

If you're thinking about maxing this out to 1GHz just for the sake of maxing it out, don't. The 1GHz CPU will overheat and eventually kill your motherboard like it did to mine. I'd stick with the 900MHz one that you already have. Mine has an 850MHz CPU now (came with the new motherboard) and it's still an upgrade over the original 700MHz CPU.

Since these older Dell Inspiron laptops used identical parts from the Latitude laptops of the era, you can force flash the Dell Latitude C800 BIOS if you really wanted to, but IIRC there's really nothing much to gain from it, all it did was allow you to use more advanced docking stations with these laptops. I just did it because my new motherboard was from a Latitude C800.

Here is a zip containing the ISO image for the Dell DSTCD. Let me know if it works!

I have heard those 1GHz chips run pretty toasty. That's really sad your old motherboard died, these are generally pretty reliable, but I guess the heat from the 1GHz CPU was too much for it. Glad you got it replaced though.

There is two very Important things I recommend for cooling though, regardless which CPU you have (you may have done both already, but just in case not):

No.1: Remove the thermal pad completely from the heatsink and throw it away! Replace it with some high quality thermal paste. This works wonders for cooling.

No.2: Download a utility called i8kfangui. This allows you to manually set what temps the fans kick in. I set my fans to turn on at 40 degrees celsius, so they run almost all of the time. By default they come on at around 70 celsius, which is just too hot IMO.