Dell Latitude E4200 Info

Well, let me amend my earlier statement that I think the controls are not OS dependent but they can be over-ridden by the OS. The new BIOSes can interact with the OS, assuming the OS is smart enough which obviously both Vista and Win7 are. Now about your other question, was ALS disabled or not, come to think of it, I have no way of knowing right (since I don't have ControlPoint installed)? I just toggle between the two and when I cannot control the brightness, I just assumed it is because ALS was enabled. To prove my theory, I completely covered the ALS sensor when I thought it was disabled (and also when I thought it wasn't), and nothing happened (but the brightness can still be changed after toggling).

In terms of my OS-agnostic theory, you can test it yourself. Immediately after the Dell screen you should be able to use the FN keys to lower or increase the brightness settings, at this point no CP driver has been loaded obviously. Anyway, if yours isn't working along with somoene else in this thread, and mine is, I don't think it has anything to do with bad hardware, it HAS to be a BIOS setting.

I think you may have the best review in this thread. Thank you!

Welcome back, dbp, you disappeared! Now I can see why! Glad Dell got it squared away for you. How long did they have your laptop? I am assuming you didn't have onsite warranty?

 

DBPaddler, which keyboard do you have? I have the backlit keyboard and it is totally solid, no bounciness. I really like it a lot and can really type very fast on it. Hehe, my son was peering over my shoulder this evening while I was writing my review and said, "Hey Daddy, I really like that sound." "What sound do you mean," I said. "When you're typing fast on your computer," he replied.

Interesting about your fan, I don't think my fan has ever been off! I don't consider it to be super quiet, but it doesn't seem to vary speed like some other machines do. It is interesting how cool this machine is (at least as perceived by me through the case), compared to the Portege which would get really warm and X1 (fanless) which you could fry an egg on. Using those two computers as laptops always made me want to turn on the A/C! The E4200 feels very cool, yet the fan always runs...

Thanks monakh, glad to be able to contribute!

The E4200 is hardly a perfect laptop but at the Dell Outlet prices (with coupon) I think it really is hard to beat in the ultraportable class.

 

I am tempting to buy a refurbished one too. Could someone provide the coupon? Old one seems no longer valid. Thanks.

 

So let me make sure I understand what you are saying:

(a) There is one ALS state where you have control of brightness via FN+up/dn arrow key. In the other ALS state, you don't have control.
(b) In the state where you HAVE control, ALS appears to be DISABLED since covering the sensor has no effect on brightness.

I had (a) also in some Windows 7 installations, but in those I did not have (b). Also, in those cases, installing DCP does not change the behavior, except that I get the on-screen display of ALS state and brightness setting. If I were to install the ALS software also, then I would lose all control of brightness (!).

In the latest attempt (RCx86), I could not change brightness at all in any state, and ALS had no effect.

Any OS appears to quickly interfere with the action of those FN+up/down/left keys. When you first turn on the unit, when you get the Dell splash screen and you are told to hit F12 etc., you can adjust the brightness with the FN+up/dn keys. However, once you are in the BIOS, you cannot adjust the brightness with those keys anymore. You could only adjust it by going into the Video section of the BIOS, make the adjustments, and then hit apply. Then the brightness changes.

Since there is an OS running when the laptop is in the BIOS setup, that shows that the brightness/ALS-state is controlled/overridden by the OS. Windows 7 simply does not understand how to control brightness/ALS.

There is another thread on this forum where an E4300 owner complains that in Windows 7 there is no control of LCD brightness. Interestingly, there is no such issue on the E6400 (which uses a different chipset).

 

I feel the same way about the keyboard, except I described it as having "flex" in the middle. The keys at the edge have less of a bouncing effect than the ones in the middle. I have the non-backlit keyboard, and my guess is that you have that, too.

Seems like people with the backlit keyboards feel that their keyboards are more solid.

 

What I am saying is that my FN+ key combos are working. There is other stuff that is wonky (BT, for example) but most everything else is working. Now for ALS states, it seems that when it is disabled, things work OK, when it is NOT, whatever the OS is doing (even if you include CP drivers), it isn't interacting with the hardware as it should. I hope further updates to CP will fix this. Surely, Dell will replicate this easily in their labs. To me, the current issue is a non-functional ALS, since I can still control the brightness. Why? I have no clue but it must be an option in the BIOS either of us have checked (or not).

Be that as it may, you can still mess with the brightness, until it is taken over by the OS. For me, I use the lowest level of brightness when on battery (I find the screen to be overly bright). This level is set up in the BIOS, along with the one notch up for the powered settings. When I installed Win7, it took these settings by default. Now, I can change these settings if I create a custom power plan, but I didn't do that since it isn't necessary.

Yeah, I saw that. Both laptops use the same chipset so it makes sense.

By the way, as I mentioned my BT is wonky, my very reliable MS BT mouse 5000 can be detected but simply refuses to work. Also, there was no exclamation mark in the Device Manager indicating that my 365 module even exists. Had I not known it was there already, I would have never had a clue as to its existence. The Widcomm drivers found the hardware and installed but I am not sure if it is working properly. Doesn't bother me much. Not enough to go back to Vista, anyway.

 

I have the same issues with Dell CP installed. Can only change brightness with ALS enabled. Uninstalling Dell CP seems to disable ALS.

 

You may also find that installing Dell's Ambient Light Sensor utility could totally screw things up so that you can no longer control backlight.

 

Win7 seems to work correctly with the Dell BT mouse on the E4200, but I have not used it long enough to see if it is stable. You may want to try one thing, though: manually turned off the wireless using the slider, and turning it back on again. Sometimes that restarts the BT service.

 

I was wondering if anybody could tell me how to turn system restore off with windows 7 on my machine? thanks,
Jane