Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

I believe I mistakenly posted this in another M6700 thread, but curious if anyone here has any commentary to provide on finding a way to track down a new workstation system.

As I believe I have found a buyer for my M4600 this weekend, I will be looking to finally replace it with a M6600 or M6700. I do not need much in the way of CAD horsepower, but would like to piece together a business appearing gaming laptop. Something that will run most things on high via a 6xx card, but not so garish with lights, paint, and curves that I am embarrassed to take it to a board meeting or coffee shop.

Since I am looking to purchase something and replace the video card immediately, can anyone advise for channels to purchase either as a barebones kit, or with a low end Quadro? I am hesitant to go the Dell direct route due to the upcharge for a card/warranty I will likely not be using.

 

Thanks tijo for more great ideas. I guess I'll do the RAM tonight and get that off my chest. I just hope my I don't break anything with my meat hooks.

Incidentally, I got a 7.8 score with just the OEM RAM. Not a bad start if I didn't need the RAM.

 

So I've swapped my 6000M with a HD7970M and now when I boot the M6700 the fans just spin for about 1 second and then the laptop turns off again. After that the battery light keeps blinking and the wireless/(memory or hdd) light stay on continually. Could anyone please help me out here?

I've removed the CMOS for a bit and now it just turns out and nothing happens, No screen or fans.

If anyone could possibly help me out that'd be great, If you want add me on skype "dj3ss3y"

 

Which 7970m did you end up getting, a Clevo one or a Dell one?

Also, you could always try putting the M6000 back in and see what happens.

 

The problem is, I didn't expect any problems. So I traded in my 6000 for the 7970 with a bit of money.

This is the card I have btw (I took the pics)

 

That looks like a Clevo/Eurocom card. Shouldn't be any problems. I would like to point out though, and maybe it's different on NVIDIA Quadros, but the backplate of that 7970M is too high where the threads are. With all Quadros I've seen, the backplate threads sit flush with the card PCB and are not raised up like they are in GeForce GPUs. This is due to the heatsinks being designed differently. You might want to look into that just to make sure there isn't a difference in thread height.

 

Yeah it should work

But unfortunately it wont even boot and I'm really out of idea's here.

 

After you removed the CMOS battery, did you hold down the power button for a good 40 seconds? This will clear out the BIOS of anything it might be having trouble processing. Other than that, look into that thread height I talked about earlier and make absolute sure the die is touching the heatsink. Also check for any areas that may be causing a short, there are a ton of tiny components on these PCBs and they're all very much in the way lol.

If none of these things work out, it's time to contact the seller.

 

Photo credit goes to Ebay seller.

Look at how the threads here sit flush to the PCB. And now look at yours, major difference right?

I bet this is causing your issues with either something shorting or thermal damage.

 

Okay so I've checked to see if any components touch ect. which isn't the case.

I also tried the CMOS clearing again, Also nothing. And even if the heat was too much it should at least boot for a few sec right?

Because right now the screen just stays black no matter what I do. I'm getting pretty desperate here since I don't exactly have a backup GPU I can just throw in. And with me being a student I can't exactly just buy a new one.