Dell Inspiron 8000

[compaqportableplus]

I think I have finally found the perfect Pentium III laptop! (For me). This machine has absolutely every thing I want in a late 90's/early 2000's notebook. It's also giant and weighs a ton, which I love.:D

One of my favorite features of this machine is the 15" high resolution display. This particular one has the SXGA+ 1400 X 1050 version, but I'd like to replace it with the UXGA 1600 X 1200 "UltraSharp" version. The main reason I want to replace it is because the panel this laptop currently has is actually faulty (I know 100% it's the panel because I swapped some parts around with another one that I have). It almost much fully works, except it shows artifacts on certain graphics. But it can handle a super high resolution image in Photoshop just fine, go figure.

I also really like that this machine has both a track pad and a Trackpoint. The trackpad is actually quite nice in this machine (unlike that horrible, tiny trackpad my ThinkPad R500 has for example) and I do use it from time to time, but the Trackpoint is my preferred option.

The keyboard on this laptop is very nice IMO. It has a pretty nice, somewhat tactile feel to it.

Another thing I like about these machines is that they are incredibly easy (and cheap) to find parts for. Which is very nice because these machine do have some issues from time to time. Bad fans is probably the most common issue. They are also very easy to work on.

One of the awesome things about Inspirons of this era, is that they are just latitudes with a different shell and bios! (I actually prefer the Inspiron cosmetics over the Latitudes from this era. And the ability to change the color of the palm rest's is just awesome). One mod you can do to an Inspiron 8000 (that I am strongly considering), is flash it with a Latitude C800 (the I8000's Latitude counterpart) BIOS, remove the blocking panel the back, and use a full Latitude dock with it! That's right, when you bought a Latitude back then, you were paying dell more money to simply "enable" some features! That being said though, these Inspirion 8000 series machine were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I believe the MSRP of the top end 8000 was $4,022!

One unfortunate thing about these machines, is that the colored palm rest's are pretty much impossible to find. The bright yellow ones are my favorite! I'll find a set of them someday, it'll just take patience. I'll even buy a whole other machine to get them if I have to!

Here are the specs of the machine.

800MHz Pentium III "Coppermine"

256MB RAM (will be upgrading to 512MB)

ATi M4 32MB graphics card

160GB hard drive (that's a damn big drive for a machine of this age!)

Win98 SE/WinXP Pro SP3 dual boot


BTW I'm actually posting this from the Inspiron 8000! (Using FireFox 48.0.2 under Windows XP Pro SP3).

Now the hunt is on for the perfect Pentium 4 laptop (for me, that will probably be the Inspiron 8200). I'm kinda addicted to these Inspiron 8000 series machines.

Anyways, here are some pics.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have one of those (or 2 forget).

The one I keep in my room is the 1600x1200 model 900Mhz and 512MB of RAM running XP.

The cool thing about them besides the looks is they are rugged, have dual battery (or floppy drive) bays with a DVD drive on the side and they have a mini firewire port.

I prefer the standard color palmrests.

I think you might still be able to get new batteries for it.

If you like P3 laptops check out the A30 Thinkpad and the T23 Thinkpad.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Yes, these machines are definitely quite rugged.

New batteries would be nice. The one I have I there now is decent, but it could be better.

And yes, I do like Pentium III laptops! Looks like the T23 and A30 had optional 1400 X 1050 displays, which is awesome. I’ve kinda gotten hooked on these high resolution displays! Will probably look into getting a T23 or A30 at some point.

 

[Unknown_K]

There are A30 models with 1600x1200 (A30P which has 1.2Ghz P3 ,Radeon 7000 graphics and 1Gb PC133 RAM).

 

[compaqportableplus]

Sweet! I completely forgot to mention the graphics on the Inspiron 8000. It has an ATi M4 32MB graphics card.

 

[compaqportableplus]

A few thoughts I'd like to add to this old thread;

In the OP I was running Windows XP on the Inspiron 8000. I've pretty much decided against running XP on my 8000s now, because there's just no point; I have an 8100 and an 8200, which are much better suited for XP (especially the 8200). The 8100 also runs XP really well (as long as you have a fast hard drive - that is an absolute requirement if you want XP to be fast).

The 8000s also run XP very well as long as you have a fast hard drive, but like I said, there's just no point for me to run it on these now, so I'm going to stick with 98, Me and 2000 on these from now on (which is what these 8000s were designed for). I actually haven't tried Me on an 8000 yet, so that will be a experiment for the future.

Currently, on this 8000 that I am typing on right now (which isn't the one in the OP, but I do still have that one too and it still works fine), I have a Windows 98/2000 dual boot on it, which I am really liking a lot. This one also has the 1600 x 1200 display that I adore so much. However, it has only got a lowly 700Mhz Pentium III, but I am going to be replacing that with a 900MHz Pentium III that I just ordered. These can take up to 1GHz, but I have heard that they run quite hot with a 1GHz, so I went with the 900 in hopes that it might run a little cooler.

I'm still so glad I discovered these things. Once I started looking at the specs on these before I got one and saw how high-res the screens were, I just couldn't believe it, and had to have one. I had never even heard of a 1600 x 1200 display until I saw these. I don't think I'll ever find a Pentium III laptop that I like more than these. I have, however came across a Pentium III laptop that I actually like just as much as these, but not more, and I like it just as much for a different reason than why I like these. I will be making a thread about it once the part I ordered for it arrives (the part is coming from the U.K., so not sure how much longer it will be before it arrives).

I would still like to get a ThinkPad A30 (which are very similar to these Dells in a lot of ways), but I quickly realized when looking for one of those just how hard the high-res screen models are to find. I actually never saw one for sale (haven't looked in quite a while though). And, being a ThinkPad and all, it kind of falls victim to the "collector" thing, so when the high-res models do come up, they probably go for a good bit more than a regular one. I do love old ThinkPads though, it's just hard to find good, reasonably priced ones these days (they can be had with patience though). Most of the A30s came with a lowly 1024 x 768 display, and that resolution at 15 inches is pretty much crap. These Dells had a minimum of 1400 x 1050 which is much, much better than 1024 x 768 on a 15" display.

Sorry to drudge up most of my old Dell-related threads

 

[compaqportableplus]

Got the 900MHz CPU installed! I swear it probably didn't even take me 5 minutes to swap the CPU out! Easy to service; another one of the many reasons I like these so much.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Well, the 900MHz CPU was getting stupid hot (almost 100 degrees Celsius!), and for some reason the screen would just go white instead of showing the splash screen when Windows 98 was starting up, so I have reverted back to the 700MHz CPU for now, which has cured all of these symptoms.

I'm running the latest BIOS and everything, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Well, I finally found those wonderful yellow palm rests! Found a 4-pack of colored ones on eBay for an exceptionally good price, and snapped the up instantly!

Pics:






The yellows ones are just badass in my opinion. They contrast so massively with the rest of the machine. Very cool that I got some other colors too. These are not easy to find these days, and I couldn't be happier to own them!

 

[lyonadmiral]

I had a Latitude C840 way back in the day as well, I think the Inspiron equivalent of that was the 8200. Beastly machines for the day.

 

[compaqportableplus]

I had a Latitude C840 way back in the day as well, I think the Inspiron equivalent of that was the 8200. Beastly machines for the day.

Yep, the C840 and 8200 are internally the same machine. I have an 8200 and I love it. It’s my favorite Windows XP/P4 laptop.

I agree, these were very high-end mobile workstations in their day. These things are wonderful to play the original Half-Life on as well I’m not a “gamer” by any means, but there are a select few games (HL1 being one of them) that I like a lot.

 

[compaqportableplus]

I have went ahead and rebuilt the Inspiron 8000 that you see in the OP with a Windows ME/XP dual-boot. I had previously decided not to run XP on these, but it runs so good I have decided to revert back to it.


A lot of people say that XP SP3 is too much for a Pentium III, but it has never really been an issue for me. I imaged a copy of Windows XP RTM once, and intalled it on my Inspiron 8100 expecting an enormous difference, but it really wasn't. I think it booted a *little* quicker, but other than that it felt the same to me.


Also, since my other Inspiron 8000 didn't like the 900MHz CPU, I have installed into this one. Works great. Not sure why the other doesn't like it.


And I still haven't replaced the screen on this one! I have an NOS UXGA panel I'm watching on ebay that I'll probably get. I'm not sure if an UltraSharp UXGA+ panel from an Inspiron 8200 would work in one of these, but I'm pretty sure these video boards in these machines have an LCD whitelist, so there's a good chance it probably wouldn't.


I also haven't yet upgraded the memory. It still has 256MB. I had kinda put this 8000 in storage and had been using my other one instead, but I decided to pull this one back out yesterday.


I should also add that ME runs great on here! This is the first time I have run ME on a really high-end computer, and it actually feels quite nice. This particular Inspiron 8000 actually did come with ME originally, as it has a Windows Millennium Edition COA on the bottom.


Another upgrade I may do is replace the ATi M4 with an Nvidia GeForce2GO that I have from a dead Inspiron 8100 I found at goodwill. It doesn't have as much VRAM (16MB versus the 32MB of the M4), but I still think it would yield better performance, as it's a newer GPU.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Okay, I installed the GeForce2GO and it does indeed perform better than the M4 did. Very happy with this upgrade.


I have also bought an NOS UXGA panel that I will be installing in this machine.


Next step will be upgrading the RAM to 512MB.


I was initially going to replace the dual-fan assembly, but it's actually in pretty good shape in this particular laptop. They don't grumble and slow-down like the ones in my Inspiron 8200 sometimes do.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Wow, it's really been over 2-years-ago since I started this thread!

Well, I'm bumping it again because something terrible happened with the one pictured in the OP; it took a tumble pavement, and, despite being in a nice Dell OEM bag, the top-right corner of the display housing got smashed. It did not break my upgraded LCD thankfully and the laptop does still work (I'm actually typing this post from it), so that's good. I did glue the corner back together, but it still looks like crap, so I have ordered another 8000 and will cobble the two together to make one good machine.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Well, I got the other 8000 and have assembled a really nice unit from it and my other one!

This one turned out to be in very good condition. Doesn't look like it was used too much.

Here is some pics:






Looks pretty good. The parts I transferred over to it were my "UltraSharp" LCD, Nvidia GeForce2GO graphics card, 900MHz Pentium III, display hinges (the ones that came on the "new" Inspiron were very stiff) memory (384MB) and my 30GB hard drive with a Windows ME/2000 dual-boot on it. The "new" Inspiron did come with the original 20GB drive which seems to work, so I'll keep that as a spare.


This laptop did come with a UXGA (I think) LCD, however about half of it was covered with lines. And what do you know, it was an IBM LCD! This is the third one I have had so far, all three of which have been faulty! So I officially believe that these IBM LCDs are junk.


Here is some pics of the bad LCD.





Most of the UXGA panels and all of the "UltraSharp" panels are manufactured by sharp, and are much, much better.


Next thing I am going to try is applying some thermal paste to the CPU, as these had NONE from the factory, and just a thin, metal pad. I've heard it helps the CPU temps a good bit. I will report back with my results...

 

[compaqportableplus]

So here's what's happened it the last few days with this laptop: It kept randomly shutting off on me, so I tried swapping several things out, none of which worked, so I just ended up installing the motherboard from the old 8000 into the new one, and it's now running reliably. Considering I've had seven of these Dell PP01X laptops total, and only one bad motherboard, that's not bad at all.


Anyway, so I did put some thermal paste on the 8000, and while the idle temps don't seem much different, the temps are definitely lower when the CPU is under a high load. Now it doesn't ever go above 64C, and it used to get as high as 68 or 69C.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Very good news! I ended up pulling the heatsink back off and completely removed the thermal pad, put some paste back on, and it's running MUCH cooler now! Before when running under a high load it would reach as high as 64C, and now it doesn't go above 52C! It's incredible how much of a difference it really made.

 

[kleung21]

Thanks for the update.

I picked up an Inspiron 8000 locally and was going to give up on it since it uses that funky power adapter that my universal adapters don't support.

Luckily I picked up a used power adapter off the local buy/trade boards at a good price and it LIVES!!!

I need to do a fresh install on the disk. It's in great cosmetic condition but a wierd buzzing sound while plugged in & off. I presume the battery is making that sound and I'll need to pull it out before it explodes.

I was a little alarmed to hear that some of the power adapters were recalled; luckily the one I picked up is ok.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

I picked up an Inspiron 8000 locally and was going to give up on it since it uses that funky power adapter that my universal adapters don't support.

Luckily I picked up a used power adapter off the local buy/trade boards at a good price and it LIVES!!!

I'm doing the same thing, but with the Dell Studio 1558. That's a much newer (2009-2010) model, and is probably the last fully customizable laptop from Dell (just for the top cover, there were over 200 stock styles to choose from!). I have built these out to pretty insane levels of configuration (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 1920x1080 ATI graphics, BD recorder, 4G mobile broadband, etc.) and they are abolute screamers, even running Windows 10 - Windows 10 LTSC boots from power-on to the Windows 10 login screen in 15.6 seconds, with another 33.9 seconds after entering the password until the desktop is fully populated, everything is running, and CPU usage is below 5%. That's outstanding performance even for a modern laptop, let along one that is 10+ years old! Here are 4 of 'em:



Yes, that is an inkjet printer (a big one!) under the notebooks.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Thanks for the update.

I picked up an Inspiron 8000 locally and was going to give up on it since it uses that funky power adapter that my universal adapters don't support.

Luckily I picked up a used power adapter off the local buy/trade boards at a good price and it LIVES!!!

I need to do a fresh install on the disk. It's in great cosmetic condition but a wierd buzzing sound while plugged in & off. I presume the battery is making that sound and I'll need to pull it out before it explodes.

I was a little alarmed to hear that some of the power adapters were recalled; luckily the one I picked up is ok.

Glad you didn't give up on it! These really are excellent laptops. They made SO many of those power supplies that the special connector is hardly an issue. That power supply was used for many generations of dell laptops, so there's no shortage of them. Just avoid those dreadful aftermarket ones.

The buzzing sound is interesting, can't say I've ever had that happen before. Not really sure what would cause that. Didn't know that some of the power supplies were recalled! But I've never had any issues out of the many I have owned.

I'm doing the same thing, but with the Dell Studio 1558. That's a much newer (2009-2010) model, and is probably the last fully customizable laptop from Dell (just for the top cover, there were over 200 stock styles to choose from!). I have built these out to pretty insane levels of configuration (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 1920x1080 ATI graphics, BD recorder, 4G mobile broadband, etc.) and they are abolute screamers, even running Windows 10 - Windows 10 LTSC boots from power-on to the Windows 10 login screen in 15.6 seconds, with another 33.9 seconds after entering the password until the desktop is fully populated, everything is running, and CPU usage is below 5%. That's outstanding performance even for a modern laptop, let along one that is 10+ years old! Here are 4 of 'em:

View attachment 1040441

Yes, that is an inkjet printer (a big one!) under the notebooks.

Those look great! Sounds like they have great specs and performance for such old laptops. Dell made some good stuff. Even their new Latitudes and Precisions look pretty good.


I will say also that I really don't have anything interesting to report about the I8000, except for the fact that the fans are getting noisy in my main 8000. Common issue and I will be replacing them eventually. Otherwise both of my I8000s are still going strong and I have no complaints. Thank you Dell for designing an outstanding machine that still works reliably 21 years later!