Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

As long Dell is SENDING someone to your place to fix it...and not you having to send it in. Then it's fine, I would sweep this issue under the rug.

 

They are sending someone over

Also, anyone check the DPC of there e6400? For some reason it seems to be in the red

EDIT: Well it appears its my 5100 card I tried to uninstall/install, download the newest drivers and still the same issue. What does everyone think is the next step...call Dell and get another one?

 

1- Update your Intel Matrix drivers (SATA Drivers)
2- Set your BIOS to AHCI mode for the SATA controller.

 

YES, JESUS TAP-DANCIN' CHRIST, YOU GOT IT.

Ahem. Sorry. Something just came over me. Maybe the frustration of spending tens of hours trying to find the cause of the high DPC latencies, and coming to the same conclusion as you.

I don't know if the card itself is crap, or the drivers are crap. I will be following your case with peeled eyes and peeled ears. PLEASE keep us posted.

Those steps only provide marginal relief, and I believe he'd have to reinstall the OS if he changes the SATA controller operation mode from IRRT to AHCI or ATA.

EDIT: A few steps for you to try... they will help but not eliminate the problem.
1. Disable power management for wireless card
2. Disable a-mode and n-mode if you are not using them
3. Set roaming aggressiveness to low/minimum

 

My 5100 Wireless card doesn't present this issue.. however, I do have another strange problem with mine.. and I can't put my finger on it. My wireless card works great at my 2 places... Home 1 is on Wireless N, and Home 2 is on Wireless G.

Now, at university (wireless N), my laptop wireless can't keep a steady connection no mater where I am.. even right under a router (router on ceiling). Other students, with some even with crappier wireless card or wireless G cards, show no problems at all. Setting my wireless card to full power.. helped a bit.. but it still occurs... it keep disconnecting every 5-10min or sometiems I get "limited connectivity" for a few seconds and then it works. This gets annoying when I have my IM software open... people get annoyed that I always come in/out online.

I made sure my antennas are well connected to the wireless card, and even put the WWAN (those internet anywhere/on-the-go type of cards with a cellular provider), and still same results.

I tried removing the wireless drivers completely, restarting my computer, and installing the latest ones from Intel web site.. did not help. I also tried Dell auto update tool, to make sure that my system drivers are fully updated and everything is including BIOS.

I want to say, it happen since I changed form Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit... however, at the same time the university switch form wireless G to N everywhere.

- Is my antennas broken?
- Is it a driver issue?
- Anyone else have this strange issue?
- Is my wireless card broke by pure coincidence when I put Win7?

 

You don't need a reinstall to switch to AHCI. just follow steps 1-4 in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=349173
restart, set AHCi in BIOS and insert you windows DVD before booting. Mine automatically found the standard AHCI driver after which i could load the latest IMSM through device manager

 

I have the same DPC latency problem from the Intel 5300.
Tried driver 12.XXX from Dell, tried driver 13.XXX directly from Intel,tried generic MS driver, but nothing helps.

But, I have no sound problems when watching movies, so it is not so urgent.

E6400, win 7 64 pro, P9500, 4GB, nvidia 160.

 

I am still working on the DPC issue, but I have to a fix a laptop for my in-law and I will get back to mine.

On another note, boy do these GPUs get hot. I did a video stress test using HL2 Lost Coast.

The CPU isn't bad, but the GPU needs a major cooling fix (check out max)...

 

My M4400 reached about the same with the standard Dell gunk on the GPU, replaced it with AS5 and now i get 86-87 max. Sould probably do the same for the E6400.

 

two things -- one, it is likely that you have a poor connection to the heat sink or dust in your fan, because no one else reports temperatures that high with the gpu. secondly, the gpu itself is more than capable of sustaining that temperature for long periods of time without problem, so you needn't worry on a hardware level. obviously it isn't fun to have it that hot though, hence my comment one.