D630 Owners Thread

hello Dell people

It looks like I'm going to finally have time to update the GFs Dell D630, so thought I'd ask couple questions:

- should I expect any problems updating its BIOS ?
- does the BIOS support Dual IDA ? - (I guess somebody up top on this page runs it fine ..)
- does Dell whitelist wifi cards ? (i.e. can I replace the card if I want)
- does the BIOS run the HDD in SATA 2, or is it limited to SATA 1 for some reason ?
- if so ^, is there a hacked BIOS that would enable bunch of nice things ?
- should I expect any problems with finding all drivers from the Dell site ?
- is there anything specific that I should know before I start?
- if I install 4GB RAM in it, would it limit it to 3GB or would it be somewhat more than 3gb (to make sense of putting 4GB)?

thanks in advance.

I'm planing on clean XP install, so if there's system partition then it will get wiped out

P.S.
it's a 14" wide, 1280x800, Intel GPU, 4965 agn, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD (that I may replace), DVD-RAM (I think), 9-cell that I replaced like 6 months ago, running XP Pro 32bit. Does not have expresscard, only PCMCIA slot.

 

You might as well upgrade to Windows 7...no need to mess with an old OS that is not only more susceptable, but will also quickly develop problems on its own.

Updating the BIOS shouldn't be a problem, and if you're planning on going the Windows 7 route, Vista drivers from Dell Support will be fine. Since the system already has the 4965AGN, I wouldn't bother with the wireless card. SATA 2 should be fine.

Windows 7 64-bit can use all 4GB, that's how I had been running my D630. 32-bit would be limited to 3.25GB, but since you have Intel graphics, expect a little less for both because some will be reserved for graphics. I wouldn't upgrade to 4GB if it already has 3GB.

 

-No issues updating the bios, you'll do it right from within Windows and there's several safeguards in place to attempt to prevent a brick.

- I dont know about dual IDA, sorry!

- no whitelisting as far as I can tell. People have swapped cards without incident.

- D630 (actually all D series systems) is limited to SATA 1. According to this: [Dell Latitude D630, Precision M4300 laptop SATA-2 unlock] it's due to power consumption. Maybe that forum would be able to help.

- You shouldn't expect any problems finding drivers. It's easier to find drivers via the service tag located on the bottom of the computer. You can also find this in the BIOS. Plug this into Dell.com and you'll only get the drivers you need, along with the latest BIOS update.

- I'd say make sure you follow the correct driver installation order, and don't forget to install the Dell System Software. It's not bloatware, but critical D630 specific bugfixes for whatever operating system you run. Here's a link to the Driver Order List: How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order | Dell

- D630 supports up to 8 GB of RAM, but Windows won't see it unless you install a 64-bit version.

Hope this helps out!

 

Thanks a bunch

one thing I forgot to ask though:

- can I put a Penryn CPU in ? ... even if it gives me the thermal sensor error ?

P.S. I'm sticking with XP for now, as we got stuff that doesnt work on 64-bit OS. My install CD is sp2 so it might take a bit of work to get it where it would at least to boot fine one time so that I can install sp3 right away, as I dont want to bother building another installation CD with nLite right now. And that's a bummer for the SATA 1, that's how my thinkpad came but luckily there's a guy on here that modded the bios to enable lots of things for us

 

Yes you can put a Penryn (with 800Mhz FSB) in the D630. I have a T9500 in mine....

- Tim

 

Installed a T9500 in my D630 a couple nights ago. Works fantastically.

Fastest cpu's supported in the D630 is the T9500 and X9000. X9000 is faster but runs a bit hotter and consumes a bit more juice. I don't think I would put one of those in an Nvidia graphics machine, but an Intel graphics machine would be ok.

 

Anyone else notice there is a new D630 bios? Version A18. Its been nearly two years since A17.

Anyone tried it yet?

 

Did you download it yet? It gives me a 404 error, and the file doesn't exist on FTP either.

 

I noticed the same thing after I posted earlier.
I guess they pulled it?

 

so here's the thing:

when I started to work on the laptop I noticed that it's running kinda hot underneath and the CPU (T7500) runs at the lowest multiplier - 6x. So I figured the thermal throttling has kicked in, but I dont understand why when it's not really doing anything.

so I ran some test and it seems that the cpu itself runs pretty hot - at 100% continues load it was going waay up in temp so I stopped it when it reached 95 deg C at about the 5th minute or so. This was done at full speed with no IDA, i.e. at 2.2GHz with disabled thermal throttling from Throttlestop.

now it undervolted pretty well from 1.225 down to 1.000 Volts with no IDA (i.e. 2.2GHz max) and at full load now it tops at about 80 deg C, which is supposed to be fine for a Merom chip. However, the thermal throttling still kicks in, even with the CPU not loaded, i.e. sitting at some 50 deg C or so.

all this makes me think that something else is initiating the thermal throttling and sending the signal to the CPU to slow down. And I'm guessing that would be the north bridge.

it looks like I'm going to open the laptop to see what's going on, but do those laptops come with thermal pad instead of thermal paste between the heat sink and the chips (CPU + northbridge)? I got thermal paste so if that's the problem then I'll work it out.

the fan seems to be pretty lazy, i.e. starting to work at 75+ deg C on the CPU ... lol. And that's with the last posted BIOS - A17.

P.S. I got another power supply for the laptop since it's original 65W died, so the new one is from those flat ones 90W with the LED at the end of the cable, and is recognized by the BIOS as 90W power supply. I read somewhere that different PS can initiate thermal throggling as well, but since this one is also Dell one I think the issue is still inside the laptop.

any thoughts are welcome