Dell Inspiron 1720

Posted by asexual_girl2004@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 29 comments

I’m not sure if this is the right place for this post but I just wanted to share the computer i always wanted to steal from my mom, and i finally got my hands on it. She’s pretty damaged but i actually want to try and get it up and running again, just to see what’s on it

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bart33z@reddit

Ja ostatnio taki model tylko czarny w całości rozebrałem, wyczyściłem, wykonałem upgrade procesora na T9500, pamięci na 4GB 800MHz + SSD i teraz Linux Mint działa na nim ok :) - https://lepszyserwis.pl/x86_info/dell-inspiron-1720-pancerny-laptop-z-czasow-gdy-sprzet-projektowano-z-mysla-o-serwisie/

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Altruistic-Potatoes@reddit

Fun fact. These were advertised not as laptops but as "desktop replacements."

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tesla-fanboi@reddit

im main this in 2026 4gb ddr2 and the best cpu possible for it im running linux mint latest version. its snappy with a ssd and better wifi card

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Glass-Potential7483@reddit

Thanks for the product key🤣

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asexual_girl2004@reddit (OP)

I have no idea what this means so 😪

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Imaginary_Roof_9232@reddit

The 4th pic you posted of the underside has the OS product key label...

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asexual_girl2004@reddit (OP)

Yeah I’m trying to ask why that’s important? I’m not understanding what someone could do with that info

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Imaginary_Roof_9232@reddit

Without having more information from the poster I would interpret this as a "wiseass" comment.

Arrogance and Lack of Self-Awareness: The term often implies the individual is so confident in their cleverness that they believe they can outsmart others or know better in all situations. This can be a sign of arrogance and a lack of awareness of how their comments affect others.

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Imaginary_Roof_9232@reddit

I have one of these with the blue cover, 4GB RAM, C2D T7250 CPU, and parts to use the 2nd bay HDD. I upgraded it with a bluetooth USB adapter, an SSD, and WIN 10 64bit.

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Spartan_S134@reddit

Man I feel old. I have used this model laptop when it was new and now it’s classed as vintage.

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Chapo_Rouge@reddit

Same, I had the AMD Turion x2 version, came with Vista which was crap as we all know, made me switch to Linux (Fedora 8!) and never look back

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CeldonShooper@reddit

Yeah I just thought 'well that's simply an old laptop'. Then again the first computer I learnt to know (C64) is now in museums.

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asexual_girl2004@reddit (OP)

I hate to do that to you, I’ve seen people consider the Wii as vintage and that makes me feel old and I’m only 21 🥲

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Spartan_S134@reddit

😢

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ultimatebob@reddit

My wife has one of those. Surprisingly, the hard drive still works and it can still boot it into Windows 7.

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NorCalFrances@reddit

Look at those luscious access covers! We loved that era in IT as it meant we could swap out parts in just a few minutes and hand someone their laptop back. IBM Thinkpads were the pinnacle, but compared to today, any of them were so very repair friendly.

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-Major-Arcana-@reddit

This was my ‘new’ laptop when I went to uni. In fetching brown. It even had a remote to control the dvd player, watching movies on a laptop in bed was pretty novel then!

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WillemV369@reddit

Other than the size, pretty much identical to the 1520, which was used by Penny in The Big Bang Theory. Flamingo Pink is surprisingly hard to come by, especially undamaged. The cover is likely also sticky from the deteriorating soft-touch coating.

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asexual_girl2004@reddit (OP)

Unfortunately that’d exactly what it is, it’s incredibly sticky

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WillemV369@reddit

If it is that sticky, that’s actually better. At this point it can still be removed with isopropyl alcohol (API). Gently. It takes a lot of time and multiple passes. Flamingo Pink seems to be more sensitive to being taken up by IPA than other colors I worked with. seems to be more scratch sensitive, too.

When the urithane in the coating gets fully cross-linked, it becomes hard like a rock and insensitive to most solvents that would not damage your paint. It also yellows more over time, hiding the actual paint color. Pink Flamingo is gorgeous and I gevent seen an accurate picture of it on a laptop cover yet.

Some Dell models, like the m1530, have refurbished and NOS covers in this color available, but I haven’t found any for the m1720. Keep an eye on EBay, parts-people.com, and impactcomputers.com.

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DeepDayze@reddit

You should be able to clean up the plastics carefully. If you can find the service manual you can then disassemble the computer and carefully clean out the inside and then carefully reassemble.

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asexual_girl2004@reddit (OP)

I found be user manual super easily, I’ve started to very carefully clean it up, just taking apart basic pieces so far, there’s a bunch of verdigris on it

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Lost_Engineering_phd@reddit

Still use mine regularly. I installed a Samsung SSD, and maxed out the ram many years ago and it is still doing what I need with Win7.for me the old Dell is still a great music production system with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Express card and motu FireWire interface.
The old Dell is also great for SD video capturing via the FireWire port to.

I have a much newer HP ZBook with a xeon for things that need a newer computer with more power. I'm still not sure that a xeon and 64GB ram is enough for Facebook and Twitter (I'm not calling it X).

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MonkMajor5224@reddit

I think my mom had this computer

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Tekcon@reddit

I had the XPS version of this (1730? 1735?). Had the mobile nVidia 7950gtx, and was a solid desktop replacement for about a year. I think I learned never make a gaming laptop your daily driver if you primarily sit at the desk with a computer and don’t travel that much.

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