Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Could it be a driver error? It's the only thing I can think of right now and I know it isn't much.

 

In Device Manager the card is listed and shown as working. No drivers have been required in the past for Windows Vista, 7 or 8 on my other machines. The only driver error reported is for the fingerprint reader.



Also, since it screws up right at boot time this seems more than just a driver error, since there would be no Windows drivers loaded at that point.


UPDATE : If I insert the card reader into the laptop with a CF card already inserted into the reader there is no problem - no error logged, no system pauses. If I then "eject" the card using the safely remove hardware feature, leaving the card reader still in place, the problems are still held at bay. It is only once I physically remove the CF card that the problems return.

UPDATE 2 : Rebooting is also fine so long as I have a CF card physically present in the card reader.

 

Personal testimonials aside, I can tell you just from my research that it is glossy. The thing that makes it so great with blacks is also that which give it that reflective side-effect. If that's something that really annoys you, than you'll have to live without that particular screen.

You might also investigate glare screen covers. But I have no idea how much this would effect quality. They are abominations as far as I'm concerned.

If its any consultation, the Apples Retina is glare city. But it is among the best screens in the industry.

You lost me. What again is it that you hope to accomplish? And what brand and rating of CF card is it? Have you tried a variety of cards enough to remove them as the culprits?

 

OK. I'm a photographer. My cameras take Compact Flash cards rather than SD cards. I dislike the idea of having a USB Compact Flash card reader with trailing cables fitted to a USB port when I can have an integrated solution with no mess. Several years ago I bought a pair of Compact Flash card readers to fit within the Expresscard/54 slots on my two laptops I had at the time. There are pictures in this thread on a photography forum....

Express Card Compact Flash Adapter from eBay - Bargain! - Canon Digital Photography Forums

Amazon product page - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Compact-Fla...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273233434&sr=8-1

For many years they have worked without fault in two brands of laptop and under various versions of Windows. When choosing the M6700 it was a close decision between this machine or a Macbook Pro Retina. Both have pros and cons for me. One pro for the M6700 was the inclusion of an Expresscard/54 slot. With the Mac a card reader would be an inevitable necessity, incurring additional expense (trivial) but the blight of trailing cables and one additional peripheral to clutter up my workspace.

So, what I have found is that if I fit either of my card readers into the M6700 they cause huge delays to boot times and cause Management Console functions and other processes (e.g. Chrome) to hang for several seconds, if fitted without a CF card inserted. These problems are eliminated if I leave a CF card in the reader. However, most of the time the CF cards are in my cameras, and not in the laptop, and I don't want to have a CF card sticking out of the machine all day long simply to have it working properly. Equally, having enjoyed many trouble free years with the card readers left empty in my other two laptops I do not wish to have to resort to removing the card reader altogether and then finding somewhere to store it and remembering to make sure I have it with me whenever I move the laptop. I want to leave the card reader installed permanently and be free to insert and remove CF cards as I like. That's how it used to be with my previous machines. It is no longer like that with the M6700.

The answer I am seeking is how to overcome the problem with slow boot times and system hanging when I leave the empty card reader in the machine. While I have reasonable computer competence I'm afraid this one has got me beat. Maybe it is something to do with my UEFI installation of Windows 8, but I'm out of my depth on that one and switching back to a BIOS install just on the off chance of a cure is not an idea I relish.

The card reader is unbranded and bought on eBay. I can no longer find any sources of alternative CF card readers which will sit (almost) flush with the surface of the machine. The few options available today all seem to be of the Expresscard/34 variety, which all have a significant protrusion in order to take the width of the CF card outside the laptop casing. In other words they would also need to be removed for travel or simple mechanical safety when moving the machine, making them barely more acceptable than an external card reader. Of course, there is no guarantee that one of these devices would work with any more success.

The CF cards themselves are not the issue. It is the absence of any card which causes the problems. So brand, capacity and speed of the card is immaterial. The cards and the card reader work perfectly when a card is inserted. The problems only occur when no card is present.

 

I'm not really in the loop on the performance difference (if any) between CF and SD. I suppose something like this that would allow you to just use SD cards is out of the question?

 

I have seen the Covet and it has the most glare of the M6700 options. It also has the IPS panel behind it.

There is no comparison on color fidelity with the Apple Retina display. Retina Display is less than sRGB by my own measurements. More density, but much less color. IPS Panel on the M6600 and M6700 are in another league compared to Apple. I finally TRUST the colors I see on a notebook.

I have a normal M6700 IPS that is being replaced by a fully loaded Covet. By fully loaded mean Raid0 512 SSDs, every option including K 5000M, fast RAM, battery slice, I mean holy cow loaded.

I plan to fully document Covet vs non Covet.

Right now my biggest reason for Covet comes from my clients at work. They are always pointing at my screen in meetings. With the gorilla glass, I won't care if they touch the screen. Quick clean up and I am good. It is a lot like putting Hoya UV filters over my Canon L lenses.

 

Photographer here as well. I used to have the PCMCIA CF card reader, also sitting flush within the system. I had asked Dell about the missing PCMCIA slot in the latest versions of the Precisions, they told me that the PCMCIA card is outdated, so I should go with the 'newer' ExpressCard variety.
I've been looking everywhere, but it seems like all the manufacturers making the ExpressCard/54 CF card readers have phased them out.
Only the ExpressCard/34 type seem to be available. But getting those defeats the purpose of having the card sitting flush in the computer and nothing to break off, as you mentioned.
Disappointing really.

Anyway, one thing I could think of that would be causing the slow boot times, would be the boot order set in your BIOS.
If it's visible, you may want to move it down in the list, or disable it to boot altogether.
It just seems like it's waiting for a non-existent volume in the ExpressCard reader.

 

Sounds like hotplug issue with the reader itself or the reader and card combo. Remember, CF can be used as a boot device in compters so maybe check the M6700 BIOS to see if you can disable it if it shows up. If not, then contact Dell and open a case to see if they can address the issue with slow boot times with ExpressCard cards. Finally, you might want to see if you can post the hardware ID and driver version. Maybe we can find a newer driver.

ADATA SX300 256GB mSATA SSD (system drive)
Note: Just a quick warning about this drive. Yes it is fast but I would recommend against buying it. ADATA has not released LSI SandForce's firmware versions 5.0.3 or 5.0.4 which fix a major issue with TRIM (details here). Most other manufacturers have already upgraded their drives. Before buying any LSI SandForce-based mSATA drive, make sure you confirm the manufacturer has released the latest firmware. If not, then you're probably not going to get much support over the life of the drive.

At this time, I would recommend buying only Intel's 310 series mSATA SSD or Samsung's 830 mSATA (if you can find it anywhere since they haven't been released into retail channels). Intel will be releasing the 520/525 mSATA SSD soon and I will give that a "BUY" recommendation once I have tested it. As my experience has shown, Intel has a great support track record and buying their drives is a no-brainer.

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : [url=http://crystalmark.info/]Crystal Dew World[/url]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   270.530 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   254.354 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   251.769 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :   249.909 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    31.197 MB/s [  7616.5 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :    59.341 MB/s [ 14487.5 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   138.266 MB/s [ 33756.5 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   113.337 MB/s [ 27670.1 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [C: 28.7% (68.4/238.3 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/03 21:14:09
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Just for comparison here is an Intel 520 180GB SSD in the optical bay of the M6700.

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   251.126 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   171.056 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   229.615 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :   180.849 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    19.323 MB/s [  4717.6 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :    69.835 MB/s [ 17049.6 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   140.992 MB/s [ 34421.9 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   134.602 MB/s [ 32861.9 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [E: 45.4% (76.2/167.6 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/04 21:42:09
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Next 2 benchmarks...
Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device: unchecked
Write-back cache: Disabled

2x Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT 1TB 5400 RPM in RAID0 (In optical bay and secondary bay. Primary hard drive bay SATA connector broken.)

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   156.317 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   193.607 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    38.086 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    76.831 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.515 MB/s [   125.7 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     1.514 MB/s [   369.6 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     2.293 MB/s [   559.9 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.638 MB/s [   399.9 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [E: 22.1% (412.1/1863.0 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/04 22:11:59
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

2x Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 7200 RPM 0S03563 drives in RAID0 (In optical bay and secondary bay. Primary hard drive bay SATA connector broken.)

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   239.401 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   237.154 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    36.957 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    80.415 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.574 MB/s [   140.1 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     2.271 MB/s [   554.5 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     2.057 MB/s [   502.3 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     2.166 MB/s [   528.9 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [E: 0.0% (0.1/1863.0 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/04 22:01:48
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Next 2 benchmarks...
Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device: checked
Write-back cache: Enabled

2x Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT 1TB 5400 RPM in RAID0 (In optical bay and secondary bay. Primary hard drive bay SATA connector broken.)

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   149.115 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   189.891 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    39.556 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    75.253 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.531 MB/s [   129.6 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     1.832 MB/s [   447.2 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     2.365 MB/s [   577.4 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     2.030 MB/s [   495.5 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [E: 22.1% (412.1/1863.0 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/04 22:19:19
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

2x Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 7200 RPM 0S03563 drives in RAID0 (In optical bay and secondary bay. Primary hard drive bay SATA connector broken.)

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   239.210 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   234.686 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    37.352 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    37.473 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.574 MB/s [   140.1 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     2.176 MB/s [   531.3 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     2.069 MB/s [   505.1 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.704 MB/s [   416.1 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [E: 0.0% (0.1/1863.0 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2012/12/04 21:49:50
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

The WD drives are 3Gbps. The Hitachi drives are 6Gbps but connected to one 6Gbps port (secondary bay) and 3Gbps port (optical bay).

 

Same here. The main reason for going the E2E-way (with gorilla glas) was my "environment" always touching the screen.. I hate it!
The new IPS panel is bright enough to fight all reflecting lights (maybe except sun which I personally avoid *g*).

Cheers,
Alex

BTW: About the filters: B&W (Schneider Kreuznach) is much more popular than Hoya in Germany - therefore my "L"s only see B&Ws

 

I like your thinking. Not sure what the performance hit would be. SD cards have come a long way in the last five years. Two of my bodies do take SD cards, alongside CF, but my other two bodies are CF only. I also happen to have a bunch of CF cards already and don't really want to have to replace them all with SD cards. I understand on the 5D3 that the SD card slot is actually slower than the CF card slot, regardless of the card speed used. It's a solution to consider, certainly, but will require some thought. Thanks for the idea.

Under UEFI boot I am not presented with a list of bootable devices. The only option presented is the "Windows Boot Loader". The problem is so early on in the boot process that the delays occur before I even get to the F2 setup screen.

Hardware ID :


Current driver :


No problems evident in Device Manager :


Since these card readers work perfectly in two other machines, also running Windows 8 Pro, all clean installed by me, I don't see the issue being anything to do with the driver. There must be something wrong on a more fundamental level, outside Windows itself. i.e. the BIOS/UEFI implementation for this machine.

I can contact Dell, but I doubt I will get far. This is not an easy problem to explain and since I've wiped the factory install and recovery it would be a stretch to expect much support. Worth a go, I guess.