E6410 Owner's Thread

I recall that the plate has tabs to retain it. The screw threads in secure to hold it. That's plenty as long as the screw still screws into the chassis securely.

If yours arrived damaged, call Dell.

GK

 

When you're upgrading lots of systems en masse like I had to, that one captive screw is incredibly convenient.

 

The chassis is softer metal than the screw so that over-tightening will strip the thread in the hole in the chassis.

If everything else is OK then I would tend to keep the computer instead of sending it back. A little bit of Loctite (or correction fluid) will probably be enough to hold the screw in place. The only function of the screw is to stop the base sliding.

John

 

Mine came yesterday, haven't had a ton of time to mess with it yet though. Parents computer crapped out so I spent my evening at CompUSA looking at mobos. I need to go pick up the Vista 64 disc that I gave to a friend a while back so I can reinstall, so I'm bringing my e6410 with me for a few rounds of UT3.

In the time I've had to use it, I've gotten all the basics installed (Firefox, Thunderbird, Spybot, MSE, Steam...). I tried running the FFXIV benchmark, but performance wasn't too impressive. Still, it's a noticeable improvement over my HP. Counter-Strike Source video stress test scored 33fps with everything maxed, which seemed a bit low. Then I noticed I had AA turned up to 16, which is insane, don't think my desktop's 4850 even goes that high. Turning filtering options down to defaults gave me 77fps, where my HP scored something like 48-60ish.

This thing is practically silent, it's light, and it holds up like a tank. That's a world of difference over the screeching, heavy, scratched up fingerprint magnet I'm used to lugging around. The size seems perfect. Still getting used to the keyboard, I feel like it should be shifted one key's-length to the left, based on where I naturally place my wrists. I already ran into a "durability test" of sorts, when I had it sitting on my lap while formatting my parents' system at 2AM. I fell asleep, and woke up at 5AM to the sound of my e6410 sliding off my lap and onto the floor, whacking my bedside table during its descent. The only damage was a scuff on the underside, which rubbed out with some alcohol. I think I'd have to deliberately damage it to leave any kind of lasting mark.

UT3 runs fine at max res with default settings. It seems to be consistently 33-50fps, which I think is perfect for a mobile system. Borderlands runs fine at medium settings. It gets warm, but not terribly hot. The fan isn't loud at all, and I don't think I even noticed it during the short round I played. I did install the GeForce driver, but I don't think I see any performance difference. The nVidia control panel still reports it as an NVS 3100, should the GeForce driver make it report as a 310 or something like that?

I thought I would need more RAM, but 2GB seems like enough. The hard drive also isn't too bad, not sure if I'll be wanting an SSD for a while. Overall, I'm really happy with it.

 

=( I think this E6410 is going back to Dell. After another fresh Windows 7 install with only the display driver and wifi driver reinstall I got a BSOD and now it doesn't boot again. That and the captive screw going bad, I think I'm just going to send it back for a refund.

 

If you are a guy, and you want kids later in life, avoid putting a laptop on your lap... it's for a reason why they are outside out.

Installing the Geforce drivers instead of the Quadro, all it does is have the driver optimized in gaming then software like AutoCAD, and such.
All it means is POSSIBLY, a slight higher performance in games, which give you 1-2-3 -5 fps more, or able to run higher settings easier.

The chip is a Quadro defined via firmware, putting Geforce drivers won't make it a Geforce. All a the Quadro is: is a Geforce with additional features to perform rendering with CAD software faster, not games. Games don't use these additional features. In addition, except for the low end cars (and I don't know about the laptop versions), but the Quadro's are designed to be under heavy load, and really really hot for super long time. While the components and board circuit design, is not designed for such harsh condition.

2GB is not enough. You need 4GB, by far.

Your games eat near 2GB alone, Plus Windows, Plus you need room for SuperFetch technology to make the system more responsive, and faster to open programs, Plus some space for background programs.

 

Did it work ok when you got it?

Have you tried removing or at least testing the hardware you installed?

Have you booted the Dell Diagnostics CD and run the full tests?

Did you install the drivers recommended to be installed before the video and wifi drivers, such as the Intel system software and the Dell system software that applies Windows hot fixes, presumably to fix stuff?

GK

 

The lower panel, first has to slide in, towards the battery, then it screws down. The screw feels funny to try and turn because it has that crazy spring pushing back against you trying to screw it in. I supose it keeps the pannel from rattling.

I tell you what, I love the single lower panel, removing the keyboard just to upgrade the ram was the pits on the D series.

 

I just went to download the latest Quadro driver, and it's the same package for both apparently. How do you choose which one you use?

 

it's both what?

You can download the latest nVidia Quadro NVS 3100M Series Notebook driver here.

GK