Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

According to Dell, the Precision M6700 supports a maximum of 8GB per slot. (Not sure if anyone has tried larger sticks)
8GB sticks will top out at 1600MHz, and 4GB and smaller will top out at 1866MHz.

 

I have not heard stories of anyone trying a 16GB module in this laptop. I would be interested to hear the results but do not expect that it would work. I checked on Newegg and there are 8GB sticks that run at 1866 and those should work.

If you upgrade to a quad-core CPU then you will be able to use the remaining two RAM slots. Any mobile Ivy Bridge CPU should work.

 

I just had a HD failure with my M6700 and my computer guy returned it to me with a new HDD and only Windows 10 Pro on it...

Do I need to download any of the Dell software that came with it when purchased? I was on Windows 7 Pro before, not sure if I'll keep 10 Pro or not. Was not prepared for this, W10 is a mystery to me right now. I have added Classic Shell and Shut Up 10 on recommendations here.

There was an update checker for BIOS and drivers, there was a configurator for mouse/touchpad... I'm trying to remember others?

I'm going to have to send the old HDD to a forensic recovery lab to try to get what I can back from the old drive. In the meantime, I'm starting from scratch.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

Most of the drivers that you need will come in automatically from Windows Update. I recommend manually installing the touchpad drivers to get the GUI panel for it, and also the ControlVault/fingerprint reader drivers if your unit has one. And the latest BIOS if you don't have it installed already.

Otherwise, you should be pretty much set. You can find the downloads on the Dell support site or the full list here: http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/precision-m6700.html (Note, supported OS "WT64A" means Windows 10 64-bit in this list)

The updater tool that you are referring to is called "Dell Command | Update" and it is also available on the support site.

It's time to get used to Windows 10. It's clearly going to be mainstream for a while. Windows 7 (released in 2009, remember) has less than 20 months of support left and then security updates go away.

Backups from now on! You should always have a plan for what you are going to do if your hard drive takes a dump tomorrow, because hard drives always eventually fail.

 

One more driver that you want to manually download: GPU drivers (If yours is configured with a dedicated GPU).
Get them from either Nvidia or AMD directly as the windows update versions have zero opengl support

 

Hi all,
I've just got a brand new M6700 covet for my collection (M64 covet, M65 covet). It's now operating with I7 dual core and K3000m. I'm now having chance to upgrade to K4100m with 50$. Is it worth for?
By the way, if i put a geforce card into, can it still produce 10bit color space? i heard some info that only quadro card can produce 10bit color space

 

Hi guys I have been mooching around for the last hour or so and can't seem to find an answer to my question, if the M6700 with LVDS can work with a 8970m (clevo card)?

Any help would be useful as there is one on ebay with the heatsink as well (i'm currently sporting K3000m).

 

i have been offered to get both M6700 and M6800 for approximately the same price for the following specs
M6700
CPU: i7 3940xm
RAM: 16GB
HARD: 256 ssd
GPU: K3000m

M6800
CPU: i7 4810MQ
RAM: 16GB
HARD: 1TB
GPU: K4100m

which is better deal?

 

Hello, I actually have both of these systems, the M6700 is mine and I bought a M6800 for my wife. They are very similar, but I have the RGB HD screen in the 6700 which was not available with the 6800. It's an awesome screen and I would not give it up. However, as long the the 6800 also has the full HD screen its also pretty good. A lot also depends on what you plan to do with the system. The K4100m is a much more powerful graphics card than the K3000m, I have the K4000m in my 6700. Since my wife does a lot of Adobe Premier and Photoshop work so the graphics card was more important. For normal everyday stuff, both systems performance feels similar. Both have Win 10 Pro 64 bit and 64GB of RAM. If you go for the 6800, you will definitely want to get an SSD. I have two 1TB SSDs running Intel's RST Raid 0 and I don't use the msata slot. On my wife's 6800, the system drive is a 500GB msata SSD and the two drive bays contain 2TB HDDs in a Raid 0 setup (she needs the storage space).

Some other minor differences between the two machines. The 6700 has two USB 2 ports and two USB 3 ports, the 6800 has 4 USB 3 ports. The 6700 has a firewire port, the 6800 doesn't. The 6700's msata slot is 3GB/s where the 6800 is 6GB/s. The drives bays are both 6GB/s. Obviously the 6800 is one generation newer with the CPU and Intel chipsets, but that doesn't seem to make much difference. They are both fantastic desktop replacement PCs (not really travel laptops) and the best I have ever owned. They are also much easier to work on and upgrade than their Inspiron or XPS line of laptops. Frankly, I don't like the newer Precision laptops that came after the 6800. I think Dell has lost their way with them.

Good luck with your purchase, either one is a great system.

 

Windows 10; AMD Video; blank/black screen on some boots and use.

Hi,

I have a 6700. Had it for two years. At some point last year, the laptop screen started going black/blank -- sometimes while working and other times idle and when booting. This happened after I went to Windows 10. Fast forward, it now typically only goes blank if I have the laptop off for more than 30 minutes and turn it on. If I have hardware accelerator in Google turned on, the screen will blank out if I am surfing a lot. -- So when booting, it goes past POST and into small Win10 blue window and then blanks. It requires three reboots to hit the Win10 troubleshooter and I click continue/start Win 10 and I am good to go. Very consistent procedure. When I reboot or shutdown and restart in a short period of time I have no issues. Very strange. I tried Windows 7 again and it wasn't much better - failed even more; so I am sticking with Windows 10. I believe it is either a driver issue or a hardware issue where power is off and is draining a capacitor or something.

1. I checked the voltage of the CMOS batter and it is 3.2v.
2. I disassembled the entire laptop and cleaned and reseated all cables. Everything looks good.
3. I have all Win10 updates installed and the AMD Firepro M6000 driver from Windows Update installed. I did not install any AMD drivers/software programs.
4. I read somewhere on Dell Website that I need to install a Intel HD 4000 video driver before the AMD driver. I tried three of those drivers and it doesn't appear that either I have an integrated Intel video card; or Win10 is recognizing the intel video chip. I get errors and the install fails. Do we really have two video cards in all 6700s (one on the motherboard?).
5. I have the latest BIOS loaded and checked the VBIOS - all reloaded and up to date.


Does anyone have a 6700 with the Firepro M6000 AMD running Windows 10? Do you have the Intel Video 4000 Driver loaded? What version of AMD driver are you using. Anyone have this issue? Suggestions?

AMD FirePro M6000
BIOS 015.022.000.005.000000; 113-C42502A1-X21
Driver 15.200.1045.0



Thanks.