New M6500 Discussion Thread

That was the issue I ORIGINALLY had, but after Dell replaced the mobo and GPU, it started randomly black screening on me, not just when it went into hibernation or the screensaver kicked in.

Like, I can be in the middle of working on something and BAM! Black screen, time to hard reboot. I suspect it's driver-related (something is causing the Nvidia driver to puke) because the only time I have seen it NOT happen is when I use the standard VGA adapter driver (not an acceptable solution IMHO). That's why I'm wondering if there's a way to see what is causing the Nvidia driver to crash (nothing in the system logs, sadly).

Oh, and I've tried using the latest Nvidia driver to no avail.

Anyway, it's really, REALLY annoying.

 

Sounds like the last link in the chain to look into would be the display itself. If they've replaced everything else up to this point, then that shouldn't be an issue really (I've had my rgb-led replaced once already anyways).

 

Wouldn't my external display still work though (it dies too)? I did the "Dell recommended order for installing drivers" on a clean Win7 install and that did not resolve it. It's definitely hardware, and it's definitely related to the nvidia driver...

 

Did Dell have two different web cam camera's in the M6500?

Different resolutions?

Any one know the Dell part numbers / Manufactures number's for each?

Thank You

Joseph

 

There was a 2MPx camera right from the release of the M6500 and a bit later there was also a 3MPx camera. The part number of the 2MPx camera is 319-10393. I don't know the part number of the 3MPx camera.

 

I located the Part Number for the 3.2M Camera Assembly.

Dell Part Number: 4P5V9 - 3.2mpx Camera Assembly, Precision M6500.

 

Is there any trick to getting a color profile to apply to the entire windows system, not just color managed apps on the RGB LED screen?

It's weird - I have both a regular UXGA screen and an RGB LED screen at the moment. Both with the NVidia 2800. The regular UXGA screen isn't a problem - I ran the color calibration (ColorMunki) and the colors for the whole system changed. Did the same thing with the RGB LED system, and - only the color managed colors changed...?

 

Can someone point me to the latest driver package add-on for the Dell Bluetooth 365 module? The one under M6500 downloads is dated 2009 and I'm sure there is one later than that. Is is Widdcom based? Do they have a reference driver?

I'm on Windows 7 x64.

Thanks!

 

About random crashes:

I'm having similar issues, but I discovered the cause of the problem, at least in my case.

Context: I'm running linux, and having four 4G ram modules.
What happens:
1)-Turn on, run memtest86+: could run for hours, no issues.
2)-Reboot, boot into linux, starting X and everything. Run a memtester from the operating system, with the maximum ram size possible (which is roughly 15G accounting that you don't want to swap out all of your processes). Wait for a short while, usually already during the first two or three passes the test starts to report errors.
3)-Reboot, run memtest86+: errors on the very first pass! Always in the high addresses zones.
4)- Turn off. Turn on, memtest86+: still errors.
4)-Turn off. Swap memory modules, Turn on, memtest86+: no errors, but same behavior starting from 2).

I tried any modules combination possible, even with different ram brands. The thing is, if only slots A and B are populated, everything runs smoothly, always. Stable system, tested for entire days, never a problem. As soon as one or two modules are installed in slots C and D, troubles starts. With only one module, let's say in C, it might take few hours before seeing issues memtesting (step 2 again). With all 4 modules it takes less time before the problem appears.

At this point I'm pretty much convinced it must be a chipset problem. And I'm convinced it is an engineering problem, as it looks like many users are having similar troubles (couldn't read all the posts of this thread, it's enormous!).
Anyone willing to repeat similar tests to discover if I could possibly be right?

Cheers!

 

I'd try to reproduce the error you describe, but I'd need more info:
1. Which distro, kernel are you running?
2. Which OS memtester do you use?
3. Do you think my memory setup could provide a useful comparison?

Code:

root@squeeze820qm:/# dmidecode --type memory
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x1000, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
	Location: System Board Or Motherboard
	Use: System Memory
	Error Correction Type: None
	Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
	Error Information Handle: Not Provided
	Number Of Devices: 4

Handle 0x1100, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
	Array Handle: 0x1000
	Error Information Handle: Not Provided
	Total Width: 64 bits
	Data Width: 64 bits
	Size: 2048 MB
	Form Factor: DIMM
	Set: None
	Locator: DIMM_A
	Bank Locator: Not Specified
	Type: <OUT OF SPEC>
	Type Detail: Synchronous
	Speed: 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
	Manufacturer: 830B0000830B
	Serial Number: D9A51613
	Asset Tag: 15100700
	Part Number: NT2GC64B8HC0NS-BE 

Handle 0x1101, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
	Array Handle: 0x1000
	Error Information Handle: Not Provided
	Total Width: 64 bits
	Data Width: 64 bits
	Size: 1024 MB
	Form Factor: DIMM
	Set: None
	Locator: DIMM_B
	Bank Locator: Not Specified
	Type: <OUT OF SPEC>
	Type Detail: Synchronous
	Speed: 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
	Manufacturer: 06C14C310000
	Serial Number: 0000013C
	Asset Tag: 02102930
	Part Number: SSY3128M8-EDJED   

Handle 0x1102, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
	Array Handle: 0x1000
	Error Information Handle: Not Provided
	Total Width: 64 bits
	Data Width: 64 bits
	Size: 4096 MB
	Form Factor: DIMM
	Set: None
	Locator: DIMM_C
	Bank Locator: Not Specified
	Type: <OUT OF SPEC>
	Type Detail: Synchronous
	Speed: 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
	Manufacturer: 019800000000
	Serial Number: 40086874
	Asset Tag: 04101300
	Part Number: 9905428-005.A00LF 

Handle 0x1103, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
	Array Handle: 0x1000
	Error Information Handle: Not Provided
	Total Width: 64 bits
	Data Width: 64 bits
	Size: 4096 MB
	Form Factor: DIMM
	Set: None
	Locator: DIMM_D
	Bank Locator: Not Specified
	Type: <OUT OF SPEC>
	Type Detail: Synchronous
	Speed: 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
	Manufacturer: 019800000000
	Serial Number: 3E082A03
	Asset Tag: 04101300
	Part Number: 9905428-005.A00LF