Good news for Latitude X1 owners!

Thank you for that clarification. The only 21st century notebook with passive cooling that I had previously encountered was my Fujitsu P2020 with a Crusoe CPU so I've learnt something new today.

Since you have indicated that the heat is reaching the outside of the case the likely cause of extra heat is increased CPU activity. modern programs tend to be less efficient and more resource hungry than old ones. You can try to use Task Manager to identify what is making the CPU work.

John

 

The amount of heat also depends on the BIOS version. Version A03 and later favored cooler operation by downclocking the CPU. This lets the X1 run cooler, but much slower under real world usage. A02 and earlier ran hotter but with much less downclocking under load.

 

That can be fixed easily by changeing the power scheme to always on, instead of laptop/portable.

 

so I got a lenovo carbon x1 to replace the latitude e4200.. and my old latitude x1's are going to be having to speed up or become digital picture-frames. I've already got a very old samsung ssd drive and 2gb of memory. It's been on for 8 years straight. what would be the fastest OS for minor web use and possibly running a webcam to watch pets?

 

The display drivers you are trying to install use the Windows 2000/XP display driver model, which is supported only up to and including Windows 7. Windows Vista introduced the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM, not to be confused with Windows Driver Model (WDM)). Windows 8 and later still support the WDDM but no longer support the Windows 2000/XP display driver model. Intel has not and does not plan to develop a WDDM driver for their old/legacy models of video controllers, including the model used in the Dell Latitude X1.

 

Another Latitude X1 owner to chime in

My Latitude X1 (left) and Latitude D420 (right), running Zorin OS 9 Core and Win 10 Pro respectively (my Latitude E5510 is behind them)​

I've been interested in this model after owning a Latitude D420 (its successor): Small, light, stylish, quite, but still powerful enough for most everyday tasks. It's obvious the D420 took a lot of inspirations from the X1, both in appearance and hardware, so I really wanted to get a hold of one to see it myself. Finally bought one half a year ago for a few quids, visually complete, just without RAM and hard drive. Before that I've refurbished another X1 and sold it to another guy (and he was quite happy with it), so I already knew this model fairly well. I also read all the posts in this thread (from page 1 to 37) to gather as much information as I could.

Upgrades

Memory
The X1 has one memory slot and 256MB RAM soldered on the mobo (below the RAM slot). Despite official words it can certainly take 2GB DDR2 RAM module, which has been confirmed many times before. The Intel 915-series (915GM, 915PM, 915GMS, 910GML) chipset can take 2GB RAM at max. Due to restriction of the 915GMS chipset used in X1, only 2GB RAM are addressed and the onboard memory is unused. The module runs at 400MHz no matter what you throw into it (but with lower CAS latency if using higher frequency modules). Also, single channel mode only unless you use a 256MB module.

The RAM module in my X1: Crucial 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 RAM (CT25664AC800.M16FJ2)​

Storage
Normally it takes 1.8" hard drives with 50-pin micro IDE connection, but such hard drives are becoming harder to find nowadays, and most of them are 4200RPM drives. With a suitable adapter it can use ZIF drives (inlcuding SSDs). For a laptop that would be taken around, I'd prefer using SSD but 1.8" SSDs cost a bit too much to me (I'm a cheapskate), no matter what connection they come with, be it micro IDE, ZIF, or even micro SATA. mSATA SSDs are cheaper but requires two adapters: an mSATA-to-ZIF adapter and a ZIF-to-micro IDE adapter (mSATA-to-micro IDE adapter doesn't exist yet). I went that way at last. Total cost for the 64GB SSD and adapters were about £25, 1/3 cheaper than the 64GB ZIF SSD in my D420 (£38) and only a few quids more than a 60GB ZIF hard drive.

The 64GB Chinese mSATA SSD (with Silicon Motion SMI2246EN controller chip) in my X1 plus two adapters​

When assembled, the SSD and mSATA-to-ZIF adapter sit below the ZIF-to-micro IDE adapter and ZIF ribbon cable. The whole thing is well within the hard drive space so I can screw the hard drive cover back and the keyboard doesn't bulge. The SSD got detected by BIOS right away so mSATA SSD in X1 is entirely possible, not to mention it's cheaper. The speed is capped at 100MB/s (ATA-6), but still much faster and more resistant to vibrations, than using 1.8" hard drives.

Wireless card
I've upgraded its original Intel 2200BG wireless card with a 2915ABG, had some bad experience with 2200BG in Linux previously (drops connections frequently) while 2915ABG has been rock solid, plus it has support for 5GHz networks. 2200BG works well in Windows 7 and 10 though (as in the case of my HP Compaq nx8220 and nc8230).

SD card
I can confirm that 32GB SDHC cards work in X1. I'm using one as extended storage to store my electronic music collection so I can play music even without connecting to network. Both of them are formatted in FAT32 for compatibility in Windows and Linux. I only tested them in my X1 with Linux, can't say for sure if that's the same for Windows, but at least we now know X1 can take 32GB SD cards.

The two 32GB SDHC cards that work in my X1, the SanDisk is used with X1 while the Transcend is used with D420​

Operating system

I personally require an OS with nice and easy-to-use GUI for a frequently used computer, for example Windows 7, GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon etc. Text-based OS (e.g. DOS, Linux w/o GUI) are no-no to me, and I find LXLE and Xfce too minimalistic to my taste. I know the hardware may not be good enough to run pretty graphics, but nope I ain't gonna compromise on this matter, me being spoiled by Windows XP GUI since young doesn't help the situation.

I've tried these OS on X1:

• Windows XP - An obvious choice, since this model came with Win XP when it was released. Needless to say it ran like a butter, but it's quite an outdated OS and I could easily find its limitations, namely on applications. Although it's possible to do the POSReady registry trick and get updates until 2019, it just doesn't make sense to use Win XP as the daily use OS in these years IMO.
  
  
• Windows 7 - Many X1 owners have went this path, and I kinda get the reason of this. It did run a bit slower than in Win XP, but in turn I got a fairly modern OS, with better GUI and more functionality. Installing drivers wasn't a big issue as Dell provides all the required drivers, true they're for Windows XP but they can be used in Windows 7 too. Intel has Vista driver for 2200BG and 2915ABG, which can be used even in Win 10 (tested in X1, nx8220 and nc8230). Graphics driver needed to be manually installed in Device Manager but once installed I got the correct 1280x768 resolution.
  
  However, there's no WDDM driver for GMA 900 (screw you Intel) and as a result no Aero effect, which is a bummer to me. I can live without it but it's a shame, as custom themes won't show correctly without Aero effect, and I used them a lot when I was using Win 7.
  
  
• Windows 10 - Just for testing and some laughs, I installed Win 10 on it. Surprisingly it installed just fine, without complaints of missing NX bit. I did some research and found that Pentium M 733 has two versions: 733 (PAE flag off, like most 400MHz Pentium M) and 733J (PAE flag on), apparently my X1 has the 733J (more onto this in Linux part).
  
  Just like in Win 7, most of the things worked, including audio and wireless card (with Vista driver from Intel), but this time the graphics driver couldn't be installed as XPDM driver support has been dropped since Windows 8. Without correct resolution and sleep function, it's not the thing that I'd like to use.
  
  
• LXLE - Probably the most feature-rich Linux distro with LXDE, it's one of the prime choices for older machines... well as long as it's not as old as Pentium II/III with ~128MB RAM. Since my X1's CPU has PAE flag on, there's no need to add "forcepae" command like most 400MHz Pentium M require. Function-wise it should fulfill most average Joe's needs, but I simply couldn't stand its interface so didn't stay in the end (sorry LXLE fans). Tried other lightweight distros (Bodhi Linux, Linux Lite, Xubuntu etc) and didn't like any of their interface. Some have poor support for foreign language too.
  
  
• Zorin OS Core - Aimed at those who wanna migrate from Windows, its interface is designed like the one Windows 7. Its hardware requirements are somewhat high (it use GNOME), but not as demanding as Ubuntu or Kubuntu. It also has a Lite version which uses LXDE. Again no need for "forcepae" in my X1.
  
  I really like its interface, and since it's based on Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian, most, if not all, apps made for Debian can be installed. It's certainly not as smooth as LXLE, but still snappy to me, feels like a drop-in replacement for Windows 7. It shows Chinese characters without problem, and I can type Chinese like in Windows. Picked it in the end.

Hands-on experience

My Latitude X1 playing YouTube in Opera and playing music in Clementine​

It takes around a minute from GRUB boot screen (right after POST screen) to load up the system, not bad considering my D420 takes about the same time to load up Win 10.

Mine has a Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth module fitted, besides the wireless card. Both of them are recognized by Linux and are fully functional, no dropouts from the wireless card too.

As of now I only installed two apps myself: Opera for web browsing and Clementine for music playback. Additionally I installed AdGuard in Opera to block ads, speeding up web loading times and improving performance while browsing.

In Opera, it takes a few seconds to load up a web page, after that it's generally smooth to surf the page, even more with AdGuard enabled. I can watch YouTube videos in 360p (windowed mode) without any stuttering. Two finger scroll function works on the trackpad which is quite handy. The performance is acceptable, just remember to keep opening tabs as low as possible.

Playing music with Clementine is fine, no stutters at all, but switching songs are problematic: The first 3-4 seconds of the second song isn't played. Tried moving the music to the SSD and played them, got the same result, so not SD card's fault. Probably a bug in the app itself or the X1 is just too slow.

When it's plugged to the power supply, running Opera and Clementine at the same time won't bog the system down, both are still snappy. However, while running on battery, playing music will cause significant lag on web browsing.

The X1 is fanless, and the heat will eventually dissipate to the metal base. As a result, once it gets worked up it's rather uncomfortable to use it on laps, not even my Inspiron Mini 1018 (also fanless) will go that hot, but it has an Atom which runs cooler. Mine's base has paint peeled off, I believe it's because of the excessive heat the base has endured. But I think it's a universal problem for this model, no matter what OS it runs.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the performance it manages to deliver, definitely better than my many sub-10" Atom netbooks. It's just unbelievable that it still packs a punch even to this day, thinking that it's now 11 years old. Just like my D420, it can be said as the "AE86 of laptops": old but still very usable, and can do wonders in the right hands.

But will I install Linux on my D420? Hell naw, unless OpenOffice and LibreOffice can get their formatting right, so their documents won't get mucked up in M$ Office (and vice versa). At this rate I'm not gonna switch to either of them, especially when their formatting is vastly different from M$ Office.

While both my D420 and X1 have their successors (HP EliteBook 2570p and Samsung XE550C22 Chromebook), they still see frequent use owing to some niche uses (e.g. running 32-bit only apps, legacy ports) and advantages (e.g. D420 being smaller than 2570p, X1 being fanless). They sometimes get attention from others when I use them outside, asking me of their age and how I manage to use such antique machines etc.

Using old computers is just like driving old cars: you aren't going for speed or performance, but you're after their style, you can feel the aura from them. The X1 has this aura, it's hard to find another interesting Latitude model, that specialty along is enough to keep it from dumpsters.

 

Hello to everyone,

after I read OverTallmans post I ordered the needed adapters and a mSata SSD to upgrade my Dell X1. But I have no luck. I always getting the information "Primary Hard Drive: {none}"



This is how I installed them:

Installed adapter - bottom view:

Installed adapter - top view:

Matching PIN 1 / 2 :


The IDE-50-Pin-to-ZIF-Adapter came with a ribbon-cable with two (thick) ends and a second ribbon-cable with a white (small) and blue (thick) end. I currently using the "white/blue"-ribbon-calbe: The white end is connected to the IDE/ZIF-adapter (white side shows up to the ZIF-Connector) and the blue end is connected to the ZIF/mSata-adapter (blue side shows up to the ZIF-Connector), as you can see in the pictures.
Btw.: I'm using a "Kingston SSDNow mS200 120GB, mSATA"

Does somebody know how I have to connect the adapters correctly in order to get this working?

 

Sorry to hear it doesn't work for you, but I'm sure X1 can take mSATA as long as it's set up right. Here's how I connect all the stuff:

1. The printed numbers on the orange ribbon cable is a bit confusing, on the pin side it's written as [2......44], but on the connector side it's [50......1]. However, when you take a look at the cable, the printed circuit isn't flipped, which makes me think the connections on the pin side should be [50......7], now I omitted 1-6 as there are only 44 pins present.
   
   Then look at the ZIF-to-micro IDE adapter board, you'll see the rightmost area are particularly empty with no printed circuit. On the other side you'll also see "Pin 1" printed on the board. Based on these I plugged it like that, pins 1-6 were left out.
   
   
   
2. Now on the mSATA-to-ZIF adapter board, the ribbon cable should be connected like this, with the connector side facing up. I tried connecting the cable with plastic tab side facing up and it wouldn't boot (probably due to short circuit), flipped the cable and it was fine again.
   
   
   
3. Finally the ribbon cable should be connected to the ZIF-to-micro IDE adapter board with the plastic tab side facing up. Once they're all connected and you flip the mSATA board you'll get a nice package like this, apply some double-sided foam tape if you wanna secure the SSD.
   

Turn on your X1 and get to BIOS, you should see your SSD recognized

Note: I'm using a ribbon cable with blue tabs on both sides rather than blue-white in yours, but that shouldn't matter as both types are the same, the white tab version is for ZIF connectors with thinner slits, such as those on 1.8" ZIF HDD. From my experience it's quite hard to insert blue tab connector into an ZIF HDD.

 

Thanks a lot, OverTallman!

I followed your instructions and it's working now:



I get approx. 75 Mbyte/s read and write-speed. It's more than the old hdd and enough for the processor.
Btw.: For 300MBit-wifi-support I installed a "TL-WN861N" wifi-card from TP-LINK, which works great in the X1. But it only supports the 2.4 GHz-frequency.