E6420 Owner's Thread

2. A Dell chat rep couldn't tell me the exact models they use, only their codenames, but they appear to use Samsung 470 and Plextor PX-256M2S for their "Dell Mobility Solid State Drive". They apparently use both, and it's a lottery as to which you get. Their upgrade cost is way overpriced, and you're better off installing your own SSD.

 

I've had a weird issue popup a couple of times. I have The E6420 in a dock with 2 external LCD's.

Sometimes when I am logging back into the laptop with an external keyboard, the keys that are equivalent to numlock on the laptop keyboard U,I,O,P, J, K, L, etc will make the FN keys popup.

So when I am typing in my username it thinks I am hitting FN - F8 to change how I want to output screens. To resolve this I have to open up the laptop and press the FN button a few times. I can then close the laptop and log in successfully.

 

Thanks, that's what I thought.

Can somebody measure temperatures at the ventilation holes? Preferably when just browsing and then when compiling a big project or something similar.

I'm strongly considering getting E6420, but I need it to be enough cool for comfortable use on a lap. I also hope it's enough quiet for a library; doesn't have to be silent, just not disturbingly loud.
More importantly, I need it to be enough small for a backpack and enough light. I've read somewhere, that it's only 4.56lbs/2.07kg, which I think is below average weight of 14-inchers. What is the actual weight with the 6-cell battery?

My current laptop (17" MBP 2,1 - late 2006 model) has all of the issues above, so I really want to be sure I'm ending all of these frustrations with my next laptop.

I'm also thinking about Lenovo's T420, but I've read that it has a poor display. I'm going to be doing image-editing quite frequently. How's E6420's display quality?


Also, seems like Optimus issues with Linux are fixed: [ubuntu] Graphics issues with NVIDIA NVS 4200m - Ubuntu Forums
If I understood correctly, you can now disable Optimus and use only nVidia's card. Sorry if it's old news.

 

The latter arrived quickly. Quality (unsurprising for $20) is poor - just plastic latches to hold the drive in, no screw holes. No latch to keep it in the bay, but fits snugly - absent an extract button on the bottom (as in the Lenovos) requires a fingernail or key to remove.

Very variable - we've had other models get different manufacturers of memory cells in the same batch. Mine got Hynix. It's all Dell-branded, as far as the so-dimms go, and on the E6420 it will always be DDR3 1333.

The fan is pretty quiet compared to the E6500.

With the quad-core i7, it gets pretty hot under heavy load - not as hot as the 2.93ghz E6500s we had at work, but hotter than my girlfriend's E6410 (prior generation i5) or my old D630 under heavy load.

I would expect the dual-core i7 to be cooler under heavy load and to see little temperature/fan use difference between the i5-2500-series and the dual core i7-2620m

Very slightly (and the E6400/E6410 already slightly less so than the D620/D630, despite the weight reduction they feel bulkier), but still more portable than any but the slimmest 15" models. MUCH more so than the E6500, and quite a bit more so than the D830 or the Lenovo T520.

Photoshop CS4 (and newer) supports some GPU-accelerated filters. Those will be faster with NVidia than without. I don't know to what degree After Effects (in new enough versions) will use GPU acceleration, although some CUDA accelerated video apps can speed up a lot. On the other hand the NVS 4200M is a relatively low-end GPU with only 48 CUDA units ("cores") so you will not see that big of an advantage.

For video work, you will see a very big advantage from the quad core (i7-2720QM) over the dual and I highly recommend it. Nearly twice as fast for video encoding/post-processing as the fastest dual (i7-2620M) - and will come with the Nvidia chip whether you want it or not.

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Lastly, I've managed to get the Intel graphics chip to work under X, using part of these instructions:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1402584&postcount=45

You need to boot up with the intel DRM module (i915.ko or something like that) loaded and have kernel modesetting enabled; this caused instant video corruption (pre-X) when I tried before. The trick from that page that worked was this part:

(confirm that this is the nvidia chip via lspci and substitute the bus address shown in lspci if it is not. I also did:

to disable the Nvidia sound card, but I'm not sure if that's necessary.
)

I ran those commands via an incoming SSH (because there was no usable video at the console), and after a couple of moments the X login screen appeared. It was flickery, but usable.

I can't recommend using this in production, but I hope it proves helpful for those trying to use Linux and who don't want to just turn Optimus off and use the Nvidia card full time.

(Lastly, I do not have the Nouveau [open source] driver for Nvidia installed; it sounds like if you have that one, you'll need to disable it - which can be done a bunch of ways: via a blacklist file, uninstalling the RPM, or just deleting the nouveau directory from /lib/modules/[your kernel version/.. )

 

It is fine for me under general use - cooler under light use than my D630; it is not fine (IMO, and noting that I have the quad) doing heavy CPU-intensive stuff or non-casual gaming (Civ 5, in particular!)

Should be fine. It is pretty quiet even when the fan is going full out.

I got 5lb 7oz (just under 2.5kg) with the 6-cell and DVD-RW for mine.

We haven't gotten any T420 or T420s at my work yet, but I'm pretty pleased with the full-HD (1920x1080) option on the T520/W520 and the screen on the T410s is pretty good. If getting the non-s T420, by the specs you definitely want the upgraded 1600x900... base nits on the 1366x788 are very dim!

I would recommend the same resolution upgrade on any E6420. I'm quite pleased with the screen although I don't do anything very sensitive to color quality.

Old news, but no harm done, and definitely better than no way to run at all (although I am surprised to see them say you need 270.41; I am pretty sure I had it working with 265.something and 270.18 on mine before the Gentoo tree got the 270.41 update in the past few days.)

Still no good way to do intel-only although people have gotten some workarounds (as I posted about a moment ago.)

 

Got my replacement E6420 this week and put it off until last night to do anything with it. My first one had the issue with the bottom cover not sitting well so they sent me another laptop. This new machine after removing the bottom cover to put in memory doesn't sit what I would think is perfect.....but it's not horrible. The laptop is at least flat on a surface (first one wobbled with one foot higher than the others!) but if I squeeze at the corners of the base and the cover there is give on both left and right sides. It's not snapping in/out of place, just has enough play to notice it. Anyone else have that?

The other thing I noticed is the bezel on the LCD has the same sort of play in the bottom left and right hand corners. If I push in on either the right or left corner the bezel pushes in. Both the cover and the bezel are like <1mm of play....but enough to notice that it is not firm and solid.

If that was not enough, the base of the silver case that appears to be metal has a couple issues. There are nicks and dings on both sides. Couple by the 3 USB ports and a nice ding by the VGA port. Not only that the cut/press of the bottom silver case is uneven. It looks like someone tried to pry up the keyboard bezel. I'll have to post some pics of that later.

Things is I really like this machine. It's fast, runs cool and I was able to install Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 from a USB drive to a Crucial C300 in <12 minutes. Plus the 1600x900 screen is just sooooo nice. The guys in the office are jealous.

 

A question and some infos for the linux users:

Let's start with the question: With optimus disabled (i.e., using the nvidia card) does the keys to change lcd backlight works for you? In my case, they work while in a text console but the nvidia proprietary drivers apparently ignore them. To change screen luminosity I have to switch in a console and go back. Is this the same for you? Which distribution/version of drivers/kernel are you using?

Now the infos. First of all mr_handy's solution (see post 265 above) seems to work. It disables the nvidia card. I am investigating if this reduces power consumption. I hope so and will report my findings here soon.

I also tested the 2.6.39-rc3 kernel. The intel driver works better. It does not corrupt the console anymore so you can compile intel drm with kernel modesetting and see the eight penguins shine in the framebuffer console. Then I have some stability issues in X but this is before switching off the nvidia card using the instructions above. I will test if this not only reduces power consumption but also fixes these issues. BTW, which version of Xserver and intel driver are you using?

Last but not least, the touchpad does not work as a multitouch device, yet, but with this patch: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/350841/ (which is already integrated in ubuntu, I think) you get the scrolling features, at least.

That's all, I will continue my setup and report here if I find anything relevant (BTW, the quad core is sooooo fast

 

Any chance you could do some side-by-side comparisons shots of the screens on the T520/W520 and the E6420?

 

It is listed in the Outlet --but I haven't seen a single one for sale. Every time I've clicked it, there have been no E6420 systems in stock.

After looking at Outlet E6410 systems, Outlet ThinkPad T410 systems, and new systems, I went with a ThinkPad T420. We're mostly a Dell house at work and you can't beat their sales, service, or their logistics --but the ThinkPad T420 is at the very least the equal of the E6420 in design and engineering, and I've had good luck with my ThinkPads (though due to better support, I order Dell Outlet Business machines for colleagues and friends).

Side note: I don't know if this is an issue on the E6410/E6510 (we have several at work, I haven't observed this), but on the Outlet E6500 I purchased for a friend, even with the screwed-together design, the palmrest started warping upwards at the front corners, away from the bottom cover. I found that the screws are far away enough from the edges that it is easier for this to happen; if the E6400 design had the screws out closer to the corners, they would anchor the two parts together more securely, and probably prevent this.

I replaced the palmrest with a brand new part; it didn't seem to be a lot better (perhaps the bottom cover has warped too?). It isn't affecting the functionality, but from a fit-and-finish standpoint, I was somewhat annoyed.

 

An update to my previous post regarding LINUX. Bad news! The procedure mentioned by mr_handy to disconnect the nvidia card while in optimus do not switch it off. More precisely, the commands:

echo 0 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/enable
echo 1 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/remove
echo 0 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.1/enable
echo 1 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.1/remove

disconnect the nvidia card from the OS, which is no more able to se it, and this make it easyer to use the intel card, but the nvidia card remains on, i.e., it consumes energy. I verified this by measuring the power consumed before and after issuing the commands above: nothing changes in terms of consumed power. We have to find a different approach.

As for my question: "with optimus disabled (i.e., using the nvidia card) does the keys to change lcd backlight works for you? In my case, they work while in a text console but the nvidia proprietary drivers apparently ignore them. Is this the same for you? Which distribution/version of drivers/kernel are you using?" Any of you using Linux may hlp me, please?