Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

Hard to tell from the photo which part needs to be repaired. If it's just some missing insulation you could probably jam in a bit of electrical tape. Or maybe a piece of heat-shrink tubing. Otherwise I'd just get a new power supply. I have 3 Kensington K33403s (home, office, and one in my laptop bag). The J tip works fine. (I also use these to power my HP dv5z and Asus M6Ne at home. Different tips of course.)

 

I'm running ForceWare 196.34 from LaptopVideo2Go.com.

The only problem is that, when connected to an external display, the PowerMizer does not kick in.

Even so, idle temperatures hover around 56C.

 

Thank you for the information very much I have installed 197.16 from oficial Nvidia site and Performance mod for the driver. Now I have all features enabled.

From the moment of loading the CPU temperature makes 46 degrees, and GPU 62 degrees.

But I guess that I should make an Alsil5 or copper mod to get a lower tepmepature... I did not think that I should make any mod to the new laptop from the stock

 

If you stick with the drivers Dell recommends you'll see lower temps, other drivers might give more fps but they have a downside.

 

I have tried official Dell driver for the GPU, but the temperature of GPU was the same. It also was the reason induced me to start to play with drivers.

 

There are a couple of 3rd party add-ons for these drivers. One is just a "Powermizer Switch" and something called "nHancer" that might help as well.

 

I've been having problems on a, more or less, regular basis with the USB ports on the E/Port Plus dock failing to reactivate after a longer time of inactivity.

Notice that I said inactivity and not sleep or hibernate.

I went to all the power settings and changed the USB Selective Suspend to Disable for all A/C Power settings.

I'll post the results at some point, but any feedback would be welcome.

Regards.

4/9/2010 - So far, so good - USB ports are behaving properly...
4/11/2010 - No problems to report and I did leave the machine idle while docked...

 

I recently bought a M4400. My impressions are positive.

I bought it basically for the screen. The screen is a WUXGA 2CCFL and I'm pleased to have received an LG panel. I eyeball-estimated the contrast ratio at between 350 to 400:1 compared to my Motion Computing LE1700's 500:1, and then I saw a post quoting Dell's claimed spec of 400:1 for the WUXGA 2CCFL. Daylight usability is decent with the brightness cranked up all the way, but you have to face into the sunlight, and then it can be kind of hard on your eyes with the large difference in light from the screen and the sunlight, plus your pupils dilate, making the screen seem darker than it is.

The Dell website did not have WUXGA as an option for the M4400 (I know it did at one time, but not anymore), so I had to call to get WUXGA. But in the course of trying to verbally convey the configuration I wanted, I forgot some things. So I bought a backlit keyboard and bluetooth card and installed those myself. Someone in this thread said you cannot adjust the brightness of the backlighting, but that is wrong: you can do it in ControlPoint.

I also installed an Intel X25-M G2 SSD (80 GB). It's so fast that I often choose to shutdown instead of having the M4400 sleep. I bought a modular bay off eBay that could take a 2.5" drive, so I moved the stock 160GB hard drive there. It's just way cool to be able to hot swap a DVD drive and my 160GB second hard drive. If you go this route, note that only some modular bays have the push button release (which comes in handy) and the modular bay from Dell only takes 1.8" drives, so you probably don't want Dell's.

Reinstalling Windows 7 64-bit onto the blank SSD was a breeze with the M4400's recovery CD. I didn't run into much trouble installing drivers and whatnot. For now I'm keeping Windows 7 on my second drive too, in case I need to boot there for troubleshooting. For example, I tried a class 10 SD card and it was dog slow, so although I think that's probably normal, I'm going to try booting to the old drive so I can double check with Dell's factory setup.

Speaking of SD cards, they're hard to get in and out of the slot. No trick there, I assume?

I bought my machine without a fingerprint reader (after hearing here that the M4400's fingerprint reader is basically worthless.) Instead, I bought an UPEK Eikon To Go USB fingerprint reader. I love UPEK's Protector Suite 2009 software, which handles website passwords efficiently. However, the Eikon To Go is not nearly as nice as a built-in fingerprint reader, because this USB device flexes, which interferes with the reading. Plus, you have to worry about where you left the darn thing. If you go this route, note that you can get a free version of the 2009 version of the software with any purchase of an Eikon To Go, but you have to go to the UPEK website and fill out a form.

Someone in this thread asked how you can tell if the CPU is throttling and I never saw a response. So, how can you tell? Anyway, my P8700 seems to be running fine. I guess I'll hit it and the NVIDIA 770M with Artic Silver 5 in the near future anyway.

 

well firstly, the computer will run as slow as an amputee horse when it downclocks. if somehow this isnt noticed, you can always go into the resource monitor in the task manager and look at the figures there.

the figure you're looking for is x% Max frequency. When mine downclocked (exhaust vent was clogged with dust) it refused to run faster than 28% max frequency

 

It is a great machine, but also a very complex one.

I'm using the RGBLED WUXGA display and I'm currently outside on an overcast day. My brightness settings are at minimum and it's perfect.

The fingerprint reader on my computer still works, although it's in a state where I cannot update the software to the latest (from Dell). I may have to contact Wave Systems Corporation and see if there is something they can suggest to get the software to update.

It currently still works, if I choose to use it.

As far as the SD card slot, inserting/removing an SD card does a number on my fingertips. I would recommend using a penny, especially to remove a card. Just be careful not to scuff up anything around the slot.

The mechanism may loosen up with use (wishful thinking)...

I would also monitor my video card/system temperatures before jumping in and doing the thermal paste mod. It may not be necessary.

Good Luck!