This blog has, IMO, some great resources. Unfortunately, some of those resources are becoming less relevant. I'm still blogging, learning tech and helping others...please find me at my new home on http://www.jameschambers.com/.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dell Inspiron 9400 versus Windows 7 64bit

Long story short, Windows 7 won.

The laptop has an ATI Mobile Radion x1400 graphics card for which AMD won’t provide support.  I really like NVidia’s unified driver architecture for this reason.  It seems to me that I have never had a problem finding a driver for an NVidia card on any OS because they always support the card – even in a minimalistic fashion – with their drivers.

AMD leaves their mobile chipset support up to the hardware vendor, and won’t even provide a stock driver.

I highly doubt, after 2.5 years and two new operating systems, that Dell is actually going to post a driver for a card that only came in a $1500 laptop if you paid $300 to upgrade.

I’m still going to try out the 32 bit version and see how she flies.  No point in making the switch if I can’t use my graphics card (or the 17” 1900x1200 LCD) that came with the ‘puter.

Of interest: I recently pitted a Dell Zino against Mac Mini for purchase evaluation and also predicted that Apple will cause the end of the world.

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17 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 24, 2009 at 2:54 AM

    The Core Duo chips are dual core CPUs with 2 MB of L2 Cache. It is a 32-bit architecture. The Core Duo processors: T2700, T2600, T2500, T24xx, T23xx, T22xx, T2050, L2500, L2400, L2300 (L=Low voltage), U2500, U2400 (U=Ultra low voltage). All have 2 MB of L2 Cache. FSB is either 533 MHz or 667 MHz and clock speeds range from 1.06 GHz (for the U2400) to 2.33 GHz. I have a T2700 in an Inspiron 9400. I run 4GB memory (Windows-7 sees 3.4GB) and it's durn fast.

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  2. ChipOneMay 1, 2009 at 1:58 PM

    Yeah, I'm going to try out a crucial 4gb kit and see if it will jive. I'm running A09 for BIOS, so I think it should fly with the 3.4 or so...

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  3. Tim RobertsSeptember 17, 2009 at 12:07 AM

    You said "Windows 7 won". Does that mean you DID get Win 7 64 installed on your I9400 or not? I'm considering trying that on mine, with the T7200 processor (Core 2 Duo), which does have EM64T support.

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  4. ChipOneSeptember 21, 2009 at 2:13 PM

    Hi Tim,

    I did get Win 7 64 beta running, but didn't have much luck with the video card, so I was locked in at something like 1024x768. With Win 7 32 (RTM) running I get the native resolution on the screen and she runs GREAT.

    Since I'm a developer, and my primary workspace is Visual Studio, and since that only comes in 32bit flavour, I'm sticking to the 32bit OS right now.

    Oh, and BTW, you'll love the sleep/wake up times of Win 7. Ridiculous! From post-check to desktop in less than 6 seconds.

    Cheers,
    -James

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  5. ThomasOctober 21, 2009 at 10:23 AM

    didn't you guys have a choice of a nvidia card when you bought the laptop, because i have the geforce go 7950

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  6. ChipOneOctober 23, 2009 at 10:00 AM

    Hey Thomas,

    I imagine I did have the choice back then, but I don't know what my motivations would have been for that ATI (I think I was working on a touch-screen kiosk project and all our kiosks were on the same or a similar ATI chipset).

    But...that was a couple lifetimes ago in compu-speak.

    I've got Win7 running in 32 bit mode on that laptop now it and works a treat. The video driver is stable and I get full resolution, so I'm just going to ride this laptop into the ground running 32bit apps and OS.

    Cheers,
    -James

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  7. AnonymousOctober 28, 2009 at 4:27 PM

    Hi, do you have the sound play back problems with your machine?
    cheers
    Scott

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  8. ChipOneOctober 29, 2009 at 3:49 PM

    No, in fact, I had always had problems with the on-board audio (and had to download the drivers directly from Dell each time I did) but Windows 7 actually picked up the sound card fine and I didn't run into any issues.

    What are your sound card specs/brand/etc?

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  9. UnknownNovember 5, 2009 at 2:18 PM

    I am running Windows 7 64-bit on my e1705, with only one complication, I cannot find the driver for the memory card reader.

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  10. ChipOneNovember 5, 2009 at 4:46 PM

    You know, my digital camera has Compact Flash and so I don't typically use the built-in reader. But my son has a little Sony digital camera and he's downloaded pics to his account in Windows 7 (he likes making the panoramic photos) so I'll see if he's using my external reader or the on-board. I haven't installed anything extra. From Dell's site, are you running the latest BIOS etc? I'm not even sure how deeply integrated the reader is (like if it picks up as a USB internal device or something) so there many not be drivers to install.

    I'll have a deeper look tonight or over the weekend.

    Cheers,
    -james

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  11. AnonymousNovember 15, 2009 at 3:59 PM

    Hello there,

    I have an Inspiron 9400, too. After installing Win7 it crashes with BSoD when booting after loading "classpnp.sys". Anybody a clue what the problem is?

    Cheers,

    Arist

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  12. ChipOneNovember 15, 2009 at 10:18 PM

    Arist,

    I have read that there are ACHI incompatibility issues with some mobo/ATI video card combinations. Can you disable ACHI in the bios?

    Cheers,
    -jc

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  13. WaveFormerNovember 16, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    Hello JC,

    Unfortunately not, I can't disable ACHI in the BIOS. I already tried replacing CLASSPNP.SYS with a Windows XP version and also renamed PCMCIA.SYS (read these hints somewhere else) - did not help at all, still the same problem.

    Cheers

    Arist

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  14. AnonymousDecember 5, 2009 at 2:00 PM

    For the memory card reader and the X1400 compatibility issue download the Vista 64 bit Ricoh driver pack. The ATI card will then be recognized as will the memory card reader. This is true for Win 7 beta, rc, and rtm.

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  15. AnonymousDecember 5, 2009 at 2:02 PM

    A Core 2 Duo T7200 is an easy swap for any of the T2xxx 32 bit processors and then allows full 64bit support (within the limits of the Dell bios).

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  16. AnonymousDecember 10, 2009 at 4:24 AM

    Another options is to modify the catalyst9.8 64bit desktop driver from amd with mobility modder (google it).

    cheers
    gstanghe

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  17. AnonymousJune 24, 2011 at 11:40 PM

    i got Dell Inspiron 9400/MP061 with Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 1.83 Ghz and running windows 7 ultimate 32-bit operating system and its 64-bit capable,first time installing windows 7 on inspiron 9400 not all driver has been installed,i got ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 on my MP061 but i got to install the driver manually with windows update.easy to say,after installing windows 7 on Dell Inspiron 9400/MP061,just run windows update,then you can get all the driver you need on your MP061
    dont worry,ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 supports windows aero if you install the driver with windows update :)

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