Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Thanks, I'l give them a shot. I''ve found the latest Dell driver doesn't allow me to output video to my AV amp without the lappy screen being on too unlike the previous version, so I'll give your suggestion a try. Hopefully it won't cause a dim grey screen like all the 5 series I've tried.

 

I'm fairly sure the eSATA on the M6400 is max'ed out at 300MB/s.
Can anyone confirm?

Anyone know of 2 x 2TB RAID 0 eSATA with ave transfer rates that come close to max'ing out the 300MB/s limit?
Ave of 200MB/s would be good enough.

 

I've run Win7 for about a week now and so far it's been a lot better than Vista64 ever was on my M6400. It's been rock solid so far compared to utterly with Vista. Random lockups, not functioning properly after hibernate or sleep, unable to turn it off at times(well to be honest I gave up after 10 hours).

Just to see if there would be any problems I installed everything straight from the Dell site. All the Dell applications etc etc had to go without on Vista64 to just get it working decently. There might be other drivers working better for some things but so far its working well for me.

I love my M6400 again!

 

I haven't had much time to explore Windows 7 as it is installed on an 'extra' computer as advised by MS and yes, in my limited exposure it is better than Vista. But then again what wouldn't be after years of development starting way back when it was called Longhorn? At 7GB on the machine I have it on it's still three times the size of XP and as an engineer and a computer dumbo I just don't see anything near a 300% improvement in anything. I have a feeling, (and maybe a hope) that Google will come out with an OS. They've come out with just about everything else and an OS is the only logical move I see for them. Some sleek little XP style clone without IE and Outlook and many of the things that detract from XP (IMHO)

But that's not what I'm here for. Is all that "DANGER WARNING ONLY PUT 7 ON A SPARE COMPUTER" serious? What could possibily be the risk in installing it on a partition of the second drive of the M6400? I'd like to as I'd be more likely to use it regularly. Surely all the posters that say they have Windows 7 on their M6400s aren't using it as their 'spare' computer. And if you are what is your main machine!?

 

lol,
noooooooooooo, that is micro$oft just covering there own asses
get windows 7 slapped on your M6400 RIGHT NOW

 

I've using W7 for 3 days, and I really love it.
I install W7 and let it to install the drivers, the only drivers I install was chip set and intel matrix, and only broadcom has ! mark, I still do not know if I may need it.

 

It's the USH-Hub, you find the driver in the security software...
I need to install another video-driver, the standard W7 driver caused a blurred screen on my rgb-led display. In addition I installed the touchpad driver to use the special feature of the M6400's touchpad/jog-dial.

 

Hello.

I'm strongly considering buying a M6400 (i've almost decided for it, exact configuration to be determined) but I have some questions that you may be able to answer (i've you think i'm likely to get good answers elsewhere, please tell where I should post these questions):

I know those are quite a few questions, no need to feel baffled, just cover those you can or want and ignore the rest

A) In germany or austria it appers that there is no way to configure the machine to have a webcam (except covet model where it is standard, which i will not choose) or a second harddisk. Does anyone know why?
Are the selections on the website just the basic ones and can expect more to be possible when I order via telephone?

B) Only the basic model allows a P rated processor (which is rated 25 Watt max power), all higher models are T rated (35 Watt). I wonder if it is possible to get higher rated P rated processors like the P9600 (2.67ghz)?

C) I only have seen rather basic reports on battery time - usually no specification how the times were achieved (what was done on the laptop), so i wonder:
on a rather basic machine, so 2.4ghz processor, 4gb ram, fx 2700 graphics card and 1920x1200 rgb led display what can I expect the battery to last under (assuming vista or windows 7):
1) web browsing with wlan (50% or maybe less display brightness) 2) heavy usage (some game) and 3) video or dvd playback (moderate brightness, standard resolution, not hd - i hope it can at least play back a typical 90 to 100 minute dvd with one battery)

(BTW: I do know I cannot expect a very long battery time, but i assume with the right component selection and software options it can be optimized to be acceptable at least. I have wondered about choosing the M4400 model but i just like the 17 inch rgb led and faster graphics.)

D) Some models allow UMTS (HSDPA, wwan wireless internet - not WLAN/WiFi) - in the US you can configure it at least - how about in germany or austria - i'm interested in the hardware only not in any service contract that allows me bandwidth.

E) Are there any discount codes available for the M6400 (i read somewhere there are none at all for austria)?

F) I'm living in austria. I assume I have to order from dell austria? I guess even if it were possible it would not have benifits?

G) Why do they charge so much for 8GB or more ram? When I check the internet I can get 8GB so-dimm ddr3 (2x4gb) for under 600 Euro (and 4x2gb for considerably cheaper even) and they charge 1500 euro additonally?
Would you recommend 2x4gb for 8gb ram or is 4x2gb also ok (what are the cons)?

H) It is my impression based on posts i have read that additonal batteries to extend lifetime are not a good/recommended option. What are your thoughts?

Finally, are there any tips you can give me (maybe even for the ordering process)?
Or any warnings or recommendations?
Any problems I should be aware about (read about many driver issues, but I hope and assume most are solved now and I can expect a solidly running system if it is configured correctly)?

Thanx in advance!

 

Do you still have the slim AC Adaptor for the M6400 or does anyone have the Dell Part Number for it ?


can't seem to locate it

Ordered one and ended up getting the regular one.

So now I have 2 of them.

 

@Morkeleb:

I've order my M6400 in Germany via Phone.

Give it a try:
- They have much more options for configuration as shown on the Web Configurator (so the Webcam should be no problem)
- They can answer all your questions
- They also give special prices ask for a discount

Also take a look at a austiran forum ( http://www.notebookforum.at/dell-forum/ )
Maybe they have more knowledge about discounts in Asutria

regards
Christopher