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Dell C840 mobo upgrade

Z

z3ghz

n00b
Joined
Aug 25, 2004
Messages
18
What newer motherboard will fit in the c840 chassis? I love my Dell, but can't figure out why I got stuck with two USB 1.1 ports. I've tried several pcmcia USB 2.0 cards but as soon as I insert the card the machine freezes. It only does that with USB 2.0 cards, everything else is fine. I have a 1.8 Pentium M, 1gb of PC2100, 60 gb 7200 rpm hard drive, 8x dual layer dvd burner, 250 ZIP, 32megs of GeForce 4 GO! graphics. I'm adding a mini pci wireless adapter soon, it just kills me that they didn't make my USB ports hi-speed 2.0....what can I do?
 
z3ghz said:
What newer motherboard will fit in the c840 chassis? I love my Dell, but can't figure out why I got stuck with two USB 1.1 ports. I've tried several pcmcia USB 2.0 cards but as soon as I insert the card the machine freezes.
Click to expand...
No other motherboard fits in the Latitude C840 (or similar Inspiron 8200 and Precision model). It was the final model for that chassis.

You might have to bite the bullet, nuke Windows and reinstall it to get USB 2 PC Cards working. Many people on Delltalk have done it.
 
Nuke windows? As in format, shove in USB 2.0 card, and then install XP hoping I can get the card working that way? So what I'm gathering here is USB 2.0 is not gonna be a native interface no matter what I do, I'll have to use a card?
 
z3ghz said:
Nuke windows? As in format, shove in USB 2.0 card, and then install XP hoping I can get the card working that way? So what I'm gathering here is USB 2.0 is not gonna be a native interface no matter what I do, I'll have to use a card?
Click to expand...
Yep, you'll have to use a card.

No, there is no "hoping". Something in your installation of WinXP is messed up if your whole system locks up when inserting a USB2 PC Card. Unless you want to untangle what's causing that, it's easier to just reformat. Then you can plug in the card and do any necessary driver installation to get the PC Card working. You can always use Ghost or something similar to back up your hard drive in case the experiment fails.

Or if you don't have SP2 installed yet, set a system restore point and install SP2. You might get lucky that any damage could be fixed by that. Again, you can roll back to pre-SP2 if it doesn't fix it and you have some reason not to use SP2.
 
Ok, I can back up my stuff and do the ol' format thingy...tell me though...were there any c840's that came with hi-speed USB 2.0? I know this unit is getting a little long in the tooth, but it came with everything including 5.1 sound and firewire...why no hi-speed USB? Did I just get a funky unit or will the existing hardware support USB 2.0, I just haven't installed/configured it right? Does i845MP support hi-speed USB 2.0? :confused:
 
Nope, no C840 came with USB 2. I have no idea why other than the age of the south bridge. Around the same time, Dell was shipping desktops with separate VIA USB 2.0 controllers on the motherboard.
 
yeah, you CANNOT upgrade the motherboard in a Laptop. Read the FAQ ya n00b (I only mean that in the nicest possible way). You're gonna be stuck with USB 1.1 or a USB 2.0 card in the PCMCIA socket. If I remember correctly the C840 and i8200 have been around well before USB 2.0 started catching on. Heck, the Chassis has been around for 5 years.
 
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