M6600 Owners Thread

there was a posting here with photos of how to take M6600 apart for upgrading RAM and SSD? anyone know where it is

 

Your best bet on seeing how to take it apart is to read the service manual. You even have highlights for the correct screws.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsm6600/en/SM/index.html

 

Maybe a youtube video?
Dell Precision M6600 Partial Teardown - YouTube

Two RAM slots are under the keyboard situated, other two at the bottom.
Assuming you have ordered your Precision M6600 with quad core CPU.
The dual core CPU Precision only handles two slots at the bottom of the notebook.

 

I just got my M6600 - One Intel® Core™ I7-2720QM (2.20GHz ,6MB cache ,Quad Core™ - 500GB Serial ATA (7200Rpm) Hard Drive.

Now, I also got myself 16GB RAM and 256GB crucial SSD. I'm going to open up the laptop for the upgrade, BUT i'm still trying to figure out how to do it. I've read alot on replacing the RAM modules and seem to be ok on this. With the SSD i'm still not sure.

the conflict in my mind is this: I want to end up with my 500GB Hard Drive being my secondary drive and thus replace this with the new 256 SSD drive as the primary, how do I do this? I have no problems with re-installing windows so this is not the issue. The issue is where exactly (physically) are these parts and am I able to swap them around. I presume the existing HD is in the primary hard drive slot, when I take this out where do I put it? will the SSD fit into this slot and will the computer recognise it? am I thinking and doing the right thing?

 

Have you already watched the video I linked above?
It shows anything you want to know:
Dell Precision M6600 Partial Teardown - YouTube

You put the SSD in the the hot swap bay caddy.
That should be the place, where the 500GB hard drive is installed on arrival. (on the right side of the notebook if the notebook display is in front of you)
The 500GB hard drive will be installed in the caddy under the touchpad/palm rest. (look at the photo above)

Two things I would highly recommend.
First: Put the bootable HD (in your case the SSD) in the hot swap bay caddy. (HDD01)
Second: Switch to AHCI in BIOS before os installation begins because there is standard RAID.

 

I recognize that pic - and my desk in the background

When removing the keyboard, be very patient and careful with the trim that goes around it.

RAM and SSD in the bottom of the machine is very easy to change out.

Make sure you take step to eliminate static electricity.

 

(My apologies if this has been discussed, there are now 153 pages and search hasn't brought me any results.)

I just received my new M6600. I have the quadro 3000m, and I'm using the display port connection to my NEC PA271W monitor. Theoretically this is a 10-bit color chain and I should be able to utilize 10-bit color in capable software such as Photoshop CS5.

But, has anyone confirmed that this is happening with the laptop video outputs?
Is there any way to confirm this along the pathway?

Thx!

 

I can confirm the clicking and popping in the audio. It isn't audible until I plug into the headphone jack with powered speakers. It doesn’t matter if I plug directly into the laptop or the dock. I have the E-Port Plus port replicator.

I can’t remember where I found it but someone else was talking about clicking in their audio (on another model laptop) and mentioned the IDT audio driver – which I believe is part of the nvidia driver. There are power settings in this applet you can turn off but it didn’t stop it on mine. If it isn’t a driver issue it might be related to power settings. I’ve been looking over them and have not been able to find anything. It acts like the power settings are turning the audio hardware off after a timeout period which would explain the click you hear every time it begins to play audio.

 

Is it difficulty to remove the trim? is there a danger I may damage it? I haven't started to open it up yet, I want to gather my confidence first, don't want to damage a piece of kit I intend on using for next 5 years! anyone whose done this give me same advice and confidence (why has dell made it so difficult to upgrade the RAM!)

 

using the photo above, tell me exactly where the new 256GB SSD and the existing hard drive should go? (so that the SSD is the primary drive)