New M6500 Discussion Thread

I have one SSD and one HardDisk installed on my M6500.
RAID is disabled.

I want to make it dual boot, can I add another SSD?
Two SSD and one HarDisk?

Thanks, alon.

 

AFAIK you can add another HDD/SDD instead of optical drive ...

 

Perhaps administrator privileges?

 

Antonio,

Since you have the Samsung screen, I had posted last March a profile for use in color managed apps. See if this helps...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6100481-post3166.html

I have not been on here for a long time as my 6500 has been working well.

John

 

My M6500 has been running OK, so it has been awhile since I've visited. I just recently had issues with the slot load DVD burner in my system, so thought it might be useful to provide an update on that issue.

The DVD burner (GS20N) has never been great. When the machine was new my success rate with burning DVDs (mainly through Roxio and Pro Show Gold) was about 70% (with pro quality Taiyo Yuden media). I wasn't too happy about this, but learned to live with it.

Over the next 10 months the success rate steadily dropped, until near zero. I did all the typical troubleshooting (software updates, uninstall and reinstall drivers, check firmware, upper and lower filters in registry, etc.) then emailed Dell Small Business support with my issue.

I didn't hear anything back from Dell support within the specified 24 hours, so after waiting 5 days with no response I used the Dell recommended "chat" with tech support. I explained the troubleshooting I'd done, provided the error codes (track following error) and asked for a replacement to be shipped.

I had a heck of a time convincing the tech that I didn't need him to muck with my registry, reinstall windows, or any of the other things he wanted to try remotely. He finally agreed to send a replacement. The replacement arrived within 24 hours (kudos Dell) but also produced a bunch of coasters. None of my normal DVD burning software, including Windows 7 could successfully complete a burn (all failing around 30% full). I finally downloaded and installed Imgburn, hoping that all the good things I had heard about this software were true.

Imgburn would not complete a burn using the "auto" settings; however, once I dropped the speed to 3x, I was back to about a 100% success rate.

My conclusion? The GS20N cannot burn at anywhere near its specified speed, and the algorithms for automatically adjusting the burn speed don't work well enough to keep the burner from experiencing track following errors.

I'm not the first to have issues with the Dell slot load DVD burner, and I know lot's of other folks have run around in circles trying to get the issue resolved.

I wonder what the chances are that I can get Dell to replace the drive with a different brand? Anybody have any experience with the Teac DV-18SA?

Keith

 

Having the same issues with the GS20N slot loader.... abnormally high coaster production rate. It even has issues reading some discs that I can toss in the other two Dell laptops I have (equipped with tray type optical units) and read without issue. I've considered asking about swapping the drive as well. Keep us posted about yours if you don't mind.

 

Hello..

I see many recommendations for Acronis 2010 in this forum, I haven't seen much for 2011.

On Amazon there are mostly negative reviews.

Is anyone here using this version with success? Especially with SSD / RAID (mechanical drives)

Thanks!

 

I was interested to read this. I have been unimpressed by the GU10N (also HLDS) tray loader in my E6410 and am planning to ask Dell for a replacement. It is struggling to use media that were fine in the PLDS (Philips Liteon) 8A2S in my E6400.

The burner firmware should include a lookup table for each media type with the appropriate optimum settings. Ideally, the firmware gets regularly updated to improve the media support. I would tend to look for a Liteon since optical drives form a significant part of their business although the Teac burner I had some years back was very trouble-free.

John

 

just out of curiosity,
what are you burning to DVD'S / CD'S these days ?
why aren't you using usb flash drives?

 

USB keys can get a little expensive to give away.