E6540 Owners Thread

Just did a fresh install...

1. Fit SSD
2. Boot from Win 7 Pro x64 DVD, (ISO from DigitalRiver)
3. Create Partition and install
4. Install drivers from excellent Dell Resource CD
5. Windows Updates

Steam backups, applications installers and personal files were all retained and transferred using an external drive.

 

Hello,

I'm looking at buying the e6540. I currently have an e6320, with fingerprint reader, trusted platform chip, and self-encrypting hard drive. Since e6540 isn't available with those security features yet (and frankly, I find the delay in bootup they cause aggravating), am thinking of using TrueCrypt or some other encryption software. Would like to know if anyone here is using encryption or some other security measure. It would be a drag to have someone steal a laptop, but a nightmare to lose the data.

Cheerio,
twillo

 

I am running the Plextor PX-256M5M and the SATA transfer rate is 6 GB/s, running Raid in A02 BIOS, which was the default when I installed the drive.

 

Hi twillo,

I had the same frustration but bought the E6540 as the last computer was on its last legs. I purchased the dell personal encryption software which should encrypt data files and locations but not system and software files. Depending on the level of security you select it will encrypt additional types of files but leave the system and software unencrypted. Since the system files are not encrypted I would not anticipate as much of an impact on boot time. You will be required to have a system password so that will slow the boot down a bit.

Unfortunately, when I purchased the software, I did not realize it would not encrypt the entire system due to the lack of the optional hardware accelerator, which is not yet available. I am not sure why this is the case as other software solutions will encrypt the entire system with minimal impact. I have yet to install the software as I evaluate compliance with work requirements. I will post an update once this (or other) software is installed.

Do others have experience with the dell encryption software?

 

Am I the only one here who had full customisation options for the e6540? I've noticed the specifications on the Dell US website are relatively fixed, and it hasn't even re-appeared on the UK site yet.

 

The customisation options for Dell computers (business and home models) is very sparse the last year or so (dutch site). Before that you could basically change any component, which was something very attractive for me as a Dell customer. Unfortunately this is not the case anymore. Also for the E6540 since it first appeared on the site the only thing you can change is the warranty, the rest is basically fixed. Not so great...

 

Anybody using a E6540 with an older docking station? I've got an e6410 and a PR02X dock, thinking about upgrading, but dont want to shell out for another dock.

 

Wow I'm so happy there's a e6540 thread !
I bought mine with a 250go ssd, 16go ram and I exchanged the optical drive for a 1to HDD.

I upgraded the bios to AO2 without problems, but didn't feel anything different. I installed the intel gpu driver directly from intel, with the dell provided driver I only had 3 choices for resolution. I also installed ATI last beta driver, didn't see any difference beetwen the beta driver and the one provided by dell, but the beta has a few more options for commutable graphics (like application monitoring).

For work it's the perfect computer (besides the touchpad which I'm not used yet, I guess... a small middle button would have been welcomed), however I'm having a very big gaming problem.

Whenever I play a somewhat modern game, at first it works perfectly, but after some minutes the CPU start dropping, a few more minutes and the whole computer is unusable.

For example with BioShock Infinite :
At first it works perfectly, around 70 FPS, CPU is at 3.5GHz
10 minutes later, CPU is at 0.8 GHz ! but the game is still around 30-40 fps with noticeable lag spikes, and the computer overall is still pretty usable
5 minutes later, CPU is still at 0.8 GHz, but the game is around 1-5 FPS, the computer absolutely unusable. Like waiting 2 min for a key press.

Only thing to do is shut the game down and wait 5-10 min for the computer to become usable again.

I hope this is an hardware defect, because some people told me "this is normal, it's called CPU throttling". However such an extreme CPU throttling is making my 8790M totally worthless ... I didn't pay such an high price for a GPU who could be used only 10 minutes. Same problem when using only the HD 4600. I hope some other people had more positive experiences gaming with their e6540.

 

I've suffered this too. Playing games that place demands on both the CPU and GPU seems susceptible to throttling - like the much maligned XPS15.

 

Sigh... I don't know much about laptops, I've just googled the XPS15 and it seems there's now a new version with less overheating problems. Is that usual ? Honestly I would be okay(-ish) with someone telling me "yeah the e6540 has overheating problems, but in 6-12 months a new version will be out and you can get it with your warranty".

Altough I feel bad since notebookreview didn't mention it in their review. It seems they played the games tested for 5 min, took their average fps and that's it. While just waiting 5 more minutes would show the games are actually unplayable.