Dell Precision M6500 upgrade possible?

Hi guys,

I’m not sure if there’s already a post for these questions so I created this one.
I was brought to this forum by the problems I’m facing with my dell laptop.
I got a precision m6500 back in April 2010 which came with a Intel Core i7 X920 at 2.00 GHz and a NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M and for the past 8 months I’ve been having hell with the damn thing

Anyways long story short my problem is, other than overheating that is, black screen whenever I try to watch videos or play games or even access sites that have advertising that uses flash player… and yes…. I’ve tried everything from upgrading and downgrading drives to the video card, bios updates, windows reinstallations anew, uninstall and reinstall of different versions of flash players, tweaks and twists to options and properties of whatever I could think off in windows nvidia card flash player etc… to no avail.

And my question, is there any chance I can just replace my video card “NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M” for a better one? And if so where can I get one?
Because I can’t just get a Quadro M series for a laptop from the shelf on media markt!...

And as for the processor, can I upgrade for a better one as well?

Thanks guys, your help will be appreciated, especially because I couldn’t get any from dell support…
those guys don’t have a clue!….

Another dell aggravated customer!!…

 

If your still under warranty and having so many issues why not ask Dell for a replacement

There are threads here on how to escalte these kind of issues and get the help you need.

Also there is a Dell Rep in the Dell Sub forums you an contact and he has been a big help to many members here

Dell-Bill_B

try contacting him.

 

Sounds a lot like the problems I had with different 2800M in my M6500. Do you see any log entries that look like the graphics card was unplugged while the laptop was running (i.e. disconnection warnings right before the black screen)?

The question is what you consider to be "better". The M6500 has a proprietary graphics card slot and only three graphics cards are available for that slot:
NVIDIA FX 2800M, 3800M and some ATI card of which I've forgotten the name. If my guess is correct that your problem is that same as mine the 2800M is obviously no alternative for you. Maybe the ATI works more stable but afair it's not as powerfull as the 3800M.

You could install a 940XM but I don't think another 130MHz is worth the money.

 

Also this sub forum may get you more info

Dell Latitude, Vostro, and Precision

 

Thanks Dave, I’ll try to contact him but honestly the only thing I would like to get from dell at this point was my money back….

Anyway I already had several problems and I already had dell support fixing my laptop twice, the last time they had to replace the mother board and the video card just to get it back on, and now, only 35 minutes into my day to day work and the cooler fans start screaming like leaf blowers. And I work as a SAP consultant, not exactly the kind of work that would require much from a processor.

As for the video card black out problem I know is just a question of time for it to start happening again as this was not the first time. I’m just giving it the benefit of the doubt as this was the first time I had the video card replaced.

Debguy, my problem was a little different, I did not get any warnings it just goes black and the only way out is to force shutdown and restart again and even after log on no warnings or error are displayed. Only got the error M1004# related to overheating a couple of times.

Dell support had me go through the dell diagnostics more times than I can remember and even there no errors are displayed only 3 or 4 thermal trip events or something of sorts so, I’m guessing as no one in dell was able to answer me, it’s a compatibility problem between the video card and flash player 11.

That’s why I was thinking in replacing the video card for a newer model like the FX 4000M series or even FX5000m. Is this possible for a Precision M6500?

 

The new line of Quadros no more use the FX logo. The M6500 can be upgrade with a Quadro 5000m 2gb DDR5 w/ECC. AMD 89XX are also available.
I will love try one on my M6400.

 

Do you by any chance know where or who do I have to kill to get one?!?...
Because not even nvidia site sells those!…

 

IIRC, M6500 can't be upgraded with those as it doesn't have an MXM slot. The M6600 does.

The ATI M7820 is at least fast as (if not faster) the FX3800M, but finding them is tricky (e.g. ebay) and they're expensive.

 

The M6500 was briefly available with the Quadro 5000m but good luck finding one, I saw one advertised refurbed a month ago but it went pretty quick.

Pretty easy to upgrade the RAM and add a SSD if you havent gotten one allready which will.

Dont think you will see much difference between the 920 & the 940 processors.

 

here is the answer buddy. The poblem is due to overheating of the videocard and its processor. Addtional cooling pads, et. cannot help much, what helps is reducing the heat production (sounds logical . All image-related programs use a lot the graphic processor and heat it up. Many people in the forums have noticed that running on a battery solves the problem. The reason is simple - battery power cuts the imaging processor frequency to a half, the heat production too. There is a good software to solve it - NVIDIA Inspector

Nvidia Inspector zum Download: Version 1.9.5.9 [Download des Tages]

On it, you can check the processor frequency and the temp of the graphic card. On the left side of its window, there is a button "Multi display power saver (the third from above)", click on it and activate the power saving options of the card. This will cut down the graphic power of the graphic card (i.e. you lose imaging power, but it is bearable), but the temp of the graphic processor will stay around 40 degrees and you will face no more problems with sudden shutdowns.