First off: This mod does not give me an additional USB port which can be used in conjunction with the other USB ports. It only "moves" one of the USB ports from the back to the side. mmkay? Then let's a go:

I love my 600m but one of the things that irks me about it is the lack of a side USB port (it has only a stacked pair at the back). I have to hunt for one or turn the notebook around whenever I want to plug in my thumb drive. And if the thumb drive is plugged into the bottom port while the notebook is on my lap, it hits my thigh.

So when I opened up my notebook I noticed that there is an opening inside the motherboard brace that looks like it'd fit another USB port:



And there is also space for it on the chassis itself:



Perhaps original design plans had an adddional USB port there (read: Delli being cheap here), 600m shares its brace with another notebook that has the extra USB port on the side, or maybe there are plans to add one in the future. Whatever, I decided to add one on myself.

First, I built my own bare female ( ) USB "cable" which consists of wires soldered to the 4 pins and covered with some epoxy for protection:



The toughest part was the mounting of this module to the motherboard brace. The port has to be very sturdy to withstand the forces of plugging in and out of the USB devices. I've considered a few ways to do the mount, but epoxy seemed like the best choice because of the complexity of the mount:



Next I routed the wires through the top and bottom of the motherboard:





And soldered the wires to the pins of the bottom USB port:



Finally, I cut out a hole for the port in the plastic chassis and voila...like you never knew it wasn't there before:







As I said at the beggining, this extra port can't be used with the bottom USB port at the same time because they're on the same bus. You can use both just not at the same time. It does not affect the top port in any way.

I can't imagine anyone doing the same mod - it's much more difficult than outlined here. But it may give you an idea for a similar mod - say an internal USB bluetooth or a hard drive. You will have to sacrifice a USB port however - not a problem if you have 4. If anyone needs the details (parts, specific procedures, resources) ask it here.

Well done.....looks nice and clean

good job

I'm getting some love here I see. Hee hee.

Btw, I don't reccomend that anyone will do this mod and if you do I am not responsible for any damage you'll make to either your laptop or yourself. Though I only had the mod for two days (and I'm lovin it!! Oprah style!!), I probably wouldn't do it (ok so I lie ) again if I knew how much time it would take. You can learn from my mistakes thou.

VERY nice work. These mods are really tough and my hat goes off to you for attempting it (and getting it to work successfully!).

Stu

Not bad.

Bravo !! That mod looks like a major PITA, but now your thigh is

Those anatomy lessons never were my forte

The thight area inside the notebook was tough to work in. Still, I found more space inside my notebook to squeeze in a couple of additional mods.

You are a crack...
Great mod...
I think I will do it....

Thanks for it.

My guess is that they were going to add a D/Bay connector because the window has the same size and location as in a D800/M60. Damn, that could had been simply great because it's one of the reason why I bought and kept the M60...

By the way, it is possible to have up to FOUR, INDEPENDENT USB ports in a D600 with mods:

You can borrow the USB "line" from the bluetooth header.

The floppy module uses an USB connection also. If you are handy can also borrow the line from the IDE/USB interface. I can provide you with pictures of a dissasembled floppy module if you want to know wich pins belong to what.

Mike, even on the newer latitudes there is no d/bay connector. Dell is phasing it out it seems to me.

Yes. I even thought about putting a small usb hub circuit board between one of the existing usb ports and the extra one. But the biggest hurdle in most laptop mods is the space - there just isn't enough.

This and the Bluetooth mod I did may not be feasible for most. I am currently working on another mod that hopefully will be easier to do and not be specific to a particular model.

They aren't phasing it out. It's present on both the Latitude X1 and D410; both are Sonoma.

I meant, they originally wanted to put a D/Bay connector on the D600 and then dropped it. My theory is that they tought the use of a D/Bay would make battery life too short. Remember that a D800 comes standard with 80WHr battery, while the D600 only 53WHr. Everyone who has owned both knows that the D800, while bulkier, it's a better travel companion due to longer battery life.

In the newer Latitudes... oh well. The Sonoma platform has increased the power drain and in the case of the M70, the video card sucks juice like crazy. Just idling with the screen on the M60's battery lasts like one and half hour more.

Also, they dropped not only the D/Bay but all the goodies. No firewire. No Parallel port. Many people thinks the PP is a waste, but it's obviously that most of them uses the laptop only for traditional taks. I usually connect CNCs and PLC boards and having the "legacy" ports really helps there. Or isn't that the reason to own a workstation to handle AutoCAD and such?

I have a 8600 with the legacy ports at work and use the serial port to transfer the code back and forth to the CNC machine. Use the parallel inteface for my SCSI printer and scanner. And the IR port for my Zire 71 palm

I would love to install a small bluetooth module inside my 710m.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

I bought one of these, and might give "installing" it a go. Not game just yet though

anyone notice how CLEAN THAT FINAL CUT IS?!?!

what a job!