Precision M2400 Owner's Lounge

I'm very close to ordering my next laptop and I'm currently leaning towards the M2400 despite whatever issues stated here.. However, I'd like to know if there are any owners who have their system up and running smoothly (Audio, touchpad, sleep, video, other general OS issues solved?) to provide a sample setting/setup of their driver installs.. Might be too much to ask but only if you guys are free to share, that's all..

Also I'd like to know what's the main advantage of moving to 64bit Vista as my main software menu include photoshop, skype, office, VLC, MPC, Foobar and torrent clients (Thunder).

Also I'd like to know if any of those FATAL1TY RAM modules with slight heat dissipating encasements can be fitted in the machine? And if desktop and laptop DDR2 800 RAM's are cross compatible? looking at those low latency 4-4-4-15 RAM's..

Thanks for any input guys..

My intended setup would be T9400(P9500 if available from Dell HK), 4GB or 8GB RAM, LED screen, nVidia GPU, Samsung HDD (whichever size they have, cos they're generally quieter in my experience recently), 9 cell + 12 cell batteries.

 

I received my M2400. Using it as we speak. Nice build and feel.

Anyways when I first started it up it gave me a memory error. Saying something along the lines of "memory available is more than memory installed" and to resolve the problem I could try to reseat the memory.

My brother helped me open up the back and we just re-inserted the memory. Booted it up again and it said the same thing. Went into the bios and just rebooted again, then windows booted up fine. Now it's working. Anybody else experience this? Going to call Dell and let them know and see if they have any issues with this.

Another note I checked my properties of my FX370 and it says my memory is 512mb!! Anybody know anything about this? I'll get a picture of it when I have my camera.

 

For those who have the m2400, anyone test how long the 9cell battery runs for with wifi turned on and using the computer normally?

 

There's no point in 8GB let alone 4GB of RAM if you don't do a 64-bit OS. With a 32-bit OS, the system can only use ~3.5GB no matter what's installed. For general computing, 32-bit is probably better (things require less RAM, fewer incompatibilities) but if you have 4GB go with 64-bit.

I am almost positive none of the desktop RAM will fit this computer.

Waiting for my 2400 to arrive.

 

So here's a pic of my video card properties. I have the FX370 but it's saying it's 512mb instead of 256mb. Is it a glitch or some way to see if it really is 512mb?

 

It's not a glitch. The graphics card probably took 256MB of shared memory from your RAM.

 

ah ok. thanks

 

Hi,
I have just received my 2400 too. This is a very nice computer with a very robust feeling. Verything is quite sppedy and reliable. I have also chosen the downgrade to XP and I really appreciate my life under XP with this laptop.
But in France we do not get the XP CD when we choose the downgrade, only the XP CD. So, first thing before any operation, I have saved a disk image of the computer to be able to restore to XP if necessary. It is a pity, nevertheless, since we pay quite an amount for the downgrade option...
Dell is eing cheap on this point. Also, I have not received any single manual with this laptop. You can download them on the support we site but they are quite genric and not very useful... (I had to make tests in oder to find the function of some new icons on the function keys, since I have not been able to find any explanation in the documentation)...

Another strange bug of the ordering web site: the default plug on the form is set on the UK standard and I have received this unusable plug since I was not vigilant on this point (I was using the website for French universities...). This bug has been present on the web site for at least two months since I have learned that another colleague of mine had the problem two months ago... I use an international adaptator while waiting the French plug...

 

Hello,

I have another question concerning the touchpad. Is it and ALPS one? Or a Synaptics one? Do you think that we can install the standard drivers from the manufacturer of this touchpad? I am missiong some of the functions I had on the synaptics touchpad of my preceding laptop. I can always get to used to it of course... Any idea?

Regards,

Murat

 

It is Alps.

Take a look into the touchpad drivers thread. Update to the newest drivers listed there and follow the directions to get all of the Alps options back for the touchpad. You have a lot more options then, but you need to reverse the registry change after you finish.

Greg