Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

That's why I was originally planning to upgrade to Vista Home Premium 64-bit, so it could address 4GB+ of RAM. In the past, I've only seen 3.1GB or so with 4GB installed running a 32-bit OS. But this is the first time I've installed 4GB with a 32-bit OS in a machine with integrated graphics...I didn't expect more than 3 or 3.1GB, so 3.45GB was a pleasant surprise.

 

In my two experiences with the Dell Outlet specifically, the tracking info never made it to the My Account section, even after I received the laptop. However you can call in and speak to a rep to get the tracking number.

Maybe the My Account tracking integration works better with regular non-Outlet orders?

 

Use your order number and use "Track by reference" from Fedex website. You'll see your status and your tracking number. I forgot the link but you should be able to find it.

 

Works!

You sir, are a genius.

 

Received my E6400 from the outlet yesterday, loaded Vista Business 32bit.
Everything works except dual display.

When I hook up an external monitor using a dell Display port to DVI adapter, the external monitor works great, but the laptop screen is completely black.

If I hit the ambient light sensor button (Function and left arrow key) several times, the laptop display will flash on for a second, then turn completely black again (LED back light not turned on, if I shine a light at the screen, I can see my background image and the mouse pointer moving).

Anyone else experience this issue? have latest drivers and this is with the intel integrated graphics.

 

To change display modes do Fn + F8 (there is even an a picture on the key)
A an-screen menu will appear and by taping the same key combination you can switch between each item on the menu.

 

I finally got my E6400 so I figureout that I could share some thoughs...

Dell E6400 –Yet another review…

Spec.: P8600, 2GB, 250 GB WDC HDD, WXGA+ 1440x900 LED LG, DVDRW, Dell wifi, Dell Bluetooth, GMA X4500 + Vista Business ENG 32-bit.
This will be review that will focus on other very subjective aspects of ownership of Dell E6400.
REASONS FOR BUING
I needed some more space and typical PC that I had was a bit old, still useful but slow. It was an Athlon 2200+. It is obvious that it was time to change ;-) . I was reading notebookreview.com since June 2008. I have read all reviews about Dell E6400. I was really interested in buying this laptop (what happened to be extremely difficult). I have read all 1500 posts in Dell E6400 Owners Lounge. Laptop will be used as tool for programming in Eclipse, document edition (some nice spreadsheets) and managing virtual machines. I’m not planning to game at all … for this purpose I bought PSP.
… LONG WAY HOME
Phrase from Faithless song is fitting perfectly to describe how I got this laptop. As Polish I thought that buying laptop that is made in Poland will be plain simple… WRONG. Most Dell partners here doesn’t sell laptops made in Poland as Dell Poland overcharge a lot! In effect I was choosing from Dell with 3 NBD warranty Global imported from US or Ireland outlet. To be honest I will post prices:
a) Dell Poland website price:

It is 7171.16 PLN with VAT - (1 PLN=5.2182 £ ) means 1374,25£
b) Price when imported from US by polish reseller: 5429.00 PLN with VAT - 1040£
c) Price when imported from UK/Irl by polish reseller from outlet: 3600 with VAT – 689.89£ + 20£ shipping
Of course I compared exactly same configurations (even marking ‘with Resource DVD’ which is additional cost on Dell Poland shop for 20PLN = 4£).From now you probably know why nobody sells Dells produced in Poland in Poland. In the end of this story I received laptop that was sold in UK, received it with English plug and converter … and label on bottom saying “made in Poland” ! I bought two times cheaper Dell that was produced here went there and again …find the long way home. It is really crazy but it is 100% true.
THE GOOD …
As I expected screen is perfect comparing to my IBM R60. Brightness is really improved. Keyboard is also good but I need to get use to it. All things that was said is true. Pointing stick is not really that accurate but it is ok. I disabled touchpad as I am not using touchpads. I have installed all newest drivers from Dell site including new bios A12 (old was A6). Battery fits better than I thought – it will not move too much. In IBM there is only one ‘hook’ holding battery , here two plus connector that is quite tight-fitted. Vista is quite fast on this configuration but I will ghost-copy it to other drive, but that later in review. I really (I know it sounds fanboy’ish) love this plain simple look of laptop design. There is nothing that I can complain about design, period. Hawing access on the bottom to everything is cool idea. Having hardware maintenance manuals is blessing too.

THE BAD…
Build quality is superb, but … palm rest is fitted incorrectly as one bolt on right didn’t ‘catch’. Secondly palm rest is sticky. That’s really nasty. Dell Control Point … Dell need really to work on it. Ambient light sensor is sometime enabled (after reboot) then I can disable it but after next reboot it is still on. Blue led at ON button is to bright.

PERFORMANCE
Processor: P8600 2,4 GHz (32,482 sec.)

HDD Western Digital 250 GB 5400rpm:

http://www.lublin.mm.pl/~chris25lbn/WDC250-read.jpg
Seagate Momentus 7200.3 ASG 250GB (using e-sata port and e-sata external case!)
http://www.lublin.mm.pl/~chris25lbn/SGT250-read.jpg
As You see Seagate is fast in average read it is 48% faster than WD 5400 drive! Access time … well it is not SSD. If I can recommend this series of disks (and 7200.4 with only one platter 250GB!) laptop could be really responsive and safe as ASG series has Free Fall Sensors. Unfortunately I didn’t take any tests comparing Watt usage, but it you read TomsHardware reviews of 2,5” disks you will find that those disks eat not much energy - this Seagate is rated as sipping only 2,4Watt on full load, least from most 7200rpm HDDs.

HEAT AND NOISE …. What? noise…
If we put aside DVD drive, laptop is dead silent with Intel “P” series processors and Intel Integrated graphics. Heat is felt in left and a bit in the middle of bottom part, it is where exhaust is located and intake openings.

CONCLUSION
I am very pleased with this laptop. It’s fast, elegant and mobile in sense that it’s not 17” brick and it is not netbook-like 10” toy that can do much but it all. I don’t discard netbooks I just try to say that E6400 fits in definition ‘mobile computer’. Astonishing is how fast e-sata disks works, you can forget about USB2.0. Hawing an e-sata is best novelty I can find in this machine. Led screen with high resolution 1440x900 is second novelty that matters, and it matters a lot!

Christopher P.

 

Using a second OS under a Virtual PC (or any other program) require your system to have more than 2GB of RAM. 4GB is my recommendation. I do the same thing. 2GB is really not enough. Of course if you going with 4GB, Vista 64-bit will be needed.

This should be covered under your warranty, call them to get it fixed.

The previous owner of the machine probably used glass-window cleaning product instead of using water or just a cloth. Ammonia does that to plastic... makes it sticky.

Something is wrong. Uninstall the ambient light sensor driver, restart your computer and install the latest version.

 

Just received my Latitude E6400... But I noticed a weird situation...

Whenever I boot it up, the E6400 will run the BIOS screen twice... If I set boot password, it will require me to enter the password twice to enter OS...

Is this normal? How can I make it a one-pass?

Thank you.

 

Contact Dell tech support. This is a very particular problem.