Dell Inspiron 9400 With Intel Duo Core Available (specs)

thanks alot for your help guys, but i think its fine now. I just system restored back to before I installed my firewall (black ice). For some reason, my laptop doesnt like the program and so it messed up...but now its ok

 

Not at the Dell Screen (BIOS) !
After the "Dell Screen" you should see a black Background and at the top of the screen a blue line with "www.dell.com" in it,
right now you should push "CTRL+F11" and the Symantec Restorer pops up.

My 2 Cents, don't drive yourself insane with the original Setup.
Reformat the system and build a new one, all the drivers you need are @dell.com

 

flame X: i'm glad your problem is solved...

email the black ice people and see if they can tell you how to make it compatible with your 9400.

as for mrxsmb:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=27037

link summary: Mrxsmb writes event log messages when a network is alive and well and when a system has connectivity problems

 

thanks alot for your help guys, i really apreciate it...the comp is working like a charm now that black ice is not on it.

While Im here Ill give a (very) brief review.

First Impressions: Honestly my first impressions werent so great...Boot up was slow and there were a tonne of icons/programs on the desktop. Uninstalling all of these programs and editing the "startup" programs quickly fixed this issue. Now the computer seems to be running pretty speedy and smoothly.

Gaming - Ive only managed to install Quake 4 on this machine, nevertheless I was very impressed. I put the game on the highest settings, and it held a steady 60 fps.

Looks/Overall Feel - Ill admit the looks arent so great...some may think that it looks cheap, but I didnt buy this laptop for the looks, I bought it for the performance.

Screen (WUXGA) - Probably the best part of the whole laptop. The screen is phenominal. Pictures are crisp, and colours are vibrant. I also love the fact that I can fit two mozilla windows on my screen, allowing for easy browsing. Fonts are not too small, and text is also easy to read.


Pros - Good screen, powerfull, media keys make a nice addition.

Cons - Not the best looking laptop, may feel cheap.

Overall - Would definitely reccommend this laptop to anyone...just be carefull while installing software (unlike me)

 

Hello guys. Thanks for a very informative post so far.

Now to my question. I have ordered the 9400 with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (from now on, only mce!). I live in Norway and on dell.no there is no option to have it delivered with mce, but after talks with my sales rep I was told that they could deliver 9400 with this OS.

My question is regarding what tv-tuner that are supplied? I'm not sure if the tv-tuner I will get is compatible with mce and if it is, is it also compatible with analogue tv-signals? My sales rep, and a couple of others I talked to, couldn't answer this clearly (to be honest, the lack of knowledge on this area on their part did surprise me). I was assured that it would work with mce and that it would not be a problem (but he couldn't give me the exact product name of the tuner). When searching dell.no I come across a tv-tuner from avermedia (AVerTV USB 2.0 Plus) which is NOT compatible with mce. When confirming my order, my sales rep said something about "avermedia.... dvb usb". The only avermedia tuner I can find that has dvb and usb are the "AVerTV DVB-T USB 2.0" -tuner. But this is a digital broadcast-only tuner, so it would not work with my analogue cabel-tv signals??

I'm worried that I'll be stuck with a tuner I cannot use, but on the other hand, why would Dell sell a tuner that is not useable? (digital tv through air isn't available in Norway yet). Does anyone know for sure what kind of tv-tuner Dell sells in europe/scandinavia and can fill in the blanks for me?

Any thoughts? If my sales rep had sounded very knowledgable on this area, I would ofcourse had be assured by his assurance that it would work, but I'm not.

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments.

 

What you need to do is restart your computer and go into the bios. Set the boot order to CDRom first. Put your Windows CD in and restart your computer. You need to do a fresh install of the OS without a doubt. As you said you removed a bunch of the preinstalled software it's likely that you deleted something you shouldn't have (or shared dll's or something).

You should plan to either use the laptop with the OS build from Dell or do a complete reinstall of the OS from the Windows CD (not the recovery disk). You are in the middle in no man's land my friend. Time to rebuild. Besides, it will be wayyyy better without all the extra dell bloat. IMHO

 

heh he said he already fixed problem
-------
My friend got the tv tuner on the 10th, it was listed as a system option and actually said it was for the MCE (i think that ment the remote would only work with MCE)

so i was kinda worried it wouldn't work without the MCE version.

Anyways, i will let ya know on Friday, if you don't get an answer before then.. Currently, my friend is out of the country.
(this also assumes they actually shipped him the computer as per last info

---
edit: and also there is no reason you couldn't shop for another TV tuner as it is external. 200$ cdn was awefully expensive but at the time i thought it was integrated.

 

thanks alot for your input, but Ive already fixed the laptop

 

Fabulous news, my order will be here before 5:00PM on Thursday!! It's in Calgary right now - 2 business days they say (I'm in rainy/windy Victoria). It was sent by ground delivery the whole way, so much for the rush delivery I was promised but oh well. I'll be having a nice conversation with the dell manager on Friday as she has promised to compensate me once I got the laptops. We'll see.

Very stoked though for now!!!

 

Awesome man! I think mine is in Calgary too... at least thats what I make of the tracking site, and since I live in Calgary, I hope I get it Wednesday. Mind you, it says "in transit" and depot as Calgary so I don't know if that means it's actually IN Calgary, or on the way to Calgary. Oh well, should be any day now. Now i'm going to have to copy over my everquest 2 data which should take a heck of a lot of space.

 

You will have it tomorrow before 5pm I would bet!!! I think I know how you are feeling about now - EXCITED..

 

Hey FlameX - can you (and anyone else who got their 9400 already) tell me if you got a Windows CD with yours like Fredrik did?

 

1. Why Does Dell underclock the Go 7800 so much compared to the specs posted on Nvidia?
http://www.nvidia.com/page/go_7800gtx.html

2. If the Nvidia site says the Go 7800 is supposed to run at 400mhz then why haven't you guys (who have tried to oc) been able to oc it to that speed?

3. Are there other laptops with this same card out and if so what are the specs on it from the manufacturer and/or what do people say about them? Is it just Dell that underclocks?

I just keep seeing article, preview, posts from all over the place saying how crappy the card is in the Dell 9400. Anyone else concerned?

 

You know, granted it isn't as good as the GTX... but it is faster than the 6800U which means it's the second fastest mobile card on the market. Don't ask me why all the sites are crapping all over it?

 

anyone have an opinion about the acer travelmate 8200 vs dell inspiron 9400 ? the acer seems cheaper, you get 2gb ram, 120 gb hard drive, 2.0 ghz duo etc.... equally equipt inspiron will run $3000 about 500 more than the acer.


The inspiron does have a higher resolution screen 1920x1200 vs 1680x1050 on the acer... but is this worth the extra money?


is the dell inspiron 9400 hot and noisey?

 

Great, appreciate it. Thanks.

I agree that i could get another tuner, but the included tuner was one of the things that made up a good deal in my mind. If the tuner I get doesn't work properly, the deal I got wasn't so good after all... Looking forward to hearing your (friends) experiences with the tuner.

 

The video card makes a difference as well. The acer is an X1600? Thats still worse than the 7800Go. I got the 1.83Ghz CPU Duo, 2GB 667Mhz DDR Ram, 7800Go GPU, 1920x1200 Screen, 9 cell battery, 8X DVD writer, ABG wireless, and 3 year warranty for $2900 including taxes and shipping and free training courses.

 

First of all... Sure the Acer is cheaper and not the other way around? When checking prices in a norwegian netshop the Acer is about USD1000/CAD1150 more expensive?

Anyways. From what I can see from the specs, the 9400 has better graphics card, bigger screen (Dell 17" vs Acer 15.4") and are 600grams heavier. The Acer has a webcam built in at the top of the screen. Apart from that, they seem pretty identical.

Guess it comes down to price, portability and ability to play games. For me, a big screen and good gaming capability was important, portability not - so I went for the 9400.

For those of you that understand Norwegian, here is a test of Acer 8200. The conclusion from dinside.no was basically: pros: very fast machine, cons: noise and heat.

 

nope, I got nothing...not even a recovery cd. You can recover windows without the use of a cd now.

 

I haven't gotten my lappie yet (should be today!? - how long's it take to drive from Austin to Toronto?), but I did pay the $10 when I ordered it to get the Windows CD. I'll be P.O. if I don't get one.

 

Was there an option to buy the Windows OS CD for $10.00? I didn't see that. Another thread I read about this said you had to beg for it from Dell. An extra $150.00 for XP Pro, I would have expected the CD.

Calling Dell now....

 

Can anyone give me a tip about a good burning prog.? Don't really like the Sonic one that came with the Dell. Would be great if you know a free and downloadable one, i want it to be able to burn cd/dvd-images, svcd and the usual stuff of course, like data, mp3disc etc..

EDIT

Also it would be nice if it could burn dual layer dvd's.

 

Anyone else have thoughts/answers to these questions!!!!!

 

I just downloaded a version of Windows MCE 2005 full working version as a backup.

 

Downloaded a legit copy of it from Dell?

 

Flames:

As for the CD, yes, instead of the included PC Restore by Symantec, you can select a backup CD for your OS. I'm not sure what would happen if you selected a CD for an OS that is not the one your ordered, tho.

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ca&CS=CADHS1&l=en&OC=OCINSP9402_FEAT_CH94E14

As for the 7800go, Dell probably underclocks it so much so that it doesn't eat into the sales of the XPS systems with the GTX, and maybe because of battery usage as well (nobody cares if an XPS system has an hour battery, but the 9400 is more mainstream and slightly more usable as a portable). I did hear of one other notebook with the 7800go; The Gateway NX860, but I haven't seen anything about except that it's been "announced". On the nvidia site, only Dell and Gateway are listed as 7800 go "Launch Partners".

Fredrik: Try Nero - I think there's a free version, and it burns everything (even support for HD-DVD and Blu-ray)

update: still "in transit in US" - wish there were more details on Purolator shipments outside of Canada...

 

Thanks Garbuckle. That helps me understand why they would underclock it I guess. I'm just thinking shouldn't we be able to oc it to the specs posted on the Nvidia website(400mhz)?

I hear you on the tracking by Purolator. It sucks, why can't they tell you where it's at in the US too? Well as you've probably been told by Purolator, they say call back after 10am for updates on the status however I called after 10am yesterday and there was no update but called after dinner and they said it was in Calgary so just call Purolator am and pm.

 

If anyone wants me to, I would more than willing to post screenshots of Quake 4, Unreal 2004, or FEAR. (Trust me, they all look great )

 

That would be great! Even better, if you can download the program called "Fraps" this way we can see the FPS of the screenshot as well..

Flames Fan: Well, no,the copy isn't legit, sooo. Still makes for a good back up though since Dell doesn't give us the CD's for it. So technically it is kind of legit because we use our serial number from our purchased copy which they fail to give us.

My lappy is in delivery status now.. woohoo!! Should be getting it sometime today.

 

Hello everyone,
I,m new here but have been reading everyones posts about the 9400. I live in northern canada, Fort Mcmurray and ordered mine Jan 26, and checking on line it has been in production mode for 3 days now. Does anybody know how long it usually takes to go through the whole process.Sure am anxious to get the thing.

 

So my coworkers 9400 got here today and I spent a few hours configuring it for him and testing stuff..

Only did one 3dMark05 test but the score was 5681 using the recommended overclock settings. I'm sure there is more performance to be had. Also I installed Call of Duty 2, a game that we all play over the lunch hour. Internal games with 60 technicians on it.. Lots of fun. Anyway, running the game at 1280x800 with all settings on normal, we pegged the FPS counter built into the game at 91FPS (it doesnt go any higher). When mine gets here tomorrow I'm going to install the game and see how high I can go resolution-wise and keep that 91FPS. At the same resolution with EVERYTHING maxed we managed between 45 and 70 FPS depending on how many people in the area. Fun Fun.

 

Ahhh so I can just enter my CD key from dell with my err current copy of xpsp2 err. wink wink.

 

Hey Benjamin, welcome aboard. It's a good active thread for 9400 users and want to be users.

As far as how long your order will be in production it's hard to say. As you've probably read now, some people have been pretty lucky and got there's quite quickly. They seem to have been available in Europe before N.America. There were a lot of problems with N. American orders being cancelled and re-created but it seems to all be straightened out and there are some other Canadians that have got theirs now.

Best consensus was that there was a parts stocking problem at dell (probably for the new duo core processors) and that really screwed things up for anyone who ordered between Jan. 4th and 20th (roughly).

I would bet yours will be through production soon now that they've been shipping them. I ordered 2 and they come tomorrow before 5pm.

Good Luck!

 

wow this is great...Ive set up my dual monitors and its looking amazing. Im not used to having this much desktop space!

 

FFF: "Thanks Garbuckle. That helps me understand why they would underclock it I guess. I'm just thinking shouldn't we be able to oc it to the specs posted on the Nvidia website(400mhz)?"

you have to read this whole thread...

As mentioned people have got it up to 387 (though one person scaled it down to about 367)

I already said this can't be considered overclocking since this part is rated at 400.

To me this means...dell/nvidia are using a bunch of slightly underperforming GPUs and not bothering to mention it.

I would think the primary reason, though, that dell clocks it as 260 is 1) yes battery life... but 2) ...heating is such a precarious thing in a laptop.

It will be interesting to see whether or not other companies throttle the gpu like Dell.
The good thing about it...is that it is only software throttled.

dump the dell drivers and you get more the performance we expected.

And you must be talking about the pcmag preview..it is still the only 1 i see..with a few others linking to it.

In their case...they used dell drivers...and so the card is only at clocked @ 260 and thus performed just like the midrange ATI x1600

From this thread..we know the card performs rock stable at 367

and is a bit flakey at 380+

 

Redstar: To me this means...dell/nvidia are using a bunch of slightly underperforming GPUs and not bothering to mention it

That's what I was looking for, why would they underclock it.

I can assure you that I've read this entire thread and every thread on every board I've been able to find. Consumed day/night digging for more info ya know.

Thanks for your reply!!

 

Well I finally got the beast. Uninstalled all the crap and installed all the goodies.. I got 3000 on 3dmark06 while overclocked. My cpu score was something like 1480. I have some light leakage on the bottom of the screen, but it doesn't really bug me too much. The screen is nice and sharp thats for sure! Oh, I also can play Everquest II at 1600x1200 on very high settings. I ended up with the sony dvd drive but it's working pretty good. It vibrated horribly on one dvd but thats because it was a cheap dvd with some plastic on the inside mounting hole, the rest of the dvd's and cd's work fine. Actually, it's a pretty zippy drive.. was transfering at 7 megabytes per second from a dvd.

 

This is crazy! I'm encoding a DVD movie, surfing the net, and chatting on MSN Messenger at the same time and no slowdown whatsoever... this is great!

 

How much bloat did you have to remove?

 

You should update your signature file with your laptop configuration so we can relate your feedback with our configurations better!!

 

Ok, since you all have nicely voided your warranty, put some arctic silver thermal paste on the gpu and the heat sink. That should make your idle decrease by 10C. Basically a 10C drop in overall gpu temp. Maybe then you can push it to 400mhz. Have you ever thought of that.

 

Yeah, i'm not so crazy about how picky the DVD writer is with the media. Wish it had an LG in it or something. Still works with certain media though so i'm ok for the most part. I did something crazy... burned a full DVD movie while playing everquest II at 1600x1200 very high quality. I couldn't even come close to do that on my desktop. This laptop is a beast.

 

Oh, about the bloatware. There is about 12-15 programs to uninstall... mainly aol, macafee and sonic. Most of the time is spent putting the programs you want on it..

 

"ATI X1900 equivalent GPU. "

You have to change that to x1800xL
----
i'm way jealous of you to now Weaser

 

yeah I suppose you are right..

 

Does anybody know something about a x1400 available for the 9400/E1705?
On the Dell site they tal about the X1400:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/top...inspn_e1705_sp_overview?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

hi fredrik I use Nero isnt free, but it can be if you know where to search but its the best

 

I like alcohol! But it has to be at least 120%

Alcohol 120% is not quite as versatile as nero (you'd really want to have nero as well), but is very good for creating and burning images of disks. Also does vitual drives. I'm using an older version so I can't say what the newer versions are like but if your really good at losing disks like me (yes I do have the original disks of everything I have imaged) then it's great to use for creating images of them and then just mounting the disk images to the virtual drive as and when required without worrying about copy protection and cracks etc.



BTW is it just me thinking this or does it seem like Dell have deliberately crippled the 9400's graphics performance so that it doesn't steal XPS sales?

 

Well that is what it looks like, but to give Dell the benefit of the doubt, they could have underclocked the GPU to make the battery last longer, or to keep the 9400 cooler, or to keep sales of the XPS up. Anyways, it looks pretty easy to get the machine running good, so it doesn't seem that big of deal to me. However if I ordered a 9400, and expected it to run awesomely without having to mess around with it a bit, I would be disappointed. Stock from Dell, it doesn't seem to bad, it's just not the powerhouse it was expected to be. Underclocked GPU + bloatware = average performance.

 

Well at least bloatware is easy to deal with and kind of expected. Although has anyone had any heat related issues (does it even feel hotter?) when trying to get the gpu up to normal speed?

I'm just curious as I'm pretty sure that running the gpu at nearer full speed probably won't affect power consumption that much (at least not to a degree where most us wouldn't be willing to make a comprise on battery life). Normally I'd say they've underclocked it for thermal reasons but if you guys are uping the mhz without any heat problems then that discounts thermal reasons.

Also do we know yet if the GPU is undervolted as well?

Anyway I don't suppose someone that owns one thats got it running up nearer full speed would mind seeing how long the battery lasts would they?

I'd try and find this out myself but I'm still waiting for mine to arrive (has anyone in the UK recieved one of these yet?), but because it's been ordered through my company I don't even know when it's due to arrive.