Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Did you disable the Ambient Light Sensor? If not, do so. That will change the display brightness.

Fn + cursor left to toggle the ALS.

Regarding the display quality, have you tried tweaking the brightness and contrast? For the Intel GPU this is Graphics Properties > Color Correction. My LG display benefited from having the contrast reduced slightly. I think the optimum settings could be coded into the BIOS, but Dell haven't done their homework properly.

John

 

Thanks John, I have disabled the ALS, it didn't help. Also, regarding color correction, I haven't tried that but I'm not really too familiar with the technical details behind doing that. The best I could do would be to just fool around with it until I find something that works. I'll try that tonight though, thanks!

 

So why isn't everyone going 64-bit? Are there any backward compatability issues to speak of? BTW, does XP SP3 come in 64-bit or only Vista? Finally, if I upgraded to Vista Home Premium 64-bit on my own, how much would this cost me? Would I better off sticking with Dell's pre-installed Vista Business 64?

thanks
David

 

My advice would be to avoid XP 64. Compatibility issues there, Vista 64 is much better. 32 bit applications work, the only thing that won't is 16 bit installers, which in the past 3 years have practically disappeared.

So be wary of old programs working, it isn't the program, it's the installer in most cases.

Greg

 

E6400 BIOS A05 has been posted.

John

PS: I was hoping that this update might fix my problem of the computer starting with the speed throttled. No such luck! I am now thinking Dell have hidden something somewhere which says I am using the 65W PSU (even when I am not).

 

So if I am looking toward the future and want to eventually take advantage of the full 8 GB of RAM that the E6400 can handle, write off XP?

You said that 16 bit installers may not work with Vista-64, I assume they work with Vista-32? BTW, how do I find out the bitage in any given program installer? (I do have old software lying around that is anywhere from 5-10 years old).

 

I can't say for sure how to tell what is 16 bit. 16 bit will work with 32 bit operating systems however.

I don't have experience with XP-64 personally, but if the situation has changed it would be great for someone to chime in. The last I have heard however is that XP-64 had a plenty of compatibility issues.

Again, anyone that uses XP-64 would be great if you could enlighten us.

Greg

 

Under the Monitors node in the tree, it lists 7 monitors. Six of them are titled "Default Monitor", with the 7th titled "Plug 'n Play Monitor". The 7th monitor has the Device Instance ID:

DISPLAY\SEC5443\5&1D6CB6FC&0&00000110&01&00

So does this mean I got the better monitor?

I think only 1 owners lounge thread to cover both the E6400 & E6500 are needed, since they are practically the same. Plus the E6500 lounge only has less than some 20 posts on it only.

 

Discussed above pretty well are the compatibility issues.

Regard to Home Premium vs Business... well I use Vista business 64-bit on my E6400. I have come from Home Premium 64-bit on my XPS710 desktop (which my girlfriend has now claimed her own quite happily ). To be honest, there is not really much difference for most people. The only (main) exception being that Home Premium will have the Windows Media Centre software (for DVD playback, TV if you have a tuner, etc), whereas Business doesn't. However, Business has some very useful backup and restore functions home premium doesn't.

In my opinion, won't be worth you buying the Home premium for what you get over business (I prefer business anyway!)

Stu

 

Comments somewhere suggest that at 15.4" the Samsung display is better than the LG. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do you like it?

John