Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Let's see:
I haven't experienced any audio issue, though there is a bit of crackling during startup, but everything else plays fine.
DVD burner - no problems for me, though I've only burned 3 DVDs so far.
Touchpad - what's wrong with it? The only thing that annoyed me was the zoom-in and zoom-out feature, which isn't labeled on the touchpad itself. I've since turned it off, and haven't noticed many problems on my end.
LCD backlight - Not sure on this..
Keyboard backlight - Sure, at angles it's a bit annoying, but exactly what is the issue at hand?
Ambient Light Sensor - Turned off, I just adjust to my own liking and the environment.

Though it's sad to see one of these babies returned...

 

Well, I'm going to go ahead and order a new one WHILE working on returning the E6400 I have now.

As fast as they have been shipping these out, I bet I'll be able to get the new one before returning the old one.

 

noting you list XP in your sig...

This I find curious, since a number of people had noticed poor quality audio in XP (on various new models), and were not able to fix the problem (in a way that would survive a reboot). I noticed it out of the box that in XP the sound was very hollow sounding (even through headphones). I was like having one of those cheap 3D audio features turned on that you couldn't turn off since the dell drivers are very limited. In Vista it sounds normal in this regard.

However, in XP I did not notice the popping that I am now experiencing in Vista. The only crackling, as you say, was on startup, or when playing with the power settings, which is not entirely unexpected.

I didn't notice any problems for the short time I was on XP. For Vista, you can see my earlier posts... this one may be Vista specific.


side note: I hate ambient light sensors, they drive me insane, so I'm no help in that regard since I leave it off

 

It doesn't prevent the use. It just throttles the CPU (fixable with RMClock) and only does a trickle charge when the computer is on (but normal charge when it is off).

Is you comment about the new BIOS a general one about the E series BIOS or A03 in particular?

I've had no issues with the touchpad. I quickly turned off the ALS control for the display backlight but kept it on for the keyboard backlight. What's the issue with the display backlight?

Another issue I have noticed is that the extended battery life option is good at dropping the display down to 40Hz 16bit color and less good about restoring the settings when quitting the extended battery life option. I haven't done thorough investigation about what happens but the problem may be triggered by events such as hibernating when on battery and resuming when on mains power.

John

 

When on battery, even with the ALS disabled...the screen keeps going to a dimmer setting and occasionally wavers up and down a notch in brightness as if the ALS were active.

I have observed the same thing, and as a consequence I've been turning off that feature. I don't want to have to reboot the notebook for this functionality.

To be fair, I've observed that it goes back to full settings if/when you plug the laptop in. So perhaps Dell thought the all day functionality stuff would be a user preferred setting that persists across time.

 

Vista has it's own setting for automatic screen adjustment which is independent of the dell ALS setting in the advanced power options - have you checked that to see if it makes any difference? I turned it off right away when I was going through the power profiles, and haven't seen any ALS-like behavior. You can also change what brightness the screen defaults to on battery here.

 

Does anyone have the cool slice? Is it metal or plastic? Do you like it, or does it seem to be a waste?

 

John, I know that it just throttles the CPU, but I regard that as not working.

It should be able to power the laptop properly, though not with expresscharge.

I was talking about the new E6400 A03 bios.

I'm very impressed with the laptop so far though. The webcam is excellent, even in low light, I use the laptop often in my living room after dark with most of the lights off, so I use the backlit keyboard, and I now have the option of going outside on my deck to use this, since the screen is bright enough to use outside.

Coming from an XPS m140, which has paint chipping off everywhere and the screen bezel cracked near the hinge (which has about an inch of slop back and forth), the E is amazing. I was actually quite impressed with the speakers, especially after hearing what everyone else has been saying. The speakers are better than those on the M140, which are noted in reviews for being quite good for a laptop of it's size. I did need to install the Intel Storage Matrix driver to keep the audio from stuttering, and I didn't install the IDT audio driver at all. Headphone jack is crystal clear. I haven't tried burning any DVD's yet, but it has read everything I've thrown at it when reformatting. (I do have the suspect drive)

I have a Samsung screen, and there isn't even a hint of grain, and I adjusted the colors so that there was just a little less blue. It looks great now. Better contrast and color than the XPS m140 screen, and that is reflective.

The only issue I have is with the touchpad/trackpoint. I got the adjustments to where I like them on the touchpad, and it works fine, but while I haven't spent a great deal of time fine tuning the trackpoint (I don't normally use them) it seems to accellerate and jump.

The bottom cover is held on very well. It clicks into place and the screw is just there to keep it from sliding out. It is in so well that even if the screw was out, it is tight enough to stay on in normal use.

I'll shutup now, since I was planning on a mini-review with lots of pictures.

Greg

 

Can somebody please clarify others' disappointment on E6400 LED display?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=300810

I ordered on 9/14 and as of today the laptop has not been shipped. I ordered server in the past and it takes 2 days only to get it shipped.

 

I have/had the LG LED Screen...best screen I have ever had. The only one that was a close 2nd was the LG CCFL LCD Screen.