Dell Inspiron 9300

To replace my Inspiron 8200, I went back to www.dell.com to see what was out. This was early November 2005.

My top choices were to either go small & light with the Inspiron 700M, or large & powerful with the 9300. Hmm... small & light... or large and powerful. Power wins.

This time I ordered a new model instead of refurbished like I did with the 8200. The prices were decent enough to not have to dig to the bottom of the barrel.

I carefully chose custom features to maximize performance, but went with the lower res 1440x960 screen instead of the 1920x800 version. Several message boards where people complained of sparkles and glare scared me away from the hi-res screen. The screen I got does seem to be not as bright as a typical LCD (neither is the hi-res one).


Here are my 9300's specs:

• 1.86Ghz Pentium M 750
• 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+
• 512MB Dual-channel RAM
• 8X DVD -/+RW
• 256MB GeForce 6800
• 60GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM HD
• Integrated 10/100 NIC
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g)
• Internal Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth
• Windows XP Professional SP2
• 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (longer life than standard battery)
• 90 Watt Spare AC Adaptor (great for travel)

Total Price (including tax & shipping):
$1,925.62


I had also been looking at Pentium 4 based notebooks, which offerred HyperThreading but weigh over 10lbs and last 20 minutes on battery. So I had to sacrifice the extra power for less stress on my shoulder and more fun on long flights.

The Pentium M is a mixed bag, however. It does last a long time (4 1/2 hours), but performance is not quite what I expected. I use a lot of graphics-intensive applications, and it seems to get choppy too easily with motion on large parts of the screen. I could have gone for the 2Ghz chip, but it was way too expensive for just a few more gigahertz. It's not a total loss, but it could be better.


For its size, the 9300 is surprisingly light. You can lift it up with one hand from the end. The thing looks like a surf board, but it weighs less than my 15" 8200 did.

The 9300 has an excellent array of ports:

• 6 USB 2.0 (why the heck do you need that many?)
• 1 Firewire
• VGA, DVI & S-Video (cool!)
• 1 SD card slot
• Standard audio in/outs
• 1 PCMCIA card slot

Of course right after I got my 9300, Dell came out with the XPS M170 and now the Inspiron 9400 with the new Intel Core Duo. Both reminders that the computer industry is still moving pretty fast and your PC really is obsolete the moment you open the box. :-)


If my 8200 hadn't bit the dust, I would have held on to it a bit longer until the Core Duo units were out. Maybe a bit longer, but hey that's life.

Black Friday Shopping List

Black Friday is the friday following Thanksgiving where stores open really early with limited quantities of great discounted products. Usually it's older models they want to get rid of, but sometimes you'll find some real gems that are too good to pass up. Even if it means waking up at 4:30am.

Here was our itinerary & shopping list:

BEST BUY 5am
$69.99 Insignia 7in Portable DVD (got it)
$287 Hisense 20" LCD TV (didn't bother since we were hoping to get the LCD TV at Staples)
$169.99 Mag 19in LCD 500:1, 16ms (got it)
$379.99 Toshiba Celeron M 370 Notebook 15in screen, 256MB/40GB, DVD/CDRW, 802.11g, NO rebates (would have been an awesome deal, but they sold out before we got in the store)
$3.99 Minority Report DVD (got it)

We arrived at 10 minutes to 5 and the line waiting to get in was already around the front and side of the building. We didn't have a chance on that laptop.

Circuit City also opened at 5, but we chose Best Buy knowing that any great deals at CC would be gone by the time we made it over there. Here's what we would have tried for:

CIRCUIT CITY 5am
$249.99 Sony 19" HS-Series LCD (nice, but didn't get)
$199.99 TOSHIBA Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 notebook (w/AOL
subscription, $449 without AOL), 15" screen, 512MB, 60GB, WiFi (didn't get)
$249 Canon CamcorderZR200 (didn't get)
$9.99 Sandisk 512 SD card (didn't get)
$76.99 Nexxtech 7" Portable DVD (backup if we didn't get the one at Best Buy)

After Best Buy we ran across the street to Staples where a line was starting to form around 5:30am. BTW, we just LOVE living in Woodland Hills, CA where you can walk from one electronics store to another.

STAPLES 6am
$199.94 Samsung 19" LCD (didn't need it after we got the one at Best Buy)
$299.94 Olevia 20" LCD monitor/TV (ran out too soon)
$14.94 512MB SanDisk CF or SD (got it)
$59.94 Logitech® cordless Desktop Laser MX 3000 mouse/keyboard (got it)
$4.98 Logitech® Quickcam Chat (didn't bother)

Staples was a little unprepared for the crowds. I think they've never seen this amount of people before. They were understocked on available USB drives and memory cards, and were running back and forth to their inventory closet bringing out new boxes. Someone stole the vouchers for the premium items, so I have no idea if or when they were sold. Then a fight broke out between two shoppers. Yes, this was Staples. A fight in Staples. Hard to believe.

By the time we finished with Staples, we were pretty tired so we decided to skip any more shopping madness. We could have tried CompUSA (which actually opened at MIDNIGHT), Fry's Electronics (someone said it was like molasses there) or Office Depot (which did have a $29.99 1GB USB drive).

We made a quick stop at SportMart which happened to have some good deals (40-50% off on athletic and outdoor clothing) and no crowds.

I do Black Friday's for the experience as well as the deals. It's fun to research who's selling what and what time to go there. Unfortunately too many other people have the same idea, so unless you bring alot of friends and arrive 2 hours early, you're at a disadvantage. I'll rely on the Internet to find my best deals-- without being a ringside spectator.

Farewell Inspiron 8200

It's time to say goodbye to an old friend.

I ordered my Dell Inspiron 8200 in Jan 2003 (from Dell's Refurb Outlet) before a business trip to the UK and Netherlands. Since then, it's been a constant workhorse for graphics, video and my company's digital signage software where I worked on customer projects & taught training classes (sometimes both at the same time).

I've taken it on countless trips including cross country to Exton,PA, Japan, New Zealand and Chile. It's taken it's fair share of beatings, and has a few missing plastic bits to show for it.

Recently it started behaving strange. First there were sudden crashes and lockups. After checking every wiring connection inside and double-checking the CPU heat sink, I took out one of the RAM chips which seemed to settle things down. Then about 2 weeks later it showed it was running on battery even when plugged in. A day later... dead. No POST. Nothing.

I read a bunch of user forums and found similar issues, but no consistent causes. Some claim theirs was defective out of the box, some said a few weeks. I think after almost 3 years of constant use my reason is just wear and tear.

I'll still keep trying to figure it out, but not at the expense of mobile computing. I've already placed an order for a new (not refurbished) Inspiron 9300. I'll post an update on that after it arrives in the next couple weeks.

R.I.P. Inspiron 8200