E4310 Owner's Lounge

For Dell ControlPoint...

If you have a fingerprint reader or are planning on using smartcards, you'll need ControlPoint Security Manager. If you want the GUI for volume adjustment, backlit keyboard, LCD brightness, etc., you'll need ControlPoint System Manager. The ControlPoint Connection Manager is pretty much bloatware.

 

RIght now I have the following four devices without drivers:

SM Bus Controller
PCI data and signal processing controller
broadcom USH
an unknown device

Does any of you know the appropriate drivers for these under Vista 32bits for E4310?

I am tempted to install Dell Support Center: Dell Support Center | Dell to keep track of all drivers and whatnot. But really want to do without it.

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The SM Bus Controller is the free-fall sensor if I remember correctly.

The Broadcom USH is for security, you'll need the security driver pack to get a driver for it, which is unnecessary unless you plan to use biometrics or smartcards.

Also, try checking Windows Update for drivers. I don't know about the other two.

 

My E6410 needed the Intel AMT-HECI driver to fix a couple of unknown devices.

John

 

I'm not familiar with the E6410 and mildly curious which devices those were; if anyone knows.

AFAIK, it is not installed on my custom-configured M4500's and they have no undiscovered devices. Of course, they are a different architecture.

I can see the benefit of AMT for computers managed by organizations or enterprises, but not for owner-managed laptops. I also don't like the idea of remote control software active on the system.

 

Are you running the newest Bios? I have never had the heat issues you are seeing, but I also don't run many stressful apps.

Having the machine on, plugged in, and in High Performance power mode, I see temps between 47C/116F and 50C/122F after a couple of hours of normal use.

Done testing. Used Prime95 for heat generation, CPUID Hardware Monitor for temps, and Throttlestop to check clocks and modulation.

Idle temp is 50C worst case, so I am starting there.

Running Prime95, the CPU went to 100% and the CPU speed went to 2.66ghz. Stock speed on the i5-540M is 2.53ghz. I have not done anything to overclock it, it just seems to be staying in turbo mode. Looking at clock modulation, it stayed at 100%. There was no throttling at all during the tests.

Starting at 50C, the CPU hit 70C immediately, 80C in 40 seconds then 90C after a total of 105 seconds. The temp then fluctuated between 87C and 90C over the next half hour of testing. The CPU stayed at 2.66ghz and 100% the entire time.

The fan stayed on high, but the noise was much lower than the E6400/E6500. Its more of a low frequency whoosh than normal laptop fan noise. Other people might be able to describe it better.

The top of the computer was mildy warm. Not hot at all. The right side top was slightly cooler. The bottom was very warm near the fan, but you could easily still hold your hand on it.

Turning off Prime95, the temp went from 90C to 70C immediately, then to 60C by 12 seconds, then to 50C in a total of 40 seconds.

No throttling at all, staying at 2.66, and cooling off fast once the load was removed - some good news.

 

The control point software seems to not slow the machine down that much with one glaring exception - the security suite.

I realize that its mean to be a managed environment for enterprise users, but for normal people it just slows everything down. The only upside is the fingerprint reader sign-on.

Not sure if there is a way to use the fingerprint reader without installing the whole suite.

 

Agree on overall quality. Lenovo does very well on this. For me there was no Lenovo that I preferred to use. X201 had too small of a keyboard and a much smaller trackpad. T410 is nice, but larger. Thinkpad Edge 13 should be a similar form factor, but has slower processors and less battery life.

On the drive, did you install it at AHCI and then enable caching in device manager? Did you install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers and software?

 

I believe you mean the Intel AMT-HECI driver. In that case, no, I haven't. I am very conservative when it comes to installing new software, I wish Windows Update was able to find all the drivers for me. Having said all that, let me give it a try.

 

The Intel AMT-HECI driver should be the unknown device. I've never seen the PCI DSP controller before, and the other three were on an E6410 I prepped. You are using Vista though (not sure why you would impose that on yourself when Windows 7 is available...), so maybe Windows 7 has a driver built-in for the DSP device.