New M6500 Discussion Thread

I haven't posted in a while, but still using my M6500 without issue. It walks all over my newer Sandy Bridge Vostro, all day long

 

I have the possibility to buy a M6500 for a reduced price.
It seems that many M6500's have problems with freezing,... Give all the laptops trouble or only the ones with a specific graphics card or a certain processor?
Some questions:
- Makes the laptop a loud fan noise?
- Gives the laptop a good sound when you play music?
-A dumb question, but I want to be absolutely sure. Anti-glare=matte, right?

 

Yes and no. If the heat sinks are clean the M6500 is pretty silent for a machine of it's size. But these heat sinks are excellent dust collectors. And then the machine gets pretty loud. So make sure to clean the het sinks from time to time.

I've never heard a laptop with good sound but among these the M6500 is one of the betrter. There's just not enough room for good speakers in a laptop casing - not even in a 17" casing. But given the circumstances the M6500 is not bad either.

Right.

 

Thank you for the info!

Is the fan noise constant or is it on-off?

 

That also depends on how much dust is in the heat sink.
If it's really clean the CPU idle temperature is slightly below 60°C, where the CPU fan starts. So if you put light work on the machine the temperature will reach 60°C, the fan will start and run until the CPU is below 50°C, where the fan will stop. Then the temperature will rise again and every 2 or 3 minutes the whole game starts again and again and ...

Once there is enough dust to prevent the CPU temperature from dropping below 50°C the fan will run constantly.

 

M6500 Covet system replacement came - let us count the fail:
1) silver standard edition, "no Covet parts left"
2) crap lowend screen, not even RGB (forget the Edge2Edge, not available)
3) 4GB RAM instead of 8
4) 32bit OS not 64
5) ATI card instead of Quadro FX3800M
6) lid scratched to hell
7) wrong fingerprint reader - FIPS not swipe style
8) slot load dvd instead of tray

Not happy Dell!!

 

Hey old friend. Still trying to see and measure the M6600's IPS panel with my own eyes and claibrators. If it turns out to be better than your LG panel, I will let you know. My M6500 is also running without issues every day. We still plan to use it for another year while it is under warranty. What a great machine.

Getting cold in my part of the world. Guessing the weather is still amazing down there. Rest up, your season is coming soon

 

Well, after I got my 5th graphics card about a month ago, the M6500 runs quite stable (3 crashes so far). But I am pretty sure that won't last long. I got 2 friends with similar configured M6500 and they're experiencing the same problems -> increasing number of crashes (freezes or black screens) until they call the DELL service and get a few parts changed (mobo+graphics card etc.). And after a few weeks or months is starts all over again.

At this moment I'm not sure what to do when it happens to me again. Coming from an Edge3Edge-RGBLED the only exchange option for me would be a M6600 with IPS. But that will be long discussion with DELL.
But I am really sick of it: 10 repairs with countless exchanged parts and (in total) 14 days of lost productivity (had to go back to my reliable M90 every time). And still 3.5 years warranty left. Do I have to extrapolate that?!

Cheers,
Alex

 

I HAD this long discussion with Dell yesterday. Dude would NOT give me a M6600 with IPS and I have the works Covet. I feel ripped off/downgraded. Tech is coming today to gut the silver exchange machine and try to rectify the unmatched parts... but it'll never be a Covet. Which was in perfect like new condition btw, this thing is dinged up, marked.. pretty lame. I guess you and I are the last 2 ppl that ever LIKED the edge 2 edge screen...

How did you guys get escalated to a M6600? I spoke to the senior and he wouldn't budge either

I'm pretty sure the lid and screen is one piece that the tech is just going to swap, I don't think I can put my Edge 2 Edge glass over the silver one..

Or even put all the silver guts into the orange frame? The Covet frame is flawless, this silver one is a beater. This aint right

 

Hi,

I would have never acccepted a M6500 replacement system. Really. A year ago - when the M6500 was still in production - it may resulted in a shiny new system. But now there are only refurbished systems left (imo). And knowing this fact I wouldn't go that road.
And now they have the brass to insist on "repairing" the crappy replacement system?! Well, usually I'm really polite (at least on phone), but this would test my limits.
I spent about €500 (~$670) for the upgrade to 5 years on-site support. After 10 repairs with 4 graphics cards, 3 mother boards, 2 displays (and a lot of smaller parts) this is for sure a losing game for DELL. This will help me getting another system (no M6500).

Cheers,
Alex

After calibration and taming the colors it is a nice display (despite the glare surface).