Any love for Latitudes?

[Kasm279]

Admins, please forgive me if this isn't the correct area of the forum for this post, but I wasn't entirely sure on where to put it.

Does anyone else in the community have similar appreciation for the blue-nubbed competitor to our beloved ThinkPads? The main reason I ask is, I'm quite disappointed by the lack of parts information that I'm spoiled with as a lenovo/IBM owner. A friend and I are considering starting something similar to ThinkWiki, but for Latitudes and their accessories. We want to know if there's enough interest from potential contributors to allow it to succeed. Don't forget that Dell still offers serial number lookups for C series Latitudes, while lenovo doesn't even offer 60 series information any longer!

[Cigarguy]

I like some Latitudes and some Elitebooks but much prefer Thinkpads. Not a fan of any Thinkpad beyond the Sandybridge machines. I might find this info useful but doubt I'll use it. Might get more interest on a Dell centric forum/subforum.

[Tasurinchi]

You're a brave man posting this question here!

(ha haa, just kiddin' )

I'd venture to say you're asking in the wrong place, over at NBR Forum there's a complete subforum for Dell's notebooks, you're probably going to get more answers there...

[jdrou]

Also might be a good idea to make it a combo with Latitude + Precision (mobile). Many of the mobile Precision systems have been basically Latitudes with better GPUs and better support. I usually consider both of those to be "enterprise-class" laptops compared to their other lines.

[Kasm279]

Including mobile Precisions was definitely in the plan, as well as crosreferencing their Latitude equivelants. I imagine that we'll end up including the Inspiron eqivelants as well.

[axur-delmeria]

It would be very helpful if the level of detail rivals that of Thinkpad HMMs.

My sister has an Inspiron 1525 with 1280x800 screen, and I wanted to upgrade it to WSXGA+ like higher-end 1525's. Dell's service manual does not contain the FRU lists, which made me unsure whether such an upgrade would be as simple as an LCD swap.
An intense Google search later, I discovered that a different cable was needed.

~~
Also, mapping LCD model numbers to Dell laptop models, then making compatibility lists for Thinkpads.

[MrMaguire]

I've always liked Dell computers. I have a lot more Latitudes than I do ThinkPads, including accessories. I also have some Inspiron laptops and Precision laptops and desktops. I'd be happy to contribute information to a project like this, and if it gets off the ground, I know another person that may be interested in contributing information as well.

[thinkpadcollection]

With right information you can find plenty of info to service them and I had generally good luck with them withstanding the too common inefficient aluminum finned heatsinks in these vs thinkpads. This is my primary reason for me to stick with thinkpads for copper heatsinks.

Use the service tag to get you there quickly for "HMM" like service manual and drivers/bios.

I maintain one D531, inspiron 1501 (still going strong for my friend) and latitude D600 for years which is also owned by same friend then given to his friend. Note that only one in the fly is D600 typically blew a board once and next board died but that was only about 6 years span so I consider this not bad since cost for D600 stuff is incredible low from ebay.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Khipata]

I like some dell laptops and have several: D610, D620, D820, D630, M60, M70 and Rugged XFR as well as new i5 machine (not sure about exact model, it is boxed up and ready to be sent in Georgia, I think E something, aluminum shell, pretty high end...).
Latitudes are like R series Thinkpads, working, reliable and easy to fix. Precisions are like poor mans W series thinkpads.
But as you would suspect, I prefer ANY thinkpad to any Latitude or Precision machine, EVEN L series thinkpads

[lead_org]

asking for Dell wiki and contributors in ThinkPad forum.

I think you should really commit this question to the Dell's own support forum, you will find many people there and see if Dell employees are equally committed to the idea. I am sure having more information is better than less.

[Kasm279]

I think you should really commit this question to the Dell's own support forum, you will find many people there and see if Dell employees are equally committed to the idea. I am sure having more information is better than less.

I will, of course, do this. I just figured we had a fair bit of tinkerers around here.

[lead_org]

we are, but doing wiki and supporting a needed database is quite a huge job. Sometimes it is better if the Dell employees can contribute resources to support these great cause. Doing it alone isn't really that fun.

[Kasm279]

The other person I'm working on the project with is currently hosting it on his server, so far we have a few recent models. I'd link, but he currently doesn't have very much in the way of bandwidth. The plan could be to edit it there and then move it to a public location later? We just wanted to gauge interest in such a project before we started digging too far into it.

[shawross]

I will, of course, do this. I just figured we had a fair bit of tinkerers around here.

Tinkering with Dell or Thinkpads. I remember back to when I was 17 years old and I had an Austin Healey Sprite Mark 2. The ring gear on the flywheel was in need of replacement and at that stage it was beyond my capabilities.
I found a guy who was a great mechanic who loved to work on these cars and he would do it for reasonable price. My friend who owned a P76 drove me around to collect my car and asked the guy if he would do some work on his car. The mechanic declined in a nonchalant kind of way and my friend had his nose put out that a great mechanic who worked seemingly little reward wouldn't work on his car.
I have always enjoyed my hobbies and I have enjoyed tinkering over the years and it's funny certain things you tend to remember very clearly.

[RealBlackStuff]

My friend who owned a P76 drove me around to collect my car and asked the guy if he would do some work on his car. The mechanic declined in a nonchalant kind of way and my friend had his nose put out that a great mechanic who worked seemingly little reward wouldn't work on his car.

Due to a poor build quality and reliability issues sales for the P76 were well below expectations and as such is considered the greatest failure in the history of the Australian automotive history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_P76

P76 and Dell seem to have a lot in common...

[pianowizard]

Precisions are like poor mans W series thinkpads.

I guess you haven't seen the Precisions from the last couple years, or checked their prices. The W-series Thinkpads are now considered the poor man's Precisions!

From a design perspective, I love the D620/630/820/830 Latitudes, and it's a shame that the Nvidia models were marred by the defective G84/G86 chips. The D810 was ugly, but had superb build quality. By contrast, the D410 was stunningly beautiful, while the D610 felt as fragile as the cheapest Inspirons.

The only newer Latitude I have owned was the E4200, which was the lightest business-class laptop at that time. I have only had one Precision, the M90. I liked its super strong lid and case, but not the heft.

P76 and Dell seem to have a lot in common...

People unfamiliar with Dell tend to think all Dell laptops (or desktops or monitors or whatever) are the same. Dell's real problem is not across-the-board unreliability, but inconsistency. Dell has made many fine products, but also many crappy ones, even among the Latitudes, which are supposed to be counterparts of Thinkpads. Thus, it's crucial to research thoroughly before buying anything.

[Kasm279]

Not to mention that the D810 has that amazing 1920x1200 IPS display...
The D series are definitely solid machines, we sell tons of them at work and rarely do they ever come back for repair. It's unfortunate that they changed to an Alps pointing stick/touchpad from the Synaptics the C series used, though.
Full disclosure by the way, I'm replacing my T60p with a Latitude E6430, mainly because that's what available, but screen aside it's quite a well-engineered machine. This project started a few months ago, the new machine just sparked interest as I'm considering a display swap.

[axur-delmeria]

Dell's laptops do not inspire its users the same degree of passion compared to how Thinkpads can turn some of us into die-hard fanatics.
Because of this, it's hard for users to reach critical mass that will allow a Dell-specific online community to thrive as it did for us Thinkpadders. Without such a community, collecting and compiling information can become difficult.

Compounding the problem is the level of documentation that Dell provides. While useful for a maintenance perspective, they do not have the FRU lists that Thinkpadders have come to rely on when planning upgrades or modifications like building Frankenpads.

Despite that, I'd like to see your project succeed.

[Temetka]

I like the Latitude and Precision series. I own a few myself, although only one of them is in active service as my backup computer.

D820 w/ 1920x1280 LCD and 1 bad RAM slot. Put a 2GB stick in there and XP runs great. Used for retro gaming.
D630 w/ 4GB of RAM and the 1280x1024 LCD and Intel GPU - Still in active service running Linux as my backup laptop
Precision M4500 w/ 4GB of RAM, Nvida GPU, 1366x768 LCD - Runs great. Barely used. Holding onto because it's awesome and in case my wife kids laptop dies
Precision M4400 w/4GB DDR3, 1366x768 LCD - On perma loan to my 11 year old daughter. She spilled milk on it, thus killing the keyboard. She plays minecraft, make youtube video's and has a blast using a USB keyboard, USB headset and USB mouse.
Latitude E6500 - w/ 4GB RAM, 1280x800 LCD , C2D, Intel GPU - Being used by my son.

I am looking at picking up another E6500 from a client of mine. Same specs as above but with the Nvidia GPU.

I really want an E6400 or E3400 w/ the backlit keyboard. But before I allow myself to get one I made a promise to myself to off-load some other PC's first. I will not return to the days of owning way too many PC's and parts. Oh god the horrors of boxes and boxes full of cables, cards, sleds, fans, etc.

Never again. Ever.

EDIT: Fixed LCD resolutions

I also have a brand new Latitude E-something with the latest Intel i7. It's on perma loan from a client. I talked them into it for "testing purposes." I'm making sure they don't need it back any time soon before I decide what to do with it. It's got the AMD Radeon GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD (ugh) and the high resolution lcd. Specs are fuzzy because I am on the couch and the laptop is 3 whole rooms away.

[RealBlackStuff]

I think you made some mistakes!
Wouldn't we all wish for a laptop with 1280x1024 (my 19" HP L1965 desktop monitor has that resolution).

The M4500 has one of these screens:
15.6" HD UltraSharp LED Display (1366x768) Resolution
15.6" HD+ UltraSharp LED Display (1600x900) Resolution
15.6" FHD LED Back-Lit Display (1920x1080) Resolution

The E6500 has one of these screens:
15.4" Premium, UltraSharp™ WUXGA (1920x1200) Display with High Brightness (Wide View)
15.4" Premium WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display (Wide View)
15.4" Premium WXGA (1280x800) Display

[oeuvre]

I've had several various Latitudes and Precisions.

3 D830s. Those are solid machines. 2 of them had 1920x1200. I loved those, great keyboards too.

2xE6500s, both 1920x1200. Again. solid machines but their cases are prone to scratches and their touchpads are awful.

A Precision M90 I received from someone on IRC... I didn't keep it very long.

M4600 - SOLID. Sold it to an IRC buddy with dock.

M4800 - Updated model of the M4600. It was a tough choice between this and the ZBook 15, but the keyboard and price were the difference. I like this thing more than my W530 I used to have.

[pianowizard]

Dell's laptops do not inspire its users the same degree of passion compared to how Thinkpads can turn some of us into die-hard fanatics.

Dell laptops as a whole certainly do not evoke as much passion as IBM-era Thinkpads, since Dell keeps redesigning its laptops. The D-series Latitudes had many fans, even the D610 which I despise, but that following was short-lived because the subsequent E series bore little resemblance to the D series. Just when people started to warm up to the early E series, Dell decided to once again thoroughly revamp the line.

Another downside of constantly "shapeshifting" is that new problems might (and often do) pop up with each new design. One major reason why Panasonic Toughbooks are so reliable is that they have adhered to time-tested designs for so long. Thinkpads were like that too, until Lenovo started to fiddle around.

Compounding the problem is the level of documentation that Dell provides. While useful for a maintenance perspective, they do not have the FRU lists that Thinkpadders have come to rely on when planning upgrades or modifications like building Frankenpads.

Well, wouldn't the lack of parts information on Dell's own web site argue for a 3rd-party site that does provide such information?

Wouldn't we all wish for a laptop with 1280x1024

There have been many laptops with 1280x1024:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=103031

1280x1024 is great for users who always maximize the active window, but it's bad for tiling multiple windows.

[ajkula66]

Not to mention that the D810 has that amazing 1920x1200 IPS display...

Very nice LCD? Yes.

IPS? No.

[axur-delmeria]

Well, wouldn't the lack of parts information on Dell's own web site argue for a 3rd-party site that does provide such information?

I completely agree. I'm just stating the fact rather than making an argument/case.
Having a good FRU database would indeed be very helpful to Dell enthusiasts; all I'm saying is that it's going to be an uphill battle for Kasm279 and his friend.
I'm interested in helping, but mostly because I see Dell laptops as alternate sources of LCDs and other parts.
I don't think there's a lot of Thinkpads in my country.


Actually, we Thinkpadders should probably start working on FRU list for the *40 and newer generations, since the new HMMs don't have them anymore-- unless we're too much diehard Thinkpad Classic fans that we scoff at anything newer than the *20 series.

[RealBlackStuff]

Those what you call FRU-lists for xx30/xx40/xx50 etc. are there, they are called model_frubom_number.pdf or model_fru_bom_number.pdf.
Google with e.g. "lenovo t430 frubom pdf" to find

Code: Select all

http://download.lenovo.com/parts/ThinkPad/t430_t430i_fru_bom_20140722.pdf

[axur-delmeria]

Those what you call FRU-lists for xx30/xx40/xx50 etc. are there, they are called model_frubom_number.pdf or model_fru_bom_number.pdf.

Wow! I never thought they simply spun it off to a separated document.

[Kasm279]

Not to mention that the D810 has that amazing 1920x1200 IPS display...

Very nice LCD? Yes.

IPS? No.

Wow, it must be quite amazing then, the vertical viewing angles were amazing.

[ajkula66]

Wow, it must be quite amazing then, the vertical viewing angles were amazing.

People around here have been modding their T/W 500 ThinkPads with that (Sharp) WUXGA panel for quite some time now...

[Temetka]

I think you made some mistakes!
Wouldn't we all wish for a laptop with 1280x1024 (my 19" HP L1965 desktop monitor has that resolution).

The M4500 has one of these screens:
15.6" HD UltraSharp LED Display (1366x768) Resolution
15.6" HD+ UltraSharp LED Display (1600x900) Resolution
15.6" FHD LED Back-Lit Display (1920x1080) Resolution

The E6500 has one of these screens:
15.4" Premium, UltraSharp™ WUXGA (1920x1200) Display with High Brightness (Wide View)
15.4" Premium WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display (Wide View)
15.4" Premium WXGA (1280x800) Display

Yes, sorry. I'll fix my post.

M4500 has 1366x768
E6500 has 1280x800

[jdk]

I've only professionally worked on Dell laptops in the past. They seem to have had comparable build quality to the same generation Thinkpads. I did a lot of motherboard swaps of the D620/D630 series nVidia boards. These days I'm on the network side of things (no longer tearing apart laptops), and I use half a dozen Precisions and Latitudes on a daily basis.

At home, my daily driver is an E7440 i7 Fedora Workstation. When it was time to purchase, I found that I felt more comfortable with the Latitude than with newer Thinkpad models. I think a well-done Latitude Wiki would be used by more people than you think.