E6540 Owners Thread

So, I recently bit the bullet and got the E6540 with the default 8g RAM and the 500g "Hybrid" SSD/HD Seagate drive. My initial impression was "meh!"

So, I ordered a Mushkin Atlas 120g mSATA drive, 16g kit of 2x 8gf G.Skill So-DIMMs, and a 1T Seagate "Hybrid" drive. Went with the Seagate since it was about the same price as some of the other drives and had better performance due to the little bit of SSD it has internally.

All this stuff came in this morning and I put it in. mSATA dopped right in but there is no screw to secure it in place. I ended up stealing a screw from an adjacent point where a screw secures the case. Since I expect this laptop will spend the majority of its life in a dock, I'm ok with that- but it was annoying for Dell or Mushkin to not include a bleeding screw!.

Next I popped in the new RAM and- no boot. Arg! Found this thread a bit too late. I had ordered 1.5v RAM and looks like i need the low-voltage RAM. So, I'll be getting an RMA from newegg.

Lastly, I put in the 1T Hybrid HD/SSD. The 500g Hybrid drive that came with the machine is a 7.00mm height with a rubber "HDD Isolation" adapter to make it fit snugly in the 9mm opening. The drive I ordered was 9mm so I didn't need the adapter.

So, a question to other owners- Can anyone speak to the ability of the unit to support 32g? I understand the chipset is supposed to support it, so I'm considering ordering a 32g kit instead of a 16g kit from newegg when i return the existing 1.5v kit I have. Has anyone gotten 32g to work?

Also, in case anyone else runs into this issue-

I use my e6540 in a dock and, since I and hooked to a somewhat older 8 port KVM, I use the dock VGA connector (which apprently is NOT connected to the Radeon video card!). Since my KVM doesn't pass monitor EDID, Windows 7 sees my monitor as a "Generic PNP monitor" and absolutely refuses to let me choose the proper 1950x1080 resolution!

After fighting with this for a couple of weeks, I finally went directly to the Intel web site and found there is a driver for the Intel VGA chipset that you can dload and install to replace the OEM driver from Dell.

Put that puppy in and was finally able to flip over to the 1950x1080 native res of my NEC monitor!

 

I'm surprised that the e6540 is still unavailable in the UK. If you look at my posting history, you'll see somehow managed to sneak in an order as Dell UK were seemingly organising their site. I was allowed to fully customise my e6540 with 16GM RAM, a cheap HDD (to replace with own SSD), and an assortment of other minor adjustments.

 

I saw the new BIOS of A05 is out. Anyone try it yet?

Also if people are interested, I'm running Win 8.1 Pro RTM no problem now, everything seems to be working fine.

 

Further to the above. List of changes...

Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
Fixes:
1.Fixed Unable to safely remove memory card only via Express cardreader.
2.Fixed Dock eSATA Device information shows none when eSATA ODD attached.
3.Fixed SUT can enter iFFS when memory in use is higher than iFFS partition_Active Page Threshol
4.Fixed FHD panel have abnormal garbage after Initialize TPM.
5.Fixed Incorrect name "Secure Digital (SD) Card" in F12 menu when Expresscard w/ bootable SD card.
6.Fixed SUT auto resume from iFFS with WWAN5570 or 6235 BT/WIFI combo card installed.
7.Fixed ODD can't open the tray after press eject button at first try when ODD in asleep mode.
8.Fixed AMD GPU clock keep in 299MHz when AC plug out and plug in.

Enhancements:
1.Upgrade AMD Video BIOS to BR44323.007.
2.Upgrade Intel Video BIOS to 2171v13.
3.Upgrade Preboot Execution Environment(PXE OROM X12-1.5.38.1 ).

 

One thing I did notice after posting this. The AMD driver seems to act up in Windows 8.1. The current dell driver does not work, the current catalyst (13.4) does not work, and the built in Microsoft driver does not work. I have not tried the beta catalyst (13.10).

Be very careful around these areas as I have had to system restore to get my screen back. If anyone else is daring in 8.1 let me know if you are able to get it to work.

Turnbull2000 did you install the BIOS?

 

I notice today that the E6540 has disappeared from the Latitude lineup on the USA order site. I'm hoping this is a sign they are getting ready to refresh the E6540 order form to allow custom builds?

 

A05 BIOS update-

I did the update and am typing from the machine after it rebooted. I've noted no ill effects thus far. <fingers crossed>

 

Thanks for the report. I updated this morning thanks to your vote of confidence. Everything is fine.

 

Now that I've had the machine for about a month I'd like to say a few quick things about it.

So far I love it, this thing does scream. I use it mainly for development and have a couple VMs running during the day, everything is lightning quick. I decided to put a Samsung 840SSD + mSata SSD + moved the 500GB to the CD tray, and I also updated the memory. Everything is working great and very fast. Like I said in a previous post I have moved to Windows 8.1 and I think there might be driver issues with the 8970 there. I don't game with this machine so its not bothering me right now, but I assume that will be something that is worked out over time.

 

Just curiuos, how did you go about moving the 500GB to the CD tray? Dell told me that the hd modular bay thing wasn't available on the 6540's yet.. I have my HD modular bay from my E6520 that i'm using, but it doesn't quite fit (it plugs in, the HD works, but it sticks out a bit) .. Thanks