E6410 Owner's Thread

Wrong. I dont mean to knock your post, but I currently have several other notebooks surrounding my office, notably a Dell XPS M1210, Latitude D630/D830, Latitude 13, now two Latitude E6420's ALL of which have no extraneous noise coming from the headphone jack at all. There is some sound signature inherent to all of them when I have headphones plugged in, but its just placeholder noise, aka "white" noise.

The E6410's that I tested all had something significantly "more" than white noise... to the point that listening to any kind of media was not worth it due to this awful noise. If this noise existed across all the laptops I have available and have used in the past, it would obviously be a non-issue. Since I cannot find the problem in any other notebook, I maintain the argument that the E6410 (at least) has an electronic anolomy, either by a design flaw or manufacturing defect. While replacement audio devices (USB or ExpressCard, etc..) may remedy the issue, they do not fix the inherent problem and Dell needs to get to the bottom of it if you ask me...

 

Dedicated sound cards? Thanks for the 1980s and 90s memories. Still, the desktop computer seems to be head towards extinction, and right now is relegated to various niches of the PC market. Desktops still matter to gamers, a handful of high-end workstation users, and retailers, since they're used a cash registers these days. Yes, cash registers. I'm finding it harder and harder to justify the bulk and lack of portability of an ATX mid tower case.

I personally wouldn't suggest buying an expensive dedicated sound-card to any consumer desktop user. It's a waste of money and time.

 

Cheap, PCI, sounds great, fixes onboard audio... perfect upgrade for a P4 Win7 system. Don't be a low-end audio snob!

GK

 

I have not tried the 5530, you should check to make sure it supports the same frequency bands, AFAIK Americans often use the same technologies at different frequencies (800/950, 1800/1900)

 

If I just need GPS, then can I get just any card?

Is the GPS on some cards better than others?

 

Depends. The whole root of the problem is that the power source is shared by a lot of electrically noisy devices. On lower volumes, you usually won't hear it (much).

If someone is really picky about it, they would probably want to use digital outputs if possible (ie: optical, SPDIF, HDMI audio if going to a TV, etc).

 

EMI can be an audio issue, but it has not been a problem with the cheap desktop audio card I was discussing... which does have S/PDIF and can be used in HTPC applications.

GK

 

Don't know if one is better, but it'd be silly to get a card that wouldn't work with your countrys networks, you might need the WWAN in the future.

 

Does anyone recommend a good WLAN card upgrade from the Dell 1520 on my E6410? It repeatedly gets poor reception and I've been thinking about getting a Centrino card. My budget is <$20, and I don't really need wireless-N since my current router is still a G.

If I could somehow extend the antenna cables, I've been thinking about sticking a full height 4965AGN in the WWAN slot since they're fairly cheap, use 3 antennas, and are quite decent cards according to my friend. However I can't find any u.fl extension cables and the only way to get the antenna cables to reach the full height WWAN-marked PCI-E slot would be to remove the optical drive and run the antenna cables through the bay (not ideal). The 5100 looks like another option and it's half-height, but I don't know how good it is. The 6200 (again half height) is another option. Any thoughts?

 

I own an Intel 5100 AGN in my Latitude 13, and it is a good WLAN card. Stable connections, fast speeds and they are pretty cheap. You can also consider the Intel 5300 AGN.