New M6500 Discussion Thread

On mine, everything is still running normally (except the graphic card!): under Linux, I can switch to text mode, and access anything with no problem (hard disk, USB, keyboard, ...)

I had the same kind of 'color fading to black' on old cards when I had to write the X configuration by hand, and I made an error (bad refresh rate,...)

It's like the card had a problem switching to "graphic mode".

The trouble is that it's happenning under Linux (where I have some control on the parameters, if needed: write the X configuration by hand, but where I can't get any support from Dell), but also under Windows (where I have no control, no log file to analyse,...).

Is it software related? Hardware? Anybody had the same problem?

 

Which graphics card do you have installed? I read something about an FX 3800M in an earlier post but it was not clear if that's the one you actually have. Additionally which graphics driver do you use?

I observed two problems with NVIDIAs proprietary driver:
1. 190 series: When my 2800M had to do some heavy OpenGL stuff it overheated, which caused temporary deactivation of the OpenGL support. Games that rely on OpenGL crashed but the stability of the X-Server or the whole systems was not affected by that.
2. 195 series: Some OpenGL games like Supertuxkart 0.7 (reproducible) or Torcs (not reproducible) crashed due to erroneous memory accesses by the graphics driver.

With the 260 driver I have none of these problems. When I still used 190 I could circumvent the first one by manually increasing the fan speed for the graphics fan.

 

My graphics card model is in my signature: Quadro FX 3800M

Under X (Linux), I use the driver 195.36.24 now. I follow what Ubuntu gives me, so I changed a few times already, and it didn't seem to make any difference.

Other settings: VBios Version: 62.92.a2.00.07

 

Can anyone tell me what the verdict is on the 32gb RAM issue? Do ALL M6500's support 32GB as long as they have the most recent BIOS?

 

I'm not even sure it takes the most recent BIOS (meaning even older BIOSes would probably be fine). Good luck getting your hands on 8 GB SODIMM sticks, though. Noone's seen any available for sale other than through Dell/HP.

 

the alein ware might be a standard but i know for a fact that the precisions carry the same cards... there was a guy on NBR who swapped a M90 and a M6400 GFX cards... the M90 had trouble but still displayed.


also to the above only the quad core models have 4 Sodimm slots. but there has been trouble with people getting the wrong board that has 2 sodimm despite being a QM chip

 

Well, yes. I wasn't really quibbling about the possibilities of older Precisions having cards that fit (although BIOS compatibility might be another issue).

True, I had assumed that he knew that (as 2 slots would require 16 GB SODIMMs, which aren't out yet at all).

 

Thanks for the responses. Your responses bring up a new question: how do I check to see if I have 4 dimm slots? Do i have to take apart the computer?

 

Partway, yes. The service manual for swapping out RAM is here. Note that there are 2 RAM slots under the notebook (accessible after unplugging, removing the battery and the lower access panel), and 2 slots under the keyboard (again, unplug, remove the battery, hinge cover, and keyboard). I _think_ (not sure on this) that if you only have 2 RAM slots, they'll be the ones accessible from the bottom of the notebook, and the 2 under the keyboard would be covered with a panel that keeps you from using them (or the slots won't be there at all). Better to check both locations just in case. Or, if you bought a machine that came with 4 sticks to populate all 4 RAM slots (I remember one of the early M6500 RAM configurations being 4x1 GB sticks...), a program like CPU-Z would probably tell you that all 4 RAM slots are occupied. That would depend on your specific memory configuration, though.

Edit - here are a pair of posts from asalcedo and debguy (with pictures!) that show the missing or covered RAM slots under the keyboard.

 

Great info, thanks. Looks like I should be good with the 4 slots since my CPU is quad core. I think the posts you mentioned were referring to dual core cpu's.