Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

anyone use X9100 X9000 or Q9100 with E6400
now I no problem when replace CPU with T9400

 

I have now used my new E6400 a little bit more. I still think it is a good machine, but there are some things I don't like that much:

Build quality, durability:
My new E6400 feels more fragile than my old Latitude D610. For example, the battery wiggles a bit, there are two flimsy plastic covers at the sides of the battery and they feel like they will get loose any minute. The big bottom cover is not tightly screwed to the base. There should be at least one more screw to keep the cover tightly attached to the laptop. I don't think these issues are going to be any big problem for me as my laptop doesn't travel very much. It mostly travels from the desk in my bedroom to my living room and occasionally to my parents summer house. But for someone traveling a lot with their E6400 I think these issues may be more severe.

Software drivers/applications:
My E6400 had Windows XP preinstalled. Without installing anything else it has around 65 processes running. This is horrible and at least 15 processes to much. I will definitely have to reinstall Windows XP on my laptop to get rid of the bloatware and unnecessary applications.
Besides, the WAVE Embassy Trust Suite doesn't seem very stable. I really would prefer to have the UPEK Protector Suite QL instead.

Palmrest:
The palmrest is not very comfortable. My old D610 had a bigger palmrest with rounded edges where my palms could comfortably rest. The E6400's palmrest is not deep enough to give my palms enough rest. Instead they have to rest partly on the edge of the palmrests that has a sharp edge and it is not very comfortable. This is probably not going to be a big issue for me as I will use the laptop with an external keyboard in the docking station most of the time but I am surprised that Dell went for such uncomfortable palmrests on a business laptop.

I work at the IT department of a company and we are buying Lenovo Thinkpads. Some people in the IT department (including me) have been advocating that we should buy Dell Latitudes instead but now when I have tried out the E6400 I am not so sure this is a good idea. Yes, there are issues with the Thinkpads (poor support in our country, too many drivers/helper applications that slow down the laptops, Fn-key in the wrong position etc) but the overall build quality seems much better. And with the new Thinkpad T400/T500 we get ATI/Intel switchable graphics and don't have to worry about overheating nVidia graphics chips.

All in all, I still think my Latitude E6400 is a good machine for myself as an home user but I business users that travel a lot might like the new T400/T50 Thinkpads better.

Örjan

 

NEW Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver available

A new version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager is available. Here's the link :
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101&lang=eng

This update should solve many more problems some still face with their E6400s.

Edit : New drivers for the Intel 5100 and the Gigabit Ethernet card too.

 

Just downloaded and installed it and for some reason it killed my NV160. After reboot, the screen was at 800x600. Had to uninstall and then reinstall the video drivers from the Dell Web site. Just a heads up...

 

beware Intel Matrix Storage Manager version 8.6, details:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=315477

 

Just installed it, the Wifi and the ethernet drivers. As a precaution, I reinstalled the IDT driver. So far everything works fine. I'll report any problems.

 

My E6400 has done a fair amount of travelling since I got it in August and I don't see the build quality issues you mention. Perhaps my biggest complaint about the build is need for some rubber bumpers on the top part of the display bezel to stop it scratching the palmrest. You should contact Dell and get someone to come round and fix the loose bits.

I agree that the angled front edge looks uncomfortable, but it has not caused me any problems in use.

The eSATA, USB PowerShare, built-in SD card reader and backlit keyboard are all features of the E6400 which I found to be useful.

John

 

how do u cope with this scratch issue? my device is not even one week old but the upper part of the display frame is already scratched. the labels also made the frame smooth at some spots. this is really bothering me since I would have expected this to occur after at least one year of usage.

 

I would remove the labels, thanks
Also without labels, I think the machine would look nicer.

I have an old IBM keyboard that I never used.
At the back of the keyboard they are really thin and wide (maybe I'll cut in 1/4 or something), dark black rubber pads... I am thinking of using one of them to add space and prevent your issue.

 

John or other users,

You obviously happy with your E6400. But after reading all 85 pages of owner comments (including your mostly positive ones) I still have 1 question that I can't decide.

It appears to me that one can't really control what display one gets (Samsung or LGP), but one can control what graphic accelerator one orders, the built-in Intel or the NVidia. It appears to me the NVidia driver and the related heat is the possible cause of many complaints.

So my question is, based on my user pattern that I mostly plan to use the laptop on a docking station at home working on databases (like MS Access in the Office Suite) and analyzing stock charts, and frequently I plan to get away from home in the weekend (so battery life is also important), should I order the NVidia option or just forget it for the sake of stable operation/long battery life. I do not use video games, but occasionally I use statistical software, so computational efficiency is somewhat important (but stability and reliability always comes first).

Do you or anyone would give advise before I order? (Plan to use the P8600 processor, 9 cell battery, XP Pro, 4gig memory)

Thanks, Mike