K ... I wanted a cheap'o slug of a laptop to install Solaris on - more on that later - This laptop arrived from Red Tag Computers in record time & the thing was MINT !!! ... didn't even look used. Best part was - it contains a Core2Duo - 2.5ghz - 4gigs of ram & came with a 200gbhd. First order of business was to download & install VirtualBox from Oracle - that went without a hitch - then I installed Solaris 10 in a VM environment - that went without a hitch. I then popped out the 200gbhd & dropped in a Kingston Extreme(which also came from Amazon) & I then attempted to install a clean copy of Solaris - that didn't go so well - not sure why - it's complaining about not being able to contact something on the network - which confuses the heck out of me - cause it installed flawlessly in a VM ... but anyway ... This Dell e6400 is one rocking solid little laptop ... oh ... did I mention it came from Red Tag pre-installed w/Win7_64 Pro (sweet !!!) ... so if anyone is looking for a cheap, solid little laptop ... & your on a tight budget ... I'd HIGHLY recommend picking one up from Red Tag - if your in the market for a solid, cheap, slug of a laptop - you can't go wrong in getting one of these - just remember - these babies came out in 2009 - so don't expect this thing to compare with a i3 or i5 etc - what you get out of the box is a solid little laptop to surf, some SIMPLE word processing etc - don't expect this thing to rock w/gig flop's in speed - it's a SOLID "little" laptop - beat's the other used slugs out there from misc manufactures ... mine even came with the extended battery !!! ... Red Tag really, really, really out did themselves on this deal. As mentioned, I'd highly recommend both this little beast & Red Tag. Thanks. Read more
I've just sent the last hour trying to see some redeeming quality about this prehistoric piece of junk. Remember back in the day when you had a desktop computer that was just a hair fancier than Dial-up? That's this laptop but even WORSE. The first issue I encountered was that it was dead on arrival. No big deal, I figured. I plugged it in and gave it time to charge. Turns out, IT DOESN'T CHARGE. It NEEDS to be plugged into the AC adapter just to function! It honestly acts like a desktop computer that needs to be plugged in all the time! Unplug it, and it immediately shuts off. And before you ask, yes, it DOES have a battery in it. I made sure to check. The next problem is the sound. Now, I know the speakers work because it plays a loud sound upon startup. However, once the laptop is booted, you hear...NOTHING! The device simply gives an error message saying there is no audio hardware. Now, the biggest issue is that this laptop is living in the Stone Age. It runs on WINDOWS XP!! I thought, "okay, not what I was promised, but I can update it". HA! If only! This particular kind of Windows XP does not support wifi. I spent the better part of an hour trying to get it to connect to the internet. It won't even try to locate wifi networks! So, updating this OS is impossible unless I waste money buying a Windows 10 disk. So, what does that leave me with? A computer that can't even turn on if it is not plugged into the wall. A computer with no sound, so I can't even play games or watch DVDs on it. It can't connect to the internet, so I can't update it from this outdated, unsupported operating system AND I can't download any other programs (making the camera useless), leaving me with only the default programs (half of which require sound and/or internet)! Not to mention that the mousepad is awful, making every second of agony spent trying to use this laptop last twice as long. For such a cheap price, I wasn't expecting the best quality. I was prepared to have it stop working in a few months' time. But this isn't even poor quality. It's NO quality. There is nothing I can do on here. I needed an emergency laptop after my last one suddenly quit. After days of anticipation, this is one of the worst things I could have received. Awful, awful, awful! Read more
The E6400 I ordered from Blair Technology was listed "Used - Like New". The unit I received was refurbished (according to the tag on the underside) and had a few nicks on the speaker grilles (on either side of the keyboard) that were easily covered up with a Sharpie. There was also a 2"x2" L-shaped smudge inside the screen that disappeared completely when the backlight came on. I rate these as minor flaws considering the price. I immediately installed a Crucial 250GB SSD and 4 GB of Crucial RAM (the E6400 will take 8GB but that seemed like overkill) and was impressed at how fast this seven-year-old laptop still is. I'm not a gamer but I watch streaming sports video from MLB.TV and ESPN and the E6400 handles this like a champ. I also really appreciate having a real keyboard again, instead of the chicklet type that seems to come on most inexpensive laptops. My unit came with a DVD drive, a nice surprise since I was expecting it to come with just a CD drive. A novelty with this laptop that some may appreciate is the number of peripheral formats it supports. If you have any PCMCIA or ExpressCards lying around you can use them again with the E6400. There's also Firewire (IEEE 1394a) in addition to USB 2.0. Another small problem cropped up with the power supply that came with the unit. When running the laptop plugged in my internet connection practically stopped. Turns out the power supply was picking up interference from my new Powerline (internet via electrical wire) network. Swapping the provided PS with an old Dell supply cleared up the problem instantly. The one they give you works OK in most situations but appears to be poorly shielded. All things considered I'm happy with this purchase. Buying refurbished goods is always an adventure, but if you're willing to upgrade and do a little troubleshooting you can have a very serviceable laptop with a real keyboard, that's still quite fast for it's age. Read more
