Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Did you install the Microsoft IntelliPoint software suite? I had a Microsoft keyboard/mouse combo a few years back and to get the special keys working I had to install it to get the keys working.

 

Speedy: I hadn't before...most of the keys function properly and I even get the OSD confirmation when I toggle in and out of things like F Lock, Caps Lock, etc.

dbam: I did. I pulled down 6.3 from the MS site.

I do have a Microsoft wireless combo at home (Comfort Keyboard 1.0 with a Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0) running Vista x64 Ultimate and all the hot keys work great on the E so I'm assuming it's just the fact that it's an old set.

I plan on connecting the MX5500 set via the integrated BT module (as I had with the MS set) so I'll see how it goes.

FYI I'm reinstalling the CP stuff before I try the Logitech set. I want to see if everything works well fully loaded.

 

helly everyone,
I've ordered my E6400 today with the following components:

Latitude E6400 : Intel Core 2 Duo P8600(2.40GHz,1066MHz, 3MB)
Express card base: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB
Display : 14.1in Widescreen WXGA+ (1440X900) with LED backlit
Palmrest : Fingerprint Reader
Camera : Integrated 0.3 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for LED PCD Panel
LCD Back Cover : Black Finish LED
Memory : 1024MB (1x1024) 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
120GB SATA Festplatte (5.400 rpm)
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Power Cord : European 90W AC Adaptor 2 pin
Battery : Primary 6-cell 54W/HR LI-ION
Modem : German Internal 56.6K V.92 Data, Fax & Voice Modem (with Adapter)
Wireless : Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/b/g/n 3X3) 1/2 MiniCard with Centrino label
Wireless : Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth
Keyboard : Internal German Qwertz Backlight Keyboard

Can someone plz tell me what drivers I need to have a well performing, non-freezing system? Should I go for Vista 32 or 64bit ?

 

I would go 32 bit until we are 100% sure of the 64bit drivers.

How much RAM do you plan on running?

Uninstall the audio drivers when you get it, the default Vista drivers are better.

Greg

 

I disagree that the Vista drivers are better. I say this from experience. I too had problems with the sound initially but now it works fine.
What I did was to uninstall and delete the Dell driver. I let Vista install the Windows HD Audio driver. Then I updated the driver from Device Manager. This caused the IDT driver to be installed by Vista. It seems to have the same version number as the one Dell offers but so far it's worked without any of the issues I faced with the Dell one.

 

i was thinking to put 3 to 4 GB of ram, depending on the os. But to be honest, I don't think that I'll be needing more than 3 GB. A friend of mine suggested me to go for 4gb to have dual-channel enabled. does dual-channel really increases performance noticeably?

 

The performance gain is somewhere around 5 to 10%. I say get 4 GB of memory since it is inexpensive and in the event you choose to install the 64-bit version your ready to go.

 

You can take 1Gb of extra space, and disable Windows page file.
This should THEORETICALLY (I don't have a laptop to test such thing), give you longer battery life, as the HDD is not used for the page file, and increase performance without costing battery life.

 

Ok my machine in x86 install mode started locking up again with the exact symptoms as it had been hanging in x64 mode. Now I suspect faulty hardware particularly either disk or disk controller as when it locks up its always seemingly upon disk request, i.e. when I click someting, the application will stop responding. Mouse still works, until I click something else then that application stops responding (similar to a disk queue request taking forever). If I click on Vista start explorer bar, it totally locks up explorer that even the clock on the task panel on the bottom right stops progressing and freezes. I'm now convinced its hardware related as my collegue running the same OS on the same spec hardware has this problem. It was my 3rd time installing the OS. I also notice the lockups become more frequent over time starting from a fresh install and format of the disk (last about a day plus), and once it starts locking up, it'll do that more and more frequently. Also each time I do a hard reset and reboot, chkdisk runs automatically and does some index cleanups etc. In rare cases it wont boot and I'll have to do a Vista Restore Point recovery to get the machine to boot again.

Such a pain it has been!

 

Have you tried updating the Intel Matrix Storage controller? While I don't have any issues with lock-ups, I did have some with crackling sound. The latest driver can be found on the Intel support site. As can the chipset driver, which is important too.