I just received a WD 1TB hard drive and a Icy Dock enclosure. I close my M2400, plug the HD, reboot, and I don't see the HD.
I don't think I can see the hard drive in the bios either, but I don't know the bios a lot, maybe I'm not looking at the correct place.
My bios has "IRRT" for the "Sata Operation" section, I run Windows XP that has been installed with the sata drivers slipped on the installation disk.
Here's my story and, let's say, my analysis:
I bought a generic 2 HD sata2 RAID1 enclosure based on the chipset Silicon Image SteelVine 5744. It can be used in USB or eSATA2. This embedded chipset (named SiL5744) is known (understand "claimed") to auto-handle Sata I/II and host sata2 controllers that not support the port multiplier feature. The HD are two Samsung F1 1To. There's no jumper to rollback to SATA 1.5Go on them, you can only do it by flashing the HD's bios, however we don't need to do it as I wrote just before, the SiL5744 supports SATA 3Go natively.
The enclosure works pretty well with USB, but *not* in eSATA : the E6500 freezes/hangs just after the POST step (a potential driver issue with the installed vista 64bits is not the reason then). As soon has I disconnect the eSATA cable, the system recovers and continues as normal.
What I've tried/done so far :
Both E6500's BIOS SATA mode AHCI and IRRT mode were tested,
Intel Matrix driver and software was updated to the latest 8.7.0.1007 version (AHCI and IRRT),
The SiL5744 chip was upgraded to its latest firmware as well (in case of...)
In order to verify the esata cable, the HDs and the enclosure itself, I succeed to :
- Use the enclosure's RAID1 feature when using the USB connection, I could partition,format, and read/write on the logical volume
- directly connect *one* HD (Samsung F1 1To) to the E6500's esata port -(I have a sata2esata cable), Vista installed it and I was able to use it as normal, even the hotswap feature seemed to work fine (I unkindly removed it). I could so test both HD individually this way... On the enclosure hardware side, everything looks fine then.
An IMPORTANT thing : The E6500's ICH8/9-M sata host controller seems to support the Port Multiplier feature *ONLY* on sata port 0 -as a bubble message from the Intel Matrix soft sometimes shows up-, but this is exactly where the internal HD is plugged on the motherboard I found nowhere you can change the internal sata port ID (switch,bios,ect...). I think this is the key of the problem that seems to be a dumb port conflict, because the esata port is in fact the port sata 4 (the DVDRW drive is sata 1, dock's esata is 5 for instance). If somebody knows how to swap the sata port ID, I think I won't be toasted !
3 questions about the Dell Precision M2400...
1. Popularity
I wonder why there are so few threads about the M2400 on notebookreview.com! There are way more threads about the similar 14" Latitude D6400 or the 15" Precision M440! Why is this?
2. Quality
If you have a M2400, are you satisfied with it? Do you have problems? What would you improve?
3. Price
I'm from Canada and it seems there are less coupons for Dell Canada than for Dell US. The default M2240 is currently listed as (1670$ - 251$) = 1419$CAN, which is 1,133.40$US.
What would you do to get a better price?
Wait for a chistmas discount?
Call a rep and try to get a better price (how much can I save doing this?).
I plan to buy a Laptop within some days. It comes down to M2400 or M4400, as the T500 has no LED screen here in Europe and T400 no digital screen connection. I'm product designer but will attend business school next year, so I will do a lot of office stuff and traveling. The only difference in these systems is the GPU, I wonder how do they compare? Rhino should work fine on both I guess? Anyone able to compare those systems?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI've upgraded my precision m2400 about 2 weeks ago and noticed that the battery life has gone down significantly even when adjusting the power options / screen lighting / keyboard backlight and wifi.
Wasn't windows 7 suppose to improve battery life on laptops? The battery life has gone down by about an hour with variation on different power option settings. Anyone know how to fix this or anyone else having this problem? I'm using it with a 9cell battery.
is this possible the chipset and FSB are corect for the proc to work on the board anyone tried this or know if it will work or not ???
View 7 Replies View RelatedImage you're using your notebook for things like 3D CAD, photo and video editing and of course for travelling. For my purpose I think the M2400 with its 14,1" monitor should fit perfectly. The perfect combination between mobility and performance.
Now I have to decide between 2 processors. As you know the P8600 isn't available and even Dell couldn't tell me if it will be available in the next weeks.
As you know the M2400 can only be ordered with the following processors:P8600 (2,4 GHz, 25W, 3MB Cache)T9400 (2,53 GHz, 35W, 6MB Cache)
So which one would you choose and why? The price difference is about 100$ (71,4 EUR).
does anybody know some news abou the new models of precision line from dell? i checked that the last two series were announced after one year and the 4400 was releases in august 2008...
i'd like to buy a m4400 but i don't if it worth is to wait...
Why is a lot of people on ebay selling the m2400 with a quadro fx 380
Dell dont have the 380 on their homepage and i cant find it on nvidias homepage eiter
I'm considering to buy an e6400 or M2400.
I use my laptop about 10-14 hours daily (job and home/university), so it’s very important for me that the laptop will be cool and quiet. The tasks which I do are: programming (C++, PHP...) with Eclipse and other IDEs, UML programs, databases, surfing a lot... I don't use CAD or similar, only a bit a photoshop.
I got the same price for e6400 with P9500 and for m2400 with T9400.
I know that one difference between P9500 and T9400 is the power consumption. There are more differences? What is better for my tasks? T9400 are more powerful?
it is only 51mb.
Specviewperf is probably a better openGL benchmark,particularly for the common openGL software used,but is a rather unreasonable download size compared to this,which does a short openGL test as well as cpu rendering tests.
So if some owners of any of the Precisions can post a score here,it will probably be helpful to prospective owners as to what sort of comparative performance between models and specs there is.
here is mine,specs ...
I bought a M2400 some days ago. I like it for most of the features: eSata, nice docking station, nice LED screen, backlite keyboard, etc.
But I can't live with the noisy fan that is on way too often when the laptop is docked.
I mean, I'm not using some CPU intentive programs here, I'm browsing the web and listening to music and the fan turns on!
Can't believe I scanned through the whole owners threads for the M4400, E6500, M2400, E6400. Can't believe I still have questions, but they are listed below:
Background: I'm a pro photographer and am looking for a road machine that has a decent, accurate display. Won't be used at home, won't be used for games. I have looked closely at the MBP (older matte and new glossy) and could live with the screens but the smug gets to be excessive and it would be demeaning to live in bootcamp or lose the touchpad by loading just windows (no interest in switching to OS X). I have also looked at the sony sr & z 13" and could live with either if I gave up and went size over power and durability.
I have not seen any of the LCD choices for the Latitude or Precision in person unfortunately and have no place to view them, which leads me to this post. What got me here is that I have read that the macbook pro shares LCD panels with the WXGA+ LED screen of the M4400 and E6500. Now there are other choices namely the WUXGAs and possibly problems with the WXGA+ displays on both the 14 and 15 inch dells, or maybe with specific samsung or LG models of either though it isn't really clear which one is superior.
Question 1) Truelife = Glossy? AG= anti glare? Ultrasharp = high res?
2) Is the main functional difference between the latitude and precision the video card choices and possibly a display option for the 15"?
3): I would prefer to go with the smaller 14 inch model but looking at the comments on this forum and the review on notebookcheck.net left me thinking the 14 inch LED screen was not up to the level of the 15inch model. Am I wrong on this?
4) The M4400 thread refers to several tables with Contrast, gamut and brightness data for the 4400 --- does anyone have a link to this data for the M2400, E6400 and/or E6500?
My other questions refer to the M4400 and E6500:
5)Is the Canadian website's ultrasharp UWXGA CCFL display the same as the 2 CCFL display mentioned in the M4400 thread? Anyone know if the RGB LED display is available in Canada?
6) Is the UXWGA CCFL monitor the same on the E6500 as the M4400? Is the UXWGA RGB LED monitor available on the E6500?
7) From the specs banded about is the following true:
WUXGA CCFL -- 75% of ARGB gamut, 350 cd brightness 1:400 contrast MATTE finish
WUXGA RGL LED -- 100% of ARGB gamut 300 CD 1:500 contrast GLOSSY finish
WXGA+ LED 45% of ARGB (or similar) 300CD 1:500 contrast MATTE Finish
8) Is the WXGA+ LED display really equivalent to the MBP lcd quality? Are there still problems?
9) How tiny is the text, icons, etc on the WUXGA screen? At home I have a 22" CRT running at nearly the same resolution and I am worried that I'll have to use the "special" features of windows to read.
10) There was brief allusion to problems profiling the RGB LED screen on the M4400 thread -- I've got the older xrite DTP 94 colorimeter-- will there be problems?
11) For those with the LED RGB WUXGA display --> are there banding problems from the wider gamut and (presumably) still 6-bit display?
12) Finally given all the above I didn't seem to find a consensus on the best fit for a monitor for my purposes. The choices being A) E6400/M2400 with WXGA+ LED, B) E6500/M4400 with WXGA+ LED, C) E6500/M4400 with WUXGA CCFL, and finally D) M4400(E6500?) with WUXGA RGB LED.
has anyone manage to get a 5530 WWAN + GPS card working in a m2400?
I can get the mobile broadband working but i cant get it to turn on the GPS, tried most drivers.... and Controlpoint...
Can the eSATA port be used with regular USB devices? Seems as it doesn't fit correctly.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI have come to grips with the fact that my E6400 (see specs below) has idle temps of around 42 for both CPUs and around 62 for the GPU (while docked).
While these are not dangerous, and while the slow fan speed is very quiet and therefore doesn't bother me, I refuse to accept defeat so easily.
So, I am thinking of replacing the thermal paste and possibly the thermal pad on my E6400. There is at least one person here at the Latitude/Precision sub-forum who did that, with amazing results
I'm getting about 15-20MB/s (transfer speed) transfering files from my Lacie d2 Quadra(eSATA 3 Gbits port) to my M4400 with Vista 32Bit thought eSATA port.
eSATA port has 3 Gbit/s bandwidth, so I wouldn't get about 300-375 MB/s transfering data?
i can't get my xps 435 mt (running vista 64 home premium) to recognise my new seagate back armour 2tb drive via eSATA. The drive works fine with USB connection, but is not recognised via eSATA. In BIOS the drive doesn't appear in the list of drives under eSATA either.
I searched and found a similar post but it was someone with RAID setup and the solution there doesn't work for me. Checking for relevant 435mt updates on the dell site - I can't update intel matrix storage manager r205899, as you need to be set as RAID in the BIOS for it to work. When I install r205900, it installs some files, but nothing happens.
I have looked for driver or firmware updates for my eSATA drive on the seagate site - nothing there either. Can't think of what else to try... Dell support will charge to help me since I'm out of warranty (even though it's highly likely to be an issue with the eSATA since I got my system).
I have a Rosewill ext. enclosure and I cannot get the laptop to recognize the drive unless I reboot the laptop with the drive on.
However I am able to simply plug this drive into my desktop and turn on with no problem recognizing it.
I'm just wondering, does the XPS16 support swappable eSata?
I have recently been debating whether or not to buy this eSata express card for the external HD I'm buying for my m1530:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...D&body=QA#tabs
I was all set until I read about people having problems fitting the cards properly into their m1530s, so now I'm debating whether or not to buy one
In particular pay attention to the port on the bottom. This is an "eSATA" port, correct? Now for the crazy question of mine: Is this eSATA port compatible with a male usb connector? I'm pretty sure it isn't, but would like to confirm before I try and destroy something
View 10 Replies View RelatedIs it possible to connect more than one eSATA device to the external eSATA port?
<wishes that Dell had a user guide for their flagship product>
I just realized that the port on the right side of this laptop that I typically use as USB also doubles as an ESATA port. I have a 1TB external that supports eSATA but didn't come with a cable *sigh*.
Can a normal 5400 RPM 2.5" laptop HDD even reach speeds that make it worthwhile to use eSATA instead of USB? Or am I just better off using the drive over USB and living with the slow speeds?
What is this exactly? I'm planning on buying an external enclosure for my spare 3,5" SATA HDD, and I'd like to get one that uses the eSata interface.
Now I heard these need seperate power supplies sometimes..
Is this reasonable? Please see HDTune screenshot.
View 4 Replies View RelatedIt is possible to make new eSata enter in XPS 1530?
View 10 Replies View RelatedDell Support said this feature is not supported by them however its there feature (What) anyways can some one tell me that has it working on a XPS 1640 how it is set in the BIOS and what else I need to try to get it to work.....
View 10 Replies View RelatedI have a Dell M6400 running Windows 7 64-bit.
I also have an external My Book 500 GB with triple connectivity (Firewire, USB and eSATA).
When I connect this external HD with the eSATA cable on my M6400 while running XP 32-bit it works perfectly.
Attempting to do the same thing while running windows 7 64-bit will typically result in file transfer hanging somewhere in the middle (this also hang windows explorer). I then have to disconnect the eSATA cable to resume windows operation.
The USB mode works fine, but the Firewire seem to have to same issue than the eSATA.
I am wondering if anybody else is having similar issue and / or anybody has any idea(s) as to how to fix this.
I can use the USB, but I frequently have to transfer virtual machine back and forth so I could definitively benefit from the eSATA improve transfer rate.
I run the HD Controller in AHCI mode
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Dell M6400
Intel Core 2 Quad - 2530
4 GB Memory
2 HD (1 Patriot TorqX 128 GB and one Seagate Momentus 320GB)
BIOS: A07
just wondering what the specifications were of the eSATA port on the Studio XPS 1645?
Is it 1.5 or 3.0? also what is the max transfer speed anyone has seen using the eSATA port?
Im looking to buy a Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 2TB External Hard Drive -which can connect via USB, Firewire 400 or 800, or eSata.
Ive chosen this drive since I want to enable the RAID 1 (Mirroring) for automatic backup, which will be priceless for my photos/videos of my children!
If I purchase the drive and also purchase a eSata express card for my Latitude D620, will the transfer speeds be faster then USB2 - or will the fact that the eSata connection is through a express card, rather then being internal, hinder the speed ....