Latitude E6500 Owner's Lounge

If it's anything like the D-series, then those drivers won't work. Dell locks the system somehow, preventing you from installing the Intel Graphics drivers from anywhere else. I've tried on multiple occasion

 

My first E6500 locked up every 5-20 minutes. I hadn't even installed any software or reloaded Windows. Mouse cursor wouldn't move, keyboard dead, etc. I tried a fresh install of Windows XP, and it didn't help. Finally Dell sent me a replacement, and it's been working fine (both before and after a fresh install of XP) for a month or so now. I have the nvidia card.

 

Hi Guys,
I get the following, do you?

- With the machine turned OFF or Hibernated
- No power adapter attached (but battery still in place)

Picking up the E6500 off the table and moving it around causes the blue POWER LED to blink!

Wonder if it's a feature or a bug but always makes me wonder if the machine is truly OFF.

 

I have not, I'll give that a shot in the next few days when I have time to further troubleshoot my new machine that I've spent 30-40 hours troubleshooting already.

 

it is entirely possible that it is the video drivers, but i have reason to believe that the OEM copies of vista 64 (at least ultimate) may have something wrong with them. After 4 fresh installs with the OEM disk, and numerous hanging/freezing errors, I went back to a fresh install from my retail copy i got from the beta test, and then manually upgraded to SP1 with the dell provided key. It is of course possible that the 5th try was just luck, but it seems unlikely.

 

The freezing occurs on all OS's, not just Vista 64 OEM. It's most likely driver problems.

 

The systems came with Vista Business 32-bit preinstalled, I first encountered the crash on that build. I then wiped the machine and installed Vista Enterprise 64-bit off of an ISO I got from out corporate MSDN site. Loaded drivers, experienced the crash. A coworker loaded Server 2008 64-bit on it from a downloaded ISO from the MSDN site as well, same crash.

In all cases we saw identical patterns screens on all machines when they crashed.

 

On my E6400, all the generic Intel drivers work just fine.

Greg

 

Is the LED screen option no longer available for E6500 in Canada? Though I'm still waiting for some good discounts/coupons before making the plunge (I tried the 20% mystery coupon, but it doesn't work for the E6500 sadly), I noticed that the upgrade options for the 15" screen no longer includes an LED screen?

Also, has anyone gotten a E6500 or E6400 with an E/Port Advanced Port Replicator? I will need one of these (to plug into a 24" monitor, legacy serial-pin mouse/keyboard and printer) so wanted to see if there are good/bad experiences with this, or if there are cheaper options (this one costs over $200!).

Thanks v. much to all!

p.s. The following configuration is what I have in mind...which comes out to over C$2,800 once delivery and taxes are factored in...yikes!!!

Processors Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P9500 (2.53GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Operating Systems Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate SP1, With media [DOES ULTIMATE COME IN 32 OR 64 BIT?]
Memory 2.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal Keyboard Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Graphics Mobile Intel® GMA 4500MHD
Primary Storage 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
Fingerprint Reader Options Internal Fingerprint Reader
LCDs 15.4” UltraSharp™ Wide WXGA+ (1440x900) LCD Display-Brushed Metal Black
Bluetooth Dell Wireless® 370 Bluetooth Module
AC Adapter 90W A/C Adapter (3-pin)
Media Bay Devices 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
Camera / Microphone Integrated Webcam with digital microphone
Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card for VPRO
Systems Management Client Systems Management Disabled
System Documentation Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Batteries 9 Cell Battery
Hardware Support Services CS 2.0 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD Onsite Service
Processor Branding Intel Centrino 2 vPro Core Duo Processor [WHAT IS THIS ANYWAY?]
Docking Solutions E/Port Advanced Port Replicator

TOTAL:$2,385.00

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Yea, it's very expensive to buy a latitude in Canada. I've been waiting and it's just cheaper for US people to get them. You can try calling them and see how much of a discount you can get.

Please post if you do or don't get one.