Recycling Rescue: Dell Inspiron 7500

Recycling through re-use is the best kind of recycling there is. And so it is that I did a "bad thing". If anyone noticed, they never said a word.
After a fresh installation of Windows (probably 98SE, same as it was), I plan to use it mainly as a portable DVD player. Even if at nearly 2 inches thick (!!!) it stretches the definition of "portable" a bit.
Rather surprisingly, there is no onboard Ethernet. Thus far I haven't heard the system fan run, other than briefly during POST. The "woofer" could be little more than a passive radiator. I haven't tried to find out.

[@obsoletegeek]

Fantastic story, Bill! The adrenaline had to be pumping! I did something similar with a Tandy 1000RL many years ago when I worked at Office Depot and they ran a recycling program. I couldn't stand to see it head out to the recyclers, so out the door it went!

[@WaybackTECH]

These Dell Inspiron 7500 series were sold as a desktop replacement notebook. The low end celeron system started at about $2199 and this particular P3 version configured with this screen, processor and such, was about a $3500 computer, give or take a couple hundred dollars. The budget line was the Inspiron 3800 series. PC Magazine tested one of these with a PIII 650 and as configured it was $4600 dollars. Not really what I would call budget oriented even for 2000. Having been one to "cut my teeth" sorta speak, on learning how to repair laptops in general, by buying, refurbishing, and reselling Inspiron 5000 and the 8000 series on ebay 10 - 11 years ago now, I have a great amount of love for this era of Dell notebooks. These were a serious notebook IMO. Excellent 15" screens for back then. This one is configured with the SXGA screen which I always thought were very good, crisp screens. The 5000e that I still have has a the UXGA screen in it which is capable of 1920x1080. I am pretty sure Dell had a contract with IOMEGA back then because everything they sold, laptop or desktop could come with a ZIP or Superdisk ( or even a Jazz Drive but that was pretty rare ) Yes there is an option for a DVD/CDRW drive for these 5000/75000/8000 series laptops which is what I usually installed when I would refurbish these things. You saved a very good notebook William! You are ONE sneaky little devil :) But you know, if you did it, I am sure you are far from the first to have done that. I guess that means then, if you did go to hell for it, you would be around "like" people at least :) Take care my friend!

[@TCGProductions03]

1080p in *_2000_* !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[@80sCompaqPC]

UXGA is 1600 x 1200, not 1920 x 1080.

[@connorm955]

@@TCGProductions03 I've seen an iMac G3 with a 1920x1080 option. In this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqPYYoWln92LfJo

[@thelazywanderer_jt]

I'm probably too young for this channel's intended demographic (18), but I love these videos. They help me sit back and relax due to their quaintness. I like watching em too when working on computer stuff, it's like having someone to "talk" to.

[@uxwbill]

This channel's demographic is intended to be anyone and everyone who is interested in computers, tinkering, electronics and other random stuff. People both very young and old watch, and I'm honored that they do.

[@TheDutyPaid]

*Geek Squad:* Sorry to say, we can not find your Dell Inspiron 7500 anywhere. *Customer:* I am so sad, I had looked after it for 15 years, it has all my work on and was part of the family.

[@jimdayton8837]

TheDutyPaid It was going to be recycled, not repaired.

[@darkwaterblue]

Every now and then too my computer fanaticism has got the better of me. A few times I have come away from local refuse centers with a machine under my arm while making a quick exit. Last one was a first gen i5, I was willing to get caught and told off for that! You are a brave man doing it in a shop however, good going!

[@SuPerbMusiCFan]

I don't say this often, but this computer has made me go wow more than a couple of times. For the time this was manufactured it was a very high spec machine. The things that most impressed me were the screen (which i noticed that on the resolution slider could go up another two lines) and the wooffer under the top cover. The owner must've spent a whole lot of money getting it, explaining the condition it is in. I'm very glad that you decided to act this way and save this computer because it if not the least, deserves to be showed to the world and it's history heard.

[@CorkySchillinger]

I think your videos are great. Your warmth and sense of humor always come through, plus, of course, your love of all kinds of electronics. Well done, sir!

[@JJAstley]

that is amazing! no dents, no cracks, and good audio too! all from 15 years ago!

[@jturner718]

In regards to the Geek Squad, I took a tour of their main facility in Brooks, KY and found out a big reason why they tend not to actually fix their project machines: each worker there has to work on each machine as fast as humanly possible to meet quotas. When they don't meet those quotas, bad things happen to them, so they tend not to do after-"fix" testing as thoroughly as they probably should.

[@dr.leonardhofstadter5866]

you sure did find yourself a really very well working laptop, cant believe it was going to get recycled. Im impressed how well it works,

[@karen4you]

I was totally amazed it booted up! And it was so well cared for.... I really enjoyed this video, thanks!

[@windowsuser321]

I love these older Inspirons, they show a time when the Inspiron was actually a relatively nice line of computer and not cheap plastic junk

[@bluefoxtv1566]

Wow ATI graphics, 1280 x 1024 panel and a DVD ROM. The owner deferentially pulled out all the stops. I am also glad to be not the only Computer repair man who witnessed the expertise that is the sGeek squad.

[@h0w17z3r]

When i see machines left perfectly intact like this, i can only imagine they where either old stock that was so old that they where considered not worth the space they took up, or where used in a business and left on a laptop dock for most of their lives.

[@HPad2]

I have a few older laptops which look brand new several older Compaq's and a few Dells which look like they have never been used, Its really surprising. I love getting computers that have the Original OS install (besides the personal info) I got a Compaq 386 last year, just got to hooking it up and it had a Clean Compaq OEM install of Windows 3.1. Was an awesome find.

[@FFcossag]

Fantastic machine! I still use an Inspiron 8200 to this date. I don't know of any other laptop that supports modernities such as a DVD burner, USB 2.0, 100Mb Ethernet, 802.11g, a 1400x1050 display, while also populating a floppy drive at the same time.

[@connorm955]

Mine died a few years ago, right after i bought it the most high end LCD panel at 1600x1200.

[@saxman112]

Wow. What a find! Amazing how that laptop is still in that great of condition. Just astounding. That ending where the "tada" shutdown sound just so happened to play when after you said "thank you everyone for watching" was hilarious.

[@Steve_Larson]

Talk about a blast from the past. I had one of these and it was awesome... 1600 x 1200 screen, dedicated replaceable video card - it was the closest thing to a desktop replacement and indeed outperformed many desktops of the day when used for gaming since it had a decent video card (GeForce 64 Meg if I remember correctly). Thanks for the memories, great video.

[@TCGProductions03]

"Now is it going to do what I want it to do, which is to bring up.... *_RealJokeBox?_* "

[@Lukeno52]

Good on you for saving this; I hate it when people throw away perfectly good systems just because they're old. In the UK, you can still sell P3 laptops for decent prices; I've sold a few for £40-45, and that's before adding P&P on top. And quite a few laptop batteries still hold some kind of a charge; I've seen an 18-year-old NiMH battery still taking a charge, as well as a lot of old lithium ions that do.

[@Jerkwad152]

Matlock is what all the old computers love to play.

[@themaritimegirl]

That is one awesome laptop. And crazily upgraded for its time, for sure! I love the style, how the floppy and optical drives are stacked atop each other. Speaking of the floppy drive, I assume it turned out to work after all, given its presence in the Device Manager? If so, I would assume it said "disabled" in the BIOS because it's an LS-120 drive, rather than a standard floppy drive. As for how you acquired this machine, ballsy indeed. I've found myself in a similar situation more than once, but never gave in to temptation. Being young and in university, I'm in a situation where being caught for such a misdeed could literally ruin my life, so I don't take the risk.

[@lctb51]

Uxwbill, I found and bought a IBM Thinkpad 365XD at a tag sale for a mere $3.00 a few weeks ago. It came with the power adapter, external floppy drive, and has Windows 98 installed. It is a very thick laptop, and is built very well and has a nice display.

[@SeptimMartin]

I had one of those as my first laptop, wasn't a bad 'little' machine...

[@jimdayton8837]

El Pollo Loco 51 Sweet!

[@armankordi]

+El Pollo Loco 51 I have the same laptop, except in terrible condition..

[@subbookkeeper]

8 years of no use, amazing the battery still had some power to run it for that long.

[@royalhoward2882]

Great find, and that battery, I'm just speechless!!

[@s8wc3]

I recently obtained a Compaq Armada E500 system of similar vintage (2000), it's got a 1ghz P3 with a 15" *1400x1050* display. I don't even want to imagine how much that thing cost new...

[@AiOinc1]

Nice 'pick' you found there. I've got a few laptops from about 14 15 years ago, some possibly more, that have working batteries! All of my Toshiba Libretto's have functioning batteries, my nonfunctional Gateway Solo 3300 and 3350 both have batteries that hold a charge, and my Apple PowerBook 180 can still hold about 2 minutes of use out.

[@skchen83]

I have a bit of experience with these models (Insp. 7000/7500). Back in 2000, I was working in IT and ordered one of these machine for our web-developer. As you've no doubt figured out. Back then, the "Inspiron" line wasn't low-end yet. It took me some time to find a machine of this spec back in those days and it was VERY expensive to buy! If you've ever seen the 14.1" version, you would see that the chassis was designed for that screen. I don't believe that they sold very many of these 15" version like the one you have, which is probably why they decided to not have a separate chassis for that screen. In fact, when IBM decided to do a 15"er for their ThinkPad line, they had to create an "interposer" to account for the extra width in the chassis. Oh, by the way: if you're interested, I probably have some of the Imation disks for this drive somewhere in a box.

[@CapnCrunch53omnomnom]

What a remarkable machine, both because of its condition, and its specifications. I'm very surprised to see a laptop from the year 2000 with a DVD drive; moreso to see one with a 1280x1024 display! That system was surely a beast in its day, and it definitely deserved a more dignified end than a Best Buy trash bin.

[@Cyber_Horse_Studios87]

You did the right thing bill. I have a soft spot for dell laptops because I was raised with once, and now I have many different dell’s in my collection. Some are in better condition than others, and some have even gotten SSD treatments. (I would highly recommend you take a look at the latitude D630. It’s an excellent machine that can run quite a fair share of windows operating systems, and runs really will when it has an SSD.)

[@Hexfury]

5th! Also can't believe I get to see another one of those on Video, My grandpa owned one of those. He trashed it 6 years ago.

[@cybercapri]

Seriously Bill, if you asked for the item that would have probably given it to you for free. It's scrap to them and you saved them from taking it to the trash. They got it because either the screen is burned out or the hard drive crashed or worse yet, it still works. I would venture to say Win98 would be the OS possible XP; could go either way. I made this post mid way into the video so I am guessing at this part...

[@Chu3505]

I work for Best Buy Geek Squad for one summer,when I was a freshman in High School.I was Very knowledgeable about computers hardwares.I was the only 16 years old kid in that department.I was very surprised,I knew more or about the same to all the technicians that was working full time for Best Buy Geek Squad.Geek Squad paid was like only 2 dollars more above minimum wage.Than minimum wage was $7 an hour.So yes sometimes the people's who worked for Best Buy Geek Squad is a joke as a computer Technician or a Electronic Tech.

[@qbertguy]

I'll bet this is one of those rare purchases where someone who isn't computer savvy buys a computer but needs it to be the bestest most expensive model even though they hardly use it. Like Larry the Cable guy said, you might as well buy a $2700 deck of cards

[@Kaffetrakter]

Hi. I really like your videos about vintage computers and laptops. I'm a collector myself, but I'm not a professional computer technician in any way. I have learned some very basic maintenance through disassembling and putting together numerous computers for the past 10 years or so though. In 2006 my father got hold of an old laptop at his work that someone were planning on throwing away. It was a Compaq Armada 1592DT with upgraded ram (32+64mb ram), 233mhz pentium 2 mmx and a 3 gb harddrive. I'm guessing this laptop is from 1999 or something (not older than 98 atleast) and I've still got it as of today to play older games such as DOS games on and it works brilliantly, it also got a usb port and infrared . The battery even still works fine: games like The Settlers 2 ran (although it's a few years ago) for more than 2 hours on battery(!).

[@ENB2002]

I think the service tag was archived and did exist. I think Dell is just now taking down service tag info for older machines ("pulling an HP" if you will) because I've noticed that info for machines that previously existed no longer exist anymore.

[@connorm955]

Every one in awhile i put in a service tag and it shows up. It was a Dimension 8100 and GX110 which are from the early 2000s

[@adamhanby8220]

you've really got an eye for computers. normally, I hate Dell like crap, but this looks like an exception. an inspiron that I used to have gave me burns on my legs and was really heavy. another one, one of them in a class of mine, almost took a piece of soon off of my finger in a few places. I'd like to see what all this is capable of. MORE VIDEOS OF THIS ONE!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

[@roem7608]

That laptop works like new right out of the box.

[@Jallge]

Oh dear. Our own uxwbill, a common tea leaf. :P I totally defend your taking that defenseless laptop. There's no way the idiots working for Dopey Squad would have let you walk out with it. Not in this era where blind data paranoia is rampant. I've just finished some contract computer upgrade work for a company here in London. The upgrade involved withdrawing hardware running Windows XP and installing new hardware running Windows 7. I asked what would happen to the "old" hardware, and was told that it was going to be reconditioned and resold. This stuff was anywhere between 2 and 10 years old, so I could just about believe what I was told. But later on, I discovered that it was all being recycled (read: keyboards and mice get trashed, laptops get sold on eBay, desktops sent to Africa). SO, long story short. After some careful planning, I didn't have 3 USB mice, two Dell chargers and a Latitude E series port replicator, but now I do... :D

[@aguiristante]

You care more about this computer than anyone at best buy. Don t worry about it.

[@radicalraccoon]

I just saved one of these from a school that was going to 'recycle' a bunch of old tech from the 90s that had been in storage. Haven't acquired a power supply as of yet, but it's also in great physical condition. I'm hopeful that it will be functional once I get the power supply. These were amazing laptops for their time, though! This model was actually pretty high-end and not very budget friendly, however. Lol.

[@richardkoerper1630]

I still have one of these, still runs like a charm. Many years ago I updated the ram and had to have the screen replaced. Fortunately I had the in-home 3 yer warranty and the screen was replaced in my home for no charge. Runs Win 98 SE and I still pull it out to run Doom, Quake and a couple other old games. Good laptop.

[@adobewanjerkobi]

Mission Impossible: Rogue Bill

[@pd3331]

Who cares? It's worth nothing to most people. You've give it more worth by doing a video about it than it would have ever had it some trash bin. I don't think some 19 year old punk who gets $7.50 an hour gives a damn if you take a PC from the bin. No loss to them.

[@Jesse78]

Exactly. I'll take any computer. A Dell Optiplex GX620, a Packard Bell compooper, I think these computers are great, I can make use of a Windows 98 Laptop. Good job uxwbill!

[@tylerhenson2474]

I've still got an Inspiron 7000. Still works with original hard drive. Battery dead. Loaded it with DOS and 3.1 for some fun. One of the hinges is broken but everything still works great. Did the 7500 not feature a removable GPU module like the 7000?

[@azmax64]

This one laptop spelled doom for best Buy and they were never able to recover from the loss. Good save. I had one of these. The hinges were probably the weakest point of the entire laptop.

[@uxwbill]

The hinges worry me and I'm careful with them. So far I haven't had a problem.

[@Aid_dan2]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5000 running a copy of windows 98 that's been through the ringer more than a few times, as well as a 500-600 MHz. Pentium III, and last, 127MB. of extended RAM, 640KB. of system RAM.

[@bena7869]

i literally stole 3 latitude cpis from my school, you're fine in my eyes

[@MSI6728]

No, he didn't 'steal' it if it was meant to be recycled anyways -- just my 2 cents! Uxwbill, great find BTW.

[@joemiller947]

what did you do with them

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

@@joemiller947 im guessing he flipped em

[@NikiDaDude]

A laptop so old in such mint condition makes me wonder if the owner sentenced to prison soon after he bought it, or worse died.

[@nlaumeyer]

Once again you do amazing computer videos UXWBill. When I get time in between calls at the Help Desk for the company I work for I tend to view your videos especially on Saturdays when calls are less. Thanks for all the videos.

[@off_on_one]

I also have this "robin hood inside me" unfortunately he didn't kick in in time and I lost a Trinitron to the scrap pile

[@randomfish42]

Man listening to that old MIDI file sure brought back a few memories, as I kid I used to have great fun finding all of them on our 486SX25 and playing them back via the SoundBlaster 16 card with (single?) speed CD-ROM drive. Of course nowadays it's all MP3 streaming, kids these days don't know they're born :P.

[@walterharriman]

Great machine Bill! Incredible condition too - here in the UK I know several people who'd still quite happily use that. A Pentium II Toshiba Satellite 4080XCDT I picked up several years ago also lacks onboard Ethernet, yet has a USB port, and features a bizarre flip-out modem connector that cannot hold a cable for its life.

[@itmkoeln]

Used Business Laptops (like Thinkpads or Latitudes) are often a good option (in Germany refurbished DELL Latitude E7440/E7450 (variants with Haswell, Haswell Refresh and Broadwell Core i3/i5/i7) ultrabooks, often even the Topnotch Core i5u and Core i7 u and even the variants with Intel 7160-AC and mobile WWAN (4G) retail for about 450-500 € , which is a very good Deal for an Ultrabook espacially for a business grade device. Even devices without mobile Broadband (3G/4G) cards can be upgraded to make use of mobilebroadband with a DELL DW5770 HSPA+(worldwide) or a DW5808e (North America only), as all devices are equipped with the integrated antenna for celluar networks) Older i5/i7 Latitude devices, like a latitude E6220 (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge retail for about 100 to 200 €), a price, which is comparable to the renamed Atom devices Pentium N / Celeron N).

[@MsJinkerson]

I would like to tell you I like your videos if there is an award like Oscar for you tube you deserve hands down

[@Edvinas_channel]

That TV output does in fact support component video. I have an adapter that converts "TV output" to Component video (and composite on the blue connector) and S-VIDEO. It's really surprising that even my 2008 HP Compaq 6910p has one of those TV output connectors.

[@xaer0knight]

Speaking of LS-120 Drives.. The Gateway Solo 2550 P3 600MHz laptop came with one of them :D I just found one in the dumpster about 3 months ago. The Solo 2000 series are build for Company use.. No Direct3D support! Other than that a pretty solid machine!. I did have one Super Disk back in 2000 for a vocational center's computer class I was taking, oddly enough I had BeOS 5 stuff on it! Oh I miss BeOS and sadly lost the disk (BeBits is not longer around). Interesting enough both my P3 laptops have IR ports and so does my iMac 233Mhz Tray Loader... Boy you hit my geeky corner today! Thanks for the videos and a trip down memory lane :)

[@mumboking]

Jason Hicks Is this of any use to you? winworldpc.com/product/beos/5

[@xaer0knight]

mumbo666 Thanks. The hardest part is finding the "butter zone" for BeOS.. compatibility of parts! BeOS is made for I think Pentium 3 but never fully optimized for AMD processors. I am glad someone still has images. A few dedicated users did make BeOS 5 Personal Edition MAX Edition which has a ton of extra software and tweaks. The whole BeOS project did move to Zeta OS by yellowTAB in Germany but many controversy about its source codes! The successor of BeOS seems to be Haiku but it is slow going and developmental hell to the like of Duke Nukem Forever LOL If I remember correctly BeOS 5 was able to run on my Duron 800Mhz back in at least 2002 with 512MB RAM and a GeForce 4 440MX AGP 64MB.

[@brunoeiler8192]

its a time machine notebook ... amazing find !!

[@rangerpru]

I scored a couple laptops a few years ago out in the parking lot of Best Buy. Struck up a conversation with an individual who was about to drop them off for recycling. Both laptops had only software related issues. I gave one to my sister who is still using it today. The other one went to a person who needed it for school.

[@keithbrown7685]

That is so *888ing neat!

[@IsaacsTech]

Wow 2 videos in one day!

[@christiann7320]

Isaac Coker those were the days..

[@Kenny-bw2cz]

Wow.... I would like to have such a laptop like that to experiment with it

[@jackjohn9514]

I had one of these as a kid. They were dank for their time

[@dosdude1]

I managed to find an LS-120 disk. It was a Macintosh format disk, but an interesting thing I noticed about it was that it warns you on the package "do NOT format this disk". So if you're looking for an LS-120 disk to use on a PC, apparently you can't just get a Macintosh format disk and expect to be able to use it on a PC.

[@emralcrewrblox]

I have a normal (what I think is) a Mac floppy and I use it on a pc

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

When i was first given my inspiron 700m (in a shopping bag because it was considered junk) It had all of its rubber feet. Today some of them are missing. Ugh!

[@simonro9168]

this screen comes near the resolution of a MacBook Air (1320x765)!

[@limewirepro]

That's rather sad that a $1000 laptop has the resolution of a laptop from 1999

[@TheMushtyroo]

That Dell was built to last, I am sure it was a small fortune in its day. I have been browsing for a new laptop this week and the average run of consumer laptops in the stores have such a cheap and flimsy feel. Not sure what to go for yet.

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

+Sir Gawain If you care about robustness and have no particular demands in terms of performance, consider a (well-)refurb'd upscale business model from 3-5 years ago instead, something that cost a pretty penny. Thinkpad T510/T520, Elitebook 8540p/8560p/8570p, Latitude E6510 or E6520, all at least decent machines in the 15" class (and there still is the workstation class with fancier graphics, too). I also like Tecra A11/S11 but those are among the older ones, no idea about their replacements since Toshiba's naming system is confusing. Screen should be HD+ at least (though HDs may still be better than some of today's jobs), FHDs even tend to be high brightness jobs. With an SSD and maybe a bit more RAM something like this should have lots of useful life left. HP and Lenovo models unfortunately are very picky about Wifi and WWAN cards due to BIOS whitelists, but a reasonably well-equipped model (i5 and all) should come with something decent to begin with. Not all of the models mentioned have switchable graphics (and possibly for good reason, as image quality on my E6520 suffers a bit when running on Intel graphics even if it does save several watts), and USB 3.0 is not necessarily a given. I don't generally like average consumer machines much, nor current basic office models for that matter. Too much focus on being thin and light and low power draw and driving cost down has resulted in too many sucky keyboards and no less unexciting screens (average FHD TN panels can now be just as bad as HD ones 4 years ago, and arguably worse due to reduced color space coverage, commonly not above 60% sRGB), HDD bays often are just 7 mm high any more and decoupling has been out of fashion for years anyway, some of those pesky clickpads can be pretty awful up to the point of being virtually unusable, and they often cut corners where you don't see it (e.g. I found a very basic 2.4-GHz-only 1x1 Mediatek-based Wifi adapter in a Probook 450 G1, a total joke for a 2014 model). And going by the piles of stock of 2-year-old models still remaining, the general public isn't too thrilled either. I've heard even the Elitebooks may have lousy keyboards these days?! I haven't seen a TN panel with remotely accurate colors stock at least since LED backlighting was introduced, usually way too much blue. Thank goodness I splurged on a colorimeter, otherwise hunting for a decent ICC profile on the web it is (for the exact panel type being used, as they are commonly procured from 2 or 3 different mfrs - my impression is ChiMei is cheapest, AUO can be all over the map, Samsung is midrange and LG Philips most expensive).

[@theodorm.6848]

dat laugh. Great videos, @uxwbill!

[@ifragisk]

the battery probably had some juice because they had plugged it in at best buy. Of course they probably didn't want to touch this thing with a ten foot pole because it looked "old" so they tossed it. Good find! And that was a great song to play on the laptop's rebirth, words of wisdom.

[@EmeraldWC]

we used to own a dell inspiron 510m and my friend owns a dell inspiron 7500 but the c and space key are missing

[@99domini99]

I've used an old 2000's dell laptop with Windows XP on it all the way till 2013, in this year hardware issues made me drop it out. Was a nice laptop tho.

[@jimdayton8837]

That is one cool laptop! It is pretty amazing! It's really in impressive condition! It's a miracle the battery still hollds a little charge too! I have a Gateway Solo Pro 9300 from 2000 i think? It's battery still holds about 20 minutes of charge! Technically, you didn't steal the laptop, as they were going to toss it anyway, so i guess it's the same as grabbing a PC that's out at the curb, only in a building :-P

[@deannascott3475]

I agree regarding the Best Buy Geek Squad...They gave me awful and wrong advice a couple years ago regarding upgrading my older PC to Windows 10...Everything they told me was wrong...They need to get better people...

[@uxwbill]

You get what you pay for, and I'd imagine they don't pay anything like a decent wage.

[@LOLZpersonok]

I remember a little while back when I went to Staples to drop off an irrecoverably dead computer (can't remember if it was my IBM Aptiva or iMac G3) I saw an older Dell Dimension (probably a whitebox XPS or something similar) and I was so tempted to grab it, but I didn't think that the employees there would have let me have or buy it, so I just left it. There was also a chance that it too, was irrecoverably dead.

[@orinokonx01]

Uxwbill - I would have done the exact same thing! It's not different than picking up junked computer gear from the side of the road. It is unwanted, and will be destroyed by someone else anyway.

[@stonent]

Back in 2000 you could get one of these with a 1600x1200 screen. If you'd had gotten one of them, you could have named this laptop UXGADell to go along with UXWBill

[@fryersoncaptain]

I'm very happy to say that I never, ever let a working machine go to recycling if I can salvage it.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I wouldn't worry about taking laptops. I know for a fact that geeksquad also takes those laptops home. My science teacher used to work there and would take recycled laptops for his classroom, all of them repaired. They don't care at all. I also have a friend that would go there and grabs handfuls of phones, if they still work or can be easily repaired, each phone is worth about $100. Plenty of iPhone and even rare phones.

[@nerdtopiaproductions]

Hi Bill. I just found one of these on eBay after watching this video. Unfortunately it does not have a hard drive. But it does have the caddy. I was just wondering what kind of connector I need to find to connect the new hard drive I just bought for it. I know this is an old video but I hope you still see these comments

[@uxwbill]

I don't know. I've never had to have mine apart and don't want to unless I have to. Dell likely still has the service manual online, and that may give you an idea of the needed part. (Finding one is probably going to be a real trick even then.)

[@connorm955]

Did you ever find one? It uses the same adapter as some HP and Gateway Solo laptops use.

[@tenshi7angel]

Wow that laptop looks like it's in good condition. Also +subbed. :D

[@yorgle11]

I'm guessing the reason for that overhang is because of the 5:4 dimensions of the 1280x1024 monitor option. It doesn't line up with the base the same as a 4:3 monitor would have. Pretty cool to have 1280x1024 on a laptop, I've never seen that before. My Thinkpad A20m from that era offered a high-res screen option (which I've also never seen), but it wasn't 12x10, it was some unusual resolution which I think retained the typical 4:3 ratio. That battery is impressive. Perhaps it was replaced later in the life of the laptop and didn't get cycled very many times? I assume that laptop is based on the 440BX chipset, which is one of the best chipsets they ever made IMO. That laptop does look very nicely equipped. But for all the options ordered, it's too bad they didn't spring for Windows 2000. The fact society at large has such an ignorant caveman mentality about data security is something that really perturbs me. It's amazing how many otherwise intelligent people think computers need to be smashed with a hammer to "secure" them. I would love to see places like Best Buy hand out a CDROM that automates the process of wiping a system's hard drives, but they have no incentive to do it. Instead they reinforce the notion that everything needs to be destroyed so they can sell it for scrap.

[@Halterung01]

It is not too hard to believe the battery still being working today, but thinking it may have kept power for 8 and a half years definitely is. When I got my first smartphone and stopped using my iPod Touch, I was shocked when I saw that it kept power for a month without being charged (or used). Did you look at the date of manufacture of that battery? Is it original?

[@redneckbryon]

I recently picked up a Compaq Armada 1590DMT from the goodwill, I believe its running its original operating system Windows 98 I have no idea what year the machine was manufactured I can't seem to find the date code but it has to be at least the mid to late nineties, and believe it or not the battery still holds a perfect charge, the nice thing about this machine it has a built in power inverter so no need to worry about a external power supply. On Monday I picked up a Toshiba Satellite A100 core 2 duo also from the goodwill this machine is running Windows Vista so it's a fairly recent machine and the battery is fairly pooch, it is taking a charge but I don't know how reliable the battery will be if it does take a full charge. I still can't believe the old machine still has a good battery and a newer machine does not.

[@AeeeIOUY]

The spaces between icons on the desktop and and the icons themselves are so big that you could think that it's actually Windows Vista with the Classic shell launched.

[@xaer0knight]

whoa.. I thought I got lucky. I got a HP Pavilion N3390 P3 600MHz (with all the discs, software, manuals, and the battery still works for about 2 hours) in almost the same condition until a week later there went the hinges and the cpu fan. Well needless to say, Gorilla Glue is now my favorite Super Glue and Singer All Purpose Machine Oil does wonders! Some video game console collectors say to keep their systems, like the Sega Master System, plastics and cables from becoming brittle to use a little oil on the machine once in awhile. Thus far, the superglue has held up for a year and the fan is still kicking. After applying the oil a few times, it seems to have restored some of the shine on its plastic shell :) P3 600Mhz laptops are a workhorse for DOS/Win98SE Gaming IMHO! The AGP 1x/2x is the deal maker with 4MB Video RAM plus a DVD Rom! oh 1x USB 1.1 built in too!

[@robert1975031]

good find man. I got one of these a few years back but alas it was in the condition I would have expected a machine this old to be in. In pieces. I did however get a compaq evo series laptop however , running windows 2000 that was in awesome shape just a couple of weeks ago aside from a crack in the bottom housing , it looks in near-mint condition. pretty strange for what was a business machine. these things are usually beat to crap.

[@MrTopsoil911]

i got an Ibm thinkpad A21m for $10 running xp prof. works like a charm

[@jackj3596]

This reminds me of my dell latitude c810 I picked up at hamfest this year; I got it in full working condition for only five dollars. Even the battery still worked and gave me about 1.5 hours.

[@jackj3596]

The specs are 32mb geforce 2go 512mb of pc 133 100gb western digital blue (I am thinkning of putting a pata SSD) 1.13ghz Pentium 3m Windows XP Home Edition Sp3 (Will probably dual-boot Windows 2000 sp4) One working new/old stock battery

[@bigpurplecarrot5451]

Nice laptop. I wondered if you would consider doing a video of the installation and running of Windows FLP for our viewing pleasure?

[@brig.4398]

I used to manage a repair shop we had companies pick up our stuff for free. Probably the big box stores get a few cents a pound for old electronics.

[@pwnt39]

electronics usually have a ton of gold and other metals in them many ppl would be happy to get them for free

[@coondogtheman]

uxwbill NICE find. I never thought of raiding the recycling bins at BB but I don't go there often. I wouldn't want the security banning me from going there when I do go. Do you think they would mind people picking?

[@coondogtheman]

***** I wonder if you asked if you could have them. Or would they just say no?

[@coondogtheman]

***** Well first of all I don't need any more computers as I have 2 laptops and 3 towers. What I'd grab are smartphones, iPods and APC UPS units and make inverters out of them. I would certainly clear off any personal info off the phones and then just put my own stuff on it and play Minecraft on it. If theres any music on the phones or iPods I'd keep it if it's anything good.

[@MixerVM]

The reason why the floppy drive is disabled is because the laptop has an LS-120 drive, which uses the IDE interface. They disabled the floppy so it wouldn't pop-up "Diskette drive 0 seek failure" every time it was turned on.

[@michaelcandler3438]

as I did not read all of the comments you may already know this but.. as I recall if you ran a LS-120 drive the Floppy would be disabled or you would have to disable it.. to allow said unit to run., So as this unit you are showing has the combo drive the bios should or would show a floppy disable. LS-120 was a hassle but I liked the storage capacity at the time it was unbelievable.

[@compactc9]

I have a Latitude CPi from about the same era as this, also a Pentium 3. It has Windows XP on it now, but I kind of would like to go back to 98SE which according to the sticker on the palm rest is what it came with. But I have to get my hands on an optical drive for it, I have a battery and a floppy drive now, I didn't get much with it, in fact I had to buy a power adaptor before I could even try it out. Thankfully I found an NOS Dell supply on eBay for very cheap, no suffering with cheap low grade replacements.

[@Siknik64]

I hate to say this, but because I work at a Best Buy part-time, I can say that the tech people aren't exactly the peak of perfection when it comes to repairing computers. In addition, I'm sure they wouldn't of let you just take that computer mainly because it's against Best Buy's code and that they're supposed to properly recycle these computers. They claim to the original owners that all data will be secured but whatever, it looks like you got away with it. And so I say: www.zeldauniverse.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/4thwall.jpg

[@GoldenSpoons]

Having "rescued" numerous machines from stores like Best Buy and even a 16gb Iphone 1 from another big box store that shall remain nameless I'm fairly sure this can be considered theft. Loss prevention at these stores are very hungry to have customers arrested and hit with civil demand letters. I would be very careful. I've adapted new methods of retrieving things from their e-waste coffers. Now I'll typically claim to be the depositor of said item and ask nearby employees if it's alright for me to reacquire my wares :). Anyways, great find, and congratulations! I would be somewhat interested in the recent activity on the machine, and if there is any evidence of recent use. Also if you found this enjoyable you should peruse the trash at local Gamestops, you'd be shocked at the type of stuff they stuff they toss. I recently acquired an original Xbox, complete with 50 games, 4 controllers, a steering wheel, monster component adapter, and optical audio cable; all boxed up and thrown in the trash, presumably by a Gamestop IMPloyee.

[@GoldenSpoons]

+uxwbill Absolutely, though I for one can't resist the temptation of saving mint systems from certain demise =).

[@andrew_cole]

Looks like an older person had this computer but they didn't need/use it for much

[@uxwbill]

To the contrary, the number of icons on the desktop suggest it had plenty of use.

[@connorm955]

They must of used a external keyboard of something.

[@andrew_cole]

@@connorm955 seeing as how I used a laptop docked at a desk with external monitors/keyboard/mouse in case I had to pack up, you could be right

[@antidome]

this reminds me of my Inspiron 8200 which never acted slow and was always fast until the motherboard fried one day 2 years ago, it lasted 11 1/2 years.

[@smithsky6991]

Hello everyone, UXWBILL here once again!

[@FrustratedApe]

Bill I suspect it may have been used with a docking station, so external keyboard and display saving the Dell from wear and tear?

[@MikeHoulden]

Bill,I'd do the same as you did.... lol got to love computers hahaha