Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

3.7 for an Intel GPU is pretty awesome, I would not complain. If you need more performance then return your machine and get one with the Quadro.

 

Here's a minor report of the visit from the Dell tech earlier today:

I had a minor problem with the laptop because the bottom plate was slightly warped, causing the laptop to rock a bit back and forth while typing. Since I mostly use it docked, it wasn't a big issue. However, recently I have had the urge of starting to use it in a chair, sofa, or taking it to work etc, and it was annoying me.

In short, veni vidi vici. I called on Friday, described the problem, and mentioned that I had had one video driver crash due to overheating. He came earlier today and said he would replace the motherboard. I said that since most people around here have similar temperatures as me, I'd rather pass that (give or take a few ºC -- BTW thanks to everyone who has been sharing info on the E6400 here).

Still, since the corners of the underside are from the chassis and not the underplate, he had to open up the laptop and reassemble it with the new chassis. Dell even fixed the very slight warping on the left hinge cover (plastic grey thingy where the Display Port is), even though it was purely cosmetic.

Now the computer looks brand new and, most importantly, no longer rocks back and forth.

Basically, I just wanted to give (yet) another account of Dell's support here.

 

My power connector (with the blue light) doesn't plug all the way into the latop. I can't believe this is normal.

Shouldn't the connector, when inserted fully, not show any of the metal barrel of the connector at all? Mine, when plugged in, sticks out almost 1/4 of an inch showing metal at the point of insertion.

So far, I am not very impressed with Dell Outlet.

 

just got my e6400 - and I like it a lot so far.

specs:
P8600
Vista Business 64
HDD: momentus seagate 5400.4 250GB
Intel X4500HD
WXGA+, 4GB RAM, 6-cell battery.

One question: is this system supposed to be very quiet? I thought so but I have to say I hear a constant noise (similar to a fan) from the hard disk. In a perfectly quiet room this is audible (to me!) even when standing say 5-7 steps from the laptop, whereas the noise is hardly audible in a room with background noise (unless you put your ear quite close to the HDD).

Basically I wanted to find out whether my level of noise is normal, given that I have chose my configuration to try and minimize noise. I have read the previous discussion on HDD noise on this forum but am not too sure about how to apply that to my case.

thanks

 

I also hear a constant fan-like noise from the HDD, but mine is a 7200 rpm 250 GB HDD.

 

no, that is entirely normal. presumably it is intentional so that the power cord CAN pull out if you tug too hard on it.

 

Someone over at Lv2go.com found some updated drivers for the 5100/5300 card. Most notably, it allows the use of Intel My Wifi technology, which allows you to share your internet connection over wifi through ad-hoc mode while remaining connected to an access point LAN over wifi. see http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23633 Major upgrade.

 

Hey folks, a relative of mine is thinking of buying an E6400. What's the build time for new units like these days?

 

That would be Pieter Schaar - who used to put out the modded NVidia drivers; he now focuses on finding & modding WiFi drivers.
Interesting looking drivers, I'll give them a try a bit later.

 

yeah, i know its pieter but i didn't know that people here knew or cared about the name. anyway, i just installed the drivers, it adds another device, a My Wifi PAN. I got it working both with internet connection sharing, and as a LAN. I am unclear whether it can act as both, but i don't care to mess with that at the moment.