M6600 Owners Thread

Sorry to have to tack this on above the quote. Typing on the phone again. It looks like the drive you have does not have any kind of eSata controller built in. It relies on the Intel the older Southbridge controller. The spec for the Intel Matrix Hard Drive Software included Port Multipliers in its features. The newer Intel QM67 chipset does not appear to support Port Multipliers because those they had significant performance issues. It functioned a lot like a network hub and didn't support any command queing.

In buying the add on card, you basically added on a raid controller. I can see WD going the cheap route and relying on the computer to provide pseudo raid, but Lacie is an expensive product. I would have expected them to include a raid controller in the drive. They didn't. They basically put the drives into an enclosure, hooked them up to power, and daisy chained the drives. The issues are coming from the fact that they relied on Intel's chipset features from 2 generations ago.

From my research, the i-Omega works because it was built to work with ICH10 which was the last version of the Southbridge controller. Intel didn't fully support Port Multiplication on it either. This is why i-Omega put in a raid controller chip. Intel quit supporting it.

I went through the Datasheet for the Q67 chipset. It looks like FIS Port Multiplication is supported on Ports 4 and 5. But I don't know enough about FIS to know if there is a way it could work. I did read that PM was not supported on any of the lower ports or in any AHCI mode.

Does this mean Dell could make some change in the Bios? Who knows. There could always be a chance. Just remember, Dell has to deal with Intel's choices in chipset features. The same Intel that gave us such turds as the Flash Cache Module. The same Intel that ignored USB 3 for the last 2 generations only to now include it on next years chipset.

While your overall statement that the eSata port does not work is not true, it may well be true that if your external drive requires port multiplication, then the eSata port will only see the first drive in the enclosure if any of them at all. It looks like Intel mostly abandoned PM. This is not great news for people with older drives. The $20 add on card is a decent workaround.

 

Didn't see the q in 2620qm.

 

Isn't the 2620QM a quad core? That processor in my XPS 17 showed 4 cores with 8 threads.

I would look at what brand memory he is using and if the modules are seated correctly. Remember, The memory in most Intel based system is not A, B, C, D.... rather it is A, C, B, D, so it is good to keep A and C the same make/model of memory and B and D the same if they are from different manufacturers. If all four modules are the same, it does not matter as long as they are seated correctly.

Scott-

 

Had no idea you could get the M6600 with a 2620qm. I know the 2620m is available though. Couple that with the two slots under the keyboard not working and him putting in 16gb of Ram which is likely 4 x 4gb of ram. It was an easy mistake on my part.

Good catch! I had misread. Been a long day.

 

There is no 2620QM. The lowest-quad is the 2630QM. He must of gotten confused but the 2620M is a dual-core not a quad-core. Therefore it can only take 2x8 GB as the maximum support RAM. I know this since I briefly had a 2620M M6600 in my hands and could not POST with the two RAM slots under the keyboard occupied on top of the two under the access panel.

 

The 2620QM does exist and is the base quad core offered in many systems. Below is a basic graphic showing the three most popular consumer i7 2nd gen sandybridge mobile processors.

Scott-

@ Bokeh
No worries. I am often in the same boat as you in regards to long days...

pic reference - Mobile Processors

 

LaCie 4big Quadra 16 lb box costing $700-$1300 with RAID 0, 3, 5, 10 options, hot-swappable, etc,: LaCie - 4big Quadra with several awards, and your saying it does not have a RAID controller ...

Western Digital and Lacie are not exactly small potatoes given that HDs are their business. I think Dell has a headache here.

From other posts Dell has been replacing customers M6400 because eSata with internal raid did not work, ... and now M6600 has the same problem. Does Dell sell something equivalent to LaCie 4big Quadra that they know works via eSata with M6600 internal raid?

As an aside, max'd out new E6320 has identical eSata problem. I checked the BIOS and its set to RAID. Why would Dell factory configure RAID when it could never have internal RAID? What's more it does not have Intel's RST so how is one to use any raid features is beyond me. On the plus side this is one light-weight, good-looking, well-built, speed-demon, but not cheap. Just like the M6600 the EC eSata card works well but it sticks out so far one has to remove before placing in carry case. E6320 boots faster than M6600, feels quicker, and does not have any mind-numbing static noise!

Can E6320 bios RAID setting be changed to AHCI without having to reinstall and configure a boatload of stuff? Thanks.

 

The 2620QM does exist, but it doesn't appear to be available on the M6600:


Only the 2620M is available. I'm guessing the OP got the two confused and it's not working because he really only has a dual core CPU.

 

Siorus is correct on the Dell options list. However, I had never ever heard of the 2620QM lol nor any laptop using it. It is always the 2630QM that served as the base quad core CPU. Weird...

 

Makes sense to me.

Scott