[DWind]

I did clean the cooling fan..but I feel the fan is just not sufficient for the heat it generates. It is just badly designed as the fan is and next to battery and below. If the surface becomes hot, the fan does not have access to cool air at all to dissipate the heat. I have had issues with my previous laptop also where I lost my motherboard again due to overheating. This was Dell Inspiron 5150 (P4 processor). I am never buying a Dell again.

[rattandip]

Originally Posted by tejus.s

Hey all,

My brother got his XPS M1330 in 2008. The batteries died out a couple of months ago and we were relying on the adapter to keep it running. Today morning, even that went bust!

Question is, is it a good idea to replace the batteries and the adapter or just buy the adapter since it's more of a desktop replacement rather than on-the-go use.

Thanks for your help.

Since you mentioned that its a desktop replacement, its advisable to change the adapter and battery. However, you must ascertain that its only the battery and adapter that are faulty. Since its nearly a 4 year old system, I will not recommend to put a motherboard etc now.
For checking on adapter, you may try to hook it up with a good adapter from a friend or take it to a store which sells Dell to verify. For the battery, I would recommend only to buy genuine battery from Dell.

[DWind]

Actually the Power adapter for this model is a problem and a search lists numerous complaints about the pin not able to detect original adapter. I already have 2 Dell adapters which do not work. To compound problems this pin is unique and so no generic adapter work. Dell sources this adapter (PA21) from various vendors and all of them are not of the same quality.

[AbhiJ]

Using a 5 yr old XPS M1330 Laptop...

Remove heatsink from laptop. Dismantle the heatsink. Take out the fan from the heatsink and WASH the silver fins in the heatsink with a strong soap! Alternatively use alcohol to clean and degrease.

use some arctic silver on the CPU. Google for the COPPER heatsink mod. Do that. You will see a SIGNIFICANT drop in operating temperatures.

Both my recommendations are extreme but they work.Try at your own risk.

As far as the adapter goes, the XPS M1330 is compatible with the basic inspiron adapters of the time also.

[tejus.s]

Originally Posted by rattandip

For checking on adapter, you may try to hook it up with a good adapter from a friend or take it to a store which sells Dell to verify. For the battery, I would recommend only to buy genuine battery from Dell.

Thanks Ratan. I'll try this and let you know if it works.

Cheers
Tejus