m6400 try to find a replacement for the "BRICK"

Hi all,

As most others I was expecting a big AC adapter coming with my m6400 but when I received my notebook and opened the box I saw the BRICK and was a little bit schocked about the size.

I still don't understand why Dell is not willing/able to ship a smaller adapter with this high end notebook. I'm sure a smaller adapter will cost more money but they should at least offer it!

I also bought a Docking station for my m6400 and the big surprise is that the AC adapter that ships with it is less powerful (I think just 130 Watt) and muuuchhhhh smaller.
So I don't really understand how I can get the full performance of my machine if it really needs 210W?!

Questions:

How much power does the m6400 really need?
Has anybody already found a replacement for the BRICK?

Regards
Stefan

 

There are two different docking station. One with a 130 Watt and one with the 210 Watt. You way want to consider an exchange.

If I remember correctly, the specs in the data sheet list the power requirements at 150 to 210 Watts. However, to my knowledge there are no published guidelines on if/how this relates to how the system is configured.

I think someone in the owners forum reported using the 130W supply, but received a message about reduced something(?). The M6400 also has the ability to disable charging, so presumably that may help when using a smaller power supply.

I'm also very interested in a more portable power supply for travel purposes.

 

75W Quadro FX 3700
45W Intel Q9300
15W WUXGA display
135W --> hdd, wlan etc will need some power aswell, the 130W power supply will only work under light use.

Of course when you have other specs like...

60W NVidia FX 2700
25W Intel P8600
5W WXGA+ display
90W

... the 130W power supply will work even under load.

 

Hmmm, that makes sense. Seems the Dell sales guy didn't know that too....
Still I hope that there will be an option to the brick :-(

Stefan

 

I have the 130W brick and I use it when traveling. Works fine for everything except full load graphics. If you try to do graphics, it will be about 50-75% of speed you would have with full brick.

I have 3.06ghz CPU, 3700M, dual 7200rpm WD 320GB, WXGA+ screen.

You do get a popup warning you the adapter is too small, but you can turn it off.

N

 

Was there a new BIOS released for the M6400 as well? When I updated it lets my E6400 run on a 65w brick instead of the 90w without any performance hit, since I have a lower power configuration.

It seems that the update along with the new DCP made the notebook more intelligent as to the power draw of components.

Greg

 

Hey all laptop power supplies autoswitch voltage these days right? Just want to make sure before I take it to Australia since I haven't actually *seen* it specified anywhere and don't want to assume...

 

Check the label on the bottom.

My PSU say 100-240V, 50-60Hz, which means that it should work just about anywhere.

John

 

Cool thanks, yeah if your Latitude has it I'm sure the Covet would, don't actually have the thing yet is the problem, Dec 8 they say, just tryna cover all the bases so to speak. Man shame the thing is so big, kinda dumb..

 

Apart from the GPU, CPU and LCD; how much extra power is needed ?

FX 2700 : 60W
LCD: 15W
CPU: 35W
Subtotal: 110W

Will 20W be enough to power the rest ?