Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

Thanks for the reply. I considered the QX9300 and while the extra cores would be nice, the extra heat, power consumption, and cost compared to a P9600 are not.

 

I put a Crucial M4 64GB in my m4400 and moved my old 250GB to the drive bay (using a Thinkpad adapter).

I'm still running the P8600 that came with it when I bought it, but I applied AS5 to both the CPU and GPU last month. I've considered upgrading, but going from 2.4 to 2.6 GHz wouldn't be noticeable.

I also picked up a 9 cell battery off of eBay for $40 (with shipping) about 1.5 years ago and it still lasts about 2 hours. The original 6 cell only lasts 10 to 20 min.

obviously the battery is very useful. The SSD helped with boot up times. The AS5 helped with my GPU overheating in games, it made a big difference.

TrueG

 

M4400 || T9800 || Quadro FX 770M || Windows 7 Professional 64-bit || BIOS A14

Received this (used, obviously) notebook a few days ago, I'm not very techie and would be very grateful for advice re some problems.

No user manual, I downloaded "Setup and Quick Reference Guide" but it's not been helpful for these problems.

Quadro FX 770M - "Generic" Windows drivers are installed, I don't have nVidia settings when I right-click on desktop, can only adjust resolution. The screen is very dim, I adjust that via keyboard but have to do it every time it's booted up.

I have found this page of downloads for the Quadro driver, but Googling has also found problems with BSODs when the nVidia driver is installed. If it is recommended that I use the Dell/nVidia driver, could anyone tell me the precise one? And how to go about it?

I have attached a screeshot with the possible drivers highlighted.


Sound recording - In ControlPanel/Sound, I have the following (disabled and disconnected devices shown):

Playback

Speakers - High Definition Audio Device - Default Device
Speakers - High Definition Audio Device - Not plugged in
Digital Audio (S/PDIF) - High Definition Audio Device - Ready

Recording

Microphone - High Definition Audio Device - Default Device
Microphone - High Definition Audio Device - Not plugged in
Microphone - High Definition Audio Device - Not plugged in

I record webcams with Debut Video Capture, obviously it cannot record the sound because only the microphone is available for recording. I've no idea how to "insert" the speakers

I can just about live with the non-Quadro graphics, but if recording from speakers is not possible I shall have to send the notebook back for a refund, so I do hope someone can help.

 

First, I would definitely install the latest Nvidia drivers from dell.com (specifically for the M4400). I find them to be absolutely rock solid stable, and they seem to keep the system running cooler, and are specifically certified for the M4400. Though the most recent Nvidia.com drivers may perform better in some situations, the dell.com drivers are really better (and I have never had a single BSOD with them in a few years).

Second, you should definitely install the audio drivers, what you have is Microsoft-defaults. The most recent drivers can be found on the M4400 page, and you can also install the sound drivers from the M4500 or M4600 (at least, I have).

In fact, aside from the video drivers, I've installed the security suite/drivers/etc from the M4600.

As to your recording problem, I do not think that's driver related at all. In fact, I've never seen "speakers" listed in the recording devices. Pretty much what the software you're using does is NOT use the speakers as a recording device as far as drivers and Windows is concerned. I recommend you 1. install the right drivers, and 2. try again, making sure you've configured the capture software correctly, as they are not related.

Michael

 

Yes, if you install the correct audio drivers, you can use the microphone built into the laptop or a microphone connected to the microphone port on the right.

For graphics drivers, you can use 285.62 (not newer) directly from NVidia or 189.92 from Dell.

A very important note about using 285.62. GPU scaling is not supported with the NVidia drivers. The GPU runs as 500 MHz all of the time. When you use the Dell drivers, the GPU frequency scales betwwen 275, 400 and 500 MHz based on load keeping both the GPU and CPU cooler. I switched once I realized I couldn't get frequency scaling working with 285.62.


TrueG

 

Thank you very much Sykosoft and trueg, I'll study what you have advised and come back if I have more queries.

I managed to get the sound recording going (though the volume is rather low) by telling the microphone to listen to the speakers or stereo mix - can't remember what I did now, so much reading and faffing was involved My recording software has recorded from speakers on all 3 other laptops I've used it on. I was thinking of getting a little jack-at-both-ends cable to connect the microphone and speaker sockets, that's another thing I found thru all that reading.

Am dismayed to see that the Windows Experience Index is 1 (ONE!) - because no graphics memory is detected. Hope that will be rectified when the correct driver is installed.

Also dismayed to find that the Print Screen button is an Fn key, I'll need to grow another arm to use all the hotkeys I need for recordings and screenshots

Thanks again to both of you

 

Hi all.

I came here from google, getting some info about the BSOD and the drivers of our fx770m graphic card.
I have now the 189.92 version, from dell.com, but i want an upgrade because i miss some options/tools, and maybe is added in the newest version.

I just entered in dell.com -> m4400 -> drivers, and i have been surprised about a new "urgent" : "NVIDIA SECURITY PATCH" , in the video card section. Is completely new, released 2 weeks ago. The definition says:

"Patch for NVIDIA drivers 178 forward, includes recommend security update. Confirmed no loss of functionality for drivers release 256 or later. Dell machines shipped in 2008 or later. Please see read me file for additional details on use with earlier drivers and install instructions."

Did someone try it? maybe with that security patch, the new drivers runs perfectly. Maybe, is finally the solution.

Serpao

 

No, it appears to be an update which changes which options are shown in the control panel not an update that allows us to run drivers newer than 285.62.


TrueG

 

Ty for the answer. Btw, where is said that? i mean, in the definition there arent anything about the "control panel, options shown, etc..", how do u know that then?

 

The same security update was released to other manufacturers as well. The release for Sony has a bit more information about what it does.