Latitude E6500 Owner's Lounge

Hi All,

Just figured that I would pitch in on the random lockup problems that seem to plague a subset of E6500 owners.

I received the computer back in early October, and the first evidence of random freezes or lockups started to occur about 2-3 weeks later. I've kept a detailed log (available upon request; I just didn't want to clog this posting with all the entries of freezing events I've made); the random freezes or lockups would increase in frequency to about 5-7 times per day.

Of course, dealing with Dell tech support has been frustrating at times, since they require you to run through their protocol of troubleshooting methods first, sometimes even if you have already contacted them in the past. This is what I did:

0. Did a disk image restore to the original factory installation. Random freezing still occurs.

1. First service call - reinstall windows (I had XP). Did that; problem didn't go away.

2. Second service call - swap the two memory modules into different slots (I had 2 x 2GB). Freezes dropped to once daily for a couple of days, then went right back up to 5-7 times daily.

3. Third service call - replace the memory modules with refurbished ones (note that your warranty on these parts will drop to just 90 days, even if you still have years left on your service contract...). Did that; the frequency of the freezes went down from 5-7 daily to 1-3 daily - an improvement, I suppose, but still very much a problem.

3.5. BIOS A09 comes out just before Thanksgiving. I upgrade the BIOS to A09, and interestingly, the random freeze events has now turned into an event where the keyboard + touchpad become unresponsive, but the system continues to truck along (I'm able to recover from this by using the power button to force my system into hibernation, then wake from it).

4. Fourth service call - they send someone to replace the motherboard and CPU. Afterwards, while the system no longer freezes, the keyboard and touchpad stop working. Very annoying... I had to resort to using an external (bluetooth) keyboard and a spare USB mouse I happened to have lying around (though I made the pleasant discovery that the bluetooth keyboard still works even when you're mucking around in BIOS or DOS).

5. Fifth service call - they send the same tech back to replace the motherboard and LCD (unrelated problem, won't describe the specifics here). He had also wanted to replace the keyboard, but they had forgotten to ship that part. However, the keyboard and touchpad started working again, and the system hasn't frozen randomly yet (though it's only been a couple of hours, as of this writing).

So....

My recommendation, for those who are experiencing random lockups, would be to apply BIOS update A09 and see if your lockups disappear or produce the frozen keyboard/touchpad but not-frozen system phenotype that my system produced.

And my recommendation to Dell - keep those E-series laptops in beta testing a bit longer before you release them! Having a BIOS revision already at A09 only 2-3 months into the life of a new model is not very confidence-inspiring....

Hope this helps.

-thetaomega3

 

Blame Intel for late release of the core hardware. The E series were originally expected to launch in June and Dell was probably running down the D series inventory in anticipation.

IIRC, my Inspiron 8000 reached BIOS version 20 after about 6 months. I think the E series will fall short of that target.

To be honest, the E series has so many hardware options that Dell alone would struggle to check all the options for compatibility. I won't object too much provided they give the early purchasers a good discount for being beta testers. My E6400 would cost more now than what I paid in August. On current pricing I got the backlit keyboard and 65W PSU for free.

John

 

Dear John,

I certainly see your point, though there's always going to be a fine balance between pushing out a product out the door in a timely fashion and ensuring that said product is reasonably reliable.

I can also understand it if the defects in the product are relatively minor. However, given the threads here:

forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=300977

(copy and paste into your browser address bar; I haven't reached 15 posts yet as of this posting)

and the fact that random lockups are not a trivial defect (particularly given the frequency that I have been getting, and the fact that they had to replace the motherboard twice before it solved my laptop's problems), I feel that the problems cropping up in the E6500s are at least a standard deviation above the usual bugs that one would expect from a 1.0 product. Combining this with the 50+ hours I have already spent troubleshooting my laptop (my logs can attest to this) forms the basis for my feeling that some more beta testing on Dell's part would be called for, despite the delays. For home users, taking the "early adapter's gamble" may be worth it, but for business/academic users as myself, that depend on more reliable hardware (the Latitude series are supposedly meant to fit that bill, and our IT departments usually require us to get Latitudes instead of the M series workstations or even Inspirons), I think that demands a higher standard of reliability.

Anyway... I hope I won't encounter any further problems with my E6500; I'll post again if I do and if I think my experiences will benefit other E6500 owners that are in a similar situation.

-thetaomega3

 

Do you mean BSOD, or just freezing while using the system? Like moving the mouse pointer around and seeing it freeze for half a second, and playing a song and having it skip?

 

Not sure about BladeRun1's case, but in my case, it was a complete system freeze - cursor freezes in position indefinitely, keyboard becomes unresponsive (e.g. caps lock no longer toggles), WiFi doesn't toggle on/off even when using the switch on the right side, etc. Doesn't even BSOD; the system is just completely frozen. I've had it sit like that for hours, when I went out to do something and came back to find it frozen. Only way to get out of it is to cycle power using the 4-second single-finger salute.

Two other tidbits:

1. BIOS update A10 just got released yesterday. At this rate, we may indeed hit A20 by 6 month's time....

2. My Dell technician was rather sloppy when he put the system back together after putting in the second replacement motherboard. Several hours after the service, the screen went dead... turned out that the cable wasn't seated completely in (good thing I was watching the service the whole time); seating it properly fixed the problem. A couple days later, I discovered that the speakers weren't working (they never worked after the service, but I didn't notice until later). I opened the system up (enough to expose the speaker cables), and lo and behold, it was another loose cable that wasn't properly seated. I seated it in, and the speakers worked afterwards.

No problems have been encountered since the system was serviced nearly a week ago, so in my case, it really was two bad motherboards (the original one, then the replacement one that caused the keyboard and touchpad to no longer work). I hope others won't be as unlucky as I have been, especially considering that my lab spent over $2400 (after discounts; list ~$3000) for this system!

-thetaomega3

 

Brief 1-month follow-up update - my E6500 hasn't frozen since, so the second replacement motherboard really did solve the problems.

I'm also not the only one who seems to have noticed that being on BIOS revision A11 already is rather a lot for a product that has been out for less than 4 months.

(copy and paste into browser URL; haven't reached 15 post milestone yet)

x220.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=28876&#137646

-thetaomega3

 

I just posted a shopping comparison of the E6500 with the M4400 and similar alternatives from HP and Lenovo. Please let me know if I've gotten anything wrong or left anything out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=339606

 

Did anyone test the BIOS Rev A10? If so were there any issues? I had some freezing issues that started a few weeks ago and would like to know if this will help.

 

On another topic... I asked Dell Tech Support to send me the install media for Vista Business 64-bit for my E6500. They said that since my System Type is "X86-based PC," I won't be able to run 64-bit. Is there no workaround? Is that really true? I have a T9600 processor. I'd appreciate any help

 

That seems really odd considering that you can order an e6500 from Dell with Vista Business 64 installed. I would try calling again and see if someone else will honor your request.