E6410 Owner's Thread

x264, .mkv container.
Seems to be doing over videos fine, so maybe just a fluke.

 

You can extract certain MSI files with some compression tools like PowerArchive and many others similar tools. Some setups extracts everything or almost everything (usually drivers) when the setup loads.

For simple programs (eg: not Office or Visual Studio, where it puts files everywhere and does a huge amount of registry modification to register it's library files, and components. And not those who require a service to run or has advance copy protection system or activation system), you can, very simple, as you said, install and grab the installed files.

In this case, when I saw the setup running and program running, I knew something was fishy. The program seamed to complex for a 16-bit program. It made me try to copy the installed files, and go into Win7 and try to run them, and it worked fine.
I ran the setup in XP Mode, if you wonder, copy the install folder and paste it in win7. Simple as that.

 

I have an e6410 with 1440x900 display, with Intel Graphic card, which I mostly use with linux (Fedora 13).

Using the excellent linux utility lxrandr I can turn on or off both laptop display and external monitor or projector. I can select any of the available resolutions for the external device (though the e6410 works only with 1440x900). There is a similar facility on Windows 7, but I don't use it -- I had to buy the machine with windows, because dell don't sell it without an operating system.

One minor problem is that I cannot leave the external monitor/projector connected while booting or shutting down. If it is connected while linux goes into or out of graphic mode the machine freezes. I presume that's because the linux (X.org) intel graphics driver is still too new to be bug free. Ensuring the external cable is disconnected before switching mode is not a huge hassle, for the time being.

I have a more detailed 'review' on my web site Linux on my Dell Latitude (Now E6410) Laptop

There are issues with some of the batteries supplied by Dell -- they have different makers. Batteries made by Simplo and Sanyo will not recharge if the charge level is above about 93% which can be a nuisance if you want full charge e.g. for a long trip. The samsung battery I have does not have this restriction. Maybe that will mean that it has a shorter life?

 

That's an interesting observation. I had assumed that the charging was managed at the BIOS level. I've just depleted my E6410's Samsung battery to 97% and it is not recharging when I plugged the PSU back in. Are you running the latest BIOS (A05)?

John

 

I've just checked: the Bios on my machine is A03, upgraded soon after I bought the machine in June I think

I'll check for a newer one.

Maybe not all Samsung batteries are the same. I originally had a Simplo which came with the machine and a Samsung ordered as an extra - both 9 Cell.

When I noticed the difference I thought the Simplo had a fault, as did our local UK Dell service advisor. When I was sent another with the same peculiarity, it was replaced with a Sanyo and that had the same peculiarity. I was then told this was a design feature to extend the life of the battery because it can survive only a certain number of charging cycles, and not allowing charging to restart while the battery is more than 94% full reduces the frequency of charging. But means that before a trip you have to discharge to below the threshold before regarging to full strength, which I assume will reduce the battery life even more, apart from being a real nuisance.

I don't know enough about battery technology to have views on the best design.
Aaron

 

There are two types of 9 cell battery: 90Wh standard and 81Wh 3-year life-time 9-cell "smart" lithium ion. I could quite believe that the latter would have the charge restriction in order to help improve its life expectancy. However, I have the 90Wh.

In addition to updating the BIOS, you may also want to install version A16 of the Dell ControlPoint System Manager. Among the fixes is:

While that's not quite saying it's related to charging behaviour, one never knows without trying it.

There are also various other updates on the Dell download site.

John

 

I also have only the standard 90Wh. There's more information about my experiences and graphs showing different initial charge and rates of discharge under fairly light load here: Dell E6410 9 Cell batteries (Not very scientific however.)

Also, in addition to looking at what the bios reported (charging not charging) I was also able to check in linux using

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info
(for static information about the battery)

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state
(for dynamic information, e.g. current capacity left, whether charging or discharging or neither, and rate of charging/discharging.)

I am impressed at how long these batteries last in comparison with 6 cell batteries on a Dell Latitue D610, which gets much hotter, drains batteries faster even when doing very little, and is less powerful. Technology has advanced in 4 years!

The screen on the E6410 is also very much better in daylight.

I think that was something I updated soon after getting the machine. Updates that work only in windows are of little use to me. I also find the Dell support site not very informative as to how to choose whether to install some of the updates or not, when they are marked as optional. Perhaps they expect only experts to bother.

 

My outlet E6410 arrived today.


It has the 520m and NVS 3100m, and came out to $465 (+ tax). I really wish it had the WXGA+ screen, but oh well.


This is the first Dell business notebook and the first 14.1" notebook I've ever owned. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

 

I have sort of a strange problem here. I have an E-port plus dock and an external monitor I run at 1440x900. Sometimes, if I do a cold boot while connected to the external with my screen closed, the computer will not recognize the actual laptop screen at all. If I open the screen it stays black (and yes, I've tried Fn+F8 and the 'Connect to Projector' utility. It says "Projector not found"), and if I undock it then I have no screen at all, unless I plug it back into the dock and reboot it. If the computer is asleep or hibernated then this doesn't happen. I've made sure all drivers are up to date, too. I think it might be a bios issue though, because when I have this problem, I see the dell bios screen on the external monitor when I boot up, but I'm not sure if they're related. However I never really noticed this until I installed BIOS A05. I have the 1280x800 screen, nvidia, 540m, and W7 Pro 64bit. Any ideas?

 

Various new Windows driver updates have been published in the last few days: Free-fall sensor, AHCI, Touchpad, Dell WWAN.

John