Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

I reformatted yesterday, love the fresh speed, and saved a 20GB partition on my HD for testing. I would like to try the W7 beta as well, and can easily do it on there.

 

Probably bad drivers. It's like on desktop PC, a fine up-to-date gaming PC. Vista 32 and 64 (I tried both), boots pretty quickly (64-bit visually faster over the 32-bit one, however I never calculated the time, but feels faster than my laptop). The second you install my crappy sound card (Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic) from few seconds to load to 2min (32 green bars passes on the loading screen). Same issue occurs, but less time consuming under the 32-bit version of Vista. Uninstall the driver and Vista is back to it's fast boot speed.

New systems, with companies that makes good drivers should not make Vista 64-bit slower to boot.

 

I put it down to the partitioning and the non-standard nVidia drivers that I use. My hard disk came with a small 2GB partition and in my impatience to install Vista, I decided not to delete that partition and repartition once again. So now I've a 2 GB partition at the beginning of the HD which I don't use since it's too small! I'm planning on formatting and reinstalling the OS soon, once I find the time.

When I reinstall Windows, I want to put the page file on a separate partition. I read that this is the idea solution for good performance on a single volume. Can someone tell me if that partition can be just formatted but not allocated or will the formatting mean that it is allocated too?

 

Regarding drive allocation, I have not done it enough to know all constraints, but if a drive letter is not allocated, can you locate the page file on that partition? Would Windows force allocation on the system disk? I was able to use disk management on XP to remove the logical drive assignment from a second HDD so that the system HDD could be clone to it... otherwise, the cloning of a system HDD with C: and D: allocations (D: was second HDD) subsequently confused the Windows bootup when using the BIOS to boot from the clone (with both HDDs remaining in the machine). Also, when the logical drive D: assignment was removed, that partition was not visible in Windows Explorer... maybe it also would not show in page file assignment?

Regarding 32- vs. 64-bit speed, if you search Google for 'Vista 32-bit faster' and then 'Vista 64-bit faster' you can get a pretty good idea of the pros and cons. The older experience out there indicates more hardware and driver issues, but the trend among users is that Vista 64-bit is dawning... this is seconded by the OEM installation of Vista 64-bit. More technical findings suggest that 64-bit is/will be faster for reasons of system/cpu design (64-bit long mode?)... it's not just about more RAM. I decided to make the jump to 64-bit on my yet undelivered E6400, concluding the time was right all things considered, and that I wanted Dell to endorse a 64-bit system I will eventually run Windows 7 64-bit on.

Would DDR3-1066 run in a E6400?

Can you downgrade the E6400 to Intel graphics or upgrade to the next NVIDIA offering... somehow working through Dell?

GK

 

I've never tried cloning a 2 HDD setup but I can see that it could cause problems since, somewhere deep down, the system uses disk identifier codes and not logical letters.

You cannot put DDR3-1066 RAM in the current E6400. The slots and modules are slightly different and DDR3 runs at a lower voltage. Even if you could make the swap, the chipset is the bottleneck for RAM performance, even for DDR2-800.

As for changing GPUs, you would need a new mainboard.

John

 

From my research, that is a lie. Unless you have the partition size just enough at the MB close of the OS size on the disk (meaning anything less than OS size + 15% of free space), you will not see any speed difference. People that say that they get a speed difference is because the page-file end up fragmented, and by moving it partitions, it deletes the old one and re-crease it somewhere else on the disk, making it less, or not fragmented. This was mostly true under Windows XP. Under Vista, Vista is smarter and won't fragment the HDD where the page file is located (well it will but minimally) and you have Windows defrag tool that now can defrag Windows page file. Moving the page file is only good if you want to put it on a different HDD. Remember that an HDD doens't have 2 arms to get data, it has many heads (one per surface of platter) but all attached to one arm.

You are better off disabling page file for an increase in performance. TECHNICALLY speaking, you should have more battery life, as it uses less the HDD. Now the question is, using more RAM and all the time, does it consume more than using the HDD at some times, especially if you type text in a class room? Also, if you use RAM intensive programs... this might cause issue, especially if you pass your 4GB of RAM, where Windows will warn you when you are low in memory and suggest program to close to free some up, and if you ignore this and still use more, then you will be out of memory and your application will crash. If you got 4GB of RAM planning to do this, as you know you don't use software that are memory intensive, then it's a good try. I am curious to see test result on battery life.

On you GPU question, no you can't replace the GPU. I got my motherboard replaced, and the only thing you can change is the CPU and the RAM. The GPU is soldered in. If you want to upgrade your GPU, you are better off calling Dell customer service, and say that the machine doesn't fit your needs and you would like to exchange it to the same with the better graphic options. Of course, you pay the difference. I don't think Dell will mind.

 

I'm considering a clean install of Vista Biz 64-bit on the E6400 noted below, if that seems worthwhile. If anyone has done this and can share their steps and learned tips, I'd appreciate it. I'm not shy about installing a desktop from scratch, but notebooks are full of proprietary stuff that can be sensitive to versions, OEM tricks, and install sequence. Also, knowing what is barebones... what stuff not to bother installing is helpful. This being the OS install, I'd prefer to minimize my thrashing about and make use of your hard work!

Another subject... Going 64-bit requires me to come up with a new software firewall (RIP Sygate). Initial investigation suggests the Vista firewall is very capable and has outbound functionality, but it may not have a user-friendly front-end to it. I am going to try to make it work for me since its integration with Windows is ideal, imo. If you are using the Vista firewall for outbound control, I would appreciate hearing about your experience. So far, I have found one third-party product that may be a front-end to the built-in Vista firewall: www,sphinx-soft.com/Vista/index.html. Perhaps Microsoft is baiting this new market.

GK

 

I find Windows Vista firewall advance firewall easy to use. The only note I have to say, is when you open the advance firewall settings of firewall, it generates the list of applications in the list of inbound/outbound. Just be patient while the list populates, it's only for the first time.

When I installed Vista 64-bit using Dell disk (for testing to see if it comes with anything), it comes with NOTHING. Just Vista. Which is great, but you don't have any drivers. So make sure before you install Vista, to download the drivers first and put it into a USB stick/eSATA device/disk . Windows Update is unable to find any drivers for the system, so downloading the drivers before is a must.

Once you installed Vista, it's always best to install the motherboard drivers first (I think it includes the SATA controller as well), video card, sound card, then the rest. Once everything is installed, you can restore form backup your profile (so that you don't need to re-configure each applications (don't replace files (well if you do it won't allow so nothing to worry about))) (C:\Users\<account name>) and Program data folder (C:\Program data).

Once everything is installed you may defrag your harddrive. I suggest, using O&O defrag (but you have to pay, however there is a 30day trial version all features unlocked, and defrag as Complete\Name (this process may take several hours, as it not only it defrags but re-organize the files for the HDD to access them faster).

 

I just found out that the 2 rubber pads on the palm rest have a thin plastic layer that can be strach off. When removing it turns the pad grippy. This plastic layer might be the cause of the permanent marks on the screen frame as is slides too much. Also, when you remove it, it turns the pad darker which matches the palm rest. Any thoughts?

 

I am considering doing what GKdesigns with a fresh install of Visrta 64 bit business. My 6400 should be here, well, maybe the 19th? I hope before. GK that is one awesome price you got. Mine is almost the same, but I got BLUE and a docking station. I wonder if I can upgrade the wireless card if i am not satisfied with the Dell agn card?

This is my big move to all mobile, with 2 nice 20 inch Dells for home/office use, of course. I have had a desktop for so long, I am a bit nervous. I am doing it for many reasons, but mainly to simplify so that I always have all my work with me and have only to backup the one machine. But you know I will back that puppy up twice!