Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Dunno if it's been mentioned, but a new Intel Storage Driver is out on the Dell support page.

 

I've just started a new thread for that, since it is applicable to all the new Latitudes / Precisions.

John

 

These E6400 laptops are not working for me at all.
I have several of these with 8GB of RAM to use within a business environment.
They all shut down while using them and BSOD because of many different errors (USB drivers , sound driver).
I have tired new BIOS / drivers / different loads. Nothing fixes this issue.
I even took one of out the box used the preloaded 64-bit OS dell provided and had the same issues without adding any additional software.
The laptops are running 64-bit vista.
I do have several of these without the 8GB running 32-bit vista and XP and they do work OK.

At this point I am working with Dell, but this has not gotten me any answers.

I think this product is majorly flawed and might ultimately cost me my job.

If anyone has ideas of what to do that would be appreciated. I would not recommend this model of laptop to anyone until Dell has resolved the issues.

 

I am not an IT professional so I doubt I will hit the mark, but I will try:

- try putting less RAM (4 GB or even 2 GB) to see if it's a problem of the OS not handling so much RAM (for example, XP had problems when hibernating with more than 1 GB of RAM, that has been fixed in a hotfix included with SP3)
- try another OS: Vista 32-bit, XP 64/32 bit (I assume Linux is not an option for your business environment)

Hope that helps...

EDIT: now that I read the last part of your post, it seems that with a 32-bit OS and/or without the RAM the issue goes away. Although that is not a fix, it might be a good idea to contact Microsoft as well.

 

So there are three issues here: (i) the 8GB (ii) 64-bit OS and (iii) Vista. As already suggested, what happens if you remove one of the RAM modules so you have only 4GB on board? Do the problems go away? If so, then let the users limp along with only 4GB of RAM for the moment. I dread to think what the hibernation / resume time is like with vista + 8GB.

So the product (or more likely the software / drivers are flawed in terms of their 64-bit compatibility with 8MB RAM) but, as you acknowledge, it works fine with 4GB and 32-bit XP.

Dell will eventually get this fixed. The E series is relatively early in its life cycle, but the more you can do to identify the cause of the problem then the sooner it will be fixed.

John

 

I had all kinds of trouble with my E6400 until I did a fresh load of Vista Ultimate and installed the necessary drivers from the Web site. It has been 100% stable. In my gut, I think NOT installing any of the Control Point software is the main reason although I certainly can't prove that.

 

not sure it is part of the problem, but the Dell OEM installs do not seem to run cleanly, even if you reinstall using the dell OEM vista disc. When I went back to my retail copy for install and just used the dell provided license, i stopped having a host of issues. I note that I have experienced this problem with the dell installs and occasionally their discs for years.

 

I installed Windows 7 x64 last night and so far it's working great on my E6400.

Most devices were installed automatically but BT is not recognized nor is it possible to install using the Dell drivers. (most Dell drivers doesn't allow installing on W7)

Battery performance looks very good ~8hrs is estimated on my 9cell and a T9600.
(currently it shows 9h36min at 93% using power save and just browsing using IE8)

There's very little disk activity compared to Vista.

 

What is your battery life compared to Windows Vista with your configuration? I ask because I have a P8500, and nvidia GPU, with the default HDD (Hitachi 160GB 5200RPM)), no blue tooth, Intel wireless 5100, N the rest seams to be the same as your system on your signature.

 

Vista never estimated more than ~7 hours. (peak)