Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

I've tried Spore, Bioshock, Crysis and Call of Duty. They all run beautifully for the first 20 min and then the frames start dropping. I've tried everything and come to the conclusion that the heat the 770m generates is unacceptable for games. Actually, the single fan that is at the bottom of the nvidia card seems really small to me.

Would like to get feedback on what others have experienced with games. I know it's a business notebook, but the nvidia card should work to spec no matter what you use it for.

Everything is super stable except the frames. I've also heard that nvidia had some issues with texture caching in their 8800's and that they were working on a patch. 8800 users were experiencing a similar issue, because the card wouldn't empty the cache out and would run low on memory. Could be what I'm experience or could be bad thermal design. Ideas? Waiting on my new m4400 to arrive this week, so I'll update once I get it.

 

are you using any aftermarket laptop coolers?
wonder if that will help any...

dont intend on playing any high FPS shooter games but i do enjoy a good gaming session now and then...

 

20 mins? Well that sucks I hope I don't experience the same thing. I had a good chunk of gaming on my plans for this computer.

Guess when you want to do business work, college work AND gaming, the best choice would be a gaming computer which should be able to handle all 3?

** Also cpaek, did you try to install the 177.98 drivers from laptopvideo2go to see if it helps during gaming? Another thing, maybe try asking Dell why it's running at that performance? Sure, it's for professional work. But in 2008, every fairly new graphics card should be able to handle more than 20 minutes of gaming before toasting itself. That's my opinion anyway...

 

My apologies to you, Enduct. I opened my BIG mouth and stuck my foot right in there.

You were correct, that is a dual USB/eSATA port. My M4400 is supposed to be here next week. I have an external HDD that supports both eSATA and USB. Hopefully, it works with both connections.

Again, sorry for jumping the gun and speaking on a subject (dual port) I had no information about.

 

Yeah, tried those drivers too. Nothing works. You can tell the card can handle a lot of detail, because it plays really smooth for 20 min and then starts to de-throttle or run out of memory.

 

Hmm, that's kinda wottying. nVidia isn't very trustforthy these days it seems...
Any way, would be great if you could try some games on your new M4400 if it arrives.
Has anyone else experienced these problems?

 

You can try the 175.80 and 174.74 drivers also for XP and Vista. Those are known to be very stable. Make sure not to use their custom *.inf files if you can. There is a zip file that comes with some of their drivers called original_inf(s).zip. These are the original ones from the OEM. The drivers will be marked that they come with OEM infs if this exists. You will need to place nvdm.inf from that file into the installation directory and do a "Have Disk" install with the Update Drivers button to do this.

How are you and I♥RAM finding your screens, and which model did you happen to get? I am interested since I am getting a screen replacement and want to see how you find it? Any graininess whatsoever?

 

That's perfectly OK. I called the Dell reps about this also, and they said that it was a USB eSATA port, which means it is not a dual port after all. There are a total of only THREE (3) normal USB 2.0 ports. You were right that it is not a dual port, but not for the right reasons.

On a side note, I'm having some trouble opening this salsa dip. Can someone open the jar for me. Please!

 

Okay the back of the M4400 does not feel mag-alloy at all. I think the INSIDE chassis is fully mag-alloy and the outside is some great plastic. Except the "robust metal hinges"...which are so awesomeness for being so robust

The rippled back does not feel cheap at all, btw. The overall quality of EVERYTHING is absolutely brilliant.

 

I got the M4400. I can't tell how to find faults in the screen, help me out please? It looks flawless for now...

Also, how do I detect the manufacturer?

Thanks.