Dell Latitude D420 Review (pics, specs)

[geauxmartians]

The Dell "QuickSet" software included should do it...I don't have bluetooth but there are options to control bluetooth in the QuickSet software.

[soda97]

Thanks, Quickset does manage both WiFi and bluetooth.
However, it only has the option to turn on/off both or just one to the hardware switch.
I wish I could turn on/off instantly with hot keys or through software.


Regards,
soda

[diamalus]

I have recently bought myself a D420. After using it for a few weeks, and playing with considerable options, I cannot seem to get it down to the discharge rates mentioned on Page 7 of this thread. Here are the specs of my machine:

• U2500 - 1.2Ghz Core Duo
• 1.5GB RAM
• 80GB HDD
• Clean install of XP Pro
• Disabled whole bunch of services in XP
• Software such as Nod32 and Outpost Firewall

So after playing around, here are the discharge rates that I can achieve.

• Playing MP3s with screen off - 10.3W
• Idle min brightness - 12.0W
• Idle max brightness - 14.3W

What is greatly disappointing about this laptop is the power draw. The laptop does everything I want it to do, is sturdy and the screen looks good. However, it does not last anywhere near the rated battery life. There is no way I can get the rated battery life out of my laptop given the discharge rates. I am lucky to squeeze 5 hours out of the laptop with the screen at min brightness all the time and the CPU locked at 6x multiplier (800Mhz) all the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where I should start to see if I can lower the discharge rate? I would particularly be interested if one of the people who listed their power consumption would tell me if they did anything special to get it that low. Thanks.

[diamalus]

After a little bit more research, I found out my extra 1GB memory stick (in addition to the 512MB that is soldered on) contributes about 1.5W of power draw. Even with this factored into the equation, I still can't figure out why the discharge rate is so high.

Anyone care to comment?

[Jumper]

Asus Z33Ae for the win I get 2:15 on my 3-cell (3.4 lbs) and 6:30 on my 9-cell (4.3lbs) at medium brightness. It's a little bit heavier then the X60 or the D420 because it has an optical drive, and a full sized 2.5" HD.

But that kind of battery life in that package with a 2.0 GHz P-M.... I'm not complaining.

Too bad it's a discontinued model, and the Z35 is a 13.3" instead of a 12.1" widescreen. They went bigger going from 12" regular ratio to 13.3" instead of going smaller..

[ryan stewart]

I dont have discharge rates but I am averaging more about 3.7hours on the 6 cell battery and just under 6 hours on the 9 cell with the laptop alone.

I use the light sensor indoors and max outdoors. With the brightness on max and heavy business use I get 3 hours and 5 horus between the two batteries.

Watching movies or playing games at max brightness its about 4 hours and 20 minutes.

I dont have anything disabled. Its a spec'ed out machine with the intel wifi card. Wifi, bluetooth, IR controller, and USB/PCcard controllers are all on.

Have you cycled your batteries down yet? I always charge, drain to 0%, and charge 100% again to help windows PM learn the battery.

[Adaptive]

Not sure if anyone is still keeping track of the D420, but the BIOS was updated to A05 recently...

[aquila]

I know that this is kinda "old" thread, but didn't want to start a knew one ..

i just "upgraded" from dell X1, which is wonderful machine, however lacked any kind of docking port .. which became quite essential to me .. so I bought D420.. but with dual core U2500 1,2 GHz...

the problem is, that when docked the CPU gets very fast over 50° . even if idling@ 800MHz .. which triggers the fan ...

since this noise drives me crazy .. and after I got accustomed to the total silence of my X1, I'm considering downgrade to core solo U1300 ..

technically speaking TDP of U2500 is 9W wheres TDP of U1300 is just 5,5 W, so it should not emit that much heat that could eventually trigger the fan ..

the question for those of you having D420 with core sole is, whether the fan goes on under regular working conditions that often ?

[ryan stewart]

ITwins-

One more question about the D420...have you heard a high pitched 'processing' sound coming from the bottom vent next to the wifi catcher? The sound is constant but stops when scrolling down a web page?????

Its piezoelectricity. Its something that has plagued intel processors of late. There are a few fixes. Enabling bus mastering devices like bluetooth or the wifi controller helps reduce this by drawing a little more power. You can disable windows power management for these devices.

The problem is when the processor goes into low power mode. Apple actually disabled this very low power mode. I chose to deal with it and, surprisingly, it went away. Id rather have the 20 minutes of battery life.

[xcougar]

Hello, My 60 GB disk feels very slow on the d420. It is a Toshiba MK6008GAH
HDtune averages 1.4MB/sec 20.6 access time 1.4MB/sec burst. throughput is 10x+ less than the 80GB below. Are all 60GB's this bad?
With SQLIO from microsoft I get
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec: 158.13
MBs/sec: 0.30
Which is orders of magnitude away from a desktop I compared.

Hi all, I've been using this laptop over a month.

.....

My system configuration: U2500, 1.5GB RAM, 80GB HDD.

By the way, I ran HDTune on the 80 GB hard disk, Average 19.9 MB/sec, Access time 19.2 ms, Burst 54.8 MB/sec. I guess it's not that bad for a 1.8 inch hdd.