Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Today I was cleaning my laptop as I do regularly, and encountered a peculiar malfunction during the restart: The screen would not illuminate. I could see the CPU light and hear the laptop running as always, just no display. It was totally black.

All I could do was power it down and try a restart via power button > Failed. Closed the lid (which trigger the preset hibernate) removed the power/battery and tried another restart > Failed. Repeat > Failed.

Opened the lid to 180 degrees and tried a fourth restart. Success!

 

Might be a badly connected cable or a failing one?

 

That was my first thought too.

On well, I guess I have to let it happen again before I can report it. I just hope it doesn't fail when I really need it. Like all the time.

 

New BIOS today, A11.

Driver Details | Dell US

Fixes :
1. Fixed issue where Admin password malfunction after exist from MEBX.
2. Fixed issue where CCTK requires additional reboot to enable TPM function.
3. Fixed issue where system may stop at Intel IRST entering option with Array disk and one Non-RAID ON disk installed.
4. Fixed issue where the Optimus is disabled after some AMT remote control actions.
5. Fixed issue where keyboard illumination option may not available.
6. Fixed issue where boot sequence for module bay is not correct while re-attach device.
7. Fixed issue where system record Power Events show incorrect event when the system exit BIOS setup menu.
8. Fixed issue where SSO not working on cold boot using DDPA 2.2.x when SED is present in system.
9. Fixed issue where no low/Critical Battery message appears after post while SUT attached low battery.
10. Fixed issue where SATA Controller to be added to SMBIOS type 0x29 when Legacy Option ROM is disable.

Enhancements :
1. Supported BIOS flash update under Windows 8.1.
2. Support new graphic ID of CPU.
3. Updated ALS string of Setup.
4. Updated to the 8.1.40.1416 version of the Intel management Engine firmware.

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I'll update this weekend.

Windows 8.1 is right around the corner. I'm still waiting for NVIDIA drivers that officially support it (325 series) before I upgrade my main install. My testing so far indicates that everything works, though, you'll need to grab drivers for the fingerprint reader from the M6800 driver page.

 

Version 327.23 is out of Beta and WHQL on the GeForce side, but still QNF for Quadro. Seems to work well. I am currently running the 331.40 Beta drivers on the K5000M. No obvious issues yet.

 

I actually found this (327.23 QNF), it's sort of hidden away on NVIDIA's site. After install, stuff was working, but after the first reboot I just got BSOD on boot. Going back to restore point got me back up and running. The restore point was manually created immediately before the driver install so the driver is pretty clearly to blame, though obviously there must be something else involved if the driver works for other people. I'm currently using 320.92 without issues.

I was wondering if maybe Dell would post their own version of the driver in time for the 8.1 release (either for the M6700 or M6800), since they've posted several other drivers updated for Windows 8.1, but nothing yet.

 

Downloaded, going to update sometime soon, weekend at most as well. By the way, I'm curious, do you verify the checksum before installing?

EDIT: Installed, nothing seems to have gone wrong so far.

 

The .EXE file is digitally signed which means there is a checksum bundled in the signature... If there was an issue with the file, Windows would complain about it at the "are you sure you want to run this downloaded file?" prompt.

 

What PCH temperatures are people getting on the m6700 at idle and load? Just wondering.

 

Touchpad driver update for Windows 8.1.
Driver Details | Dell US

Audio driver update for Windows 8.1. (I just use the stock Windows driver...)
Driver Details | Dell US