Dell Latitude E4200 Info

The new Fujitsu P771 will use a 16:10 display so either Fujitsu has stockpiled them or one of the display manufacturers will continue to produce them, in which case Dell might keep to 16:10 for the E4200 replacement.

John

 

I am considering the purchase of an E4200 with Core 2 Duo SU9600 and Windows 7 Professional for light office work. I work most of the time in a very quiet environment and the fan noise is a deal breaker for me.

Could someone please comment on the fan behavior of E4200 under the latest BIOS and Windows 7? Has there been any improvement over the time or does the fan keeps running constantly? Can the fan speed/noise be somehow adjusted under Windows 7?

I would greatly appreciate any comments from the current E4200 users!

Cheers, Bober

 

Hi, I work in warm Kenya and the laptop is silent as ever with office related work. When I start some more intensive work the laptop can become noisy. But still silent and lightweight

Did not find a way to adjust fan speed/throttling, but think they did some table adjustment in the more recent bios versions.

I have the 1.6ghz SU9600, yet don't be mistaken in combination with the SSD this little notebook does pack some power

 

@madlive - many thanks for the response!

I am trying to figure out is whether there are any improvements in the fan behavior under the new BIOS thermal table combined with the power schemes under Windows 7. Most of the complaints about the fan go back to the old BIOS versions and XP/Vista. Is the following correct today: the fan stays off in the battery mode, but spins all the time when the AC adapter is attached, or does the fan also shut off when plugged-in? I need a quiet machine mostly for word processing, but also for emails & light internet browsing.

Cheers, Bober

 

My SU9400 1.4 GHz is plugged in 90% of the time and while the fan never shuts off entirely I don't think there is any cause for concern, unless you are very sensitive: the fan is VERY quiet and near inaudible during light load. From half a meter away I can't hear it in a quiet room.

I use Windows 7 and I haven't found any way to control the fan speed/noise. But I haven't felt any need to either, so...

I think the noise complaints dates back to older BIOS, Dell listened eventually and there was a revision along the way that took the noise down.

 

E4200 schematic available: mSATA SSD and overclocking potential

E4200-la-4291p_JAZ00_minicooper_x00_1207-gerber.pdf (1.21MB)

Figured some E4200 owners might appreciate having access to this. Now if you could fit a 1.8" HDD in place of that deshelled 1.8" microSATA SSD card then could conceivable tap the e-SATA port internally to wire in a mSATA SSD. That would give you a SSD+HDD storage system.

In addition, users can consider running a dual-IDA overclock gaining another 200Mhz. So a SU9400-1.4->1.6 and a SU9600-1.6->1.8. Better yet would be a 200->266Mhz PLL pinmod that combined with the dual-IDA overclock would get a [email protected] and a [email protected]. Might need more voltage to bootup at those levels by doing a VID mod. Can see how I did these on a Dell E4300 here.

 

Does anyone know if this mSATA mini-PCIe drive will work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RENICE-120G...nal_Hard_Disk_Drives&hash=item4ab705d1b3#shId

It is narrower at 50mm, but should still be able to use the same edge connectors. It is the Renice 120GB SSD drive based on Sandforce controller.

 

Won't work in the E4200's mPCIe slots as they don't have SATA line connected. Only way that mSATA drive will work is with a mSATA-to-microSATA adapter (see here) or if you wire the 4 TX/RX lines to the e-SATA port plus a 3.3V/GND to it. Wish someone would start a mSATA retrofit thread to show how it's done.

 

Thanks. So, all I need is that adapter, plus to make sure that there is room for it?

 

You can see the soltec adapter is smaller than a 1.8" drive. I'm estimating the soltec adapter + mSATA SSD will be smaller than the E4200's Samsung microSATA "card" so would fit without too much issue. Good thing is if you go that solution and feel daring can try to wire up the e-sata port to the mSATA SSD and put it in some empty space in the system and then still have the 1.8" drive bay free for another drive.