New M6500 Discussion Thread

Thanks theZoid. I will do that,

 

They should pay those guys better.....LOL

 

Well, seeing as he can't repair a Dell properly, he's probably never been able to make one work right

I've not really had this with Latitudes (Precisions so far have never needed repair - well, except for the M6500), but the XPS's - I had nightmares with onsite engineers who try and repair it in the fastest time possible. The only time that my XPS M1330's were ever put together right after a repair for example was when I insisted they pick them up and repair.

Fact is, a laptop is ultimately not designed primarily for ease of access/repair, and above all - a machine that fails within a month should be replaced, instead of having a repair potentially lemonise it. Dell reps will go 'well you have the warranty', but the point is that you should not need to use it with a properly built machine that is working all right.

I've still lingering issues with the M6500's, but I am currently sticking to my guns that they should replace each time instead of repair, despite the downtime - since these are issues from new. My rep and those above the chain are aware that a lot more than a couple of M6500's is riding on them being as helpful as possible, so at the moment they are accomodating my demands - and Prosupport care itself (although maybe not their contracted engineers, who knows) is excellent to start with.

However I have to say the extended uncertainty as to the ultimate resolution of various problems is starting to really pee me off, and we didn't get off to the right start either, with a huge delay and obviously defective initial hardware.

 

Well, my laptop had an issue from the moment I received it, and they wished for me to confirm thoroughly that it was not a software problem. That was done, and they changed motherboard and graphics card yesterday.
Unfortunately, that solved nothing (lovely periodic faults.. *sigh*), and we scheduled for them to come over on Tuesday (I am busy until then) to change CPU and RAM -- which has so far passed every diagnostic we could put it through..


Ah well, will have to see what that does. If still an issue with the system they are not sure what to do -- perhaps a swap.


Oh, and yeah, the ProSupport CompleteCare package is very nice to have -- they are quite friendly, and they don't hassle about replacements and repairs. Their phone line is crap here, though, and they have foreigners redirecting the calls, which makes the initial part of the call a little cumbersome.

 

Having issues with my trackpad. This has been happening since I've had it and I've just lived with it while I tried to find a solution.

I've tried the Dell Synaptic drivers off of Dells support site... I've tried the standard drivers that come with the OS... and I've tried Synaptics generic drivers.

the problem I have is that after some time (not immediate but after about 5 hours or so) my cursor/arrow no longer responds or responds only intermitently. Someotimes as I move the mouse point via the trackpad it gets stuck at window/frame borders. For example, within Outlook 2007 I sometimes get stuck within the confines of the preview frame/window.

If I do a reboot then the problem goes away and it is fine again for another 5-6 hrs. Sometimes it is fine for days at a time.

I'm going to do a fresh install this weekend to see if that helps. If not, then I'm calling Dell to see about fixing or replacing the trackpad.

But has anyone else had these issues?

 

No freezes that are related to time used or powered on, though I may be calling them to replace mine as well. I've used three different drivers... the OEM ones installed, then post fresh install of Win7 I've used the Microsoft driver as well as a version directly from synaptics. Upon close examination, it appears that the left side of my the pad on my machine has a bump that's hard to notice unless you're looking/feeling for it... left side is just higher/uneven compared to the rest of the pad. This causes some pretty erratic behavior depending on what you're trying to accomplish. Double finger scrolling is a crap shoot at best, maybe working 50% of the time you try to start scrolling.

Frankly if I could have one "wish" or capability for modifying this thing, it would be to incorporate the glass trackpad from my Macbook Pro into the chassis. If there's one thing they got right on those machines, it's the trackpad. Have yet to use a pc based unit with a synaptics or alps pad that didn't suck out loud regardless of driver.

 

Who on the forum has the mini-SSD card? i.e. the 64GB card? Dell told me you can't order it as a replacement part, it has to be ordered when the machine is built....this doesn't make sense.

I'm also looking at SSD's.....recommendations appreciated. Thanks.

 

Well, on my 3rd 6500 and finally I have one that I can hold onto!

Thank God that crap is all over! Oh and if Dell offers to have someone come out and replace the bottom chassi tell them to shove it up thier *** because the tech is not going to be able to put it back together the way it came from the factory!

 

First-time poster. Like so many others, I have reached this, the end of this thread, sequentially, trying to be as well informed as possible for this $4000 expenditure. Bokeh, MannyA, keithsnell, skypx, theZoid, havoctex, gradx, Gordyboyuk, absynthe21, dezoris, tomcom2k, and so many others, you all have been so enourmously helpful and generous with your advice, experiences, warnings, and photographs. A big, heartfelt "Thank you" for being so selflessly interested in helping others.

Below is a description of the wait-wait-be-sure-wait-wait buying and configuring process that I have been going though for the M6500. As a newcomer to this community, I hope I am not being out-of-line or offensive in writing my first post in Bulwer-Lytton Contest style. For those who don't know, the B-L contest is a competition to write the worst opening paragraph for a novel. The only requirement, I think, is that the entry be a single sentence.

Here goes...

 

By golly, that really WAS a single sentence.