We’re Dell fans, especially latitude fans. Super stable hardware. We recently did a technology upgrade in our department and switched from the D-Series Latitudes to the e-Series. We have a handful of e6500′s, a few 6400′s and a couple e4300′s.
For the most part this 1st generation of laptops has gone well. Not perfect, but pretty good. The e64/6500′s have seen a few BIOS upgrades that have worked out most of the issues. The fingerprint reader/software combination (Dell Control Point) is still crap though. Very unreliable. Especially when compared the Wave fingerprint software that came bundled with an XPS that I own.
Outside of that they have been pretty good.
The e4300, not so much.
This little laptop is super sweet. Nice small, fast, good battery life. But we’re experiencing some hard hangs/freezes. We’ve tried multiple flavors of OS’s, multiple driver combinations, all with little success. We’ve also replaced the motherboard in one unit. The problem persists.
I realize these are relatively new, but it amazes us that a google search for this issue returns nada. Both laptops behave the same, random hard lock-ups.
It seems sleep/video/audio related, and no we can’t make it happen but it’s enough to send them back for the time being.
We’re working with our Dell rep and hopefully someone from the Brand Team to get to a resolution. We really want them to work and be stable. There isn’t another laptop out there that $ for $, feature for feature meets the need.
So if you’ve experienced similar issues I’m interested in hearing from you.
Post a comment and we’ll get in touch.
UPDATE
On Friday the 19th I had a conversation with a Latitude Brand Manager. He assured me that this problem is well known, especially with e4300′s running Vista. A BIOS updated to address this specific freezing issue is in the works and slated to be released on the 29th.
We’re going to hang tight until then. If this is known inside Dell, and being worked on. The fact that none fo the Tier 2/Tier 3 Support people had any clue is somewhat bothersome. We’ll report back if the fix does what it’s supposed to.
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Bios A06 has just been posted. we have a few machines upgraded. will let you know if it helps…
Dan
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Bios A06 is not flagged as Urgent, so I doubt it will address the issue we are all having. I’m going to install it none the less and give it a go.
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I can confirm that Bios A06 doesn’t fix this the lock ups.
Installed A06, re-enabled multi core, viewed one stinking YouTube Video and it hung in the middle.
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I confirm that A06 does not fix the problem. Motherbord substitution is the only alternative.
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Just installed A06 and still have the problem. Turned off SpeedStep and Multicore and the system runs almost perfectly. Has any one tried older bios versions? Any better for this problem?
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Greg, none of the previous BIOS’s work any better than A05/A06…
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I also confirm that A06 does not fix the problem. But why is it that motherboard substitution solves the problem, if the motherboard is the same one? I don’t get it..
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Vassilis… The motherboard has some changes, I don’t know what they are (yet). I somewhat suspect a bad processor and/or chipset. I don’t think we’ll know until Dell comes clean on the issue.
If I get an opportunity to speak with the brand manager again I’ll certainly ask him.
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OK. The opinion of my Dell technical support is that there is a possibility of a bad communication between motherboard and CPU. They will substitute my CPU first, and if the problem persists, they will proceed with the motherboard. Let’s see, I will post any news that I;ll get
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Two weeks testing e4300 on ubuntu and no locks while playing videos. This may be some odd problem that also involves Vista. Has anybody experienced locks with XP?
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I have an e4300. Shipped with XP Pro installed. Have had issues with ripping “larger” audio CDs and also playing DVDs. System would hang when ripping the later tracks, and would also freeze half-way into a DVD.
Several phone calls to Dell tech support and no one had a clue. Did a clean install of Vista to see if that helped (against my better judgment). Now I have the Vista issues mentioned above as well as the same problem with the optical drive. Finally, tech support said it is now a “known problem” and they are working on it. I only wish I hadn’t wiped the drive and installed Vista. -
Our new/fixed replacement what ever, motherboards will be here tomorrow. I’ll report back on if they actually fix anything. Looking forward to it.
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Received my ‘fixed’ laptop from Dell last week, so far so good. They replaced the motherboard. Haven’t had any freeze issues since.
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Argh… Our motherboards are back ordered until the 10th.
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I received a replacement with the new motherboard earlier this week. I was told that Latitude engineers had determined that the capacitors used on the original motherboards were the problem.
I have not experienced the lock up issue so far with the replacement.
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just received my e4300. Its been on order since beginning of december and Dell have studiously been unable to admit to a problem all this time. I’ll be running XP pro and if I see the lockup problems will report. Anyone seen the issue with newer deliveries? I’m loth to spend effort loading everything if I have to start playing with new motherboards…. love latitudes but worried about this one…
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Dell stopped out today and installed the new motherboard. Complete with BIOS A05. It is different enough that there were additional drivers to install. This mobo has the AMT goodness that the other one didn’t have.
So far so good. It passed my YouTube test which would freeze the previous version. The tech that stopped out to install it was oblivious to any of the issues but that’s not unusual.
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We’ve been having freezing issues with our Latitude E4300 also (WinXP). We’ve had the tech in the replace the motherboard, RAM, etc. But freezing kept happening. Then out of nowhere the system no longer recognized that the harddrive was present. Dell sent out a replacement harddrive which didn’t resolve the issue. So after some arguing on the phone Dell agreed to replace the unit. We’ve received our new unit and within 24 hours it begins freezing. We’re about ready to give up on this unit at this point and ask for a refund. Given what I’m reading here it sounds like they have a major issue with the model.
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My e4300 is better, doesn’t freeze as it did previous to the motherboard swap. But now it doesn’t sleep or wake up properly.
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Unfortunately, we experience the same freezing issues with both of our E4300 machines. I concur, hardware is the most likely, as there appear to be zero issues in the Event Viewer.
Both were pre-installed with XP Pro.
Both have been updated to latest BIOS.
One has been updated to all latest drivers & firmware, the other mostly.Nothing I’ve tried seems to work, though I have yet to try the suggested disabling of SpeedStep & Multicore. Obviously that’s just a poor workaround anyway, so if anyone has tricks up their sleeves for skipping Tech Support BS/time and just getting it dealt with, please share.
Oh FYI,
First unit was ordered late Nov, received in early Dec. (couple weeks)
Second unit was ordered mid Dec, received mid Feb. (couple months!) -
The issue is still being worked on – A06 was not relased to resolve this problem. There’s a work around that resolves the issue, but it will decrease the performance of the system. The issue is currently being worked on to resolve the issue via a BIOS update, but it has not yet been released (A06 is the current version).
The work around is to disable Multi-core support in the BIOS:
Turn on system > Tap F2 at the Dell Screen > Go to Performance > Uncheck the multi-core support box > hit apply > hit escape.
As stated, this will resolve the issue, but the system will likely run noticeably slow.
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Here’s where I am now. The Motherboard (now with AMT) does fix my freezing issue. That’s good. But now when ever it sleeps and wakes up:
1) There’s a 50/50 chance my wireless will not work.
2) The Bluetooth radio goes tit’s up with a message that some part of the software has stopped functioning. -
Yeah if you have a fixed e4300, put that puppy to sleep overnight wake it up and let me know if you can get your wireless to work without a reboot.
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I received my e4300 yesterday afternoon and I have been playing with it most of the time since then. I have the 2.4Ghz processor with 64Gb Ultra SSD and 4Gb RAM. Multi-core support and speed step are both set to on in BIOS. I have not encountered any freezing issues and I have not had any troubles with the computer coming back from hibernate or sleep (although I have tried to reproduce such problems).
I have 30 days to return for refund, so I will be watching very carefully during the next few weeks to see if any of these probems develop.
I am very impressed with the e4300. The build quality appears good. The screen is good, The physical layout of keyboard, buttons and connections is very good. The backlit keyboard is very good. Perfomance with my top of the line setup is very good. With the Ultra SSD, XP SP3 takes about 35 seconds to load and programs are virtually instant on.
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Datapoohbah, I have the same issue with getting the wireless to work on my e4300 after waking it up from a sleep mode. Actually, it is all networking. I typically also get a “Host Process for Windows Services stopped working and was closed”, although this does not always pair up with the wireless issue.
I have found that the issue is not the connection, but rather getting an IP address. Sometimes turning wireless on/off will help, and a few times running the suggested “net start rpcss” (for the above mentioned error) will resolve things. Last night I looked into this a bit further and discovered that the DHCP Client service was not started. A “net start dhcp” got me up and running right away. That is only a workaround though as the error message and stopped DHCP Client should not be happening in the first place. I noticed a new “Dell System Software”, so am loading that up now.
I have been watching this blog for progress on this issue – hopefully this info will help others with the problem and lead us towards a resolution. I have not yet called Dell support, and my Dell sales rep says my laptop shipped with the “good” batch of motherboards after they fixed their initial problems. I have had a few freezes and blue screens, but struck them up to older versions of the Dell ControlPoint software (specifically the Connection Manager – which is junk and I blamed most of the freezes on – took that off)
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Hi there,
I cam accross this thread today, and as I saw that it seems to be a known issue at Dell that the E-4300 freezes, I have conatcted Dell Germn today. The guy at the service hotline did not really knew about the problem and recommeded me to update the Grphic-Cards driver as well as the Audio driver. First I though, OK same shit as always but then I followed his recommendation. Finally, the new graphic cards driver 7.15.10.1637, A03 seems to be the solution. After installation, I am listening to music and have videos running parallel to gibe the system an overkill. No hangs or freezes, yet.
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By the way, you should also install the new audio driver. Before my sound was quite itchy at higher vilumes. Now the sound is fine.
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While the new motherboard has fixed the freezing. It now, still doesn’t sleep properly.
I have updated everything, Dell Control point, sound, vid, bios, etc, etc. It works right about 1/3 the time.
One third of the time, I’ll close the lid, it will act like it’s sleeping (pulsing blue power light) but it will continue to do something, the fan still runs, and it still generates heat. In fact that’s normally how I notice it, I pull it out of my back pack and it’s hotter than hell. When it’s in the state, it’s not fully sleeping but it won’t wake up either, forcing a hard power off with the OFF button.
The other 1/3 of the time it will sleep but can’t be woken up. Just pulsing blue power button.
I’m thinking about reinstalling the OS (Vista 32bit) and see if that has any affect.
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Hi I just bought one of those E4300 laptop and I have been experiencing random freezes or hangs. I tested 3 linux distributions and the problem persists. Tomorrow a tech of dell is going to come to my office to check this problem and actually replace the mobo because of warming problem. I will let you know about the conversation with the tech.
I have to say that I am very very happy with this laptop in spite of the problem, it is small but powerful and of course with linux runs better.
Another very interesting page about this is :
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19245498.aspx?PageIndex=1 -
Has anyone else tryed the “graphic cards driver 7.15.10.1637, A03″?
Any luck?
My 4300 is freezing too. The most up to date xp video driver in the dell site is the 6.xxxxx.
I wold like to try the 7.15 for vista 32 in my xp…lets see how it goes…
the pc works fine with multy cpu and speedstep disabled, but it looses a bit of power -
Luis, if your stuff is locking up (hanging/freezing) it’s not a driver issue. It’s a logic board issue and Dell will fix that for you, just for asking.
Then you get a machine that only sleeps and wakes properly 50% of the time but that’s still better than the freezes IMHO.
In retrospect I should have bought a Sony Z…. (there I said it).
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XP lets me instal the 7.xxxx vista driver, but then it doens t work properly..rollback.. it wold be a nice try as the computer usualy doesn t lock by intensive cpu stress, but when playing videos. It made sense its something with the graphics graphics comunication..but if it was that simple i gess every one
The problem is i bought my 4300 in th internet with only 3months waranty that are gonne (really thought it was just a driver/windows problem)..
At least anyone knows thechnicaly whats the problem? Bad capacitors in the bord, etc..? Just for curiosity I would like to know whats wrong with the bord/pc
Pc is usable with speedstep disabled and with all the driver update solved the bad sound problem (even with headphones)… many people complaining too… Its not only updating the sound driver, theres a dell SRS sound enhancer that works very well and sound is MUCH better.
Cheers
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I have a Dell Latitude E4300 XP Pro which was ordered in November 2008 and delivered to me around December. There is 3 & 5 years garanties for it. Now, I am experiencing several issues:
1. Very Noisy HD _ from time to time, not regularly.
2. PC ringing from time to time with no reasons
3. Locking up after 10 – 15 mn of no use and not allowing access except after reboot using power button.
4. Dell OEM power supply is not recognised meaning battery is not recharged.
5. Error log is not collecting all issues.
6. Standby / hibernate functions dont work. PC locks up.
7. Boot and S/D are very slow.
8. Don’t understand the reason for having the Dell Control Point software. What is it for ? Is it functioning ?
9. When lid is put down, then lifted up after 10 minutes or so it shows “preparing to standby” but it does not and the HD remains active. There is no way to re-open the session either.I think that this PC has many flaws vs my old Dell Latitude L400 Win 2000 Pro purchased in 2001. Thus far I am dissapointed. If the industry I work in was allowing Apple Mac I would have taken a Mac rather than a Dell. My take is that such flaws are not acceptable on a new machine.
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I have an E4300. Machine locked up while running Dell Control Point Software. After that lockup, the machine would lock up on boot. I disabled the Wireless Card in the BIOS and the machine worked great after that. The “new” replacement machine just arrived and now this machine appears to have a bad DVD drive.
Love the computer, but don’t like the issues that accompany it.Great battery life, nice size screen and keyboard, track pointer works well. Love the CAC reader and Memory Card Reader slot.
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best OS so far with this machine is Win 7 beta build 7127 x64 (google + torrent), which works quite flawlessly, without freeze or lockout, and sleep is 100% fine too. No Dell software is allopwed
Vista was a right pig by comparison.
I have BIOS A06 and disabled CPU2 until Dell replaces with new MB to eliminate hangups due to chipset design fault.
Will report back on progress after. Yodels!
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I’ve been using this E 4300( Coreduo Su9300, RAM 4GB) for 2 months. Everything is excellent except the sound of hard disk is unnecessarily loud. I installed the Window 7 RC and it works really flawlessly. I tried to installed Win XP SP2 before but unsuccessful as the hard disk is SATA disk. On overall, i am satisfied with it( batteries, screen resolution, speed and especially business-styled design)
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The company I work for purchased around 300 of these pieces of junk. From day 1 they would freeze, hangup and were very unreliable. Dell would not admit to the problem, until around 50% of them were doing this. They reluctantly replaced the motherboards, but were using “refurbished” boards, they also replaced all of the hard drives that were making the annoying and “Dell quote: Oh, that is normal” sound. So after they were all rounded up and replaced, some of our staff started experiencing a new fault, The hinge system on the E4300 and E6500 is the most pathetic and poor design ever. Seems Dell must be feeling the pince of competition if they are cutting costs like this. Around 15 of the hinged snapped the metal on the screen. When the screen is in full dos mode or when booting up, gently rock the screen backwards and forwards and you will see the lcd flex, just like when you press on an lcd screen.
So Dell then started to replace the screens, they took my laptop away for “analysis”, and replaced my laptop with a brand new one. Must admit, Dell customer service was quite good in there correspondance.
2 days later, laptop froze and our IT department gave me a E6500 to test. 1 week later, when simply using a search engine, CPU is at 100%
Bottom line, DO NOT purchase these laptops, They are complete rubbish! -
My Dell E4300 hinges tore off the the metal part of the screen. The Dell tech support technician came to replace them, but “did not have the correct parts”. He suggested that the whole screen needed to be replaced at a cost of $700. … and didn’t even re-attach the screen afterwards. The telephone jail support system that results for this is not worth the time.
If you are a road warrior, I suggest against purchasing the E4300 for business use as you don’t want the screen to break off next time you are working on the plane and the person in front of you reclines for a little extra leg-room.
Buyer Beware!!
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Look what happend to my screen.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5113543&postcount=186
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I came very close to buying on of these E4300 machines. I didn’t get the discount I expected (it is available in the USA only) and had time to look around on the WWW. I found this website (easily in Google) and further found similar comments on Dell’s own comment section for the E4300.
I opted for a Toshiba Portege R600 11Q instead, this is much more like my old and trusty Latitude X300 which, after 6 years, needs to be replaced.
Sorry, I cannot share my own experiences with the Dell E4300.
I have been loyal to Dell for 10 years but decided to give Toshiba a go the next couple of years.
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I have an E4300 with AMT and I’m running BIOS A07. I’m running XP 32-bit with SP3. My laptop crashes regularly when it’s in the dock but it never crashes out of the dock. When it crashes it does the audio stutter until I power it off.
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Jules,
If your BIOS is that old I’d say you have a bum laptop… I’d call Dell and get it replaced.
-Just Sayin.
Even so I still have issues after sleeping now and then, where my wireless quits working. Waiting/holding out for the pending release of Windows 7 it was better when I last tested the RC version. I have no desire to run Linux on this laptop.
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Yo Datapoohbah
Dont know if you still have the problem, i had it to saw this
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19250827/19433706.aspxrolling back the driver of the webcam did the trick for me
give it a shotPeace
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Pingback from Smooth J's Blog » New laptop? on August 31, 2009 at 12:09 am
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I bought my E4300 refurbished 07/09 SP9400 have have exactly the same problem (audio stuttering, freezing especially when streaming youtube/hulu). I’ve had a heck of a time with tech support. All diagnostics were normal. Sent it into the depot and found no hardware problem but did replace the hard-drive.
I found out disabling the multi-processor support helps. Just installed the new bios A09. Seems good so far for the last 2 hours streaming video. Keeping my fingers crossed.
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James, I hate to say this…
But if you have to disable multi-core support you have a bum motherboard or processor or combination of the two.
Since the two we have have been swapped out they’ve been pretty stable.
There are still a few ‘sleep/wake’ issues concerning wireless and Bluetooth but other than that pretty rock solid.
I wouldn’t stop hounding them until they replace it.
Tip of the day: ALWAYS get the on site service, it just doesn’t cost that much more, and you don’t have to give up your laptop for days at a time.
-DP
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After I installed the new BIOS, I re-enabled the multi-core support. No problems yet. Goes on standy and hibernates without any problems.
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Spoke to soon. Froze up on me (youtube). Lasted a good 5 hours though. Dell tech support has been very reluctant to change any parts on my machine because all their diagnostics have been normal. What can I say to have them admit that this is a known issue and either the motherboard or processor needs to be changed.
I’m afraid to send it into the depot to have it come back to me with nothing done, except a reformatted HD.
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Hate to tell you guys this but we have 20 E6400s and 4 E4300s. I know what causes the freezing and have changed this since….It’s the Sata operation mode!!!!
Not kidding, you need to set the operation mode to AHCI and re-install Vista/Win7 with the correct Intel drivers. All your momentary mouse freezes, system hangs, and blue screens will go away. The Intel IRRT Mode is totally horrific. And yes I KNOW that is the mode set by default from the factory. It has major issues. Change to AHCI and about 95% of your problems will dissappear overnight.
“You’re welcome”
-Josh
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Maybe… My broke ass 4300 was in AHCI mode when it was broken. (until the mobo switch).
and yeah, this is a reinstall, you can’t make this change on the fly, which kind of sucks.
In fact if you buy or use the external SATA you have to be in AHCI mode or it is completely broken.
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