Hello,
 
I recently purchased a dell inspiron 600m. although i am generally
pleased with it, the keyboard is of very poor quality. my question is
this: can i replace the keyboard with a better one? for example, the
keyboards on some of dell's latitude laptops are of much higher
quality..
 
i emailed Dell directly, and they said "no" -- but I'm a little
skeptical. I don't care if my laptop doesn't come out color
coordinated or if some of the special keys don't work, I just want to
know if I can change the feel of my laptop's keyboard by replacing it
with a more expensive one. what kinds of issues could I run into in
trying to do such a thing?

any helpful advice will be welcomed.  i prefer the advice of somebody
who's had some personal experience replacing laptop keyboards.

thanks!

I've replaced several keyboards on laptops over the years.  What
you'll find is that you might be able to move latterally within a
lineup (A Dell 610 keyboard might fit on a Dell 620, for an example). 
However, this is very unlikely - and definitely a rare case when
moving vertically through model lineups.  What Dell said is
particularly correct for your model - you won't be able to substitute
an Inspiron 8000 keyboard for your Inspiron 600M.

The simple short form: even though they both say they're Inspirons,
thats just a general model classification for that laptop (Inspirons
generally have the largest screen of the Dell line-up at that time,
the faster processors, and are capable of expansion in terms of drive
capacity and ram).  Another real world example is the Chevrolet
Corvette.  A 1988 Corvette does not use any of the same parts as a
1999 Corvette - yet they're still called Corvettes, and for their
particular model years, filled the same market "need".

For a detailed explanation of your problem, read on!

There are several factors that laptop keyboards have to deal with that
desktop keyboards dont:

1) Key travel height (How much space is given over to keys being
pressed, at the expense of making the notebook physically thicker)

2) Overall dimensions (You can't fit a 15" wide keyboard on a 14" wide
laptop, unless you do something fancy like on the IBM Butterfly
(715?)).  Layout comes into play here, so that you can fit the same
general keyboard shape into the hard plastic casing around the
keyboard on the laptop.

3) Internal connections (The internal connector for the keyboard
itself will move and change styles as model types advance.  One
motherboard will have the keyboard connector near the center, one
might have it at the top, one might have it at the bottom.. )

4) Mounting style (As with everything else, on different models, the
method of attaching the keyboard to the rest of the laptop changes. 
Various methods are employed, ranging from screws through the back and
the top, clips, and even a bezel that is screwed in place to hold the
keyboard down.  Usually, the internal connection plays some part in
the mounting of the keyboard, however, older units simply used a flat
ribbon cable for this purpose)

Other differences include the type of pointing device (on IBM
thinkpads, for instance, there are multiple revisions of the
trackpoint, and one is not compatible with the other.. and theres no
real reason for them to be), color (as you mentioned) and the special
keys (as you mentioned).