I'm going to be getting a new laptop soon. I will be using Solidworks 64-bit mostly and also using some other engineering software that has 3D modeling involved.
Searching through threads it seems like a lot of people are reporting problems. Should I look at another laptop? Or has Dell worked out all the bugs with this machine?
Are they gonna have LED screens on the non covet m6400s? Or should I pull the trigger on the orange covet one?
Got a one time use 25% off coupon.
The orange looks kinda tacky, but maybe it looks better in person. Good deal or should I wait? ...
in the M6400 owners thread I read about the fact that the normal version of M6400 is also available with this type of panel.
I don't see it at the configurator, so only a mistake or did I miss something?
How black is your RGBLED screen? If you look at the black screen (say, black desktop background) in a completely dark room, is the screen uniformly black? Mine has some slightly brighter "shadows" (well, it's actually the opposite of a shadow) towards the middle of the screen. Granted, this is a tough test for a laptop LCD, but for that kind of money I would have expected more. My M90 certainly does better in that regard, but I do seem to recall that the screen on that laptop had a similar issue, and did improve over time.
So, is what I am seeing normal, or should I get them to give me a new LCD?
After a few weeks I have noticed a few problems with my M6400 Covet.
Here is an overview.
1.) Random hard-locks. My M6400 will sometimes hard-lock... it will completely freeze up. CTRL + ALT + DEL doesn't respond.. Caps Lock doesn't respond.. Everything simply freezes up. This is usually after I switch "off" the WiFi switch on the side of the covet.. or when connecting to a new WiFi network. I've updated the drivers to the ones on Dell's site.. It works for a while then does it again.
2.) Random video errors. My M6400's display will "freak out" every now and then. Seems to be completely random. Sometimes the machine is at idle, I come back and the screen has random artifacts on it.. sometimes it occurs when I'm working hard. It occurs when docked with an external monitor.. (however, it only affects the primary display on my docking station.. not the secondary display) and un-docked on the RGB LED E2E display. I think this is a driver error- but I've installed the drivers on Dell's website. Here is a screen-grab of the problem on the RGB LED E2E display. (Somehow I was *actually* able to prnt scrn it and save it in photoshop despite the horrible screen) My external monitor is fine and works fine with other computers.
3.) My WiFi/Bluetooth lights on the Covet don't always work. Sometimes i'm connected viai WiFi and the light isn't on. Strange. Are there supposed to be on-screen displays with the Covet? i.e. when you turn up /down the volume should there be an on-screen display? My old M90 did this.
Here are the vitals on my M6400 Covet:
Intel Core 2 Dual Extreme Edition QX9300 2.53GHz, 1067MHZ, 12M L2 CacheDual Core
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 4 DIMMfor Mobile Precision
1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M Mobile Precision M6400 Covet
Intel X25-M 80GB SSD (main disk)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS (storage)
17 inch Wide Screen Edge 2 Edge WUXGA RGBLED LCD, Blood Orange, for Mobile Precision M6400
Vista Ultimate 64-BIT Service Pack 1, with media, English Mobile Precision
Integrated megapixel VGA webcam with single digital microphone, Mobile Precision M6400
Dell WLAN 1397 (802.11b/g) 1/2MiniCard for Latitude E/MobilePrecision
I did a clean-install on the Intel X25-M SSD
I am about to buy a new anchor and have narrowed it down to the above two options. Quotes pasted below. Prices ommitted.. The Covet is about 100 bucks more then the w700 out the door.
I have always been a Dell guy, never had much experience with the IBM/Lenovo's. (Dropped my D630 in a pool so I get to finally get a dcent computer) I understand the raw spec differences in that I am getting more power all around with the Dell. What I don't know is that if the Covet is of the same build quality as the lower end business or consumer models (Not so great) as opposed to the Thinkpads which are wonderful.
Also, is the only difference between the LED RGB E2E and the non E2E the piece of glass? Is it identical except for that? I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with the matte screen and think it is beautiful, did not like the Apple Glossy (read, glare) option. Am I losing out on anyhing other then the Glare with the Non-E2E screen? ...
Has anyone successfully calibrated the RGB LED screen on the M6400 Covet using a colorimeter?
I have a Pantone Huey Pro and I'm getting really bad results after calibration (washed out colors, greenish cast). After about 2 months of back and forth with Pantone they have told me that "maybe" my colorimeter doesn't have enough range for a screen with such a wide gamut.
The "maybe" part, which suggests they don't even know their own product, is what I find unbelievable
Is anyone else having stability issues with the Covet?
How would I go about measuring heat on the CPU and GPU? I can't seem to find any utilities.
NTune crashes Vista 64 so that's out...
What I'm getting is normal fast operation for maybe an hour, and then fairly reliably the screens will all blank out for a second and then come back. Windows delivers a popup saying the NVidia drivers have stopped responding and then recovered.
Event logs show the message also: Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding.
I got the Quad Core Covet, and the Quadro 3700. I have it set in the High Performance power mode, plugged in to the wall on the (extremely large) factory charger. The system will run all day if I'm not using Maya.
Also ever since receiving this I have been getting a security audit failure:
Code:
Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid.
The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid
hash could indicate a potential disk device error.
File Name:DeviceHarddiskVolume3WindowsSystem32drivers cpip.sys
Network works fine so I don't know what to think of that. Anyone have this too in Vista 64 Business or Ultimate?
From all the specs listed on this machine it should be a CAD powerhouse, however it seems that there are a number of people on the net reporting lots of driver issues when trying to run CAD software.
I'll be running things like Solidworks and some other engineering aps that use some 3D modeling and am wondering if there is any kind of a consensus yet as to weather this machine is good to go or not. This machine will be used for work, so I don't want to mess around with something that will be crashing all the time.
Is it just the Dell bloatware that is causing the issues? If I reformat and reinstall the OS how difficult is it to find all the proper (stable!) drivers to get this machine up and running again?
seems they can all be configured the same , surely they arent charging extra for that paint job , there must be more to it than that ?
View 5 Replies View RelatedThis is driving me crazy. The left rubber bumper on the keyboard deck of my m6400 keeps coming off. I called dell and they ended up replacing the entire deck just to replace this one little rubber piece and it just ended up coming off again.
I really don't want to call dell and set up a service call just to replace this one little piece. The last time I did the tech completely disassembled my laptop and it took him 3 reassembly attempts to get it to boot,
but I'm worried the my screen will get cracked if I don't (I have the covet with the glass screen). Seems like a really bad design.
I've had my covet for arround less than a month now and i've now got serious issues with photoshop cs4 and all the cs4 suite.. like selecting actionscript in flash cs4s actionscript panel.. (major lag)
It must be the graphics drivers, but i have installed all the varieties i have read about on this forum both from nvidia & laptovideo2go to no availe.. after opening a few psd's and trying to move layers around from one to the other (via the tabs etc..) it really starts to become unusable.. it feals like there is a graphics card memeory leak or something, also when i open the nvidia control panel to see what's going on the 3d logo start to stutter when i move my mouse over it continiously...
is anybody else having issue with cs4..?
covet, quadcore, 8gb ram, 3700m + 320 hd..
about to install another 320 hd and was happy to see that i don;t have to reinstall everything.... via (ludicrus speed)
***I should also note that some of the close screen shots are a little blurry. I wasnt using a camera stand and taking shots with no flash. So like in the sunset shot, dont compare resolution cause the m6400 pic looks blurrier than the 9100 pic. Just compare color and brightness. Sorry, I just noticed this hours later *
Ok, Ive taken some side by side pics.
Old laptop, Dell 9100 15" about 4.5 years old.
New Laptop - M6400 Covet
As you can see, for me at least, buying this 17" isnt much bigger than the
15" Im used to. Ok, yeah. I wish the power supply wasnt so big but I will still carry this daily with me to work.
I have a backpack by Spire that I LOVE. They make a sleeve that fits this laptop fine and though the backpack I bought isnt SUPPOSED to fit that big of a sleeve, it actually works.
I highly recommend Spire backpacks. My old one for the 9100 has been carried almost Daily for over 4 years with good weight in it and it still really seems like new esp in the strength department.
I am no expert in video card and monitor stuff as Im an audio guy, so I havent tweaked anything with these screens. They are just both set to highest brightness level and as they came. Im not sure how "fair" it is to compare these since one is an LED screen and one is not and right there, you should expect one to be "colder" and one "warmer".
The LED on the m6400 is definately more saturated with color and way brighter. In whites, my old one looks a bit yellowish though it doesnt really show on the pics.
I tried to so some comparison glossy vs matte (9100) screen. Yep, the Covet is glossy as it IS glass after all, but nope, it doesnt bother me a bit. My first glossy screen too.
I tried to show the screen at angles but both these screens seem to have a wide angle range for viewing.
So yeah I wasn't exactly handling the thing with utmost care, was holding the open laptop one-handed by the left front corner, heard a plastic snap sound... I press down on the flat black plastic area where your left palm would rest, just above the PC card slot.. it's a bit squishy. Does it flex for yours too, am I paranoid? Its not a problem just wondering...
View 3 Replies View Related$3800 for the covet.
No LED LCD option for the normal version.
No LED LCD option for the normal version.
View 15 Replies View RelatedDell is finally starting to help me out as far as the screen glossiness and some other issues I've been having.
Before I tell them what parts I need in a replacement, I need to know if the M6400 RGBLED screen (not the Covet) is matte finish?
I'd really appreciate it - I can't trust their sales staff to actually know. My gut instinct would be that the E2E RGBLED screen is glossy, while the other is matte... but I don't want to replace my glossy with another glossy!
Whenever I'm copying files over the network to/from my M6400 Covet, I lose network connection.
I get the 'Limited Connectivity' message in Vista 64. It seems to happen for larger files transfers only.
I have the latest software from Dell already. My solution is to restart the laptop.
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?
Does orange paint really cost that much?
Is it normal that dell.ca would have fewer choices of screens than dell.com? I'm looking at the studio 15, and dell.com lists Hi Resolution/Bright,
glossy widescreen 15.4 WLED display (1440x900) as a choice, which is what I want, but dell.ca doesn't. When I view the system specs though, that choice is listed as on option.
I have a Dell Latitude E6530 and when I plugged in my monitor and keyboard into the docking station, they were not recognized. But I can plug them into the laptop while docked and they are recognized.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI have a Dell Inspiron N5010 purchased about 2 and a half years ago. I was just deleting some random programs which I don't ever use, and accidentally clicked on uninstall Dell Data Safe Local Back up.
How to reinstall it? I tried to do so by clicking this link [URL] .... but it just came up with an error message.
my laptop vostro 3460 won't boot any more. When I turn it on it loads the Dell logo (I suppose it passes the POST) but then it just shows a black page. It could be anything, but I guess that it may have something to do with Windows 8 and the UEFI system. I also would be quite happy to install linux mint and get rid of Windows, but I don't know how to change the boot priority order.
So my questions are:
1 is it a hardware issue ? if not, can I solve my problem easily ?
2 how can I change the boot priority order, to install mint ?
I am looking for xp driver for Dell Wireless WLAN 1397 Half MiniCard (4312bg) (boradcom).
View 3 Replies View RelatedDell Inspiron 1545 with Vista
Slow keyboard response, letters don't keep up with my typing.
Can a dell lcd screen work in non-dell laptops, or do they use a non-standard connection?
View 3 Replies View Relatedwhen i first got my dell inspiron and it was all good. when i set the monitor to shut off after 1 minute of being idle, it did and would not turn on unless someone moved the mouse of pressed a button. however, after i reformatted, the computer monitor would shut off after 1 min but soon afterwards it turns on again by itself, then it goes off again, then it remains on permanently. i recently formatted my laptop again and this problem persists. anyone knows whats sup? im using xp ftw... and my configurations are the same as it was before the reformats so idk whats wrong.
View 9 Replies View Relatedi have just installed dells quickset, someone who have try it before ? (did you like it better then XP energy scheduler)
someone know if "allways on" is the same as (dells) "maxium performance" ?
im wondering if (maybe) Dell quickset gives me little longer battery time then XP scheduler. (maxium battery VS battery (XP)
Why can"t I get the Dell Webcam Central to load on my inspiron 1545? I have downloaded it twice from the support site for my service tag and each time i attempt t install it and it shows a coorupt or incomplete download
View 1 Replies View RelatedMy new Inspiron 7520 is not booting beyond the black "dell" screen after i shut it down for the first time.
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