Inspiron 8500 case compatibility with Inspirion 8600/D800 motherboard

Question

Looks like my 8500 Mobo is going bad (blinking caps problem)   I've wished I had an 8600 with a Pentium M processor since about the first time the 8500's battery died.   Is the only compatibility issue between the 8500 and the 8600/D800 Motherboard the CPU?   My 8500 Mobo is acting up and I'd prefer to replace it with a Pentium M compatible one.  I can get the CPU but if there is some case plug that wont fit then I'll be in trouble.  Its nice to have a working touchpad.   Just wondered if anyone had tried this.

AussieChris · Answer

Hi,   The caps lock light is a sign of memory trouble. Reseat it and test in another if you can. The D800 and I8500 shared most parts, the I8600 would have had different chip-sets. Also there were 2 versions. The M60 is another MBD, it has the ' D ' bay connection at the rear RHS where there is a blanking plug. Some D800's used the same MBD. All are the same chassis, so most parts will fit. Check the specs before you buy anything, and some pics may show different looking parts such as casing, it was changed to improve air-flow.                                                                              Regards Chris

ejn63 · Answer

The D800/8600 had the 4200 card option, so it'll work fine. It is true that cards from the 8600 need to be modified to work in the hotter-running 8500. Price the board and CPU you want - you'll find that the 2.0-2.1 GHz Pentium M (fastest ones the 8600/D800 will take still run over $400 a unit - you might be better off looking for a used D800/8600 system complete, perhaps with a broken screen -your upgrade would be much easier.

wongojack · Answer

Thanks for the response   History about blinking caps: --Started with 2 512mb ram chips --Switched them in their DIMMS - she worked for 3 or 4 days BSOD --Ran Memtest and found one bad chip, pulled it and continued on other --Ran for about 12 hours, no BSOD, just black screen, power light on, unresponsive.  When I go to re-boot blinking caps --If I switch the chip to the other slot it boots and works for a while; doesn't matter which slot as I've moved it back and forth - the movement of the chip ends the blinking caps but it returns eventually. --People I've read about online who have actually fixed the problem have replaced the board.   --I haven't tried the chip(s) in a different machine yet, I've got a 600M I could use for that - I meant to do it though so good reminder.     I think I can make the switch work even with the different styles.  My 8500 has the D bay port in the middle.   Looks like some D800s can use a different video card so I might have problems with my Nvidia 4200Go being compatible with all L8600/D800 Mobos, any idea about that one?

wongojack · Answer

Good to know on the vid card   The 2.1 chips are steep, but I've seen them for less than that.  Still too much for me though.   I'll probably go with a 1.8 - I think I can get board and chip for less than $180.   For the CPUs will any Pentium M chip work that fits the slot and runs at the 400FSB or do I have to be concerned about other chip details like core stepping, cache size, etc?

wongojack · Answer

This might belong on another thread since its not really about switching the 8500s motherboard, but about why I think its broken.  Let me know and I'll move it.   So I got home from work today and decided to swap the RAM chip I thought was good from my 8500 to my 600m   Very Bad Things -   The screen blacked out just like it did on the 8500.  Ok so I thought the problem is with the chip and my MoBo is fine.   I put the original Dell RAM back into the 600m and I get the blinking caps problem - OH NO!  A RAM chip can't break my board right? right?   Well it looks like that chip did something to DIMM A because now I can get the machine through bios as long as there is no chip in DIMM A.   Has anyone ever heard of this?  I thought there could be a danger of using good chips in the bad Mobo, but not the other way around.   The RAM in reference is Kingston ValueRAM KVR333SO 512Mb and whatever I saved buying it wasn't worth it if it really ruined 2 motherboards.   I can't believe it - I'm in denial.  Can anyone explain this?

ejn63 · Answer

Bad RAM can damage a system board. Before you give up, remove the battery and power and hold the power button for a minute. Then try restarting again.

wongojack · Answer

This morning I followed your instructions and now both DIMMs seem to work.   More than 3 full passes of memtest came back clean and some video playback worked just fine, so the 600m is ok for now.

wongojack · Answer

Updating this thread for the sake of knowledge xfer   I got a new stick of RAM that I was willing to use as a test stick and put it in my old 8500.  At first DIMM A would not work with it in there (DIMM B) would work fine.   I did the 'hold the power button down' trick mentioned earlier in this thread and both DIMMs started working again.   Since then I bought the base of a D800 and assembled it with the parts from my 8500 taking off the screen, video card, keyboard and externals like DVD, wireless, battery, hard drive.   I bought a 1.7 Pentium M seperately and installed it as well.   One small hiccup was that the screws to for the 8500 keyboard were a different size than those for the D800.  Luckily, I had some screws that worked.   I installed Windows on the new system and it seems to be working fine.  One device listed as 'Base System Device' did not load, so I'll have to figure out what that is.   As a price reference, I paid 189.99 for the D800 base which included the Motherboard, CPU heatsink, 256Mb of Ram, Internal Wireless B, Internal Modem.  The base was in great shape.   I paid an additional 49.99 for a 1.7Ghz Pentium M CPU SL7EP.   I'm planning on getting some better RAM from Dell or Crucial.  I'll continue to post on this thread about noticed differences in battery life and heat as compared to my old 8500.

wongojack · Answer

Just to round out this topic . . .

I did make the switch and have been using a D800 base and motherboard. The power difference and battery savings were noticable but not outrageous.

I'd say that the battery lasted about 5-15% longer on the D800, but its a battery that was new in 2003 so I don't know how a new one would compare. The system was noticeably cooler but I didn't take temp readings or anything.

I managed to sell my old 8500 mobo on e-bay for a reasonable price even though the buyer knew it was in questionable condition. I sold the old CPU with it which is probably fine.

Not including the new memory I bought for the new system, the upgrade probably cost me a net of about $175. Since you can get brand new laptops so cheap these days it probably wasn't worth it considering all the time I put into researching it. Then again, I now know enough about my laptop specs that I can do things like upgrade the video card or the CPU fairly easily so there is some value in that.

Thanks to everyone on Dell Forums who helped me with this project!

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