E6410 Owner's Thread

Yes, it goes to a blue screen, then reboots itself.

 

I am planning to update my E6410 with a SSD drive. I am looking at the OCZ Agility 2 (Newegg.com - Suggested Products.

Anybody has experience with updating their E6410 with a SSD? How do I know if the SDD will fit in E6410?

Thanks for the help!

 

i put a ocz vertez le in my 6410. just make sure you get a 2.5 inch drive and ull be set. Documentation

 

Try installing CoreTemp (free):Core Temp
It will give you real-time temps for each core.

Or Everest (Free trial): Downloads | Lavalys.com
To give you all temps (GPU, HD, Chipset etc...)

You probably already did this, but check to see when your system is set to go into standby and/or hibernation to see if that's what's causing the lockup.

I am on my second E6410. The screen on the first unit would sometimes go nuts when it went into standby (erratic lines/colors) and could not be cured w/o powering it down. My Dell diagnostics test came up clean.

 

I tried both of the above driver packages. I uninstalled the existing drivers, rebooted and installed each package fresh. I still cannot get the audio working through displayport/HDMI to my HDTV. On top of that, the Verde drivers gave me major standby issues. Frankly, I have had standby issues since day one (my unit intermittantly will not come out of standby), but the issues seems to be minimized with both the latest driver package from Dell as well as the Microsoft Update Catalog drivers. I am going to run with the Update Catalog drivers for a while, but I definitely advise against the current Verde drivers.

The thing I found odd is that the first time I connected my TV to my laptop (after installing the newest Dell NVIDIA drivers), the TV showed up as a playback device device under "sound" in control panel. I could not get any sound out of either my TV or laptop. After unplugging and re-attaching my TV, I still cannot get sound to the TV, but it will not show up in "playback devices" anymore and I am able to get sound out of my laptop.

Thanks for the suggestions Jakeworld.

 

Oh, that is unfortunate that neither driver package worked for you, but thank you for the detailed report on your process. Perhaps the issue is related to the specific adapter. While there are various DisplayPort adapters on the market, legacy standards for DisplayPort may not include audio transmission. In fact, the audio stream is an optional component to the DisplayPort standard, so your specific component may not support it. I am hesitant to believe that notion, however, provided that even the cheapest adapters from Amazon support audio signals.

The Notebook Verde Release series seems to produce an inconsistent video experience, which in my case appears rather stable, though various reports (on the NVIDIA forums and laptopvideo2go) document similar issues to what you experienced. This is why I typically recommend experimenting with the Microsoft WHQL drivers first.

If the TV is appearing as an audio device in the NVIDIA Control Panel, sound should be supported. If you are willing, let us attempt some further diagnostics.

1) While this is a very obvious suggestion, it can be admittedly easy to overlook. Ensure that the volume is at a sufficient level on the TV to actually hear the audio. At times, the TV may need to reach levels of 50% or greater to be audible. I do not believe this volume is dependent on the OS system volume, but you can play with that as well to be sure.

2) What type of TV do you have? Specifically, make and model, just to find out if there some known issues with this type of interface. If possible, you may want to even attempt connecting the interface to another HDTV, such as a unit owned by a friend, to verify that the issue is not merely local.

3) Do you have the NVIDIA High Definition Audio drivers installed? If so, which version? In my haste, I neglected to mention that the Microsoft WHQL drivers do not include these drivers in the package. I typically install them from another package, such as from the NVIDIA Verde Release. The current version is 1.1.9.0. Check under the "Sound, video, and game controllers" tree in Device Manager for this information.

4) Have you performed a clean install on the system since you received the computer? Standby issues may be associated with an OEM install that derives from a FUBAR'ed image. In my experience, Dell has a notoriously bad track record for their system images, causing system instability and even BSODs.

If you have time and are willing, please answer the above questions to further diagnose the issue. Perhaps we'll find something that will provide a resolution.

As an unrelated addendum, I would also recommend HWiNFO32 and HWMonitor as additional free programs available for a summary of temperatures. However, one issue I have discovered with the former program's temperature monitor is that it introduces a fair amount of latency; however, it provides the best summary of temperatures and component states of any free diagnostics program I have encountered.

 

1) Yes, I cranked the volume up to 90% on the TV.

2) The set is a Mitsubishi WD-65731. I will try another set that has HDMI inputs tonight.

3) The current drivers I have are: NVIDIA HD audio 1.0.15. I will upgrade those to the 1.1.90 drivers. I am assuming they are part of the Verde driver package that I had downloaded.

4) I did not do a fresh install. I have been waiting to upgrade to a SSD drive. I was thinking that may be the best time to do the fresh install. Frankly the system goes in and out of hibernation quickly enough right now that I hardly use standby. I am thinking that with an SSD, standby may be virtually irrelevant.

I am really wondering if the displayport to HDMI adapter may be the culprit though. This is the one I am using: Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter



Thanks again for your help. I will post any findings.

(BTW +1 on CPUID - I forgot to mention it)

 

The link you specified leads me to an adapter for a DisplayPort to DVI interface. Could you elaborate on the specific connection to your HDTV? Specifically, does this adapter connect to an additional DVI to HDMI cable? DVI is strictly a video connection, and should not carry any audio.

To further clarify, I am using the following product: High Quality Black DisplayPort Male to HDMI Cable Male.

You would need to use this type of adapter to carry both video and audio streams. I may have misunderstood your earlier post, as I was under the impression that you were using a component similar to the one to which I have linked.

Edit: I just realized I read DisplayPort to DVI Adapter from the webpage title. Further reading suggests that the adapter is a DisplayPort male to HDMI female adapter. I suspect you are connecting a HDMI male to HDMI male to the former adapter, to interface with your HDTV. The manufacturer information claims that the cable supports audio, so I am not sure what the issue should be.

The only other solution I can conjure is verifying that the default audio device is set to the "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" component in the "Windows Sound Control Panel" under the "Playback" tab. If not, then change the device to default while connected to your HDTV. In the past, I have had to perform this procedure, despite the notion that it should change the audio source preferences without user interaction.

 

Jakeworld: That's correct, I am using the displayport to HDMI adapter (The text link is incorrect).

I tried connecting another TV with no luck. I cannot even get the computer to recognize that anything is happening on the audio level. The only time my system even recognized an audio connection was the first time I connected it after I loaded the newest Dell drivers.

I reloaded the Newest Dell drivers since I had no way to update just the audio drivers. Interestingly even though it said it was updating the audio drivers, my HD audio driver is still at 1.0.15.

I tried to install just the audio driver from the Verde package, but I have to minimally install the display driver too. There is no option to install audio w/o at least installing the video driver.

The only options I am seeing in the "Playback" tab (whether or not the TV is plugged into the laptop) are "IDT Speakers" and "IDT Headphones".

 

For the people wanting to use Displayport to HDMI for Audio and Video I have tested the 6', 10' and 15' cables from Monoprice and they all work fine. I have tested on an E6510 and E6410, only change I had to make was the audio output device.