E6410 Owner's Thread

I did a reinstall of mine a few days ago and I'd just like to emphasize rebooting often when installing these drivers, the first time through I installed a ton of drivers + the security software before rebooting and ended up bluescreening on boot.

The second time I followed GKs guide and rebooted after each driver and absolutely no problems.

 

I did this earlier though the disk was no longer the primary (i.e. I installed the OS on my SSD) and just tried it in a VM. It seems in Windows it doesn't like to extend "downwards".
See the attached pictures, the only way to expand downwards is to convert to a dynamic disk, which brings along some problems with booting I imagine.

I'd recommend backing up and trying GParted.

 

OMG! UPS lady just dropped it off. Opening now.

OK so it didn't come with a 90 watt travel adapter but it came with a 130 watt brick and the Eport Plus dock!

The guy also threw in a Targus travel case!

This is easily a $900+ dollar system.

webcam
backlit keyboard
9-cell battery
DVD +/- RW
samsung WXGA+
i5-520m
4GB
bluetooth
expresscard reader
NVIDIA
WD 160GB

when it booted up, it even went through the whole new user setup process!

haha, i'm so ecstatic

 

Didn't run one. I got hit by a drive by exploit of another forum I frequent.

 

I've decided to just go ahead and buy a larger HDD. What I was going to do would have only given me an additional 8 GB. That would have been a temporary help at best. When I set up the new HDD I'll still want to eliminate that Recovery partition, and maybe even get rid of that annoying small hidden partition that Windows 7 likes to add. I'll be able to experiment with my array of cloning, imaging, partition management, and boot fixing tools (Acronis, Windows 7 repair disk, GParted) until I get all my stuff transferred over, and get Windows booting, without doing anything to my original HDD. That way I'll have the best possible backup--my original untouched HDD.

 

Sounds like you did real good!

 

That's the way I operate: Clone the stock HDD onto something bigger and faster and then put the original HDD on the shelf as a backup. Acronis True Image seems 2011 to handle the cloning without any problems and if you want to further manipulate the partitions then the latest Acronis Disk Director is up to the task.

John

 

E6410 arrived with Win7 X64 installed.

Summary: keyboard works during bios boot, bios menu.
It does not work in Windows or any Safe-Mode configuration.

- Bios was A04 ... updated to A07.
- Dell Client System Update for latest drivers.
- Microsoft Update.
Typical "12-step reboot, reboot, genuflex, reboot" cycle
- MS Update was pre-configured to download Microsoft drivers, so I got
KB911895 HID, Wireless USB mouse
UPEX Alps Driver replaced my Dell driver.
Disabled MS driver service, unininstalled MS Alps driver.
Downloaded, re-installed Dell R281462 Touchpad Alps Driver
....

At some point in all this churn, I noticed the Windows Key did not bring up the start menu. Odd ... Ctrl-Esc alternate didn't work either.

After I installed IBM Rational ClearCase, the keyboard, trackstick, touchpad all became disabled. Keyboard Properties / Hardware shows:

Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Plugged into keyboard port
A driver (service) for this device has been disabled.
An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)​

Ran Microsoft TroubleShooter ... which had no repair solution.
Explored the "FixIt" section of TroubleShooters, no solution there.

The only thing that works is an external mouse with On-Screen Keyboard. I also use Remote Desktop when I need a bit more typing speed.

What other driver is "providing functionality" ?

Post is getting too long. I've tried:
- Dell Support ... we couldn't find the problem.
In device manager, removed USB controller to force re-enumeration of devices.
- Boot Logging, WindowsUpdate.log, Dell Static Inventory Collector
- Autoruns: selectively disabling drivers

Any suggestions? Full Win7 re-install will have to wait for DVD's from Dell.
Seems like a sledge-hammer to solve a little'o driver conflict.

Observation: This machine is slow; very slow, and I'm comparing this to my emergency HP Mini-110 Netbook with Atom processor, 1GB memory, running 27-inch monitor on extended desktop.

I only got to page 90 in this awesome topic.

If there are solutions posted after that date, I haven't found them yet ... but will keep reading.

 

E6410 is not slow. Keyboard should just work both in BIOS and in Windows. I would boot Dell Diagnostics and test the hardware. Given the OEM install and out-of-box churn, I would then reimage the system and confirm device operation as you go. And report any failed devices to Dell.

Also consider reseating/reconnecting devices, like keyboard connection.

GK

 

Also, does anyone have long POST times with their E6410? This things takes forever to power up or come out of hibernation.