I want to put a DVD player in my laptop, but I'm not sure if it will work like it should.
It has a pentium III 651 MHz, 128 MB, and runs WINXP Pro version 2002.
Will the DVD speed 8X 16X etc.. make a difference?

Hi,
The inspiron 4000 is a nice machine and has a good reputation and is capable of running DVD (when correctly equipped).
It is however not a new machine....... and performance, especially multitasking with the limited amount of RAM you have installed, may well be less than sparlking.

If you want to improve your machine's performance then extra RAM is usually the answer....but remember that Xp is greedy for both RAM and up to date hardware so your current set up will never be a "flying machine" but should ccontinue to givve you satisfactory performance.

It's difficult to be accurate when saying if a machine will run a DVD "all right" as its a very subjective matter, and what is perfectly ok for one person is totally unacceptable to another!

The speed will not make any real difference, an 8X will be just fine (my opinion!)

For a complete overview of the machine and some jolly usefull feedback on the issue of DVD and CD etc you may like to have a look here:
http://www.danchan.com/feature/2001/07/26/...00/dell4000.htm

This is written by an owner, I believe, so probably comes from the "horses mouth"
Regards
paws

Thanks Paws, I guess I was worried about processor speed & video cards and such.
I want to give it to my son to watch DVDs in his room or in the truck.
Mostly animated stuff. Nothing fancy. I thought the installation might be too challenging,
but after reading the directions, I'm sure I can manage.
I would have felt pretty stupid if I asked someone to do it for me.
or paid somebody, yikes!

Hi capri2001,
You're most welcome. I'm glad you found the stuff useful.
For what it's worth I have here a P3, laptop 800Mhz with 448Mb of RAM and onchip graphics (8Mb)...and its runs DVD's just fine .
but here again thats just my opinion! and the 14 inch screen does take a bit of getting used to!
Regards
paws