Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Someone already mentioned that a Dell rep said that secure boot support was coming in a BIOS update. Now, whether or not that rep really knew what he was talking about is up in the air, but bringing in that functionality through a BIOS update certainly seems feasible, as it is implemented entirely in the UEFI boot process in software (there's no reason that any hardware change on the motherboard would be necessary to support it). And you're right, UEFI secure boot it's a Windows 8 logo requirement.

I'd be more surprised if they opted for an actual different motherboard. I think they like to stick with one motherboard for all machines of the same model when they can. So far, as far as I know, only one motherboard has been used for all M6700 machines (regardless of AMD or NVIDIA, IPS or not, dual-core or quad-core, etc.), and the same held true for the M6600 throughout its life.

Most likely, whatever changes there are in A03 aren't important enough to warrant pushing the update out [immediately], and that's why we haven't seen it available for download yet.

(Maybe they have another update planned soon and that played in to the decision not to release it as well. Just speculation.)

Anyway... If they are planning on shipping Windows 8 on the M6700 on day 1, we should start seeing updates for drivers and whatever any time now, and questions will be answered.

 

Dell just blew it. My original ship date was October 11. It was delayed to October 18. Today I find out that my original order on October 1 was cancelled and resubmitted as a new order due to a "part number change." The Core i7-3940XM is now part # 319-1558. The order is currently on "hold" and the new delivery date is November 2.

Obviously I'm livid because I wasn't informed of these changes by my rep and the slide in the delivery date by this much is unacceptable. Anyway, I've asked for my rep to modify the order to Windows 8 since I will have downgrade rights to Windows 7 if I choose. I'm also told the system will be expedited (meaning it jumps to the front of the line) so I'll see of that changes the delivery date. I wonder if anyone else has been stung by this change. Anyway, the wait continues.

 

Well, this is discouraging. I was just informed that my order will not make its delivery date (big surprise ), but I was not given a reason for the delay nor a new delivery estimate.

Did your canceled order show up as "canceled" when you checked your online order status? My order still shows up as "in production" but the old part number is listed for the 3940XM.

Apparently my sales rep and a "customer care associate" are "monitoring" my order as well as "coordinating" with the fulfillment team. Also, they have both put in expedite requests for the order. I must say, I am somewhat frustrated considering this is my second attempt at trying to purchase a m6700.

 

When I was logged out it said "cancelled." This is how it shows up when logged into Dell.com:



On the "My Account" page is shows up as "cancelled"...

Let me know if/when your order ships or cancels. Also keep me updated on your ship date. I'm curious to understand why mine was cancelled yet yours is still being monitored. At least your sales rep sounds like he's taking care of things.

I'm guessing both of us are stuck dealing with the new 3x40 series Ivy Bridge processors along with the launch of Windows 8. I'm hoping my unit ships before Intel gets Haswell out the door.

 

I'm so glad you mentioned that since this can many times be underestimate. Especially when discussing exchanging, updating, and removing or replacing parts. Although the process may be simple, the actually procedure might be complicated by other factors such as size, fragility and/or the lack of specific tools.

For example, screwing in a light bulb might seem simple, but if its buried deep within a recess, behind a panel, held in place by dual claps that need to be removed simultaneously and turned in opposite directions, and you have 12 ft vaulted ceilings.... Well, you get the picture.

 

Driver update.

Today I noticed an update for the NVIDIA Quadro K5000M on Windows Update (on Windows 8). Downloaded and installed, it appears to be version 306.97 from NVIDIA. This version was released on their web site earlier this week but the K5000M is not listed as a supported device (even though it appears in the INF), you can find it by searching for GeForce notebook drivers.

Anyway, I installed it from Windows Update and things seem to be working fine. In fact, it fixed a problem I had with the Windows 8 Netflix app (released yesterday), which was previously unable to play anything, it would complain about my graphics driver.

I was previously running version 305.93.

 

I just updated to the 306.97 drivers, and ran 3DMark11 to test (I ran test three times each in case any caching etc.). This test is of course unique to my system, plus I run core/memory at 720/1700 using NVIDIA Inspector per Bokeh’s recommendation (and have since the 6700 first came out). So just use this to comparatively view the differences in drivers.

296.79 (original):
P5698
Graphics - 5435
Physics: 9342
Combined: 4667

305.93:
P5887
Graphics: 5663
Physics: 9428
Combined:4651

306.97:
P5928
Graphics: 5708
Physics: 9462
Combined:4681

So 306.97 look a little faster still.

I have seen some interesting, infrequent focus problems (windows grabbing focus or not giving up focus) while running 305.93, I am interested to see if that problem goes away with 306.97. I have never seen that type of problem before, and it did not happen when I first used the 6700 before I installed 305.93 so I suspect it was caused by them. We will see.

 

I was going to say "well I was running 305.93 and I haven't seen anything like that" but then I thought about it and I have seen something like that. I've had a couple of cases where a window would be stuck in "always-on-top" mode --- I was able to switch focus to another window but the stuck window would still appear on top of everything. Does this sound similar to what you are experiencing?

I had chalked this up to some bizarre Windows issue since I was sometimes able to clear it up by enabling and then disabling "always on top" from within the app (if supported --- for instance, Notepad++ supports setting always-on-top). If the app didn't have that option I would have to close the window.

I'd also classify this as infrequent, I'd say it happens maybe two or three times a week tops (and I'm using the machine 10 or 12 hours a day easily).

I don't remember this happening before 305.93 either so I will try to pay attention to if it happens again on these drivers.

 

Would I be correct is stating that you like seeing what your new sports computer can do? Since you mentioned you like to run your engine long and hard, I'd consider that glitch, a minor one. I think you agree. Incidentally, are we talking W7 or W8?

 

It is minor, I only bring it up because awalt mentioned that he is having a similar issue, and I'm wondering if we are experiencing the same thing. Windows 8 on my end.