New M6500 Discussion Thread

Oh yea, some SSD firmware does erase the drive when it updates. The firmware should tell you that, but do make sure you have a backup. Better to backup than to cry later, lol

 

Well I'm still having issues with my m6500, clearly graphics driver related, screen will suddenly go blank and start flickering. I've already resolved one issue relating to memory management.

Personally I've come to the conclusion that Dell's reputation for making junk is well deserved and I'll be switching back to either HP or Lenovo's mobile workstations in future.

Dell just don't seem to get the concept that if you sell business critical hardware at a premium price the consumer will expect that hardware to not only work reliably but for any issues to be clearly and rapidly resolved.

I suspect the main issue with the m6500 is the multitude of configuration options, have Dell thoroughly tested every single configuration (and I mean tested)? They are the Microsoft of the laptop world.

I assume they are probably too busy putting their next generation of crap together (m6600) to properly support a high end notebook costing thousands.

 

I had a couple of issues with my M6500 too, but they are were all software related. It sucks that great hardware can be brought down by crappy software, and drivers in particular. I basically only used 2 or 3 drivers supplied by Dell. The rest I got straight from the source and that has made all the difference. I hope that you can get your issues resolved because the M6500 is seriously a monster piece of hardware.

 

My personal experience is that these kind of issues can pop up with any manufacturer, even "reputable" ones.

Before switching to Dell/Precision laptops, I was a heavy user of HP (Compaq) "Mobile Workstations". The last machine I had was an NW9440. The first 4 months it was plagued with graphics corruption issues (thread after thread of owners complaining about this problem), only for it to be later discovered as a driver-related issue on nVidia's behalf. During this time, HP did their best to troubleshoot the problem, by swapping out GPU cards (and GPU cooling fans) thinking it was hardware related; only to make matters worse by installing the wrong replacement cooling fan due to a part number incorrectly listed in their own tech manuals (causing many people's laptops to overheat and fry). Finally, after all these troubles were eventually solved, we found out the GPU used was one of the well-publicised "faulty" nVidia chips (which eventually lead to my own machine's death).

I agree, the m6500 has a large number of configuration options making it pretty hard for Dell to check every single config, that said, my last HP machine had very few config variants and HP still dropped the ball.

Moral of the story? I suspect high-end machines such as these will always be prone to some kind of issue, given they are usually on the cutting-edge of technology. I'm certainly no Dell fanboy (my M6500 still freezes daily with no confirmed fix or solution yet), but having lived through technology dramas from two different manufacturers now, I'm beginning to realise gremlins are just part of life (doesn't mean we have to like it though )

 

940xm
16G M
Dual C300
Nvidia 3800

WEI - 6.9

Proc - 7.3
Mem - 7.3
Gfx - 6.9
Game - 6.9
Disk - 7.7

Why is my graphics and game score sub 7?

 

It's a workstation class card.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you are having USB 3.0 issues update your controller firmware and install the latest drivers from here:

SONY/NEC firmwares

These cats have the Renesas/NEC USB3 controller completely covered in terms of updates. The Dell website is seriously a year behind. No wonder everyone is having issues with USB3 being a fairly new technology. The latest firmware is 3025 and the driver is 2.0.26.0.

Since updating my system has been rock solid and...no more bluescreens!

 

I've so far only have momentary freezing problems, not lockups or blue screen.

I sought the Intel driver update you linked and received this message, "This computer currently contains driver version 8.9.4.1004, which is newer than the version you are about to install. Are you sure you want to overwrite the current driver with the older version 8.9.0.1023" "No" - I'm assuming that this is correct and I downloaded newer drivers from Dell support when I configured the new OS install. Seems odd that the Intel download would say that it's older.

But I did open up the Event viewer, and it is attached here. I do get a number of those iaStor0 errors.

I have a Crucial C300 256GB SSD, just to make that clear:

1. Checked that I have the latest firmware (0002). Which is good since I don't want to have to reinstall everything.
2a. I think so. At least following the storage driver link that LittleBlackDuck posted. That doesn't include the SATA chipset.
2b. Yes, the C300 SSD supports trim.
3. 4K alignment? If it didn't come our of the box that way, I could use a couple pointers in doing this.
4. Yes, windows defrag is off.

Attached are two reports from CrystalMark, one for the SSD and the other for HDD.

You guys are focusing on the SSD which might be the right track, but I thought that earlier SSD benchmarks were on par, so it'd be other problems. These hangs are "momentary" or minute and happen occasionally, especially when I have Outlook and several brower windows open. Still, it can also happen using my Solidworks CAD.

Thanks for the guidance. I have other Wifi problem where I can connect to a access point but not gain the internet. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

 

The Intel Rapid Storage Drivers load the SATA driver. The link is located here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...t=Intel®+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel®+RST)

If you have the latest, then you should be good to go with that. You have the latest SSD firmware so that is check. You also have TRIM support which is ideal. Also, your defrag is off which is excellent. To check the alignment, go to the start menu and in the search box type "cmd" (without quotes). Once at the command prompt, type "diskpart" then "list disk" usually your boot disk is disk 0. If it is, type "select disk 0" then type "list partition" it will then list the partitions. What you need to look for is the column that says Offset. If the drive was formatted by Win7 the offset should say 1024KB. Basically, you need an offset evenly divisible by 4. The reason is a long technical explanation but basically if it's not divisible by 4 you might want to repartition it correctly. To do that, you would just reinstall Win7 on it and delete the partition and remake it with the Win7 setup, since the Win7 setup correctly aligns SSD drives to a 1024KB offset which is divisible by 4.

If your SSD is all set then it may be some other weirdness going on somewhere. The easiest thing for you might be to load up the Dell diagnostics that comes with the M6500 and run all the extended tests. Especially run the full RAM tests and HD tests. If that all checks out then the next step I would usually go with is to check drivers. I would especially make sure that I had the latest drivers for all of my critical components. Also, having the latest may mean getting them from the manufacturer such as grabbing your video drivers from Nvidia instead of Dell. Do you have the USB 3.0 ports? Those were locking up on my machine and I posted a link to the updated firmware and drivers in an above post.

I also installed this Microsoft Windows 7 hotfix. I am not sure if it was necessary or not, as I installed it at the same time as the USB 3.0 firmware and drivers. I do not have the lockups or bluescreens anymore, so I can't be certain that this was even needed. However, it is located here if anyone is curious:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2265716

Concerning the Wifi problem, try to grab the latest Wifi drivers straight from Intel. That is a good place to start. Good luck man; it's all a game of playing detective.

 

since it's an aftermarket drive you reinstalled windows to, it should've handled the appropriate offset when you installed.

defrag is off by default on ssd components, so that shouldn't be an issue.