Latitude E4300 first impressions

Display resolutions were discussed earlier in this thread. I remember that the pre-launch specs for E4300 included option for a 1400x900 display. Anybody knows what happened to that?

(An observation is that many manufacturers seem to settle for (W)XGA res nowadays, just Sony and Lenovo that stand out)

 

Ok well I am not enamoured and I have barely even touched it!

First thing - I wanted to downgrade to XP before I even started. So Windows disc in (a Dell one no less), blue screen fatal error. Tried it again - same result. As soon as it gets the drivers etc. installed and proceeds.... crash.

Second thing - hard drive. Following not getting it to install XP I ran up vista. The ed HD never stops clunking away!

Then a final little niggle is there is not even a sleeve provided. Fair, I didnt ask for a bag but if I had bought a consumer level XPS I'd have gone something basic! Oh and the machine looks OK overall. It does not look in any way special but doesn't strike me as classy in the way a lenovo would.

 

There seem to be a number of people suffering with the frequent disk access issue on the E4300 (every 0.5-1 sec with ticking and LED flicker).

Does anyone not have this problem and if so, what operating system, BIOS set up for HD (i.e. ATA or AHCI) and which hard disk (Seagate or other)

Dell seem to say there is a problem with their pre-install and Intel Matrix Storage manager and are suggesting a re-install but Id like to avoid this if I know problem is to continue

Thanks

 

Not sure if re-instalation helps you. I formated and installed Vista again and still got the same problems with hdd.

 

I don't have that problem. But I'm running XP.

I can't help thinking that Vista is the real issue for some who are buying a new computer for the first time in a while. Vista is just beyond awful.

 

EagleDevil,
Glad to hear someone has a machine without this. Its not Vista - I have problem with XP but there is also someone with sam eproblem in Vista and several with XP
Trying to chace it down, are you on:
BIOS A03 or better (Im on A04)
Seagate drive (I have the Seagate 160drive)
Windows XP SP3 (Im on SP3)
HDD drive setting in BIOS set to ATA (this is what Dell told me to try)
Did you have to remove any Dell software installs, I removed Dell Connection manager as it conflicted with Checkpoints SecureRemote
Did you have to re-install
Do you have the latest Intel Matrix storage Manager

Any assistance appreciated.

 

So I have had a day of use now.

After finally working out what to change in the BIOS, I managed to install XP. I then had to spend a ridiculous length of time working out which drivers to install because the dell resource disc failed to workout what was actually in my system. Then of course there was the non-trivial task of ascertaining which aps to install - of course there are several which are junk but until you get them installed, it is not easy to know which!!

Anyhow - now it is working. But along the way I worked out that the optical drive sucks. We get XP through our institution and they burn their own discs and apply own stickers to said discs - the e4300 practically took off when you put this in (never caused an issue anywhere else!)! Even with a disc without label.... the disc will rub against some internal part if you happen to tilt the machine whilst the disc is spinning. Then lets look at the body - the lid is fine but the palm rest area is horrid. I went without the fingerprint reader so perhaps this is partly the reason by the right hand side is horrendously flexible, you can induce something to foul with the optical drive (associated grinding noise) if you press with any sort of force. The same can be said for the top edge of the optical drive, it really does flex a lot. Then the battery.... i got the 3 cell for portability and a match to the body.... well it doesn't match. It isnt even quite the same color and it most definitely does not lock into position so that it fits snug to the body around it. You can force it to.... but it isn't tight.

What else can I say.....keyboard (non backlit) is not anywhere near as satisfying as my old d410. Im someone who didnt think there could be much difference but im often left wondering whether i managed to make a 'key-strike' or not!

General niggles.... on a couple of occasions it has frozen entirely. Tried to uninstall one of the dell aps (since i had now discovered it to be useless!) and it just stopped. I ended up having to pull the battery out.

So I have to say that my confident opinion is that the e4300 is in fact cheap and nasty - inspite of its price tag. I'm now left wishing that I had got an xps m1330 instead.

 

Hi x12yhp,
Now that you have re-installed, Is there less disk access - i.e. mine still goes to disk every 0.5-1 second.

I agree on junk installed - I deinstalled CP Security as I have no fingerprint reader, I also deinstalled the DEll connection manager as it did not work (Intel WiFi detector does work and is also there) - connection manager had a clash with CheckPoint's SecureRemote.

I met someone with a m1330 last week and we put side by side. The 1330 is slicker looking but felt a bit less robust than E4300 (I agree with you on optical drive and do not like very plastically feel to lower part of screen near Dell logo (get feel will be a dust entry point)), the E4300 feels lighter though and probably more easy to travel with.

Was the E4300 worth waiting for .... I had a C and D series latitude ..... probably not - especially with time spent trying to resolve the frequent disk access issue and impression that Dell gives that it is a known problem. Maybe they will fix this in future models ......

 

Got my long awaited Latitude E4300 a few days ago. Here follows my impressions so far. I'm sorry to say it, I found already many annoyances with this machine.

First of all, the screen has really a poor vertical viewing angle, basically it means when you put youself in another position or lean forward in your chair, the screen and colors gets a little darker/lighter/different. Feels like Dell use a really cheap screen on this pricey machine.

The keyboard is OK. Sound level, feeling and layout are good.
The keyboard background lightning is cool, but not pretty. In some angles you see more light between the keys than inside the keys... Looks ugly, cheap and messy for the eye.
Another thing, I am a little annoyed that all letters, number, symbols and functions on each key is printed in white. I prefer when there is another color for the FN functions, it makes the keyboard clearer.

The processor fan is a little more noisy then I prefer. Maybe it's hard to avoid in such a small housing with this powerful processor. By the way, the machine feels really quick. No complaints about the performance.

Now over to the touchpad. It feels cheap and unresponsive, almost like on any crap computer you find in budget stores. Like I read in other forum posts and reviews, old Latitudes has a better touchpad. Far better, I would say. After some fiddling with the settings, I think I can live with it, though.

The mouse buttons is the next annoyance. The surface of the buttons are on the exact same level as the surface of the chassi, meaning they dont stick out even a litte, which makes it impossible to click with the side of your thumb. You must use a fingertip to push the button into the chassi a little. This is really annoying for me. If the buttons would stick up a millimeter above the aluminuim chassi, it would be so much nicer... In my opinion, a big design mistake.

I have loved all my computers from four generations of close-to-perfect Dell Latitudes. Now I must say I wouldn't recommend this machine.

 

I recieved my E4300 yesterday...

2.26GHz, 4GB, Bluetooth, Backlit Keyboard.

I would recommend that anyone comtemplating ordering the E4300 gets the backlit keyboard option. It is well worth it.

But.....

Whilst the hardware is solid, Vista keeps freezing on me. A new pc, that also hangs up in Safe Mode...true quality there

Looks like I will return it for a replacement, but it frustrating and makes me wonder if I should have listened more to some of the comments posted in this thread.

So in summary...Vista is rubbish, E4300 looks great and solidly built, I would recommend them and the Dell support has so far been very helpful.