Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

I managed to get Dell to send a tech probably in the next few days to replace my screen bezel and palm rest (because of the crappy bumpers) in addition to sending me some extras as well. So hopefully I'll be able to apply those to the screen bezel itself.

 

So I decided to try out Windows 7 Professional (RTM).

-During the install, loading the AHCI driver would result in a 0x80300001 error. "Windows cannot be installed to this disk" when selecting the disk/partition to install to. I ended up not loading the AHCI driver and installed Windows 7 without it.

-Using the default, newer Intel graphics driver that came with Windows, the maximum screen brightness in Windows is the screen brightness set in the BIOS. So if the screen brightness in the BIOS is set to 6 notches, the maximum attainable screen brightness in Windows will be 6 notches.
Installing the driver from Dell fixes this problem.

-I am trying to get the fingerprint reader working without the Embassy Trust Suite (which sucks IMO). Windows 7 has a biometric framework and I would much rather make use of it. I have installed the Authentec driver from the Dell Security drivers and http://www.authentec.com/win7beta64.cfm but Windows still cannot find any biometric devices.

 

This is not XP, Win7 already natively support AHCI, so no need to install the drivers. Also, Vista and Win7 AHCI system is diferent so you can't put Vista AHCI drivers.

Well it's a driver problem because you don't have Win7 drivers.

You must wait until proper drivers for your device exits.

 

hello, next week I have my new E6400, I consider format vista and install win7 ..

Win 7 works well with my E6400 ?

Any special instructions to install win7? Drivers?

Thanks

 

They are no official drivers for Win7 yet. You will need to wait until it's release, or try beta/alpha drivers if they exists from the hardware manufacture directly (not Dell, but Intel, Nvidia, etc... based on your computer hardware), or try and use Vista drivers under Win7 but then create chances of malfunctioning device, potential stability problems. In my case, it was not needed.

It is to be noted, that most drivers will be found and installed after your install Windows 7 and do a Windows update right after. So your work is significantly reduced. In my case (see signature for hardware configuration), the only thing that had to be done was to download the latest beta drivers for Win7 from Nvidia website as the ones in Windows Update were not the latest one.

Win7 64-bit runs very well on the Dell Latitude E6400, the only thing though, is that my battery life passed from 7 hours and half down to ~5 hours. I suspect this is because of the lack or official and optimized drivers for Win7.

I strongly suggest to get Win7 64-bit, and NOT the 32-bit version. Advantage of going 64 has been talked about a lot, the 3 main key points are full 4GB and more of RAM utilization (and not 3.1-3.5 GB), increase performance to 32-bit application of about 10-15%, and the ability to use 64-bit applications, including the whole OS in question.

 

Your battery life decreased that much using the 9 cell? Damn.

 

Correct, but I am most positive that it's driver related, so I don't worry.
It could also be just Windows not calculating the battery life correctly, I mean I am using Build 7100 (RC). If I switch back to Vista, I have my battery life as it was before (I have a dual boot setup).

 

I've just got a 9 cell battery for my E6400. The weight difference (+7%) isn't noticeable except by weighing although the extra lump sticking out of the back means I need to put the computer in my bag with the front edge downwards. The battery has the characteristic looseness on the side away from the connector. The battery type is reported as Dell FU44189 made by Panasonic.

I am encountering an interesting issue with the status reporting. Yesterday, I fully charged the battery used it slightly and then shut down with the battery on 90%. This morning I checked the battery lights before I started the computer. All 5 came on. Then I started the computer and immediately got a low battery warning. I've now been running for over an hour with the charge remaining at 5.5%. I've disabled the critical battery action so the computer will run until the battery is empty, which I hope will reset the calibration.

John

 

Bad battery? I have the 9-cell from Panasonic as well, type: KY265 (85Wh), and I dont have such issue.
And the battery, if I understand the problem correctly, wobbles, yes, but the same amount on both side, and a very little (to me.. about 1mm). I don't know if just my base which had a thicker paint coat applied to it, or battery.

 

I havent run into this issue either. I'm guessing you got a bad battery.

Has anyone had problems with battery life during standby? I put the laptop into standby before I went to bed and the battery was essentially dead when i woke up.