Latitude D400s. Reliability questions.

I have a Latitude D400 that I pretty much got for free and it's banged up and everything. I was thinking of buying parts to refurbish it and use it for the future, but I'm afraid the hard ware might not last that long. Are these laptops reliable? I've heard bad things about Dell's reliability.

Keep in mind, I have a Dell right now (a Vostro 1400) so I'm not biased or against anything. I'm just going by what I hear.

 

No one has a D400 (or used to have one)?

 

Give people a chance if you want specific feedback on the D400.

Regarding general Dell reliability, the build quality varies significantly between the ranges. The Latitudes should be the best quality since they are the most expensive. However, business users also tend to be less caring for their computers since they didn't pay for them out of their own pocket.

John

 

Sorry about "jumping the gun". I just noticed that my thread was plummeting down and assumed no one would have ever seen it if I didn't post anything.

Anyways, other than the structural parts of it/the battery (it's banged up and I know it's old so the battery isn't that good), are the other parts reliable, such as the motherboard, hard drive, etc.? When I ask this, I'm just trying to see how good of a "track record" these parts have.

 

Hard drives die, some sooner than others, so there's the risk that it will die in the next year. There's no real reason for the motherboard to die unless it overheats due to a clogged cooling system. There's no nvidia GPU, and the good chassis should mean there's no fatigue problem.

One good feature of the Dell notebooks is that Dell publish the service manuals with step-by-step instructions on how to replace any part. If you do get the computer then it would be prudent to get inside and clean out the cooling system.

John

 

Overall, D400s are pretty sturdy systems. I used one for a while before I got my D420.

Besides, you can't beat free.