M6800 Owners' Thread

It is normal for machines shipped with Win7 to come with "legacy boot" but machines shipped with Windows 8/10 to have UEFI. For a new, clean Win10 install, I'd suggest using UEFI.

Switchable graphics is Optimus if you have an NVIDIA card. With switchable graphics enabled, you should see both the Intel GPU and NVIDIA GPU in device manager. The Intel GPU handles light tasks and the NVIDIA GPU kicks in for 3D applications. Since the NVIDIA GPU can be off most of the time, you get lower power use and longer battery lifetime. If you disable switchable graphics, you are setting it to use the NVIDIA GPU only.

 

thanks. So to go to 10, is my best bet to go into bios, turn on UEFI and Secure Boot and boot from the DVD and start from scratch?

 

I am chatting with Dell Pro Support and they are stating if I do an upgrade to 10 from within 7, it will automatically change the settings in the bios. is that correct? I did not think it can do that.

Am I better off doing it clean from the DVD or trying through windows?

 

No. If you upgrade, you will still have legacy boot. It will work fine though.

There is a process to switch to UEFI boot but you have to switch the disk partition layout from MBR to GPT, a little bit of an odd procedure. This can be done before or after switching to Windows 10... Windows 7 also supports UEFI, but not Secure Boot.

I'd say, if there's nothing on the system that you care about, go ahead and do a clean install of Windows 10 with UEFI boot. If you don't have media you can get it from Microsoft for free (google "download windows 10") and it should accept a Windows 7 product key. When you boot the install media make sure you pick the option to boot it via UEFI. If you use the F12 menu to select the boot device, it will offer choices for both legacy and UEFI booting of the media.

Windows 10 will get most drivers automatically or via Windows Update. You will need to install drivers manually for freefall sensor, fingerprint reader (if you have one), and touchpad (it will work without but you won't have all settings available).

 

thanks. I will probably do a clean install.

Another question, I went ahead to upgrade the ram. System came with two 4 GB chips in bottom memory and none under the keyboard. First, one of the three keyboard screws were missing. Not a big deal, I have an extra from old M6700. next, the memory shield was not there. I am guessing because it did not come with memory there. Is the shield critical?

thanks again.

 

I'm assuming that you're talking about the small metal piece that sits between the RAM and the keyboard. (I've seen this on the M6700 but actually have not checked under the keyboard on M4800/M6800.) I think it should work fine without it, you may want to make sure that there's no way that pressing on the keyboard will touch the RAM modules.

 

yes. it is a different size that on the M6700 so I cannot pull from there. I am going to ask Dell to send me on.

Another question, system, came with a Hynix 920 SSD. I am going to upgrade to a Samsung 850 Pro. I have not pulled the Hynix out, but assuming it as well as the samsung are 7mm so the extra padding should be there. So all I should have to do is pull one, put in the other, screw it back together and that is it. Then I will do a fresh install from there .

 

Could you use K5000M on M6800?

 

trying to pop out the primary hard drive of the m6800. I took out the 4 HD screws and the one for the latch, but drive does not pop out. Anyone have any ideas?

edit:

I went ahead and pushed it out by pushing through the opening by the latch. Once it came out a few mm, I was able to grab and pull. I could feel it stuck on the spring. A little effort, it came out. Using a flashlight and looking in, I can see one of the springs is bent slightly. However, now it goes in and out fine. But when I pop it in, it stays, but I do not hear the "click" like on the M6700.

I think what it is, on the springs inside, one is rotated different that the other, so the end of the spring caught on the lip of the drive cage.

 

You know, when I first got my m6800 a few weeks ago I was really disappointed with the TN screen. Now though, especially after calibrating it, I'm starting to really like it. The vertical viewing angles are pretty bad, but it is very bright and colorful for a TN display. X-rite's utility says it has a ~750:1 contrast ratio and is around 300 nits at its brightest.

Without calibration though it is not good at all - it's way too blue. My display is an AUO B173HTN01.1, and from what info I can find online it looks like the blue-ness is an issue with other same model screens.