Fixing up a 2003 Woodgrain Dell Inspiron 600M Laptop
video description
Date: 2026-09-04
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 20
gjsmo
I had a few of the Latitude version (essentially identical, just marketed towards businesses) of these in high school - way, way past their prime, but I was able to get them essentially for free from a local tech recycler. None of them worked but they were easy to take apart so I found a combination of parts that did. I had a 1400x1050 screen, the Radeon graphics, an extra battery, and I think even that extra 2. 5 drive bay. Never got the drive bay battery but I sure wanted it!
The docking station though was absolutely peak. If you got the upgraded version it had a full size PCI slot! There was also a monitor stand which integrated with the docking station so you could dock the laptop under the monitor, and the power button and a few other things were brought out to the front. By the time I graduated I had found all of these, it was really top tier (for ten years prior. Even ran Windows 7 acceptably, especially with extra RAM.
An interesting thing happened with the batteries at one point, they were basically all recalled which meant that I and I believe many other secondhand owners could get a free, brand new battery from Dell. It was a nice surprise that extended the life of this and a few other models.
reply
I had a few of the Latitude version (essentially identical, just marketed towards businesses) of these in high school - way, way past their prime, but I was able to get them essentially for free from a local tech recycler. None of them worked but they were easy to take apart so I found a combination of parts that did. I had a 1400x1050 screen, the Radeon graphics, an extra battery, and I think even that extra 2. 5 drive bay. Never got the drive bay battery but I sure wanted it!
The docking station though was absolutely peak. If you got the upgraded version it had a full size PCI slot! There was also a monitor stand which integrated with the docking station so you could dock the laptop under the monitor, and the power button and a few other things were brought out to the front. By the time I graduated I had found all of these, it was really top tier (for ten years prior. Even ran Windows 7 acceptably, especially with extra RAM.
An interesting thing happened with the batteries at one point, they were basically all recalled which meant that I and I believe many other secondhand owners could get a free, brand new battery from Dell. It was a nice surprise that extended the life of this and a few other models.
reply
GoForItJoe
One great impression to me is what a difference it could be to revert back to the original hardware while playing the older games. I've played GTA3 and it's spin offs and mods across different platforms, including smartphones. They felt always different. Now once you've run it on this Dell laptop it brought back the original vibes, I almost immdiatelly felt this is it: the blur, the matching ratio and I am not sure what else, but it reminded me the feeling once I played it on Geforce4 and 15 inch LCD. When playing on modern hardware you seem to think more about how it dated, but when you run it on a hardware it was made for these things stop bothering you. I cannot explain this more, it's somewhere deep in mind.
reply
One great impression to me is what a difference it could be to revert back to the original hardware while playing the older games. I've played GTA3 and it's spin offs and mods across different platforms, including smartphones. They felt always different. Now once you've run it on this Dell laptop it brought back the original vibes, I almost immdiatelly felt this is it: the blur, the matching ratio and I am not sure what else, but it reminded me the feeling once I played it on Geforce4 and 15 inch LCD. When playing on modern hardware you seem to think more about how it dated, but when you run it on a hardware it was made for these things stop bothering you. I cannot explain this more, it's somewhere deep in mind.
reply
LS3ftw15
I’m guessing Clint won’t see this, but as a fan of this era of Dell laptops I have a cool future video recommendation. The Inspiron 8600, which was Dell’s first widescreen Pentium M consumer laptop (also from 2003) has a pretty unique party trick. It had 5 different compatible video cards that can all be swapped in and out, plus it had the same woodgrain cover available. The compatible graphics cards are: GeForce 4 Go 4200, Mobility Radeon 9000, GeForceFX Go5200, GeForce FX Go5650, and the Radeon 9600 Pro TURBO. I have 4 of the 5 cards for my 8600. It’s really cool to see the varying levels of graphics performance of all these different cards in a single laptop.
reply
I’m guessing Clint won’t see this, but as a fan of this era of Dell laptops I have a cool future video recommendation. The Inspiron 8600, which was Dell’s first widescreen Pentium M consumer laptop (also from 2003) has a pretty unique party trick. It had 5 different compatible video cards that can all be swapped in and out, plus it had the same woodgrain cover available. The compatible graphics cards are: GeForce 4 Go 4200, Mobility Radeon 9000, GeForceFX Go5200, GeForce FX Go5650, and the Radeon 9600 Pro TURBO. I have 4 of the 5 cards for my 8600. It’s really cool to see the varying levels of graphics performance of all these different cards in a single laptop.
reply
BDPhotog
Carmageddon perhaps I remember the transition from DOS to Windows/DOS and the slow transition to Windows alone. Started with my sister's 286 Tandy, and then bought my own ZEOS 486. And haven't looked back since! Now I have a wood-grain fronted Micro ATX case for my 13700K. And even managed to squeeze my 4070TI in there as well. I'm about 20 years older than LGR. And the 486 cost me $2500 in 1992 with 16 MEGS of ram and some size hard drive and a 15 monitor and a huge full-sized tower case. It was so freakin' cool! I also remember that to upgrade at time of purchase from 8 megs to 16, cost me $249. I think it took me 3 years to pay it off.
reply
Carmageddon perhaps I remember the transition from DOS to Windows/DOS and the slow transition to Windows alone. Started with my sister's 286 Tandy, and then bought my own ZEOS 486. And haven't looked back since! Now I have a wood-grain fronted Micro ATX case for my 13700K. And even managed to squeeze my 4070TI in there as well. I'm about 20 years older than LGR. And the 486 cost me $2500 in 1992 with 16 MEGS of ram and some size hard drive and a 15 monitor and a huge full-sized tower case. It was so freakin' cool! I also remember that to upgrade at time of purchase from 8 megs to 16, cost me $249. I think it took me 3 years to pay it off.
reply
Pixelmusement
The funny thing about the performance issues you were running into is that they all feel like caching issues, so I looked into this. My main computer in the early 2000s was a 1 GHz AMD Athalon XP with a GeForce 2 GTS video card which should be fairly comparable in performance to that laptop, but I didn't have any of the kinds of weird framerate issues you were experiencing here. I just looked at the L1 cache size for the CPUs and my Athalon had EIGHT TIMES MORE L1 cache. yikes. o_o; (The Pentium had 4 times more L2 but having so little L1 kinda explains a lot)
reply
The funny thing about the performance issues you were running into is that they all feel like caching issues, so I looked into this. My main computer in the early 2000s was a 1 GHz AMD Athalon XP with a GeForce 2 GTS video card which should be fairly comparable in performance to that laptop, but I didn't have any of the kinds of weird framerate issues you were experiencing here. I just looked at the L1 cache size for the CPUs and my Athalon had EIGHT TIMES MORE L1 cache. yikes. o_o; (The Pentium had 4 times more L2 but having so little L1 kinda explains a lot)
reply
TheKuza261
I had one of these growing up in the 2000s, dell made a mega dock that gave you one full size pic slot. I had a sound blaster audigy in mine. was a great rig with a d630 with the Nvidia graphics. good times, and they made these laptops with many options, extended battery, and the modular bay had a lot of options, you could get a battery, a hard drive caddy a blanking caddy, and a dvd drive, these machines were awesome, the little brother to the d600s was a d410, awesome little laptop, dell hit the mark on the older laptops.
reply
I had one of these growing up in the 2000s, dell made a mega dock that gave you one full size pic slot. I had a sound blaster audigy in mine. was a great rig with a d630 with the Nvidia graphics. good times, and they made these laptops with many options, extended battery, and the modular bay had a lot of options, you could get a battery, a hard drive caddy a blanking caddy, and a dvd drive, these machines were awesome, the little brother to the d600s was a d410, awesome little laptop, dell hit the mark on the older laptops.
reply
kitmcgath
So. I have a pair of Latitude D610s and one of those Inspiron 600m's. They are fully interchangeable, and there's scarcely a difference in them. Got Windows 98 on one Latitude with a 60GB HDD, Windows 2000 on the Inspiron with a 60GB HDD, and Windows XP on the other D610 with an 80GB HDD. The Twins and their Clone, I call them. got'em mostly for LAN partying older games like UT'99, Diablo II, Carmageddon II, Populous 3: The Beginning, Metal Fatigue, Re-Volt and some others.
But they all need batteries.
reply
So. I have a pair of Latitude D610s and one of those Inspiron 600m's. They are fully interchangeable, and there's scarcely a difference in them. Got Windows 98 on one Latitude with a 60GB HDD, Windows 2000 on the Inspiron with a 60GB HDD, and Windows XP on the other D610 with an 80GB HDD. The Twins and their Clone, I call them. got'em mostly for LAN partying older games like UT'99, Diablo II, Carmageddon II, Populous 3: The Beginning, Metal Fatigue, Re-Volt and some others.
But they all need batteries.
reply
greggeshelman
What I'd love to see you demonstrate is a PC with dual Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 cards installed. I've never seen it done, despite it being a supported configuration, I assume to get more simultaneous synth instruments. Of course the demo shouls also include using the card's SCSI controller for something other than a CD-ROM drive. Max data throughput was good for up to a 4x drive. The PAS16 SCSI was automatically seen as a Trantor SCSI controller by Windows 95.
reply
What I'd love to see you demonstrate is a PC with dual Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 cards installed. I've never seen it done, despite it being a supported configuration, I assume to get more simultaneous synth instruments. Of course the demo shouls also include using the card's SCSI controller for something other than a CD-ROM drive. Max data throughput was good for up to a 4x drive. The PAS16 SCSI was automatically seen as a Trantor SCSI controller by Windows 95.
reply
drskelebone
Big nostalgia. I don't think this is the model Dell I had, but I had one of theirs around this time. Looked up the old blog post that serves as my external memory, but I didn't have part numbers recorded, and one of the posts is me tossing the old laptops into the dumpster (I was moving.
That Dell eventually had the display backlight burn out, so it was plugged in to monitors on both sides of the work commute until I could replace it.
reply
Big nostalgia. I don't think this is the model Dell I had, but I had one of theirs around this time. Looked up the old blog post that serves as my external memory, but I didn't have part numbers recorded, and one of the posts is me tossing the old laptops into the dumpster (I was moving.
That Dell eventually had the display backlight burn out, so it was plugged in to monitors on both sides of the work commute until I could replace it.
reply
Armi1P
You can overclock Pentium M CPUs ending in 5 by pin-modding, going from 400MHz FSB to 533MHz. I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-Pro V2060 with a Pentium M 735, it's been running at 2. 27GHz instead of the stock 1. 7GHz for like 10 years now. I abuse it with Gentoo Linux, compiling everything, and it just can't die. Even the battery can hold a charge for like 10 minutes, after 22 years of service it's kind of impressive.
reply
You can overclock Pentium M CPUs ending in 5 by pin-modding, going from 400MHz FSB to 533MHz. I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-Pro V2060 with a Pentium M 735, it's been running at 2. 27GHz instead of the stock 1. 7GHz for like 10 years now. I abuse it with Gentoo Linux, compiling everything, and it just can't die. Even the battery can hold a charge for like 10 minutes, after 22 years of service it's kind of impressive.
reply
awd42
I once had a Latitude D610 as a work laptop, which is a slightly newer model using the same chassis. (Just silver, no fancy wood grain) We had the D-dock, which is a larger version of your port replicator that includes a modular bay and a PCI slot.
The floppy module working as a standalone USB floppy drive is really nice! A bit unfortunate that it's mini-USB (not micro, but still really handy.
reply
I once had a Latitude D610 as a work laptop, which is a slightly newer model using the same chassis. (Just silver, no fancy wood grain) We had the D-dock, which is a larger version of your port replicator that includes a modular bay and a PCI slot.
The floppy module working as a standalone USB floppy drive is really nice! A bit unfortunate that it's mini-USB (not micro, but still really handy.
reply
kFY514
Hey, that ad read was smooth! The copy itself is dry and forgettable as always and everywhere, but incorporating the disassembly sequence with an ad for a screwdriver was actually really nice. Not taking out from the experience too much even though it's an ad, and an actual reason not to skip it. Even though you still did include the progress bar. That's an ad read done right if I ever seen one!
reply
Hey, that ad read was smooth! The copy itself is dry and forgettable as always and everywhere, but incorporating the disassembly sequence with an ad for a screwdriver was actually really nice. Not taking out from the experience too much even though it's an ad, and an actual reason not to skip it. Even though you still did include the progress bar. That's an ad read done right if I ever seen one!
reply
Pelaymi
These computers were what was popular (without the woodgrain) when I was first starting to work on computers. I loved all the doors and how easy it was to open it up. Disappointing how difficult laptops are to work on now. I despise removing a keyboard, top, and bottom assembly just to upgrade RAM. Thanks for another great blast from the past video!
reply
These computers were what was popular (without the woodgrain) when I was first starting to work on computers. I loved all the doors and how easy it was to open it up. Disappointing how difficult laptops are to work on now. I despise removing a keyboard, top, and bottom assembly just to upgrade RAM. Thanks for another great blast from the past video!
reply
Glacier_Nester
Deep nostalgia for this guy, especially seeing it all taken apart to reveal easy maintenance, had one of these from the same line (with the basic grey color scheme) that I played an UNREASONABLE amount of dc universe online on as a young teen. (Making heavy use of the external monitor options, of course) I'll have to rustle one up someday!
reply
Deep nostalgia for this guy, especially seeing it all taken apart to reveal easy maintenance, had one of these from the same line (with the basic grey color scheme) that I played an UNREASONABLE amount of dc universe online on as a young teen. (Making heavy use of the external monitor options, of course) I'll have to rustle one up someday!
reply
DaemiaX-c2r
Nice laptop & video! And sadly, a nice reminder of how awful laptops were for games back then. Well, for another 15 years more or less but yea. Sucky.
And yes, your enthusiasm can be felt thru the screen when you get your hands on products like this. It's just amazing to watch and listen to you, even if you would review a stone.
reply
Nice laptop & video! And sadly, a nice reminder of how awful laptops were for games back then. Well, for another 15 years more or less but yea. Sucky.
And yes, your enthusiasm can be felt thru the screen when you get your hands on products like this. It's just amazing to watch and listen to you, even if you would review a stone.
reply
kFY514
I remember XP having some rudimentary Sound Blaster emulation right in its built-in Virtual DOS Machine, and you could additionally up that game a bit by installing VDMSound. Far from _all_ DOS games run in NTVDM, but I remember the compatibility being actually pretty decent. Maybe you don't need DOSBox as much as you might think.
reply
I remember XP having some rudimentary Sound Blaster emulation right in its built-in Virtual DOS Machine, and you could additionally up that game a bit by installing VDMSound. Far from _all_ DOS games run in NTVDM, but I remember the compatibility being actually pretty decent. Maybe you don't need DOSBox as much as you might think.
reply
ccoder4953
That plug on the power adapter isn't that weird. Dell used that same style plug for many years. I think some HP machines even used the same thing. It's not a normal barrel plug, to be sure, but they are pretty common. The thin pin in the middle is so the adapter can tell the laptop how much power it can supply.
reply
That plug on the power adapter isn't that weird. Dell used that same style plug for many years. I think some HP machines even used the same thing. It's not a normal barrel plug, to be sure, but they are pretty common. The thin pin in the middle is so the adapter can tell the laptop how much power it can supply.
reply
slipknotboy555
7: 25 You could change the laptop's CPU! Did that used to be a thing
26: 20 Funnily enough, it was thundering here while watching this part (a day or two later, coming back to finish it) - I didn't hear the thunder on your end at first. But I look outside, and it's all sunny. And hot. Tf Haha.
reply
7: 25 You could change the laptop's CPU! Did that used to be a thing
26: 20 Funnily enough, it was thundering here while watching this part (a day or two later, coming back to finish it) - I didn't hear the thunder on your end at first. But I look outside, and it's all sunny. And hot. Tf Haha.
reply
Blacknight8850
I'm liking this intro format of appearing from amongst the racking and going Oh! Hello there. It's like an old TV show, where the host is welcoming us into _the wonderful world of computing_ or something. Maybe once the stacks are sorted you could do on-camera talkie bits walking around in there
reply
I'm liking this intro format of appearing from amongst the racking and going Oh! Hello there. It's like an old TV show, where the host is welcoming us into _the wonderful world of computing_ or something. Maybe once the stacks are sorted you could do on-camera talkie bits walking around in there
reply
rbspace454
These were great machines for the era. This was around the time I started working in IT. These Dells were built like tanks and the engineers beat the crap out them, yet they still ran! We could easily tear them apart and swap out parts from a broken one to another. They were so easy to work on!
reply
These were great machines for the era. This was around the time I started working in IT. These Dells were built like tanks and the engineers beat the crap out them, yet they still ran! We could easily tear them apart and swap out parts from a broken one to another. They were so easy to work on!
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
