Dell Precision 5510 Owner's Lounge

Following are my boot time with a fresh install of windows 10 Pro on my 5510 (xeon 1505m, 16GB RAM, 512Gb 950 Pro m.2, AHCI mode):
6.5 secs to Dell Logo screen
7.5 secs to windows login screen
6.5 secs to Desktop screen after punching in local login credentials
Total cold boot time to Desktop screen = 20.5secs

 

Replacing the drive was a breeze for me as it came with a stock PM951 m.2 drive ( I have extended battery). Refer to the Dell manual on how to replace the drive. Make sure you have the required screwdriver tools ( Torx#5 to remove base cover, Philips #0 to remove the 2 screws under the service tag flap)

I transferred the gooey stuff from the stock PM951 onto my 950 Pro M.2 as my local computer shop didn't have any thermal pad. I am surprised the 950 Pro didn't come with any pads either!

 

Are the thermal pads necessary or just nice to have to prevent thermal throttling?

What were your steps and BIOS settings to do a fresh install? Thx in advance

 

Following speed test were taken on a fresh install of windows 10 Pro on my 5510 (xeon 1505m, 16GB RAM, 512Gb 950 Pro m.2, AHCI mode) running on battery mode ( no AC plugged in):

Just finished installing fresh copy of WIndows 10 Pro and no dell drivers installed. Only change made was in BIOS, set drive to AHCI.



Finished loading all the Dell drivers, BIOS update except for Intel RST drivers


Installed Samsung Magician software and Samsung Nvme storage driver

All tests were run after a reboot and on battery mode. Let me know if you need me to test anything else.

 

After continued GFX issues the Dell Tech and I decided it was worth a shot to swap out the motherboard (which includes CPU and graphics card) to see if that helped. It didn't help and the video issues still remain telling me that it's likely an Intel/Nvidia software issue.

Regarding the scaling problem I mentioned in an earlier post, I deleted the Intel Driver update that came out a couple/few weeks ago and reinstalled the original Intel Driver, and voila! the scaling problem went away. Whatever Intel updated in the driver messed up the external monitor scaling and their driver configuration menu didn't give any options that addressed the issue.

Also had the tech replace my track pad as I had just started having some issues with it freezing up completely requiring me to restart my system.

 

What is your driver version?
What driver did you have trouble with?

 

The driver I reverted to was Version 10.18.15.4279, A01 http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=29RWM

The driver that I had updated which messed up the scaling was Version 20.19.15.4331, A04 http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=PFWXP

 

I was under the impression that PCIe drives support either NVMe or AHCI but not both? You're running a Samsung 950 Pro m.2 in AHCI mode? Is it possible to do that with any NVMe drive?

 

Sorry for the confusion... Before installing the OS, in the BIOS i set the drive type from IDE to AHCI. So the first two test were done in AHCI mode. The last test was done after installing the Samsung Nvme drivers found here:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html
The Magician reports the drive working in Nvme mode as seen below. So you are correct, it's either AHCI or Nvme.

 

Nothing to be sorry about, you were perfectly clear. The confusion was of my own making ;-)

I thought that NVMe or AHCI was a hardware feature of the drive controller, not a software driver feature. This is good news as it means that I can purchase the 950 Pro and use it in AHCI mode for as long as I still need in combination with some old disk management software and then switch to NVMe as soon as the requirements change.