Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Just want to say thank you to @Aaron44126 and @TheQuentincc for all your help. I finally received my 6700 today! I was only able to purchase the i7-3940XM with the 1600x900 screen as the the 3920XM and the 3740QM were all sold out. The 3940XM seems overkill for me but this thing has barely seen any usage. I now know what you guys mean when you say the 1600x900 screen is bad so I will be in the lookout for a 1920x1080 replacement, will follow all the advice in previous posts.

I did though hit a snag in the initial setup. The unit came installed with an illegal Windows 7 Ultimate license and I am exploring on how to get it back to the factory state as it has a Windows 7 Pro sticker underneath the battery. I have accessed the option to revert back to the factory install via the F8 access but the Factory Image Restore button at the bottom is missing. I have tried to access it via "reagentc.exe /enable" through the CMD panel as some have suggested but no luck.

After a bit of research, it seems that Dell has the OS Recovery Tool so now I am trying to find a Windows 7 Pro ISO in order to create a bootable USB. I have tried to download the ISO thorugh Microsoft's link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 but when I enter my key, it states that my key is not compatible (OEM). I did stumble upon some sites offering Windows ISO but not sure if they are safe. An article by How-To-Geek has suggested a HeiDoc.cnet as safe place to download the ISO. Of course the other option is to contact Dell and see if I can buy the recovery CD.

 

You can find Windows 7 Pro iso on internet, for the 1080 display, you need to find a 17.3" 1920x1080 40pins LVDS display, I am not aware about screen incompatibility with the M6700, here is the list :
http://www.panelook.com/sizmodlist....180&signal_type_category=90&backlight_type=10
As you can see based on specs there is better and worse display out there, be carefull on ebay, some seller might sell a display reference but says in the description they might send a "compatible one" which could have worse specs.

 

...Just download Windows 10 media and use the Windows 7 Pro key to do a clean install? That should work fine.

 

Thanks! Will study the list.

I thought of doing this as I have Windows 10 ready to install. Will this keep the factory Dell partition or will it erase it?

 

Can you see dell factory partition in disk manager ? if not then you probably don't have the original hard disk drive or SSD that came from the factory and you can install windows 10 directly, I think that recovery partition are useless, everything can be download from dell website

 

There were 3 partitions, if I recall correctly. However, since I couldn't get the option for the Dell Data Save Restore and Emergency Backup after entering via the F8 key, I am not sure what those partitions serve as. I think you are right, Windows 10 direct installation from Microsoft seems the easiest to get it up and running.

Has anyone tried Linux distro POP OS with NVDIA support? I have downloaded it as well and keen to try it and make the machine a dual boot.

 

Is the A20 safe to install? I am currently running v. A08

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

Guess it would have to be this way till i decide to upgrade the SSD for one with bigger capacity, as for now my modded inf works fine

 

If your system came with a bootleg Windows 7 Ultimate, I doubt that the Dell factory partition is still around... You don't need it for anything anyway, it would be super dated.

I would recommend switching to UEFI boot before starting the Windows 10 install. Then, boot up the Windows 10 install media. Erase all of the existing partitions and then install on the whole drive as empty space. Windows 10 will set up a new recovery partition during install.

Almost all of the drivers will be installed automatically or come down from Windows Update.

No issues with A20.

 

A18 or A19 would run better since they didn't have patched microcode with decreased performance