New M6500 Discussion Thread

hehe....I've just done a new install prior to running that program....Dropbox keeps all my valuables Nothing scary here....

 

I understand what you mean, but I see no reason for this. Many Windows users like their black boxes that don't confuse them with technical details. That's ok. Nevertheless every program should have some "advanced" button that gives you the technical background if you want it.

It's a question of freedom of choice. Why should I buy an operating system of that I know in advance that I have no use for it? Just imagine the M6500 (or any other main stream computer) was only available with Solaris preinstalled. Would you accept that if you know that it's clearly against the laws? This was my reason not to buy it with Windows.
The reason why I wanted to have it with RHEL was that it was advertised to be available with it. Frankly I'm no RHEL user (anymore), but Red Hat does really a lot for the Linux community. Therefore I'd rather donate to a company that also helps Debian users like myself than to one that tries to restrict the freedom of choice of people wherever it can.

btw: The M6500 is not fully compatible with RHEL 5.x. I tried it with CentOS, and the Ibex Peak audio chipset has a bug that is not handled by kernels before 2.6.30, which leads to non working speakers (the headphone jack works).
So the argument that mentioning RHEL in the list is just for compatibility reasons does not apply.

 

I talked (chatted) with Dell yesterday and specifically asked about the mounting hardware for a second drive, if it wasn't installed during build. The guy I chatted with told me the only way I could get the mounting hardware is if I ordered the hard drive itself from Dell. So, the cost of the mounting hardware is really the cost of an overpriced drive. Seems very screwy to me.

 

That's quite odd. Mine came with mounting brackets, so I had no troubles installing my extra 640GB HDD.

I will keep an eye on whether my new one will come with brackets..

Getting the M6500 Covet model in ~10 days time, and this current M6500 is going back to Dell for lab testing. They gave up trying to fix it, and decided they'd prefer to have it back, and due to it never having worked correctly since I recieved it, they also decided to give me a "slight" upgrade for my troubles

Has anyone seen the White LED vs RGB LED screens beside each other? Wondering whether the difference is noticeable.

 

Hey guys and gals,

I just wanted to touch base. I went with the following:

Mobile Precision M6500, Carbide Silver
Intel Core i7-920XM Quad Core 2.00GHz 8MB for M6500 (317-2584)
16.0GB, DDR3-1333 SDRAM, 4 DIMM
nVidia Quadro FX 3800M, 1.0GB DDR3
250GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive
17" UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display
Integrated megapixel VGA webcam with single digital microphone
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

I do a lot of heavy CAD modeling and wanted something that could keep up with my desktop. So far, so good!

The display on this is gorgeous! I went for the non-glossy, and it’s just a bit less matt than my old HP NW9440. Definitely doesn’t have glare issues, yet provides a deep, vibrant display which I haven’t seen on matt displays before . Also, it’s not so bright that it’s hard on the eyes (as I previously feared).

I plan on dropping a RealSSD C300 into this but I’m going to wait until they solve the issue of bricked drives!

One hiccup: When I started using this, I noticed the touchpad behavior was erratic. The cursor would often jump several inches on the screen even while I was sure my finger was steady on the pad. This made the touchpad unusable for me. While trying to fix the issue in the gestures setting, I inadvertently uninstalled the Synaptics driver. Upon reboot, the default windows driver took over. The jumpy mouse issue was gone (!), but so was my ability to scroll with the touchpad. I decided to download the latest Synaptics driver from Dell. I’m happy to say this has fixed the issue and I have full functionality of the touchpad. Funny, I thought a new computer would ship with the latest drivers… maybe it’s a very recent update? In short, if you have problems with the touchpad, try reinstalling the touchpad driver.

Bottom line… the M6500 is the a very nice laptop. If you are considering it and have the funds… what are you waiting for?

Thanks to you guys for your help earlier on …

Best,


cbass

 

Just curious as to what this fiasco was? I have just finalized my order to replace my M6500, silver base model and USB 2.0, with the covet model -- which has USB 3.0. Not that I specifically need it yet, though.

Anyhow, what fiasco? I am hoping it won't mean any more issues and compatibility hiccups, since I was assured USB 3.0 was compatible with 2.0 units perfectly (which should be true, in theory).

Have not had a fully functional system since 4th of January -- long story, huge case, many unfortunate combinations of mistakes from Dells side. Hoping it will all be over when I get the Covet model in 10 days time
.. hoping

 

No worries mate....they just switched from USB 2.0 to 3.0 only 1 fookin month after launch ....everything built after Mar 2 is USB 3.0.

 

Not true to my knowledge? My M6500 was built in April, and came with USB 2.0 motherboard.

On the Dell site (admittedly, I am on the Danish Dell site), I can still select the following:

"Silver Base, Arrandale,USB2"

Anyhow, I just wanted to confirm that I had nothing to fear from my new Covet model when it arrives -- spent 6 months attempting to get a fully functional computer even though I have ProSupport and the full business package; took too damn long. But anyhow, the upgrade they gave me for my troubles is pretty sweet

 

anyone know of a good duplicate file checker that is possibly freeware? i wanna scan the backup external and make sure i'm not wasting space

 

Well, if you don't mind using Microsoft tools, and it is just a like-for-like copy of your files/folders you wish, I can actually recommend the Microsoft Sync-Toy
Download details: SyncToy 2.1

Free program, and allows you to copy over a folder, and make a rule that every time you "sync", it should either
*overwrite old files
* move old files to <filename>_old, and copy new files
* only add new files
...etc etc

It's quite handy, really.
If it is something else you need, try clarifying your needs a little more, and perhaps something will spring to mind