Dell Latitude E6400, E6500 suffering major performance issues?

Just saw dell's response to this issue posted on their community blog: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...009/12/02/dell-on-laptops-and-throttling.aspx

This is turning out to be a case study on how NOT to conduct damage control. Dell's acknowledgment that there is a problem was a nice first step (albeit, way too late). Now Dell needs to clearly and continuously communicate with owners of said problematic systems what they are doing to resolve the issue. Leaving customers in the lurch is guaranteed to bring monstrous volumes of negative posts/press, exactly what we see unfolding before before us now. Dell, this is not your first rodeo...fire some people, hire some people, issue a recall, for crying out loud do something. Incompetence at this scale is absolutely inexcusable!

THIS MAY BE A POWER SUPPLY ISSUE. I have a Dell E6500 with slow 2D, 3D video problems and the Intel card. I tried several distributions and versions of Linux, but couldn't resolve the performance problems. After hearing about Throttlegate, and almost by accident, I discovered that using a power supply with 4 amps or greater solved my performance problems. Here is a short experiment and results that shows this was a power issue, at least for me:

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rfink1/e6500.html

i have had a dell latitude e6400 for 8 months running vista business. don't do much cd/dvd burning but wanted to burn some pictures a month ago. it didn't work. i got various errors but neither vista nor roxio would burn a cd. reading cd's was no problem, i just couldn't write to one. fortunately, i bought the 3 year "gold tech support" warranty. i'll condense this... i have spent 18 hours on the phone with 5 different "gold support" techs, have put in a new cd drive, reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled vista. still couldn't burn a cd. dell finally agreed to replace the entire computer, but would not upgrade me to windows 7. i got the new computer -- and, big surprise, it wouldn't burn a cd either. dell wanted to send out a new cd drive. i told them ok but send someone out to install it - i had no more time for this. the dell tech came out and put it in, and it still didn't work. she talked to her support people who SAID THAT THERE ARE KNOWN ISSUES WITH VISTA BEING UNABLE TO BURN A CD ON A LATITUDE!!! dell is now replacing the computer AGAIN, this time upgrading it to windows 7. am i to believe that 5 different gold support techs -- who specialize in latitudes -- didn't know this?? or were they all stonewalling me. i won't even mention the 2 times where vista starting asking for the product serial number and then wouldn't take it. the only fix for this is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows! i will figure out how to make a mac work in my business!

Sorry, I just wanted to say that we have all DELL Hardware here and the DELL Gold Support is excellent. can not fault the support, we were with HP before moving to DELL, if you want to talk about getting bad support, deal with Dell.

It's a big problem for Dell... Maybe they have to replace those products that have a bad performance...

Had the e6400 laptop for almost a year now. Had to purchase it as part of nursing school program ($1500) btw...Anyhow the problems pretty much started several months after owning this laptop. It started out with very laggy and slowed operation responses and skipping sounds to the sound shutting down all together. Apparently everyone in the class also have this sound problem...tech support? right....Not surprised here that Dell is failing to step up to the plate....

Got a Dell Latitude E6400 with an intermittent red hue on the LCD.
Changed motherboard and LCD.
Any answers?

If I've caught the basic drift of this thread, Dell's implementation of energy saving software is faulty. I truly sympathize, since I refuse to even install energy saving software in desktops. Methinks you get a minimally lower electric bill, but with a computer that really isn't ready, willing, or able, until the mood strikes. Oh, you can keep those "green" HDDs too.

Dell has taken a page out of all great computer companies that have then failed. Like HP, Compaq, and Acer, now dell has decided to put quality by the wayside, and build a crummy, unreliable system, in hopes it's brand name will make sells and Dell can make big profits by cutting around the corners. Unfortunately like the other computer companies found out, Dell is realizing, computer users know when a computer is crummy. We have fallen for unreliable systems before, and now we know we can't trust a Dell. My 5 year old computer from IBM is working better than this Latittude/E6500. Hope your profits are great, Dell!!! I will never buy a Dell. Time for an up and coming computer firm to grab market share from Dell. Michael Dell, you were smart, now your just greedy.

Do make a long story short bought a lattitude e6410 had it 6 weeks hd went in June. Dell sent new hd drive. installed. This happen again about six weeks later and then again six weeks after that. I spoke to support manager after third time and convinced them to replace computer. That was in middle of September. It's now middle of November and the hd just went. I can really complain about support but the product sucks. I have to go call dell now...

My Dell Latitude E6500 works well but has one very annoying problem. The screen brightness often fades in and out. This happens regardless of whether it is running on AC or DC or if it is connected to an external monitor. Has anyone had this problem?

I've owned a Dell E6500 Business Performance for over a year. The "Performance" model has a beefed up processor and more RAM, (and I think I better video card) as well as a larger hard drive with a faster RPM, which should all mean better performance. (Hence PERFORMANCE).

As far as performance goes, it performs like garbage. It was outrageously expensive and is easily outperformed by machines that cost half as much. It chugs and strains when you're not even doing very much, so forget doing anything intensive without trying to optimize your programs. And why do I have to run windows diagnostics to turn wireless internet on EVERY TIME I want to connect?

Well, suffice to say, thanks to this purchase, I will never again buy a Dell laptop, and may never purchase a Dell desktop either, despite having two Dell desktops that have worked quite well for some time. I simply can't risk making the same mistake twice, not with what they charged me for this thing. I sit around praying for some fatal issue so that I might have the slightest chance of throwing it back to Dell and getting my damn money back.

We have hundreds of these and havent had any problems and I have only experience great customer service...could I could just be lucky. It is wrong to censor/ban people for genuine issues, maybe there is a size restriction on individual posts...still wrong. Im in the UK and our hardware is shipped from Ireland not China. *though the part are probabaly from there. lol

I have a 6500 and it has broken many times. DELL is HORRIBLE.

Bought my son as required at expensive college a 6400 laptop. Works for 2-3 months, we had to reinstall op system. Slow to hang up for hours. Have spent hundreds of dollars trying to keep this POS alive. 20-30 hours on the phone. I will never deal with Dell again. This is clearly a known issue that they are ignoring. The entire Quinnipiac student body will confirm this. Worst laptop ever created.