Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Hi all,

please help me just an information, i need to connect an e-sata hdd, so i've plug the esata cable but the hdd is not recognized...
i have win xp 64, please point me on the right driver to install.

Thanks
Giorgio

 

Did you install the Intel Matrix Storage tool?
Does your HDD have external power? If you use a 2.5" external hdd you need an additional USB cable for power supply, the normal esata cables doesn't transfer power to the hdd!

 

Try running it on battery power only (unplug the brick) and see if it still blacks out.

 

If you really wanted to take no chances at all, you could remove the XP drive and put the2nd drive in it's place, do a clean install of W-7.

That is the best advice I can give since I have installed W-7 on my virtual machine. It's still a bulky operating system (10+ GB) compared to XP and 2k Pro.

 

Thanks for that advice, lots of times I suppose my questions must be too dull to attract many answers. I'm an Acronis fan and have several clones, so you're saying just stick another drive in, install 7 and when and if I tire of it I just put the XP disk back in and it's back to normal, no boot menu gymnastics required? The main reason I posted the question was the trouble, not serious but a pain in getting Vista off the boot menu. Next thing I gotta figure out is this 'virtual' stuff. Sounds like such a good option for about everything. Thanks again.

 

Links for the virtual stuff:

VMWare
VirtualBox
VirtualPC

 

Hi guys! I'm having problems with the microphone in my M6400. It was ok for the first 4-5 months and was working perfectly. But now when i connect a jack into the microphone hole in my laptop the message comes up saying "Line In" instead of "Microphone" as it used to be. I have changed my LCD back cover, installed new copy of XP instead of vista but no luck. The web cam is working fine but without a sound Any ideas please? Can i somehow test the microphone in order to find out if it's a hardware issue and therefore cannot be fixed without replacing the laptop? Any information would be highly appreciated.
Thanks

 

It sounds a bit confusing, you're having problems with an external mike or the internal one? Right click the sound icon in your try if it's there and choose 'adjust audio properties' and go through all the different screens and volumn adjustments. But again, I really don't understand the question but I've had sound problems before that I always was able to solve that way. If it's an external mike your having problems with why not try another? And whatever it is replacing the laptop as a solution sounds a bit extreme.

 

Thanks for your reply mate. Sorry for confusion i should have told you that none of my microphones worked. But i ran some test in "audio properties" and the dig mic started to work! Thanks! Although no luck with the external one. I suppose the cable could be bent or whatever. Well at least the integrated one is working fine now. Thanks a million!

 

I'm getting ready to buy a new Precision and really really want the m6400 (though about 20% of me is considering the m4400 due to weight).

I'll be lugging it back and forth to grad school as a pedestrian, so weight was initially an issue. However, my old Latitude c840 was never really that big of a deal at 8lbs, so I think 8.5 should be okay in exchange for the 3700m, 17 RGB LED, full keyboard, and RAID drives. So my first question is - for those that actually lug their m6400 around, is it really 'that' big of a deal, and/or do you find the performance bump over the m4400 worth the extra 3 lbs.

The additional weight of the colossal power adapter is a concern, so I was considering buying two - one to leave at home, and one at school. When I was running through the Dell configuration, I noticed an alternative 210W/240W 'Slim' Adapter for about twice the price of the standard adapter. I looked through the Dell Accessories pages and could not find any further information about this adapter, so I was wondering if anyone knew any details on it?