Dell Inspirion

[Stealth]

I have the opportunity to buy a Dell Inspirion. I was told that I need to replace the hard drive and the touch pad, but I'm not sure how to do this.
Can anyone give me some advise on what I need to do, or point me in the right direction. Thank you much

[Randy_tx]

You can get around the "touch pad" problem by hooking up a regular serial mouse to the laptop. The hard drive is a greater problem and somewhat costly...as in hundreds of dollars "installed". I dont know what you are paying for this system; however, plan to add a few hundred to the cost and you will have to have someone with experience working on a laptop to do the work..

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When all else fails...start parts swapping!

[Ghel]

Depending on the model, you can buy hard drives for the Inspiron from local computer stores--though they may need to special order them through their distributor. Apricorn, Simple Technology, Road Warior, and CMS Peripheral all make drives for Dell Inspirons.

FYI, even a small drive for this system is over $300 retail.

[Stealth]

I acutally have another hard drive for it but I'm not sure how to put one in. Iv'e put a new hard drive in my desktop and it really wasn't that hard. I was wondering if it was equally the same in a laptop.
And thanks for the info requarding that touchpad Randy_tx, I'll take your advise and use a mouse instead. Or until I get my nerve up to try and install a new touchpad.

[kenja]

I replaced the 4.8GB drive in my IBM Thinkpad with a 10GB Hitachi. The drive is a "generic" type, 9.5mm in thickness; it was substantially cheaper than the "machine specific" drives being sold.

I carefully read the Thinkpad User's forum for my model and downloaded the repair manual. It was surprisingly easy (for my model), but definitely in a higher class of difficulty than working with a desktop. There are model-specific "tricks" involved for gaining access to the guts.

I wouldn't encourage you to spend a lot of money for a notebook that requires repair, but replacing a hard drive and touchpad sound "doable" to me.

Have you checked the support pages at Dell.com?

For reasons I wont bore you with, I wish I had read through the User's forum for my model before I purchased it. (Wish I had bought an Inspiron instead http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif .)

[This message has been edited by kenja (edited 02-13-2001).]

[kenja]

[Another Thought:]

While the hard drive is a common point of failure, what if that's not the problem?

[Stealth]

Thanks for pointing me to dell support. I downloaded a manual on how to do this. It does sound abit more complex than a desktop, but I will give it a try. I paying $500 for it and I can just hope that a new hard drive is going to help. The guy told me if the hard drive didn't work I could return it.
Thanks for all the help http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif