Dell is just starting to support Windows 7 on E4300. There are now few drivers coresponding to that system, but...
- Dell ControlPoint Security Manager Application - upgraded to A13 but still there are some problems with fingerprint reader after starting from sleep mode (long time before reader connect).
- Dell ControlPoint Security Device Driver - upraded to A12 but still I have a SmartCard Device (SCFILTERCID_3303013145410602b6) without drivers. Weird, because there is another SmartCard device that is installed corect, and my E4300 have only one SmartCards Reader.
- Dell ControlPoint System Manager - even with new A12 there is no possibility to adjust brightness without ALS.
- there are another two devices without drivers. Some "PCI Serial Port", and "PCI Simple Communications Controller".
I am in the market for a new laptop. I have been tossing up wether to get the Dell XPS 13 or the Dell Latitude 4300 (13").
I am particulary looking for a laptop to use on the train as I commute to work and so am looking for something small, with a battery life that can handle up-to 2 hours with maybe 30% of the time high CPU usage (1 hour each way).
I am a software developer and will want to dual boot Windows and Linux, and will want something with a bit of grunt .....
Location: Dublin, Ireland Order Date: 18/09/2008 Estimated Delivery Date (on or before this date): 20/10/2008 Actual Shipment Date: 25/09/2008 Cost: 1461.68 euro (2135.08 usd)
Config:
QTY Item Description 1 Latitude E4300 : BLACK Intel Core 2 DuoSP9300(2.26GHz,1066MHz,6MB) Latitude ON Reader 1 Standard Touchpad 214-10064 1 Display : Black -No Camera, Latitude On Reader, WWAN- 13.3inWXGA(1280x800) 1 Documentation : English Shipping Docs 1 Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1 Hard Drive : 80GB Serial ATA (5400RPM) 1 Optical Drive : Roxio Creator 9.0 Software (XP & VistaCompatible) with Recovery CD 1 Optical Drive : Power DVD 8.0 1 Optical Drive : BLACK 8X DVD+/-RW Drive 1 Power Cord : UK/Ireland 90W AC Adaptor 3-pin 1 Battery : Primary 6-cell 60W/HR LI-ION 1 No Carry Case 1 Wireless : Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard with Centrino label 1 Keyboard : Internal UK/IR Qwerty Standard Keyboard 1 Software Driver : Latitude E4300 1 Software Driver : Recovery DVD 1 Operating System : English Windows Vista Business SP1 to XP Pro SP3 Downgrade 1 Windows Vista Business SP1 Os media 1 Client Systems Management Disabled 1 AntiVirus : Not Included 1 Base Warranty 1 3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty 1 No Warranty Upgrade 1 Declined CompleteCare 1 Latitude Order - Ireland 1 Road Freight Charge Per Unit 1-10 unit
Collected my dell latitude e4300 saturday morning (27/09) from my local depot instead of waiting for it to be delivered and been giving it a whirl for the last day or so.
First some quick figures. On my kitchen scales the e4300 with the 6 cell battery weighs about 1.8kg (4lbs). The charger and power cord weigh another 500 grams (1lb) making for a total travel weight (notebook + 6 cell battery + charger) of about 2.3 kgs (roughly 5 lbs).
The e4300 feels sturdy enough although the 6 cell battery that sticks out at the back feels a little loose when given a tug. The keyboard (uk layout) as far I can tell is almost same the size/layout as its bigger brother the e6400 except for the page up and down which are full size and placed beside the arrow keys.
When first powered up the machine spends a little over 2 minutes in some kind of bios initialization mode before booting into a windows xp setup screen - subsequent power ons are a lot faster taking about 50 seconds to a bring up a full xp desktop.
The matte display (device manager says LCD2207) is brighter and has better viewing angles than the Latitude D630 I used some months ago but I was expecting a lot more from a LED screen.
Heat wise the notebook gets a little warm under the chassis top left near the air vent where the cpu is located but was still comfortable enough to place on my lap while wearing jeans.
Noise is a problem with this notebook. The cpu fan although not loud is audible if you're in a quiet room. The latitude D630 was almost whisper quiet in comparison. There's also a slight electronic buzz which sounds like someone sending morse code coming from the top left of the notebook which becomes extremely irritating after a while.
The battery meter claims over 6 hours when fully charged but I've gotten nearer 5 with wifi and some web browsing - will do more formal tests later.
The default software install on this machine is a mess - see attached screenshots taken from task manager and process explorer.
On booting into Windows xp over 354 mb of ram is already being used up by running processes all seemingly related to the proper functioning of this laptop. I though vista memory usage was excessive but for an xp install this is ridiculous - if only 512Meg ram was installed this machine would not be usable as a business notebook.
In general use the touchpad becomes intermittingly laggy with the mouse pointer pausing to change shape (2 black arrows,twirl) no doubt due to some value add cruft running in the background and the touchpad has twice stopped responding to finger input necessitating a windows reboot.
The bottom right of the keyboard doesn't seem to fit snuggly with the notebooks chassis leading to a noticeable flex everytime you press the page down or right arrow key.
Theres an ambient light sensor that adjusts the screen brightness on the fly depending on lighting conditions but anytime I enable it the display brightness seem to jump about a lot (even indoors at night) so I left it off.
With wireless configuration there also appears to be some kind of bun fight between windows xp,dells control point and Intel PROSet software with the apparent winner being Intel.
Not sure if there's also a problem with whatever tracks hard disk usage on this notebook as the hard disk light on the bezel is constantly flashing even when filemon.exe utility reports no file activity.
I'm going do some more tests and try and find out if I can do something about the buzzing noise, hard disk light and keyboard flex but as it stands for the price I paid this notebook is failing to impress.
- int. keyboard does not work (however trackpoint and touchpad work), only an ext. USB keyboard works.
- laptop is slow: in the BIOS setup the response is already slow, mouse is very slow...
- when hitting F8 on the ext. keyboard, you get the windows startup menu. (safe mode etc.) Response of this menu is also slow.
- windows (XP) does not start at all, you see the Windows startup screen and nothing happens (no BSOD)
- even a recovery cd like "hiren's boot CD" or "I have the password" doesn't start.
Bios: A13 All settings in the BIOS are correct. Changed to default, still the same problems. I ran diagnostics (F12), but no errors found??? I ran chkdsk on the harddisk (removed HD and put it into an external HD case), errors were found, but corrected...
Viva la Dell, may Michael prosper in Heaven forever more for giving us the wonderful place called the Outlet--where you can pick up elite laptops like the E4300 and Latitude XT2 for under a grand with nary a scratch on them .....
Is it possible to install a second hard disk in E4300?
Earlier the option used to be available whilst configuring the E4300 online to add a second 1.8inch hard disk. Now it is no longer there. Can the same be ordered through a Dell rep? What exactly is it that comes when you order this?
I will be grateful if someone can share this info. This will be the deal maker/breaker for me on the E4300.
I'm very surprised that Dell only provides DDR2-800Mhz memory support for Latitude E6500 instead of E4300.
I don't understand, the built in chipset of E6500 is a Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset that support DDR3 Memory so why the E6500 don't support it ?
Intel tech specs :
The Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset delivers Microsoft Windows Vista* Premium support with the highest level of Microsoft Windows Aero* experience.1 It delivers outstanding system performance through high-bandwidth interfaces such as dual-channel DDR3 and DDR2 memory support, 1066 MHz system bus, PCI Express* x16 graphics port and PCI Express x1 I/O ports, Serial ATA, and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity. Use of the Mobile Intel PM45 Express Chipset includes support for Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) 4.0, the next generation of remote client network management for business. Use of the Mobile Intel PM45 Express Chipset also includes support for dual graphics with ATI CrossfireX*, for extreme gaming.
Support for DDR3 and DDR2 memory technology
Does anyone try to upgrade E6500 memory to DDR3-1066Mhz ?
The new colors Regal Red and Regatta Blue are now available at Dell's website for the Latitude E4300. E6400 and E6500. The E4200 does not show the option as of yet, but that will surely be remedied soon. They seem to come with a hefty increase in price however...
I just recently purchased a Dell Latitude E4300 and i'm pretty happy with it overall.
However, i'd like to connect an external monitor to it. I noticed that it only has a VGA port (unless i'm blind), but Dell's website makes many references to it having a DISPLAY-PORT.
It even sells an adapter for this model: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=330-2915
I am trying to use my Sony 1080 p 32W4000 TV as external monitor for my Dell Latitude E4300. But in the display optionos from the Intel driver i can only get a maximum resolution of 1360 x 768 on the tv. Anyone know how to set it higher, like 1920 x 1080?
I have order an Latitude E4300 from the Dell UK Outlet page. Specs seemed to be perfect: SSD, mobile broadband and so on.
Now, that I have received the machine, the mobile broadband add-on is missing. Description said that it has "WWAN" and, because I was still unsure, I actually asked a representative who told me in a chat (lucky I saved this session) that this machine would definitely have mobile broadband.
There is also one piece of plastic missing at the joint of the display, but it doesn't really affect usability of the notebook. Well, I could live with this .....
Where the software and data for the Dell Latitude E4300 ON-Reader is located?
Is it at the normal hard disk drive located just in a special partition there? Or is there another drive especially for it like a small flash media device or something like that?
How to disable the touchpad on the Latitude E4300 if I have no hotkey and no touchpad icon? Dell themselves won't answer because this computer is long out of warranty.
I have a Dell E4300.A few days ago 2 vertical lines appeared on my screen, now there are around 10, different colors and sizes.When i press on the bottom of my display, where is the Dell logo, they disappear.I removed the display cover and, i think, the problem is the band in the middle, not the flex band connected to the motherboard.
Can the bottom of the display be changed? Is something like an inverter, but my screen is LED, so i belive that is a different mechanism. Is there any way to fix this without replacing the display?I checked with an external monitor, it works fine.
i have a Samsung TV and i want to connect my laptop to it by using an cable from the laptop (VGA) to a HDMI to VGA adaptor.do i need a special driver for my windows 8.1 Operating system?
 I recently changed from Vista to XP and I have attempted to get all the drivers updated to suit XP however I cannot find the right driver to activate WI FI on this laptop.
Mouse is jumping all over the screen - I believe because it is easy to accidentally brush the touchpad while typing.
The Control Panel - Mouse on this Latitude no longer has an option to independently enable/disable the touchpad and the pointing stick - but surely there is a way to do this on this e4300.
I thought it would be a good idea to flash the BIOS (latest version A24) before reinstalling Windows, but after doing that and installing Windows the on board mic isn't detected anymore! headphone jack, built-in speaker, work but the mic doesn't work. it worked right before doing the BIOS flash.
to remedy this I reset BIOS settings to Default, enabled and disabled Mic in BIOS settings, installed Dell Audio drivers instead of generic Windows drivers. nothing works.  in fact in BIOS diagnostic tests says Webcam/mic board not detected.
I just removed the LED dashboard cover and then the keyboard in a LATITUDE E4300 and used some compressed air for a simple spring cleaning. after I carefully put everything back together, the following keys stopped working   9 O L .
I repeated the process a couple of times to make sure I didn't make any mistake, but still those keys don't work. Â
I'm looking for a computer set up. After some research, I'm leaning towards a Latitude E4300 (with decent specs) and the above mentioned display. The idea is to have a powerful, yet portable notebook for taking to class and mobile study sessions, then having the display function as almost a desktop computer. Has anyone had a similar set up before?
Windows 7 runs amazingly on this machine (specs in sig). Though, it ran fantastic with Vista as well.
Despite my overall good experience thus far, there are a few things to note:
1) The webcam. Yeah, it works fine with AIM and what not out of the box, but I'd like it if Dell released an official Win7 driver + Win7 Webcam Central to better support the Latitudes.
2) The Ambient Light Sensor. It's a bit wonky under Win7, so I've left it disabled for the time being and manually change the brightness when needed. Again, I'd like to see Dell release a Win7 version of the ALS Utility found under their Vista drivers.
Just installed Windows 7 on my E4300. This is the first time I'm trying out an OS other than XP (never touched Vista)
Most of the components seem to work well.
Can anyone tell me if they got the screen brightness (Fn + up, down or left arrows) to work? I can see the toggle on the screen move from left to right in the settings, but the actual screen doesn't actually go dim or bright.
When I pull the power and run on batt, the screen dims (and I cannot make it brighter). And if it's on power, I cannot dim it either.
Is this a driver issue? Which driver? The closest one I see is the Video driver.
Also, does anyone also notice the mouse pad being sluggish?
I'm so used to very fast mouse where if I move my finger from the top right to the bottom left, the mouse arrow also does the same on the screen in one shot.
I am trying Windows 7 on my Latitude E6400, and I am having two a little issue for the system.
First issue is despite enabling advance performance for the drive under Device manager, Windows 7 gives me score or 2.0, than in Vista the score is significantly higher in the 5.0 range. My HDD is the Hitachi 5400RPM 160GB.
Second issue is, I don't know what I missed when installing the drivers/software, but I don't have the on-screen volume control. But the ambient light sensor, brightness level and keyboard backlit mode, does appear.
I'm thinking about getting a D630 and installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on it. Is there any reason that this won't be an easy process? Do I need any drivers from Dell?
I read here (http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-aud...-no-audio.html) that someone had a problem with audio from a docking station, but apparently it's fixed by installing vista drivers from the Dell website ...
