Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

I just got my E6400 a week ago and I'm experiencing 2 problems. They probably have been answered thousands of times already but having 2 threads with over 550 pages is kind of hard to swallow at one time.

1) Touchpad issues - sometimes the touchpad stops to respond correctly. Firstly some of the times the side scrolling doesn't activate and it just moves the cursor around instead of scrolling. Secondly if I'm laying down and holding the laptop at about 25-40 degree angle (basically on my stomach but the back is supported by my legs to be able to use it more comfortably)... the touchpad stops to respond at all. I was wondering if this might be driver-related, hardware related or because of my own habbits? Also can the dell touchpad software be replaced with synaptics one?

2) I have a terrible squeak on the right side of my screen if i move it back and forward. I'm not quite sure but I think it comes from somewhere in the middle... any tips on thisone? Or should I just take it to Dell and let them fix it?

3) I'm wondering what the button next to the wireless switch is for.

Thanks!

 

The touchpad is from Alps, and only Alps driver would work. Here are different things you can try:
- Try the latest drivers of the touchpad
- Try the latest driver from the E6410 laptop

Between tries, make sure you uninstall FIRST the drivers, restart your computer, and install the new ones. And of course, for each drivers play around with the touch pad drivers. (Control Panel > Mouse > click on the orange touchpad image).

Make sure to disable "dragLock", and that you set the value of touchCheck to minimum. For me, the E6410 drivers works best. But, I have not tried the latest E6410 touchpad drivers tat got released a few days ago.
What I also like about the E6410 touchpad drivers is that the cursor animation doesn't get broken, like it used to with the E6400 drivers.

If it doesn't help, than call Dell for a new touchpad (they will replace the palm rest entirely).

You squeeking issue is a manufacture issue, you should call Dell to replace the needed part.

You need Dell Wireless management add-on, and it when your computer is turned off, and you press the button, it glows blue to inform you that there is a wireless signal in your area that you or may not (protected) connect. If your laptop is turned on, and you press on it, it will automatically connect to any public wireless is finds, or one it can connect (let's say one that you configured). This feature is nice under Windows XP and older, but TOTALLY useless under Vista/Win7. You don't even need the Dell wireless management add-on for Dell Control Point, as Windows does a superb job in managing your network, and auto-connect.

 

You are welcome...

 

it looks like you don't need this info anymore, but a simple google of oem slp activation would have returned the Windows 7 Ultimate Cracked and Activated Permanently with OEM SLP Master Product Key (with SLIC 2.1) My Digital Life page which discusses it. for anyone else that needs it, just note that you need to find the new oem keys (which isn't hard) -- i don't want to post them because even if you DON'T have a legit license, this method can still be used to activate windows 7.

 

I found this at the time but it didnt say anything about vista, theres a big difference between them
Shortly after that i remembered about skype and kxp confirmed the idea.

 

Thanks GoodBytes, the E6410 touchpad driver seems to work nicely at this point, hope it stays that way. Going to take it to dell on monday to check out the screen squeak.

Actually I ended up with even more questions. Since I bought the laptop with a little lower configuration than I originally anticipated (good price for a new one) I plan to do 2 upgrades and I have a few questions about them.

1) I intend to buy the 5530 WWAN card but I was wondering, if it's possible to send text messages with the software? Right now I plan to use M-Internet based on timed tickets so I can get unlimited data and speed from my operator and since I don't need that daily it's quite good for me.

2) I intend to upgrade my HDD. Right now I was looking at WD Scorpio Blue 320gb or 500gb models. Would it be a good choise or are there any better suggestions?

EDIT: Oh yeah I'm also looking into changing the wireless card in it. Right now it came with dell's 1510 wireless-n card. Is there any point in changing it to intel's one in terms of getting better reception?

 

If you want the best 2.5" HDD performance, consider the Hitachi 7K500. See, for example, this thread.

I wouldn't bother to change the wireless card unless there are compatibility issues.

John

 

Speed isn't my primary concern to be honest, since I have a performance desktop computer for that. I prefer reliability to everything else - death of a hard drive is always hard to cope with.

 

I don't think there are significant reliability differences between any of the current models of 2.5" HDDs. Tom's Hardware has some useful charts for performance and power consumption but this doesn't cover long term reliability or noise. I would leave out Seagate on the grounds of the latter - there have been noise issues with some of their products. Long term reliability will be influenced by temperature which depends on power consumption (which will also make a small difference to battery run time).

John

 

I have to say that I am disappointed by the heat dissipation properties of this laptop, now I've owned it for more than a year, I am forced to use Rmclock and undervolt to avoid the fan constantly running, I have the latest bios, cleaned the fan, etc, etc.

Also at times the pointer randomly moves somewhere else and I can't figure out why because I don't use the touchpad.

has anybody else noticed this behavior?