Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Check in bios, if you select num lock.

 

I am not sure that is the case. From talking to Dell Support, they do not seem to have a lot of expereinece yet, and aren't even fully aware of what the issies are. I just got around to testing my new Covet (replacement for the first one I sent back), and this one (built in the second week of January) definitely still has issues, although it seems to be doing better than my first one: The ambient light sensor control starts to act flaky after a couple of warn boots, the DVD burner is excruciatingly slow (maybe it's just typical for the slot loader?), and there seem to be issues with some of the USB hardware. I got a bugcheck bluescreen last night (BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER, parameter 1 = 0x8) which implicates some of the hardware acting funny (from the information contained in the BSOD it seems this is related to a timeout during a state change; this strongly suggests either hardware or firmware issues).

To make a long story short, if I had known what I know now, I would not have ordered that laptop when I ordered it. It may well be that Dell will ultimately be able to sort out the issues, but that may take quite a while.

 

Pirx,

Update to the lastest BIOS.
Then do an extensive diagnostic test (hold Fn down and press power button). Running all the tests including Extended test takes several hours.

If you have any hardware test failures I'd appreciate knowing. Did Dell do a return capture to analyze your original system? They should have. You'll know if they did as their email and instructions for return capture are clearly identifiable.

My replacement has not yet arrived.

 

This was with the latest BIOS. First thing I did when I got the new machine...

Yeah, I know; most of the time goes into the memory and disk tests, though, in particular if you have 16gigs. Anyway, the tests came out fine. Also, it is significant that I saw that bugcheck BSOD on the old machine once, too. I should say, this happened right after installing some drivers, so it may have been a one-time occurrence. As far as I can recall, I saw that bluescreen only once on the old machine, too.

I did have lots of code-integrity BSODs (crashes in CI.dll on startup) on the old machine. None of those on the new one, yet. Knock on wood.

Oh, and I have seen reports on the web from people who had that USB bugcheck with the same parameters I have seen (on different hardware), who said that some Windows Update solved the problem for them.

Nope, nothing.

Good luck with yours!

 

Pirx, Thanks. You too.

If you still have your original system it's worth (for all M6400 owners) a phone call to Dell to organize return capture.

Good to hear all the hardware passed.

My 32 error reports to MS have now been reduced to 22 and Windows Media Player is much more stable and also less logoff hangs on reboot and power down.

 

I consider myself a halfwit, at least when comparing what I know about computers with a lot of posters here, but is it my imagination or are a lot of the problems centered on 64 bit Vista machines? I haven't exactly polled the posts but it seems like I've gotten that impression. And the quad core processors seem to show up on a lot of the problem machines. Could either of these things be any kind of a factor in what seems like either a serious design problem or a total lack of quality control on Dells part? Or maybe I'm just totally off base. Maybe just don't buy one built on a Monday or a Friday. And I don't see any of the several returned Covets show up on the Dell Outllet page. I wonder where they go.

 

You know, I have asked myself both of these questions, too.

 

Everyone buying a 64bit Vista machine from Dell should reinstall the OS from disk, putting the drivers in themselves. (Unless, of course, "it ain't broke.")

Dell messed mine up pretty bad and my issues went away after I did that.

And yes, after talking to many people, there does seem to be a big correlation between 64-bit and M6400 issues.

The question becomes is it a causative correlation. I would guess those people ordering a 64-bit OS are going to attempt more complex tasks. (I know the typical user probably does not run AfterEffects or Premiere Pro, much less MotionBuilder etc. etc.)

(But - that still doesn't excuse Dell for my notebook not even running the Aero Interface without graphics glitches and general spooky bugginess, out of the box. Fine after reinstall of course.)

 

Lets put it this way. Dell is not happy with MS V64.
On the other hand my M6400 had hardware issues (as well as software).

 

How many have actually had software problems with their M6400 out the box from Dell configuration, ... and by that I mean NO Vista updates ...