Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

Just remember that if you have fixed the link at 1Gbs then you will probably have to manually change it if you need to connect to a slower network.

John

 

Perhaps AUTO was dropping the comm speed for some stability reason on the link... say a marginal component on the LAN adapter... so beware connection trouble at full speed.

GK

 

I ordered a new 9-cell battery from Dell for my E6400 after streaching my old battery for 2 years.
I ordered via phone and it was very difficult, as the Latitude E6400 battery, despite being on the website is discontinued (155$ Canadian) (if I ordered it it would be canceled automatically). But a battery was found for the system, and it's price is between the E6410 price (210$) and the E6400, at 164$, and with some negotiation down to 130$ (this is cheaper than the non-genuine battery I found on eBay for this laptop). So I am happy.

As we know, the E6410 has a 90WHr 9-cell battery, and the E6400 has a 85WHr. I thought for 15-30min difference it's not worth the price. And went with normal E6400 85Whr battery.. or so I thought.

Today I have received my E6400 9-cell battery, and it's marked 90WHr. YAY!
Got more for less. However, I did notice 3 problems:
1- The battery was at 36% level and not maxed out like when I got my E6400.
2- The battery has a 35 wear level
3- The battery light indicator is no longer there.

I assume that the E6410 battery also doesn't have the light indicator. Am I right?

As for the 3% wear level, what should I do? I am still waiting for my battery to charge to the max to see how much battery life I have total. But should I exchange the battery as you would consider it unacceptable?, or 3% is normal for a laptop battery which, I guess was stored for a few months? Or the battery is faulty? Or take it as a good sign for the battery to be of very low capacity sooner than a year (estimate 5 to 3 hours - battery new should be ~9h (based on my original battery)) and call for a replacement, before the warranty pass.

 

My E6410's 90Whr battery has indicator lights. It is at 1.7% wear but the actual capacity is still more than 90Whr because the nominal capacity is 93.24Whr. If your battery has the same nominal capacity then 3% wear still puts it above the nominal capacity.

John

 

Designed charge capacity is 93240 mWh on my side
But the Fully charged Capacity is 89655 mWh

My battery model is the: 4M529
A model I cannot find on Dell website.
The name of the battery on the bill is:
9-CELL PRIMARY BATT,LAT E/M4400/2400,CUS

 

I didn't get two years out of battery #1, so I'd call it even!

GK

 

Well actually, it's because I was lucky for 2 semester to have access to wall plugs. In reality I need 5 hours average of battery life. Before I got my battery, I had 1 hour and 45min. Well bellow my needs I was unable to use my laptop in a class, well only in a 1 hour and 30min class that I have on 1 day.

Well my battery is now charged at the max, and I think I have Dell new nuclear prototype battery.


Ok ok, after waiting for a bit, it's at 10 hour and 44min, but I think it's still too optimistic.

Waiting 30min (OneNote 2010, Firefox 4 and Trillian) - 95% level 10h 36min it says... I still doubt it. I think it considers the store shelf time in it's measurement. I'll see once the battery ends and recharged again.

 

That's what I have got.

I think you can't complain since you were expecting the older lower capacity battery.

John

 

Ah! Very good then.

 

Piker, I'm having the same problem (E6400, Intel(R) 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection), different cables don't work, I've even tried plugging it into a gig switch instead of my router (both support gig), and it still auto negotiates 10mbps.

If I manually set it to 1gbps it connects and seems to work, but that isn't a solution since I use the laptop with a 10/100 switch at work sometimes so I need it to auto-negotiate properly.

Anyone have any ideas?