New Latitude E6540 review

Interesting, Turnbull2000. I recently used a Latitude E6530 with the FHD and I could see the grid pattern across the screen, especially in light colored backgrounds. This was the biggest drawback of the screen. In fact, when I first turned it on, it was visible. This is the screen door effect. Dell probably used same or similar screens for the E6540 but I'm not sure to say the least.

I'm wondering if the panel manufacturer is LG or AUO? I believe, according to the Dell email, that I received the AUO panel. Not sure if the LG panel is better regarding lack of a grid pattern or not. Just curious if you know the particular panel.

I will say that the screen is very bright and very usable.

 

Just ordered one of these today to get a look at. Not surprised to hear the screen isn't great, all of the Dell Latitudes seem to have dreadful screens. I've also been told the E7240 will be available to spec and order next week in the UK - you can order one now but only in poverty spec. I'm keen to see what the FHD screen looks like in that.

 

Can barely notice the grid pattern to be fair. But what is bugging me is the slightly dimmer right half of the screen that is visible on white. I fear demanding a replacement laptop will be a futile exercise, as the next one will be much the same.

 

Hi Turnbull2000, on my E6540 I also noticed the CPU never goes above 2.2-2.3GHz (I use Win8Pro). You also reported this, but deleted your message. Were you able to solve this? Thanks

 

I couldn't be absoloutely sure what is happening. When unplugged, I noticed it down throttles when doing light tasks, then steps back up to 2.2Ghz when under demand. I'm wondering if it'll only hit the advertised 2.7Ghz when under a heavier load?

 

I downloaded and installed Dell Power Manager 1.0 (available in the drivers and downloads section for the E6540 on the Dell support site). This gives you additional Power plans. Choosing the ultra performance power plan seems to enable turbo boost. When I run the CPU test in Cinebench 11.5 the Intel Turbo Boost technology monitor now shows CPU speeds up to 3.4GHz. Choosing the Balanced power plan again and the CPU speed seems to be capped at 2.3-2.4GHz.
Also I noticed BIOS A02 for the E6540 is available. One change in this BIOS opposed to A01 is "Fixed CPU cannot keep highest speed at some conditions with High Performance mode". I plan to test the new BIOS later, and report back if this influences the turbo speeds.

 

Ok, I've figured this one out TheByteBoy. It's simply part of the CPUs power and performance management called Intel Speedstep. If you switch this off in the BIOS, the CPU will default to 2.7Ghz.

 

Problem with disabling speedstep is decreased battery life. After upgrading to A02 I now see the following behavior. Power plan Balanced results in a max CPU speed of 2.7Ghz, so no turbo boost, but at least the maximum non turbo CPU speed. Power plan ultra performance results in CPU speeds up to 3.6GHz. It does not matter if the laptop is plugged in or on battery.

As for msata on the E6540. My E6540 has a BIOS entry "Minicard SSD device = None" in General -> System Information (both BIOS A01 and A02). The E6540 has room for 3 mini pci-e devices (2 half size, one is used for wifi, the other is labeled 1/2 mini, 1 full size labeled wwan).

The big question is, will a msata ssd work? From what I googled nobody has gotten a msata ssd to work in a E6520/E6530 so I do not have high hopes... I'm reluctant to buy one and having to return if it doesn't work.

I noticed this too. Using any combination of HD4600 drivers from the Intel site and catalyst drivers from the AMD site resulted in failure to complete the Windows Experience Index test and 3DMark 2011 would crash when starting. Using the Intel/AMD drivers from the Dell site solved all that.

 

There is a good chance it may work, the E7240 only has msata SSD drives as standard (no 2.5"), the E7440 has a msata SSD in an interposer in the 2.5" drive slot, and the service manual mentions removing the msata SSD from the full length mpcie slot. So it's possible in the E6/7x40 generation they have actually added the traces necessary in the pcb to support a msata SSD in the mpcie slot.

 

Yeah, I had to revert to the Dell provided drivers. AMD's latest set just wouldn't function correctly.

Also disappointed to discover that FSX won't recognise the 8790M, and instead forces you to use the inferior Intel HD. But this isn't a Dell specific problem, and is an issue across many systems that have Intel's integrated graphics. The most common solution is to disable the Intel HD in BIOS, but there is no such option on the e6540.