Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

HDD with any laptop/desktop manufacture is always random... you might get a super quiet and fast one, liek you can have a super noisy ultra vibrating one.

In my case I ordered a 5400ROM, and I ended up with a very quiet Hitachi one, where the speed on normal desktop environment matches a mediocre 7200RPM one on a desktop... very impressive drive for a laptop 5400RPM HDD.

If you see your reflection like a mirror, than it's glossy, else it's matte. Desktop monitors can have the liberty to be much more matte, because the panels is better, and the reduction of production cost allows better LCD to use with the panel, and of course brighter lamps with more light spread. A laptop it's harder.

Like many other manufactures, the LCD of the system is different.. I know that the E6400 uses 3 or 4 models. I know 2 of them by heart, LG and Samsung. LG being the best in color reproduction than all of them.

Unless the plastic is made of dark matter, it will be like this

The keyboard should provide minimal flex. Where at most 1 zone it flex a little more. Do you have the backlit option or not? It's been reported that the non-backlit keyboard presents the most flex, noisier keys, and reports of even touching the screen.

Sadly, the touch pad is from Alps, and not as good as Synaptics. If you used to use a different brand, and touching Alps, it's a big improvement, but if you are from Synaptics, depending on the model you had, it will be a downgrade.

You can adjust it, though. I never liked Dell default settings on this laptop. I use Touchpad A09 drivers for Vista 64-bit for my Win7 64-bit system, as I found them to be the best of all versions.

To adjust the touchpad under Win7. Hit the Windows key, type: Mouse, and hit Enter (mouse control panel should be selected by default, unless you have a program called "mouse"). The mouse panel will open, on the front page, you should see a big picture of a touchpad. Click on it, and it will open Dell Mouse Control Panel.

The bottom is warm, because it's in metal, and used as a heatsink to reduce heat. In any case, no mater the laptop... if you want kids, don't put it on your lap

The hole base and bottom panel is made of metal with a pre-coat of paint (gray-brownish color), and thick paint of black, so that the paint doesn't come off easily.

The space is enough, and fairly standard between laptops. Again, I can overclock my GPU for several hours without any heat issue.

Put a pen under the laptop if you are THAT worried. But, before let me remind you that this laptop has 3 year warranty, SO far I haven;t seen a laptop manufacture that said "Our laptop is so durable and we are so so convinced by it, that we'll offer 3 year warranty as MINIMUM on all who purchase it." Dell got balls to so this. Today, the only computer manufacture that offer by the manufacture and by default a 3 year warranty minimum is hardware manufactures for custom system builders, where 5 years, 7 and life time warranty is common.

Have a look at Everest by Lavalys: http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&lang=en&page=48. Sadly it'snot free, but the trial version should fit your needs to check out your system and system stress it to ensure proper operation.

You need additional software that uses the TPM chip to encrypt. If you have the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista/7 you can use Bit-drive encryption to encrypt a hole drive, and USB flash drive (Windows 7 Ultimate only - Pro is the minimum version of DECRYPT it to access the files with password).

Visit Dell Canada (Dell.ca) or Dell US (dell.com - you may need to select your region to US) website, and download the software from there.
Once done, uninstall the current Dell Control Point, restart your computer, clean the registry with CCleaner (free), and install the newly download English version of Dell Control Point software.

 

I just got off the phone with them and they just told me that since I'm eleven days out of warranty there is nothing they can do for me, and that I have to buy a new battery.

 

What is the main difference in the E5400 to the E6400 other than price? They both look identical to me.

 

I understand that Dell makes money on dock station, PSU's for laptops, batteries, and such... but 200$ for a battery, is just plain dumb.

In your case, I would call back and do like I tried to do: Ask for the supervisor, and push that it's only a few days after the warranty, and that it's plain silly. Maybe they might be nice. In my case, it was closer to a month, but they told me that they can usually override the system if it's a few days out of warranty.. but that is Dell Canada.

 

I'll try again.

 

E5400:
- No metal hinge
- System specs are lower
- No Nvidia solution
- Based on pictures: cheaper plastic used on the palm rest
- No backlit keyboard option
- Not as good port location
- Heat vent is close the battery (heat is not good for lithium-ion batteries.. makes them age faster)
- No LED backlit LCD option
- No display Port
- laptop is a little thicker
- You see the screen hinges when you open the laptop lid
- No option to get Windows 7 64-bit
- 4GB memory max (8GB for the E6400)
- No 7200RPM HDD option (but that is nothing, you can replace that yourself)
- Only 1 year warranty minimum... E6400 starts at 3 Year in US and Canada (and 3 year year next business day on site service in Canada service for free)
- No PCI-Express port (uses the old PCIMA one)

 

So I tried again twice and both times the discussion went like:
"My battery died. Sorry sir it's 11 days out of warranty. Can you override it?No, please let me look at the prices for a new battery."

 

Assuming, that you you had a nice conversation with them to try to push a replacement, by explaining how a battery broke about the next day of being out of warranty... I must say, it sucks. A possibility, is that maybe Dell tightens the screws up on their policy due to the recession, and wants to make up for the reduction of sales and please investors, by high profits. But, I am just guessing here.

It's shameful, I guess it's eBay with some company in China time for us, hopefully it won't be a battery that will explode, as that Dell won't cover (like anyone else, including myself if I was a computer manufacture). :/

 

Well kudos to Dell Pro Support......

Monday morning 9am - Placed call to Dell, outlining the throttling issues and the step I had taken to overcome them and working through the data I had collected to show there was indeed a problem. Was told that my mainboard and heatsink would be replaced under warranty, the next day.

Tuesday 1pm - Dell tech arrives and replaces the mainboard and heatsink.

Tuesday 5pm - Finished a clean install of Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit.

Not bloody bad if you ask me!

So, does Win7 64bit perform any better than XP? Probably, but I have not been able to tell the difference from my limited use so far.

One thing I have noticed is that sitting at idle, the fan is not blowing a gale on high. I have not yet installed any apps that can monitor the temps, fan speeds and cpu/gpu speeds yet, are there any preferred that work on Win7?

I also applied BIOS update A20 beofre I installed Win7.

Oh and where can I find the SRS drivers for Win7 64bit? I have the SRS drivers for XP, but cant seem to get them to display on the Dell Driver Download page, not just for Win7, but for any OS?

 

BIOS A20? Can you provide a link to said BIOS A20?