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Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

Discussion in 'Dell Latitude, Vostro, and Precision' started by BatBoy, Oct 14, 2009.

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  1. Goren

    Goren Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    Hmm I'm noticing that all the latest driver updates are causing more problems than fixing.
     
  2. Red_Bull

    Red_Bull Newbie

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    same problem nvidia driver 305.xx system crash

    258.96 works fine
     
  3. oldcartfan

    oldcartfan Notebook Guru

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    There's threads about this kind of problem on this forum.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...chpad-freezing-lessened-toshiba-driver-3.html

    One of many suggestions to possibly fix the issue:

    Go to "Control Panel" -> "Mouse" -> "DELL Touchpad Settings" -> "Touchpad Settings / Pointing Stick Settings", and turn off "TouchCheck" by unchecking the checkbox before "Enable".

    IF that doesn't fix it, might try another driver. The generic Synaptics touchpad driver has worked for me on other systems with finicky touchpads. (see the thread linked above for more ideas)
     
  4. oldcartfan

    oldcartfan Notebook Guru

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    Implies to me that nVidia probably isn't doing a lot of regression testing of their drivers on Quadro FX 770M (or older) chipsets for the latest releases.

    I might be wrong, of course, that's just a guess. But when you see everyone with similar hardware start having the same kinds of problems all at once...that's often the root cause.

    The release notes for the latest nVideo drivers say they are still supporting the Quadro FX 770M. But are they really? Wonder if folks using newer Quadro FX chipsets are having the same problems? If not, then nVidia might have broken something in the driver for older chipsets.

    I noticed on the nVidia driver download page, they reference certain Dell updates that should be installed first on certain Dell laptops...but I don't see any listed for the Precision M4400.

    (Haven't upgraded to a newer driver, so I haven't seen the problems myself.)
     
  5. whyirishman

    whyirishman Newbie

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    I've messed around with my m4400 and various forceware revisions lately.

    After scouring the interwebs i ran across some threads pointing me towards the systems firmware. Stating that there was supposed to be a firmware update for the dell m4400 and that at some point someone (not sure how high up the food chain) at dell confirmed that it was in the process or releasing a update to the bios to prevent these BSODS.

    I love my dell m4400, but i have to say what i found out is really discouraging. Shortly after the pledge to update the firmware a "new" revision of the firmware showed up on the dell website, that was removed almost immediately after it was added. The old firmware was then refreshed with a new release date, with no revisions, just an updated release date ( guys?). Still, I cannot update my nvidia drivers to current, which really irritates me. But i feel like the culprit is dell, not nvidia.
     
  6. trueg

    trueg Notebook Consultant

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    I'm in the same boat with my FX 770 and Win 7 64bit. Kept having crashes until I downgraded to NVidia drivers 285.62. It's not that big of a deal really. It's highly unlikely that newer drivers offer any kind of performance improvement.
     
  7. scajjr2

    scajjr2 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Going to be upgrading my son-in-law's M4400 from XP to Win 7. Boosted the memory from 2 to 4Gb, have downloaded the drivers from Dell (will I need them or will Win 7, SP1 and running Windows Update take care of them?). Read through the Win 7 on a M4400 thread. Anything I should be aware of before I start?

    Sam
     
  8. oldcartfan

    oldcartfan Notebook Guru

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    My M4400 came from the factory with 4GB RAM and Windows 7 Pro SP1 32-bit pre-installed.

    I think you will find Windows 7 32-bit works well with the M4400. (I cannot comment on the 64-bit version. Haven't used it myself.)

    All of the Windows 7 drivers on my M4400 were the factory default. I've purposely avoided upgrading things that aren't broken, moving to the Nvidia driver for the FX770 latest release, because of the problems noted earlier in this thread.

    All of my other updates have come from Windows Update, not Dell.

    Also I am running Windows Live Security Essentials for my anti-virus, and the usual settings for "safe" web browsing, not using Internet Explorer if possible and no Outlook mail client. That has kept it "lean and mean".

    The one thing that I have thought about removing is the Dell Control Panel (DCP) application. It came factory installed. You can read threads on here about the pros and cons of using DCP. Otherwise, my M4400 had no real "bloatware" when it showed up. I give Dell credit for a good job on that.

    As I said, the system is very good at this point and I don't intend to tweak it much or break something.

    Only run the Windows Update on it and it's very stable.....that's been my experience.
     
  9. Xcythe

    Xcythe Newbie

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    I believe the latest nVidia driver package that I can use without fault is 285.62. I tried buttloads of drivers and tweaks, even modded ones. I have an M2400 also and this driver works great there too. Using this driver and replacing the foam insulation inappropriatly called 'a thermal transfer pad' with a viable heat transfer solution; copper shim and thermal compound, put my Precision's operating like they are on linux, NO BSOD's. Amazing, even w/ windows outrageously retarded document-management "Best-Effort" bloatware these two computers sing. and Yes, I use Win7 64 ULT on both, the 4400 has 8G RAM and the 2400 has 4G.
     
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  10. du0wow

    du0wow Notebook Enthusiast

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    is there any way i can undervolt both my QX9400 and the FX 770M GPU? the machine is running hot, throttles when i play games (mostly StarCraft 2) and i don't want to use a cooling pad
     
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