Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

If you install Windows 8 with UEFI (on a separate drive) and you have a legacy Windows 7 installation hanging around, you should be able to boot either one from the F12 menu, without having to go to the BIOS setup and switching between UEFI and legacy. However, if you install them both the same way (both UEFI or both legacy) then you can use the Windows bootloader to make the choice instead of having to press F12 every time you boot up.

 

yes it seems 5 min is the maximum,

thank you both for your input

 

Thanks. Can I install both Win 7 and Win 8 on the same drive physical on different partitions with no issue? I have a 256GB SSD I use as the boot drive. All my data is mainly on a 750GB Seagate drive I have as the secondary drive so I think I can split the 256 since I am not using much space on it. I really just want to have both so I can just play with 8 but use 7 as the primary unless I decide just to switch to 8 altogether. I can do two totally separate drives, but I need to physically swap them out so it is not as easy as just having on the same drive.

Also, Is there any way to convert the existing Win 7 install to UEFI? I have been reading a bit on it and from the little I read, there is not much advantage to UEFI other than it is faster.

 

Regarding the BIOS A08 problem I reported earlier, with failure to resume from sleep, I believe I've identified the problem. It would appear (on my system) that A08 does not successfully resume from sleep if the HDD is secured with a password. In my specific case I boot form the mSATA SSD, but even adding a password to the HDD breaks the resume function. It is not a problem to have a BIOS password, only the HDD.

One more thing - I do have fingerprint security set up, and that is functional at boot, unlocking everything that is locked. I don't believe that is significant though, as fingerprint or password security is not even necessary when resuming from sleep. Yet having a password on the HDD screws things up.

This was never a problem with A06. I don't know whether IRST has anything at all with this, but I suspect that's a red herring, or an entirely separate issue.

Would someone be kind enough to report on A08 sleep/resume success with an HDD which is password protected? It seems very repeatable that securing the HDD with a password breaks resume, whilst removing the password allows resume to function again. I haven't yet tried with a password on the mSATA only, but the fault is certainly there if both drives are secured.

TIA.

 

You can have two installs on two partitions on the same disk. However, you can't mix a legacy install and a UEFI install this way. Legacy installs use the "MBR" disk partition layout and UEFI installs use "GPT." Naturally, each disk can only have one partition layout. (You might have noticed the Windows disk management utility asking you which you want to use when setting up a new disk. Though GPT is newer and has some advantages, it really matters most for the boot drive, and Windows will pick which one to use based on how you boot the install media.)

It is possible to convert a Windows 7 install from legacy to UEFI. I did it when migrating my Windows 7 install from my previous machine to the M6700 (before upgrading to Windows 8). It requires a fairly good understanding of manipulating partitions, using the command line, and booting up Linux to run a couple tools. Let me know if you want to take a stab at it and I'll write it up. (I've been meaning to anyway.)

UEFI has more advantages for Windows 8, as Windows 8 actually uses some of its features. Though, you won't be able to take advantage of UEFI secure boot if you still want to also boot Windows 7. With Windows 7 there is really very little difference.

I use Windows's BitLocker to protect my drives. (A possible alternative?)

 

I don't know what overheads, if any, that incurs relative to a simple HDD password, but I had a perfectly working and very straightforward solution before installing A08 and to be quite honest I'd prefer to continue with that solution. It's what we use on the rest of our systems at here at home.

I was hoping someone would be kind enough to add an HDD password to their system, running A08, and see whether it really is a BIOS version problem or something quirky with my system config. If it does cause a problem with sleep/resume then it would point to a general BIOS problem. If the BIOS is broken then I'd rather Dell fixed it and we could get on with business as usual, but from my current sample of one case so far it's not enough to go through the anguish of trying to talk it through with a Dell tech reading from a script.

 

My M6700 has 8GB of 1600 memory. Two 4GB in slots C&D that I assume are under the keyboard (I have not looked under the bottom yet).

Crucial has a 16GB kit of two 8GB sticks. Can I just put the two 8GB sticks in and have a total of 24GB? Or should all four sticks be 8GB?

The Crucial Memory is DDR3 PC3-12800 • CL=11 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.35V • 1024Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT3397240

thanks,

Mike

 

You should be able to mix sizes but if the timings between the two different kinds of modules don't match, you might get stuck at a lower speed.

I notice that the memory you mentioned is 1.35V. Most modules are 1.5V. I've never tried mixing these, has anyone else?

You can use CPU-Z to check the specs on the modules you already have.

 

Thanks. I ran a report on CPU-Z and it shows the memory as:

DIMM # 1
SMBus address 0x51
Memory type DDR3
Manufacturer (ID) Nanya Technology (7F7F7F0B00000000)
Size 4096 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part number NT4GC64B8HG0NS-DI
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts

Anyone have a link to memory they would recommend?

thanks,

Mike

 

This Kingston module matches your current memory in terms of speed, CL rating, and voltage. You can also buy a pair of them.

The Corsair one matches as well and is a little cheaper if you buy a pair. (It looks like there's also a 15% off promo code if you buy today.)

I'd recommend one of these if you are going to keep your current 2x4GB memory installed because they match the specs of your current modules. If you think you might go to 4x8GB you can get modules that are slightly faster that don't cost much extra.