Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Someone tried them in another machine that isn't supposed to support them (M4800 I think?) and it did not work. 32GB is the max for these CPUs.

 

The Intel Core i7-3xxx (Ivy Bridge) processors of the M6700 support a maximum of 32GB RAM. They physically cannot address more than this.

Same goes for the Haswell and Broadwell processors.

 

I want to believe.
But for example Intel says that for my 840QMs 8GB is the maximum limit (Intel ark), well all my W510s are running with 24GB.
So perhaps the 32GB limit for Ivy mobiles is the same, at least I was hoping.

 

Has the fan control loop been addressed on this unit yet? I'm looking for a portable workstation for CAD but I don't want to be the guy that's running a blender in the library. Is it an issue with any processor or are the quad extreme more prone to trip the fans?

 

They haven't done anything with the fan, really, it's one of the more annoying things about this laptop. It cycles on and off frequently (or maybe "fast" and "less fast"), and when ramps up, you can definitely hear it cycle up higher than it needs to for a moment.

I have my thermal mode set to "Quiet" in the power options and that keeps it under control pretty well (if I'm not using the discrete GPU), at the cost of capping the CPU speed.

My M4800 does not have this problem, when the fan ramps up (which is infrequent) it doesn't make a big noise. I've never had the chance to check a M6800.

 

Just to report that I managed to install the 980M on the M6700.

*RANT MODE ON* Disassembly went well apart from one of the palmrest M2x3 screws which was not only tightened pretty well, but also rather soft for some reason (perhaps screwed to the heatsink below or something?) so my screwdriver just ate through it. After ten minutes of swearing and frustration at the thought that it was all for naught, a flathead screwdriver managed to dig in into it and twist it off eventually (good thing I got some overpaid set of M6500 screws recently for my M6400). The major problem was that the Dell Precision GPU heatsink seems to use different screws on its heatsink so you need the old x-bracket. But, the thing on my K4000M seemed rock solid and wouldn't move a millimeter (a miniscule part of an inch for you imperials) no matter how hard I pushed it with a screwdriver. I was already searching for compatible brackets to order from China, but decided to give the hair dryer technique a try (there was also some freezer option, but that sounded too radical). Anyway, after a few minutes of alternately using the hairdryer on low power and the screwdriver to see if the bracket is wearing off, I noticed a corner move ever so slightly so I switched to medium power and pressed on and the damn thing went off within a few more minutes. Oh, and since the new card has two of the inductor units on the left side, I replaced the thermal pad which was covering the one inductor on the old card with a bigger piece to cover the new unit as well. *RANT OFF*

Didn't have the time to test it much, but while running the new DCS World 2.0 for a few minutes, the temps remained at around 68 C even with my thermal paste application leaving a lot to be desired. I wanted to flash some unlocked vBIOS to it, but failed for some reason (will try some time later).

The laptop seems to be more often than not silent in desktop mode now so I guess the thermal paste change helped in that regard. Come to think of it, I was sure my overclocked K4000M was running stable at up to 70 C when I first started overclocking it to 950 MHz core, but recently I noticed that it quickly reaches the throttling point of 87 degrees (I don't know when it went sour exactly as I usually limited the FPS to keep the fan speed down). I can only conclude that the thermal pad/paste used by Dell got dry and rather useless at a certain point and if it is indeed what happened, I'd suggest to everyone to disassemble their M6700's and replace the thermal paste on both the CPU and GPU. It's a relatively easy procedure, for sure simpler than doing the same on my old M6400 due to a better design on the M6700.

Regarding the drivers, I couldn't connect to the laptopvideo2go so I ran into some guide on these forums and it turned out you just need to read your GPU card's hardware ID from the Windows device manager and then copy and modify any of the 980M related entries in two inf files of the drives (so, basically, I copy pasted four lines in two specified files each and modified their values to match my card's hardware ID). After that, the drivers installed as usual. And I'm still using the Windows 7 if anyone wonders (I seem to recall 980M ebay auctions stating that some Alienware laptop model needed to use Windows 8 or later to run them).

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. It is so choice.

 

I have an M6700 and I upgraded the 256GB SSD that came with it to a new samsung 850 pro 500GB SSD. Since installing it, i randomly get bot device not found. Probably 3 times out of 10 to 15 boots (I do not remember). It just happened, I popped the drive out and reinserted it and it booted.

My MB was replaced a few weeks ago and I did the drive upgrade after.

A couple of years ago, I tried a 840 EVO and same thing happened. I assumed it was a defective drive and just returned it.

Any idea why this happens. Could it be the drive comes loose?

thanks,

Mike

 

well I have been trying reboots and seems like every other boot the drive is not detected. I am not sure if this is the samsung drive or an issue with the M6700. Any thoughts? Anyone running a Samsung in the main slot? I have a 840EVO in my second slot for a couple years and no issues with that. However, a couple of years ago I did try a 840 in main slot and same thing of no drive detected. Wondering if it is a M6700 issue.

 

I have Samsung 840 (regular, not Pro or Evo) in the main 2.5" bay and it's never given me any trouble.

 

thanks. Did you put the four hard drive screws back in? With the SSD that came with the system, I took those out so I can swap drives easily. I ready they do not have to go back in. So it occurred to me that maybe the samsung is slightly different in size causing the drive to move a hair. So I just put the screws in, boot four times and drive was recognized. However, on boot #4, got some blue screen stating system needs to be repaired. I just powered off and rebooted and got into windows fine. Hoping this fixes it and the blue screen was a fluke.

edit: still have the issues, so it is the MB per Dell.