E6420 Owner's Thread

$650-$675 with the verifiable warranty coverage.

Scott-

 

Thank you.

 

Any news with mSATA SSD for this laptop cause i got an Intel 310 80GB mSaTA ? Do i need to get a caddy if i want to install SSD? What caddy you recommends guy to get and from where? I am in europe.

 

I think there was a screen on the BIOS which let you select which wireless ports the switch controls. As far as the Intel wireless switch not working/disabling if you don't use the matched driver, that has been true for most consumer-grade laptops. Might be different for the Latitudes and other corporate/business-class ones, depending on how the switch is implemented (ie: if they have a hardware cutoff, have not actually checked on the Latitudes).

If the BIOS doesn't have support for that CPU, it might not work.

2720QM and 2760QM should work. I have an earlier run of the E6420 and it came with a 2720QM.

However, you'll want to look into possibly getting the dual-pipe heatsink that is used on the quad-core systems (earlier in this thread).

Batteries aren't going to be much good after 3 years anyway. Maybe it might make a difference on the 6-cell 1-year warranty batteries, but my 9-cell 3-year warranty battery has only 11% wear after about 20 months of use (light use, never really discharged completely since the thing lasts so damned long ).

310 won't work. Seems someone asked the question on the Dell support site and someone at Dell finally put this to rest:
Latitude E6420 and E6430 mSATA SSD compatibility and BIOS issue - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

I ended up buying a Samsung 830 512GB at B&H for about 450$USD. It's a LOT faster than the 500GB Samsung 7200rpm HDD that came with my E6420.

 

Updated BIOS A16.

Battery wear level 36.2%, started getting message about decrease in battery life. This is only after 8 months of use. Initiated online chat with Dell CSR named Elaine. Super helpful, she's sending me a replacement.

 

So I ended up with a few of these notebooks. I'm currently working on putting windows 8 on a normal one and an ATG model. I've gotten everything to work correctly. Going through the specific order of driver installations. Everything works great EXCEPT:

When I plug the HDMI into an external screen then I can no longer adjust the brightness. Both of these notebooks have the Optimus graphics, which makes me believe that the Nvidia drivers are to blame. Doing a quick google search I have found that some people have had better luck with an 'old' nvidia driver, but they don't specify which driver or have any download links. Anyone else had any issues like this and been able to fix it?

 

Ok, I figured out that if I switch the Optimus Graphics off in the BIOS then I can get both screens to work correctly. But now I cannot get any sound via the HDMI. When I go to the Playback Devices screen then it says 'Not Plugged In' on all of the HDMI and Digital Sound output options. The speakers on the notebook still work.

 

I know it may not be kosher to answer one's own post but someone with the same question may find it and want an answer.\

I got the PRT03X Port Replicator (the new one with USB 3.0 compatible ports).
It is working fine with the E6420 and U3011.
One change in the PRT03X is that instead of having two Display Ports etc. it has only one. This is because it supports the later revision where monitors can be daisy-chained. I believe the U3011 cannot be daisy-chained... so if you were getting this port replicator to use two U3011 monitors at full resolution you are making a mistake. As a home user who only intends to use it with a single monitor, then it is the ideal solution for me because it is also more compact.

I am under no illusions about the USB3.0. I don't think that will work at this speed with the E6420 but it makes me a bit more future proof for my next work laptop.

 

Hi guys,

I'm trying to find the document containing the parts list from E6420, but on Dell's website I can only find the Owner’s manual, and it doesn’t detail the part numbers. In particular, I want to know the screw sizing for this particular model, since I want to replace all the screws (they look old on my laptop).

Does anybody know where to find this document?

Thanks.

 

Trying to figure out the latest Bluetooth drivers for the E6420 - it is very confusing.

Windows Update has started to offer me
Broadcom Corporation - Bluetooth Controller - Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
Published: 10/9/2013

But Dell update via Service Tag is not offering me anything new since
8/29/2012 5.6.0.7800, A07
whilst Device Manager says I am actually running
7/27/2011 6.5.0.1613 (Confusing - earlier date, later version)
And Dell Client System Update (which is how I probably have been updating it) says I have version
6.3.0.8800
While searching the Dell site the latest I can find is the one called
Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module. 6.3. A07
at
Driver Details | Dell US

Just wondered whether to try the Windows Update one, or perhaps try the apparently latest Dell site one.
On the other hand this thread
Dell Wireless and Bluetooth Drivers - Windows 7/8 - Networking, Internet, Wireless Forum - Networking, Internet, Wireless - Dell Community
also suggests as a alternative, going to the Broadcom site:
Bluetooth Software Download | Broadcom

(Some of my Bluetooth mice suffer dreadful intermittent lag with this machine and I am hoping an update might improve that)