New M6500 Discussion Thread

That's probably because most people don't let dell software anywhere near that nice shiny new laptop they just spent a fortune on?
It's not really necessary,or indeed wise, (as you just found out),to install any dell code on your machine these days,(except bios updates ,of course)!

 

Yup, another "lesson learned." So how do I access the lower level functions (power management) of my HD to see what was changed? I suppose the easiest way to fix this is to swap out the secondary (data) HD with a "fresh" drive and hope the Dell software doesn't dictate the new settings for the drive.

 

I did do that system software 'urgent' update after calling tech support...I had no issues with it just for the record.

 

So since we know what the problem is stemming from, is there any way that Dell can get a fix out for this? I mean you would think they would be releaseing updates a bit faster for their FLAGSHIP laptop. Its almost as if they don't care about fixing what has been broken from the start.

 

Couple of new'ish questions for the group...

1) I reinstalled the OS when I installed my SSD. I'm not completely sure if that's when it happened, but since around that time, closing the lid doesn't trigger sleep, regardless of power scheme settings. Anyone else have this issue? Not a huge deal since Fn-F1 accomplishes the same.

2) What exactly are the passive/active cooling options for in the power scheme settings?

 

Check your power settings (what happens when you close the lid), it should look similar to the pic below. I have configured my laptop to shut down, but it can be configured to sleep, hibernate etc.



I've not paid close attention to the passive/active settings since when I consider passive settings for CPU cooling, it means cooling the CPU without a fan, and I have not used a CPU without a fan since the old Pentium 2 days.

 

Yeah, that's been set to sleep on the lid close event for both battery and plug for the duration. Machine and display are still both staying powered on when the lid is closed, though. No idea what's causing that event to be ignored.

 

I was wondering what all of you are using to clean the M6500 screen.

 

I use a clean microfiber towel if its dusty or a microfiber with some eyeglass cleaner on it if people touch it. I don't know why people find it necessary to wipe their greasy fingers on my screen but it seems to be compulsory.

 

I finally got my M65000. I immediately switched BIOS from ATA to AHCI and reinstalled WIN7 x64, with reformating the SSD/HDD.

1) Anything to care for when formating a SSD, like aligning?

I bought the Boot Manager Boot-US, with which I hided the WIN7 and the 100MB System partitions and tried to install WIN XP x32 from an older M90 laptop. I need XP x32 due to compatibility issues with my audio softwares.

The installation failed with a BSOD. I figured, I need to switch BIOS back to ATA, as the Win XP SP2 installation disc does not contain AHCI drivers. So I installed XP x32 in ATA mode.

I tried everything to install AHCI drivers afterwards, without success: whenever I switch BIOS to AHCI, Win XP start up Stops with a BSOD.

2) does anyone know how this problem might be fixed?