Fun With A Dell Laptop!

Hey all!

Yesterday I was chatting with a friend and he mentioned that one of his kids had gotten a little Dell laptop that he didn't need and he could sell it to me for $60 and I figured "Why not?". My daughter has been without a computer for some time because her old one died and I figured I could mess with this one.

Well, I got it home and it had two glitches. First off, it has this battery problem -- even with the power cord in it comes right off the bat up with a message saying the battery needs to be reconditioned. I ran the process a couple of times but it still does the same thing every time.

So, I figure the battery has a problem, so I leave the power cable connected (until I try to replace the battery), press Esc and move on.

Well, then I find that the dang thing is set up for one user, and his account has a password. So I figure I need to do a re-install of some sort.

As it happens, the OS is XP and I have an XP bootable installation disk, so I pop it in and reboot, but the dang thing doesn't boot to the disk! So, I'm stuck at the useless login screen!

So, I get on my laptop and do a Google search for "dell inspiron 1200 laptop restore" and wade through stuff about having the CD shipped to you and then see some cryptic notes about a "secret Ctl-F11" function that can kick in the restore thing but may in fact not work on a given laptop, so I reboot and try that and it works!

So all that is to say that for $60 I now have this little laptop and I've been spending this morning doing tons of XP updates, and I've just done another Updates check and I appear to be done!

Now I just have to plug in an external drive that has a ton of my daughter's photos and music and such and it will be ready to go! She will need some photo software but unfortunately I'm not set up to give her a copy of Lightroom and Photoshop like she uses when she's here. But at least she has something, as long as she doesn't mind hitting Esc every tie she boots up!

Just a fun little story I thought I'd share!

Cool! Great deal. Thanks for sharing.

Tony, I applaud your patience and focus. I probably would have run screaming early on. But this demonstrates what a good father you are .

Hey, well, it was a new challeng for an old geek!

tonylong wrote in post #12434485
Hey, well, it was a new challeng for an old geek!

Know what you mean - keeps the rust flecks off the old brain cells .....

sapearl, the battery may be referring to the cmos battery - if you're still getting the error, or losing the date/time, thats likely the issue. Its not that hard to replace, but you will have to remove some screws to make it happen.

Congrats on your $60 laptop

New laptop batteries aren't too expensive.

jmg181 wrote in post #12436512
sapearl, the battery may be referring to the cmos battery - if you're still getting the error, or losing the date/time, thats likely the issue. Its not that hard to replace, but you will have to remove some screws to make it happen.

Congrats on your $60 laptop

tim wrote in post #12436692
New laptop batteries aren't too expensive.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I've been busy all day so haven't been able to check it out, I'll have to look into it -- it could be the Date/Time battery because when I reinstalled everything it was off on the date/time even though it was connected to the internet.

I'm not sure how to get to that battery in a laptop like this and I'm not inclined to pay Dell to service it so I'll have to see if there is soe documentation out there and whether I need to/can order direct from Dell.

tonylong wrote in post #12437048
I'm not sure how to get to that battery in a laptop like this and I'm not inclined to pay Dell to service it so I'll have to see if there is soe documentation out there and whether I need to/can order direct from Dell.

Its a standard battery - should be a CR2032, costs $2-3.

This should apply to your laptop: http://support.dell.co​m …n/SM/coincell.h​tm#1111212

Hmm, OK, I ran a Dell System Check and in the battery section it Failed this:

Microsoft ACPI-Complient Control Method Battery
Battery Name: DELL5AESN
Mfg: Sanyo
Type: Nickel Metal Hydride

Then went through details and indicated it was only charging to 37/64% of capacity and should be replaced.

Doesn't this sound like the main battery? I couldn't find that "Name" in a search but...?

I'm running chkdsk now on my hard drive because some bad stuff showed up in the Dell system test, but so far it's been running OK.

You know, it can be a 2 day process just to get a computer up and running...

But there has been good news -- I was able to install Lightroom 1.4 on this laptop because when I installed LR 3 recently on my desktop and laptop I was able to get a separate licence than my LR1 copy -- I got a legitimate license for a fresh install, so I also had the old licence running on my desktop and the old laptop with it died, so I could install on this.

I'm considering installing my old license of CS3 on this one too because I just don't feel a need for it on my laptop and my daughter was in the habit of using it a lot.

And it helps that her whole LR catalog and her collection of images lived on an external hard drive that can go along with this laptop!

tonylong wrote in post #12437838
Doesn't this sound like the main battery? I couldn't find that "Name" in a search but...?

Something that recent (1.3ghz celeron, etc) should be a li-ion battery not a NiMH battery for the primary.

I'd say off to Dell forums, they can actually be pretty good at nailing issues with systems, especially ones out of warranty - you'll probably run into a few others who have seen that same error, and can confirm more easily.

Glad the sweet deal worked out for you Tony.

Tony, get a fresh battery, then download and install Ubuntu Linux. You'll have a fast running laptop, loaded with all the software you'd ever need, and it will be immune to most common malware, trojans, and viruses.

ChasP505 wrote in post #12439525
Tony, get a fresh battery, then download and install Ubuntu Linux. You'll have a fast running laptop, loaded with all the software you'd ever need, and it will be immune to most common malware, trojans, and viruses.

Well, that's a thought -- it would work as an extra tool for me to play with, but my daughter may not do so well without Lightroom and Photoshop and such -- she doesn't do so well with new learning curves!