Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

Thanks for the replies everyone, I managed with one monitor today (built-in) but I think there's a defect with the dock/monitor setup. I don't think it's an inherent issue with XP since it does multimon fine, and going into the Display properties to cycle the monitor had no effect. It's a corporate machine, so I'm not inclined to do any further troubleshooting now that it's Friday and happy hour is a more pressing concern.

 

Hi All!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I finally purchased the E6400 and it's been great. One thing that I could not figure out is the Charger Behaviour: Charger Disabled feature.

Here is what is happening. I set the option to Charger Disabled in the BIOS (and confirmed this has been set in Dell Control Point). Then, I turned it off and unplugged it from the power point for a night.

In the morning, plugged in the laptop to the power point. The battery charge indicator was on. I went to the BIOS and for some reason the Charger Enabled has been set!

Is this a normal behavior or am I missing something here?

The BIOS version is A17.

Thanks in advance.

 

I think it's made on purpose... Many don't know about the ability to disable a recharge and then they think the battery is busted.

You don't need to go in the BIOS to change that settings. Simply do Fn + F2. Notice the additional system tray icon that get's added when you do it, to indicate that charging is disabled.

 

I just picked up a e6400 from outlet, and I hope everything goes as planned. I will be using this for manily surfing the net, as well as watching movies every once in a while (720 and 1080 mkv's, avi, etc). Does everyone think I will have any issues with this setup for what I am doing? I will test it as soon as I get it with some movie samples, and then if all works out, upgrade the HD (500GB) and RAM (4GB).

*I know I have the PC card option, and I wish I found the express card version after searching for a few days. However I possibly won't even use it and just use the E-Module as a another HD (maybe SSD)

Latitude E6400 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P9700 (2.80GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
256MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With PC card
No Modem
14.1 inch UltraSharp WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display
No Fingerprint Reader
Back-lit Keyboard
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
32BIT Operating System CD
Brushed Metal Black
90W AC Adapter
Roxio Creator 10.3 DE
Intel vPro Secure Advanced Hardware Enabled Systems Management
6 Cell Primary Battery
Power DVD Software
125V Power Cord
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
No Camera
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business License

 

I should have mentioned this. I have also turned it off using Fn + F2 and confirmed that the battery has been set not charging in the BIOS. However, the setting does not stay as my previous post.

 

1- Your computer is WAY over-powerful for your needs. An Intel X45000HD would have suffice more than enough for your needs.
2- Windows 7 is out since October 22... Windows XP was out in 2001... it hates new stuff.. and by new I mean 2005 and up. I strongly suggest to get Windows 7 64-BIT (32-bit should not be an option), as soon as possible.

I think any Intel Core 2 Duo with a Intel 4500XHD laptop with 2GB (as minimum.. 4GB recommended) should be more than what you need.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I had a feeling its way over-powerful too. My main worry was the video card since I am not familiar with the 160m. I especially am worried about the DDR2 in the e6400 and DDR3 in the e6500 for the vram. I don't think it will be that much different, but it was on my mind the whole day today. I figured the more GHz would kinda make up for the 9300 like video card since our card doesn't even support CUDA and the processor would have to make up for the difference in certain applications (bluray, coreavc, etc).

Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate will be installed as soon as I get the machine (tomorrow or Wednesday). I already have the retail copy, but I can always ask dell for the 64-bit version of Windows 7. I think I am getting the Professional version (32-bit) from the site, so I hopefully I can get the 64-bit version like I did with Vista.

 

It's more powerful than a the Intel X4500HD solution (for a laptop). You can play today games at medium-low settings with this GPU (it's a low end Quadro), or work on small/medium size CAD level projects.

They are no visual difference. DDR3 heart more... The E6500 is a bigger system, so it can manage to be able too col them off, while the E6400 vram is about right under the ESC, F1, `~ key's... you have nothing to cool them off. DDR3 RAm should provide you with a little bit smoother Aero experience when you are under battery (plug-in the GPU goes full speed, and that is not problem and the least of it's concern) that is about it.

The Intel X4500HD is more like a Geforce 7400M. While the Quadro NVS 160 is more like a Geforce 9400M but faster (visibly faster and not hard to see)- as it has dedicated memory, but not as fast a the 9500M

Both GPU's (PureVideo Nvidia call it on it's own GPU, and Intel has it's own thing) has HD playback system to offload the CPU task onto the GPU when playing any sort of video onto the system, except for Flash (CPU only)... Well now with Flash 10.1, which you can get the Beta version from Adobe, it FINALLY uses the GPU.

Also, using 64-bit codec with a 64-bit media player such as Windows Media Player 11 64-bit (for Vista.. not XP's), and 12 (Win7) does a help as well for HD movies... however you need a 64-bit OS to begging with.
I recommend Shark007 codec pack (install the 32-bit first and then 64-bit) - it's the only codec pack that is really good, provides no conflicts, reads everything, thumbnail support and doesn't override Windows build-in codecs which are VERY good).

CUDA doesn't help your video playback.. it's a technology which allow SUPPORTED software to execute instruction, and calculation onto the GPU instead of the CPU, for faster result. It does deliver in encoding, simulation, advance math calculation, and advance physics.

CUDA is mainly used in research.. but as software you don't have much. You have some Adobe software (which doesn't really use CUDA per say.. but something else that is compatible with ATI and Nvidia graphic card simultaneously), and Badaboom video encoder (shareware) which uses CUDA. Oh and you have Windows 7, which uses the GPU to render task onto the GPU using the same method as Adobe. But the performance gain is minimal.

Very good. Just make sure that once WIn7 is install, despite as it might seam your system ready to go.. install the latest updates form Nvidia and Dell website for the smoothest and best experience out of your system.

I hope you find other uses with your system that actually push it, such as light gaming, programming, drawing/editing (not with paint.. I mean real drawing), light video montage, audio montage, heavy multi-tasking, or other... of course if you do any of these... 4GB is obligatory.. again 2GB is boarderline in today computing.

Well there is one last thing to say:
Enjoy your system!

 

Wow, thank you for the other info!! This puts my fears to rest

Drivers are no big concern since I usually pre-download all the drivers before I do a format (from Dell, or the manufacture). This way I'm not hunting around at the last minute. The first thing I will do though before a complete format is upgrade the BIOS (with whatever is installed on the system when I get it), then install windows 7. Cause it has some updates for it and I want to make sure its clean and adds the appropriate entries in the registry.

Drivers are next followed by applications, and then finally AV. From there I surf the net a bit and install any needed codecs, plugins, etc. Then I do a backup through Backup and Restore so if I ever need to redo the system I can do so very quickly.

I will find other uses since my video camera uses AVCHD and I will possibly do some video editing as well as photo editing...don't worry about that. Ever since my desktop has been iffy since the accident I have been without a good decent working machine. So while the desktop is being exchanged I could have a nice laptop to work on.

Just now from Dell:

"We wanted to let you know that there is a delay with one or more items in your order."

This stinks...my order status was updated and it won't ship till 12/1 I thought these systems were ready to ship...lol?

Even the back door order status won't tell me anything

EDIT: 9:08AM

Shipped!

 

sidenote: the 160M supports CUDA .... see, e.g., http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_learn_products.html