E6420 Owner's Thread

Just installed, the Optimus option is still in BIOS. I don't think Dell would remove a feature from BIOS, you could prove me wrong.

 

I can tell you right now that the laptop shown in that photoshoot suffers from the corner popping bottom panel which is actually visible from the photos! This is what the bottom panel looks like when it is "popped out" and requires pressure to snap back in to place:

 

Just a message for all people with the bottom panel corners...

I wouldn't recommend snapping it back into place as the bottom panel would damage the inner case, making the popping out issue a regular thing. That what I've notice, when ever I had that issue with my first laptop I would snap it back into place. But then it just pop much more easier example leaning on the right hand side palm when typing.

Recommend that you get a replacement at your first encounter, if you ask Dell after the return policy they would just want the system back for repairs and you will still have the issue.

 

Can anyone take a photo of the screen displaying a high contrast and saturated image from the web at full brightness?
Please post the link to the image so that the rest of us (who are still deciding) can see how the image looks on our own screens.

 

Control Vault Firmware seems to be the same. Did not even upgrade. I went to upgrade the BIOS and I have a couple of issues now. Fingerprint reader does not work in Windows and when I restart my computer it will shut down and then hang at starting back up. I have to pull the battery and power and then turn it back on. Annoying.

Went so far as to load A01 back on there. Didn't bring my fingerprint reader back in Windows. Even restored the system back to a few days ago when everything was working. Still no fingerprint reader. I'm more than a little peeved.

 

Maybe a silly question, but why it isn't possible to get the quad core with Intel's HD 3000 instead of nVidia's NVS 4200M?

 

As nVidia has publicly stated they will never support Optimus under Linux, that sounds about right.

 

FOUND A WAY TO SWITCH THE NVIDIA CARD OFF UNDER LINUX!!!

You have to modprobe the acpi_call module (see https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux for details) and issue the following command to switch the nvidia card off:
echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.VID._OFF" > /proc/acpi/call
To turn it back on you may do:
echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.VID._ON" > /proc/acpi/call

Result: less than 10W under linux with the intel driver under Xorg, i.e., more than 6 hours browsing the web with the default 60W battery.

All this is with optimus switched on in BIOS. If you switch it off in BIOS you can safely use the nvidia closed source drivers for best performance (and much greater power consumption).

 

Any chance of USB3 action via the docking or are we really limited to the bay module??

 

I don't know whether Dell have anything planned. They would need to create a new version of the E-port but the connector would need to be backwards compatible. Perhaps they could do this by putting a USB 3.0 controller chip inside the E-port. However, don't hold your breath.

John