Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

No Problems with buzz on my end.....

 

That is very good news!! because i really need the UMTS and I really want the Covet. I was very close to order the normal M6700. I also asked the sales rep to confirm it. i hope I can order on monday

Grüße von der Küste

Fabian

 

I discovered that my issues with the Bluetooth adapter and LCD brightness are related to the current setting of 'Legacy Boot' in the BIOS.

With Legacy Boot OFF, Bluetooth is listed as 'None' in the BIOS and Diagnostics shows the 'LCD Panel - Unable to modify brightness' error.
With Legacy Boot ON, Bluetooth is listed as 'Installed' in the BIOS and Diagnostics shows no errors when performing the Display Panel test.

So, it doesn't seem to be a hardware related issue, but more a firmware issue. Hopefully, this will be fixed in a future BIOS update...


BTW, did your Covet M6700 come with Windows 8 installed from the factory?

If you own Windows 7 Pro SP1 recovery DVDs for the M6700, can you please let me know what part numbers are on the DVDs and the labels on the back of the sleeves?

I'm trying to downgrade my M6700 from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7 Pro SP1, for the time being. When I contacted Dell Customer Care and Tech Support in The Netherlands, to try to order Windows 7 recovery DVDs for the M6700, they told me that a downgrade is not allowed or possible. After a phone call with Microsoft in The Netherlands, I know for a fact that a downgrade is allowed and possible, as long as the editions are the same (from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7 Pro or Vista Business) and you don't run Windows 7 and Windows 8 together on the same machine (i.e. in a multi-boot setup).

Since I can't order the recovery DVDs from Dell, I bought an original Dell "Reinstallation DVD Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit" on eBay, which has the following part numbers:
- on the DVD: P/N D0V2K
- on the label on the sleeve: P/N 0KJX6D (Rev. A00)

I can boot from this DVD without any problem, but the system seems to hang after the Windows logo is displayed. The Windows logo animation plays normally (with the 4 colors swooping in) and the text "Windows is starting" is displayed, but after that nothing happens. I waited more than 5 minutes, but neither the DVD nor the HDD showed any activity during this period.

 

You should call the Business line for Dell if you want to get anywhere with this though... As the only version of Windows that is allowed/supported for downgrades are the Pro versions, which are geared for businesses... Odly though even though its allowed the licensing agreement states. "Neither the manufacturer or installer, nor Microsoft, is obligated to supply earlier versions to you," ........ "You must obtain the earlier version separately."

Downgrading from Windows 8 to 7: What you need to know | PCWorld

There they state Dell trys to charge you $290 to do it...

 

DellP/N 0KJX6D
CN-0KJX6D-01167-2CM-06IY
REV A00

Also 2 discs Resource Media:
DellP/N 0T5JGY

 

Thanks for the tip, Sgt. Slaughter.

Thanks for checking, Asleep. Looks like I have the correct OS recovery DVD after all.

Not sure why the recovery process hangs after the Windows logo is displayed. I will give it another try tomorrow...

 

Yup, the business support is there to solve your problems, not pretend to. As a Precision owner, you're entitled to the business support. Even if I call regular customer support, they transfer me to business usually.

 

So anyone use the fingerprint reader much? I finally found the difference between the FIPS and swipe ones(FIPS is larger overall and swipe is just a little slot pretty much), but saw older threads about complaining about both of them pretty much it seemed...

Has Dell or whoever enabled the reader to be used outside of just the windows logon screen now, ie for websites or anything else?.... Id prefer the FIPS one myself as it seems to be one that is more accurate and stable, but I'm gonna get the Covet and that sucker isn't an option on that chassis for whatever reason...

 

The FIPS one is a full finger print reader, where you put your fingertip on and don't move it until the fingerprint scan has finished.
The other one is a swipe fingerprint reader, where you pull your fingertip over the (smaller) scan surface.

The FIPS fingerprint reader with its full scan surface has the disadvantage that you leave your fingerprint on it, which can be pulled off to duplicate it. This is less of an issue with the swipe one. On the other hand, the swipe fingerprint reader can be less accurate than the FIPS one, although I have no experience with either one, so really couldn't tell...

You also cannot configure the non-Covet M6700 with a fingerprint reader if you select Windows 8 as the operating system (drivers not available yet).

If you configure the M6700 with a fingerprint reader, you get a different base with a slot in it. Maybe it's not feasible for Dell to produce three different bases in the red Covet color.

 

thanks for the info. Yeah I just noticed that on the Covet if you select Win8 it actually knocks out a few other items too... fingerprint reader, HD Camera, and the IPS LCD screen it seemed...

I'm still surprised that they have you select a different Video card if its Win7 vs Win8... I can only assume that its b/c the drivers are different, but its the first time I've seen them do that if the same exact part is used between operating systems and the driver is the only difference...



Another question is, did anyone NOT ordering this through their work business line have an issue purchasing at all? Or really have an issue getting the discount shown on the Small and Medium Business site? I know the discount applied differs if you select Healthcare, Large enterprise, and others versus Home, but I want to get an idea pricing when I call can be close to what I am showing right now.

Starting Price: $5,306.71
Instant Savings: $1,698.15
Final Price: $3608.56

The above is for the following config:

I skipped on upgrading to SSD, BluRay drive, and more RAM as both of those should be cheaper outside Dell. As far as the rest like the Windows Office Pro I haven't looked around to see if that can be had much cheaper than Dell's offering as from what iv'e seen MSFT has a pretty good lock on pricing it seems...


*The other thing I looked at was Dell's "Hard Drive Data Recovery Service" and "Asset Recovery Svc Label and Box for recovery" items that they offer as I have never used either of them before thus not know much about them really... or if honestly worth it.
Lastely I noticed that they now charge for "Asset Tags on the System Chassis" in the form of either "ProSupport Client Label" or "Basic Support Label" with or without Company name.... what are those? I assume the service tag and all that is still stuck on the bottom of the chassis no matter what, so unsure what the difference is with these.

Thanks in advance everyone! Looking forward to making my purchase of the Covet soon here. hoping I can get decent pricing by calling myself and not going through any company line...