All Linux Things

I now have three of these all with i3 1.7ghz cpu, 8gb ram and a 256gb SSD. One has Win10 the other two with Q4OS Gemini KDE. The battery lasts around 10 hours and its light enough t be easy to carry around, but really durable for a variety of situations. One I use at work, the other with clients and one I use at home. These systems regularly go for $70-100 on Ebay. One I bought from a friend, one was trashed and I refurbished it, and the last one I traded other hardware for it.

Was able to get an older hard drive with Win10 from my 6640 to activate on the 3340. That laptop will become my wife's backup. Im using one of them at work with Linux. Just waiting on a battery for the third.

Was really ticked as I ordered a battery for the 3340 and it wouldnt charge. Tried it on all three 3340s and used a couple of chargers but still wouldnt charge. Probably the wrong model or dud copy. Ordered another one from a different source and will get my money back.

New battery is working fine and thankfully the defective one was sent back without issues. I dont believe the first battery was compatible as a few different models use this battery but doesnt guarantee they all work right.

The worst is they have some models that depending on the confguration, there's like 3 or 4 battery designs that it can take. "No, I don't just need your model, I need your actual serial number. So I can check WHICH battery came in it stock!!"

The bigger issue is, some of the companies who do knockoff batteries typically Chinese , create batteries that confuse bios and many times wont charge properly. They also many times dont separate defective batteries from normal stock or accidentally place it back in stock and you end up with a bad battery.

I have bought a few 3rd party batteries and never had any luck with them. I hate to spend the money on the original mfg batteries, but going that route has not disappointed me. Apple and Lenovo (and they are the only laptops I have bought) make excellent quality batteries. Batteries are about the only thing I purchase from the original mfg, I buy cheap ink, cheap coin cell batteries, cheap SSDs, cheap memory and have had very few problems with them.

If I could get new batteries from Dell certainly I would but with older laptops thats hard to do depending on the model. The company Im ordering from now Ive used before and I wish I had dealt with them first. They are slightly on the high side but the batteries always work.

I traded another of my older laptops, the last one for another 3340 with a 1.4ghz celeron. I added more ram and a SSD and tried to install Feren OS on it but that didnt go well as the distro had some issues. Will either retry or maybe just go with Q4OS Gemini instead. Battery was in excellent condition sand the laptop as a whole looks amazing.

Feren OS install was a joke so moved on to Q4OS Gemini 4.5 and it went fine with no issues. Really enjoy this simple,clean and great performing distro thats excellent for older hardware. No issues whatsoever.