E6410 Owner's Thread

Good quicky review with comparison to other builds.

Note that the ambient light sensor can cause the screen brightness to vary dynamically with ambient lighting. Disable it with DCP to see if it is the culprit.

GK

 

Also, quick correction, the keyboard is not rubberized, but the black portion of the keycaps are coated in this paint on the backlit keyboard at least. It's a rather smooth texture and not at all rough as like on a desktop keyboard.

 

Or do you mean 2 down from the brightest? I normally use about 75% brightness. Full brightness in only needed if outside.

I've not seen this problem. Check (i) that the ambient light sensor is disabled (press Fn + left arror for the options) and (ii) that you have the latest graphics driver from the Dell downloads.

I only see flex on the left palm rest if I push down very hard.

I can't get any ripples on the screen unless I press on the front side.

John

 

Indoors, it's usually at 2 up from dimmest. It's when I get outdoors that it gets turned up, though I haven't used it muc outdohors yet.

It's still noticeable for me, or am I using too much force? I remember the D630 flexed there somewhat too.

It's very difficult to, but when I try to bend the screen inwards and apply some force with the very tip of my fingers, I can get a little ripple.

 

Well, the 250GB hard drive on my 4-month old e6410 is apparently on its way out. Its making a clicking/ticking noise when the disk is spinning up or down. I called Dell Pro Support who suggests that I "just" install a replacement hard drive, which they are happy to send me. Sounds easy, right?
I know most of you on this Forum are big techie-geeks who would just LOVE the chance to rebuild your hard drive from scratch...but I am petrified and really annoyed that this is even happening. I depend on this computer for my business and don't have the time or skill-set to rebuild my hard drive quickly or easily.

I was desperately searching the Internet, looking for an easier solution for a non-techie. It appears that there is Disk Cloning software that will allow you to make a disk image of your old hard drive and then transfer that image to your new hard drive, complete with all software/settings/data. They make it sound easy, but I'm not that gullible. Nothing is ever easy with computers!
I have data backups, but I would really love to avoid re-installing all of my software programs and settings to a blank disk. Can anyone recommend a solution to my problem? "Acronis True Image Home 2011" makes it sound like it would help me with my problem, but there are as many negative reviews as there are positive. Norton Ghost looks possible but, once again, plenty of negative reviews.
Please advise soonest if you have a relatively easy solution to this problem for a non-techie. I'm not sure how much longer my computer will keep working. Alternatively, would a paid Computer Repair tech be able to do this for me with more difficult-to-use tools that would be worth the cost?
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Jayne

 

Seeing as you aren't the most experienced computer technician I'd look into having it done by someone else, if you have some way of determining that the person is good, that is.

If you do it yourself I can attest that Acronis True Image works as advertised, and is easy enough to use, but there is one thing I don't like about it and that is that it installs a service on your machine that then runs all the time (hopefully asleep most of the time) and is hard to get rid of. Last time I tried that I destroyed windows (and I consider that I know what I'm doing) and had to use the image I'd just created with the program to get things running again (this may have been due to other problems as the hard disk blew up a few days later). On my E6410 I haven't had any problems.

 

Paul: Thanks for your quick response. Do you know if Acronis will work with the way that Dell partitions the hard drive for the "Recovery Partition" and the ON-Reader Partition? This partitioning has caused me nothing but grief when trying to use Window's built-in Backup/Recovery software.

 

Sorry, I can't help you with those partitions. On principle I get rid of such things the minute I get a new computer.

 

Smart Man! I don't know why Dell shoves them down your throat as they don't seem to accomplish anything and there is no documentation to help you figure out how to use them. Maybe my best solution would be to get some outside help to rebuild my new hard drive, without Dell Partitions, and then buy Acronis to make a disc image to make me more self-sufficient for the "next time" this happens.
I see you're a Notebook Expert....I don't suppose you live in zip code 80302 do you???

Thanks again,
Jayne

 

Trying to transfer to a new HDD will likely be more trouble than it is worth. Either re-image the new HDD yourself (see my E6410 notes below), or find someone to do this for you.

GK