Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

I know the LED displays tend to look a little nicer, and I haven't taken a color calibrator to my 2CCFL display yet. Lighting seems -- alright at best. There's an odd light area about an inch or two above the bottom of the display, and the blacks are ... alright. I don't have a camera on me -- but there is a 2CCFL -vs- RGB LED comparison on this forum somewhere.

 

Yes, I would love an RGB LED (have read the comparisons on this site), but my current choice is between the white LED and the 2CCFL... Speaking in terms of the lighting and finish, is it going to hurt my eyes to stare at the 2CCFL display for long periods vs the WXGA+ white LED. As you can see in the configs, I would basically be accepting downgraded ram, hd, screen resolution and, wifi to choose the WXGA+ (but the WXGA+ system is also $170 cheaper and adds has back-lit KB and a webcam..).

Basically, if I get a sense that the 2CCFL Color Accuracy/Blacks/Lighting + Thicker Cover make it less usable/viewable, then I prob go with the WXGA+ and just self-install ram, and hd myself via $150 in Ebay purchases. Other hand, if the 2CCFL is a good deal improvement over WXGA+, I'll get it and basically forgo webcam..

 

Krashnicky, I was using a Kingston DataTraveler 4GB. But I have discovered/confirmed that there is an issue with Kingston USB keys and the M4400. I have tried several Kingston keys without success but on the other hand I have been able to pre-boot without any problems from other brands.

 

Regarding the BSOD due to "nvlddmkm"... (Trusted Drive Manager)

WiseFreeman, I have had the same problem myself. After searching this and other forums I happened to find out that disabling the Trusted Drive Manager software (doing a custom install of the Dell Security Manager software) actuall solves the problem. It has something to do with the drivers if you are running IRRT in the BIOS.

 

I think you are in the same boat as a lot of people here. If you look at my previous comments you'll see that I originally ordered WXGA+WLED and was unhappy with it due to low resolution and after 5 weeks have had it replaced with WUXGA 2CCFL. I thought I could make do with the low resolution, but in the end I couldn't - it really impeded my productivity, especially on vista where the chrome around windows seems to be pretty large.

I don't notice any particularly bad bleed at the bottom of the screen. I think there might be a slight dip in the light level there, but it's hard to tell. The CCFL brightness level is definitely lower than the WLED. However it is sufficient to use outside in daylight for basic work, and that is good enough for me. It somehow doesn't look quite as vivid or rich as the the WLED, but again, it's just normal like other laptop screens - the WLED is simply exceptional, I think.

The really big difference I noticed actually was the vertical viewing range. The WLED was better than anything else I've seen, you could view it easily with fairly accurate colors even when the screen was at an oblique angle. This really makes a difference when you have a few people around the screen and you're trying to show something to them. Or if you're watching movies in bed

The bottom line IMHO is that in absolutely all respects except resolution the WLED screen is far better than the CCFL one. But the resolution is just too low for me (I do software development work, so I have dozens of windows, editors, consoles all open and visible on the screen together).

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Well, the light bleed isn't anywhere near what I would call "bad", it's just the most noticable at the bottom (typically is on most notebooks anyway, no?)

Anyway, I got a question of my own:

I was screwing around with WAVE Embassy and decided the contactless smartcard reader needed to be messed around with, and I immediately went through my wallet and tried to see if any of my cards would take.

My JR Suica card* took, and I enrolled it. I did the preboot auth and that was all fun, but I'd like to unenroll it.

Simply clearing the System/Master Password in the Preboot Manager un-enrolls any smartcard attached to the Password, correct? If not, I'd like to know how to completely un-enroll that card.

*- The Suica card is the RFID fare/payment cards used on Japan Railways. The card's technically not "mine", so I'd really like to disassociate that card from my machine.

 

I have been able to boot from the following usb keys...

--Kingston DataTraveler 1gb, 2gb and 16gb models
--Sandisk Cruiser Micro 4gb model
--Corsair Flash Voyager 4gb model
--Patriot Xporter XT 4gb model

As you can see, I have no issue with the Kingston USB keys.
It may help to not have anything else plugged into the usb ports at the time.

Hope this info is helpful to some of you...
Cheers!

 

Another thing I was wondering is are there working, stabl 64bit drivers for all the stuff in my planned configuration?

so you don't have to go back a page:

 

I replied to your post earlier with the EXACT same advice, as I found the above problem last week on my M4400 as well - but I think my BlackBerry messed my reply up.
Either way - glad you figured it out! And what's with the cable making that sharp bend over the speaker housing flange? Definitely a bad design implementation there.

 

Which of the USB ports have you tried? I don't know if this would matter but have you tried the USB port with power with sharing enabled?