New M6500 Discussion Thread

Did you see my email to you? I sent it on 9/27.

 

Hi all,

this will be one of my last visits in this thread (at least on the asking side). After 3 weeks of arguing on phone and email with SUPPORT and SALES I finally get my replacement system. So I will get rid of my unrelieable M6500 (the 10th service call was in need) and get a decent M6700 (see new signature). They offered me a silver M6700 with 3820QM and K3000M -> I pushed them to offer Covet (PhoenixRed), 3920XM and K4000M. And than I bought an upgrade to K5000M (ouch). They even exchanged my old PortReplicator to the new one with USB3 and gave me a BatterySlice.

During the last 2.5 years I totally lost my trust in DELL. Nine(!) service calls for a machine thats costs >$7k + tax... and no solution on horizon. Well, the tech rep told me that they NOW have a revision 2.0 of that darn 3800M that fixes all the problems but I didn't allow them to fix the M6500 again - and escalated the process. Lot's of "rejects" until I found a person who said: "9 times service? Unacceptable! Wie're going to change the system."
That was yesterday in the morning and now the new system is already on track and will be delivered on monday...
And now I trust DELL again

Cheers,
Alex

 

Hi Alex,

Thanks for a great post, and my hat is off to you for getting a new system out of Dell! I'm only on my 3rd service call, so I guess I have 6 more to go before I get any consideration!

But I'm curious - why are you so hot to trot for the m6700? Looks to me like the same as the m6600, i.e. a downgrade where you lose 120 lines of display resolution and don't get much upside in return.

Too late for most of us who bought early, but the deals on m6500s from the outlet are insane now. My friend Mike got an orange Covet model with the -920 processor, RGBLED display, camera, etc etc. for $850! Actually, it was $1100+ on the outlet, but Dell sent him a one-time 25% off on Outlet purchases coupon out of the blue.

I agree that the support issues with the m6500 are considerable as evidenced by this thread, but if you can get TWO of them for $1k apiece so you always have a backup, I'd still prefer to keep the better screen than downgrade to an m6700. But that's just me.

xPat

 

Hi,

I took a look in the crystal ball: you will get at least 6 more service calls *grin*

Well, you are right: a stable M6500 is a great machine. Especially with my LG RGBLED display. And for me as sw developer / technical artist these 120 lines more are helpful, buuuut:
I couldn't convince DELL to sell me that Quadro 5000M for M6500. And "3920XM+K5000M" is way faster than "920XM+3800M". Since I develop 3D graphics software I need as much performance (CPU and GPU) as I can get.
Additionally the M6700 has HDMI1.4/DP1.2 which will allow 4k resolution (a planned upgrade of my setup).

A great deal. And it's exactly my ($7k) setup:: Covet Orange Base, 920XM and RGBLED...

But I could get another M6500 as a backup (if the M6700 fails too *g*). But my Precision M90 is so reliable I couldn't dump it yet

Cheers,
Alex

BTW (maybe anyone cares): I tried 4 modules "Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1866/CL10" in my M6500: it fully uses the 32GB - but (as predicted) runs on 1333MHz (instead of 1600).

 

@RealJedi

Thanks, Alex - your insights are quite useful to me. This 1080 line thing seems to be being driven by the multimedia industry and the 16:9 widescreen theater aspect ratio. I fear that it will continue for years before display manufacturers have a good business case for higher resolution laptop displays. I continue to fantasize about a true mobile workstation, which to me means a 24" screen with 2560x1600 resolution, and fits in a suitcase. But sadly I think it will be a long time in coming.

@rlabbe, general

This is a follow-up to a PM exchange with rlabbe, but I'm posting it to the thread because I think it may be of interest to others here.

I was wrong when I said ALL quad-core m6500s can take advantage of 1600mhz memory, which is now quite affordable. It turns out that SOME can and some can't. The memory controller is apparently in the CPU, not the mobo, and only the -9xx processors can run 1600mhz memory. My -840 only supports 1333. Thankfully I only paid $15 or so extra for the faster memory.

Separately, I got the Mushkin 240gb mSATA drive, and the thing absolutely rocks. About the same read speeds as my existing Crucial M4 SSD, but WAY faster write speeds - the Mushkin writes almost as fast as it reads, whereas the Crucial is much slower in the write column.

To rlabbe: I think I told you in a PM that I had come to suspect the Mushkin mSATA as the cause of a series of intermittent system crashes. I have now determined that one of the sticks in my memory upgrade was the problem. Crucial gave excellent service - happy to express a replacement to me, even shipping to an alternate international address because I'm traveling, at no extra cost. But my point here is that the Mushkin mSATA was never the culprit - it was an intermittently DOA memory stick.

I strongly recommend everyone check to make sure they are running the latest version (11.2) of the Intel AHCI driver. The "Update Driver" button in device manager will tell you version 8.something from 2009 is "up to date", but it isn't. Get the latest driver from the Intel website (google "download intel ahci 11.2"). Upgrading the AHCI driver to the latest version more than TRIPLED my SSD performance.

All the best,
xPat

 

Hi, has anyone tried a Dell WWAN DW5550 with the m6500 ? im looking to purchase a card and whould like to install the fastest possible as my network supports 21mb

Im assuming any WWAN card should work, Any advice would be great

 

I just got off the phone with a Dell tech support rep who really knew his stuff inside out and backwards. I guess Dell has a few competent people afterall! I got some info that anyone who has a FX2800M or FX3800M should act on before their warranty runs out.

Apparently, Dell's management has finally figured out what everyone on this forum has known for 2+ years, i.e. that the NVIDIA FXx800M card is a piece of crap. They've had so many problems and done so many replacements that they finally went back and insisted that NVIDIA come up with a "Version 2" of the card, which is now available. This is NOT just the BIOS upgrade that has been available for many months, but a new card with both new BIOS and mods to the original hardware design to correct the problems.

He didn't come right out and say it, but my strong impression was also that Dell staff have marching orders to be much less stingy than usual about replacing old V1 cards with new V2 cards. Last time I had my video card replaced (in March), they made me go through hoops to test and re-test everything to make damned sure I really needed it. This time, within literally 60 seconds they guy was like "Uh huh, system freezing up randomly? Sometimes black screen, sometimes just freezing with what was already on the screen? You need a new card. How's Thursday work for your schedule?"

To anyone who has experienced ANY system stability or freeze-up issues, my advice is to call Dell and get them to come replace your card with the V2 model before the warranty runs out.

All the best,
xPat

p.s. rlabbe: This is the resolution to the problems I mentioned in my PM to you. There was nothing wrong with the Muskin mSATA drive.

 

do anyone knows if i7 2960XM is possible to put on M6500 and one Quadro 5010M?

I prefer M6500 screenn than M6600

 

Nope, you're limited to the same generation of CPUs that were originally in the laptop so Clarksfield only, 920xm/940xm are the best you can do.

 

Others here have said that it is not possible to retrofit a 1920x1200 display from an m6500 to a newer m6600 or m6700. I took that at face value at the time.

But since I seem to be in competition with RealJEDI for most number of service calls, I've developed a rapport with my on-site Dell service tech, who says he doesn't see why it wouldn't work. He believes the physical hardware is compatible - you could take the "lid" off a 6500 and install it on a 6600 or 6700. His take was that so long as both the display and the video card support the desired resolution, it should work. Obviously a configuration not supported by Dell, not under warranty, etc. But he couldn't think of a reason it wouldn't work.

So I'll ask the question again, this time requesting more detail: WHY do people here believe that this won't work? What would be the factor preventing it from working?

Thanks,
xPat