Latitude 7450 Owners' Thread

Hi everyone. Just got motherboard and display replaced.
It seems that many of these matrices have more or less the same bl bleeding issue (few people in this thread have it as well).
We (me and Dell engineer) tried to loose/tighten the screws which hold the lower part of the matrix (where the new one also has bl bleeding), but that didn't really do anything significant.

Motherboard replacement seems to lower the electrical noise, but it didn't remove it. Will write my further impressions here as only little time passed.
Also, a little hint for those who don't get why touchpad/trackpoint don't resond for a short period of time after you type on keyboard.
This pretty straighforward way to prevent accidental cursor action is called TouchGuardTM under Dell Touchpad options.
However, turning it off won't remove this effect from trackpoint. You still can't type and use the trackpoint at the same time for some reason.

edit:
motherboard replacement didn't do much about that noise, really.

 

Everything I did on this is giving a call to Dell Support. They asked to pass this 40 mins test from their site to ensure there are no obvious issues that can be revealed with this test. Plus, they asked me to identify which part of a device the sound comes from. What seems unrealistic to do to my view. Now I read that you've came much further that I did and still there is no success after all. Either it's not a motherboard, what is unlikely to me, or they mass produced the MB with this defect.
Are you going to undertake anything else in this regard? I guess it's a dead-end and maximum that we can do is to get our money back and find something else. Actually I'm not ready to go through this

 

I suspect a significant proportion of notebooks have similar problems so you may find that you are no better off with something else. There does seem to be a bit of a lottery for getting these problems. The M3800 is an example of where Dell did take action and the boards with the newer CPUs have low incidence of CPU whine (a term which covers a multitude of electronic noises).

A layer of PVA glue should stop components vibrating but may also impede heat dissipation. The alternative solution is to get old so that your hearing is no longer sensitive to high frequencies. My problem is sensitivity to fan noise.

John

 

It was kind of overkill (maybe not, really) by Dell, I just told what my problems are and they sent an engineer with LCD, motherboard and cooling system replacements. I was asked to pass a 40-minute test beforehand as well, but for some reason during the first launch test stopped in the beginning, and after completion during the second it didn't send any info to their database, but on the laptop itself test results were all marked as passed.

I don't think much can be done about it (besides getting old) except if you're lucky and get a display with less bl bleeding.
I absolutely love this laptop and don't think that CPU whine/bleeding issue matters SO much.

By the way, what's the key combo to disable/enable touchpad?

 

I really miss that, but don't think there is a shortcut for that. I actually tried to monitor what registry keys change their values in order to arrange that by myself, but it's not only registry obviously. If I take out my mouse I clearly don't need the touchpad to be enabled, since it may interfere with keyboard presses and it really does, messing up with the typing. Starting touchpad options everytime is possible, but uncomfortable.

 

By the way, that's totally off the topic, but I'd like to recommend a few apps that really improve my productivity (if you are windows fashioned person):

• Yandex Punto for the capability switching the language with different keys (for instance, Left Shift - one language, Right Shift - another one). I don't use any other options provided.
• Autohotkey - automation tool. Actually, I guess the language switching can be implemented with this app, but I haven't got so far yet. I use it for the great script that allows easily move and resize windows. With the Alt key pressed, the left mouse click (and kept presesed) on any region within a window will allow you to move it, whereas holding the right mouse will resize the window from its nearest edge/corner. I believe such an option from Linux world. Very comfy.
• Ditto clipboard manager - It keeps all the clipboard entries saved and allow to find anything with search-as-type option. Shortcuts for frequently used items.
• Listary - find anything quickly - a file, a folder or execute a program with a few key presses. Many options, very convenient.

Sorry

 

It's surprising how people who desighn the notebooks forget about these little, but very important details. For example, yes, I manage to press FN + <- / -> , but dedicated Home/End keys would've been a better solution, because many potential users of this notebook work with text/do programming. Seems kind of obvious to me.
On my old HP there's an option to automatically turn off touchpad when mouse is connected.

Thanks for the suggestions, that's really useful, guess it's my turn now. I recommend using Clover instead of windows explorer. It's a chrome style tab app which inherits all explorer functionality and replaces it completely. Never used explorer since first installed Clover, it's a nightmare to manage a million separate windows. Also, Rainmeter + Gnometer skin is my default choice for desktop widgets (gnometer can be scaled so it's visible on e7450's screen).
Sorry for the offtop as well.

 

Wanted to add that I made a hasty conclusion regarding the whine noise. The difference is pretty significant. It's still there, but it's barely audible and doesn't slowly drive me insane anymore. @reykjavi So consider mb replacement, it should help.

Another question: can I order lte modem from Dell that's installed in other versions of e7450? How does it work, like a USB modem? I mean, you insert a special sim-card inside and then use it to access 4g internet?

 

3G / 4G capability is provided by a card in the WWAN slot. This slot is M.2 3042 format with a PCIe interface and the antennae leads should be pre-installed (take a look inside to check). I put a 5570e WWAN card into my E7450. It's only 3G but I found it at an attractive price (pulled from a Venue tablet). The E7450's SIM card slot is inside the battery compartment.

Note that 4G / LTE has a bewildering range of frequencies and you may struggle to find the version of a WWAN card which supports the frequencies you want. Smartphones have the same problem, with versions sold in different markets provided with different 4G/LTE frequencies.

John

 

I've had some problems with my E7450 which comes with the following specs:
i5-5300u, 4GBx2 RAM, 128GB SSD, FHD

There are times when the booting up, right into windows, the display goes to maximum brightness and then back to normal. I've done clean install which solved it but it returns whenever some changes are made to programs, ie change of date and time. Does it have to do with drivers? I've updated all the drivers. It's really odd as I've never encountered this issue on any other laptops with Win 10. I've has an E7440 in the past too but never had this problem. Anyone has any ideas?