Comments on: Dell Vostro V13 Disassembly

By: Omar Khan

Omar Khan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:07:26 +0000

Please note… my first hurdle was safe removal of the keyboard… it seems that Dell have added a retaining screw to hold the keyboard in place. this is the middle screw on the back of the chassis.

By: RestlessCitizen

RestlessCitizen — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:15:46 +0000

I've been using the Dell V13 for over a year now, and can tell you that it really doesn't heat up. Even after a days work, it's just 'a bit warm'. I also had no problems whatsoever using this on the train for over an hour on my lap during a hot summer, wearing just a thin cotton pair of pants. With my former Inspiron 6400 this was not possible: the 6400 was like a radiator in this respect! Rare,

By: Han Belgium

Han Belgium — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:06:09 +0000

Hi, I have just bought the Latitude 13 (which is the same hardware as the Vostro V13, but business-oriented support).

I will also upgrade HDD to SSD.

I am wondering: why is the RAM limit of this machine 4 GB ? Is it because there simply do not exist any 8 GB DIMM modules ?
Or is this a “design” / BIOS limitation ?

By: James

James — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:00:28 +0000

I have this laptop and it’s fantastic (for the money) and as someone who travels with their work a LOT this slips in to most baggage with no issues.

Battery life is ok for the size, better than my MBP.

Keyboard is a bit clackety – but I hope in time that will bed down.

USB ports don’t go quite the whole way in – slightly irritating as I use a Logitech wireless mouse and it means the tiny receiver is more proud than it should be. Not a massive issue, I guess it’s to shave off an extra mm or two.

I’ve installed a Dell WWAN 5540 card in it. Getting the drivers to work was a battle and I tried 7 different downloads for different laptops, most resulted in the installer saying – this/these card/drivers isn’t/aren’t meant for this laptop.

I ended up using some 5540 drivers and extracted them using Universal Extractor to install them manually. Now it works flawlessly with the native XP connection dialogue (and also allows me to log in to our work domain over VPN – which is excellent)

@chinoy: The sim slot is connected to the WWAN port. The WWAN card does all the work; the sim slot is just there to connect the sim card to the WWAN card.

@lex: I’ve heard that only Dell part# wwan cards will work in this. I bought mine as a butchered extra from an Inspiron Mini 9 from ebay.

By: XVilka

XVilka — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:39:15 +0000

I found, if anyone interested in it:

Super I/O & EC chip: ITE IT8502E
BIOS Flash chip: Winbond 25Q16BVSIG
BIOS Flash chip size: 2Mb
BIOS Flash chip socketed: no
BIOS Flash chip package: SOIP/PDIP

By: XVilka

XVilka — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:41:19 +0000

lang: please see, what chip used as EEPROM (flashbios) and what EC is used – is there ITE IT8512 ?
Or something another? Winbond? or?…

Big thx, if u can make BIG photos for more useful searching chips names…

By: lang

lang — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:29:07 +0000

Hi Rare, in my opinion, most of notebooks will heat up when used for a long time. Dell Vostro V13, for me, is a rather good laptop.

By: Rare

Rare — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:19:41 +0000

I am planning to buy the V13 and want to know whether it heats up?

I have heard that Inspiron gets really heated up and is really uncomfortable.So please let me know

Rgds

By: XVilka

XVilka — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:07:23 +0000

Can you provide more big images of motherboard?
I want know which SuperI/O chip is used, and northbridge and southpridge. Also i’m versy interested in bios flash chip. Please, tell, which model of chip for bios is used? or send me big photo, if you can of course.
Big thanx!

By: lex

lex — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 07:24:25 +0000

What other parts should i remove? There is only one slot for the wwan card, when i install it the laptop won’t boot, and when i remove it everything is fine.