Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

@TrueG: Most appreciate - that would rule out the BIOS. I'll eventually get a spare
motherboard and proceed by elimination. Again, Thanks for the quick reply. Cheers - B.R.

 

I am trying to rehabilitate my aging M4400 to extend its life. I'm here to share my ideas and get suggestions. It's a P8700 system with Quadro FX 770M, Dell WLAN 1510, WUXGA 2CCFL, Windows 7 64-bit, bios A27.

When I bought it back in February 2010, I immediately added a couple of things I forgot in my order, plus a SSD since it was cheaper than buying it from Dell:

+ backlit keyboard
+ Dell bluetooth card
+ SSD (Intel SSDSA2M080G2GN)
+ Modular bay for the original 7200RPM hard drive

This year I added:

+ 8GB RAM (up from 2GB)
+ CPU undervolting via software (with CPUgenie)
+ Zalman NC2000NT notebook cooler, with cardboard mod
+ Downgraded audio drivers to Windows standard

I live in the North, so I have no air conditioning, so in summer I have overheating problems, since the M4400's cooling system is pathetic. (You know, I almost didn't buy another Dell. I've bought several other Dells in years past, and always cooling has been a major issue.) Undervolting the CPU (to 0.987v at max step, YMMV) made the system run much cooler, but it didn't completely solve the problem.

The Zalman NC2000NT did solve my cooling problem. Here is a chart to summarize:

Code:

               Idle    Prime95
             CPU GPU   CPU GPU
book          32  47    60  61
NC2000NT      30  45    58  59
NC2000NTmod   29  45    56  55

The line "book" is for my M4400 propped up in back by a book. The Prime95 temperatures are the maximum reached under stress starting from idle temperature. This was with an ambient temperature of 26C. I was surprised that the cardboard mod improved performance over the NC2000NT alone. The mod also increases noise by about a factor of 4. However, it also decreases the likelihood of the laptop's fan kicking into high, which is another 10 times as loud as the cardboard mod. The temperature reduction may not look impressive, about 4C under load, but you have to remember that the modded NC2000NT achieves its max temp without the help of the laptop's fan, whereas the NC2000NT without the mod or the book-prop both have the laptop's fan at max already before the max temperature. Surprisingly, even the area under the SSD is cool to the touch now (being quite hot before), even though it's getting absolutely no direct airflow from the cooler or even ambient airflow from the room. The palmrest is no longer uncomfortably hot.

The Zalman NC2000NT is giving me the confidence to upgrade the CPU. I have a Q9200 and IC Diamond 7 thermal compound on order. I think in winter I'll even be able to overclock, and then maybe next summer it will be time for a new computer.

Now last, but maybe most important, is something I discovered that may be affecting many of you. The problem was that under heavy loads the system would semi-freeze up as if it were downclocking, and yet the CPU/GPU temps were usually staying under 44/50, so it didn't seem to be from downclocking. I saw in the task manager that the sound driver had high CPU usage in these cases. Another symptom was the sound switching back and forth from headphones to speakers, and becoming painfully loud in the headphones, distorting and cutting out. I found an article that showed how to solve the problem, by uninstalling the Dell sound drivers (with the delete checkbox checked) and letting Windows 7 install its own. That actually didn't work for me the first time, but it did the second time. (The first time I just rebooted and it reinstalled a bad driver with "CODEC" in its name, whereas the second time I disconnected the Internet and then had it search for hardware updates in the device manager.) I also needed to disable the SPDIF device that Windows installed.

Edit: Regarding the M4400's infamous latency problem, I embarrassingly only just now fixed it on mine (though not for a lack of trying.) I used powermizer to turn off the video power saving and that did the trick, even with a hard drive in the modular bay. I am running the latest Intel Rapid Storage software (12.6.0.1033), and it probably helps to use the ancient sound drivers I mentioned above. Now I get no red bars in DPC Latency Checker!

Edit2: I disabled eSATA in the BIOS, and now I get no yellow bars in DPC Latency Checker, only green!

Edit3: Woot, upgraded to Q9200 (from P8700).

Edit4: Woot, overclocked Q9200 to 2.8 GHz (from 2.4 GHz) at stock voltage. This is definitely the sweet spot for my system. Temps stay under 80C under Prime95 run for hours. At 2.9 or 3.0 GHz, I can achieve voltage stability, but at that level the whole laptop slowly heats up and it can lead to a heat-induced BSOD.

Any other suggestions to squeeze some more life from an old M4400?

 

I've just done it (3.30 in the morning is a good time for me to be brave). It was easier to remove the existing one than to fit the new, backlit one, purely because I was nervous of "forcing" the tiny lugs at the front to fit under what they were supposed to fit under - but got there. I watched a demo on YouTube and they said that Fn plus right-arrow key activates the lighting, which is correct, but I was alarmed when the lights went out after a minute or so until I realised that was power-saving and that hitting any key brings them on again.

So, if anyone is thinking of fitting a backlit keyboard in place of a non-backlit one: go for it

 

(1)
Is it possible to fit an entirely different sound card in the M4400? Both of my Dell Alienware M11x (an R1 and an R3) Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit laptops will record from StereoMix, they have RealTek sound (M4400 has IDT, which doesn't provide StereoMix).

(2)
I don't suppose anyone knows an EU source of non-arm-and-a-leg RAM for the M4400. Mine only has 4GB (2x2GB), and 4GB modules seem to be gold-dust here in the UK. Buying from the US would involve 20% VAT + Royal Mail collection fee.

 

You of course can't replace the onboard sound, but you can buy a PCMCIA, ExpressCard, or USB sound card and then you can disable the onboard sound. A popular choice here is an used Echo Indigo IO in PCMCIA form, because it supplies high quality sound and does its own processing. They are relatively expensive on European eBay but dirt cheap on American eBay, so I suspect it would pay to import. I have an used Echo Indigo DJ on the way from American eBay. (It's like an IO, except it's like "OO", two outputs, no input.) When you buy your next notebook, it won't have PCMCIA, but then you can just sell the card on eBay. There are also ExpressCard versions of the Echo Indigos, but some complain that it's easy for the ExpressCard to become dislodged, requiring a reboot to regain sound.

2x4GB DDR2 SODIMM is 125 pounds from Amazon.co.uk. It's a bit more expensive in America from crucial.com, so what are you complaining about. I bought mine for 111 euros (95 pounds) back in October, so yeah, prices have risen. Are you sure you need the extra memory? 4GB is enough for everything but a few of the most demanding applications. Do you have a SSD? If not, adding the SSD would relieve the pressure on your RAM, as the SSD is so fast that paging is not a problem. If you already have one SSD, then consider a second in the modular bay, assuming you have an application that is a super disk hog, like PostgreSQL or Photoshop. I suspect this would give you more bang for the buck.

 

Thank you, Maiklas, for all that advice and food for thought!

My M4400 records webcams 24/7 but I could easily have to do a little video editing on it too (presently do that on the M11x-R3). It has a 750GB HDD but it's only 5400rpm - I have a 7200 one the same size, I should swap them. I won't buy an SSD for it until ~500GB becomes common and "affordable".

The laptop is actually doing what I need it to do quite well, I just thought I should have more RAM - but the sound card idea is great, I shall set up a search.

Thank you!

 

I suggest you buy a small cheap SSD for your system drive and move the big 5400rpm drive to the modular bay using this:

2nd Hard Drive Caddy DELL M2400, M4400, M4500 Modular Bay [DELL9-2BAY] - $44.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

(Or there are cheap versions on eBay. Just make sure it supports 2.5" drives.)

That's assuming you don't need the DVD or whatever is in the bay now.

 

Here is a comparison of two thermal compounds on a quad core (2.4 GHz Q9200) Dell M4400. The ambient temperature was 20C. All tests were done with the modded Zalman NC2000 I described earlier. Prime95 was used for the load tests.

	Idle(C)	Load(C)
Thermal Compound	CPU/GPU	CPU/GPU
- Cooler Master	46/55	99/64
- Innovative Cooling	38/46	76/60

The results are stunning. Under load, the CPU is 23C cooler with Innovative Cooling Diamond 7 (ICD7) compared to Cooler Master High Performance. And actually that is a vast understatement of the superiority of ICD7, because with Cooler Master's compound the M4400's fans were screaming at full speed at 99C to try to prevent the impending meltdown, whereas with ICD7 the M4400's fans didn't reach max or even the second-to-max speed. (But remember, there's a notebook cooler beneath.) Also, as far as I know, quad cores downclock at 95C, shutdown at 100C, and are only spec'ed to survive to 105C, so the Cooler Master run probably benefited from downclocking and nevertheless got into dangerously hot territory.

Cooler Master High Performance uses the traditional method of spreading a not-too-thick layer evenly over the heat sink, whereas ICD7 uses the blob-in-the-middle-of-the-core technique. Even if I made a mistake in how I applied the Cooler Master thermal compound (and note that I'm experienced), it still points to the superiority of ICD7, as it's hard to mess up putting a (pea-sized) blob in the middle of the core.

The CPU temps are given for the hottest of the four cores, which, as it turns out, was always Core 3. At first I thought maybe it pointed to a flaw in my application technique, but then I realized that the two hottest cores, 2 and 3, are the ones "downstream" on the heatpipe from the first cores, 0 and 1. The coolest core is about 5C cooler, and so ICD7's results would be even more impressive were it not for the bad heat pipe design by Dell.

Innovative Cooling Diamond 7 seems to be an excellent choice for heat-challenged Dell M4400's. I highly recommend it. Most consider it superior to Arctic Silver 5. (See the thread "http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/527204-artic-silver-5-ic-diamond-7-a.html".)

I got my Innovative Cooling Diamond 7 from a UK eBay source for 5.19 pounds plus 2 pounds shipping, about $11 shipped, so price isn't an issue.

 

I had my finger hovering over the Bid button for one of these, I would have got it for £55 as no-one else bid - but my thought that it would be over-kill for my needs got the better of me, or maybe it was my better judgement - I record very poor quality sound (and video) from webcams deep in the countryside streaming over narrowband rather than broadband

Anyway, I've ordered a Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro USB, it's much cheaper and I've seen a YouTube video where they record from StereoMix - plus it has an extension lead so that I won't have to worry about tipping up the laptop on my bed and breaking the USB stick!

I've been trying to install old drivers to give me StereoMix but it doesn't work on the M4400. It will be a huge weight off my mind to get the sound sorted, then I can progress to other suggestions you've made to upgrade my system.

I hope you realise that I hate you for having acquired a Q9200 - and yet you're such a kind chap, spending time on my problems, the ill-feeling can't last long

EDIT - Oh heck! After all the reading I've done, I've only just seen that you can't use the internal speakers, you have to connect an external one - that's what I'm doing already and that's why I want to change the dang sound card in this dang laptop!!!!!!!!!!!! I do not want to use external speakers, I just want to record from StereoMix.

 

My Echo Indigo DJ arrived. It's like the Indigo IO, except the Indigo DJ has two outputs and no inputs. So, I use the Indigo DJ for my sound output and the onboard sound card for mic input. In response to the post above, I think clemenzina similarly should be able to use an add-on sound card for the mic input while still using the onboard sound for the sound output, so that he keeps the sound output from the M4400's speaker.

Installation of the Echo Indigo DJ was a nightmare that ended in a Windows reinstall. I did ultimately succeed on my M4400 under 64-bit Windows 7 (as well as on my LE1700, same OS), so let me give you an installation procedure for the Echo Indigo DJ (or IO) PCMCIA sound card:

1. Create a restore point and save your registry too.
2. Configure your onboard (IDT) sound as you want it, because you may not have another chance. If it the hardware includes the word "CODEC" in the device manager, I suggest uninstalling with "delete drivers" checked and letting Windows install its own.
3. Uninstall your anti-virus. Avira in particular will block the Echo Indigo's registry entries. Reboot.
4. Download the Windows 7 Echo Indigo drivers (8.5 is the latest.) Run as administrator. It should complete fairly quickly. If it gets stuck part way, it might still work. Reboot.
5. Insert your card. If a blue light appears on the card, then select the Indigo as your default sound device under control panel and test it.
6. If it didn't work, remove the card, go to device manager, uninstall and delete the drivers and reinstall the drivers manually with the old "have disk" trick. Point to the drivers in C:\Program Files (x86)\Echo Digital Audio\Indigo. If that doesn't work either, try uninstalling/reinstalling the software and/or going into safe mode to uninstall the drivers before you try again. The hardware can be listed under Sound as "Echo Indigo" or it can be under Misc as "Multimedia Controller". Note that if you do have problems, it can sometimes take 20 minutes or so for the driver installation to time out naturally. It's better to wait than to force a shutdown.
7. Once you get it working, reinstall your antivirus and create another restore point.
8. Be careful about messing with the onboard sound drivers subsequently. When I subsequently upgraded the Dell drivers, the Echo Indigo stopped working despite still being the default sound device! I had to restore to get the Echo Indigo back.

Make sure you don't insert the card before installing the drivers! It was either that or Avira that put my system into a state where it would never accept the drivers; restore failed and I had to reinstall Windows.

* * *

Reinstalling Windows gave me back Dell ControlPoint. After I uninstalled Dell ControlPoint, I lost my OSD for the volume. Although it hasn't been mentioned previously in this thread, the program 3RVX is used by many with other brands of laptop who have found themselves in a similar situation. 3RVX is available from its author or softpedia.com