Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

what's new in it ? is there any changelog ?

 

Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
1. Added support for Intel(R) vPro(TM) configurations.
2. Fixed issue where USB PowerShare might keep a device powered when entering Standby.
3. Improved the discharge algorithm for systems with two batteries.
4. Fixed low performance issue in XP64 with 8GB memory after S3 resume.
5. Added SMBIOS support for reading/writing Password Changes option.

 

I just checked the sites of the 4 major panel manufacturers (AUO, Samsung, CMO, LG) and there are only 2 8bit (xVA or IPS, but I would say IPS because both are made by LG) panels available for notebooks: LG LP171WU5 (17'', 1920x1200, RGB LED backlight) and LG LP201WE1 (20'', 1650x1080).
I guess the HP 8730w Dreamcolor and the Precision M6400 use this 17'' LG panel.
Maybe LG are now developping a 15'' 8bit panel with RGB LED, if yes it could be the one that will be used in the 15'' Dell Precision (and that would explain why it's still not available).

If you go here you can see that some Latitude/Precision panels have better viewing angles than others, but they are all TN panels.
The 15.4'' WUXGA (2CCFL) panel also has a much bigger gamut than the others, but again, it's TN.

EDIT: unfortunately the 17'' and 20'' LG panels might not be TN after all, more info here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4042065#post4042065

 

Hello
Well, I've got one
Yupeee !!!
I have one question.
I want downgrade from Vista to XP.
Where I can find SATA driver for hdd - it's needed during installation of WXP.
Is Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver good for it ?
I don't have fdd - can I do it with nLite only ?

Klamerek, Poland

 

To those with downclocks

Fix is to roll back to a03 for now, that works for me.

 

Hey dudes, i own my M4400 for one week now and im still fighting with the FX770 graphics device.
I have the same problem with the throttle after ~20 mins of gaming.

i tried all bios versions from A03 to A06 and several drivers from the Dell-Homepage, the Cuda drivers from LV2GO.com and the normal drivers from LV2GO.com.
So maybe some of you who aint got this problem can tell me what bios/drivers and so on they got?

PS: i8kfangui says the CPU is at 38°, GPU is at 51° and fan is at 5000rpm when it comes to throtteling

 

Have been using a coolslice for the last couple of days.

Temps in general use are much more consistent,that is office,surfing,3d modeling etc,it does its job on your lap or on soft surfaces like bed sheets and the like and heats up far less,and shows generally less fluctation than without it.......I really like it for this reason,and you can position the notebook anyway you like on your legs or wherever without bothering about ventilation.

Downside is that it raises the GPU and CPU temp when playing games by around 4 degC each,this is sort of understandable when it makes the notebook draw air for cooling from the opposite side of the notebook,through a relatively thin area in between the notebook and coolslice and is obviously warmed by the bottom of the notebook before being drawn in by the fan,it does seem to lower the ram temps a bit in the process.

Max temp on GPU is 84 degC and CPU 52 degC on mine so far with the coolslice fitted.

Fit and finish is excellent,and it basically becomes a part of the notebook when fitted and I will probably just leave it on the whole time unless summer brings some radical increases in temp.
It adds around 1/4"[6mm] to the thickness of the notebook,and from memory makes it roughly about the same as a vostro 1500 I had in base thickness....this doesn't bother me at all as it is far more comfortable to use for me being largely a lap user.

 

I have just made a 4 hour gaming session on a03 and i still do get some kind of downclocking , it took about an hour and a half, dcp crashed when it happened. About 30 seconds after i alt tabbed back and it runs fine again but still downclocks periodically it seems.

At least a03 controls the fan here on a06 the fan spins full speed all the time after those gaming sessions, i also tried different drivers on lv2go with not much improvements.

 

Your GPU isn't going to downclock at 51 degC,I8kfangui will not display the correct GPU temp unless you use the offset tool in the options to match the temps to ntune. .

I use the standard dell 176.26 drivers and A02 bios.

How do you know the GPU is downclocking? different games?

 

Nice to see, that im not the only one.
In addition i have some more points who make me believe, that its not a problem of heat:

1) I can play Hellgate London for several hours without any problem
2) I can play NFS: Most wanted for hours without any problem
3) When i play CnC3 Tiberium wars it takes about 1 hour to throttle, depending on the mix of units and depending on the map
4) The first game i got the problem with was Stalker1 (not clear sky) in fact the most actual game i own (i dont like crysis... )

Based on that information i think it might be as a guy ~15 pages before mentioned: the VRAM got a bad management and loads lots of textures without deleting old textures so it comes to an overflow or something like this... just my 2 cents

I querried the Dell support Germany by mail and will translate the important replies and post them here.

/edit: i dont have a coolslice, but i use a box with about 1 inch height and put it between tabletop and the 6cell battery.