Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Ok. Don't get confused with things. Hulu, youtube and many other sites uses Flash to play a video, and well unlike your desktop media player software that you use, it doesn't use your GPU to render. It uses the CPU only. It's a limitation of Flash. Nvidia and Adobe are currently working together to change that, but this might take some time (knowing Adobe speed with 64-bit Flash, my guess is that it really won't be soon, unless Nvidia does a lot of pressure).

If you run a standard video file (avi, mpeg, etc...) on your computer using any media software, your video should play nicely under power saver. HD (including 1080p) movies should play nicely under battery if your system is NOT set as Power Saver power mode.

If not, it might be due that you use a 32-bit codec as you have XP or your HD codec sucks. As for the 32-bit OS statement, this is just a guess. The moment Vista public beta came out, I scrap out XP 32-bit on my 64-bit systems (see signature, "custom build") and run Vista 64-bit, so I really don't know. I expect someone to correct me on this.

If one day you decide to unlock the power of your CPU (and your 4GB of RAM) all by using the same amount of power, you can look at Shark007 64-bit codec pack.
Found here (win7 ready): http://shark007.net/x64components.html
Up to this day, I still find to be the best of the best codec pack for 64-bit Vista and Win7 (32-bit codec pack is available for these OS's for software compatibility. It can be installed safely in combination with the 64-bit codecs).

To fix your problem with Flash, right click on any Flash content and select "Settings" and uncheck the checkbox named "Enable hardware acceleration". Note that, this settings only applies to the content you are watching. You may want to enable hardware acceleration when plug-in if you have problems.

 

Anyone hAve any ideas of why my NV160m video card is only giving me a score of 2.8 in aero desktop, and 4.9 in gaming? I've tried uninstalling/re-installing the drivers. Both directly from Dell and nVidia, and neither did anything.

 

What OS are your running again, Vista or Win7?
Did you try the 185.85 (NOT 186 as they are in beta) drivers found here: http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers
If that doesn't help, my guess is a driver conflict.

 

what is the normal rating you can get with the nv160m card in vista? my last laptop (hp) has a crappy 2.2 rating on aero,, i hope to see big improvements..

for my dell desktop, ratings are basically the same across vista and win7

 

2.8 is a poor score, but I recall from tests I did last year that the nVidia GPUs performed less well in desktop graphics than the Intel GPUs. The dedicated GPUs have better ability to handle 3D rendering but, for everyday 2D graphics they are nothing special (which is why I prefer cool running Intel graphics).

John

 

Actually the reason for this is not the GPU, but the memory of the GPU used.
64-bit memory interface instead of 128-bit (or better) is being use. So to match that speed, you need to overclock the GPU memory to double it's speed (which you can't due to a lack of cooling, and I tried).
Why 128-bit memory was not used.. simple, it uses 2 times the power, and unlike a processor there is no "low power state" for memory. It's full power or nothing.
This is one reason among several, which explains why the desktop version of the same GPU is greater in performance than the laptop version.

If you wonder, the max memory clock I was able to overclock was 525MHz up from 400MHz. But when the system is plug-in Aero should be smooth, and a little choppy (I would say, "not as smooth") when on battery with transparency enabled.

Your score of 2.2, is not good. If I remember correctly you should have 3.4 or 3.5 (Aero) by default.
When I need extra power in games I overclock the GPU, but that is the only time I do it. Therefor I pass to (under Vista):
Graphic Aero: 4.0
Gaming: 5.1

I cannot know the original score anymore as for some reason Vista doesn't want to lower the score if the hardware did not change (which my guess was done on purpose in the case you do the test under battery or run stuff on the background which can drop the score, and don't want to freak out some users)

As for Intel, my guess is because the GPU is significantly slower, therefore uses much less power, Intel could afford to put 128-bit memory. And this is why the difference between Intel and Nvidia solution for this laptop is only about 30min of battery life on a 9-cell battery bran new, right out from the manufacturing plant.

So it comes down to:
- A little more heat, reduce battery life, a little choppy under battery Aero, but great power (for a laptop GPU with long battery life) to be delivered to you when you do some CAD, CUDA, physics (which uses Nvidia PhysX) or gaming, and better driver support.
- A little less heat, increase battery life, perfect smooth Aero interface all the time, but a very very weak video card, with no possibility to use software that uses GPU instead of the CPU and get out any performance increase (expect decrease in performance if possible), and live with the compatibility software that uses the GPU list, and expect short term driver support compared to Nvidia (but the Intel solution is cheaper).

Whichi ever you choose, you can't upgrade later. So choose wisely.

 

I have the same problem.
Did you resolve it ?

 

I'm still on the temporary solution I described in the EDIT.

What I did:
1) Open "Run", type in "msconfig"
2) In the "startup" section I disabled the line that had show_msg.exe on it.

So basically I am using selective startup.

 

For those who uses Dell Control Point system notification, and are seriously annoyed by having it steal focus from your application and minimizes your game, exists full screen video because you decided to increase/decrease/enable/disable volume, backlit keyboard, ambientlight sensor or screen brightness.

Here is the old version Dell Control Point that has all of that resolved. Uninstall the newer version before installing this one. If anyone asks, it works under Win7 RC.
http://ftp.us.dell.com/app/Dell_ControlPoint-System-Man_A07_R204018.exe

And if anyone looking for a system notification that has the above fixes + takes smaller screen real estate, and even saves it's moved position. Check out the original Dell Control Point (also works under WIn7 RC).
http://ftp.us.dell.com/app/R194749.exe

Frankly, at every new release of Dell Control Point it gets worse ad worse, so I say stick with the original.

 

What does the DCP system module do that can't be done with Vista Mobility Center, Power Options, and E6400 BIOS settings? It's gotta have a killer feature to make it worth installing... what would that be?

GK