Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

Thanks a lot.

This? Delete all the entries in the list circled red
What about the tickboxes circled in purple? Or will they disappear once their entries are deleted from the list?

Many thanks again

 

Yes, delete the entries on the right using the button below. I am not sure if the tickboxes will go away immediately, but they should be gone if you Apply/Exit and then immediately enter the BIOS setup again. (Well, maybe not. I am not sure if rediscovery happens before or after you enter BIOS setup. If the same boot entries are rediscovered then the tick boxes will be back. Doesn't really matter.)

 

Great, thanks again!

 

I have the same issue but have not found any solution through online research. The IME is theoretically disabled on my machine, which I assumed means the update is failing for me because the underlying feature is inactive.

On advice from this forum, I removed the Nvidia driver I had downloaded from their site and installed the one from Dell support. That driver came with the full control panel for me; I did not install anything additional. Hope that helps.

Several days ago, I used my X-Rite colorimeter to calibrate my screen (UHD like yours), and it looks amazing. This is definitely a good panel.

Ah, that's enlightening, thanks! My previous machine had a GTX 1080 but no Optimus, and on my new 7740 I had turned off Optimus in the firmware before messing with the Nvidia control panel. I didn't realize the firmware settings impacted more than just whether the GPU switched modes. Noted, and thanks.

 

Hello, this is my first post here.
I tried to find information elswere, but decided to ask here.

My question is:
Can anybody confirm from practice that Dell Precision 7540 model with i9-9880HK CPU and 16 MB standard installed RAM will work with additional 2x32 GB RAM Kingston HyperX Impact HX426S15IB2K2?
I have read about issues with this RAM model, have seen Kevin's youtube video.
But maybe somebody tried and get success?
Any experience please.

Thank you in advance

 

FWIW, I have a 7730 and a new 7740. The 7740 is an i9-9980HK and has 16 GB RAM installed. The 7730 is an i7-8850H which had 16 GB RAM installed before I added another 16 GB. I have never seen either machine "max out" the included RAM. In fact, in most cases, the RAM usage (via Performance tab in Task Manager) stays well below 16GB for the 7730, and 7740. I suppose my point being that 16GB seems to be more than enough RAM for both machines.

 

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Thank you, 84Lion. I will try my 7540 with 16 GB ram first for couple of weeks and will see, does I need more.

 

The Kingston HyperX memory should work fine. Many of us are using them in our laptops. Be sure to give the laptop extra time on the first bootup after adding memory for it to detect everything.

 

I'm not a sound engineer, so I have no idea how accurate this is, but since there have been comments about the annoying noise levels, maybe it's worth a try.
So could any of the 7540 owners please post their noise readings using a mobile app?

I initially used this one for android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.tools.soundmeter.decibel.noisedetector but either my phone or the app weren't accurate. The idle value was off by 20 units off for my current laptop (not a Dell).
Then I tried an iphone app and the results matched the official specs
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/decibel-x-db-sound-level-meter/id448155923
For my old laptop I got 34dB idle. And 48dB on high load (all cores being used compiling linux) on a cold day

edit:
found this review https://notebooks-und-mobiles.de/dell-precision-7540-xeon-e-2286m-quadro-rtx-5000-im-test in which the sound section translates to:

Code:

Emissions - Dell Precision 7540                         Sound pressure level
Idle (energy saving mode, minimal display brightness)     Silently
Office (PCMark 8 Battery Test, 194 cd / m², balanced)     Silent - 32.8 dB (A)
WiFi TV streaming (194 cd / m², balanced)                 Silently
Video playback (194 cd / m², balanced)                    Silently
Unigine Heaven                                            24.2 - 46.4 dB (A)
Geekbench stress test                                     32.8 - 46.4 dB (A)
Stress test (maximum display brightness)                  46.4 dB (A)

Assuming all results are accurate then I'd say the laptop is silent unless you're doing heavy workloads.
Maybe the people that complained about noise have defective fans?

 

I did some further testing based on the replies to my questions here for the Precision 7740. Here is what I've tried, and learned:

1. I tried removing my undervolt setting, letting the CPU voltage go back to default. The system ran hotter but was no more, and no less, stable. It runs about 80 to 85 C (package) under load with the 100 mV undervolt, and pushes 90 C under load at default voltage, but otherwise there seems to be no difference.
2. I've had (thankfully) very few crashes lately, but using HWinfo to log my temps every 5 seconds under heavy load, I have determined that the crashes are *not* temperature -- which was surprising to me. I've had crashes when the CPU core temp was below 80C and the GPU temp below 70C.
3. My PCH temp always reads zero (!) for the current and minimum in HWinfo, but the maximum is still being tracked. That max value stays around 60 to 65 C most of the time, but I have seen it hit 80 C once or twice.
4. Watching XTU and HWinfo with the system under load, I noted something interesting: I am seeing a lot of TDP throttling limit, but almost never seeing temperature throttling.
5. I've got some odd "hitches" in the system which I'll explain separately below.
6. I still haven't had time to boot up a Linux USB distro yet, but I have run a full set of the Dell firmware diagnostics, including DRAM test, and everything passed.

The "hitches" manifest in one of two ways:

1. If I'm gaming, there is a split-second freeze in screen update accompanied by an audible split-second duration of static in the audio.
2. If I am not gaming but am in a teleconference for work, there is a momentary burst of static in the audio. After that sound, other parties report that my voice sounds distorted, to the point of being incomprehensible.

The hitches do not seem to correlate to system crashes, and they are definitely not correlated to system load or temperature. I have the audio problem during teleconferences almost every time I use that system, and I've observed it when my CPU load was below 5% and my GPU load was between 1% and 2%, with both of their temperatures correspondingly low at the time (that is, I had *not* just been running the system on load right before the problem). But although the audio glitches, and the "hitch" during gaming, are quite frequent (many per day), I have only had one crash in the past week.

I am beginning to suspect I might have a faulty audio adapter.