M6600 Owners Thread

However those screws are too long for the slots the missing screws use. I think.

 

Most retail SSD's today come with the standard M3x4mm fasteners in a little baggie unless you purchase an OEM drive in the static bag with no extras. Regardless, to answer your question, no, the M6600 does not currently ship with the extra fasteners in the secondary bay caddy. They should do it as they do include them with many other models. I agree with Star Forge in regards to calling up Dell if you do not have them or cannot locate them at a local hardware store or RadioShack.

Scott-

 

Thanks Scott. Heading to Radio Shack when I awake tomorrow. I've had computers in the past that lacked a cage/cradle and screws but never opened a system before delighted to see a cage and then totally disappointed that there where no mounting screws. It's like beer without alcohol...what's the point.

6 hours into upgrades, tweaks, and installs, this machine is one sexy beast. I also have a XPS L701x barely 9 months old that I have loved besides the screen. Come Saturday morning the XPS gets wiped and becomes my wifey's new toy. Then M66 and I are gonna make sweet, sweet digital illustration love.

 

My fans keep spinning up for half a second and then back down. It's really annoying. Wasn't there supposed to be a firmware fix for this? I am running A03 already.

 

They shouldn't be, unless people are missing screws that my machine (which I ordered with only 1 hdd) came with. Perhaps I wasn't completely clear in my explanation.

The secondary hard drive cage-the one next to the battery-comes with the screws necessary to hold the cage in the chassis, whether there is a drive installed in it or not. The "top left" (if you've got the notebook upside down, with the front facing toward you) corner of the cage shares a common screw hole with the machine's bottom cover, and the other three screws should have come with the machine; they're necessary to hold the empty drive cage in place and keep it from knocking around. What's missing is the four screws to hold the drive itself in the cage.

Now, the primary hard drive cage has little tabs on it that pop into the screw holes on the side of the primary hard drive, holding it in place with friction. However, it also has four screws that screw into the holes on the bottom of the drive that serve to lock the drive in the chassis, even if the latching mechanism is unlocked and actuated.

You can remove those four screws-leaving the primary hard drive completely secured by the cage's locking mechanism-and use them to mount the secondary hard drive to its cage.

Have you got Optimus enabled or disabled? Mine does the same thing if the quadro card is active and the machine is sitting idle.

 

Looking to buy the M6600 for college this fall. I have gone through this thread front to back. Can anyone with the M8900 FirePro tell me for certain that the Intel on-board graphics are disabled in the BIOS?

I just got off an on-line chat with a Dell service rep and she assured me that you could swap between the ATI card and the Intel on-board graphics through the BIOS. Dummy me, I didn't think to print out our conversation before closing the chat window.

If someone who actually checked this out on their system, could you please tell me one way or the other about the ATI/Intel issue.

I will hopefully be ordering this laptop for my CAD/CAM classes this first semester and need to decide whether to go with the ATI M8900 card (I do like to RTS game some, not much into FPS games), or the Nvidia Quadro 3000 ( I will also be using this laptop for work: Autodesk Civil3d, Revit Architecture, and possibly 3dsMAX), so any information would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks.

 

The Quadro cards are built for that kind of duty. I have the 3000M and it has suited me well. I can't compare it to the ATI card, but there is no chance it would be better than the Quadros for those types of programs. I use Autocad and Solidworks.

I'm not much of a gamer, but I have been playing a game called Just Cause 2 and it runs it very smoothly. As I said, I'm no gamer, so I can't even tell you if that means anything.

 

Yeah, I figure the Quadro 3000 will outperform the FirePro for Autocad and Solidworks.

I have use both Nvidia and ATI cards over the years. My current laptop has an ATI HD2600 mobile soft-modded to a FireGL 3500. Works fairly well with Solidworks 2008 and Autocad 2012. Biggest problem is 32bit Windoz XP. Need more ram for larger assemblies and XP just can't do it anymore for me.

Now if I could swap between the FirePro M8900 for 3d work and the on-board Intel graphics for basic school work, I would order the pre-configured M6600 Dell has for $2200.00 with free shipping, then I would have it when school starts.

As it is now, I will have to custom config one for the Quadro 3000 upgrade, then wait however long it takes to get it shipped here. Bummer. I really need the battery life, especially if I need to take this laptop with me out into the field for work.

The ATI card just draws too much power for long term use on battery only, and not being able to disable it is a MAJOR issue for me. I don't know if a BIOS mod would enable it or if Dell actually cripples the Intel on-board chipset when using the ATI card.

Hopefully someone from Dell is listening to this request. HA HA.

 

Dream on...

Anyhow, sounds like you aren't uninformed. What is the projected wait time on a custom one? I ordered mine on July 13th and it shipped on the 27th.

 

Lead time for the M6600 is currently 10-14 days and the 3000M upgrade is a free option at this time for USA orders. I would go with the NVidia (as I did )... The ATI has the raw horsepower like a corvette, but the NVidia is like a BMW... the ultimate graphics machine for school/business that also has the snappy power when needed... in a more efficient way. For me, the Optimus switching is a nice bonus.

To confirm, the ATI option disables any BIOS GPU switching so it is all or nothing with that route. For your specific needs, go for the NVidia.

Scott-