Dell Vostro 1500 Screen and Battery "Upgrade"

Hey all,

I am thinking about fixing up my old Vostro to hold me over until I save enough money to buy a Macbook Pro. I'm going to go insane if I have to deal with the minimal screen real estate and woefully underpowered Atom processor in my Asus 1005HA for very much longer.

Currently, the Vostro has a WXGA screen with a bad inverter, I think. I was wondering if the 8600m GT can handle a WUXGA in day to day usage. Also, is there any legitimate place to get replacement screens with inverters other than ebay.

The battery on the laptop is completely shot as well, so I was wondering if ebay is my best bet for finding new OEM ones.

 

Could a mod move this to the Dell forum by any chance?

 

The Dell forum is the better place for this post. Lots of Vostro 1500 owners there. I had one for 3 years. My bookeeper still uses mine.

The ebay batteries seem not to work well in the Vostro 1500. There seemed to be a compatability problem. I went with the expensive Dell battery and had no problems. The power supply probably doesn't matter as long as you get the right wattage. Although the Dell site says 65 watts is ok, mine came with a 90 watt and I never had a problem with it. I would get a 90 watt.

No heat issues I suppose, with the 8600M GT. Lucky you. I think you will start to have some if you try to push that GPU to drive a 1920x1200 display resolution. I would look for the WXGA+ that was in the 1520. Ebay is probably your best bet, original Dell parts are expensive.

Bronsky

 

I have the Vostro 1700. Same system board if I recall correctly.

Mine is with the 17" WUXGA 1920x1200 LCD. For day to day use(browsing, YouTube, watching DVDs), it's absolutely not a problem. I don't play games...

...and have the on-board Intel x3100. You'll have no issues powering such a display with the Nvidia GPU and doing day-to-day stuff.

 

Thought the 17 Vostro only paired the WUXGA with the 9400M GS. Guess not.

Bronsky

 

That's pretty ridiculous. I'll keep it in mind though.

 

What's ridiculous about it? I've used it for over 2 years without issue...

 

u mean 8400M GS... there is no such thing as a 9400M GS..

 

For office/internet application, nearly any integrated VGA can handle 1920x1200. Your 8600M is more that good enough for that job.

Apart from that, I would try if you can have a physical look at a 1920x1200 (or 1920x1080) 15.x" display. Perhaps something in between (1650x1050) is better for your eyes.
1280x800: 98 dpi
1650x1050: 126 dpi
1920x1200: 147 dpi

Michael

 

Not ridiculous in a bad way, but just the thought of it seems ridiculous to me.