Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

haha, nope, no extra scratches! you scared me into not doing it ever again though!

Im not sure what it was, but i managed to get rid of almost all of it. i can kinda see my finger print, but i was scared that i was removing the finish (is that even possible?). im thinking maybe something was on the keyboard and got on it.

 

Sure it does.. everything works under Vista 64-bit on this laptop. See Dell website for the driver section. Check out this document onto how to install the drive in proper order (apparently their is an order)
http://support.dell.com/support/top...ll_order?c=ca&cs=cabsdt1&l=en&s=bsd&~lt=print

 

I honestly don't know if doing the whole thing is worth the hassle.
I don't think it can be faster than at most 10%

 

It doesn't take much time when your machine has nothing (as you have nothing to backup nor re-install). You get to use your RAM at 100% if you have 4GB or more, you enjoy a less buggy, more polished Vista, and yea you get your 10-15% faster speed and small increase in battery life, and get to run 64-bit codecs and applications. Everything was explained in great details before. Just look back.

 

I just installed the new A12 BIOS to see if Dell had changed the fan rules, but it seems to be the same as in A11: As soon as the temperature of the chipset reaches 50 C according to I8kfanGUI, the fan starts spinning at the extremely noisy full speed mode (4800 RPM).

Under normal use it seems that the chipset reaches a temperature of approximately 22 C above ambient temperature. So there is no real issue with the fan noise when the ambient temperature is 27 C or below.

I really hope Dell changes the fan rules before summer but it doesn't seem so. They also closed my support case about this without fixing the problem.

Örjan

 

i think the most mine got to was 3080 or so RPM, not 4800rpm. maybe ill check more closely tonight. yours does report 0rpm idle though,right?

also, the chipset drivers i download are intel mobile, right?

and does anyone know what broadcom-firmware, unified security hub is (it says urgent)?

 

Yes, you're right. I downloaded the 32-bit version by mistake.

It takes a long time to download and install the updates, and I ran into a problem with AnyDVD. Other than those, the laptop seems OK with Vista 64.

 

I've got a E6400 (outlet) in route. should get it in a couple of days.

I was wondering if anyone ever tried to install one of those mini PCI-Express SSD drives often found in those mini netbooks into the slot left open by the wireless WAN (verizon/sprint/att etc) card? and does it work?

I would think this would be a great way to add some fast storage to the E6400 if it works. maybe boot the OS off the SSD and run apps/data off the hd and have a SD or express card SSD as the readyboost drive for vista.

Also, has anyone found any inexpensive places to purchase 4GB DDR2 SODIMMS? would be nice to upgrade it to the full 8GB and run several VMs on the box.

 

does anyone notice a few of the keys on their backlit keyboard are a little bit darker than the others? for me it seems to be 5,6,7,8,f5,f6,f7,f8.

i could swear i read this in the review by John as well. just curious.

 

I must try to get the chipset up to 50C to test your theory. I've had I8kfanGUI running for 2 days but the highest chipset temperature has bee 47C (and the CPU has only been up to 52C, so not much hard work for the computer).

That's possible, but you will quickly get used to it. I have found the backlit keyboard to be very useful, every time the lights go out.

From what I have read, those small card-based SSDs aren't very fast. If you are using Vista then one of the bigger turbo memory modules might be a better investment.

John