E6430 Owners Thread

does anyone know how to switch to the nvidia graphics for all use, as the intel graphics seems to be the default all the time and i bought this thinking it would be better graphics by getting the nvidia as an extra?
can't find a setting anywhere, not in windows (7 ultimate 64bit) nor in Bios

Many thanks

 

You can use the nvidia control panel to select the applications you want to use the nvidia card, if you want the nvidia card on at all times you can disable optimus in the bios.

 

This is the first laptop/computer i've ever returned. If you took the model number off I guarantee you would think the E6430 was a Inspiron.

 

What did you replace it with?

 

Nothing as yet. I am confident Dell will be overhauling that E6430 shortly. It really was shockingly bad. Cheap plastic appearance compared to the strong build of your E6400. Their E6430 sales figures can't be good.

 

Yep. Haswell is due in June and Dell are due for their 2-year design refresh this year too. If I don't like what I see, I'll go for a ThinkPad T431s instead.

 

Hi, does anyone know whether the E6430 has different motherboards other than the NVS 5200M or not. Are there different versions with Intel vPro and without?

 

Decided to register today to join this interesting subforum Nice to see this interesting notebook gets a following online.

I decided to take the plunge after being both frustrated and happy with a 2nd hand E6410. Lack of USB3 and a distinct slowness when doing heavy things (Photoshop mostly) annoyed me. I was however charmed by the 14" formfactor and the robust build quality. Not a week later I stumbled upon a guy selling refurb'ed E6430 laptops that were just a few weeks old, for around 500 euro's. Too good to pass up!

My config came with 128gb SSD, i5-3320m and the 1600 screen. Sadly, as I discovered later, also with a plain CD/DVD drive without writing capabilities (grrr!). The warranty on this puppy goes all the way till 2016 so I'm pretty happy in the end.
The laptop's first impression was "why is the bezel so HUGE". It's not as sleek and slender as the E6410, sadly. But I got used to it soon. Build quality - contrary to some on this forum - seems just fine to me. It's robust, doesn't give a squeek.

I however have been stuck with one oddity that has left my migration from my AMD X6 / 1090T desktop a bit of a downer. 2D performance (the Windows GUI, browsing etc) is notably laggy when using a dual screen setup through my PR03X docking station. The lag is nearly countable by hand! On-mouse-over menu's trail my cursor with perhaps 100-300msec of lag. Video's seem to also be affected in a similar way. Overall there is a hint of sluggishness in everything I do, no matter the drivers or windows version I tried. I'm pretty nifty with these things being a laptop-repair guy in the past and avid tinkerer/nerd still.

In the end I discovered that having one of my two screens turned off (My 22" 1680x1080, leaving my 24" 1920x1200 screen) mostly resolves any sensation of lag. Having the laptop on it's own seems to be the snappiest by a thin margin.

I connect using a DVI cable and a DVI-Displayport converter of Dell origin. I sadly do not have the means to try the laptop's built in HDMI port. Did anyone notice laggy performance of the built-in HD-4000 when using two screens through the PR03X dock?
I fail to understand why 2D performance would be impeded so much, since the HD-4000 is plenty capable. I've had dual-monitor since the dark ages, on pretty obscure hardware without any issues.

Hope some help can be offered here! Thanks.

 

michael_dk - I would try updating the driver. I find the ones on Dell's site are pretty far behind for video. I always get the latest from Intel\nVidia.

 

Hi Guys...

Just joined to see if you all can solve my E6430 issues ( i7, 3720QM CPU@ 2.60GHz, 8Gb ram

Using it for school purposes ( No extreme gaming etc )

Issues :
1: My laptop gets heated up real quick. It gets warm around 10mins after startup and external cooling fans doesnt really cool it down.

2:System sometimes have to restart: Reason is usually " Kernal inpage data error" or something close to that.

3:Sometimes i have to troubleshoot my wifi access (my wifi is fibre optics network)

I updated the drivers which the Dell website recommended but these problems are still there.

Brought this laptop in Jan 2013 by my school's Vendor.