E4310 Owner's Lounge

I ordered a E4310 without the webcam. I wonder how easy or difficult it is to install one? I am pretty handy with laptop ardware but have never tried working on dell before.

Also, what are the part numbers needed to do so? Thanks.

 

Guidance on disassembly of the E4310 is here. However, I can't see the camera. Perhaps it is part of the microphone board. However, first wait to see if there is no camera on your E4310.

John

 

The camera is part of the microphone board on the E4300, and that part is available for the E4300 available on Ebay, but I don't know if it's the same as the E4310. You'll also need a LCD bezel with the webcam window/hole as well (unless you plan on using a drill to make one yourself).

However, the main problem with this is that parts for these new laptops are hard to find, and Dell's prices probably will not make it worth it.

 

Can anyone comment on the battery life of the E4310 with either 3-cell or 6-cell batteries? I'm mostly interested in battery life with around 70% screen brightness and WiFi on, just surfing the web. No heavy flash or HD videos. And please list the system specs.

 

With the 6 cell, Windows 7 in balanced or power saver mode, and a decently tweaked os (blackviper.com), you should get at least 4 hours even with a lot of flash. 5 or 6+ is likely.

I watched football from 3pm to 10pm Saturday with the E4310 on battery power. I did not use it every single minute, so it did dim and turn off the display often and went to sleep twice. Display brightness ranged from 100% during the day with sun shining in the windows to maybe 50% at night. I still had 20% battery at the end of 7 hours where I used it off and on to look up stats, chat on IM, and check email. Running W7 64 Enterprise. W7 Power setting was set to balanced. Wi-Fi and Video set to power saving mode.

Specs - i5-540M, 4gb 1033mhz ram, 500gb 7200rpm hdd, all other options including the Intel 6250 wireless, lighted keyboard, webcam, etc.

Is that the kind of info your looking for?

 

Thanks for the info, pretty much what I was looking for. I'm just waiting for mine to arrive now. Theoretically I should get a little more battery life since mine will have a 5400rpm HDD (temporary) and supposedly no backlit keyboard or webcam. I'll report back with some first impressions later on.

 

Ouch! I got a quote from Dell for the dvd burner for this laptop... and it's $125!

8X DVD+/-RW for Latitude E4310, Customer Install (313-9811) ..... $125.00

 

Check Ebay as well, the E4300 DVD burner should work and only be around $50.

 

If you got one of the smaller 5400rpm drives like the 160gb that mine came with, it will slow down the boot times of the system and loading of programs. I played around with the Seagate 500gb 7200rpm and an Intel 80gb SSD and each was a nice step up. In January when SSD prices fall, I will get one for the E4310.

 

Yeah, I'm waiting for the next gen Intel SSD's. Supposedly they'll come close to $1 per GB if the pricing scheme stays the same. At that price, I wouldn't mind getting a 120GB or 160GB SSD as long as they're competitive in benchmarks.