Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Yes, there are serious problems there. First off, this is really the first Dell I have where I agree that you really need to start over with a clean install. In contrast to many others, I have always had good luck with the default installation on my Dell's, but the 6400 is a problem.

To add insult to injury then, Dell makes it really hard to find a complete driver set for the machine. Some drivers are on their website and nicely labeled, but some are not, and are either hidden in some other pieces of software, or they are only available on the CD that came with the machine (unless you are very resourceful at combing through their ftp site to find what you need). For another example, they offer a firmware update for the TPM module, but the update is incomplete, and is useless unless you somehow know how to create a bootable DOS disk or USB stick yourself, so that you can actually run this update. Or, Dell's Connection Manager, as discussed above, is really a half-baked piece of garbage, gobbling up system resources while being near-useless for most people...

Overall, given my past experience plus the very significant amount of money I paid for my tricked-out Covet, I am quite disappointed in Dell in general, and the M6400 in particular.

 

The hard drive thing is called Indexing. It can be turned off in seconds.

"All those permission" is call UCA. It can also be turned off in seconds.

Regards,
Simon

 

It's all about compelling, needed reasons to upgrade.

If there exists no compelling and/or needed reasons to run Vista, then do not.

If Vista provides a valid reason to upgrade (applications, new hardware support, love of UAC, more comfortable interface, etc...), then do.

Upgrading just to upgrade is the worst reason to do so, imho, and reflects a herd mentality.

Both OSes deliver and depending on individual or corporate needs, are viable.

Now, back to those driver issues.

 

I ordered mine 12 oct, shipped 9 nov.

 

Dell says the estimated ship date is the 16th. So thats not going to happen huh?

 

Dell has been all over the board with ship times. I waited 6 weeks for one while they led me on saying it would ship any day. The order was completely broken, but nobody would tell me. The next order shipped in two weeks. I think there's a guy on here somewhere who has been waiting for two months, and a guy who ordered after him who got it in a week. Pre-configured models ship much faster, but if you're like me there aren't any pre-configs that exactly match what you want.

You definitely want to reformat the M6400 yourself when you get it, unless you're really just not comfortable with that kind of stuff. I don't know what they did to mine when they were installing it. Out of the box, it had horrible audio stutters on login (CP Connection Manager for Vista 64, something else for 32), had graphical glitches in the Vista interface where title bars and window borders would flicker with black boxes. Maya 2008 Ext2 would crash after 5 to 45 minutes of use, and if I ran AfterEffects or Premiere Pro CS3, it would hard-lock Vista until I held the power button for 4 seconds.

Reinstalled and entered the drivers in order myself, and all of that went away. (Except CP Connection Manager still causes stutters.)

What helped for me was to get a support rep on the phone to walk me through driver order. MAKE SURE there is NO WAY they could mistake which OS you have. (My guy sent me all links for 32-bit Vista when I have 64!) Make a set of numbered folders like "01 - System Software" "02 - Chipset". Put those on an external hard drive and start the reinstall, and all you'll have to do after it comes back up is walk through the folders in order. Double click, hit "next", reboot, repeat.

 

misterbk - Thanks very much for the reply. I WILL not be waiting 6 weeks. Thats rediculous, and the poor soul who has been waiting for 2 months I am so sorry. Thanks for the tips on the instalation order I am SURE it will save me from ripping my hair out! Not its the waiting game.

 

Hi there,

Does anyone know if the M6400 will get a Blu Ray option soon? The DVD is a slot based drive is that right? I'm guessing a Blu Ray slot version will come out soon?

Regards,
Simon

 

Unfortunately Dell didn't announce a Blue-Ray-Option for the M6400 yet.

"Modular Options:
E-Family modular media dock: DVD-ROM, CD-RW/DVD, DVD+/-RW, Second Hard Drive"

 

lol, why would anyone buy a M6400 to watch movies


it's a workstation, not a playstation

P.S

for those who think the 70 odd running processes on the factory install is bad, you should see Small Business Server 2008,lol

104 processes and 2.5 gig ram on a clean install.....