Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

Since a couple of months I have got an annoying standby/reboot problem on my E6400:

When the laptop is in standby (in the docking station with lid closed), sometimes when I press the power button on the docking station to wake up the laptop, it reboots instead. It seems more common the longer the laptop has been in standby.
I have tried to disable hibernation, set the power button mode to "go to standby" instead of "power down" but it doesn't help.

System info:
E6400, BIOS A20, Intel Graphics, Windows XP SP3, E Port Plus port replicator.
Webcam device disabled in Device Manager (caused some problems early on)

Anyone with the same problem
Örjan

 

i can do all those tasks without DCP. All those action give you a direct feedback, i don't need to see an icon telling me how loud the volume is or how bright the screen is. I turn up or down the volume based on how loud I want it, or the screen brightness based on what I think it's proper, it's an instant feedback.

the FN+F2 works without DCP as well and there is the battery icon in the lower right, if you roll on it, it will tell you if it's charging or not, as simple as that.

what else do you guys need?

perhaps I could give you a point for the "turn off" screen function. which I don't have but there's a small script I use for that.

And now that I am on linux I automatically have those on screen feedback that DCP gives you.

 

Congrads for you, you are guessing for the current brightness, speaker volume, and have go in the BIOS for the keyboard brightness, unable to change the keyboard brightness turn off timer. Not to mention, you don't have the ability to turn off your optical drive/media card reader, and other components, and reduce refresh and automatically when you pass form battery from being plug-in to enjoy more battery life out of your system.

I want all of this, as I find it annoying not to have it, and I enjoy a system that works nicely.

I have 4GB of RAM and not only a dual core CPU but also 64-bit. I could not care less loosing a few KB of RAM and 0.1ms in the boot time of the OS, for an onScreen notification, which I fin makes my computer to be more comfortable in using my system, and more features that benefit me.

 

And here I am trying to decide if I'll install it or not

You both make good arguments so it's hard to make up my mind. I have decided
not to install the security and wireless as there doesn't appear to me much
contention on that.

I'll probably give it a try but I just hate to install something if I'm just going to
remove it, who knows what it'll leave behind.

Paul P

 

If you install the Dell Control Point, you will notice 2 startup items. One is for the big bulky program and the other is for both the onScreen and special key combination that was talked about. I suggest to disable the big bulky program, as it's totally useless to have it startup with your account (you can start it anytime with Fn + F7 or start menu).

 

Do yourself a favor and skip control point all together. Useless bloat.

 

The system manager module isn't bloated but the other modules are.

John

 

Agreed. The latest DCP System Manager installs and runs fine on Win7 Pro x64. I have never installed the other DCP modules.

GK

 

FYI, the rubber feet started falling off my E6400. They are simply not solid enough or fixed enough to last much longer than a year or two, imo. So, I removed them all and stuck on four of these Shepherd 3/4" round 2mm thick clear soft vinyl bumpers. Got 'em from Home Depot, but their website product image is wrong... so is the one on the Shepherd website. Looks like they will do the trick... their round symmetry resists side forces evenly. The soft vinyl is tacky so the unit does not slip around. And sits a smidge higher so air flow is as good as it was.

GK

 

OOOORRRR you give a call to Dell, and get a new laptop base, as this is a warranty issue.