Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Drivers for XP are on dell driver page, both, 32 bit and 64 bit. I have them, that's why I know. But the issue is that XP is no longer supported for some software like CAD (SolidWorks 2013, last versions of Catia...). Also, support ended on April 8th so no more security updates. But if you're not limited with that you can install XP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have a M6700 with an I7-3540 Dual core. I have a few questions regarding upgrading:

- Is an upgrade to a quad core or a quad extreme simply a matter of pulling the dual d replacing it with the new processor?
- Is this something I can do or does Dell have to do it (I just did a RAM upgrade from 8 to 16GB and found it fairly simple)?
- Is the chip available of the aftermarket or only through Dell?

Thanks!

Ken

 

Probably not; Yes but it's not quite as easy; Yes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You'll need the 45 W or 55 W heatsink as well. Then it's a matter of opening it up and swapping the CPU. You can do it, but it will likely void part of your warranty. You ca obtain the chip through Dell or aftermarket on places like eBay.

 

Thanks for the information, everyone!

 

I should also mention that you will have to order the heatsink through Dell, but it is dirt cheap.

 

today i get the m4800/6800's hdd caddy HFJKD
New Dell Precision M4800 M6800 2nd SATA Hard Caddy HFJKD
i cut off a little piece make it 100% fit m6700.....but it wont read any hdd/ssd i put on it
1.the caddy i got was broken
2.m4800/6800's device bay connector have a new unique circuit design, since the caddy is made for the new circuit, it wont work on other machine......
does anyone have any idea about it?

 

Try buying through newmodeus. I've had good experiences with their products.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

My second m6600 that has i5 2520m came with quad heatsink, dual heatpipe which is the same as one i have in my first m6600 sporting 2720qm. So check before purchase...

 

The following information applies to Dell Precision M6700 laptops with the IPS PremierColor RGB-LED display option and an Nvidia Quadro graphics adapter, running Windows 7 64-bit.

I’d seen some reports that the PremierColor app didn’t work right with this display, causing banding, and that 3rd-party calibration seemed to not work correctly. But I decided to take the plunge anyway, and buy an M6700 with the IPS display. This display is no longer offered by Dell. Long story short, everything works beautifully once you understand what the PremierColor app does and how to set everything up.

The latest version of the PremierColor app is 2.00.053, available at http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/gn/en/gndhs1/driverdetails?driverid=5N00C&c=us&s=dhs&l=en (filename Premier_Color_2.00.053_Setup_ZPE.exe) . The PremierColor app is not compatible with the latest Dell-supplied Nvidia driver, version 9.18.13.2762_A07 (327.62). When using that Nvidia driver, PremierColor’s gamut setting has no effect and the display uses the full gamut. The PremierColor app is compatible with the Dell-supplied Nvidia driver version 9.18.13.768 (307.68) available at http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/precision-m4700?driverId=F8WFX . Download the first file, named Video_NV_W7864_A04_Setup-F8WFX_ZPE.exe. I don’t know if any in-between versions are working with the PremierColor app.

The Dell-supplied 307.68 driver does not include OpenCL (windows\system32\opencl.dll) support. Nvidia-supplied Quadro reference driver release 340.52 available at http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/76996/en-us (filename “340.52-quadro-grid-desktop-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe”) includes OpenCL, but won’t let the PremierColor app read the display or change its gamut. With the Nvidia-supplied driver, my display is still in sRGB mode, though I don’t know if that’s because it’s the last thing I set in the PremierColor app, or if this driver always forces the display to sRGB.

The PremierColor app has three Display Color settings:

• Color Gamut: Imagine a wide-gamut desktop display with different color gamut emulation modes that can be selected by using buttons and the on-screen display. That’s essentially what you have here, except the display has no buttons or OSD. The PremierColor app tells the display which color gamut emulation mode to use. The color gamut emulation is accomplished via high-precision 3D LUTs internal to the display. Any change you make to the color gamut via the PremierColor app will persist even when the PremierColor app is not run again and even when you shut down or restart your machine.
• Brightness: This alters the backlight brightness level in exactly the same way that using the Fn key does or how Windows and the BIOS do. These changes do not persist and will be overwritten by changes you make in Windows.
• Color Temperature: when you change this setting, the app writes to the video card’s 1D calibration LUTs for the R, G, and B channels. The written curves are just changes in the relative gain of the R, G, and B channels that alter the color balance and white point. It’s a simple enough thing, but the curves written by the PremierColor app seem to be calculated with poor precision. They have a lot of little bumps in them. It doesn’t introduce banding in the usual sense of banding caused by not having enough bits per pixel, but it does cause little jumps in the brightness at various points along a gradient. The PremierColor app’s changes to the video card lut do not persist, and can be overridden by Windows, by the Nvidia Control Panel, or by other apps.

So the best way to use the PremierColor app is to forget about the brightness and color temperature settings, and just use the app to change the color gamut. Once you’ve set the correct color gamut, the PremierColor app should not be run again: in preferences, uncheck “Run at System Start-Up” and then exit the app.

sRGB is the best color gamut for most users: it’s the standard of computer monitors, and thus the standard for Windows applications, the web, and most image files. Choosing sRGB for your monitor is the only way to get apps that are not color managed to show the correct colors. Most apps are not color managed, or at least not by default. I’ve found the PremierColor display’s sRGB emulation to be extremely good - so good that so far I’ve been unable to get it to look any better by calibration or profiling. It’s a fabulous thing that the out-of-the-box defaults are so good.

You can get Windows 7 to load calibration curves from a profile into your video card’s 1D LUTs by following these instructions: open the Color Management control panel. Click Advanced, Change system Defaults, Advanced again, and then check “Use Windows display calibration”. Click close. Now back in the Color Management control panel for the current user, you can choose a profile for your display. I’d recommend choosing Windows’ default sRGB profile, which contains linear calibration curves and will cause color managed applications to show the correct colors if your display’s color gamut is set to sRGB: click the Devices tab, choose your display as the device, click Add, and under ICC Profiles, select sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (filename “sRGB Color Space Profile.icm”) and click OK. If it’s not already marked as the default profile, click it in the Profiles list and click Set as Default Profile.

The Nvidia Control Panel can alter the video card’s calibration curves, but I’d suggest not using it for this because it can’t really do it right. (it can’t even do simple RGB gain operations without also adding offset). Under Adjust desktop color settings, select “Other applications control color settings”.

3rd-party calibration hardware & software tools seem to work, though as I said so far I haven’t been able to get anything better than the display’s defaults. A calibration loader app can load calibration curves directly into the video card’s 1D LUTs, or you can have calibration curves saved into a profile and loaded by Windows. There appears to be no way to load custom 3D display LUTs, like what you can do with some high-end displays and the basICColor display app. dispcalGUI can show you what curves are in the video card’s LUTs: Tools, Show curves, and then check “Show actual calibration curves from video card gamma table.” If you want to reset the curves to linear, go to Options and click “Reset video card gamma table”.

The display supports 10-bit per channel (30 bits per pixel) input, and the Nvidia Quadro graphics adapter supports 10-bit output over DisplayPort. I’ve verified that the display is being fed with 10 bits from 10-bit applications, and that custom video card calibration curves are not introducing banding for 8-bit (or 10-bit) applications. Even if you never use an application that supports 10-bit output (most applications are 8-bit), you still realize the benefits of the 10-bit connection if you ever load video card calibration curves that are not linear. The extra precision of the display connection along with the precision of the video card LUTs will prevent banding and precision errors that would happen if you loaded custom calibration curves and your display had an 8-bit input.

Application support for 10-bit color requires that a non-Aero theme be chosen. (Control panel, Personalization). An NEC test/demo application for Windows will show you that the display is using 10-bit color. Go to http://www.necdisplay.com/faq/additional-topics/color-critical-displays/14 and click “How can I check if my system is correctly supporting 10 bit video?” (filename NEC_10_bit_video_Windows_demo.zip) Adobe Photoshop supports 10-bit output since some version of CS4. Lightroom does not support 10-bit output (as of version 5.5). Both of these applications are color managed and will use the display profile set in Windows.