Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Does anyone know of a guide to working with the various video outputs and the two graphics cards in these machines?

Yesterday I had a heck of a time getting a 1080P projector to work in duplicate mode with the main laptop screen. Plugging in the projector via HDMI or VGA resulted in the laptop screen turning OFF, showing the desktop background but no Start Menu, no Icons, no way to adjust settings.

Finally, after a lot of trying and the projector showing the blank desktop on a VGA cable I got frustrated and pounded Fn+F8 3 times really hard and suddenly the laptop screen turns on. I think I need a better solution than that Thanks

 

Cycle through windows key + P (press twice - once to bring up the menu and once to try the next option).

Lather, rinse, repeat as needed?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

While the pounding may have relived a bit of pent up frustrations, I doubt it did much to effect correcting the initial problem at hand. What you may want to do (esp. with VGA) is engage the connection prior to system start up.

While I have not yet investigated all the actual causes of this anomaly (system or malfunction), I do know that for now, this method does work.

 

My palmrest just got replaced twice (initial replacement due to faulty left-speaker), but can't get the fingerprint scanner to work on the new palmrests.

They've allowed me to keep the functioning fingerprint scanner of the old palmrest, just in case, which can be mounted on the new palmrest.

Does anyone know which component the boot-fingerprint is stored on?
Is it the motherboard itself or either of these boards?

Would I only need to replace the scanner to get everything working as before, or do I need both?

Top view:


Bottom view:


If it's stored on the motherboard, I suppose it's encrypted by the scanning module?

 

The first technician who came to replace the palmrest told me putting the original boards on the new palmrest wouldn't work.
The second technician told me it might work, but he and the Dell engineer on the phone preferred the software approach, which didn't work. He left the scanner and other board behind, just in case.
I was promised Dell would call me back the next day, but two days later, and the new fingerprint scanner still not functioning properly, still heard nothing from them.

Since I'm well able of working with electronics and knew what I was doing, I downloaded the Owner's Manual and removed the palmrest as per those instructions, and mounted the original fingerprint scanner + the other board it connects to (didn't work with the new board) on the new palmrest and put it all back together, so now everything is working as it should, (including the new speakers in the palmrest).
All went well, and am happy I was able to completely fix the issues, instead of waiting for Dell to respond.
Both, booting and windows fingerprint authentication work perfectly now.
So that's all sorted for me.

Today I also decided to order 4 x 8GB (32GB total) of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1866Mhz 10-10-10-30 SO-DIMM memory.
I should have them by next week, and will report back on them.

 

F YI a funny thing I noticed when I put the slice on the lid seem more resistant to opening, particularly to the vertical position. In fact, it need a pretty good amount of pressure and made me a bit uncomfortable with the glass screen and all.

Anyway to my question, does anyone know if it matter if you put the slice on before or after the regular batter is charged? When connected does it drain one before the other or does it matter?

In my camera both batteries are drained simultaneously and in the case of the flash, the refresh rates are much faster. I guess I'm asking does it see a higher combined capacity -- and is there an advantage -- or does it drain at the same "on battery" rate regardless of having one batter or two?

 

The slice battery will be the first one to be drained, then the regular battery.

 

Good news! All working great here:



32GB 1866MHz running at 10-10-10-30

Ran the diagnostics as well, all passed.

I'm very happy with them.


Also got a new keyboard trim from Dell, some clips were missing on it after the repairs, so it was bulging up near the arrow keys, so that's sorted as well.

 

Excellent. Happy to hear everything is working as specified.

 

Just to add to this, I remember that when Bokeh tested the slice, the charging works in the opposite way: internal then slice. The idea is to have the internal battery always ready before the slice.