E6410 Owner's Thread

Perhaps some bad parts. No audio jack noise or latency skip here on E6410 running DCP System Manager only.

GK

 

no this wasnt any skipping. I had my headphones (MEElectronics A151 and Sennheiser HD 428) and the system was muted while in windows, and the noise was embarrassingly obnoxious even then. I also made sure I had the audio drivers up-to-date and still exhibited the issue. Furthermore, after disabling the audio device at the driver level, the noise persisted.

Oddly, the noise coincided with the processor stepping down into its low(er) power states (intel speedstep states). Oddly, the hum that comes from the underside of the notebook was very much similar to the noise coming through the headphones. My new E6420 has the same hum from the underside, but there isnt the annoying noise coming through the headphone jack any longer.

I am very much willing to hear about other cases like this. If you have amplified headphones, or headphones that create a tight seal at the mouth of your ear canal, please test your E6410 out and let me know!

 

AHHH... that is simple...
The problem you hear is called interference. This affects ALL onBoard sound cards. Weather it's on a laptop or desktop. You can hear it, because you use very good headphones and/or speaker system.The ONLY fix is a nice dedicated sound card (~100$ US/Canadian is a good place to start in getting a product with noticeable difference for desktop PC's (assuming you have descent speakers and well encoded music files). I have the same problem with all my computers on board sound card. Muting AND lowering the volume on all input sources that you don't use sometimes helps. But there is no cure, other than a dedicated sound card.

For the best sound quality, a dedicated sound card with a EMI shield on it, to even block external interferences, and get a nice, clean, rich, lively, music, with no interference or static.

My recommendation for such card:
The ASUS Xonar Essence STX

Spoiler

On a budget, but still very good, all with the rich sound, clean, static free, low to non interference and excellent mid range (mid range is something the onBoard sound card has great difficulty with.. this is about the range of vocals, and that is why onBoard sounds is always flat and boring).

ASUS Xonar DX

Spoiler

Note: The above are not studio range sound card. They are for home purposes, for those who enjoy music.
Note2: The above sound card requires a PCI-E slot free in your desktop computer with an extra power connector to provide it the added power it needs to operate.

I know this is really desktop side as the above, will obviously not fit on the laptop, but I am just saying this for self knowledge.
To add, to get a good sound quality, the trick is simple, everything needs to be super high quality from point A to Z (your ears, including them).

If you have badly compressed MP3's... then no you won't enjoy or notice anything. When you start with 320kpbs in 16-bit (or 24-bit preferably, but some MP3 players might not play it), 44 000 Hz (48 000Hz preferred), now you have a good start to hear superb rich sound.

You also need descent speakers. Usually above 100-150$ STEREO speakers for computers, you are in business (it's no super amazing seizure making sound due it's awesomeness, but it's really good enough to hear a noticeable difference). Obviously, usually the more expensive the speaker system, the better it is.

And of course, good ears. If you have hearing problem.. than well, you get the picture.

For those who are interested in getting such equipment, it's definitely worth it. Why? Because unlike CPU's, graphic cards, memory.. and all that, you don't need more "performance". The only reason why you would upgrade the card, and not transfer it to the newer computer later on, is that it somehow broke, or that you seek for even better sound quality, or the manufacture stop supporting the latest version of Windows that came out, because the card is very old).

If you play games a lot on the computer, or enjoy listening a lot of music. Getting a dedicated sound card, is a must for you. Also, the more of this higher sound quality you hear, the more you start enjoying them, and the more you notice the difference between what you had before (on Board) and good sound card, with it's own sound processing unit (SPU), and not use the CPU to do the work (CPU isn't good at this). The ears will develop over time, you start appreciating more the music.

Usually the best stress test in sound quality is listening to Classical and Jazz (not smooth Jazz, or experimental Jazz... I mean REAL Jazz), where you have a lot of deep bass, treble and a lot of mid range, due to the instruments used, and start feeling the vibrations produces by the bass that comes out form certain instruments, and make you feel you are there. Doesn't mean you don't listen to those kind of music that you won't get anything form them, it's just the ultimate test where you can hear the limitation of your sound system.

Laptops, will never have a dedicated sound card built-in, because it cost money, the laptop speakers are never good to be able to enjoy the card, unless you have speakers.. most people use inexpensive, low end headphones or earphones, because they don't know better. In addition, it's another processor to power, so that means lower battery life.

I hope this was informative to all.

 

I've been using this card to upgrade onboard desktop sound. Can be had pretty cheap and sounds good enough.

GK

 

This is just an onboard sound card put on PCI card with perhaps a filter system... I don't recommend these low end cards... save your money by not getting it. It's not awful of course, and it does solves the interference problem (or mostly). Oh cash out the small difference and get a significantly better card.

 

Hi, would like to add WWAN card to my E6410,I'm from Europe,what cards to you suggest.

 

I use the Dell Wireless 5540 with mine in Norway, as far as I know it will work in pretty much every European country, as well as certain US networks.

It supports GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA+ (7.2 mbps) as well as some other technologies I'm not sure if we currently use. It also has a GPS radio which is kind of neat.

I bought mine for around $100 on eBay, you can probably buy it directly from Dell as well.

You should check that you have the antennas installed before ordering, just open the service panel and look for the two cables near the WWAN slot.

 

This gave me an idea, AFAIK the so called e-gpu solution use a basic expresscard->PCI-e bridge. Those solutions would probably work for PCI-e sound cards as well!

Though my recommendation would be a firewire or USB DAC preferably with a separate power supply and proper amplifier for headsets (at least +-10V output swing even for low impedance) and speakers.

 

All that effort and now they come out with this...

Samsung Spinpoint M8 puts 1TB drives on a diet, just in time for bathing suit season -- Engadget

*sigh

 

Thanks, but could i use 5530-its much cheaper?
My e6410 is wwan ready, but thanks for pointing out