Dell Latitude D630 - Using it in 2021

I decided to build an "ultimate" 32 bit laptop that I could run PC DOS 7, Windows XP, and Linux Mint for daily use.  I still develop in DOS and I have a few Windows apps that will not run on Windows past WinXP.  Mint will be my day to day environment for email, word processing and spreadsheets. It runs the current version of FireFox which I will use for browsing. 

 

After some suggestions on Tom's Hardware I decided on the Dell Latitude D630.  I bought a nice  one that had a 250GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, and the power supply ($105 shipped).  It came with BIOS A09 installed. I upgraded it to 8GB RAM ($110 for 2x 4 GB RAM modules), a 2TB Toshiba 2.5" hard drive ($68), and an  Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 SLAQJ 2.8GHz Dual-Core CPU Processor (not installed yet - currently running a 2.4GHz Duo CPU - cost was $105).

The D630 arrived running Win7 Home Premium and BIOS A09.  I installed the first 4 GB RAM module and it ran it fine with a total of 6GB RAM.  When the second 4GB RAM module arrived I installed it and the D630 choked.  It took 15 minutes to POST.  It did not like 8 GB RAM.  It would boot normally with either 4 GB RAM module installed but not both.  Humm.  I decided to flash the D630 from BIOS A09 to BIOS A17.  With the BIOS at A17 the D630 boots normally with 8 GB of  RAM.  BIOS A09 did not like 8 GB RAM.  I do not know which BIOS version fixed the 8 GB RAM issue but A17 did.  If you plan to use a D630 with 8GB RAM I suggest bumping the the BIOS to A17 or higher.

So why did I install 8GB of RAM when I am building a 32bit laptop?  Well, because I can .  The 8 GB of RAM will let me run the latest version of 64bit Mint.  The last 32bit version of Mint is Mint 19.3.  The current version of Mint is 20.2 and is only for 64bit environments.  Yes I could have installed 64bit Mint in 4GB but why use 4GB when you can have 8gb?  4 GB DDR2 SODIMM modules will only go up in price so buy them now at $55-65 and be done with it. A year ago they were at $40 each.

The highest capacity of DDR2 SODIMMs is reported to be 8GB.  I have searched high and low and have failed to find any DDR2 8GB modules for sale.  My guess is that anyone who has them will not let them go.  I did see a post here where a user (thetrendingverge) claimed to have a D630 running 32GB RAM (that would be two 16GB DDR2 SODIMMs) but I do not believe it. 

https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Latitude-D630-A19-BIOS-update-fail-on-my-laptop-What-s-the/td-p/7646811/page/2

I doubt that the D630 chipset would recognize them.  I do think it would be possible (but not likely) for 16GB (2x8GB) in a D630 but that implies that the D630 chipset would be able to handle them. I would love to give it a try so I continue to look for some 8 GB DDR2 SODIMMs.

I did bump the BIOS to A19.  There is a lot of discussion here and elsewhere about issues with the A19 BIOS file on the Dell site being corrupted and not usable.  There is a post here by Sousuke that lists this version of the A19 BIOS in a RAR file:

https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Latitude-D630-A19-BIOS-update-fail-on-my-laptop-What-s-the/td-p/7646811/page/2

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9ehae5d1jhs8mqa/Dell_Latitude_D630_BIOS_A19.rar/file

I used this A19 BIOS file and it works.  You will need an app like WinRar to unpack it.  Then you will need a DOS boot USB drive to run it.  I used a FreeDOS boot drive created with the app called RUFUS.

Warning:  When you launch the A19 BIOS update it starts and there is no option to not run it.  And there is little screen info to show you it is done.  I bricked my D630 as I thought the update was done and it wasn't.  It would no longer POST.  Just got a black screen.

Ugh!  What to do?  Using DOS on another computer there is a way to extract the BIOS binary file using the switch "-writehdrfile"  The DOS command line command for the BIOS file named "D630_A19.exe" is:

 

D630_A19 -writehdrfile

This will extract the BIOS file as a binary file named D630_A19.HDR

Moderator here named Florian Steinau posted this procedure to restore the BIOS on a D630 here:

https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops/Dell-D630-Bios-update-failed-not-booting-anymore-black-screen/td-p/5242888

I used a FreeDos USB boot drive with the .HDR file coppied in the root directory.  I put the USB boot drive in the upper USB slot of the D630 and followed Florian's instructions and it worked.  My D630 had the A19 BIOS restored and it is running fine.  The trick is that when you see the the first LED light up release the DEL key right away.  You have only 1 to 2 seconds to release the DEL key to start the restore.

Next up is the load the new operating systems on the 2TB hard drive.  I will first install DOS, then WinXP SP3 and then Mint 20.2.  I plan to use GRUB as a boot manager.