Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

[HerrKaputt]

Quite true, and I have seen the same. These two factors plus, I believe, the LED backlight hardware should be more reliable than the inverter + CCFL are reasons why I decided a year ago that any new acquisition would have an LED backlight.

John

Exactly. I guess I'll take my chances, even if it is a little small, because I am buying this laptop to last. My father's laptop is a 14-inch with this resolution, I've taken a look at it and I think that it's okay to work with it. It might be a bit small if someone behind or beside you is reading small text on the screen (like a website URL on firefox).

[Vikram]

Exactly. I guess I'll take my chances, even if it is a little small, because I am buying this laptop to last. My father's laptop is a 14-inch with this resolution, I've taken a look at it and I think that it's okay to work with it. It might be a bit small if someone behind or beside you is reading small text on the screen (like a website URL on firefox).

I think that it's not been mentioned in the past few messages that the font resolution can be changed to suit the user. The resolution is measured in DPI (dots/inch) and it's a very simple adjustment to do if one finds the 1440x900 resolution causes the fonts to be too small. But the advantages of being able to fit more content on screen is well worth the extra money and effort.

[orjan]

Exactly. I guess I'll take my chances, even if it is a little small, because I am buying this laptop to last. My father's laptop is a 14-inch with this resolution, I've taken a look at it and I think that it's okay to work with it. It might be a bit small if someone behind or beside you is reading small text on the screen (like a website URL on firefox).

There is a 1280x800 LED display available in the US and it will probably soon be available in Europe too. There is already a 1280x800 LED "Privacy Panel" available in Europe.

Örjan

[HerrKaputt]

I think that it's not been mentioned in the past few messages that the font resolution can be changed to suit the user. The resolution is measured in DPI (dots/inch) and it's a very simple adjustment to do if one finds the 1440x900 resolution causes the fonts to be too small. But the advantages of being able to fit more content on screen is well worth the extra money and effort.

I didn't know this. How can I do it? Does it affect all applications, i.e. Office, Firefox, etc? (sorry for off-topic digressions, but this IS a lounge, even though I am not an E6400 owner... yet )

EDIT: Just found how to do it in XP (right click on empty desktop space, Appearance, Font Size drop menu). And I checked it can be done in Vista too.

Since this avoids the potential problem of text being too small, the only disadvantage of 1440x900 that I can think of is that it is harder to run games in the native resolution. Not a major issue for me, and being able to fit more MATLAB windows on screen is well worth it.

[davenport]

Does somebody know if I can connect 30" monitor with 2560 x 1600 to my E6400 using E-Port Plus Port Replicator?
My gfx chip is "nVidia Quadro NVS 160M"
On this web site, nvidia said E6400 support up to 2048 x 1536 (analog) and 1600 x 1200 (digital) resolutions.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_...techspecs.html

However, under "Features & Benefits" they said:

Dual-link DVI (TMDS) Support for Highest Resolution Digital Displays
Additionally dual-link transmitters enable driving the industry's latest, large and high resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_...ebook_fbs.html

Now, I understand that i cant get 2560 x 1600 via VGA port, but since E-Port Plus Port Replicator got DVI-D, its possible to use higher resolution using the docking station?

There is an issue with the nVidia drivers and dell is refusing to admit to it. nVidia will not support the product because the NVS 160m is customized for Dell. Yes, we should be able to run 2560x1600 via Dual-Link DVI according to all nVidia tech documents. I am convinced that the drivers are bad. Please talk to Dell support and demand that a report be filed that will reach the team in charge of graphics drivers.

[Vikram]

There is an issue with the nVidia drivers and dell is refusing to admit to it. nVidia will not support the product because the NVS 160m is customized for Dell. Yes, we should be able to run 2560x1600 via Dual-Link DVI according to all nVidia tech documents. I am convinced that the drivers are bad. Please talk to Dell support and demand that a report be filed that will reach the team in charge of graphics drivers.

I find it very it very odd that the official drivers on the Nvidia site specifically don't support the Latitude notebooks even though the GPU itself is supported on other brands. I'm inclined to believe you on the customisation issue. The Dell driver really is quite bad. Even Vista Aero performs poorly on my E6400 compared with my previous Acer Aspire 5632 with the Nvidia Geforce Go 7300 GPU. Not to mention Flash player, which runs poorly with Hardware acceleration enabled. The Windows Experience Index score is also the same despite the Quadro NVS GPU allegedly being superior.

The graphics is the one thing I'm really disappointed with on the E6400. Dell really does owe its customers an explanation and it has an obligation to improve the quality of its drivers. I'm also not completely convinced the hardware quality is upto mark either. I myself have not had any problems so far but looking at the problems, returns and replacements reported on various forums make me wonder what Dell is doing. I also wonder if a particular group of customers, depending on the assembly factory, is more affected by assembly problems. Mine was assembled in Poland. I realise that it's mostly people with problems that complain but many problems seem to occur quite frequently.
Dell, the ball is quite clearly in your court.

Edit : I did have a minor problem - I noticed that one of the RAM cards was not properly locked in place when I opened the back to see the inside. It's minor but had the card dislodged itself, it wouldn't be the first apparent cause of any problems that would occur.

[wildrogal]

Hi there,

I have just bought E6400 and found that I can take out the dvd drive easily, but there is no cover for the empty bay.

Where can I buy it? I searched dell.com but had no luck ..

Thanks!

[davenport]

I find it very it very odd that the official drivers on the Nvidia site specifically don't support the Latitude notebooks even though the GPU itself is supported on other brands. I'm inclined to believe you on the customisation issue. The Dell driver really is quite bad. Even Vista Aero performs poorly on my E6400 compared with my previous Acer Aspire 5632 with the Nvidia Geforce Go 7300 GPU. Not to mention Flash player, which runs poorly with Hardware acceleration enabled. The Windows Experience Index score is also the same despite the Quadro NVS GPU allegedly being superior.

The graphics is the one thing I'm really disappointed with on the E6400. Dell really does owe its customers an explanation and it has an obligation to improve the quality of its drivers. I'm also not completely convinced the hardware quality is upto mark either. I myself have not had any problems so far but looking at the problems, returns and replacements reported on various forums make me wonder what Dell is doing. I also wonder if a particular group of customers, depending on the assembly factory, is more affected by assembly problems. Mine was assembled in Poland. I realise that it's mostly people with problems that complain but many problems seem to occur quite frequently.
Dell, the ball is quite clearly in your court.

Edit : I did have a minor problem - I noticed that one of the RAM cards was not properly locked in place when I opened the back to see the inside. It's minor but had the card dislodged itself, it wouldn't be the first apparent cause of any problems that would occur.

nVidia tech support told me that they would not offer support because of the Dell customization. That is also why the drivers off the nVidia site will not install. I have installed the drivers from laptopvideo2go but there was no resolution improvement when docked. Another interesting note is that nVidia never recommends docking for external displays. I find that almost as ridiculous as nVidia not offering support for a product with their name on it. If nVidia is not going to offer support our chip should be called Dell NVS 160M.

The only way to get better drivers is to complain about the problems. I am still searching for anyone that has the nVidia chip that is running external displays over 1280x800. I have scoured the internet for days with no luck.

[veritas72]

it isnt the same problem I am having, but there is definitely something weird about the customization, because the modified inf from laptopvideo2go.com (which has always worked on my previous dells with nvidias) does not seem to deal with the temperature sensor properly (ive mentioned this before in this thread, but it seems relevant in light of the other graphics problems you are experiencing).

[superme]

nVidia tech support told me that they would not offer support because of the Dell customization. That is also why the drivers off the nVidia site will not install. I have installed the drivers from laptopvideo2go but there was no resolution improvement when docked. Another interesting note is that nVidia never recommends docking for external displays. I find that almost as ridiculous as nVidia not offering support for a product with their name on it. If nVidia is not going to offer support our chip should be called Dell NVS 160M.

The only way to get better drivers is to complain about the problems. I am still searching for anyone that has the nVidia chip that is running external displays over 1280x800. I have scoured the internet for days with no luck.

I have currently 20" monitor which runs 1600x1200, but I not yet tried to connect it to E6400. Was thinking to upgrade to 30" monitor (ironically Dell 30" monitor), but now, i see, i should wait for this drivers fix (if its will happiens one bright day) :/