M6600 - my nightmare experience

I’d like to share my experience with a Dell M6600 laptop, which I bought last November. It was disastrous.

First, a little background: my aim in buying the laptop was to use it as a digital audio workstation (DAW) and I chose the M6600 because its previous version was officially supported by Avid, as well as showing good DPC performance in reviews. (As those of you doing audio work will know, low DPC is crucial to acceptable performance.)

The configuration I chose for the M6600 included three drives (a 128Gb mini SSD for the OS, and two 750Gb WD Scorpio Black drives for storage), and an Nvidia Quadro 3000 graphics card. The laptop cost nearly £3,000.

I ordered the laptop through the Dell UK website on 7 November 2011. It arrived on 16 November 2011. My first impressions were good: the exterior of the laptop was nicely robust and well-styled (e.g. slot-loading DVD drive); the screen was good; DPC was low (and Dell provided an audio/video power plan to optimise this further); the Quadro card was able to cope well with occasional gaming (e.g. Bioshock) as well as providing CUDA for Adobe CS; and cooling fan noise emissions were unobtrusive.

However, by 25 November, I had experienced the following problems:

(1) A flaw with the triple hard drive configuration, which meant that I had to physically remove the hard drives from the computer in order to install Windows using the DVD supplied by Dell; or to use the recovery discs created by the Dell software; or even simply to repair the operating system in the event of a problem. If the two Scorpio drives were not removed beforehand, attempting any of these procedures would result in either a recovery environment that did not detect the installed OS; or, worse, an unbootable computer.

Further, merely replacing the hard drives afterwards was not enough; they would appear under incorrect names in the boot list, and trial-and-error was required to make the laptop restart successfully.

(2) Bluescreen crashes. In ten days of ownership, the laptop crashed to bluescreen seven times, including when unattended; when opening the laptop lid; and when simply watching YouTube videos in Internet Explorer with no other applications running. The suspected culprit was the Nvidia driver, although the error logs varied.

(3) Problems with supplied software. There were seven crashes of the “IDT Audio” application in ten days; and Nview did not work correctly (either its grid overlay graphics were not visible; or Nview would not remain enabled between computer restarts). Both these programs were supplied by Dell.

(4) Bad audio performance over USB and firewire. When using the laptop with either firewire or USB audio interfaces (RME Fireface 400, M-Audio MBox2 Micro), together with the music synthesiser programs that I tested (Native Instruments Kontakt 3 and 4, Reaktor, Kore, Arturia Moog Modular V), there were crackles and glitches in the sound, sometimes when playing only one note. (These were not caused by DPC spikes. It is possible that the firewire interface issues were due to the chipset in the laptop being non-Texas Instruments; however that would not explain the similar problems with the USB interface.)

(5) In the specific case of USB audio, the USB ports on the left side and rear of the laptop appeared to be faulty, because sound from the MBox2 USB interface crackled only when connected to one of these.

In the course of discovering these problems I had literally days of phone and email conversations with Dell technical support. They confirmed the problem with the drive configuration and with Nview. They were not able to offer solutions. They talked me through running the laptop’s self-test sequence, which it passed successfully several times.

If you'd like to read the full (very long!) detailed sequence of events, click here:

Spoiler

Wednesday 16th November
1. The laptop was delivered to me. I used the provided Dell Backup program to burn recovery DVDs.
2. I decided to test the DVDs by restoring the system from the DVDs. The recovery appeared to complete successfully, but upon reboot, the system would show only a white cursor on a black background, and go no further.
Thursday 17th November
3. I called support and opened case #1.
4. The technician explained that the only way to use either the Dell recovery DVDs, or any other recovery disk, or to repair the Windows installation in the event of an error, is by opening the laptop and removing two of the internal hard drives. This is a flaw specific to the hard drive configuration of the laptop.
5. With the guidance of the technician, I removed the hard drives and reinstalled Windows. The technician and I had to go through the process several times with different combinations of hard drives in the laptop before finding a process that worked. Even then, there were problems with the hard drives appearing under incorrect names in the boot list when the laptop was started up.
6. The technician then reinstalled all the system driver software via remote control. This included the most recent graphics software that I had downloaded from the manufacturer of one of the graphics cards in the laptop, the Quadro. (This becomes significant later.)
7. I subsequently also updated the driver for the other graphics card in the laptop, the Intel HD, with the latest driver from the manufacturer's website.
Friday 18 November
8. I continued to test and configure the laptop. I did not install any software or hardware of my own.
9. On Friday afternoon, the laptop crashed to bluescreen while idle, without interaction from me. Upon restarting, only the Quadro graphics card was detected by the laptop (not the Intel HD), and the screen brightness was stuck at 100%.
10. I called support and opened case #2. I agreed with the technician that I would run a program (Furmark) to test the graphics card. The test did not find any errors, nor did the in-built Dell system diagnostics. However, the screen brightness was still uncontrollable from within Windows.
11. Upon further investigation, I found that the Intel HD graphics card had been spontaneously disabled in the laptop BIOS, outside of the operating system. I re-enabled it.
12. Later that evening, there was another bluescreen crash while I was watching a video on YouTube. I called support again, under the same case number, and spoke to a different technician. He suggested reinstalling the driver for the chipset and graphics card. After further troubleshooting, I found that if I installed the older Intel HD driver, from Dell rather than from Intel, the brightness was properly controllable and both graphics cards were correctly detected.
Saturday 19 November
13. The laptop crashed to bluescreen while I was playing an audio CD in the PowerDVD media software provided by Dell. The laptop restarted correctly after the crash, but when later shut down, it stayed on the 'shutting down' screen for over five minutes until I powered it off.
14. I called support, under the already opened case #2, to report these latest developments. I stated that I would be willing to completely reinstall the operating system in an effort to ensure a stable system. I agreed with the technician the precise order of driver installations, and that I would use only the drivers from the Dell website, not from those of the component manufacturers such as Intel.
15. I went ahead and removed two of the internal hard drives, reinstalled Windows, then replaced the hard drives. I again configured the laptop to work around the flaw of the hard drives being incorrectly named in the boot screen.
16. I installed the drivers from the Dell website in the exact order agreed with the technician (Dell system software; chipset; memory card; rapid storage; audio; Intel HD graphics; Quadro graphics; LAN; wireless; touchpad; control vault; USB3; free-fall sensor; Dell feature enhancement pack). I then connected to the internet and updated Windows. I installed other software supplied by Dell for internet security, the webcam, and playing DVDs.
17. I opened the Nview control panel to configure the display. Nview is a graphics card utility which, in the course of configuration, superimposes graphics on the display to aid window alignment. These graphics did not appear. I uninstalled and reinstalled (twice) the Quadro driver with which Nview is provided, but the problem was not resolved.
Sunday 20 November
18. I decided to install the newer Quadro driver provided by the graphics card manufacturer, rather than by Dell. After this, Nview worked correctly.
19. Later that day, the laptop crashed to bluescreen while I was watching a YouTube video. I inferred that the updated Quadro driver was the likely cause, although I cannot be sure. I uninstalled the newer Quadro driver, and ran a 'sweeper' program to remove all trace of it. I then reinstalled the Quadro driver provided by Dell. As expected, the Nview graphics no longer appeared when intended.
Monday 21 November
20. I was called back by one of the technicians with whom I spoke on Friday 18 Nov, to see how the system was performing. I reported the issue with Nview and described the steps I had taken with the Quadro driver. The technician said that he would investigate the Nview issue.
21. After the phone conversation, I decided that to be absolutely sure of a 'blank slate', I would again reinstall the operating system, and not install the newer Quadro driver at any point. Instead, I would stick strictly with the older driver from Dell. I went ahead, removed the hard drives, reinstalled Windows, and replaced the hard drives afterwards.
22. The technician called me in the afternoon. I explained that I had decided to reinstall. The technician suggested that we install an even earlier version of the Quadro driver from the Dell website. The technician did this via remote control of the laptop. It did not fix the problem with Nview. We agreed that he would look into the issue further, and that I would reinstall the more recent Dell Quadro driver.
Tuesday 22 November
23. The technician emailed regarding the Nview issue, to suggest that I disable the Intel HD graphics (in the laptop BIOS, prior to the operating system). I did this and restarted the laptop. Upon restarting, the laptop issued an error message that a program had crashed: "IDT PC Audio has stopped working". Meanwhile, the Nview graphics were now visible when intended. I reported this to the technician but noted that it was not really a permanent solution, because one of the graphics cards was now disabled.
24. Later I experienced a further IDT Audio crash when opening the laptop lid to wake it from sleep.
25. I began installing my own software (e.g. Microsoft Office 2010, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5; a complete list of what I installed is available) on the laptop.
26. The IDT Audio crash happened a third time when I connected a musical keyboard (M-Audio Oxygen 61) to one of the USB ports of the laptop, right after Windows had automatically installed the driver for the keyboard (which does not have any third-party software). The keyboard itself works without problems on another Windows 7 computer.
Wednesday 23 November
27. A fourth IDT Audio crash happened when I connected the musical keyboard to a different USB port on the laptop.
28. In the course of setting up the laptop to use an external audio interface that connects via firewire (RME Fireface 400), I changed the driver for the laptop's firewire port, as per the instructions of the audio interface manufacturer. This prompted a fifth IDT Audio crash.
29. I tested the firewire audio interface performance by playing some notes with a software synthesiser. This, like all subsequent audio tests, was done with the 'Pro-Audio/Video' power plan active, which is supplied by Dell for optimum performance. However, performance was not good, with glitches in the sound. The same software and hardware works without glitches on another Windows 7 computer. I tried changing the firewire port driver back to its original setting. This did not eliminate the glitches.
30. The technician called me to report that the Nview issue had been escalated, and that he would keep me informed. I emailed him about the IDT Audio issue.
31. The technician called again that day with a suggested solution to the Nview issue. With his guidance, I uninstalled the existing Dell Quadro driver; then installed an earlier version from the Dell website; then installed the more recent driver from the manufacturer; then reverted only the graphics card driver to the Dell version. The effect of this was to leave the more recent version of Nview installed alongside the earlier graphics card driver. Upon restarting the laptop, a message was displayed that the "Desktop Window Manager" had crashed. I restarted the laptop, and the message did not reoccur.
32. I tested Nview and found that it now worked correctly. However, it would not remain enabled when the laptop is restarted. This is not the intended behaviour.
Thursday 24 November
33. I reported to the technician my findings with Nview.
34. The laptop crashed to bluescreen when I was closing a third-party music synthesiser program (Native Instruments Kore 2.1.3). I have not previously experienced this problem when using the software on another Windows 7 computer.
35. I did further testing of performance with the firewire audio interface, using Kore and other music synthesisers (Native Instruments Kontakt 3 and 4; Arturia Moog Modular 2.5). In each case I experienced intermittent glitches that I have not encountered when using the same software and audio hardware on another Windows 7 computer.
36. Because the music software was sending audio to the firewire audio interface, I wondered whether reverting to the alternative firewire port driver would improve stability. Doing so prompted a sixth IDT audio crash, and did not improve audio performance. I then set Windows processor scheduling to 'background services', which is a common recommendation for audio performance. This slightly reduced the glitches, but did not eliminate them.
Friday 25 November
37. The technician called to say that he had reproduced the issue with Nview becoming disabled upon restarting the laptop. I reported the further IDT Audio crash. He suggested that I uninstall and reinstall the existing IDT Audio driver, which had been provided by Dell. I went ahead and did so.
38. Later, when I lifted the laptop lid to wake the laptop, and opened Microsoft Outlook 2010, the laptop crashed to bluescreen.
39. In an effort to eliminate any possible conflict between the firewire audio interface and the laptop software or hardware, I connected an alternative USB audio interface (Avid MBox 2 Micro). Like the firewire audio interface, this is known to work without problems on another Windows7 computer.
40. While watching YouTube videos with the sound playing through the USB audio interface, I found that the sound periodically muted. At this point, the firewire audio interface was still connected, although not in use. I therefore uninstalled its driver. This prompted a seventh IDT Audio crash. I powered off the laptop, disconnected the firewire audio interface, and restarted the laptop.
41. Audio performance with the USB audio interface continued to be unsatisfactory. There were numerous crackles when using playing notes through it using the Kontakt 4 synthesiser.
42. Some further experimentation with the USB audio interface revealed that the crackles occur when it is connected to any of the USB ports on the left side or rear of the laptop, but not when it is connected to the either of the USB ports on the laptop's right side.
43. Later that day, when I lifted the laptop lid to wake it, the laptop immediately crashed to bluescreen. (The USB audio interface was not connected at this time.)

After ten days, I decided to reject the laptop on the basis that it was not of satisfactory quality (as per my statutory rights under the UK Sale of Goods Act). I wrote a letter to Dell’s UK HQ on 28 November 2011, detailing the problems described above, including the long account in the spoiler tags. I requested a reply within ten working days.

By 19 December, I had not received a reply. I wrote again to Dell HQ. I also notified the company, HSBC, who issued the credit card with which I bought the laptop. (Under UK legislation they have joint liability for the cost if the item is over £100.)

On 21 December, someone from the executive customer support team called. I’ll call him Mr X. He offered to replace the laptop. I said that although I appreciated the offer, my understanding was that any M6660 with the three-drive configuration would have the problem of requiring the drives to be removed when installing or restoring Windows. I asked about the status of a possible BIOS update to fix the issue. It emerged that an update was in the works, but that any replacement laptop would indeed have the hard drive issue, since the update was not yet ready. Mr X suggested that I could choose an alternative hard drive configuration to sidestep the problem. Unfortunately only the triple-drive configuration could provide the space I needed.

On 23 December, a technical account manager called me. I’ll call him Mr Y. Regarding the hard drive configuration issue, he stated that “they definitely will fix it” in the new year, but could not say when. After Christmas I followed up to see if any more information was forthcoming. On 4 January Mr Y emailed to say that he was still unable to confirm the status of possible updates to resolve any of the issues, including the hard drive problem. I notified both Mr X and Mr Y that would be prepared to wait until 13 January for any more information. No further information came.

Because it was clear that a replacement laptop would have many of the same problems as the original, I declined the offer of a replacement and reiterated my request for a refund. On 16 January – the next working day – Mr X agreed to this, and arranged for the laptop to be collected the next day.

On 18 January I received an email confirming receipt of the laptop and stating that the refund had been processed and would appear on my credit card statement within 3-4 working days.

The refund never came. Looking at my credit card account on 27 January, there had been no transactions at all on the card since 12 January (which was unrelated to the laptop).

I had a series of phone conversations with Dell and HSBC on 27 January. The former were adamant that the money was credited to my card on 17 January and confirmed on 18 January. They provided a reference number, and correctly confirmed the last four digits of the card to which the money was credited. However, HSBC had no record of this whatsoever.

HSBC, under their obligations as credit card provider, refunded my money on 7 February. I never received the promised refund from Dell.

To be fair to Mr X, he was very courteous throughout, and even arranged a conference call with the finance department to check the status of the refund. Likewise the technical support guys were very patient and generally well-informed.

However the fact remains that the very expensive laptop performed incredibly poorly, shipped with software and hardware that did not work reliably or as described, and had it not been for HSBC taking responsibility under the Consumer Credit Act, I would have been left with no laptop and no refund either.

It’s a shame because the design, DPC performance, and noise emissions of the laptop appeared excellent.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I thought that if it were worth sharing the experience then it would be worth explaining it in full.

 

it doesn't seem dell intended to screw you up. since the systerm did registered that you have sent in the return unit, getting the transaction sorted out is just a matter of time. I am a bit puzzled by the process you had to go through. Doesn't it only take a couple of calls to customer support to get dell to grant you a refund? Or is it just how it works in Europe?

I hope you ended up finding a proper machine for your need.

 

I don't think it was intentional, but it is ridiculous that £3000 could disappear.

The reasons for the delay between my original letter and the return of the laptop were:

(1) their initial lack of response;

and

(2) the time spent trying to get a clear answer as to whether a replacement would resolve the problems.

As to why I didn't attempt to request the refund over the phone, I took advice from Trading Standards here in the UK who recommended that it's best to put any such request in writing by registered post. (As you see, the problems were many and complex, so would have been hard to convey over the phone.)

By the way - I still don't have a laptop! Currently browsing various options. HP sounds promising, but their UK website is terrible and doesn't allow any customisation of laptops...

 

I see you decided to go for a rather potentially safer but longer route than the phone. Fair enough.

good luck with your search!!

 

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I am currently using my precision m6400 with RME UFX (that's it, nothing more). Use it to do programming, sequencing and even bring the laptop for sequence playback with bands for various concert. Initially, I was a little bit frustrated with the firewire performance (ricoh, not good for audio). When I changed to USB, everything works smoothly.

I run Spectrasonics stuffs, Kontakt (HEAVY USER), Reason.......it runs admirably. I only had 2x320GB 7200rpm HDD with 16GB Ram. Also, I stream my samples from e-sata HDD (express card, not internal)

Just want to share my experience. Had used it for 3 years. Perhaps if you can get hold of a used m6400 or 6500, which will be cheaper (perhaps still under warranty if the previous owner opted for the 5 years complete cover).

All the best!

 

Thanks for the reply and good wishes!

I too have now switched from a firewire to a USB interface (RME Babyface) to simplify my laptop search.

Like you I have a lot of samples. I've been looking into laptops with two hard drives (possibly with second hard drives instead of DVD drive) for this purpose. I'm a bit reluctant to make the switch to a mobile setup but then have to carry external hard drives around with me.

By the way, what's the graphics card inside your M6400?

Thanks again.

 

My graphic card is the lower end nvidia FX2700 (512MB).

I checked again with DPC tools (latency checking for audio), it seemed to stay below the yellow line most of the time, thus, it is stable for audio.

Initially, I was thinking also to upgrade the 2 internal HDD to 750GB each and dump all my samples there. But, I foresee 1 problem, since streaming sample is going to be very intensive on the HDD, it's going to generate a LOT OF HEAT! (SSD might be different). Therefore, I kept my samples streaming via external HDD.

I have had overheat and processor throttling problem in the past, due to dust blocking the ventilation and heatsink. Thank God I opted for the FULL 5 years complete cover so at any given time if my laptop gives me any problem, all I needed to do was to make a phone call and the on-site technician will be here the next day.

So far, I am REALLY happy with the way DELL fulfill their warranty claims and their technical support. I'm from Malaysia BTW

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the reply and info.

I had the pro support cover too, but when I spoke to the technicians, they said that with laptops it's very unusual for a technician to be sent out. The norm is for them to guide the user, remote into the computer, or collect the laptop.

My impression from the technical team was that the on-site service is more common for desktop workstations, but even then, they will first see if the problem can be solved by the user (which does make sense, and is in the small print of the pro support agreement).

If I bought again from Dell (which is very unlikely, given everything that's happened) I would probably not opt for the pro support plan, because ultimately if the laptop is faulty, the customer is covered by Sale of Goods legislation for up to six years after purchase.

This is in the UK, of course, so I understand that your mileage may differ and perhaps you've had more success with getting on-site support.

Thanks again for your post.

 

At least you got that covered in UK, speaking of which, consumer rights is close to non existence over here, that's why the pro support plan was mandatory in my case.

Really, I wish you all the best in finding the laptop you need. If no other options, perhaps you should go for turnkey vendor, which unfortunately is not available in Malaysia.

Cheers, mate.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

 

I was able to get very low latency with external audio devices, but it was highly dependent on what software was running. It took me about an hour to optimize Windows 7. Most of it was disabling services that were not needed, getting things out of the Windows scheduler, and disabling background apps.