E6410 Owner's Thread

I've been following this board for quite a while and recently upgraded from a D610 to a (secondhand) E6410 (I7, 256 Samsung SSD PM800, NVIDEA, Win7 x64).

After playing with it for a week, could the E6410-users please confirm my following findings:

1. The 256 Samsung SSD PM800 can not be 'secure erased' and placed back to factory defaults. (erasing the data of the previous owner and doing a clean Win7 install)
2. When perusing the BIOS (A06), the fan kicks in and only stops when you exit the BIOS
3. During normal use in Win7 every 15 minutes or so the fan kicks in briefly for a minute.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,

Poison

 

It may be worthwhile checking out the Samsung SSD Magician Tool (link on this page). It may include an erase function.

The operating system level power saving functions do not work while in the BIOS.

My fan tends to stay on for a while once it is on. Does you fan on-off happen both on mains and battery power. I have a dim recollection that there may be an option in the BIOS that changes the fan behaviour. Take a look.

John

 

Due to the lack of Operating System on the system when you are in the BIOS, your CPU can't use it's power saving features. In addition, you can't load any drivers (no OS), so all hardware inside your computer can't have it's power saving features enabled.

While being plug-in, this is also normal. As power is not a problem when you are plug-in, your hardware goes to a higher speed, and your fan behavior is more active. You can change these settings in Windows 7 Power Options.
That is why your computer is much faster when your are plug-in, then when on battery.

 

Guys the blank screen after coming out of hibernation or suspend is driving me mad.

Is there a fix for it?

 

This is not normal operation. Like normally, the issue is not there. It's specific to you.

Try the following:
+ Uninstall your graphic card drivers > restart > install the latest ones from the graphic card manufacture... if that doesn't work, repeat the process with Dell drivers. Do the same with your motherboard drivers.

+ Win7 only: Check if a system file is corrupted: Start > type: cmd > Right-click on cmd in the search result, and select Run As Administrator. Then type in the command prompt that will appear: sfc /scanow (then hit the Enter key). Wait until the process is completed, restart the system, and see if it helps.

+ Diagnostic Win7 only:
Start > type: cmd > Right-click on cmd in the search result, and select Run As Administrator. Then type: cd C:\ > hit Enter. And then type: powercfg -energy > hit Enter key. Once done, a full report has been created, which can be found here: C:\energy-report.html.

+ Re-install Windows. Be sure to backup everything before, so that you can have it back once Windows has been re-installed.
Alternatively, you can use Windows 7 re-install Wizard: Control Panel > Recovery (you can search for it, if you don't see it). On that panel click on Advance Recovery Methods > Reinstall Windows...

+ Make sure that no background programs are running (A/V, Dell control point is fine)

If still no progress, then it's very likely your hardware that is broken, and you should contact Dell tech support.

 

Is it everytime you hibernate/suspend or after running X processes?

But follow the above. Also if you can, run diagnostics, sometimes bad stick o' RAM or failing hard drive can cause that.

And the ETA for my E6410 is tomorrow but there's a huge snowstorm in the Northeast... *crosses fingers*

 

My desktop does that randomly, sometimes I just shut it off completely and after a cold boot it still lets me resume my session. It started a few months ago, and sometimes it's several times a day, but can also be once every other week. It seems to do it for sleep mode, but not so much for hibernation. It's actually more common than you think, and seems to be specific to Windows 7.


My e6410 was marked as shipped today, and it's on schedule to arrive Friday. I haven't ordered my extra RAM yet, and I'm still on the fence with SSDs. Anybody seen a good deal on either lately?

Also, I just noticed that my order details say nothing about burning capabilities on my DVD drive. I can't remember the last time I used an optical drive AT ALL on my laptop, so I really couldn't care less, but I didn't order any recovery media (the OS and driver discs were $3 each...). Will it let me make recovery ISOs. I do have the Windows 7 Pro RTM X64 ISO from my MSDN AA, but I would like to have the computer-specific recovery disc.

 

Huh? I think you mean that when you sleep your computer, and after a while sleeping it hibernates by itself. That is a new Win7. You can set the time (or disable it) in the power option. This has nothing to do with hotplainrice problem.

 

Well, mine does it once in awhile.

It resumes say 80 % of the time. That 20 % is the problem.

 

@ John Ratsey and GoodBytes: Thanks for sharing your experience re. the fan.
The fan on-off happens both on mains and battery power. (although for some reason slightly more often when I have the 9-cell battery plugged in stead of the 6-cell. In the bios, I can't find anything related to the fan behavior.

Sadly enough the Samsung Magincian Tool does not work with the Samsung SSD shipped with the Dell E6410....only with aftermarket Samsung SSD. But I'm experimenting with ATA Secure Erase.

The main hurdle is (was) that the Samsung SSD is in a 'frozen' state, hence you can not secure erase the SSD. Under Ubuntu (with admin commands) and the Dell Sleep keyboard shortcut, I've managed to set the SSD to 'not frozen'....hence secure erasing the 256 GB SSD in 5 minutes.

I'm emphasizing that is is experimental since I haven't read anybody doing this with the Samsung SSD shipped with the Dell notebooks........but it worked for me, since I've repartitioned (GParted) the SSD and installed Win7 x64. Now I need to install all the drivers (might be needing some advice with that, install all of the other software and start tweaking).

If people are interested I'm willing to post the steps I've taken, but once again I can only say that it worked for me, I haven't tested it on other SSDs...so use it at your own risk. But if people are interested and the moderators have no objection, I will post the steps taken.

Poison