New M4400, A Few Questions

Hello All,

I recently purchased a Dell M4400, and I am loving it. I have a few questions.

1. Is there a neoprene or similar type sleeve that will accomodate the laptop + the 9 cell battery. Looking for something like this that will protect, but also fit my 9-battery.

2. the laptop I purchased came with a 8x DVD-ROM drive, and I am looking to get either a blu-ray burner/drive or DVD-RW, and I wanted to know which fit it properly. Can I shove a drive from the E6400 in there? or does it have to be for precision? I want to buy from dell, but prices are significantly cheaper (30% or so) on eBay. or possibly a cheaper, $150-$200 blu ray burner that fits in the bay.

3. I am running Windows 7 32-bit, and loving every second of it. I haven't really had any problems, but I am going to be installing the Bluetooth 370 module soon, and will the bluetooth light automatically start lighting up once it's installed, or will I have to work some black magic to get it to work?

4. The antenna bar on the laptop, is that only for WWAN cards, or can I use it to display Wi-Fi strength as well?

5. I have a WUXGA 2CCFL screen, and I wanted to nkow is there a way to make the touchpad a bit more sensitive? it takes me like 5 swipes across to get from side to side, and I want to minimize that to two or so. I have enhance pointer precision checked, so the mouse accelerates, but I just wanted to know if that's a driver problem, or if all the trackpads are like that. I dont have issue with the trackpoint, which I prefer and use 99% of the time.

Otherwise, it's a fantastic laptop, and a much better computer than my previous one (Gateway Tablet, booo). Thanks for the help!

 

Hey ViP...congrats!

i'll try to answer a few

1. can't say for sure but check ebay for a Elecom Zeroshock III sleeve, a LOT sturdier than neoprene and also waterproof, you can look at their website for measurements...i have the 15" for my m4400 but that's with the 6-cell...the 9-cell won't fit i think

2 Again check ebay for the DVD-RW, look up the part number on the Dell site.
Mine is a PLDS DVD-+RW DU-8A2S but there are more makes and models for this, same ones as for the latitude range.

3. Get the driver and app for your bluetooth from Dell's driver page...download the Vista version of the driver and it'll install fine, if not right-click the driver file and set it too run in vista compatibility mode. When that's done the BT light will light up and you'll find the bluetooth settings etc. in your control panel. For me the BT driver was automatically installed and my BT mouse + keyboard worked right away after installing Win7 64 but there weren't any options in the control panel. After installing the driver form Dell again all was there.

4. Good question! lol...i'm connected now (ofcourse) but i see now it isn't lit at all!! hmmm...weird!

5. Did you install the driver for it from Dell? That'll give you more options than when you only have the basic features in windows. Kinda the same story as with the BT drivers. If the installer won't run, change it too run in vista compatibility mode.

Have fun with your new system!!

4

 

i dont think the antenna bar lights up incrementally to display connection strength. it just has a blue LED behind it to show the module is on, you check the strength using the software.

 

You can put a different optical drive in there but the plastic bezel will be different.

 

??....you mean nr.3 i think? It's easy enough too find the right DVD RW drives on ebay so no need to get one where the bezel won't fit

 

so for the signal bar, it is indicative of Wi-Fi? or WWAN?

I currently have Windows 7 installed, and the only lights that activiate are the locks (scroll, caps, num) and thent he wifi, hard drive access, and charger light. i dont have bluetooth on this laptop, nor a WWAN card, but I want to know if it is possible to have that signal bar light up along with the WIFI light.

 

I don't have WWAN either, and the signal bar never showed any action.
It must be WWAN, after all it would hardly make sense to create no WWAN symbol at all but two separate Wi-Fi symbols.

 

I've haven't heard of incompatible drives between those two models, especially since they're really the same laptop but the M4400 is just outfitted with better components - I doubt you'll have any problems swapping a drive from your E6400.

 

btw, nice new avatar chris

 

The modular bay of the M4400 (the "E-Modular Bay") is the same in both Precisions and Latitudes. You can use any Latitude/Precision E-Modular drive in your M4400.

Well, thank you! It's actually just a new revision of the old one - instead of incorporating just the "K", this one has the "C" as well. I wanted to find a way to put in both without the possibility of someone confusing it with some kind of Calvin Klein logo.
I'm not a designer, but I believe in the idea that good visual appearance - if done right - can make great software even better. The visual part of an application is the one that the user will think of as "the software", and vision is the most important sense of most human beings. And that's the reason why I've always been interested in graphics. So far, this has been very useful whenever I've been creating software.