New M6500 Discussion Thread

I'm using one from Monoprice: "4826 DP (DisplayPort) Male to HDMI Female Adapter"
Seems to work fine and did not notice any lag.

Tony

 

Hi, I just got one today. I'm wondering if M6500 can be occasionally used with a smaller PSU. I've found some topics on this forum regarding 130W or 150W adapters, but they all ended without final comments.

Could anyone inform me if there's a small / thin adapter I can use when I go out with M6500? Will it harm the hardware?

specs
720qm 45W
fx 2800 75W
wuxga 15W
others the same more or less

 

I ran some benchmarks with different settings yesterday. You'll find the results in my signature link.

I checked it yesterday and there is no audio output via DisplayPort since it isn't detected as an audio interface. I guess I'll have to wait for a later version of Alsa.

Some time ago I ran some tests on full CPU usage of all cores, both HDDs copying big amounts of data, full display brightness and speakers on maximum but hardly exceeded 70W. Unfortunately I didn't know how to really stress the graphics card by then. In every day office situations I need circa 35W.
Others reported no problems when using weaker power supplies (afair 90W). So using a smaller power supply (e.g. from another Dell) should be fine. You'll only get a warning about the power supply telling you that the battery won't be charged and that you might not be able to get full performance. You may want to search this thread for posts by Bokeh.

 

After sending my M6500 back to dell for arriving and not booting as soon as I took it out of the box Im going to try again...reordering today...Tried an Asus G73...and while a good notebook, USB 3.0 port wouldnt work out of the box and support was non-existent. At least I know if i get the dell pro-support I can get someone on the phone and usually the issue fixed within a day or so..my laptop just needs to run...no funny business..so lets see what happens this time...

Also anyone have temps to post with an 920XM or 940XM? My purchase is budgeted for a 940XM but will it cause heat issues?

 

Found the solution. Just install TEXAS-INSTRUMENTS_PCI8412-ME_A03_R247353

HTH someone.

 

Audio out of the DisplayPort is only supported via a DP to HDMI dongle.

 

It will run with a 90 watt power supply, but speeds are the same or slightly slower than running it on battery power. It also barely charges the battery with the 90 watt. We occasionally have meetings in our training room which has 15 or so E6500s. I have plugged the M6500 into the 90 watt power supply several times without issues. Office applications and Internet surfing are no problem. Running CPU or GPU intensive tasks are much slower. At least as slow as running on battery power. In an hour with the machine on, the battery level charged maybe 5%.

65 watt power supplies will not allow the machine to boot. You will get a multicolored flashing light instead of the blue power light.

All of these Nvidia cards do 10:1 power saving ratios according to Nvidia's site. My FX 3800M pulls a min of 10 watts and a max of 100. Your FX 2800M pulls 7.5 to 75. The last time I used a 90 watt ps, I still had 2 Seagate 500gb 7200rpm drives in the machine pulling 5 watts each. My guess is that my config was close to a worst case scenario as far as power. You have 7.5 more watts to work with, so you might see a slight difference.

90 watt adapter charge times with the machine off are close to normal. I have charged my powered off M6500 with a 65 watt ps.

I might as well say that this is a huge improvement over the M6300 from 2 generations ago. If you plugged a 90 watt ps into it, it wouldn't boot. Just give you the error about it not being a 130 watt. If you plugged in a 90 with it running, it would charge, but it was MUCH slower than running it on battery. I didn't own an M6400, so I don't know which model made the change. I hope that the engineer or manager that made the M6500 capable of running with a variety of power packs - albeit with lower performance - instead of just being a brick without its brick has a little Dell plaque with a thumbs-up on it in their office. 210, 150, and 130 watt power supplies are much tougher to find than the 90. If the airline lost your bags with the 210 in it and you were on the road, you could keep working if someone else had a D or E series Latitude and was willing to let you borrow their pack.

If I get some time, I will do some testing to see what kind of power draw, charge times, and clock speeds you get with the 90 and 130 watt power adapters.

 

@Bokeh

Thanks a lot! It's rather comforting. I guess I'll try to find a 130-watt PSU when I'm out.

Please do the tests if you'll have the time. I'm curious in finding out the possibilities.

Again, thanks

 

My Covet arrived yesterday and it was quite the memorable experience. The hardware/exterior has excellent build quality but I had to reinstall everything after the laptop kept cold booting with a BSOD (Driver IQRL Not Less or Equal). One does wonder if the techs assume all Precision users are all knowing in the way of DIY.

The problem I'm having is that I can't find the drivers for the:
-Mass Storage Controller
-Broadcom USH w/ swipe sensor
-How do I disable/enable/config the BT?

And could someone kind enough point me to the colour profiles one of the earlier members created for the RGB LED LCD?

Much Thanks,
I
_________________________
Precision M6500 Covet
i7-840M 3.0 / FX 3800M / RGB LCD / Blu-Ray / Intel 5300 / Win 7 Ultimate

 

Just a curious question, what does everyone mainly use their M6500 for? Programs,etc