List of m4600 problems

Hi all,

I just finished a fresh Windows 7 format after replacing my HDD with a Crucial M4. I think I have that brightness problem mentioned... Pressing Fn+Up or down pops an OSD brightness change icon but the brightness remains the same. Brightness cannot be changed from the display settings in Control Panel either (slide-bar does nothing).

Have I missed a driver? The OSD works though... BIOS brightness settings work too... :S

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

I've found that happens to me periodically, and the only solution that I've found that fixes it is to reboot the OS.

I've also had a new problem that has popped up with the A07 Bios, and that is the sound driver crashing, and not coming back until a reboot, which means no audio unless I reboot. I've also checked, and I have the latest version of the audio driver. Anyone else having this problem?

 

I have upgraded to A07 but and I did not have any sound driver crashes, but again I haven't used it for a long period. Unfortunately, the brightness control seems to never work for me (not just occasionally).

Can we somehow report these child diseases to Dell? :S

 

Apparently the engineers do see all tech logs for Precisions. I'm not going to take credit but I made it clear that I was having issues with the pci express and esata card and it didn't work on A03, 04, 05 and now its fixed. Its not something you have to push hard just ask if the engineers will see this issue and is there any expectation for a fix. There are not that many Precisions out there as mainstream laptops so I think there is a bit more hands on with support.

 

Now its stopped crashing as often for me, but its still having little audio problems. If you know what the audio sounds like right as you get a BSOD, it sounds like that. It will randomly happen for about a second or two, then go away. I can't find any cause, and I it seems to happen at random intervals. Any ideas as to what might be causing?

 

Did you install all your drivers in the proper order, per the dell re-image guide? Secondly, have you run through all the dell diagnostic tests and recieved passing marks on all your hardware?

If you answer yes to both of these questions then I would call dell and have them replace the motherboard. I'm super picky about my laptop and I'm not seeing any of the problems being reported here, it's gotta be a faulty component.

 

I just received an M4600 from my work and it has that same same audio problem - it's that gritty buzzsaw sound that is typical of buffer issues. Lasts maybe 0.1-0.2 of a second. This issue was there right off the bat, before I installed any software. This is an issue with the physical sound module on the motherboard?

 

I see that you're using an AMD card. I strongly suspect that this issue is related to NVidia drivers and/or Optimus power management.

 

Try setting the power plan to High Performance. I had audio problems while downloading when the computer was on the default "Dell" power plan.

 

Was a fix ever discovered the the "buzzsaw sound that is typical of buffer issues"? I've got the same thing, lasts 0.1 of a second - 30% of the time is triggered by a mouse click - but happens regardless.

Would love to get it fixed as its quite annoying. Thanks