Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

[veritas72]

Hey guys, I've run into a problem with my E6400. The battery won't charge. When I plug the charger in, I get the message:
"Dell ControlPoint System Manager
Your notebook power adapter is not recognized by your Dell notebook. As a result, your power adapter may not provide sufficient power to run the system, your battery will not charge, your system will run slowly. Please insert a 90 watt Dell approved power adapter."

I'm using the adapter I got when I bought the laptop.. so I'm expecting this to be a problem with the software that's not recognizing the adapter, and therefore not allowing me to charge the battery, but I haven't been able to find out what's the problem. I believe I have the current version of CP System installed.

Any help would be appreciated.. I'm running off AC power with 17% power remaining.

what version of the BIOS are you on? one of the BIOSes that was up for a while (at least for the e6500) had this problem. A BIOS upgrade fixed it for me, I believe, although I am going to have to look back through the forum to check.

[achyx]

bit the bullet and just got myself a nice e6400 from the outlet (UK).

P9500, 4GB ram, 9cell battery, quadro graphics, bluetooth, 160GB 7200rpm HD, 1440x900.

all for 850 quid

[would]

@would, did you try the solution link that I provided and that you quote from me?

no, i didn't try that, because:

1. i can't even see the drive anymore when this "storage device" is recognized

2. my DVD drive works fine - until this "device" has been recognized - sometimes after 5 - sometimes also after 5 to 90 min!

3. the problem also was still there after i reinstalled windows (and didn't install a cd or dvd-burning program.

i know the upper/lower filters problem - but it's not the solution here - definitly

[HerrKaputt]

Recently I have been looking back, thinking whether I made the right choice going for the E6400 vs. its arch-rival the Lenovo ThinkPad T400. I just saw in another thread that Lenovo offers the option of a normal 2.5'' HDD for the modular bay, while Dell only offers 1.8''. Also, these problems with the DVD drive disappearing are annoying me (although I rarely use the DVD, so no big issue).

A second HDD would be a nice option to make use of the two HDDs which I already have lingering around, even if only for pagefile and hibernation files, but mostly so I can have another OS there (Ubuntu a likely choice to familiarize myself with it).

What are the advantages of the E6400 vs. the T400? Why did you guys go for Dell vs. Lenovo?

[soryn_popa]

Hi guys,

I've gone through all this thread and saw nobody says a thing about the CCFL screen. I was decided to get a LED, but after reading about it i've almost change my mind, and mainly for three reasons: 1. i like screens with warm color tones and apparently both LG and Samsung LED screens are rather cold/bluish, 2. 1280x800 resolution is better for reading, and i do a lot of reading, and 3. it's cheaper, considering i don't care about battery life, durability and don't need high brightness. On the other hand, i don't know if in fact the LED is crisper/sharper, nor if the image quality is overall much better than on the CCFL. What do you guys think? Can anyone provide some feedback on the CCFL screen - how are the colour tones, is the image "vivid" enough, is it worth the extra money for the image quality? Thanks for reading this.

[John Ratsey]

I just saw in another thread that Lenovo offers the option of a normal 2.5'' HDD for the modular bay, while Dell only offers 1.8''. Also, these problems with the DVD drive disappearing are annoying me (although I rarely use the DVD, so no big issue).

A second HDD would be a nice option to make use of the two HDDs which I already have lingering around, even if only for pagefile and hibernation files.

What are the advantages of the E6400 vs. the T400? Why did you guys go for this one vs. the other one?

The Lenovo 2.5" media bay unit fits the Dell series as explained here. However, you should compare the cost of that with the cost of a combo USB / eSATA 2.5" HDD enclosure which will give you more flexibility since it will fit any computer with USB port but you can use the E6400's eSATA port for full speed.

Why did I get the E6400?: The eSATA port, the USB Powershare, the backlit keyboard and, in my part of the world, the T400 with WXGA+ being much more expensive. I don't regret my decision.

Hi guys,

I've gone through all this thread and saw nobody says a thing about the CCFL screen. I was decided to get a LED, but after reading about it i've almost change my mind, ... What do you guys think? Can anyone provide some feedback on the CCFL screen - how are the colour tones, is the image "vivid" enough, is it worth the extra money for the image quality? Thanks for reading this.

I went for the LED backlit screen because of the higher power efficiency which either extends battery time or gives you are brighter display. It's bright enough to use in sunlight and indoors I have it at around half brightness. Another advantage of the LED backlights is that they don't go dim with age or have inverters (one of the less reliable components).

if you are worried about the text being too small on WXGA+ then you can change the font sizes. You can also tweak the colour balacne in the display adaptor settings.

John

[HerrKaputt]

The Lenovo 2.5" media bay unit fits the Dell series as explained here. However, you should compare the cost of that with the cost of a combo USB / eSATA 2.5" HDD enclosure which will give you more flexibility since it will fit any computer with USB port but you can use the E6400's eSATA port for full speed.

Why did I get the E6400?: The eSATA port, the USB Powershare, the backlit keyboard and, in my part of the world, the T400 with WXGA+ being much more expensive. I don't regret my decision.

John

Hmmm. I guess the eSATA and cheaper price are good enough reasons for me. I use the Powershare sometimes, but if it wasn't present it wouldn't matter much really.

[big jeffrey]

does anyone know of a blu ray player that will fit my e6400? any suggestions?

[Vikram]

The Lenovo 2.5" media bay unit fits the Dell series as explained here. However, you should compare the cost of that with the cost of a combo USB / eSATA 2.5" HDD enclosure which will give you more flexibility since it will fit any computer with USB port but you can use the E6400's eSATA port for full speed.

...

John

Had I realised the Mediabay or the Thinkpad adapter was available, I would have purchased that instead of an external hard drive! Buyer's remorse hitting late!

I rarely use the DVD drive and for me, a 2nd HDD would be a better choice. Though I suspect the battery life will be reduced due to increased power consumption of a spinning hard disc.

[TWY]

Hi guys,

I've gone through all this thread and saw nobody says a thing about the CCFL screen. I was decided to get a LED, but after reading about it i've almost change my mind, and mainly for three reasons: 1. i like screens with warm color tones and apparently both LG and Samsung LED screens are rather cold/bluish, 2. 1280x800 resolution is better for reading, and i do a lot of reading, and 3. it's cheaper, considering i don't care about battery life, durability and don't need high brightness. On the other hand, i don't know if in fact the LED is crisper/sharper, nor if the image quality is overall much better than on the CCFL. What do you guys think? Can anyone provide some feedback on the CCFL screen - how are the colour tones, is the image "vivid" enough, is it worth the extra money for the image quality? Thanks for reading this.

I owned the CCFL screen (previous) and the LED screen models (current), both on 1280x800. If you don't need high brightness, take the CCFL one. The colour reproduction is better and it's easier on the eyes. The LED screen is kind of washed out and the highest levels of white can't be differentiated (note to ppl who do some photo editing).

But I agree with John that it's easier to read when you're in the sunny outdoors with the LED screen.