Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

just ordered an M4400 (configuration at end of post). read this thread in its entirety. just finished it today. long read. spent the last week trying to decide between the M4400 and E6500. i am concerned a little by what i have read in this thread...mainly regarding the heat issues and constant fan running. bios A03 corrects fan and underclocking if i recall correctly. is there a later bios that also resolves these issues? not sure if i would be losing any needed fixes provided by later bios because i have to run A03 to prevent fan and heat issues. not a major deal really since i picked up the 3 year prosupport and nbd onsite service.

this notebook uses the ALPS touchpad? heard some rough things about it. a little concerned about it, but will just have to wait and see.

at any rate...i have an estimated delivery date of 5-18 as it stands now.

upgrading from an XPS M1330. nice little notebook...but simply too little for me.

• 224-4683 - Precision M4400, Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHz 6M L2 Cache, Dual Core
• 311-8808 - 4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Dell Mobile Precision
• 330-0825 - Internal Backlit English Keyboard for Mobile Precision
• 320-6719 - 512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M Precision M4400
• 341-6955 - 64GB Solid State High Performance Hard Drive, 2.5MM Mobile Precision MX400
• 311-8818 - FIPS Certified Fingerprint Reader for Mobile Precision M4400
• 320-6998 - Black Wide Screen WUXGA RGB-LED LCD for Latitude M4400
• 420-8780 - Vista Business 64-BIT Service Pack 1, with media, English Mobile Precision
• 330-0834 - 130W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Mobile Precision
• 313-6459 - 8X DVD for Mobile Precision
• 430-3362 - Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) 1/2 MiniCard for VPRO Latitude E/Mobile Precision
• 312-0729 - 6-Cell/54-WHr Battery for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
• 320-7047 - 15.4 inch Wide Screen WUXGA RGBLED LCD for Mobile Precision M4400
• 313-6798 - No web cam w/ microphone for WUXGA LCD for Mobile Precision M4400
• 989-5430 - 3 year ProSupport with NBD Onsite
• 430-3096 - E/Port Plus, Advanced Port Replicator for Latitude E-Family/Mobile Precision

 

See http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4748274&postcount=2273.

 

thanks for that. i recall that post now. wasnt thinking when i typed above. my apologies.

 

To anyone running x64 Windows 7 RC - all devices install fine?
If Dell drivers are neccessary, I assume they'd be x64 Vista drivers?
Any working fingerprint reader drivers for the x64 Windows 7 RC?
Thx.

 

I am running Windows 7 x64 RC1 and the drivers work fine I used quite a few dell drivers (yes I used vista x64 drivers) and only found one that didn't work, it wouldn't install saying the OS wasn't compatible. The fingerprint scanner driver works perfectly.

 

Good to know about the F/P hardware!
Off hand - remember which driver wouldnt install?
Did you install every x64 driver pretty much like a Vista install or just the ones that were not functioning in Device Manager?
And - did you install the Matrix Storage Manager/Driver at all?

 

Running Win7 build 7077 and everything is working fine. Don't have a fingerprint reader, but I used all of the default drivers except for the web cam and bluetooth - used Dell's for that. Didn't bother with the Intel Matrix driver at all.

It runs great, no issues.

 

Quick question about RAM in the M4400... how is it that the Precision has a 1066mhz FSB, but only has DDR2 800mhz RAM?

Is it even possible to drop DDR3 into it? Aren't the pin configurations between DDR2/DDR3 different?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

you cannot interchange DDR2 with DDR3. different configs.

 

That's what I thought.

Why the eff would Dell drop DDR2 into a computer that supports DDR3?