Hi everyone,

This is a long shot ... I've got a machine from about 1998 here and am hoping someone might be able to remember something about them. It's small, black and very chunky - the Dell Latitude XPi CD ( 166mhz! ). I needed something with windows 98 so I 'upgraded' the drive from 2 gb. to a Samsung HM100JC ( 100 gb. ) Basically I've got some games that don't work with compatibility in XP at all ...

All fine and dandy with swapping the hard drive, but the underneath of the machine gets universally hot as hell! I don't seem to be able to detect a fan, much less any cooling vents. Would I be right in thinking that it was fine with the 2 gb, and it needed neither a fan or cooling vents, but that my latter day 100 gb. drive runs that much hotter? I actually love this laptop, but want to 'waste' neither it or the drive, so any suggestions much welcome!

I've tried the Dell site but the documentation I found wasn't hugely informative about the specific problems I'm having ( though to their credit, all of the setup files were there for download ).

Many thanks,

Tony

If your new hard drive is higher RPM than the old drive, then that would explain the heat. Your old drive was probably 4500 RPM, and the new one 5400 or 7200. If that is true, there's not much you can do about it short of buying a new drive.

Thanks Technochicken, I see your point about the RPM ... damn! I'm not even sure how the old Dell is fixed re: shutting down if too hot ... it hasn't done it but seems to exceed the heat level of a modern machine and keep running O-o

I might stick a cooling base under it and see if that helps ... you reckon I might be able to get a slower drive?

Thanks,

Tony.

It will work fine with that hard drive. The heat of the drive isn't that significant except to your lap. The older 20, 30 and 40 GB drives in 5400 rpm run just as hot. You have to step down to the 6, 12, and 20 GB 4200 rpm drives, and they are rarely found in working condition.
A little padding is all you need. The computer will not be damaged anymore than others of that era. Just be sure your ports are free of dust, hair and fibers so that the inside of the case is as cool as possible. That is a pretty rugged computer.