The aluminium lid on this is plenty strong structurally (lined up with magnesium all around) but likes to scuff pretty easy, I even saw a "refurbished" model in use by another student in our university that "refurbishment" was basically this vinyl wrap around the lid and the sticky palmrest.
Also FYI, you got unlucky that you have the Latitude E6330 as far as serviceability goes. Latitude E6330/E6430s (exact same bottom chassis as E6330 but with a 14" screen) have soldered on CPU so Dell didn't design easy heatsink removal. E6430 and E6530 on the other hand have CPU and heatsink removal as easy as you'd like it to be.
Moreover though, the original Dell batteries are super annoying on these, they use the then state of the art high density 3000mah cells but they age horribly, especially the non-protruding 3 cell version, and also the battery controller is very evil on these too and like to declare itself dead even when the cells aren't dead.
Wood grain would have been nice as well, I’ll keep that in mind for future projects!
This is the third E6330 I’ve dealt with, and yes you’re absolutely right about the heat sink accessibility. It’s a complete tear down to get to it to repaste it.
The battery on this machine is in really good shape for the age of the laptop, so I suspect someone replaced it at some point in its life.
I got one Latitude E6430s (again, E6330 but with a slightly thicker screen accommodating a 14" panel) for cheap in excellent physical condition because it had a ME region problem that shuts the laptop down in 30 minutes. BIOS chips are very easily accessible though and that cleared after a BIOS dump.
It is in every way a more portable version of my Latitude E6430, but it's got no dGPU, soldered on CPU (luckily an i5 one), smaller battery, and most unfortunately, no HD+ panel support. My Latitude E6430's got the glossy LG LP140WD1-TLA1 panel upgrade and it is a treat to look at. Got a 15 dollar 6 cell aftermarket battery, only for it to have a strange fault preventing charging. Turns out the single positive and ground pins of the E6430s/E6330 battery connector is not thick enough for the thin traces on the aftermarket battery, fixed it after shorting the 2 positive pins together internally.
Right now I am not using that Latitude very often. But rather, my Acer TimelineX 3830tg laptop. Its build quality is just okay, like bottom chassis flexes a fair bit but nothing catastrophic, it is 13.3" like the E6320 and got an i5-2520M and 16GB of RAM, but the trick here is it's socketed and it's got a discrete GT 540M graphics, while being thinner and lighter. Battery is not easily removable though but still 18650 cell types that dont swell and mine has been partially rebuilt with 3 of the 6 cells being brand new Sanyo cells and lasts 6 hours
Dell sold different capacity batteries for that design era of Latitudes. They sold the smaller capacity batteries that would sit flush with the edge of the chassis. The longer lasting extended batteries would protrude out like that. IBM / Lenovo ThinkPads were also the same at one point. I liked that they also acted as a grip to grab onto the laptop.
Thank you friend, that’s quite a compliment. This is only a hobby for me, but I do work with my hands professionally. I’m an aircraft structures technician.
Thank you! I know we’re always our own harshest critics, but the reaction I’ve gotten to this project has been really encouraging. A real confidence boost! 😃
You bit your laptop ? Wtf 😂 looked like bite marks
Hey friend don’t judge! 😂 You’re the second person to make that observation, and I can definitely see it too!
Thats far far better.
Thanks friend!
you're insane that's cool stuff
Nah, it wasn’t that bad honestly. Thanks though.
Pretty good work right there...no more biting!
Thank you! I’ll try, but no promises 😬
The aluminium lid on this is plenty strong structurally (lined up with magnesium all around) but likes to scuff pretty easy, I even saw a "refurbished" model in use by another student in our university that "refurbishment" was basically this vinyl wrap around the lid and the sticky palmrest. Also FYI, you got unlucky that you have the Latitude E6330 as far as serviceability goes. Latitude E6330/E6430s (exact same bottom chassis as E6330 but with a 14" screen) have soldered on CPU so Dell didn't design easy heatsink removal. E6430 and E6530 on the other hand have CPU and heatsink removal as easy as you'd like it to be. Moreover though, the original Dell batteries are super annoying on these, they use the then state of the art high density 3000mah cells but they age horribly, especially the non-protruding 3 cell version, and also the battery controller is very evil on these too and like to declare itself dead even when the cells aren't dead.
Wood grain would have been nice as well, I’ll keep that in mind for future projects! This is the third E6330 I’ve dealt with, and yes you’re absolutely right about the heat sink accessibility. It’s a complete tear down to get to it to repaste it. The battery on this machine is in really good shape for the age of the laptop, so I suspect someone replaced it at some point in its life.
I got one Latitude E6430s (again, E6330 but with a slightly thicker screen accommodating a 14" panel) for cheap in excellent physical condition because it had a ME region problem that shuts the laptop down in 30 minutes. BIOS chips are very easily accessible though and that cleared after a BIOS dump. It is in every way a more portable version of my Latitude E6430, but it's got no dGPU, soldered on CPU (luckily an i5 one), smaller battery, and most unfortunately, no HD+ panel support. My Latitude E6430's got the glossy LG LP140WD1-TLA1 panel upgrade and it is a treat to look at. Got a 15 dollar 6 cell aftermarket battery, only for it to have a strange fault preventing charging. Turns out the single positive and ground pins of the E6430s/E6330 battery connector is not thick enough for the thin traces on the aftermarket battery, fixed it after shorting the 2 positive pins together internally.
Keep fighting the good fight, brother/sister.
Right now I am not using that Latitude very often. But rather, my Acer TimelineX 3830tg laptop. Its build quality is just okay, like bottom chassis flexes a fair bit but nothing catastrophic, it is 13.3" like the E6320 and got an i5-2520M and 16GB of RAM, but the trick here is it's socketed and it's got a discrete GT 540M graphics, while being thinner and lighter. Battery is not easily removable though but still 18650 cell types that dont swell and mine has been partially rebuilt with 3 of the 6 cells being brand new Sanyo cells and lasts 6 hours
[удалено]
Dell sold different capacity batteries for that design era of Latitudes. They sold the smaller capacity batteries that would sit flush with the edge of the chassis. The longer lasting extended batteries would protrude out like that. IBM / Lenovo ThinkPads were also the same at one point. I liked that they also acted as a grip to grab onto the laptop.
I haven’t come across an E6330 with the smaller flush battery yet, so I suspect most people specced them with the larger one.
It’s from 2013 I believe, so yes it’s ancient. Runs windows 10 with no issue though, and with an SSD and 8 GB it’s still useful.
[удалено]
Thank you friend, that’s quite a compliment. This is only a hobby for me, but I do work with my hands professionally. I’m an aircraft structures technician.
who tf bite your laptop!
No comment! 😬
Nice! I saw the original post, this is a lot better. Maybe you could have done woodgrain vinyl haha
Thanks for following along! A couple people have suggested wood grain now, I think I might try that if I have to do this again.
What do you mean by « a lot better? », man this is like brand new! Congrats!
Thank you! I know we’re always our own harshest critics, but the reaction I’ve gotten to this project has been really encouraging. A real confidence boost! 😃
Holy sht thats even better than the original out of the box-look
Thanks!
That effort. Made a HUGE difference. Job well done.
Thank you very much. Pretty pleased with the result!
I have the same laptop lol
They’re capable machines, getting a little long in the tooth now but still have a use.