E6420 Owner's Thread

Hi,

I have a bought a new hard drive. Right now I am about to install operating system from Reinstallation DVD.

I believed that my notebook had 2 DVD's included in packaging - one for Operating system and second for Drivers.

But I checked and found only 1 DVD - Reinstalation DVD - Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit.

Should I install the drivers from WEB? Or the Reinstallation DVD has drivers included?

 

In most cases, the included reinstall disc from Dell has the drivers on it. But I guess in your case it doesn't really matter: just use the reinstall disc, and if you find anything not working right or any devices listed as unknown in the device-manager, you'll need to download the drivers from dell's website.

 

I'd recommend loading the Intel Rapid Storage drivers during the pre-boot, off a USB key (either from Dell, or better still direct from Intel.) Also, if you don't have another machine handy, make sure you download the network drivers (whether wireless or wired) in case the CD doesn't have them. As long as you can get online, you can download everything else directly

 

What exactly is the use of these Rapid Storage drivers if not running a RAID array (which seems unlikely on a notebook)?

 

I ordered a refurb Dell Latitude E6420 on the 22nd and it arrived on the 26th. When I turned it on and went through all the steps, I went on Internet Explorer (was too lazy to download another browser). I could feel the laptop turning warm and it in less than an hour of usage. After a couple of hours it got more than a little warm to the point where it's uncomfortable in my lap. Anyone else have this problem? Suggestions? The left click button also doesn't respond sometimes. I have to click more than once to get it to work.

Thinking about just getting a refund and getting the hp probook 4430s. I was deciding between the latitude and the 4430s prior to ordering the latitude. If I do return it would I have to pay the restocking fee? I was talking to an online rep and they said to call customer service. So we'll see how goes tomorrow.

 

New BIOS for the E6420 today.
Download link

1. Addressed CD boot issues.
2. Addressed Hard Drives hang issue in AHCI mode.
3. Addressed Hard Drives encryption issue in ATA mode.
4. Fixed issue where the MAC address would be incorrect after disabling the Integrated NIC in Setup.
5. Added support for Signed Firmware Update Transition BIOS.
6. Updated to the MOB_P_11 version of the Intel microcode patch.
7. Updated to the 1.2.0 version of Intel System Agent reference code.
8. Updated to the 1.2 version of Intel PCH Reference Code.
9. Updated to the 1.2.1.1 version of Intel PPM Reference Code.

 

They are reputed to be (and I say that as opposed to "are" - I haven't benchmarked them) better performing than the native Windows-provided AHCI driver.

Seems to have a broken ACPI table for Linux - both acpi-cpufreq and phc-intel which worked perfectly for power management and turbo boost through BIOS A05 now puke with the following error:

Code:

[   10.417508] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency: 0x80000000 MHz
[   10.417511] [Firmware Bug]: BIOS needs update for CPU frequency support

Happens on both 3.0.4 and back on 2.6.38 from systemrescuecd.

Also the following might be relevant (or might not.)

Code:

[    1.064615] Dell Latitude E6420 series board detected. Selecting PCI-method for reboots.
[    1.073077] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[    1.116745] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored

Edit: it may not just be Linux -- I tried the Intel Turbo Boost Monitor (is there a better tool for Windows, something line i7z) and could not get any appreciable boost instead of 3ghz boosted the way I did on A05.

Edit again: downgraded to A05 (not sure this is recommended?); turbo boost working normally again in both Win7 (at least on one core per the Intel widget) and Linux (per i7z)

 

Same here. Turbo boost doesn't work after bios update to A06.
My cpu is 2720qm...

 

Same here. Same CPU (2720qm) and same bug. Anyone knows if this only happens with 2720qm?

Also anyone knows how to report bug to dell. The situation is really disappointing (I hope to be able to downgrade mine, will try in a minute).

 

Downgraded.

Also discovered, from the E6520 thread, which has the same problem, that apparently the bug affects only the 2720qm CPU. Other CPUs seems unaffected. May anyone who installed the new bios and has a different CPU cponfirm that turboboost works for him?