Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

Hi LPTP-LVR,

Thanks for the post. Yes, I noticed the possibility to make an upgrade to Windows .

I think I read in your previous posts that you had some problems with your screen at the beginning. Hope I won't get those ^^.

I Hesitated a little bit with the SSD beacause dell France has just give possibility to have SSD from 64 to 256 Gb. but It's still too expensive and a too young technologie to take the risk for me.

Bye

 

So...my new M4400 arrived. I turned it on to make sure everything is working, and all is good. The next thing I did is install Windows 7 RC. What is the correct procedure for doing this? So far, the automatic screen brightness doesn't work, and Bluetooth is disabled. For the Bluetooth, I assume I have to install some of the Dell network utilities. For the brightness, is this reliant on having the Dell NVidia drivers installed? I currently have the latest NVidia Windows 7 64-bit drivers installed. I will be wiping the whole system next week and replacing the OS with Windows 7 Ultimate (through my Technet subscription).

Incidentally, my Dell came with a plastic drive bay filler, which does make the laptop feel slightly more lightweight (I'm coming from a VAIO Z).

 

Hi dimension6

Visit Dell's support site, look up your system, and download the 'Ambient Light Sensor' driver. This controls the sensor, not nVidia's drivers (though for what it's worth, many people disable it because it's overly sensitive). Just grab the Vista version of the driver, it works fine in Windows 7.

 

Thanks for the response. I have already installed the Ambient Light Sensor drivers, and the keyboard automatically lights up when it's dark. However, the screen doesn't change brightness. I can see that it's correctly setting the brightness level in the software, because the Ambient Light Sensor popup displays that I'm adjusting the brightness "up" or "down" from the automatically set level. It just doesn't adjust the brightness automatically. Has anyone had this issue? I've read most of this thread, and don't recall anyone having this issue.

The bluetooth issue was solved by installing the Dell drivers (latest Vista Widcomm 64-bit drivers from the website). I'm surprised I had to install those drivers for device manager to even notice the Bluetooth chipset.

 

Well...the automatic brightness seems to be working now. Another restart seems to have solved the problem. The final issue to tackle is the fingerprint reader. I'll try using the UPEK Windows 7 software I have. It worked with the Authentec chip in a Lenovo X301, but I'm not sure if it will work with the Broadcom chip in the Dell machines.

 

Hey, I just order my m4400. Finally...

Just wondering is there a card reader built in?

Is there a way to lock it with those locks they sell? (I bought one from dell but, It's hard cuz' I couldnt really figure out what kind to get)

What's your usual battery life?

When I get it... should I fully charge it or what (what should be my charging routine... let the battery die and then recharge... or have it like constantly plugged in?)

Anyone get the FIPS Fingerprint reader? DOes it work good?

Why are there like 6 different buttons on this thing (next to the touchpad... what do they do?)

 

Just wondering is there a card reader built in?
If by "card reader", you mean Smart Card, then yes. If you mean SD Slot, then also, yes. If you mean PC Card and Express Card Slots, then once again yes.

Is there a way to lock it with those locks they sell? (I bought one from dell but, It's hard cuz' I couldnt really figure out what kind to get)
I'm not sure about the lock, since I don't have one. I'd suspect the Dell locking operates in much the same way as most other notebooks do.

What's your usual battery life?
With the 6-cell battery, it's around 2.5-3 hours with lower brightness. This can decrease significantly if you're taxing the system. The 9-cell battery should last around 50% longer.

When I get it... should I fully charge it or what (what should be my charging routine... let the battery die and then recharge... or have it like constantly plugged in?)
You shouldn't worry about it. If you want your battery to last longer, just leave it plugged in (once the battery's charged, the battery won't be used). Some laptops have a function that charges the battery to a set level (i.e. 80%). This theoretically prolongs the battery's lifetime, but isn't worth the decrease in battery life IMHO.

Anyone get the FIPS Fingerprint reader? DOes it work good?
Can't comment on this; I only got the Broadcom fingerprint reader.

Why are there like 6 different buttons on this thing (next to the touchpad... what do they do?)
The top 3 are to be used with the Pointing Stick (the middle button is for scrolling with the Stick), and the bottom three are used with the touchpad. The M4400 is one of the few laptops sold with a middle mouse button, and I think that addition is great. If you don't want to use the middle button, you can remap it to function as a left mouse button instead.

 

So what does the middle button do then... scrolling?

 

It can be used for various things, depending on the application. CAD software often uses the middle button, and Firefox uses it for various things (i.e. open in a new tab, scrolling).

 

Oh, alright. Thanks. I can't wait for this thing to come in.