E6420 Owner's Thread

OK, checks'n the mail
My last suggestion would be to remove the memory, remove the system battery, and unplug the CMOS battery from the motherboard... Then, with no power source connected, press the power button for 10-15 seconds to drain any residual voltage. Now, go to bed. After you wake up, plug the batteries and memory back in and if that doesn't fix it, then in my opinion you have a motherboard issue since it seems you have confirmed the memory modules themselves are OK. I have used G.Skill in all my E6410, E6320, E6420, E6520, XPS17, and M6600 with no issues so I doubt you have bad memory - although you could always try another brand before seeking a motherboard replacement.

Scott-

 

I just tried 8GB+4GB and both the BIOS and Windows show 12GB installed. Windows shows again, 6.92GB available. It must be a setting somewhere. If the BIOS AND Windows recognize the correct capacity, what could prevent windows from using it?

 

The 'extra' memory (difference between what Windows claims as 'usable' and total 'installed' shows up in the Resource Manager under 'Hardware Reserved'.

What the heck is that all about? And how do I 'unreserve' it?

 

FIXED IT:

msconfig>Boot>Advanced options>Maximum Memory was checked and set on 0. I now show 16GB & 15.9 Available. 119MB is on Hardware Reserve.

Yay!

Should I disable the pagefile?

I went from 8GB of Kingston Hyper X 1866 (CAS 11) memory to 16GB of G. Skill 1333 Memory (CAS 9). Thoughts?

 

OK, GREAT.
I did some research this morning and found the Microsoft doc that covers this. You did the right thing.

The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

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Check the system configuration settings

This problem may occur because the Maximum memory option is selected incorrectly.
To fix this, follow these steps:
1.Click Start, type msconfig in the Search programs and files box, and then click msconfig in the Programs list.
2.In the System Configuration window, click Advanced options on the Boot tab.
3.Click to clear the Maximum memory check box, and then click OK.
4.Restart the computer.

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I would just leave the PF settings alone and let Windows decide how much to allocate.

Scott-

 

I'm using a SSD and I always felt I should leave PF off so the SSD isn't doing all that temp writing...maybe I'm wrong. Also, would you have made that switch. It looks like the WEI went down .2 on the memory, but I've gotten low memory warnings before, so I think the move to 16GB was a good one.

I love this notebook, just wish it was smaller.

 

Excellent - thanks Scott - just what I needed and thanks for the tip regarding the cable.

 

Windows 7/8 is smart enough to know a SSD is being used and the TRIM functions along with the SSD's internal controller firmware spread any data wear over the entire NAND memory table so in reality, overall real-world data cell wear is the same or less than most traditional mechanical HDD's. In other words, today's SSD's will last just as long as a many consumer HDD's.

7.7 vs 7.9 on the WEI is essentially no difference so I would disregard it.

Scott-

 

Hello everyone. I installed Oblivion on my laptop, and it runs pretty good. I wouldn't say that it runs exceptionally though. But, good enough for me to enjoy it. But while playing the fan is going crazy and I am kind of scared that I'll wear out my laptop and cause damage with it running what seems to be really hot. Is running a game like Oblivion a bad idea when it comes to wearing out the machine?

I don't know what temperature it's running at because I can't see the temp while it's full screen, and I don't know of a good free utility to monitor the temperatures. I primarily use Linux on this machine and I know how to check the temperature there but by the time I reboot it's already cooling down.

Also, it idles at 130F (is that normal)?

 

I did some more research of my own on the above post. I've read about the TYP01 heatsink that I believe is made for quad cores. I have a dual core i7. Can I use the TYP01 on my system, to maybe benefit from better cooling, or is TYP01 only for quad core chips?

I found the part here: TYP01 | Dell Latitude E6420 CPU FAN and Fan/Heatsink

I also read a bit about copper shims. I've never done that before. How worthwhile is it, and is it difficult to do? Could I damage it if done incorrectly?