E6530 owners thread

Thanks for the 'Smart' advice. I did find it was a LiteOn, no samsung.

 

To answer my own question, now that I own one:
The new latitudes don't have a manual key combination for disabling battery charging anymore.
Instead, they have the same function that ThinkPads have built into the BIOS. Namely that you can specify the lower and upper threshold of battery charge in the BIOS.

If for example you set the higher threshold to 85% and the lower to 40%, your battery will only start charging if its charge drops below 40%. On the other hand, it will stop charging if the charge reaches 85%.
This is very useful if you're often working with the notebook connected to the power adapter, as not continuously charging the battery prolongs the life of your battery immensely.

From experience I can tell that this works. With my old Latitude E6510 I always made sure to stop battery charging manually when it reached about 80%, and after 2 years of use (often with the power adapter, and occasionally on battery) my battery still held 97% of its original charge (so practically new state after 2 years). I used my notebook almost daily during that 2 year period.

Now that this feature is automated and built into the BIOS (and enabled by default) I think that we'll be seeing a lot of second hand latitude batteries in almost new state in a couple of years. That is, if you only use it on battery power occasionally, like a lot of people do.

 

Anyone know the docking stations that work with the E6530? I see Dell has the E-Port Replicator with USB 3.0, but it's 160.00

 

I plan to purchase the 'Plus' e port replicator from a third party provider since it is about $50 less expensive. In talking to Dell Support, they indicated that the bump out of the 9 cell battery would fit the plus replicator. Some of the stand alone replicators indicate support for many devices that are not native to the e6530, so beware. Seems best to go with only the 'plus' model that is a platform lock, not a dongle. Once I get it I will post a short review.

 

I have just checked my E6520 BIOS and there is no option to select a user predefined charging range (i.e. 40-60%) so battery will keep on charging to 100% if left in...

 

A quick question - does the E6530 support msata ssd's? Seems the E6520 had limited support but i can't find anything about the e6530.

 

I found a used Dock E-Port Plus Replicator PR02X on ebay with a power supply for a good price. I found a thread at Dell's where the engineer says this will work on any E series Latitude. But no USB3 and no HDMI. I understand the USB3 and HDMI on the laptop are still usable when the latop is connected to the dock. You bring up a good point about the 9 cell battery fitting on the dock. Dell's part numbers are nuts. Multiple part numbers that cross reference.

 

Flat Panel Monitor Stand for Select Dell Latitude Laptops / Precision Mobile WorkStations : Laptop Accessories | Dell

I see ebay has a ton of these for around 20.00 shipped. It's 100.00 plus shipping and tax at Dell. Pretty cool idea for mounting a monitor and using your laptop with a dock

Dell Part# : 330-0874

 

That's sad to hear. So it would appear only the 30's have this option.
I glanced at a few pictures of the E6520 and I can see that Fn+F2 is still available on that model, so you can still turn the charger off manually. You need to do this again every time you unplug the power chord when the laptop is off, though.

 

we got our refurb E6530 today. Wow, what a nice laptop with the samsung SSD. Build quality is excellent. I would rate the external build quality as better than the Precision M6600 we have.Very solid feeling. Does this have a metal chassis inside? I assume it does.