E6410 Owner's Thread

Is your keyboard backlit? The consensus among the E6400 owners was that the backlit keyboard has less flex and better typing action. I believe the E6410 uses the same keyboard.

John

 

Yes, it is backlit.

 

I am now the proud owner of an E6410 and have a couple of novice questions to ask. The frustrating thing about Dell business class is that there is NO documentation on the system to answer stupid questions!

1. How/when are the "OEM" and "Recovery" partitions on the HDD utilized? Are they part of the Dell Backup and Recovery system and did I inadvertently order an option that I didn't want/need? Is anybody actually using the Dell Backup system, or do you use Windows 7 backup or another OEM utility? If you can point to another thread or Dell document with an explanation of this, I'd really appreciate it.

2. Okay, so this isn't a question, it's a gripe. This new touchpad is really bothering me....not the way it works, but the surface material. My old D620 had a touchpad with a slippery "teflon-like" surface, and this new trackpad is not slippery at all. My apparently sweaty fingers don't slide properly on the matte surface. Is there any solution to this (something you can apply to the surface???) or am I doomed to having sore fingers until the callouses build up.. I have the sensitivity set to light touch, but it's not helping.

Otherwise, I'm very happy with the unit so far. I purchased the i5-520M 2.4GHz with the Intel HD Graphics card, and am not having any problems with heat - it's running much cooler than my D620 (And, yes GoodBytes, in case you remember me from a month or so ago, I caved in and got it with Win 7 installed instead of chickening out for the XP downgrade...although I did dumb it down to the 32-bit Win 7.).

Thanks,
Jayne

 

I think your fingers will smooth out the touchpad surface. My E6400's touchpad is almost shiny in the middle while still having a matte surface around the edges.

Thanks for the feedback about the heat, or lack thereof.

John

 

I received my Dell Latitude E6410 (Intel i7 + nvdia gpu) a few days ago and so far I love it! This is my first Dell laptop. In the past ten years I only owned Toshiba Tecras (8100, M1, M3, and M5) and they are great laptops. I was disappointed by the new Tecra M11, so I decided to try something new. I don't regret it so far.

Before buying my E6410, I pretty much read all posts on this threads and I was also concerned by heat issues. On my side, I don't see any heat issues (I can use it on my lap). In comparison to my old Tecra M5, the E6410 runs cool and the fan almost never run at full speed. The laptop makes very little noise. The keyboard doesn’t fell as strong as my Toshiba Tecra (but it has no flex). In addition, the UltraSharp screen is very clear and bright (almost look as good as MacBook Pro screen).

Here is what I don't like: my fingerprints on the keyboard. After a few days, the keyboard on the E6410 looks as terrible as my 4.5 year old Tecra. The keys are easily marked by fingerprint (no worries - I don't sweet or eat while typing). Right now, this is the only annoying thing... By the way, anybody else has the same issue?

For the price, I would recommend the E6410. For the same configuration, the Toshiba Tecra M11 or HP EliteBook would have cost $300-$500 more.

 

I just got my E6410 after having used a D630 for 3 years and I have the exact same challenges. With regards to the partition, please let me know if you figure out how to erase it easily. I posted the question on this thread (a few pages back) and there were some very helpful answers. That being said, I am not an advanced user and I am honestly worried to screw it up so I have tried it yet. Someone posted a link to a free program that I downloaded but I haven't given it a shot.

As for the touchpad, there was a driver update issued by Dell just a few days ago and I can't explain it but it's now responding much more like my old touchpad. I agree that the surface is not as good as the D630 but thanks to the new driver at least it feels more like the old one in terms of responsiveness. Hopefully it will "break-in" as suggested in a recent reply to your question.

Please keep us posted re. the partition. It's the last thing I need to do in my migration and I have been procrastinating in hopes of finding a proven and easy solution. I have heard that you might be able to run the Win 7 install disk but I haven't tried that either, as I just don't want to screw anything up!

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

So far absolutely no one else has confirmed my problems with the heat on the bottom with lap use.

I'm going to see if dell will replace it, because apparently mine is defective. If not, I'm returning for refund.

 

I don't have a IR themometer but my 520M + NVIDIA gets uncomfortably hot for lap use to me. I can definately feel your pain since I feel the same way about this being a perfect laptop except the heat it generates.

 

New Intel Core i's model might come out for this laptop (it's there for the Inspiron series)
Intel's quad-core i7-740QM and i7-840QM show up on Dell laptop menu -- Engadget

 

Hey, yeah if you go through the configurator quickly, you'll miss the area where they ask if you want documentation. No worries though, as all of that is available at support.dell.com.

Now, for your first question, the recovery partition allows you to restore your computer to the way it was when you took it out of the box (junk software trials and all-although this shouldn't be the case on a Latitude) w/out a CD/DVD. You can recover from it either via the Dell Datasafe 2.0 application or Advanced Boot Options. (press F8 when the computer starts)

In the past, it was accepted to just delete the partition since Dell provided a full Windows DVD along with a Drivers disk. As of May 2010 however, this is no longer the case (an option remains on the online configurator to request these DVD's for a small charge) and it's now important for you to burn off Recovery Partition image DVD's as soon as you get your computer.

Creating Your System Recovery Discs with Dell DataSafe Local Backup 2.0 | Dell

Once you do this, you can do whatever you wish with the recovery partition.

The OEM partition is most likely the Dell Diagnostics partition, which you shouldn't be able to see when you click on Start then Computer. You can use this to check your system for any potential hardware problems, and Dell tech support may ask you to run it for confirmation during a support incident. Again, while you used to get a CD containing this software, this is no longer the case and you might want to keep this on the drive as there's no way to burn it off (but you can grab the .exe file off of Dell.com) onto a disk. The partition's size should be minuscule.

As for backing up the machine, I haven't used Dell DataSafe as my computer was released before it came out. However, Windows 7's backup program is very good, I have it set to back up my computer to an external drive every Sunday evening without an issue yet.

As for the touchpad, I'm still on a D630 so I'm not sure about this. I do know that the more you use the touchpad, oils build up/the touchpad surface wears and make it easier to move around.

Have fun with your E6410.