E6520 Owner's Thread

So, much apologies if there is an answer earlier in this thread, but I have a problem that I had before, which seems to have again gotten worse.

Basically, with no explainable reason, my screen will start having this hyper-weird graphical glitching (square weaving pattern sort of thing). This lasts for about 10 seconds, and then it does a "power off beep" the same as it would if you held down the power button.

No BSOD happens, nothing dumps to ram, no event is triggered in the log (other than to tell me that it shut down improperly).

Because DELL is being stupid, I temporarily don't have warranty support (although I'm sure I'll get it back).

Does ANYONE have ANY idea what is going on?

I have both the NVIDIA 4200M and the intel integrated HD. I have the latest drivers (from both NVIDIA and intel installed). The OS is a clean, fresh reinstall; it shouldn't have any problems (and I have very little installed, overall).

It does not SEEM to be an overheating thing, but there is a potential that it IS caused by heat -- it seems to trigger faster if you have it in your lap, for instance (don't berate me for occasionally doing that -- what the hell is the point of a laptop, if you never use it without a desk?)

But it DEFINITELY triggers in normal temperature, normal rooms on a solid surface with nearly NOTHING utilizing the CPU/GPU.

I'm going to skim back through the pages a bit, but ANY help would be VERY appreciated!!!! I'll try to catch the graphical thing on my camera next time.

I'll seriously wire someone (slash paypal) fifty bucks if you can solve the problem for me. I should note that I am worried it is a model-wide problem -- I've had it happen to me on at LEAST 2 (and I think 3) separate machines.

thanks!

 

did you get your answer? It lists as its own host controller, with ports 1-4 available.

 

when you say everything went crazy ... do you mean it did this weird graphical glitch thing with green/black square pulsating patterns? Did you fix it???

 

A. Try going into your BIOS (F2) when you first start the computer and just let it sit there on your desk [or lap] and see if the problem occurs. While waiting, make sure your SATA operation is set to AHCI and your video settings are correct. Likewise, confirm your CPU settings are correct and various features, if any, that may not be available on your processor are not enabled.

B. If the issue does not occur after 20 minutes, go ahead and cycle the power. This time, hit F12 to get the manual boot menu. Scroll down and run the system diagnostics. The video will be among the first 4 items tested. The 4200M and the LVDS cable will be checked for hardware and memory errors.

C. If nothing wrong is found in the system quick test, go ahead and cycle the power again and start Windows 7 in safe mode without networking. See if anything happens now.

If nothing happens after 30-45 minutes, then it must be a driver itself or the order in which you installed the drivers. Always install the chipset, rapid storage technology, and sound drivers first. Then install Intel HD3000 driver before the nVidia 4200M driver. This will allow more reliable Optimus operation. After this, you can then install your remaining items like the free fall sensor, biometrics, sw enhancements, etc.

If a problem is found at any stage, please report when and where.

Scott-

 

All good advice, but I did all of that the last time it happened. The weird thing is that drivers don't normally behave this way, but it seems unlikely that it is a hardware problem (both because it happened on at least two different machines, and because not that many people have reported it).

Either way, diagnostics reports nothing wrong. What's your thinking on the networking idea? And why AHCI rather than IRRT? Both should work fine.

The real problem is that this stupid issue doesn't reliably repeat itself. sometimes it'll happen frequently, other times once a day or less.

thoughts? (and thanks for helping)

One more thing to add, actually-- I had the computer set up for 3-4 days in a row acting as a router (using mywifi) in high performance mode with the top closed. During that time, it either did not crash, or did only once.

It almost always happens more frequently when I am using it...

 

Where can I buy a caddy like this one?
Thanks

 

Appreciate this owners thrad and hope you can help me out. I am soon going to replace 2 old laptops with probably either the Thinkpad T520 or Latitude E6520. I am used to Thinkpads but the only advantage that I can see with the T520 is maybe if I can put mSATA SSD in along with primary HDD. Other than that, I believe the Dell 1080 screen might be slightly better and also the support from Dell might be better. Anyway, if you considered the Thinkpad, can you tell me why you chose the Latitude or why would you choose E6520 over T520 and thanks.

Gary

 

2nd Hard Drive Caddy DELL E6520, E6420, E6320 E-Module Bay [DELL-2BAY-E6520] - $48.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Scott

 

Hmmm... they more details you give, the more I suspect the LCD cable itself. If an intermittent connection or shorted wire is present on either the panel or system board side, the issue could pop up after thermal expansion takes place and/or the LCD lid is raised or lowered (causing the cable to slightly move and change the physical resistance of the connection(s)).

This would explain the elusive behavior and why the diagnostics does not catch it. It would also explain why the system resets when the video goes crazy (due to a probable internal line short). I would check both sides of the cable for obvious connection issues or small conductive debris inside the system board headers where the two connectors plug in. I would also remove the LCD carefully, and make sure the connector plugged in the rear of the panel is straight and flat.

Regardless, most of the time, the video cable in laptops fail internally where the cable enters the LCD hinge area, which is where they get the most flexing stress. I have not checked to see if the laptop BIOS allows it, but you can physically unplug the LCD cable from the system board and use the external video port to feed an external display at boot up. This would allow you to simply remove the internal video cable and LCD from the equation and see if that helps your situation while isolating the problem.

At any rate, this is a shot the dark, but may be worth while trying.

Scott

 

I like the Dell over the Lenovo mainly because:
- the Dell is easier to work on if needed (more field serviceable).
- the Dell is more cost effective (better bang for your buck).
- the Dell typically has a better warranty and customer support.

The Dell E6520 does have a mSATA half-height slot, but it may or may not be enabled by the current BIOS. In my case, I prefer using the media bay as a second HDD location, which works great with the caddy I have linked to above on this page. If needed, I have a matching Dell eSATA optical drive, but these days it is rarely used since the second HDD and SD card slot can support all my storage media needs.

I have tried many 15.6" class laptops and keep coming back to the E6520. It is just a nice all around robust PROFESSIONAL system that works perfect for me when traveling or when my monster M6600 is allocated to something else. I get great performance and battery life with the E6520 so it is a keeper for me.

Scott

PS - The backlit keyboard is a must have. Once you try it, you will never want to go back to a standard keyboard.