E6410 Owner's Thread

Dell makes BIOS updating a breeze.
It's very simple. Just open the downloaded BIOS. It will tell you to close all programs and you a press a button when ready. When it's done, it will restart your computer, and your using the new BIOS. It's like installing a program on your computer (but it wont' appear in Programs & Feature (Add/Remove Programs in XP and older Windows).

Remember that you can download from Dell website the older version (like the one you have right now), if the new one causes any problem. Be sure to have a fully recharged battery in your laptop, and is plug-in. This will prevent the system from shutting down if a power surge happens, or if your battery is out of juice.

What if it fails? you may ask
Well it never happened to me, or know anyone that had the experience. But, Dell should provide you with a new motherboard under your warranty.
I know that on some computer enthusiasts motherboards for custom builders. You usually have a Dual BIOS system. Where if one BIOS chip fails, the second BIOS will perform an automated recovery on the first one. And if the chip is broken for some odd reason, it will switch to the second BIOS chip, but the second one can't be updated (uses the BIOS version that came out of the manufacture). Pretty cool. I don't know if Dell uses this technology or not. I don't think so, as the chances that a BIOS update fails is slim.

 

I just installed A05 on mine and it worked wonders! The sound buzzing and mouse weirdness are gone! The DPC latency problems are gone too (except for the occasional red spike, but it doesn't affect my sound/video anymore). I'm running W7-64 btw

 

Did Someone hack the Dell Business outlet? I was browsing this morning and there were the usual 8 pages with the filters I used. Sorting from low to high there were ~ 6 pages with E6410s from around $600 - $ 950. The last two pages were the ones with SSDs and all the high-end features ranging from $950 - $1,400+. This afternoon there is half a page of E6410's <$1300. I know these are the same devices I've been browsing for the last few days and most were almost double the price they had been.

 

I see what you mean, couple of Dell Latitude E6410 from the Outlet is just $699 which is outstandingly cheap. Shame I live in the UK otherwise I might have bought one!

 

You're right! That was easy. Seems to have fixed the erratic mouse with DCP open too.

 

Well I just checked through the entire Dell Business Outlet and the price for almost all Latitude E6410s increased from $600 to over $1,000 since this morning. The E6410 appears to be the only computer on the outlet affected.

Let me guess the 50% off coupons will be coming out soon Seriously, I'm calling Dell to let them know about this discrepancy.

 

The BIOS updates usually fix some problems (and occasionally create some new ones). Unlike some manufacturers, Dell doesn't stop you switching to an older BIOS if there's some change you don't like. The E6400 is now at A25 (or A26?) but perhaps the E6410 won't get that high since it is a development of the E6400, not a new family.

This A05 BIOS does more than update the basic BIOS: It also updates some other core firmware and takes longer than usual to run. In fact, at one stage I thought it had hung so I went to get some tea and by the time I returned the computer was restarting.

Doing the BIOS update is very easy. Close down your open programs and then double-click on the BIOS update file to run it. The days of needing to put the update on a bootable floppy disc are over.

John

 

Called Dell yesterday to alert them regarding what had happened to the pricing on the US Business Outlet website. Whoa what an experience! First, I explained to a CSR on the outlet sales team that there had been a huge price increase with the vast majority of the Latitude E6410 inventory on the outlet which priced them higher than a similarly configured new computer. I further explained that I was not calling for personal reasons but more to alert them of what I beleive was an error that would cost them sales.

Started with the outlet sales team tho agreed after looking at the prices that something was indeed wrong. Transferred to an outlet sales supervisor who stated it was a customer service issue. Spoke with a customer service rep who transferred me to a senior rep who basically stated it was not their issue either. She transferred me then to new sales for Small Business to a CSR, then to his supervisor, then back to Customer Service and the back to the outlet sales team and finally to another supervisor.

In the long run everybody except one Customer Service rep agreed this was a huge error not in keeping with Dell's policy. That rep tried to tell me that there had been a large discount on the E6410 on the outlet website for a period of time and that their inventory of refurbished E6410s was low those discounts had now ended. I calmly explained I didn't belive Dell would increase pricing 60% - 100% on refurbished products without some explanation to their customers. The next rep told me that was hog wash as they had close to 200 E6410s in inventory.

The end result: around 1.5 hours of wasted time with almost everyone agreeing that it was indeed a problem, but no one knowing what steps should be taken to rectify it. The last person I spoke with said they would escalate the matter in an attempt to call it to attention of their marketing department. In the long run I guess the best strategy may have been not to get involved but I like Dell and didn't want to see their sales impacted.

 

Dell is trying to raise some quick cash for their bidding war with HP.

GK

 

HP doesn't need money:
HP Holds Navy Network &#8216;Hostage&#8217; for $3.3 Billion | Danger Room | Wired.com

They are already laughing their head off all the way to the bank in their 24k gold Bugatti Veron driving in their specially made solid gold tunnel that connects every HP buildings together including the bank. Oh and the bank is in one of the HP buildings where the CEO office is. So, this whole access tunnel thingy, and cars, is totally useless.