New M6500 Discussion Thread

Frankly I don't care that much about dpc latencies. I'm still running BIOS A00, and I'm using the default Debian distribution kernel and the default alsa package. So there is most likely some potential for optimization.
I'm not even sure if Linux and Windows can be compared here. I just wanted to point out that at least in my case most of the latency comes from disk I/O. Maybe this information will be useful for others.

 

Oh yes, this works, thanks very much

 

Downloaded DPC Latency Checker.

OS is W7 Enterprise 64bit. OS Drive is an Intel X25-M 80gb.

Running normal apps - Firefox, Office 2010, Adobe CS5, Pidgin, Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials - with no efforts made to reduce DPC Latency, I am seeing latencies center between 149 and 267. There are occasional spikes up to 590. Usually it never spikes out of the 300s. Eyeballing the graph and looking at the numbers go past, I would say the average latency is around 225. This is all in the power mode of "High Performance".

Attempting to lower the DPC Latency I downloaded the Dell system manager and put it into the "Low Latency" power mode and disabled services and applications unlikely to be run in a dedicated studio environment. Latency dropped to between 100 and 175 with upper spikes to around 360 and dips to the 70s and 80s. The largest spike I was able to get was when I hit the reset button the DPC tool which was right at 500. I would put the average latency in the upper 130s to lower 140s.

Disabling hardware in Device manager really did not make a huge difference in the average latency I was seeing, but it did make the dips to the 70s and 80s happen more often. Disabling services and software made a much bigger difference. Running MSCONFIG and getting rid of the crap that creeps into your startup is a bigger help.

I noticed that resizing the latency checker tool changed the latency readings. Not sure if there is some kind of feedback loop being cause by the software.

Everything I have read says that if you can keep the average DPC latency below 500, you should have no problems. You should be fine on the M6500 unless you are running software that causes issues. Just treat the computer like a tool that you use to record things and don't install software that degrades the functionality of that tool. Yes, iTunes is great, but the services and autostart apps it installs like Bonjour, Apple Mobile Device Helper, Apple Software update, and Quicktime all drag you down.

I know that I have never had any issues capturing video with Adobe On Location or Flash Live Encoder. The most advanced Audio editing tool I use is Adobe Audition which is a couple of years old, but it also has no problems with multitrack playback and simultaneous recording.

 

Sorry for the delay in posting back, I thought I had subscribed to the thread and thought it was quiet....

Tried every conceivable permutation and could not clear the problem.

Thought I would give you an update on my situation. I contacted Dell about this and initially they tried new drivers etc, nothing that I hadn’t already tired myself but let them go through the motions anyway.

Next they send out an engineer to replace the screen and video card as that’s where they thought the issue was. No joy problem still remained. The engineer saw the screen and agreed that the problem was there and not just in my head! Also while on the phone to Dell they asked him to try the Screen test ‘Switch on with ‘D’ pressed which puts the LCD through its paces by displaying solid colours. The results where not good, it displayed a series of washed out screens with colours bleeding into each other. So now we knew there definitely was an issue. (Interestingly during the engineers conversation to Dell he seemed to indicate that they were aware of a small number of machines showing a similar behaviour and it was the subject of internal investigation)

Next day a new engineer with a replacement back cover (the thinking is that the cables connecting the screen were damaged and not passing enough power to the screen) Again no joy, problem still existed.

After some discussion it was decided to send out a replacement with the same specification, which would take 14 days. It arrived yesterday (Monday 15th Nov). Sadly they sent out a machine with the wrong specification, only 1GB of RAM not 8GB (although that’s easily resolvable), no Finger print reader (Again could be resolved) But the screen was only a standard XGA+ (1440x900) and not the UXGA (1920x1200) that I already had. But I thought I would check it anyway, It passed the power on test (Power+D). Good solid colours displayed as is should have. But after boot, you guessed it, the same grainy display as seen in the first Laptop.

So after another discussion with dell, they are sending out another Laptop this time with the correct specification ( I hope ) and we will see where we go from there.

Should I give up and get my money back, mmm, maybe but other than the screen I love it! The other option try the Nvidia Graphics card, well I would rather not as I prefer the ATI.

I guess we will see in another 2 weeks, at the moment I am using it as it does not cause any problems as such but as everyone who has seen it agrees for an expensive laptop the display quality is poor and not really acceptable.

The story continues……



Example of the screen when using the Power + D key LCD test.

 

Well quite incredible really. I remember a while back one of our fellow M6500 users had issues with a Dell Service Tech coming to his place to repair his laptop and ended up messing the whole thing up. Well, it has just happened to me now as well.

I have been experiencing random blank screen issues, similar I expect to what another user, ygohome had mentioned on this forum a few months ago, and so a couple of weeks ago I called Dell Support. They suggested I try the latest nvidia drivers which I did but since then I have had several blank screens again and the only way to fix it is to hold the power button until it shuts off. Really annoying when an unsaved doc or such is open, so I have been backing up every 10 mins now just in case...which I guess one should do anyways

So after it happened again yesterday I called Dell, and they arranged for a tech to visit this morning and replace the Quadro FX 3800M to see if that resolved the blank screen problem. I thought I would help the chap save some time by partly disassembling the M6500 so that all he would have to do would pop the new card in and reassemble.

When he arrived he was surprised to see that it was a laptop as he was expecting to work on a desktop, and when he sat down to start working on it he seemed a little unsure of where to start. After a short while I asked him if he had ever worked on an M6500 before and he said never. I tried to suggest that I was very comfortable diong it all myself, as with the assistance of the dell M6500 disassembly and reassembly guide that was available on this forum earlier this year, it was very easy to follow. But the tech seemed to think he was okay doing it and as that is what he is paid to do, I just assisted where I could.

Well after some fumbling around and a rather shoddy reassembly.....at one point not knowing where a spare screw came from although he finally managed to find its place....we were ready to turn on the machine.

On pressing the power button, the lights blinked briefly and the smell of burning components wafted out of the laptop, and then it went dead.

So after a phone call to Dell, or rather the subcontractor's office, the tech tried to replace the video card with my original, but to no avail.

So now they are sending another tech tomorrow to replace the mobo and video card.

But that still leaves me asking the question. Does Dell not train these techs first? I mean this chap had absolutely no idea regarding this specific model laptop and at times he looked quite lost. I realise that some users need a tech to actually carry out the work, but many of us know more about our laptops than the tech's do. Now whether this would have made a difference as to the machine spewing out smoke I don't know, perhaps the replacement card was faulty itself, but it could just be that the tech in his rush to meet his daily schedule didnt replace a component or cable correctly.

So I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow now and see what happens then. But all in all a VERY unsatisfactory "repair" job.

On a side note, I have been meaning to reply to Jeezo's post about DPC latency but wanted to sort this issue out first. But when I last ran DPC latency checker I was getting around 350 to 500 with occasional overshoots to 700 ish. On Win 7 64bit when using the onboard soundcard for audio, I would only get the occasional audio dropout, but since my main audio interface is a Sonic-Core XITE-1, until recently I was having to run that on a seperate Win7 32bit partition while waiting for the XITE-1 64bit drivers to be released. In Win7 32bit it works very well apart from these random blank screen issues. But since Sonic-Core released the 64bit drivers I set up yet another partition with Win7 64bit which I have tweaked as much as I can in order to use my XITE-1 interface on that. But as yet I have serious audio dropouts, and nothing that I have tried has made any differen apart from setting the XITE-1 Scope.exe and my sequencer .exe files CPU Affinity to use only the first 4 CPU threads.

I think that most people who use the M6500 are doing graphics or CAD related work, and very few are using their M6500 as a DAW. I think there are still some issues that need to be resolved for that kind of use especially when using with external audio gear...and yet one of the main reasons I chose the M6500 originally was due to the certification by Digidesign and Cakewalk.

I have seen many other DAW users on other PC's mention things like having to disable C-States etc in order to stop audio dropouts from happening, but unfortunately the only performance controls we have via the M6500 BIOS other than disabling various components, is turning off speedstepping and hyperthreading, and those made little difference or even made the audio dropouts worse. Hopefully Dell will release a BIOS update to resolve this sometime, although that might never happen.

Anyway, I will let you know how I get on after tomorrow. Cheers.

 

sorry to hear about your problems with tech support.

i had the lower case changed about a month ago because it was slightly warped above the latch-releasing button. everything was taken out and put back; no problem at all.

the only problem I have is disabled pointing stick - sometimes after hibernation or sleep the pointing stick is not recognised. of course it can't be enabled, either. i'll have to wait till the next time the machine wakes up from hibernation or sleep to have it working again.

fortunately, i don't use it that much....

 

re:Black screens/freezing

Not sure if everyone here is aware, but there's a looong thread about this problem on the Dell forums. As yet there's variying potential causes and no real confirmed solution. Dell have not joined in the discussion, and users are reporting varying levels of support or confusion about the issue from Dell.

M6500 freezes - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

 

Thks for this clear and complete feedback !!
The most important in the latency test is the spikes values not really the average ....if you run a buffer size superior or equal to 256 samples , yep 500 us is ok but under 256 samples you better stay under 200 !!

What is know to cause dpc latencies issue is the nvidia "powermizer" (the power management) , i wil be very curios to see result with the firepro GPU version !!

thks again !!

 

I had exactly the same issue after I formatted my m6500, installed 2008 R2 and then downloaded the latest nVidia drivers from Dell.

I replaced them with the latest drivers from nVidia's site and the freezing hasn't returned in over a month now.

It might be worth installing BlueScreenView which allows you to easily view the memory dumps. Helped me identify the nVidia driver as the issue in my case. Dell not keeping up with the latest drivers and after surfing the web it does appear that there have been issues with some of the more recent nVidia Quadro drivers.

 

Hi everyone,
Great tread

I just purchased my 6500 yesterday, so wont get it for another three weeks.

I haven't read all 500 pages here, but From what I gather the freezing might be related to the Fingerprint Dell software aswell?

I ordered mine with an ATI and no fingerprint reader. Plan to clean install Win7 when I get it. Anyone experiencing freezing with ATI & No FingerPrint reader?

Edit: I also dont have usb3.o

Cheers