Windows 7 on Latitude E6400

it is true to say there is no NEED for most things. but, for instance, the audio and WLAN drivers provide a lot more functionality than the defaults. (for example, the audio provides the IDT control panel which gives access to SRS sound, and the WLAN drivers allow you to use your wifi card to both connect to a network and act as an access point for other devices (to share internet across it, or create a LAN and WAN network) I would also check to see (if you use esata drives) whether the system hangs when you plug in an esata drive, etc.

ofelas, I would suggest that you install these. Even if you seem to have everything working right, the newer wifi drivers also are supposed to use less battery power, etc. defaults provide working access, but they are not optimal.

 

Will do; thx!
I'm assuming you mean the WiFi drivers from Intel, rather than the Dell 5300 driver?
Did you install the chipset software before the IMSM?

 

yeah -- i mean the intel wifi drivers. and i *think* installed the chipset from dell.com, but it might make more sense to use the newer one provided by intel direct.

 

So basically you used every Vista driver after installing RC, even if some of them were dated slightly older than the native drivers within RC?

 

pretty much, except for the ricoh driver. the dates of the native drivers are misleading -- they are tied to the build rather than the actual driver.

 

And the reason for not using the ricoh driver?

 

oh, no reason, but ms update updated it, and i didnt care to check

 

Anyone have problems with shutdown hanging on Win 7 RC on their E6400?

 

did you do a forced upgrade install, or a clean install? I had shutdown hang problems with build 7077 when i upgraded to it, but a clean install solved the problem

 

Clean install + Windows Update + Office 2007 + Control Point Security Drivers + Control Point Security Manager + Bluetooth software.
Exactly like the fresh install I did on my M4400.
Shutdown & restart hangs started immediately after I installed Dell x64 Vista drivers on the E6400.
Uninstalling the IDT audio, modem, webcam & IMSM did absolutely nothing to resolve shutdown/restart hangs on the E6400.
In the process of backing up data & fresh installing x64 Vista Business again, as it's the missus' laptop & she's complaining she's been without it for 3 days now; besides, she can't stand the fact that she has to right-click the IE icon on the taskbar to open a new page/tab.
I'll keep Win 7 on my M4400 - for now. It has no added Vista drivers on it except what I listed on the first line in this post.
Microsoft's default Win 7 drivers may be a bit outdated, but they seem to be stable.