Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

The nVidia in the E6500 has better specs than in the E6400. See the 'side-by-side comparison' tab on the Dell 'Learn More' help where you select your GPU option. The E6500 nVidia uses DDR3 vs. DDR2, 700MHz vs. 400MHz memory.
GK

 

Just discovered a problem on my docking station E Port Plus: The two USB ports on the back under the network connector are a bit loose.

If I plug my Dell USB fingerprint reader into one of these two ports it is enough to touch it very lightly to get it to disconnect briefly. I know it gets disconnected because Windows plays the "disconnected sound". I think this can be a combination of the USB plug on my fingerprint reader that has too little plastic under the connectors and the USB ports that are a bit loose. Nevertheless, two Dell parts should be able to connect together without problems. With a USB disk attached instead there could be serious data loss with the a loose connector. I will call Dell about this.

Örjan

 

When I try the update by a booting CD, it detects the HDD ok, then starts the "Attempting to read binary file." but gives an error after about half an hour. In the end there's a "code 0".
It looks like it couldn't read from the cd at first, so I burned a new cd, using lower burning speed and data verification. Still the same.

"Attempting to read binary file." stays on for a very long time and then the error and code 0.

 

Well I just had the Dell Control Point "denial of service" experience. It appears that Control Point managed to get two instances of itself running; this resulted in contention between the two instances for who knows what resources, but it hammered the system for more than ten minutes.

I restarted but this didn't solve it, and in that incarnation, Control Point could not connect to whatever it needs to connect to in order to see the devices it is supposed to have, and the machine was still getting hammered.

So I cold booted, which seems to have "worked".

Obviously I want to do something to Control Point, and much as "evict" is the word that springs to mind, I suppose that might cut me off from using the devices (Mobile broadband, GPS) that I need to use.

I have read a bit on the limitations of Control Point in these threads, but I will have to refresh my memory.

 

Those side-by-side photos are very helpful.

I run my E6400's LG display at around half brightness where the contrast is a improved. Full brightness is only needed in sunshine.

Dell offer customers the choice of the old PC Card / PCMCIA slot (useful if you have old devices) or the newer ExpressCard slot. Neither are related to the GPU but Dell have caused some possible confusion by putting the slot options with the GPU options.

John

 

It doesn't completely remove the clicking noise yet. Lowering the HDD power management is still a better option. And the update seem to make seeks a bit noisier. The noise is now more "metal" though the HDD is still in quiet mode.

 

My laptop also have this (what I think is the) clicking noise. My normal HDD read/write noise sounds like a very soft "tik tik tik" sound. But this clicking noise sounds more like "chick" or "k-chick". This "chick" sound only appear once a while. I can only hear it when it is really quiet. I've been googling about HDD noise, and most sites say if your HDD has the clicking noise, that means your disk is dying. But reading this forum also suggest that some Dell HDD produce a quite audible clicking sound, which is not dangerous to the health of the disk.

So, my question is, how do I know if this "chick" sound from my HDD is the dreaded "clicking" sound that signals a dying disk, or is this is just a normal albeit a bit loud Dell HDD like other forumers here are experiencing?

My HDD is WDC WD1600BEVT-75ZCT2 (taken from Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager)

 

Dell in Canada seams to put Hitachi HDD's instead of Seagate.
When I first got my machine it had a noisy Seagate (5400RPM) it had a dent, and the new machine I got (replacement) has an Hitachi one. That one had faulty plastic and was exchange for another new one, and also has a Hitachi HDD.

 

i had exactly same problem. it took 45min and afterwards it said error....code0.

then i changed the HD from IRRT to ATA Mode in the BIOS. It only took 15min and completed succesfully.
"Firmware Download Complete. Code 0".

I have a ST9200423ASG and it makes a HUGE difference. It's so quiet now - i only hear it spinning. Wow - i'm impressed.

before i had a ST9200420ASG (no update) and it was much more quiet than the 423 BEFORE the update.

p.s.: i was right about the controller setting

 

My E6400 was delivered with a Hitachi 160 GB 7K320 7200 RPM drive. This drive is not very noisy for being a 7200 RPM drive and it has no clicking noises.

It doesn't spin down when being idle for a few seconds like some WD drives and I think I prefer this behaviour since the constant spin up/spin down cycle draws more attention to it than a constant speed.

My Hitachi drive has only one platter and I am sure it helps to keep the noise down. I think I have read that Hitachi 7K320 drives with two platters (200 GB and up) are a bit noisy so you that want a quiet drive should look for one-platter drives. I managed to get a deal with my Dell sales guy that I would be able to get some type of compensation or exchange if my drive was not one of the new 160GB/platter drive types.

Örjan