M4400 - BIOS A11 results

Thought i'd start a new one for this.

Experiences so far:

-Fan isn't on as much as with A09, not running on lower speed when cooling is unnecessary
-Still downclocking!! Though it seems weird because the GPU doesn't go over 81c even with OC @ 600/900/1590.

Besides that all is good actually.
I installed all other new updates etc. also HDD firmware for the seagate.....there is still a weird latency problem that's picked up by dcp latency checker but for me that doesn't give any audible problems (not even when producing music)

i think i'll go back to A02 or A03 te at least be able to do some normal gaming but what was the story again about older BIOS's not reading temps correctly?
Would that also mean that an app like HWmonitor gets the wrong temps?

What are your thoughts/experiences so far?

 

I'm using A11, but I've only used A09 that came with the machine about 3 weeks ago. I can't really notice anything different, fan was always quiet...temps stay the same...gaming seems the same...that's all I can say.

 

We discussed that Issue with the HDD Latencys in a german speaking forum which is usually my "Home" Forum.
The HDD Latencys can be caused if you have no "Intel Storage Manager" installed or
- and please dont laugh! -
if you have Vista and an Intel WIFI Chip. There is a Bug in that Driver, the Latencys will be 80% lower if you only activate the WIFI-Mode you need and deactivate the rest (e.g activate A, deactivate BGN)

So far Greets Lexi - Happy new Year!

 

I still can't use T9800 and P9600 on M4400 A11

 

hey ma man,long time no see !
Tried A11 just to see if the temps reported were any different to A02,and they were not,the fan's seemed to run on full a lot longer after stressing than A02 so I flashed back to that again.

That's an interesting piece of info lexi,I haven't updated to the latest intel matrix driver,which was giving a few problems for people as well.
Happy new year to you also.!

Those two cpu's aren't available on new M4400's so it's not surprising they don't work,or the bios doesn't support them.

 

Hey weegie!

Yeah took some time off
Running A02 again now too and runs fine.
Any info on how/where i can switch off the various bandmodes for the WiFi 5300?

 

have a look here:
http://en.community.dell.com/error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/groups/xps_club/forum/t/19247074.aspx
Its offline at the moment, maybe that page will return soon.

 

My first post here. This thread and the M4400 lounge thread have been a big help to me, so I thought I'd try to contribute a little back.

I have a M4400 I got in October. 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, A03 BIOS. When I got it I installed Vista x64 and except for the crap audio drivers it was fine. Trying to fix the audio I upgraded to A06. Audio was better, and the CPU fan now runs ALL THE TIME.

Three weeks ago upgrade to A09 bios, install Intel Matrix drivers, upgrade audio drivers again. Now things get weird. The firmware starts downclocking the CPUs a lot, and the GPU performance sucks. Intermittently. Usually after I'd watch some streaming video for 10-15mins. All of the sudden my machine turns into a 200MHz PII. Now I know the issue is one of the last things I changed, but which? I broke the first rule of troubleshooting - "never change more than one thing at a time".

Check Dell's website - new BIOS!! A11 - this should fix stuff if it's the BIOS! Install it - problem gets worse. Call Dell. After a LOT of pain on the phone and me installing a 100% clean, Dell approve Vista x32 environment (with NO other software), I STILL had the slowdown issue. The solution? Flash back to A03. Did that and all was solved.

I have no idea is going on at Dell. When I had Vista x64 running, I could accept that part of the issue was my fault for messing with the drivers, other software I installed, etc. But when I had the SAME issue on a clean install 100% from Dell CDs and following their install process? It was obvious what the problem was - their new BIOSes. They even admitted it on the phone.

So, either I have a defective machine, or the new BIOSes are crap. Maybe both. I can't believe they tested this stuff. I've owned Dell laptops for > 10yrs and they were all rock solid. All except for this one.

IMO, stick with A02 or A03 BIOSs.

 

Woah! Rep for you! Doing this dropped my maximum DPC Latency (spikes) from ~15000µs to ~1900µs!

 

Computer Management, Device Manager, select the 5300, Advanced tab, select Wireless Mode, pick your mode.