Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Wow, I was annoyed enough that with XP I couldn't get memory usage under about 450MB of 4GB with the bits of DCP I wanted to use, I can't see me upgrading to Vista or Win7.

 

My refurbished E6400 just arrived today. Everything was great except for 2 things.

1) 6 cell battery is a little loose.

2) Bottom plate has only 1 screw and that screw only tightens if the unattached spring is in position. Not only should it be attached with at least 2 screws, but the screws should be secured into the base in more than just a small spring. For as great as this laptop appears to be, that is just pitiful.

 

The screw isn't in place with the spring, it more or less just holds the screw in position.

Has anyone who has tried Windows 7 on their E6400 got their SD card reader to function?

Greg

 

when the spring wasn't in there, the bottom would just fall off. the trouble is keeping the spring in place while putting the lid back on. Still, that's a poor way to attach the bottom cover to the computer.

 

Hmm. The spring on mine never came off I don't think.

Greg

 

When I took the bottom cover off the 2nd time, the spring came through the hole with the screw. Until I was able to get the spring back in position, the bottom cover was loose and the screw would keep turning without tightening all the way. Next time I take the cover off, the spring will be loose again since it's attached to nothing.

After I upgrade my memory and wireless card, I probably won't have to take it off again but doesn't seem like it would add much cost to get another screw in there and have it tightening into something other than a spring.

 

I may have to plead ignorance on what the physical RAM info in Task Manager means. Looking again, I can watch the cached number climb while the free declines. On reboot, free starts at 2GB and slowly falls to around 60 as cached climbs. So maybe Vista just eats it all up regardless? But performance is still snappier with 4GB vs. 2GB.

GK

 

Arrived today and only 2 issues?

My bottom plate is held on fine by one center screw that screws into the metal chassis, not a spring. The screw travels through a spring captive in a molding in the plate. The spring serves only to push the screw up as it is unscrewed. If the spring is coming out, then the screw may have been unscrewed too far such that all come out of the plate. They should not... the screw and spring should remain captive in the plate when the plate is removed.

You can live without the spring. Or try to recapture it and the screw into the plate. Do not put the spring inside below the plate! And look for the mating screw hole in the chassis to be sure the threads are ok.

GK

 

I took the screw all the way out. Didn't realize it wasn't supposed to come out. Without the spring, the screw won't stay in so it's required, so I can't live without the spring unfortunately.

 

The spring is captive in the screw hole in the plate. The screw should not come all the way out. It should also be captive... plate, spring, and screw are all one stay-together assembly. I would try putting the spring back into the plate hole and then the screw through them, and see if they stay put. Otherwise, it's screwed, but you should still be able to re-assemble all... the spring and screw just won't be captive anymore... they will always come loose when removing the screw.

GK