Dell Precision M4700 and M6700 - Preliminary Info

No hating here, since I actually really like the design and having a GDDR5-equipped GT640M is a nice, but it's lacking some "punch" for me for it's price.

Also, nice edit, hope it does

 

We got your point. But this is testing the loyal users of Precision. Yes, my m6400 is still in great shape even after 40 months of usage, but I really hope Dell can surprise us with a cutting edge machine, so tempting that I will upgrade even though my old one still running fine.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

The newest Control Vault drivers & firmware for the m6600 are working great for me. They work on a reboot, they work on resume, & are quick to authenticate IMHO.

 

I just got my M6600 a couple weeks ago - if the 6700 is really going to be much better could you please delay the launch a bit so I won't feel as bad?

Same here - just got my M6600 and have had no problems with the fingerprint reader.

 

Same here (though only 2.5 years). IMHO, best laptop ever. My only gripe is with the audio - the jack is cutting out and the integrated audio sometimes plays dead after coming out of hibernation. I play around it with my trusty EC X-Fi Notebook (but the Creative drivers are another story).

Since I spend a lot of time abroad, I might consider upgrading because of the new graphics card, but would accept only the level of 680M/7970M (as they offer 50% increase over the previous mobile gen). I also see power cuts occasionally, so M6400 battery life of 1:30 tops while working sometimes isn't enough - too bad Intel is lazy with the 10-bit support on their HD graphics so I have to choose between battery life and the IPS screen.

The best M6700 feature would be if it reverted to 16:10 screens (yeah, I know - fat chance). I might bite the bullet on the 16:9, but please no Chi Mei disasters this time.

 

Glad you caught that before anyone else did. I was pushing it to leave it up so long. I nearly fell asleep last night and forgot. Had to whip out my Alienware in bed and do the edit. (<-That sounds dirty?)

16:10 is gone the way of the dodo. I've posted about this before, but it essentially comes down to supply chain. The factories that cut the glass get more yield per giant sheet at 16:9 than they do at 16:10. Apple saw this coming and locked down agreements ahead of time at the right price. Smart move on their part. I'm not sure if the new MBP's have switched to 16:9, but if they did, I'd bet it's because their previous agreement expired, and they decided it was too expensive to do it again. The standard corporate lines for most PC vendors is probably something like: "The industry as a whole has moved to the 16:9 format already, and this decision has been driven by the standardization of that format in the entertainment industry. Who wants a border on the screen while they're watching a movie?"

You need a new motherboard. Sounds like the headphone switch is giving out. Still under warranty?

 

The new MBP's are still 16:10. I actually had to talk myself out of considering the machine for that reason alone. They dropped the 17" version though so it's not as appealing anymore. I find the Macs are a little too restrictive hardware-wise anyway. But still, this is the first time my notebook upgrade will be losing me pixels......

 

Nice to see some Dell attention here Perhaps you could encourage someone to update the HD3000 drivers to fix the color profile bug. In short, there is a known issue with many intel iGPU's (including the HD3000 in the M6600) where upon locking or resuming the workstation any color profiles that contain a gamma table are dropped. Intel has fixed the issue in their HD3000 drivers since at least version 8.15.10.2559 released in October 2011 but the non Dell versions lack back light control. The most recent Dell driver is 8.15.10.2418.

Now those folks with ATI video cards and those who have Optimus disabled (IPS owners) will never see the issue as they are never using the iGPU. For those of us that do use Optimus and require a calibrated monitor (not too much to ask from a workstation of this caliber IMHO) this is a giant pain the rear. Manually applying color profiles every time you unlock your machine gets frustrating and since windows is not aware that the color profiles have been dropped using the Task Scheduler to apply the color profiles on certain events fails to consistently resolve the issue.

I tried discussing this with Dell support but the rep's I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually I just gave up. If you need any additional info just let me know.

 

Crazy idea. On Intel's site, it looks like there is one driver package for both the HD3000 (Sandy Bridge) and the newer HD4000 (Ivy Bridge) IGP. (Looking here.) Newer versions of the driver support both cards.

Maybe once the M4700/M6700 come along, you'll be able to take the (presumably newer) HD4000 driver package and install it on your M4600/M6600 and get the fix? Or maybe you can already do it by downloading the package from another newer model laptop that has the HD4000 IGP, Optimus, and has already been released, like one of the new Alienware.

The installer may do a model check and refuse to install, but you should still be able to install the driver manually by pointing the Device Manager at the extracted files. (This is if the HD3000 driver hasn't been removed from the package.)

I don't have a machine to test with at the moment but there have been a few other issues I've resolved on Dell hardware by grabbing a newer driver for the same hardware from the support page for a different model machine. (Not exactly supported by Dell, I'm sure, but whatever works...)

 

Thank you. That is a great idea! Hopefully I can find a new iGPU driver with working back light control.

EDIT: Tried the HD4000 driver (Video_Intel_W74_G2Y7T_A00-Setup_ZPE.exe) from the Alienware m17x R4 which is version 8.15.10.2653. Unfortunately it still dropped the color profile and (not surprisingly) it also lacked back light control. Waiting for the M6700 driver it is. Thanks again!