E6420 Owner's Thread

^Heat isn't really an issue, the laptop runs pretty cool already.

 

@tomihawk

Did you manage to get the 1600x900 screen working?

 

Check page:52 for pitures

"I would suggest using Copper shims, currently using 2cmx2cm sized shims.
QM67 Chipset (top left) = 1mm height
Nvidia Chipset (top right) = 0.8mm height"
[Correction you may want to purchase 1.2mm height for the chipset, as 1mm can move slightly with the heatsink]

I'm currently using those height, I'm using a i7-2720 CPU. If you got plenty of spare thermal pads than you can use those, but I wouldn't re-use Dell thermal pad once the pad comes off it would break/cracks off (Nvidia Chipset thermal pad). If you only got the Intel integrated graphic, the thermal pad can be re-used (kinda like silicon type pad). The E6420 temperature manage alot better than my friends T420 i7-2720, though the T420 will just throttles down every minute when we benchmarked them side by side. His laptop wasn't really designed for a i7..... but man it couldn't run Prime95 properly

Though you asked me if it's worth changing, if you not changing processor or left the standard thermal paste alone or no Nvidia Chipset then there is no need.

But if you're one of the users that have the incorrect thermal pad from Dell (un-usual high temperature, shut down) or removed the heatsink or changed processor.... then yeah should get shim, better than buying lots of thermal pads..............

There is also a dual copper heatsink design from Dell for the E6420, if you want to go a step further.

 

Hey all,

Just bought an E6420 off the outlet for my brother-in-law. My current issue is that I cannot boot from the optical drive. Every time I get a failure message. I have tried several discs burned in my ThinkPad T420 (Clonezilla, PartedMagic) as well as an original Dell OEM Windows XP disc, and it fails every time. The BIOS was configured for Intel Rapid Restore Technology for the SATA mode; I switched that to AHCI, still no dice.

I went through support, and got the Philips/Lite-On drive (I've never been a fan of Philips optical drives) replaced, they even sent me the TSST model I requested. I'm still having the same issue. Does anyone have any ideas? I'd really like to clone this clean install to another, larger hard drive.

EDIT: I have found that if I set the system to boot from the optical drive, it will. However, if I hit F12 and choose to boot from it, the disc will not spin back up, and boot failure will occur. It sounds like a possible firmware bug to me, though I can't prove it.

 

Sorry if this has been answered before< i searched but did not see anything...

I just bought a 6420 with the touchscreen option for use while on the road and was under the impression based on the specs that the touch screen would be anti-glare. However it is not.

I am looking for an antiglare screen cover that would not interfere with the touch option and will not make the already low res screen worse.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? The screen guards I have found on amazon etc are for the 14.1" screen not the 14.0 that the 6420 has. I may need to cut one down if they dont make one.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Also if someone knows the actual dimensions for the screen that would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hello,

Just got an e6420 to test and thus far this is my only complaint as well.

Getting the same noises as described above when connected to headphones via the headphone jack or through a port replicator's headphone jack.

I am certain it's an audio setting somewhere but I can't find it for the life of me... its as if the speakers are turning on/off to conserve energy.

 

Yeah, after closing an app that was playing audio (like Flash in Chrome), I would *sometimes* hear a pop on the headsets, almost as if something was unplugged. Doesn't seem to happen every time, though.

 

that's exactly what's happening... and happening often enough to me that it is annoying.

 

for what it's worth, i uninstalled all the Dell branded software and uninstalled the video and sound drivers, let windows take over and the sound doesn't click anymore.

 

Also, uninstalling ALL nvidia software and drivers, then reinstalling the latest one from Dell resolved all the quirks in regards to my display issues.