M6400 initial impressions

Very brief note (I supposed to be cooking Christmas dinner...)- I've got my M6400 and it is great.

I stuck an extra hard disk in (the 2nd caddy and interposer was in there) and installed Vista 64bit as RAID0. All seems well. I patched it to all the latest patches and no audio problems (but then I only play MP3s on it - no audio work), no BSODs etc.

I've put in the 5505 WWLAN card from my D820 - and it works, but I need some drivers - the Dell drivers detect the system type and refuse to install - which is a pain in the to be honest - but I'm confident of getting around that. More on that later - after Christmas!

The system is blindingly fast (QX9300, 8GB RAM) . Battery life is about 1hr20mins. By far the fastest computer that I've ever owned.

Only fly in the ointment is to do with the hard disk system - in there I have a 250GB and a 320GB - and it only let me setup a 500GB RAID0 setup - and won't let me do anything with the spare 70GB. Never mind - it isn't like I'm short of disk space!

There was some pretty major keyboard flex when I got it - but I fixed that by reseating the keyboard and all is well now.

There are some drivers that I seem to be missing but I don't know what they are (looking at device manager - some devices without a driver) - but the system is running ok. This is my fault for not saving the original vista configuration first before wiping and re-installing! So any suggestions there would be great (they are the Broadcom USH and 2 devices called "Data Interface" - I downloaded the Broadcom USH drviers from Dell, but they didn't work on the 64bit vista. I'll phone dell support between Christmas and New Year and see what they say)

So - specs are:

Non-Covet, 1920x1200 FX2700, 8GB RAM (it shipped with 4GB), disk as described above, and vista 64bit. No webcam or fingerprint reader. And I've also got a E-Port plus docking station.

Happy Christmas!

PS - the PSUs - even after being warned - the size came as a real shock! I must try the system with my 90W PSUs from the D820 - I'll let you know how that goes.

 

That's unusual...

Ah, so that explains the above: You don't have too much stuff installed yet.

You should be able to use the space by creating a separate volume there; you may have to use Windows' Disk Management MMC plugin for that though. I have never dealt with a RAID array with unequal drives, but you may also be able to create a second volume using the Intel Matrix Manager software (which I highly recommend you install if you haven't done so yet). Go here for lots of information and instructions on how to use Intel's RAID management software.

How did you reseat the keyboard, I mean, what was wrong with the way it was seated when you got the machine? I ask because I have some minor flex, but I'm not sure if it's worth bothering about.

You should have all the drivers on a CD that came with the system; otherwise, go to support.dell.com and download the drivers from there. Note that some drivers are part of Dell's ControlPoint software, so you might want to install that; be warned though that the Connection Manager (which installs separately) from this suite can cause nasty stuttering on Vista startup, and does not support wireless cards yet, so you may find it of little use yet. Many people also forget to install the RICOH drivers, maybe that's what you've been missing.

Welcome to the club!

 

I've installed the Ricoh drive, along with everything else off of the CD. I went to the Dell support site and downloaded the "correct" driver for the USH thingy - but then it didn't work (gave a load of error messages about not working on a 64bit OS - and yes, I did select Vista 64 for the download).

Re-seating the keyboard? I took the keyboard off, and put it back on again - it hadn't been properly fitted at the left hand side.

Using either Intel Storage Manager, the BIOS RAID controller or the Vista Disk management - non of them give me access to that exrta 70GB. Still - no big deal really.

I'll try the control point stuff later today - dog walking and in-law sitting allowing!

 

Oops, it just occurred to me that you may be talking about the Broadcom USH firmware update: That you have to run from a bootable device as described in the instructions; it's a firmware upgrade, not a driver, and as such should not be related to your unrecognized devices in Device Manager.

 

I have reinstalled my OS and I have a Broadcom USH left as an unknown device in my device manager too. How do I install it? link to file?

 

The Broadcom USH doesn't take drivers according to Dell techs.

To utilize it you install the security software.
1: Dell ControlPoint Security Manager Driver R206123 (for 64 bit Vista)
2: rest of ControlPoint

I suggest avoiding the ControlPoint Connection Manager. It's ginormous and as far as I can tell all it does is duplicate the functionality of the built-in windows connection manager, and the functionality of the BIOS options for which WiFi devices turn off with the switch.

Granted it lets you make that choice from within windows, but I'm thinking that setting doesn't really need to change very frequently.

(Also ControlPoint Connection Manager was what gave me audio stutters, but some other people had it from other components too. It might be different for 64-bit vs. 32-bit maybe.)

 

This is all true. I installed the control point stuff - and that gave me the drivers for the USH, and when I installed the connection manager it also caused the audio to stutter on start up (on vista x64).

 

Well, in theory, eventually, it will let you automatically switch various important configuration parameters depending on where you log in to your laptop, which is functionality that was part of Dell's QuickSet software before. Thus, if you are like me, using the laptop in more than one location (say, your home and your office), then the Connection Manager can recognize the changes, and select startup programs, your default printer, network settings, etc., accordingly. I really loved this functionality on my M90.

Having said all of the above, unfortunately, Connection Manager isn't quite done yet, and misses minor little things like support for wireless network adapters, which completely defeats its purpose for me (I use a wireless network at home, and a wired docking station in my office).

Dell has a KB article promising the missing functionality for "early next year".

 

hey congrats! Glad to hear you like your notebook.

I have a question what kind of 3dmark are you seeing on the 2700? Thanks in advance.

 

Dumb question (from me, not you) - how do I find out the 3d mark?