Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Update: I reinstalled Vista and drivers and got all WUs and all seems well. Dell issued some driver updates today including their system software. Having been through this and talked to them, I'd say the E6400 is a work in progress... as you would expected this early on. The hardware feels solid. The software is suspect. I left off most util apps and diags and particularly the Dell ControlPoint Connection and Security modules... these downloads are waaaay too big to be coded well, imo. If I can get away with it, leaving off the CP security driver leaves the Broadcom USH disabled and blocks install of the Intel AMT drivers... less code, less stuff running, more power for me... I don't need the security stuff.

I'll post a step-by-step guide for the install when the holiday crunch permits... there are some things worth knowing. The Dell Intel SATA driver does not auto install like everything else so you just update the sata driver by browsing to the extract folder and letting it find what it needs. Also, the Dell BT 370 driver is embedded in the application... install the app and the drivers install to enable the BT. And there is a prescribed install order. And you must patch the CD install of Webcam Central A00 to A01 to fix comms with the cam.

There was some discussion here regarding the Intel Storage Manager banging the drive... you might find that to be Vista running a scheduled defrag!

GK

 

99% of BSOD's in XP are caused by hardware problems. The other 1% may be an application crash, virus, or invalid driver being installed.

You are such a Vista fanboy. Vista is the biggest joke since Windows ME.

Your credibility is shot.

 

The GPU is soldered in to the mobo? No one must have known that! Aww you are so smart! I can upgrade my CPU? NO WAI! Was that your first time seeing a GPU? LOL

 

Just got my new e6400 with Vista Home Basic SP1. Should i reinstall it with windows xp? or keep vista home?

thanks

 

I have the same problem, a seagate 120go/7200 too.

Did you fix the problem or not ?
Does everybody have the same problem ? (I will change computer, but if all latitude e6400 have this problem, I will take a lenovo)

 

Vista may have its issues, but you show your colors as such a hater as to lose all credibility. 99% of BSOD's in XP caused by hardware? what a joke.

 

See how you like Vista and whether you encounter problems with your existing software collection.

Hardware drivers, maybe, but not the hardware itself. But drivers are software. I put a DVD in to play yesterday and that caused a BSOD. It was a genuine DVD and played fine after rebooting. My suspicions lie with having the optical drive on SATA. We know the Intel Matrix Storage driver isn't yet bug-free.

John

 

John, are you on vista or xp?

 

XP (as it says in small print in my sig).

I had a year of Vista on my previous notebook and, while it might be a little more stable than XP, caused me various headaches because of incompatibility with some old software.

John

 

Agreed. I'm thinking the E6400 is a good early opportunity to jump to Vista64 on a 64-bit platform, but you need to be able to make a clean break from legacy stuff that was not built to run on Vista, and drivers not built to run on a 64-bit platform. OEMs are pushing out consumer Vista 64-bit systems, but I feel those will get into trouble when the user loads legacy stuff that violates the 'clean break rule'.

Dell is historically conservative on their Windows integrations to minimize everyone's trouble... their business products even more so. Their rolling out of the next generation Latitude as a 64-bit platform is a stamp of approval of sorts. So far, I think the E series is off to a good start and should be well-positioned for Windows 7, when corporate buyers who have resisted Vista like the plague will have to upgrade as their XP systems expire on all fronts. I predict that Dell will begin to enjoy massive sales of 64-bit Windows 7 systems AFTER the current recession is over... starting in about 12 months. You can ride this wave early on an E6400!

GK