Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

My system only has 2GB RAM, no finger print reader, no prosupport (except me), no mobile broadband, no color, and no port replicator. newegg.com is selling Crucial 2x2GB DDR2-800 (PC2 6400) for $53, so I would not order Dell RAM beyond the working minimum of 2 DIMMs... which you can always put back in if tech support wants to blame your memory upgrade during a troubleshooting session. Similar rationale for the HDD, except now any future upgrade will probably be to SSD to get a speed, thermal, and battery life performance boost.

My random method... scour the Internet for the best 'instant savings' link into 'Customize...' (a slightly stale link seems to be ok ), configure your desired minimum system, foregoing over-priced options you can source elsewhere. If certain desired options are artificially unavailable, add similarly priced placeholder options. And add a pricey system item you don't want. Save it and wait for free shipping to pop up every so often. Then call in to request a quote on your saved configuration, replacing any placeholder options with the items you wanted. Review your quote and then get a second quote with that pricey system item you did not want deducted. Your mileage may vary.

GK

 

>>Whoever posted about Cyberlink and Roxio, you need Roxio to copy disks, and without Cyberlink, you can't play DVDs, since Vista and earlier Windows do not have a DVD codec installed.

Thanks! It's coming back to me now... I installed an interVideo X-Pack (codec) on WinXP to enable DVD viewing in WMP. Corel has since bought interVideo, I think.

GK

 

I wish the keyboard would fade in and out with the brightness like on an apple.

 

Good stuff... paraphrasing and bound to be refined by others...

Dell ControlPoint installation:
o Only install the modules you need...
o System Manager: screen and power modules.
o Connection Manager: none.
o Security Manager: drivers for required devices. Then uninstall Security Manager drivers and just update the devices manually with the drivers previously extracted (no yellow exclamation marks in device manager for devices without drivers but without the overhead of the driver package i.e. services you don't need).

GK

 

this is utter nonsense about needing Cyberlink to play DVDs... there are a multitude of better (and free) programs out there. VLC comes immediately to mind.

 

Meaning what... that Dell installs Cyberlink needlessly? As their business systems appear to be pared down to the basic requirements, it would seem that they install Cyberlink for some sensible reason.

GK

 

Instead of this, you can use proper codec packs.
Here are 2 superb codec packs optimized for Vista 32 and 64-bit. If you have Vista 64-bit you can install the 32 as well as the 64-bit to cover your ground (also it's currently the only codec pack that doesn't have any conflicts between the 32 and 64-bit, and supports Media Center and Vista thumbnails). This codec packs plays everything you can trow at it, DVD, fla, quicktime, even HD movies.
Also it comes with 2 tools, that you can execute, one will chnage all the file association of Windows Media Player 32-bit (set as default in Vista 64-bit) to the 64-bit version, and the other will chnage the start-menu and quick launch bar shortcuts. Using 64-bit codec reduces CPU power, and so slightly increase your battery life, and also requires overall less resources.

Vista 64-bit: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5535
Vista 32-bit: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5326

 

To the person experiencing constant rebooting on restart but the system will occasionally work - I had this exact same problem.

It eventually turned out to be faulty RAM and after a long, laborious discussion (the Dell rep later called me back to apologise) which involved me demanding a tech and him telling me to reload the OS ... faulty RAM module replaced and system no longer BSOD's on startup.

You can try running MEMTEST or alternating and removing one RAM module to see if your problem disappears.

You can also go into advanced system settings to turn off 'automatic restart' after an error so the blue screen remains on the screen.

 

the displayport on the E6400 is both audio and video right? any quality loss when going through an hdmi adapter to a tv/monitor?

 

You should not lose quality as the signal is digital. You can get the cheapest HDMI or DVI or Display port cable at the length you want, you will get the same great quality as the short, super protected super expensive versions of these cables. That's the power of digital signal. Plus, you have error correction, so really your protected for even if your cable to a bit damaged. Now theoretically having a longer cable will increase latency, but this is a display, and the cable won't be long enough for you to start seeing a difference, dam the cable will be long... maybe filling a large room and still see no delay between your mouse and the screen.