Shandy's Blog

Where Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy rants and rambles on as the fancy takes him

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My name is Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy.

I am currently living and working in the UK within the garment industry as an IT specialist. This blog contains mainly IT related issues.

I was a Microsoft VB MVP for a couple of years (Apr 2004-Mar 2006) and was a vbCityLeader between April 2003 and June 2007.

If you are looking for my Sri Lanka or Morocco experiences check out Shandy's Sri Lanka Blog or Shandy's Morocco Blog. My personal (Non IT) blog is now at Shandy's Place

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A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620

At work, after just over 3 years of using an Inspiron 8500 laptop I have replaced it with a Latitude D620. Complete with a bluetooth keyboard, mouse, docking station and 19" flat screen monitor it is a huge improvement.

So far the only fault I can find with the system is that if the laptop screen is raised when connected to the docking station the monitor loses the picture and I haven't found a reliable method of getting the picture back to the monitor without rebooting the PC.

One minor irritation with the laptop setup was that it came with Google Desktop Search and Google Toolbar pre-installed. I really dislike non-essential software being pre-installed. Suffice to say the Google Desktop Search was immediately uninstalled. I did leave the Google Toolbar installed as I do find it useful (if only for the spell checker).

posted on Thursday, February 15, 2007 1:47 PM

Feedback

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 2/20/2007 9:10 PM Dell Customer Advocate
Hello Shandy,

My name is Richard; I work for Dell here in Round Rock, Texas. I read your blog that talked about switching the external monitor back on after the portable monitor has been lifted up (while in a docking station). Try the FN+F8 key function. This key combination will switch between the two displays or will set both displays on. This should work for you. I will check back here to find out if that did the trick for you.

Regards,
Richard B
Dell Customer Advocate Associate

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 2/26/2007 4:15 PM joy
It's a good think that I was able this entry. I'm hunting for a new laptop and the Latitude D620 made it to my shortlist. Did it come with Vista pre-installed already? I originally thought of buying a unit that has XP in it instead of the new Microsoft OS. However, a friend of mine pointed me to http://www.radarsync.com/vista for my Vista driver needs. That certainly removed my apprehensions on the new OS.

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 2/26/2007 4:23 PM Shandy
Richard,
The Fn F8 key function doesn't seem to work. The best method I have found for returning display to the monitor is to press the power button on the docking station. If nothing happens after a short while I press it again and eventually the display does return to the monitor.

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 2/26/2007 4:25 PM Shandy
My laptop came with XP pre-installed, not Vista.

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 2/28/2007 6:45 PM Richard B
Shandy,

I regret that this is not a simple fix. Have you tried deleting the docking profiles and recreating them? Remove the system from the dock, and power up. Go to the hardware profiles and delete the dock one. Turn off the unit, and install back in the dock, then power up. Allow the system to recreate the dock profiles and then test Fn+F8 action again.

One more thing I would like to add. Before recreating the docking profile make sure you have the latest bios version A07. You can find it here, http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R143451&SystemID=LATITUDE%20D620&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=10109&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=6&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=191461.

Regards,
Richard B
Dell Customer Advocate Associate


# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 3/3/2007 8:49 PM Mark
Shandy,
I googled the Dell 8500 screen problem and came across your blog. I am having a similar problem as you did with the Dell 8500 screen going funky (on/off, black/grey multi-colour vertical lines). Any chance you could reply with the instructions you mention from Marsky? Or any help from Dell would be appreciated as my 3 year extended plan just ran out.

Many thanks,
Mark
Vancouver, Canada


# Visual Studio 2005 Installed 4/3/2007 3:16 AM Shandy's Blog


# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 9/11/2007 4:42 PM kisi
If nothing happens after a short while I press it again and eventually the display does return to the monitor

# re: A New Laptop - Dell Latitude D620 12/30/2007 4:15 PM Replica Watch
If you are looking for the replica watch and information about it, you came to the right place.

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