Textured Vinyl for the lid
So I went on the hunt after my last laptop Died (Hi-Grade CT1, 2GHz Pentium M 533MHz FSB, 2GB Ram, 120GB HDD) I Went on the Hunt for a new machine, At the time being I was going away on a trip I was looking for as cheap as possible for net surfing and came across a Dell Latitude D600 going for a reasonable price, So I was like yea alright that will do and bought it. When I received it, it all worked fine but it must have been an Ex-Business machine as there were major scratch marks on the lid and underside of the laptop. I'm assuming it was just retired rather than stolen given even when I bought it in early 2011 it was about 10 years old now (Testament to old school Dell Quality) so I was doubting they would be using a laptop that old and be large enough to actually have Asset Tags on the machine.
Here is what it looked like:
Here is what it looked like:
As you can tell it looked like it walked into a back ally knife fight and lost, however It worked perfectly fine and given the battery was a good many years old (8 or 9 years old) it still held about 40 minutes of charge of light load, and with the cheap price I didn’t really feel there was a point in getting a refund on it since it was mentioned it had cosmetic damage... although I wasn’t expecting it to have battle scars so I thought to myself why not vinyl this up would cover the unsightly scratching and look cool.
This is the vinyl I chose:
This is the vinyl I chose:
For best effects I would recommend a heat gun to lightly soften the vinyl it will help it wrap around the corners of the lid better, just make sure not to have the heat gun too high or it will blister the vinyl and also to use an old credit card or similar.
Peel back half the vinyl’s backing and position it at the edge of the laptops lid, using your thumb put pressure on the edge of the lid this will hold it in place, then take your card and slowly but with some pressure start a scraping motion pushing towards the centre of the laptop this will help minimize air bubbles. Keep going till you’re at the centre and remember to take your time.
Once your at the centre continue the same method but this time with your other hand start peeling back the backing of the vinyl (the bit you peeled off) once your done, then use a heat gun on a lower setting to soften that vinyl and tightly wrap it around the corners of the lid and stick it down good.
next get a craft knife of some sort and follow the groove in your laptops lid where the front and back join for a nice smooth perfect cut, just make sure to use a new blade then if like on a D600 you have a centre badge use your thumb to find the groove and again cut around that groove. Then stick it down.
Done! Enjoy your new vinyl! If you got any small air bubbles use a small pin and prick the air holes you won’t see the hole to the naked eye and the air will escape allowing you to stick it down.
Peel back half the vinyl’s backing and position it at the edge of the laptops lid, using your thumb put pressure on the edge of the lid this will hold it in place, then take your card and slowly but with some pressure start a scraping motion pushing towards the centre of the laptop this will help minimize air bubbles. Keep going till you’re at the centre and remember to take your time.
Once your at the centre continue the same method but this time with your other hand start peeling back the backing of the vinyl (the bit you peeled off) once your done, then use a heat gun on a lower setting to soften that vinyl and tightly wrap it around the corners of the lid and stick it down good.
next get a craft knife of some sort and follow the groove in your laptops lid where the front and back join for a nice smooth perfect cut, just make sure to use a new blade then if like on a D600 you have a centre badge use your thumb to find the groove and again cut around that groove. Then stick it down.
Done! Enjoy your new vinyl! If you got any small air bubbles use a small pin and prick the air holes you won’t see the hole to the naked eye and the air will escape allowing you to stick it down.
Improving The Cooling of Your D600
What some may not realize is, The Dell D600 actually had 2 types of CPU cooler out there the most common seems to be the Normal Aluminium but if you check out eBay you can get yourself a Copper Heat pipe and Fins version of it. I found this one to drop my CPU temps by a few degrees
But As ALWAYS use high quality thermal paste for maximum effect, A Cooler is only as good as the paste used on the CPU. Here is a before and after switching to the new cooler.
But As ALWAYS use high quality thermal paste for maximum effect, A Cooler is only as good as the paste used on the CPU. Here is a before and after switching to the new cooler.
Custom BIOS Splash Screen
Another thing many users may not know you can actually flash a new BIOS Splash screen to your Dell D600, That is if you have a Floppy Drive for your machine.
However there very cheap on eBay and shouldn't be hard to get if you want to add a little more customization to your machine.
You can get the Program to do it right from Dell here:"Dell Portables POST Bitmap Update Program"
Please remember I'm not held accountable if something goes wrong during flashing, try to use a brand new floppy disk or USB Drive when doing this with a battery that has a good charge. Here is my Splash Screen!
However there very cheap on eBay and shouldn't be hard to get if you want to add a little more customization to your machine.
You can get the Program to do it right from Dell here:"Dell Portables POST Bitmap Update Program"
Please remember I'm not held accountable if something goes wrong during flashing, try to use a brand new floppy disk or USB Drive when doing this with a battery that has a good charge. Here is my Splash Screen!
Bigger Feet, Better Cooling
Yet another thing I did regarding cooling was to add custom feet to my laptop. These you can buy on eBay easy enough, and instead of the stock ones giving only 1mm of rise you can get ones that give 3mm. This doesn't sound like much but it actually makes a noticeable difference as the hot air has an easier time of escaping and cool air can get in under your laptop better... well providing you’re using a desk or hard surface for the laptop to rest on during use
Here is my laptop with a foot comparison
Here is my laptop with a foot comparison
Using Non Dell OEM Optical Drives in a D600
It is actually possible to use a Non Dell Drive in your D600, This is especially handy if your drive has died and you’re in a pinch. First you need to check where your eject button on your D600 Drive is if its very close to the little hole than you will have an easier time, if yours is about 2cm away from it you will need to modify the Drive faceplate you will want to use with the D600.
You will need an ATAPI Optical Drive Sata ones will NOT work for this and depending on where your eject button is you may need a dremel or other cutting tool. For the first part we will assume you have a drive that's eject button is close to the hole.
Start by ejecting the tray then removing the drive from the D600 it does not matter if the D600 is on its designed to "Hot Swap". You should be able to ease off the faceplate of the drive it’s held in by 3 clicks easily visible if you flip the drive over. Wiggling normally is able to free the faceplate from the drive itself.
Once that is done you will see a single screw holding the locking mechanism in, this is what holds your drive in the bay remove the screw then slide out the locking mechanism Now you will need to remove the screws around the bay adapter note there is a sneaky screw hidden in where the locking mechanism was, Remember the 2 longer and thinner screws are for the back. If your drive was one of the ones that you need to cut the face plate you will need the locking mechanism for measurements.
Once those are out the Drive is ready for sliding out. You will notice there is a board at the back of the drive near the connector hold that with your thumb and slide free the drive. Now take the drive you wish to put in and get a paper clip. Push it into the tiny hole and apply a little pressure, it should release the drive.
I recommend putting a waste disc in the drive at this point to prevent you accidentally touching the laser, now wiggle the faceplate free like before. Now clip in the new front of the drive close the drive and put it all back together, slot it into your D600 and it should detect and install the drivers instantly! Job done!
If you have the other type of drive like I did however with the faceplate off the drive you want to install now measure the eject mechanism button and add about 1mm to prevent rubbing and mark the faceplate. Now cut the faceplate carefully to that size remember you will be cutting the BOTTOM RIGHT of the face. Once you got that part cut out if you like take some 1200 grit sand paper and go over the edge for added smoothness and a little more neatness. Reattach the drive faceplate to your drive and then reassemble. Your drive should work! Note that depending on the faceplate the drive may look a little recessed into the D600 compared to the locking mechanism and laptop itself but will work just fine.
I had one of the awkward QSI Brand Drives so I had to use the cutting method and this is how it looked while reading a disc!
You will need an ATAPI Optical Drive Sata ones will NOT work for this and depending on where your eject button is you may need a dremel or other cutting tool. For the first part we will assume you have a drive that's eject button is close to the hole.
Start by ejecting the tray then removing the drive from the D600 it does not matter if the D600 is on its designed to "Hot Swap". You should be able to ease off the faceplate of the drive it’s held in by 3 clicks easily visible if you flip the drive over. Wiggling normally is able to free the faceplate from the drive itself.
Once that is done you will see a single screw holding the locking mechanism in, this is what holds your drive in the bay remove the screw then slide out the locking mechanism Now you will need to remove the screws around the bay adapter note there is a sneaky screw hidden in where the locking mechanism was, Remember the 2 longer and thinner screws are for the back. If your drive was one of the ones that you need to cut the face plate you will need the locking mechanism for measurements.
Once those are out the Drive is ready for sliding out. You will notice there is a board at the back of the drive near the connector hold that with your thumb and slide free the drive. Now take the drive you wish to put in and get a paper clip. Push it into the tiny hole and apply a little pressure, it should release the drive.
I recommend putting a waste disc in the drive at this point to prevent you accidentally touching the laser, now wiggle the faceplate free like before. Now clip in the new front of the drive close the drive and put it all back together, slot it into your D600 and it should detect and install the drivers instantly! Job done!
If you have the other type of drive like I did however with the faceplate off the drive you want to install now measure the eject mechanism button and add about 1mm to prevent rubbing and mark the faceplate. Now cut the faceplate carefully to that size remember you will be cutting the BOTTOM RIGHT of the face. Once you got that part cut out if you like take some 1200 grit sand paper and go over the edge for added smoothness and a little more neatness. Reattach the drive faceplate to your drive and then reassemble. Your drive should work! Note that depending on the faceplate the drive may look a little recessed into the D600 compared to the locking mechanism and laptop itself but will work just fine.
I had one of the awkward QSI Brand Drives so I had to use the cutting method and this is how it looked while reading a disc!
A Rather Random Picture of Under The Heatsinks
Just in case any one needed one for reference here is an image of my D600 with the CPU Cooler and GPU / Chipset Cooler Removed. Taken when I was changing the thermal paste to Arctic Silver 5.
Software Overclocking a Dell D600
It is actually possible to overclock the Dell D600's FSB (CPU and Ram) via software in windows!
To do this all you need is the Software tool ClockGen
Download and unpack it to somewhere on your hard drive, C:/ClockGen for instance and run the application.
Once it opens click the 3rd Option to set the PLL and select the first one which should be "CY28346" and press apply. Now you can adjust the clock with "PLL Control" I Recommend you don't go above 110 FSB as people have reported damaging there ram at higher than that, But in the interest of making sure you don't fry anything bump it by 2 and run it for a while or run SuperPI for an hour to make sure the laptop is stable if so go up another 2 until its not stable or you hit 110 FSB and then go to Options and tick run at start up! Your done every time you start your laptop should be overclocked!
My D600 went from 1.7GHz to 1.93GHz with only 2c rise in temps!
To do this all you need is the Software tool ClockGen
Download and unpack it to somewhere on your hard drive, C:/ClockGen for instance and run the application.
Once it opens click the 3rd Option to set the PLL and select the first one which should be "CY28346" and press apply. Now you can adjust the clock with "PLL Control" I Recommend you don't go above 110 FSB as people have reported damaging there ram at higher than that, But in the interest of making sure you don't fry anything bump it by 2 and run it for a while or run SuperPI for an hour to make sure the laptop is stable if so go up another 2 until its not stable or you hit 110 FSB and then go to Options and tick run at start up! Your done every time you start your laptop should be overclocked!
My D600 went from 1.7GHz to 1.93GHz with only 2c rise in temps!
Master BIOS password Generator for Dell Latitude D600
This is based for Machines with a serial ending with -D35B
I'm hosting this file as it can be hard to find out in the wild.
The App will need to be run on a 32 Bit machine to generate the master password and if possible not on the D600 you’re trying to unlock itself. All you should need is the Serial Number Ready and Service Tag and enter the information the program asks for it will generate you the password you will need to unlock and remove all bios passwords from the system, if its an admin password you may need to purposely lock yourself out by entering the wrong password 3 times to get the white screen, then enter the Generated master password.
I didn't create this password generator, nor do I know about its inner workings. It worked for me on my Dell D600 to remove the admin password but I am placing it on my site AS IS. Please read on the main Mods Page about my stance on trying anything from this website.
The file has been scanned with Avast Free, AVG 2012 and the hosts Virus Scanner and is clean.
Here is the file:
I'm hosting this file as it can be hard to find out in the wild.
The App will need to be run on a 32 Bit machine to generate the master password and if possible not on the D600 you’re trying to unlock itself. All you should need is the Serial Number Ready and Service Tag and enter the information the program asks for it will generate you the password you will need to unlock and remove all bios passwords from the system, if its an admin password you may need to purposely lock yourself out by entering the wrong password 3 times to get the white screen, then enter the Generated master password.
I didn't create this password generator, nor do I know about its inner workings. It worked for me on my Dell D600 to remove the admin password but I am placing it on my site AS IS. Please read on the main Mods Page about my stance on trying anything from this website.
The file has been scanned with Avast Free, AVG 2012 and the hosts Virus Scanner and is clean.
Here is the file:
| latitude-masterpw.rar |
Freezing your Dead / Dying Laptop Battery
Through Various readings on the internet one method of Reviving Lithium Ion batteries has always kind of interested me, and that is to put it blunt shoving it in your freezer.
Yes I am serious. Now I bought myself a 2nd hand Dell D600 which as some may know is about 6 years old now, Surprisingly the Battery does hold some charge but not a whole lot, it charges to about only half its Capacity.
Normally I would just go out and buy me another from eBay or Deal Extreme as Id never pay £100 for a battery not to mention I am also off to Scotland for a few days and need my laptop, and hell it cannot get much worse so I figured why not try the freezer trick overnight and see if there is any improvement.
The Method is this from what I hear is this.
Now the time they have stated varies so I will try overnight while I sleep, In fact after the battery goes flat this time. I Will share experiences and keep you all informed.
As of right now according to Everest my battery's wear level is between 49% and 53% and as you can guess lower is better. Running time is about 1 Hour 20 if I am leaving it idle, about 45 minutes if I am on the net about 30 if I am doing anything heavy.
Yes I am serious. Now I bought myself a 2nd hand Dell D600 which as some may know is about 6 years old now, Surprisingly the Battery does hold some charge but not a whole lot, it charges to about only half its Capacity.
Normally I would just go out and buy me another from eBay or Deal Extreme as Id never pay £100 for a battery not to mention I am also off to Scotland for a few days and need my laptop, and hell it cannot get much worse so I figured why not try the freezer trick overnight and see if there is any improvement.
The Method is this from what I hear is this.
- Discharge your battery if it can still hold any charge as best as you can
- Put it in a sealed plastic bag
- Shove it in the freezer
Now the time they have stated varies so I will try overnight while I sleep, In fact after the battery goes flat this time. I Will share experiences and keep you all informed.
As of right now according to Everest my battery's wear level is between 49% and 53% and as you can guess lower is better. Running time is about 1 Hour 20 if I am leaving it idle, about 45 minutes if I am on the net about 30 if I am doing anything heavy.
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Discharged the battery so low it can’t even Post fully. Double Vacuum packed the battery in plastic bags and put in the freezer.
The next day I pulled it out of the freezer and gave the battery a hard whack, then let it fully defrost and get back to room temperature.
When trying to charge it again it had no change, I have seen this work on some batteries and not on others and could be a decent last ditch attempt to try and get by until your new battery arrives.
This trick may or may not work for you; it also may or may not make your battery worse or kill it. Do this at your own risk!
When trying to charge it again it had no change, I have seen this work on some batteries and not on others and could be a decent last ditch attempt to try and get by until your new battery arrives.
This trick may or may not work for you; it also may or may not make your battery worse or kill it. Do this at your own risk!