Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

hi all thanks for your excellent input on my dilemma. I dont think i have downloaded the wrong drivers though i understand its easily done. Maybe what i should do is what minibob has suggested and use safe reboot after flashing bios...? this might help the system cope and get used to a new bios update...cheers again for all your help

 

Hello all. This is my first post from my new M4400! WOO! I received this laptop without an O/S and also without any dell driver discs etc. I think it came from liquidation stock, although I'm not sure. I got it from a UK authorised Dell reseller but I think this particular laptop was one they have refurbed themselves. The price was too good to refuse though!

I've installed my copy of Vista on it and I'm not trying to download all the correct drivers and updates from dell. This is where i'm beginning to get very confused. If I go to the drivers and downloads page on the dell website I am presented with 43 files. How do I know which ones I need and which ones I don't need? I've tried to go through them and understand what each one does then only install it if I think it's necessary. However, I still don't have wifi or bluetooth working. I do have the trackpad, graphics, NIC, and sound working.

Is there some way someone can advice me which items I need from the 43 and if there is some sort of order that they should be installed in. Some say they must be installed prior/after another item and I'm kind of lost at this point. Under applications there are 7 options, and I've not installed any of them yet. I would like to end up with a fairly clean install and keep the bloat to a minimum so I'd really appreciate any advice!

Thanks a lot

 

Go to the Dell support site, enter in your service tag, and check "original system configuration".
Thats a good start as it'll tell you what your particular system shipped with.

 

Since the M4400 can be configured with different options, the files you download will be dependent upon which hardware you have. There are 43 files, but not all of them will apply to you. You really need to determine the specific configuration of your laptop to isolate which drivers you need. I'm not sure which tools can help do them, but what I sometimes do is to go into the device manager and then for the "unknown devices" I'll look at the vendor and device id string and then look that up on the internet to see what device it is. You should have a short list of "Unknown devices" that you have to work through.

 

I've been through the device manager and I've gotten rid of all the question marks. However, things are not as they should be. I am sure I am missing certain software. For example, to get to the my wifi I have to go to control panel first. On my other laptop I had an intel icon in the system tray that controlled it and displayed all possible connection points.

As far as inputting my service tag, am I being a complete dunse? Where is the service tag on an M4400? What form should it be in? I've tried scanning my system via the dell site but that doesn't work (no idea why).

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

Hi guys,
This forum is a lifesaver! I got my M4400 last week, loving it! (Though is the back really plastic? I know Weegie took it apart, but if it were metal then the resistance would be zero, i took a multimeter to it and never gave a reading, indicating plastic, or at least not metal).

I'm seeing some very strange activity from the wifi catcher. Firstly, where is the light for this? I simply have the wifi switch (which has no "momentary" position, just on and off), and a small button next to it. If i press this button nothing happens, but if i put the laptop to sleep and press the button, I can hear clicking from inside the laptop, and the blue power LED flashes at the same time as these very quiet clicks. The hard drive and other LED's flash too, randomly, almost like there's a fault.

How exactly does the wifi catcher work? Everything i've read on it indicates there's an LED somewhere. It's enabled in the bios! I'm using Vista 64 Ultimate.

Cheers
Mark

EDIT: Ok so the button glows blue when there's a signal, i've just seen it when the laptop was turned off. Strange about when it's in sleep though...

If I put the laptop on sleep, and only if the wifi switch is set to on, then the wifi catcher works. BUT, when the blue light of the wifi catcher is on, if i press the power button to wake the laptop from sleep, it boots as if it were just starting up! But if i wait until the light on the wifi catcher goes out and press the power, it boots as normal. Strange...I don't know why i try all combinations of everything when i get something new! This post has turned into a diary :\

 

Hi

my first post/question here. Is it possible to replace Dell Connection Manager with some other tools? It works reaaaaly strange. I had to disable, for example, controlling of Wi-Fi through this application - otherwise, each time when computer waked up from a sleep, wi-fi was disconnected (though it was connected before). I had to open DCP Connection Manager and enable Wi-Fi adapter there and then go to Windows Network Connections and connect to local wlan there...

I have dell 5530 hspa (the one with GPS), intel 5300 wi-fi and bluetooth. Bluetooth can be switched off (the radio) with a help of Windows Vista. But what about Wi-Fi and HSPA adapters?

 

I also think the control point software is rather clunky. Is there no faster way of seeing what wireless networks are available? Currently I have to right click on the DCP icon, then installed modules, then connection manager, then click on view available wireless networks (which seems to take forever by the way).#

On my previous laptop I simply right clicked the icon on the taskbar and then selected view available wireless networks. Surely that's far simpler/quicker/better?

If anyone has some advice how to make the process better I'd appreciate it. Isn't there some way of having intel manage it rather than the DCP?

 

i just use the intergrated vista system. works so far..

 

but isn't that just as clunky? How do you find a list of wifi networks? Do you have to go to control panel?