E6430 Owners Thread

I need to replace the battery in my E6430. There seems to be a significant price difference between the two 60 WHr replacement batteries Dell is currently selling, but I can't tell the difference between them:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/sho...n-primary-battery/apd/312-1324/pc-accessories - $139.99 (model DHT0W)

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/sho...ry-lithium-ion-60-wh/apd/mkd62/pc-accessories - $64.72 (model MKD62)

They are both compatible with the E6430 and seem to have identical specs. The only obvious difference I could see from the descriptions is that the more expensive one has a 1-year warranty while the cheaper one does not. Is that the only difference? Does anyone know if spec-wise and performance-wise these two models otherwise exactly the same?

Thanks in advance!

 

I'm not sure the cheaper one doesn't come with a 1-year warranty, which is pretty much the standard for Dell first-party batteries (although that's often from manufacture date, not date of sale.) Seems like a no-brainer to get the less expensive one.

 

Well, the Dell website explicitly states that the more expensive battery ($139.99 model DHT0W) has a warranty:

whereas the cheaper model ($64.72 model MKD62) doesn't have this verbiage...

Regardless, it seems that getting the cheaper model makes more sense, because even assuming if the cheap battery is a dud, buying another cheap one is still less money than buying one of the expensive battery. Basically, the cheap battery would have to fail three times before it ends up being more expensive than the higher model. Thanks!

 

I like build-a-laptops and picked me up a Latitude e6430. The poor stock screen quality has been very visible (hah), so I've been using this thread a bit, along with these places: TechInferno's e6430 Owner's Thread, https://www.parts-people.com/, and others to research and build my e6430. It has been a pretty educational experience, and I'd like to share a bit of information I've figured out - hopefully correctly - with anyone interested. Some of this information has been a frustrating to get a hold of, so hopefully this helps sum it up.

Upgrade from HD to HD+ screen:

Screen Cable:
My 6430 came with a HD (1366 x 768) screen and it's been killing my eyes, so I made a change. To upgrade to the 1600 x 900 HD+ screen the HD+ screen cable must be installed. This is available from eBay and parts-people relatively cheaply. This is an upgrade from 40-pin LVDS 1-channel cable to 40-pin LVDS 2-channel cable. Dell P/N: JTC08 is what I used, CYM5C is the other Dell P/N - I am not entirely positive what the difference is, but JTC08 is working great for me now.
*I did somehow mislead myself and mistakenly order Dell P/N: XJJFC - which is for upgrading the e6420 to HD+; it did not work at all. Don't do that!
*I've read that replacing the LCD back cover assembly with a cable pre-installed is much easier, but I feel the difficulty is the same - easy once you screw it up a couple times.

LCD Screen:
As I said earlier, the original HD screen was killing my eyes. Terrible angles and hard for me to manage multiple windows at once. Dell P/Ns: P7FFH, MJ154, T6N3N, H486N, G183J, F133J, WJ139 are all listed as HD+ screens by parts-people.com compatible with the 6430 and I do believe several of these are stock on other 14" Dell laptops. All of these are made by several OEM LCD screen suppliers like LG, AUO, Innolux, etc (I believe these three are the main ones for this laptop). I have narrowed down the 3 best performers, summed up on panelook.com: http://www.panelook.com/modelcompare.php?ids=462,17529,2027,5220&del_id=17529.
Some examples of Dell P/N to OEM P/N is:

DELL: F133J = AUO: B140RW01 V0
DELL: H486N = LG LP140WD T1 A1 <-------this last 2-digit section of part number is a big deal in quality in the LG laptop screen product line!
DELL: GJ494 = LG LP140WD T1 M1 <-------I picked this 1600x900 screen from a 6440 up on eBay for 20 USD - apparently it sucks compared to the one above.​

The GJ494 is certainly better than the original screen (especially for 20 bucks), but the only noticeable improvement for me is the gain in resolution. I'm picking up a CHI MEI N140O6-L02 off eBay, and will try to update on that screen's performance when it is installed.
​

I see that there are a few others who have been snooping the forums about their builds within the last year, so hopefully this is useful for somebody! As I stated earlier, I do plan on updating this as new stuff arises. I'm gonna post some build information, but I'm considering posting that in the Linux subforum because my 6430 is a Linux-only machine with which I am exploring upgradability. Should I get around to that, I'll certainly link some stuff here.

aaannd that's all folks!
(for now).