Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

I've got a question for everyone.

I've just downloaded and installed the latest NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M video drivers from Dell. On occasion, the screen leaves graphic "artifacts" on the desktop (like parts of overlapped windows that have been closed, etc.) that cannot be cleared by either an F5 or a context menu screen refresh. However, if I use the translucent selection rectangle to draw over the area in question, the desktop will "redraw" to normal. (In a perhaps related issue, the LCD screen will sometimes not "wake" from a hibernated state.)

Anyway, the really simple question I'd like to ask is: what are the best available drivers for the machine? And I suppose I should ask: is this a sign of anything else?

It's more of an occasional annoyance than anything else, but, well, it's nice to have everything working as it should, if you know what I mean. Thanks.

 

I use Nvidia official Geforce M drivers. The Quadro NVS is a G92 architecture (Geforce 9400M with 256MB of memory to be specific) and Nvidia uses 1 driver for all architecture system (well the only difference where you need to pick the correct is laptop and desktop drivers).

Windows 7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html
(This driver, also support Flash 10.1 beta)

For me it works perfectly.

 

the biggest negative to this approach is that sometimes the dell tech support absolutely refuses to help you if you have windows 7 installed "because the system came with xp". leaving aside the fact that this is clearly insane, it is something to at least consider -- although ive always been able to go up to a manager and tell them to help, it sometimes wastes quite a bit of time.

xp mode is actually wildly user friendly once you have set it up. other than the graphical differences and a (windows XP mode) that gets appended to the name of the shortcut, you won't even know the difference for most applications. you can even use this to get around hardware incompatibility issues, although that setup is a little less userfriendly.

of course. (if you want to, for next time, click the user name you want to send to on the forum, and click "send a private message to ***")

 

i would completely uninstall your current drivers and either reinstall them, or grab the latest from nvidia directly (or www.laptopvideo2go.com) if both of these problems persist, there may be something wrong with your gpu.

 

It is quite easy to install and to use, but don't waste you time on it as you will probably not need it.
Even if you you have 64bit operation system and your application support only 32bit, then it will be installed in different "program files" folder, and will 99% work as usual.
For example, office 2003/2007 is only 32bit but works perfectly on 64bit systems.

 

Thanks, Veritas and GoodBytes -- I'll see if these drivers make a difference.

 

That Program Files, has NOTHING to do with compatibility. You have 2 Program Files: "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)". These are there to separate Windows own programs to differentiate 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

For instance, you have Windows Media Player 12 32-bit, that version is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player, and you have Windows Media Player 12 64-bit which is in C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player.

You can install a 32-bit anywhere on your system (even under "Program Files") and it will just as fine as if its in "Program Files (x86)". Windows doesn't need folders to identify your programs, in fact Windows doesn't need to do anything, it's the CPU that has fun executing the program.

 

Hi,
I've got a problem with my e6400, after putting bigger hdd (WD scorpio blue 500GB instead of WD scorpio blue 80GB) and reinstalling windows 7. The fan became constant runner it's little annoying, especially because before everything was silent. I hope you'll be able to help me!

 

Are you sure you don't have any background tasks consuming your CPU? Also, some hard drives are loud and may sound like a fan running, especially when it is dead silent (though this is unlikely).

 

my cpu load is 3-10%, and i'm sure it's not a hdd because of the air flow from the fan
speedfan shows that my CPU temperature is 37-40 C

no i wonder, have i lost my warranty by upgrading the hdd?