Question Looking for a "vintage" 32bit Laptop

[aoresteen]

I am looking for an older 32bit laptop. Here's the hardware spec I need:

1. 4GB RAM capable.
2. Easy access to the 2.5" hard drive. Prefer SATA but I could live with PATA
3. 2.4 GHz P4 or better CPU
4. 13" to 14" screen - 1280 x 1024 would be perfect.
5. VGA or DVI port
6. PCMCIA/PC Card slot or a native RS-232 Port (for HAM radio)

I will be running DOS, XP, Win7, and Linux Mint.

Anyone one know who made one like this?

TIA

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

are you searching for a particular make\model that you've lost track of
or just for anything that may support similar components?

and why exactly?
just for some retro building project?

an easier idea for searching for something like this may be to find a chipset or specific P4 CPU that existed when these were popular setups.
then search online retailers and auctions for a used laptop featuring that chipset\CPU.
there won't be many search parameters allowing to input most of those options you've listed so using a certain chipset or CPU could help narrow the search down to systems that might include some of these options.

 

[Alabalcho]

Dell D6xx series
Many of these are working 15+ years around me

 

[aoresteen]

are you searching for a particular make\model that you've lost track of
or just for anything that may support similar components?

and why exactly?
just for some retro building project?

an easier idea for searching for something like this may be to find a chipset or specific P4 CPU that existed when these were popular setups.
then search online retailers and auctions for a used laptop featuring that chipset\CPU.
there won't be many search parameters allowing to input most of those options you've listed so using a certain chipset or CPU could help narrow the search down to systems that might include some of these options.

Thanks all. I am NOT tied to a particular brand or model.

This would be my away from home laptop. Right now I am using a Compaq nc6220 with a 360 gb PATA drive. It's full. I'd like a 2TB SATA to work with. I currently have the 360GB PATA partitioned into 4 primary partitions:

1. 2GB FAT16 for PCDOS 7.01 for DOS development and old DOS games. That's why I'm fine with a 1280x1024 screen - it's the correct aspect for DOS. Those 1400x900 screens look funky when they scale up a DOS screen.

2. 80GB for WinXP SP3 for a few apps that do not run under Win10 but I use regularly. Primarily HAM Radio RS-232 serial apps, camera software that ended with WinXP, and a couple of PCMCIA/CardBus cards that I have that do not have support beyond WinXP..

3. 100GB EX4 partition for Linux Mint 19.3 32bit Cinnamon. Daily user for email/word processing/spreadsheets/presentations and web browsing with FireFox.

4. The rest of the drive is a NTFS data partition used by WinXP & Mint to share docs and holds reference material that I use.

The current RAM I have in the nc6220 is maxed out at 2GB. 4GB would be better for Mint/FireFox. Everything I run in WinXP is more than fine with 2GB. I currently run a Pentium M 2.2GHz - a P4 or Duo Core 2.4GHz again would help Mint/FireFox. Since there are XP drivers for all the chip sets of this era and Mint seems to handle them as well, I am not tied to any chip set.

Alabalcho: Thanks I will look at the Dell D6xx series.

 

[aoresteen]

I bought a Dell D630 w/4GB RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.40GHz. It checked all the boxes plus it has 1394. Bought a SODIMM 4GB to bump it to 6GB (Will try Linux Mint 19.3 64bit. Bought an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 SLAQJ 2.8GHz Dual-Core witch is the fastest CPU that most sources say it can run. If it runs too hot I will sell it. Bought a 2TB SATA 2GB 2.5" hard drive. Made sure I got the Inter Graphics not the Nvidia chip.

Now to get it all to work

Thanks for the help!

 

[aoresteen]

I just got home from the hospital after having open heart surgery. I have all the parts I need. I did buy another 4gb ram moduel that fills the ram 8gb the max it can take.

It will be awhile before I will be able to get back to this project. I will update it here when I make more progress.

 

[aoresteen]

I now have the Dell D630 working. Thanks to Alabalcho for suggesting this laptop. It's a great design and parts are easy to find. I learned a lot about this laptop so I will document it here.

My Dell Latitude D630 came with BIOS A09 installed. I upgraded it to 8GB RAM ($110 for 2x 4 GB RAM modules), a 2TB Toshiba 2.5" hard drive ($68), and an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 SLAQJ 2.8GHz Dual-Core CPU Processor (cost was $105 - not installed yet - currently running a 2.4GHz Duo CPU ).

The D630 arrived running Win7 Home Premium and BIOS A09. I installed the first 4 GB RAM module and it ran it fine with a total of 6GB RAM. When the second 4GB RAM module arrived I installed it and the D630 choked. It took 15 minutes to POST. It did not like 8 GB RAM. It would boot normally with either 4 GB RAM module installed but not both. Humm. I decided to flash the D630 from BIOS A09 to BIOS A17. With the BIOS at A17 the D630 boots normally with 8 GB of RAM. BIOS A09 did not like 8 GB RAM. I do not know which BIOS version fixed the 8 GB RAM issue but A17 did. If you plan to use a D630 with 8GB RAM I suggest bumping the BIOS to A17 or higher (A18 or A19 which is the last one released by Dell).

So why did I install 8GB of RAM when I am building a 32bit laptop? Well, because I can . The 8 GB of RAM will let me run the latest version of 64bit Mint. The last 32bit version of Mint is Mint 19.3. The current version of Mint is 20.2 and is only for 64bit environments. Yes I could have installed 64bit Mint in 4GB but why use 4GB when you can have 8gb? 4 GB DDR2 SODIMM modules will only go up in price so buy them now at $55-65 and be done with it. A year ago they were at $40 each.

The highest capacity of DDR2 SODIMMs is reported to be 8GB. I have searched high and low and have failed to find any DDR2 8GB modules for sale. My guess is that anyone who has them will not let them go. I did see a post on the Dell forums where a user (thetrendingverge) claimed to have a D630 running 32GB RAM (that would be two 16GB DDR2 SODIMMs) but I do not believe it.

https://www.dell.com/community/Lati...l-on-my-laptop-What-s-the/td-p/7646811/page/2


I doubt that the D630 chipset would recognize them. I do think it would be possible (but not likely) for 16GB (2x8GB DDR2) in a D630 but that implies that the D630 chipset would be able to handle them. I would love to give it a try so I continue to look for some 8 GB DDR2 SODIMMs.

I did bump the BIOS to A19. There is a lot of discussion on the Dell forums and elsewhere about issues with the A19 BIOS file on the Dell site being corrupted and not usable. There is a post on the Dell forums by Sousuke that lists this version of the A19 BIOS in a RAR file:

https://www.dell.com/community/Lati...l-on-my-laptop-What-s-the/td-p/7646811/page/2

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9ehae5d1jhs8mqa/Dell_Latitude_D630_BIOS_A19.rar/file

I used this A19 BIOS file and it works. You will need an app like WinRar to unpack it. Then you will need a DOS boot USB drive to run it. I used a FreeDOS boot drive created with the app called RUFUS.

Warning: When you launch the A19 BIOS update it starts and there is no option to not run it. And there is little screen info to show you it is done. I bricked my D630 as I thought the update was done and it wasn't. It would no longer POST. Just got a black screen.

Ugh! What to do? Using DOS on another computer there is a way to extract the BIOS binary file using the switch "-writehdrfile" The DOS command line command for the BIOS file named "D630_A19.exe" is:

D630_A19 -writehdrfile

This will extract the BIOS file as a binary file named D630_A19.HDR

Moderator on the Dell forums named Florian Steinau posted this procedure to restore the BIOS on a D630 here:

https://www.dell.com/community/Lapt...not-booting-anymore-black-screen/td-p/5242888

I used a FreeDos USB boot drive with the .HDR file copied in the root directory. I put the USB boot drive in the upper USB slot of the D630 and followed Florian's instructions and it worked. My D630 had the A19 BIOS restored and it is running fine. The trick is that when you see the the first LED light up release the DEL key right away. You have only 1 to 2 seconds to release the DEL key to start the restore.

A day later I installed the 2 TB hard drive. It has 4 primary MBR partitions:

1. 2GB FAT for PC DOS2 2000 (IBM).

2. 80GB NTFS for WinXP SP3

3. 120GB Ext4 for Linux Mint 20.2

4. The rest (about 1,730GB) is NTFS for data, music, and photos. That's a lot of storage for a laptop.

I installed PC DOS 7 (2000) and Windows XP SP3. The DOS instalation was new clean install. For WinXP I actually cloned my working desktop XP installation and it booted right up in the D630. I had to chase D630 drivers but Dell's site had them all.

I took a break and then I installed Linux Mint 20.2 64bit. I was able to install it in the 3rd partition 120GB with no issues.. The boot loader GRUB found the DOS 7 installation and the Windows XP installation and automatically added them to the boot menu. Now I can boot to any of the installed OSs on the D630. With Mint and Firefox I can browse with a modern browser that is secure. It is good to go in 2021.

I ordered 4 extra hard drive caddies for the D630. Remove two screws and the SATA hard drive slides right out. It's a quick swap.

Next is to build a DOS7 & Win2K hard drive. I kept the original 250GB hard drive with Win7 on it. I have seen a number of postings of the D630 running Win10. I will build a drive for Win10 when I get time or Dual boot Win7 & Win10 on the 250GB hard drive. And given the age of the D630 I will try to boot Win98SE on it.

To swap the CPU in the D630 involves a full tear down on the D630. When I feel better in a few weeks I will install the X9000 cpu. The 2.4GHz CPU is fast enough for now.

The D630 docking station and Bluetooth module are on order. I plan on using a 1600x1200 external monitor with the D630.

I am very happy with the D630 and look forward to using it for many years to come.