New M6500 Discussion Thread

I've managed to get something approaching a stable platform by using non-dell drivers all the way. There are hardly any dell drivers for the m6500 on it now. It's my really annoyance with Dell that they really don't bother updating the platform with the latest stable driver.

 

I'm using OEM drivers up to this point as well on my second 7 Ultimate install (decided to take a second try at a clean as possible approach post SSD catasophic failure and replacement).

One exception is the USB3 driver I reaped from the newest package dell had which I had "temp installed" on an HDD I was using while my SSD was going through the RMA process. Just pointed the Win device manager at that exploded dir and it installed it without any of of the application junk.

Tried the "new" touchpad drivers from Dell and the touchpad would lockup/become unresponsive after about 2 minutes. Dloaded them directly from Synaptics to get the multifinger support and all's well.

Question though; what are you using for drivers for the webcam if you have it? I'm assuming that the FIPS reader will have no driver support outside of Dell's own control vault stuff unfortunately.

 

I have this issue also! Its the only other issue I have. I am using dual monitors and sometimes neither monitor comes out of powersave, and sometimes one monitor comes out of powersave but the other does not, and most of the time both monitors come out of powersave.

Restarting would often fix the problem, i.e., a hard reset by pressing and holding the power button on the dock.

Is that what happened to you? Did the motherboard replacement fix it? I was thinking the dock replicator was going bad.

 

Further to my previous post regarding the random blank screen issue, I mentioned that a Dell tech came over and replaced the nvidia Quadro FX 3800M only to see smoke coming out of the laptop on powering up. When the tech arrived that first day I even said to him that I was happy to replace the video card myself but since he had already sat down I figured that if anything went wrong at least it wouldnt be down to me. As it happened I wish I had never let him start. After replacing the video card the first time and seeing the smoke, he then tried to put back my old card just to see if the laptop would power up at all. It didnt. So he arranged to return next day with the replacement mobo and video card, and after he left I had a quick look at the machine myself. There was a spare screw left over which he couldnt figure out where to put it. He had forced the back plate on and screwed it into place even though the plastic clips were not all in there slots. Luckily that didnt break any of them.

Anyway, the next day he returned and managed to replace the mainboard and video card. It booted up fine and I said I would keep a check on whether this fixed the blank screen issue. After he left however I noticed that the Palmrest on the front left of the screen had lifted up from the edge of the laptop. So after disassembling the machine again I found that the tech had snapped off several of the plastic clips around the palmrest that keep it in place. After sending Dell a photo of this and asking that they send a replacement palm rest, they emailed me and said a tech would be over next morning with replacement. I called dell and told them I could replace this myself but they said it had already been arranged. So the tech arrived and it only turned out to be the same chap. I told him that I could do the replacement myself and that he didnt have to stay. He said dell wanted the old palm rest back, so I told him to wait and I would take off the damaged palm rest. After the tech left I carried on replacing the palm rest. I then noticed that several cables from the LCD cable which were all intact previously now had some nicks in the plastic shielding where they had been snagged. So basically the tech hadnt put them all in the correct place and as a result this had caused the plactic cabling to rip in a few places. Perhaps this is what caused the short on the first replacement of the video card.
I covered these small rips using some thin strips of electrical tape so the wire is now covered again and carried on replacing the palm rest.

So a bit later on I was using the laptop and decided I didnt want to have the wireless On. I reached for the Wireless Switch on the right side....and guess what. It didnt work. The slide moves back and forwards with no resistance but doesnt turn the wireless On or Off. So I phoned Dell tech support and after removing the secondary hard drive I took a photo of the switch from underneath. It didnt seem to be connected to anything but I did notice it was directly next to another component on the right I/O board. I sent this photo to Dell, but while waiting for their reply I decided to dismantle the laptop yet again. There on the Right IO board the small plastic lever from the switch component has been snapped off. This can only have been done by the technician since only he had removed the Right I/O board in order to replace the main board.

So I am basically FUMING. I called Dell and they are now going to send out a replacement I/O board. And...you guessed it.....they asked if I needed a tech to visit. Surprise surprise. I told them I would do it myself and that I never want to see that tech's face again. Un..ANGLO SAXON EXPLATIVE..Believable.

So the moral of the story is NEVER let a Dell tech into your house. What a bunch of cowboys.

Anyway, now waiting for the replacement I/O board.

On the up side if there is one...so far no blank screens yet, but still early days I guess.

 

Without a doubt the worst story I've heard. That sucks, man. And believe you me, if that were my machine, I'd make it my immediate mission in life to have that guy fired.

Never had that problem myself, and I've had the same guy out to work in my machine twice now. He was completely professional, on time, quick, and positively meticulous (I've had the entire display replaced as well as the mouse on separate occasions, so certainly an equal amount of dismantling as yours).

Only reason I'm taking the time to post this is because I have a general disdain for "painting things with broad brush strokes". Just because your tech sucked doesn't mean everyone else's will. My experiences prove that.

Further, I can't remember the last time the in dealing with Dell service people that an actual Dell employee that came out to do the work. They're all contractors if I'm not mistaken.

 

Hi Spill,

Yes perhaps I have painted with too large a brush stroke here. I even feel a bit bad as the tech was at least a pleasant enough bloke. I could feel his embarrassment when he called back 10 mins after leaving as he had only just gone and left his toolkit here with parts needed for his next job

But I guess that's the way things are. You see it all the time. A corrupt policeman so everyone thinks the whole force is corrupt, a dodgy poilitician so the whole party gets tarred with the same brush...and a badly trained technician which gives the whole company a bad reputation.

In truth, when I called Dell I said that I didnt want to blame anyone in particular but did suggest that their tech's at least had 'some' training on the models they were supposed to go out and fix. This tech that visted here had never seen an M6500 before, let alone repaired one. A classic case of 'On the Job' training. In hindsight I feel somewhat responsible as I should have been more insistant on repairing it myself, but then I figured that if something went wrong at least Dell couldnt blame me for it. And at the end of the day these technicians are paid for supposedly knowing what they are doing.

Glad to hear that you have had great service, although I have read on this very forum of others who have had similar experiences to mine with their Dell tech's. I seem to recall one member of this forum who had a tech visit him in London and after having taken the M6500 apart got completely lost, then made an excuse that he needed something from the car and then never came back. Almost amusing if it weren't so frustrating.

We'll see what happens and hopefully this can be resolved. I am not a born complainer and to be honest a snapped plastic part is not the real issue. But the reason I bought this laptop was to use it as a DAW within my studio and as such I need it to work with my audio interface. Unfortunately there are still serious audio dropouts when running in Win7 64 bit, and while this may not be an issue with the M6500 itself but rather a compatibility problem between the laptop and external audio interface, so ultimately I may have to sell this laptop if these dropouts cannot be resolved. Hence I want it to be in the same condition it was before the tech buggered it all up

Anyway cheers for the heads up and will let you know how it goes.

t_t

 

Also, any news on any upcoming BIOS updates?

 

I have won the battle with the outlet script bots!!! Just snagged an M6500 with an RGB screen and 740QM for 1300....not bad.....damn script bots...

 

The DPC latency issue has already been solved in HWiNFO32.

 

Well I'm still getting regular freezes forcing a reboot. The m6500 is a complete lemon as far as I'm concerned. That's £4k down the drain on a laptop I wouldn't trust to send an email from. I purchased this laptop to work on not spend all my time endlessly trying to figure out what part of the system is screwing up.

I've had the motherboard replaced now with absolutely no difference. I spoke to the engineer replacing the motherboard and he conceded that the m6500 had issues, that Dell had largely given up on it and that the m6600 was only a couple of weeks away from launch. Perhaps you've all noticed that the Dell driver updates on their site haven't been updated regularly for ages?