E6400 overheating throttling

Well I do have the complete care warranty if that makes a difference... But anyways, what is your opinion on my laptop then... My return policy has 5 days left, however, I do like the laptop, and it did fine what I last described with all the flash video/itunes movie/google earth without any slowdown (plus a 30C room temp).... So it appears to be fine, other than the few event 7's i'm getting...

 

Well the decision is, of course yours.
Personally, despite it's only downside (aestetic issue, where the laptop pads are too thin to a level where that when you transport the laptop the screen frame rubs on the palm rest and labels and the pads can mark the screen frame. Which is easily fixed (not the pad marking thing) by adding a peace of plastic or something black and hard under the pads so that it doesn't squish down flat when pressure it applies on the system), I truly love this system.

Sure the speakers are weak, trackpad is mediocre, and it would be nice to have have a Geforce 9300M+9600M setup, but these downsides doesn't affect me.

Would I buy this laptop again, once mine is obsolete and doesn't fit my needs anymore (after 3-4 years), considering it's small aesthetic issue still be there? 100% Yes (if, of course the GPU and CPU gets upgraded to fit my needs by that time).

Quiet keyboard, backlit keyboard, easy access to the hardware, matte/anti-reflective screen, LED backlit screen, great wireless signal, metal hinges, ambient light sensors, powerful GPU (ok it's not gaming machine, but I find it powerful enough for my needs - I don't really play games on it, I have a gaming desktop for that -), runs Windows 7 perfectly, contains the latest technologies of today, descent sound card (I experience much worst), quiet mouse buttons and support 2 PSU (65 and 90W), awesome connectivity position and options. Oh and long battery life (at worst 5 hours (for what I do) with a 9-cell, 7 hours and half when typing notes). Are all upsides that I like very much and clearly compensate for it's downside. The closest system to the Latitude E series is, based on my research, the latest Mac Book Pro, where it wins for it's more powerful GPU and is on a 13inch size laptop, but looses for it's integrated battery, lack of service quality, no next business day on site service, T series Intel core 2 Duo instead of the P, keyboard tray can't be removes to small pills might be an issue, lack of ports connectivity, no second battery support, no dock support and glossy.... sorry I mean, mirror like screen.

 

Where are you talking about adding the plastic? Do you mean adding some plastic around the screen edge (on the inner side of the screen)? I haven't noticed a problem so far but I remember reading about this issue in the forums. Do you have a picture or something?

The only problem I'm having so far is that I occasionally get some external monitor flicker when running docked. I confirmed that when undocked with external monitor connected directly to laptop there is no flicker. So it might be something with the dock, I'm not sure. Dell wants me to run the diagnostic tests and see if I see the same flickering behavior so I'll be trying that tonight.

Goldeneye, I am not sure on the event id 7, I have yet to see one. I don't know if it's because my processor is faster or what, but it's weird that you are getting it.

 

I think i'll just take my chances. I've got the complete care warranty and since you guys aren't getting the throttling, maybe I have a bad motherboard? Anyways, I believe it only happens on startup. I was running flash video, google earth flight simulator, iTunes movie, mcafee virus scan, and windows defender virus scan in a 30C room and no throttling. Fan running full speed the whole time (~1.5 hours) and no throttling or Event 7. Seems to only happen at startup. So I think I should be fine.

 

Well before blaming motherboards... perhaps it's a driver conflict that can't be solved. I vote for OS re-install first. But if your system runs at 100%, I see no worries. And if you are getting Win7... then well wait for it

P.S: if you have a software that control the fans or overclock or you underclock something it could be it.

 

I downloaded speedfan breifly to check processor temps, but is now uninstalled and havent done anything with overclock or anything like that.(Also, someone on this forum told me speedfan couldn't control the fans in the latitude, so I don't think that would have anything to do with it, especially since I uninstalled it) I do plan to get Win7. Just out of curiousity, with the Dell upgrade program, will they send a full win7 disk or just an upgrade disk?
Also, I use Dell's power plan and have noticed I get the Event 7 when unplugged, I can't be 100% sure that I haven't had one while plugged in. But I have used the laptop on battery 90% of the time, so maybe it has something to do with dell's power plan?

 

I don't know.. but for Vista it was an upgrade disk that users got, so I assume the same for Win7.

 

Pictures:

Overview of the laptop... notice that my solution shows nothing. In fact, no Dell technician that came over, noticed it.


Close up of one of the pads (sorry for the dusty laptop):


What I put inside... it's a segment of a tie wrap... I put it, because it's was the correct size, hard enough, and was black.

NOTE: the wite disgusting stuff on the pad, put on reverse, is just the camera... in reality it's the glue, and it's transparent. It's not disgusting like the picture above. I have an very old digital camera.

Note2: If you do like I did, and for some reason some glue reaches the palm rest, I recommend to apply cooking oil where the glue is, wait 2-3 min and wipe it gently out with a smooth cloth... use soap to remove the rest of the oil. The oil will prevent the glue from leaving any marks

 

Thanks for posting the pictures. However, my laptop already has some rubber pads in those exact spots you are referring to, albeit rather small ones. Did yours not have these pads and you added some yourself? I'm wondering if this is something Dell introduced on the more recent e6400's, but maybe they didn't have them on the early models (I think you got yours last year some time, right)?

Anyway, the little pads that are already on mine seem to be ok, I'm not sure any additional home brew fix is required . Thoughts?

I won't be transporting my laptop very often anyway, it will be sitting on my desk 99% of the time with the lid open.

 

The laptop pads that I have are exactly like everyone else has.. I just added that peace of plastic UNDER the existent pas so that they dont' switch flat and provide no protection from having the screen frame all scratch.

The only pad that was added is one I cut myself and put inside the lock mechanism so that the the screen lid doesn't curve in.