Great Upgrades for Dell Latitude D630

Well, you see, I've also been wanting to experiment with several things. I initially thought that I could replace my mobo with a D830 mobo for it's version of nvidia quadro rather than use the D630's nvidia quadro (since they both basically looked the same), but since you all are saying that a D830's will NOT fit into a D630, then that will be a no-go. And as for the copper shimmings, huh? I never heard of them, but sounds pretty darn interesting for those having an overheating issue. As I have Intel's GM965 chipset and graphics, and the next to best cpu, the laptop never gets real hot, fan might blow from watching videos, but thats about it, no lag, no slow downs, nuttin'.

The Broadcom HD Decoder seems pretty excellent also. I hope I can find one relatively cheap on eBay or Amazon. I know the D630 is an old laptop, but I'm one of the kinds of people that learn about things through hands-on experiences, and it is pretty fun to work on computers, at least until your wallet gives it's 2 cents.

 

The broadcom cards seem to range between $10-$15 on e-bay from what I have seen.

 

So if I were to get it, which slot would it go in? Could it go in the WWAN/FSB slot where it's empty?

 

It would go in the WWAN slot.

 

Still confused...does your D630 have Nvidia or Intel? If you don't have Nvidia already, don't try to get a board with it to "upgrade" because it's just a recipe for disaster--more heat, less battery, and prone to failure. Now on the D620 I think you had to have Nvidia to get certain [high] resolutions out of the DVI on the dock so there was at least some reason to have Nvidia; but, on the D630 that's probably not even a requirement given it uses a newer Intel chipset.

Oh okay so you do have Intel then, gotcha. Yeah you don't really need to worry about copper shims then. You can add them to the HS/cooling performance but not necessary.

Agreed. Looks like those Broadcom cards are less than $20 on eBay--not too bad. You can probably do CPU-decode of HD in the meantime as the 965GM is not capable of HD decoding, but that's probably going to stress the CPU a lot and you might run into stuttering, etc. on 1080i and higher resolutions. I remember back years ago, decoding BD on a Conroe C2D overclocked to 3.2Ghz (obviously not in a laptop, lol) and sometimes it was *just* keeping up--things worked a lot better when I upgraded the videocard to one with HD decoding (which isn't even a feature to mention these days haha). For $20 the Broadcom seems like a pretty good idea!

 

The NVidia-based D620/D630/D820/D830's do not suffer with a cooling problem. They suffer a problem it the composition of the solder. Interestingly, if you cycle even the Intel embedded chipset enough times (as I have) it will experience solder joint failure. The fix, in all cases, is to do something to rehabilitate the solder joints. 10 minutes in oven, with certain plastic parts suitably shielded with foil, at 400degF, seems to do the trick for both the Intel and the Intel/Nvidia chipset equipped models.

IMHO, it is travesty that Nvidia had to pay out many millions, when the same problem with solder joints is actually present in the Intel-only solutions (although perhaps a bit less severe!).

 

That would be the first time in YEARS that I have heard of the Intel machines from this era having solder problems. I haven't heard anything about from other manufacturers users also (e.g., Lenovo/HP).

Got some links with proof?

 

Just curious - is this thread dead? And YES I'm new here, found you because I pulled my old D630 out of the closet (also have a D620)

Because I have some questions concerning the D630..

Am also going to attempt a 'bake' concerning another unit, but that's not my query - just wondering if others are also still using the D630, and what your experience is using it. Just looking for info as I'm trying to decide whether or not to purchase 8gb for it or not, perhaps to use it as a hackintosh, etc.

The unit I have now is 2ghz (4gb just purchased $31 us) and was thinking about making this my main laptop.

8gb will be very expensive these days (looking at an average of $150) and have not been able to find much information....
- I have read every post but just have some questions:

I understand the posts concerning overheating/shims (I have an HP that I'm considering similar options - baking and/or purchasing a heat gun/etc) Actually I have already received copper shims from Hong Kong or such, just don't have the required tools yet..

What I don't understand/know is concerning the Broadcom board - Ahhh, maybe I just figured it out - the Broadcom is for video and not for internet/etc.. decoding, I should have figured this out. And perhaps I can replace this.. Not used to laptops w/replaceable components..

AND PLEASE CORRECT & ADVISE me if I am wrong, please... I perform service off & on these days but even after 20+ years I am still learning... this has become my 'side' job instead of my profession..

 

mkoyskip, I baked a Nvidia-based Latitude D830 back to life 3 times. The baking only seemed to be good for 6 months until the problem appeared at random again, and I ended up cannibalizing the laptop to keep the other ones I have around going.

The shims, never heard of them as being necessary. But if you do replace the thermal interface material, thickness is very important. Try and not replace it.

The Broadcom board that some refer to here is for MPEG decoding, and nothing else. Its basically custom hardware for MPEG decoding.

One thing I'd just add to the thread is that I've replaced the Intel wireless cards on my D830/D630's with Atheros (Apple-branded) AR9280 or AR9380 cards which you can find on eBay for $10 or so. Wireless performance seems to be considerably better than the Intel 4965agn, which was the flagship card used on these models at the time. In 802.11n 2.4GHz mode, the Intel deliberately limits itself to a 20MHz channel, and hence, 130mbps operation. While the Atheros AR9280 can use the full 40MHz for theoretical 300mbps operation if RF conditions warrant.

The AR9280 = 2 stream, AR9380 = triple stream. The Apple branded ones are, hands-down, the best.

I also baked a high-cycle Intel-only board (yes, it was a laptop mobo bake-a-thon around here one Saturday afternoon!), re-assembled it, and it seemed to be considerably less flaky and more stable than it was prior. In particular, wireless disconnects at random disappeared. I am of the belief that the Nvidia "problems" that they settled the big lawsuits for went a lot deeper than just Nvidia-supplied components, as not only were problems with video reported, but wireless disconnects were a qualifying feature for the settlement.

Believe it was more prominent/accelerated on the Nvidia architecture, because heat was one of the inducing factors to PCI-E bus disconnects (things would get so bad at times that the wireless card disappeared completely from the PCI-E bus), but the Intel chipsets could suffer the same on their own.

 

Yeah, unless you can get the 8gb for a song, probably not worthwhile. $150 is a lot of money towards picking up a E6430 or similar with 8gb right out of the box.