640m/e1405 Owners Lounge

Mine still hasn't arrived yet so I'm going to live vicariously through those of you who already have yours.

Feel free to post your likes and dislikes, pictures, problems and anything else you want about your laptop.

 

Love mine, with the extended battery I can use it all day without switching to wall power. The first screen I had was matte, and I believe it was an optronics AU brand model, it had a horrible viewing angle and was almost unusable. Dell agreed the screen was a problem and swapped it for a glossy one. LOVE the glossy screen, very high quality for the price.

Post-that, no other problems so far! Great machine, makes my life a whole lot easier. Keyboard is the right size for my hands, comfortable to type, lots of power to spare for multitasking.

Mine is a Core Duo t2300, 512mb, 80GB HD, standard dell wireless card.

 

I don't have a e1405 but the clients I have ordered it for love it and have no complains

 

LOVE IT .. have had it since 11/29/06 .. great machine .. True Life screen is wonderful .. was hesitant about small font size etc .. but it's perfect .. great battery life with the extended battery .. very portable, and not that much smaller than the 6400/1505 ... you won't regret pulling the trigger and purchasing this laptop .. CW

 

It's an absolutely fabulous laptop... I got mine with a vista upgrade on October 26. Love the battery life...core 2 duo, centrino... great WXGA+ screen, big hard drive, all the ports I need are there.... all at a very reasonable price!

 

Glad you guys like yours... feel alot better now. I find it hard to believe that there are only 4 owners on the forums.

I can't wait to get my baby set up... What programs do you think I should set up on it?

 

I never was brave enough, even with all the help in these forums, to reformat my 1405 right out of the box .. sooo I just did the uninstall on lots of programs/bloatware and did a msconfig to eliminate a lot of things from the startup menu .. fast enough for me ..

I have noticed, as mentioned in a lot of posts, that initially on the first few disconnect times, that the battery showed about 8+ hours of power left .. that happened the first few times, now it shows about 4+ hours consistently as the max power .. granted I never let the battery drain to like 5% before connecting/recharging .. and I'm running at full screen brightness and wifi connected .. know those things drain the battery .. 4+ is fine .. but I just wonder why it originally showed such high capacity and now it's rather low .. by the way it's the extended battery .. the one that sticks out the back slightly .. any tips would be appreciated .. Thanks .. CW

PS .. also agree/wonder why not more people are purchasing or submitting posts for this laptop .. it's such a wonderful bargain priced, very well performing machine .. guess it's because I'm not a super gamer .. just a surfing junkie and occasional gamer .. but nothing that requires a mega processor .. mine is T5600/duo core/120 HD/WXGA+ .. didn't get the extended warranty though .. to keep the price down .. VERY HAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE !!

 

I'm not a 640m owner, just posting my comments. 640m is a very good product with regard to both size and price.

I have a 630m (same chassis) with Pentium M. I am pleased with its size, features and battery life. However it is about the time to move on to a Core 2 Duo. I will be getting a new notebook next month, but it won't be a 640m, because I had it with integrated graphics.
I bought mine last year thinking that I would be able to run Vista with Aero since back then GMA900 fulfilled Vista Aero requirements (DX9 with PS2 and 128MB VRAM), however Intel did not develop a compatible WDDM driver claiming that some hardware feature is missing in GMA900. I’m so disappointed in Intel gfx so I decided never to buy GMA products again.

This would have been an unbeatable notebook if it just had an ATI X series or nVidia 7 series gfx adapter.

 

I received my 640m/e1405 tue. The first thing I did, after I ran the system to see if it worked, was to delete the 4 partitions, Utility, XP, media direct, restore. Using my software of choice "gparted". I then put in the media direct 3 cd and used option #1, which automaticaly makes a utility 47MB, OS/C: and media direct 2gb partitions. Following directions that were included with the MD3 Cd, I put in the XP cd, rebooted to the cd, installed the OS, then following the directions, put MD3 disk back in from the OS desktop and installed media direct. Bingo it worked 1st time.

Reading this thread... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=88032

I noticed this entry about installing MD3...

"Preparing the Hard Drive for MediaDirect Reinstallation

1) Insert the Media Direct 3.0 reinstallation DVD, turn on they system and when the Dell logo appears, press F12 to select the DVD drive from the boot menu

2) When the recovery menu appears, you will have two options for partitioning the hard drive

a) Option 1: Creates the main XP partition plus MediaDirect Partition
b) Option 2: Creates the main XP Partition, MediaDirect Partition and a spare partition (recommended for advance users)
When you do this, the MediaDirect 3.0 disc will create three (four if you have a data partition) partitions -

1) diagnostic partition - 47MB FAT
2) OS partition - NTFS or FAT
3) MediaDirect partition - MD3.0 2.00GB FAT32

Once the drive is partioned, the user will be prompted to insert the OS installation disc. Select the option to reboot, press F12 at the Dell logo and boot from the DVD to load the OS.

Follow the steps in XP Guide to install the OS.

The instructions now say to insert the MediaDirect 3.0 disc to reinstall MD3.0 - however, I tried that and it didn't work. I assume it's because I had not yet installed the Cyberlink application, which MD3.0 is based on.

So I went ahead and reinstalled all drivers, applications (sonic and cyberlink), did the Microsoft update, THEN reinstalled MD 3.0 and it worked like a champ!"


I figured well what the heck i'll give it a try, well it worked for me, perhaps because I was installing XP?

Again.. I 1st used the MD3 disk to fromat the HD..2) I installed the OS..3) I installed MD3 through the OS. I did not install any drivers/updates before I installed MD3 I followed the instructions that came with MD3, which by the way was shipped with the PC along with the OS disk and several application/driver disks.

Also as a note. If ones decides NOT to install MD3, but instead just reformat the HD using the OS cd and install. You may have a issue with not being able to hear the "audio" when playing DVD's. Probably because of the missing codec provided with cyberlink. This is the 1st route I went, as i really had no need for MD3, but when I ran into the DVD audio issue, I went the MD3/OS routine and everything works great, and running 27 processes without the bloatware!

 

I received my 640m a few days ago. Very happy with the appearance and performance so far. I chose the 640m strictly for its portability coupled with long battery life, the latter being extremely important to me as I will be taking this on the road a LOT this summer.

I don't mind that it doesn't have dedicated graphics, as that would most likely compromise battery life and because I don't plan on switching to Vista any time soon. Vista is just too much of a resource hog at this point to justify the switch. By the time I'll be ready to switch, the quirks should be worked out and it will probably be more the norm, with 64 bit programs. At that time, I'll buy another system. For now, however, I'll be using this simply as a portable, backpack, go anywhere surfing machine. As such, after a lengthy comparison exercise, I settled on the 640m, because there simply wasn't anything else at the time in the price range.

I'm monitoring battery life closely, as many here have reported drastic drop-off in life a few days/weeks into ownership. So far, no changes. I will be calibrating the battery if I see a decrease in performance in the short run.

Rather than reformat, I've opted for uninstalling all the junk. For antivirus, I've installed NOD32, which I've used for a couple of years now. It has the smallest footprint of all the major AV players out there and performance is not hindered in any way. The only thing I'm still deciding on is whether to stick with Firefox, which I've used for many years too, or switch to Opera. We'll see.

Just to balance things out, the only negative so far is the difficulty viewing the screen outdoors in sunny conditions. That is not, however, a problem specific to the 640m or Dell overall, but to LCD screens in general. No perfect solution for that yet, but I don't give up easily.

 

My 640m is my first Dell, and its a great little machine. I traded in my ASUS W5F for the 640m and couldn't be happier. The high res 14.1" LCD is one of the best I have ever used - and after a clean install of MCE 2005, everything is humming along nicely.

My only complaint is the card reader seems a bit tricky to use. I am always half inserting the SD cards into the wrong places, and then wrestling with them to get them out. I think this is in part a design problem, and in part an id10t error on my part.

I have been dualbooting Mandriva 2007 with XP MCE and have had no major problems except you may need to install the intel i915resolution package to get the LCD working at its native resolution. Also, the card reader is not detected at all. Wireless and bluetooth working fine.

 

Ditto on the card reader .. very cumbersome and tricky to use .. I gave up and just went back to my USB card reader .. the one that came with the laptop is very flimsy and has an almost "I think I'm going to break it/or the card will fall into the laptop underworld and I'll never get it out" feeling ..

Love this thread for strictly E1405/640m users .. Thanks .. CW

 

I just got my 640m off of ebay. Love it so far! However, the person I bought it from reformated it and installed Windows XP without MediaDirect or partitions. Not knowing this I started installing all of my software and preferrences and spent about 3 days work. THEN I discovered that the MediaDirect did not work and asked the seller about it.
If I get a reinstallation CD from Dell, is there anyway I can put MediaDirect on this computer without starting over from scratch and loosing all my work? I have Norton Partition Magic so I can create partition space. Please give me your input and suggestions. Thanks.

 

santhosh833, why did you vote that you hate it if you own a Sony SZ? Oh wait... nevermind... I did that in the xps1210 thread... lol

 

Hi All,

I've had my 640m for about almost a month now. As soon as I received it I reformatted it. I didn't bother keeping the MediaDirect partition as it seemed to take as long to boot as WinXP, especially now with the reformat it boots very quickly. I have too noticed a drop-off in the battery, however I never actually measured it so I shouldn't comment.

I also have a Lenovo T60 for work use and I can honestly say I prefer the 640m. My T60 isn't widescreen and has a matte finish. That being said the T60 build quality is definitely better and more sturdy, but I don't travel with the 640m that much anyways so I'm happy. Also the T60 does have a dedicated video card, but still the integrated graphics on 640m seems to perform well. I'll be anxious to see how it runs with Vista.

My 2 cents...

WXGA+ screen
T5600 @ 1.83
1 x 1GB RAM
160GB
Intel WIFI
Bluetooth

 

Hey guys... I got my notebook a couple weeks back and didn't want to post preemptively on my thoughts and feelings.

At this point, I have to say it's a great notebook! I certainly wouldn't say I love it because it does have a couple drawbacks. First and foremost is the build. I'm not a big fan of the plastic material used as it both flexes and creeks in various places around the notebook. But that being said, there are few other sounds being emmited from the notebook other than the very occational whir of the cooling fan.

On a side note, I saw the 640m being used by the mythbusters on one of their television shows!

Edit: I feel like such a geek for doing this, but I found a picture on the 19th page of a google images search... but now I'm wondering if it's an e1505... take a look

 

It's an E1505. The A/C cord connects in the middle. It's on the left side (if you're looking from the back) on the E1405.

 

It needs a video card. I am not picky about which one.

 

14.1" WXGA Matte/T2300E/100GB5400rpm/1GBDDRII533MHz/Sony DVD-RW/IntelPRO
I love my notebook but it has a few problems - the palmrest is wearing off easily, because of my hands and the DVD-RW gives strange sounds when reading, not typical for the drive since im experienced some disks load some not...
But i still love it , spent 1 year of surveying in this forum and hanging on dell outlet.

 

On mains power the laptop is fine. Moreover it is fine when powering on with battery power only.

However what seems to happen is that after an indefinite period of time the screen, on battery power, will suddenly flicker on and off erratically.

This flickering can only be rectified by plugging into the mains again.

The 'rate' of the flickering seems to respond to the use of the trackpad; tapping the pad like a madman makes the flashing so rapid I can clearly see the desktop between each blank flash!

I formatted the laptop soon after I got it and everything seemed fine until I unpluged the power to move it the other day and nearly crapped myself when I saw it do this! I turned off power options like screen off-timer.

The only way of being able to use it on battery power during one of these episodes is to put it in and out of standby/hibernate or reboot. Sort of like it's resetting some internal off timer?

 

my 640m did this too until I found the culprit to be VLC Media player ... make sure you set the video output option to Open GL if you have VLC.

 

i have excaty the same problem and i it appeared since i put the new driver from dell website.
JHU i dont have VLC media player. i use a few programs and i dont know how it can be fixed. any help would be appreciated.

 

Unfortunately I don't have VLC player installed. Nonetheless thanks for your suggestion.

I'm wondering if maybe it's something to do with the setting in the Intel graphics panel?
I remember there was a power setting that went something along the lines of "max performance/max battery" and its dragged nearly fully to the right (max battery)by default. I may try changing this setting.

 

i tryed the power saving technology that you said but doesnt work to me.
i reinstalled the driver - no result at all. im using R148504.
i chatted with dell support , the technician said i have to replace motherboard and battery. but i dont think its hardware.


is there somebody who can give me a link or send me with the previous graphic driver for Intel 945GM around June-July Edition for e1405?

 

It is not the hardware, I had the exact same problem with NX7300 when I tried to use new drivers from Intel (HP doesn't offer any new drivers).

Check this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=115088

 

yeah, i had that problem and found out to be a driver problem if you can look for an older version of the graphic driver

 

I think I'm going to start merging these with Mike's e1405/640m Owners lounge thread of cut down on clutter in the Dell forum.

 

yeah it was software problem and i got it since i put the newest driver from dell website.
not its working without flickering.
also i think if there's a problem it will appear in first months. thats why i thought its software though the dell suppport wanted me to change mb and battery!

 

I discovered that by pressing the CRT/LCD key (holding Fn) seems to 'shock' it back into normal operation; no need to put it in and out of standby to quickly rectify it.

 

Hey can you let me know which older version of graphic drivers fixes this problem and where to download it from.

 

sure,
check my thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=115137
the solution is in the final post.
if you have any troubles write me , i got them on my HDD too, though im running Vista since yesterday...

 

Thanks for the tip. I also posted the solution and links to here on my blog at www.lucidpoints.com. Thanks again.

 

Please be advised that there is a BIOS update (A10) for the aforementioned unit. It is categorized as URGENT so feel free to drop by www.dell.com to get it.

FYI

 

just updated, thanx for the heads up.

 

I just got my dell 640m today, overexcited! but I knew what was coming as I deal with a lot of dell laptops, desktops and servers at work. But its because of the robustness of dell products, it made me get one for myself. Love it so far!
cheers!

 

Does the new BIOS update address the high-pitched noise?

Here are the fixes:

Fixes/Enhancements:
1. This update includes critical microcode updates from Intel.
2. Update support for Dell Wireless 1505.
3. Fixed Hard Drive Security vulnerability if Admin or System password
is not set.

Maybe the "critical microcode updates" fix the noise issue? Will try when I get home.

 

if you mean the noise from the CPU cores, it doesnt.

 

sigh, that's too bad. that stupid noise is what's keeping me from going over to Vista, where it's much more pronounced than in XP.

 

it doesnt bother me untill someone like you comes and says: hey do you hear that high pitched noise...
and than i start to listen with both ears for it
eh eh
I think Vista is atractive to put it when SP1 comes out. I tryed it and having much troubles with software and some not heavy games like: Age of Mythology.

 

I justed ordered a 640m... i hav a qn.. will the windows xp cd be provided or will it be a image on the hdd?

 

Neither. Some people have had luck getting a free copy of an XP re-install disc from Dell.

 

^ wth? serious it's by luck?

 

If you don't have it, just call them and request it. I did it last week for my 6400. I'm still on warranty.. I just told them that my OS was going bad even if I used Dell's advise to work something out.

It worked great hehe.. received the CDs (Re-install disc + driver disc, etc) the day after by Purolator

 

wahaha mine came with XP cd ^^

anyway i voted the 2nd chioce. Could be slimmer and run alittle cooler.. and i will really love it.

 

OK, after 2 weeks of moderate usage, I set it up like this:

1st partition (65g): Vista Corporate
2nd Partition (70g): XP professional SP2, xubuntu/fedora core6 (VMWare)
3rd partition (10g): common shared files (wiped out the recovery files!)

Works like a charm, good power, nice flexibility. I use VMWare for testing in virtual environment and to learn Linux and the best part is switching between these OS's without rebooting. Vista gave me a lot of problems though while installing XP, since it was shipped with Vista home edition. I upgraded it to corporate edition and then I partitioned it for XP. After installing XP, no bootloader!, boots directly into XP. The following article is very helpful, in such a case

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic26756.htm

cheers!

 

I bought 640M for my mom and it was delivered last week. I've been testing it and making sure everything works. So far everything is running smoothly. It's a great machine, however, I have a minor complaint. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but when the notebook is closed, the latches don't exactly have a snug fit? It's not a big issue, but I have a 6400, and I don't have this problem. Is this normal for this notebook?

 

yeah the latches on my 640m dont make the screen sit snug on the chassis. u can press down on the screen right? and if u let it go it pops up

 

Exactly! I was thinking that maybe I got a bad latches/chassis. I guess this is a common problem to 640M?

 

Does anybody have a grainy screen issue with the e1405? I just received mine yesterday and I was saddened to see how grainy the screen was. Anybody have this problem with their e1405s? Is mine a defective unit (I hope that it is so I can replace it with a nicer screen). Just for clarification, I got the unit with the WXGA+ Trulife glossy option.