Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

Editing my previous post... initially I was wondering why I cannot enter BIOS or BOOT Options. seems my keyboard of the new Precision 7740 does not work out of the box. Has anybody had similar problems?

 

Repeatedly press F2 or F12 when the Dell logo is on the screen. It is only later in the boot process when the BIOS is listening for the keystrokes so you have to keep hitting it until you figure out exactly when you should be pressing it.

 

I know... but that wasn't the problem. I fixed it meanwhile. Whoever put the computer together did not connect the keyboard cable correctly. Can you believe it?

 

I thought I read at Dell that you cannot run 3200 is only up to 64GB - now while that could be because the RAM was not available.
https://www.dell.com/gh/business/p/precision-17-7740-laptop/pd

According to Intel the processor supports 2666
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...eon-e-2286m-processor-16m-cache-2-40-ghz.html

 

Intel Management Engine Component Installer 1938.12.0.1317 fails to install.
SupportAssist offers the version of the driver. Neither an install through SupportAssist, nor a manual install seems to work though. Installation fails. (This is a brand new Precision 7740)
Has anybody found a solution for this?

 

Just got my new 7540 today to replace my m6700.

Initial impression (other than getting used to slightly smaller screen): the new is not built like the old, but at least it's lighter. Keys ok, prefer old, but every key is still there and where it should be.

Got a non-configurable version from Dell.ca at 53% off and just got more ram and another nvme. Seems to be running okay with both installed.

i7-9850H // Quadro RTX 3000 // 2x8GB Micron DDR4 (stock) + 2x8Gb G.Skill Ripjaws DD4 (addon) // 512GB SN730 NVMe (stock) + 2TB SN750 NVMe (addon)

Ready to rock and roll!

Here are my disk benchmarks:
SN730 write=2.5 GB/s; read=3.05 GB/s on average
SN750 write=2.75 GB/s; read=3.15 GB/s on average

 

Update to my sound issue. Dell replaced the speakers first which didn't fix anything. Next, They replaced the motherboard which solved the audio glitch. If you have an audio issue it may not be just a software issue, it could be a hardware issue.

 

I've been using mine for over a week now. I have the Xeon version. The 7540 is noisier than the M7510 I have been using for more than 3 years.
I don't like the metallic noise of the fans. The 7510 needed some load before firing the fans at high speed or making any noise.
But I need the beast so I'll have to live with it.

 

You can check out fan control software. I have a link in my signature that has details about my setup. I run my 7530 at "50%" fan speed and it is basically silent. CPU turbo boost is disabled to keep the temperature under control. If you don't need the CPU running at max all of the time then you could run with a configuration like this. Still plenty fast when capped at around 2.5 GHz. If I need the CPU speed then I can just fire a script to enable turbo and automatic fan control.

 

Thanks for the info. Yes I thought about investigating the tools in your sig. I've always used ThrottleStop to be able to use less powerful dell ac adaptors or external battery packs. I see ThrottleStop does not really work with xeon so far. I tried setting cpu lower frequency but no luck. I haven't given it much time and effort so I'll check those tools and try an updated version of ThrottleStop later. Thanks.