>> helmetguy said:

It's almost definitely the trackpoint stick. Can it be disabled in Windows device manager or the BIOS? Nice G-Shock, by the way Click to expand...

Disabling the trackpoint nub-Good question;I should look into that. Another thought was using an external mouse.

The G-Shock...yeah, it's very cool! Ordered it online. $75. :cool:

>> helmetguy said:

It's almost definitely the trackpoint stick. Can it be disabled in Windows device manager or the BIOS? Click to expand...

I had a Logitech mouse lying around, so I'm using that for now. So far, so good.

One thing that might be worth doing, is to upgrade to a Penryn die Core 2 Duo chip. I had a D830 about 10 years ago. Ran Win 7 Ultimate on it. Was a decent machine, but the fan would go bonkers while either watching YT videos or using Google Maps. Had the 2.2 GHz T7500 processor installed. I upgraded it to a T9500 (the 2.6 GHz Penryn die chip). Fan rarely revved up at all after the swap. After seeing the improvements with it, I upgraded both of my parents' machines from the T7500 and T7700 to a couple T9300 chips (the 2.5 Ghz version). Both of their machines ran much cooler.

>> Volvo242GT said:

One thing that might be worth doing, is to upgrade to a Penryn die Core 2 Duo chip. I had a D830 about 10 years ago. Ran Win 7 Ultimate on it. Was a decent machine, but the fan would go bonkers while either watching YT videos or using Google Maps. Had the 2.2 GHz T7500 processor installed. I upgraded it to a T9500 (the 2.6 GHz Penryn die chip). Fan rarely revved up at all after the swap. After seeing the improvements with it, I upgraded both of my parents' machines from the T7500 and T7700 to a couple T9300 chips (the 2.5 Ghz version). Both of their machines ran much cooler. Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! However, 1) I don't have the technical knowledge to do that (I'm just a writer/illustrator) and 2) this Dell laptop will be primarily used for writing: fiction, essays and poetry. So usage will be very light on this machine.B)

>> 2112st said:

Thanks for the suggestion! However, 1) I don't have the technical knowledge to do that (I'm just a writer/illustrator) and 2) this Dell laptop will be primarily used for writing: fiction, essays and poetry. So usage will be very light on this machine. Click to expand...

Sure, not a problem. It's not much more involved than doing the keyboard swap, and, if your machine has the nVidia Quadro GPU installed, it might be worth at least going in there and replacing the old thermal paste with some fresh paste to keep the chip from suiciding itself.

>> Volvo242GT said:

One thing that might be worth doing, is to upgrade to a Penryn die Core 2 Duo chip. I had a D830 about 10 years ago. Ran Win 7 Ultimate on it. Was a decent machine, but the fan would go bonkers while either watching YT videos or using Google Maps. Had the 2.2 GHz T7500 processor installed. I upgraded it to a T9500 (the 2.6 GHz Penryn die chip). Fan rarely revved up at all after the swap. After seeing the improvements with it, I upgraded both of my parents' machines from the T7500 and T7700 to a couple T9300 chips (the 2.5 Ghz version). Both of their machines ran much cooler. Click to expand...

We're the CPUs socketed on those laptops?

>> trag said:

We're the CPUs socketed on those laptops? Click to expand...

Jeff,

Yep. They were. Unlike Apple's soldered chips on the same era MacBook/MacBook Pro machines.

>> Volvo242GT said:

Jeff, Yep. They were. Unlike Apple's soldered chips on the same era MacBook/MacBook Pro machines. Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes, on my E6410 they were also socketed. But on the D430 which is a family relation to the D630, the CPU is soldered. Probably because the D430 was very compact for its day.

I feel like the D series was a high point for the Latitudes. Not the pinnacle, because Latitude has been around so long, it's had many highs and lows. But for the time, the technology, and for all time, the feel and styling of the D series was fantastic, IMO.

Peak latitude for me was the C810/Inspiron 8100.

>> trag said:

Thank you. Yes, on my E6410 they were also socketed. But on the D430 which is a family relation to the D630, the CPU is soldered. Probably because the D430 was very compact for its day. I feel like the D series was a high point for the Latitudes. Not the pinnacle, because Latitude has been around so long, it's had many highs and lows. But for the time, the technology, and for all time, the feel and styling of the D series was fantastic, IMO. Click to expand...

Agreed on the D series high point. Those, and the Inspiron 8500/8600/9100 machines were pretty good. My sister and I had an 8500 and an 8600, respectively. Hers was bought new in 2003. Mine, found it in 2010 at RE-PC in Seattle with a broken display and a bad video card. Replaced the nVidia card with a Radeon 9600, then swapped the broken WXGA display panel for a WUXGA version. Used it as my daily until I got my D830 in early 2013.

Found this...

Well is your's is socketed... go for the upgrade!
"the X9000 is the fastest CPU it can use. Also: You will need to flash you BIOS to at least version A17 (A19 is the highest)"

>> phunguss said:

Well is your's is socketed ... go for the upgrade! Click to expand...

At least, I might add an additional 2 gigs of RAM, because I might install an older version of Photoshop on here. But this machine will remain a home unit, and be primarily used for writing. Though...watching this video, I wonder if an SSD replacement is possible for this machine and what the maximum size might be? [thinking]

Second video I'm watching now. I'll have to dig up an I-FixIt tutorial.

>> 2112st said:

At least, I might add an additional 2 gigs of RAM, because I might install an older version of Photoshop on here. But this machine will remain a home unit, and be primarily used for writing. Though...watching this video, I wonder if an SSD replacement is possible for this machine and what the maximum size might be? Click to expand...

I don't remember what the machine uses and am too lazy to look it up, but...

If it uses a 2.5" SATA drive you should certainly be able to replace it with a SATA SSD.

If it uses a PATA drive, you can get a PATA => MSATA adapter for about $15 and install a somewhat more expensive MSATA SSD. NewEgg had the Kingspec 1 TB MSATA for ~$45 a few months ago, but now it is closer to $60 again.

The D430 used a 1.8" ZIF PATA and those 1.8" PATA drives were slowwwww and the vast majority were under 100GB in capacity, although Toshiba did make a spinny 1.8" PATA at 240GB. A 1.8" ZIF to MSATA adapter was a huge improvement.

Sintech makes a large selection of Mumble to MSATA adapters.

A question for you folks-what's a good piece of software to measure the temperature of the CPU? Redoing the thermal paste on this machine is a bit more involved than just removing the keyboard, as it involves the removal of the display and a fair amount of disassembly.

>> trag said:

I don't remember what the machine uses and am too lazy to look it up, but... Click to expand...

SATA
Core Temp should get you the CPU temp.

>> 3lectr1c said:

SATA Core Temp Core Temp is a compact, no fuss, small footprint, yet powerful program to monitor processor temperature and other vital information. www.alcpu.com Core Temp should get you the CPU temp. Click to expand...

Hm. Wonder if I could put a 250-gig SSD in this D630... :unsure:

>> 3lectr1c said:

SATA Core Temp Core Temp is a compact, no fuss, small footprint, yet powerful program to monitor processor temperature and other vital information. www.alcpu.com Core Temp should get you the CPU temp. Click to expand...

Last question for now...

What's the ideal temperature that this machine should be operating at?

If it gets above 80-90C under full load, that would be a bit on the hot side. Hard to say what's normal for a D630 since every laptop is different, but between 40-60C at idle is fairly normal I think?