Dell :: M6400: Comes With XP SP3 Pre-installed, But I Want To Install XP SP2 Instead: Anyone Have Any Tips?
May 31, 2009
I bought a M6400 recently, and asked that XP be installed and Vista be available.....
So I have XP Pro OEM SP3 preinstalled on the machine, and Vista Ultimate Sp1 available on a separate DVD... I'm not ready to go to Vista yet, so I want to run XP for now. However, I am certain that Sp3 is at the root of practically all the problems I am suffering, and I need to get rid of it. Anyone have any idea how to do this? The Dell XP disc has Sp3 on it, so I can't simply hit "uninstall" and get rid of SP3. I have OEM SP2 XP discs available and have a moderate knowledge of slipstreaming, so I just need some pointers.
My other laptop, a Lenovo T60P, has only Sp2 installed and is suffering none of the issues the Dell has, so I'm pretty sure that Sp3 needs to go.
M6400, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RTM, FX3700M, E2E RGB LED
Everything appears to be working fine in my win 7 installation with the exception of the video. If I install any video driver then the LCD display dim's down to <50% of its normal brightness compared to just vanilla VGA drivers. External monitor works fine.
I initially went with the official NVIDIA 186.03 driver, and this exhibited the dimming effect. I have since tried all manner of other video driver versions including laptop2go, etc and none of them work. Even had my first win7 BSOD when I installed Dell's latest Vista x64 driver .....
I've just bought a refurbished M6400. It comes with no preinstalled OS. I have a dell install disk for Windows XP SP2. Is it ok to install this on my M6400? I will then update to SP3 over the web.
I guess i will also need to install drivers for the graphics card, etc etc.
Please let me know if you have any advice and pitfalls to watch out for.
I'm also considering adding a second hard drive. What drive specification do i need?
I bought an M6400 with Vista-64, but I'm having a lot of issues getting that working with an RME cardbus audio interface.
So, as part of debugging, I'm trying to install XP on it instead, just to test. I've tried several XP install CDs we have and every single one of them gets
to "inspecting your computer's hardware configuration", then the text disappears and I get a blank screen
I have the 9600m GT out of a 8930g installed in my Aspire 5720 laptop but every nvidia driver that I try to install says that the hardware is not compatible with the driver or some crap.
Am I out of luck with this card or is there a way to force install a driver...or is there a better driver to install?
I've tried the latest 197.16, 186.03 drivers from nvidia. Even from laptopvideo2go...no dice.
I was hoping to upgrade my warranty & was given the prices of 89, 109 & 139 for 1, 2 & 3 years cover.
any suggestions how i could get a reduction in this price? I'm looking at the 3 years warranty and will probably just buy it @139, but wondered if anyone else had success with a reduced amount?
CPU stock FSB clock: 267 (2.4ghz) Overclocked CPU clock: 301 (2.7ghz)
Now I noticed an option on motherboard tab "PCIe slot 1: 2500mhz" should I increase the PCIe clock? to about 2700mhz just like the processor, or how much should I move it, or do I even need to move it? Is there any benefit of playing with pcie clock, or what does it effect in the system in terms of hardware?
Laptop started with verticle lines. Did some research, seems common video card problems - scoured the net for cheapest replacement (dell wanted crazy money!)
Found ebay seller who links to this forum (did not purchase). Seems the link is for 9300's...read about flashing BIOS to make laptop think its an XPS...
But, MINE is.
DO i need both the battery and power supply? battery died a year ago and i just took it out. Laptop is desktop. Prefer not to buy Battery .....
My warranty on my SXPS m1340 expires soon. I started a system exchange two weeks ago and I'm getting a replacement system. This will be my second replacement, I've had various problems with my system. I don't want this system exchange to arrive without a warranty. I recently chatted with dell for a warranty extension and for a 1 year extension it cost $421.75. I said that's a little high and the agent called me and offered me $320.20 with a $75.00 gift card urging me to take the offer as it is "Limited". I told the agent to call back later. Should I take the 1 year warranty for $320.20 with the gift card or still try and play hardball with Dell. I definitely need to buy a warranty extension, I cant even count how many issues I've had with my system.
I'd like to replace the fan in my laptop (Dell's Latitude d830) with a faster/better one. From what I've seen, most people seem to think that this is impossible.
I, however, find this hard to believe that Dell would have included the only possible fan that's compatible with this laptop, or that this particular fan is the best possible cooling option.
Why is it so hard to upgrade in the first place? I'm sure it can be done, I've opened up my laptop a few times in the past and it's not exactly rocket science .....
Since I don't have a clue how to tweak my 9400m to the fullest of its ability's I thought I make a thread so we can discuss the latest drivers, flash beta 10, best settings for optimal performance ... etc
Link to the latest Driver for the 9400M, 9500M, and N10M-GS Link to adobe flash player 10 *beta* adds GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos
* Note- if anyone thinks I should add something, let me know and I will updat
how to install windows 7 into pre-installed windows 8 hp pavilon 15-B001EE First it asks about a driver So I removed the harddesk and installed windows 8 on other PC. when I returned the harddest to computer and just when start loading windows it gives me a blue screen Do not know what to do since I removed the recovery partation
Yup me again, in my hunt to determine if M6400 is right for me as it costs just about as much as a used car, I want to make sure its a good investment before I buy it.
What is the main difference with the M6400 and the M6400 Covet?
I configured both with the same specs and the Covet is about $900 more in price?
One of my "hobbies" is extending the life of older equipment. Especially when it is fairly good stuff, like my trust Vaio VGN-S360.
So I decided to overcome the 80gb limit imposed by the factory installed 2.5 inch IDE drive; a Fujitsu. I purchased a 320gb Western Digital drive.
The new drive works just fine, no bad sectors, etc. However, somehow I forgot that there might be unanticipated limits to using a four year old machine .....
I received my Precision M4400 with Win 7 Pro x64 pre-installed, and using it for audio recording and playing everything works great. However, since Win7x64 drivers do not exist for some of my audio devices,
I decided to put in a new HD (same as the original, only larger) double-booting XPx86 and Win7x64. So I installed XP on one partition of the new HD and Win7x64 from the CD that shipped with the M4400. Big problem...
Neither XPx86 nor the re-installed Win7x64 are able to deliver anything but crackles and pops and noise only slightly resembling music. Forget about recording...
I got my laptop but did not do a clean install. I just removed all the bloatware I could think of. Is there a guide to do just that though, get rid of all the stuff that shouldn't be there so that you essentially have a clean install without all the bloat or footprints of it?
I can't install my integrated webcam. After downloading the driver and opening the file installation starts and then suddenly it just ends with the message there was an error during installing.
So the thing I've done are: installing the drivers, which failed.
I've also looked in the device managemer app but could find anything of a camera.
I will try to make this short and understandable......
I bought a XPS M1330 iwth Vista Home Premium Bios A07 in January 2008.
April 2008 I tried to install updates and it messed up my Microsoft Office 2007 so I got it back working and did not mess with anymore updates.
Around June 2008 I started having the notorious battery issues. The battery ran down while I was on it and the battery has never worked since. At first it said connected,
but not charging but then it eventually died while I was trying to fix the problem and now it says battery not detected and it says the ac adapter is not recognized (I have the original AC adapter sent with the computer) .....
I replaced hard drive with SSD and installed windows 7 ultimate (X64) on my HP Pavilion G4 notebook. However, I am not able to install switchable graphics on my laptop now.
I have tried this 1. Installed HPSA and ran update and tuneup. It asked me to update "AMD High-Definition Graphics Driver" but it failed with multiple retries and after some time now it doesnt ask to do this update at all. Now everything is green in HPSA but I am still not able to switch the graphics 2. Tried to download from HP drivers page but it says "AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible harware/software on your computer" 3. Tried uninstalling the driver but windows updates the drivers automatically. 4. I also updated BIOS as suggested at [URL] ..... but still no luck......
Product Name: HP Pavilion g4 Notebook PC Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Service Pack 1 Product number : LQ375PA#AB
I have had an aspire 5920g for about 18 months now and it was all working fine until I updated the graphic drivers, but the drivers stopped installing halfway through and now I can't install any graphic drivers.
I tried to install my original drivers and they won't install. The system keeps freezing and I think thats the problem.
I've tried making a recovery disc but erecovery won't recognize blank DVD's and acer 'support' are only too happy to grab you by your feet, turn you upside down and let all your money fall out so they can charge you for a reovery disc - absolutely ridiculous - instead of actually trying to help me.
And also for some reason a yellow triangle appeared next to the ACEYTS4Y IDE controller a week after I got it but up until now didn't seem to cause any problems.
I guess I'm about to get a mobile workstation. I already got an M90 it is great. Only one dead/stuck pixel and the front panel silver button paint came off in a few month of usage.
But I love it. So I am thinking of getting an M6400. Can you back me up on this one..?? Please if you own one tell me the pros and cons.. Have you noticed any Dead/stuck pixels.
What about built quality, feel, comfort, performance, heat, cooling, fan noise, screen quality ( thinking of LEG or RGB LED)..
Any creeking noise while opening the lid or holding or working on the laptop?? Any thing you can tell me about this beast of a machine will be a great help for me indeed
2 Intel X25-M 80GB SSD drives will be replacing those 80GB's.
First - my first thoughts are that this system is Fantastic!
The screen is great - its an LG, fantastic colors, no dead pixels. Typical viewing angles for non LED screen, not great, but not noticeably bad either.
No noticeable bleeding, no graininess - very happy with the screen.
Ran 3Dmark 06 (1280x800, stock drivers) - 11,619
GPU temp was around 80 C - not bad at all.
So far, very happy. Putting the SSD ddrives in now - will post more thoughts as I do more. Will post pics ASAP.
Update 1: 2 80GB SSDs are in place - this has Intel's Matrix Storage which allows the creation of one RAID1 volume (which I will use for valuable data) and a RAID0 volume for the rest of the space - this is very nice - get the benefits of both types of RAID in one system!
Update 2: The power brick is completely absurd. Its HUGE - 210W. The good news is that I plugged in a 130W from a M4400 and although I get the popup about the AC adapter not being at least 150W, it does charge the battery and allow the system to run. To me, this is an acceptable alternative to lugging around the giant brick, at least for most things on the road - Later on, I will test the system with this adapter and see what kind of slowdown is caused.
Pics:
RAID Setup:
Next to a M4400 (that I believe I'll be returning very shortly):
Next to an older E1705 - these are virtually the exact same size - its astounding what new tech can cram into the same space
