New M6500 Discussion Thread

Sorry for the recurring questions but I appreciate the feed back. So about the modding .inf files how would I go about doing that cause i also heard about at another thread (getting the gtx 680m working on the hp 8760w). And I tried flashing the HD 5870m (M17x-R2) bios but massage pop up saying that the subsystem ID's doesn't match so I pressed continue nothing happen like the usual (litte dialog pops saying please wait and then a reboot) but that didn't happen so i got nervous and reflashed the original bios over that flash and then everything froze with the little windows loading circle so I really gotten scared (thinking that if i restart the computer, it wont show no picture so i waited for like 5 mins and then finally hold down the power button and turn't it back on and everything was alright reinstalled the drivers (Driver Version:13.152.4.)and that's how i got the regular control center but i tried that plenty of times the only differences are that the bios over flash and i removed the FGL in the beginning of the first line that said broadway. But I actually get good performance like I max most games at 1200p it just I feel I can get more performance out of it. And i use the original HD 5870m comparison from notebookcheck gpu bench marks and some games i do better in an others am nowhere near i also do better in some games then the gtx 670m/gtx 660m/and gtx 760m. So its not that big of a problem I'm just trying to get every drop of performance and since UPS should be bringing the battery, I should see some performance increase there, so thanks for the ideas.

 

OK I know i come here alot but i can't update my m6500 bios. This what happens i click the on the application, says bios update supported, everything goes good restart computer leaves the os goes to black screen nothing happens wait for 15 mins still nothing happens so I know no bios update take longer then that. So I finally restart it holding down the power button. Turn it back on goes to bios setup to see if its been update I know that it hasn't though cause it still don't show mem test/Dell logo like with the M7740 and only bios versions A04 and up identifies the M7820. So i go into bios and I still see A02 version and I leave Bios setup and a blue screen pops up saying that Dell bios update program can not find a valid update image so i try all of them (a04,a05,ao6,a07,a08,a09,a10) and a03 doesn't exist, So I still got the same results for all of them.And so thought to my self what could be the problem so even tried to to put the bios files (.exe) that I clicked on in the root of the HDD's and a flash drive, gotten nowhere with that either. So can someone please tell me how they updated they bios cause I'm getting tied it beeping everytime I turned it on reporting (microcode revision not supported) and unable to see mem test or the Dell logo.

 

Hi folks - last week I ordered a "Dell refurbished" M6500 from a reputable eBay seller, and it just arrived today. I am of course very excited about this and I am hoping it will turn out to be a reliable machine.

I chose the M6500 for one simple reason - I wanted a WUXGA (1920x1200) screen, no exceptions. I hate the "Full HD" 1920x1080 trend in laptops in the past 3 or 4 years. I did notice that some of the new generation of Dell laptops (e.g. M4800) now offer a QHD+ (3800x1800) screen and considered buying one, but unfortunately one of the reasons I bought this laptop is to allow me to connect remotely to a Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD) / Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment that doesn't support anything higher than WQXGA (2560x1600) per monitor, so I wouldn't even be able to use that environment in full screen with a QHD+ screen.

Anyway, I knew also I wanted the best/fastest laptop I could find, and since the M6500 was the best laptop Dell ever made with a WUXGA screen, there we go. This is the first laptop I have ever bought for myself. Up until now the only laptops I have had are company-issued ones, currently a Latitude E6510 (same 2nd generation as the M6500).

I found this M6500 on eBay - it met the requirements for my starting point:

• WUXGA screen
• Intel 940XM Extreme Edition CPU
• Intel Wireless 6300 Wi-Fi card

It also came with the ATI FirePro M7820 video card and 16GB of RAM (but the RAM is only 1,333Mhz not 1,600Mhz), and the slim power adapter (DP/N 0J938H).

I got what I think was a pretty good deal on it (under $1,000). I plan on spending more than that on upgrading it as much as it can possibly go (but it will stay non-Covet), with 16GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, 2 1TB 1.2" Samsung SSDs (and the 1TB Samsung mSATA internal SSD as well), a Blu-Ray burner (I need to find the best one compatible with the M6500, a 2nd battery, a 2nd power adapter, the Bluetooth card and an E-Port Plus Port Replicator as well as the E-Legacy Extender port replicator for on-the go added port compatibility (there are a few cases where a legacy serial port is still very useful).

In anticipation of the laptop's arrival, I have been trying to read through this entire thread, but I'm only up to page 53 of 619, so I have a ways to go!

I have a couple of questions for those of you with a lot of up-front M6500 experience:

• Is there a M6500 compatible Bluetooth 4.0 WPAN card that isn't a "WiFi-BlueTooth combo" card? If so, what is the part number? I found 0C205N but I think that's an older Bluetooth 2.1 part.
• What is the best internal Blu-Ray drive that is known to be compatible with the M6500? I think the UJ232A was the originally-issued one, and I have read a bit about the UJ242A.
• Any other gotchas or things I should watch out for? I don't plan on overclocking this - I am looking for "fast and reliable", including heat management

I'm sure have more questions - I much appreciate any advice or info I should know - I want to max this sucker out as I plan on using it for a long time. I'm even considering trying to retrofit some of the other options like the FIPS Fingerprint Reader and Contactless Smart Card Reader. At the moment I plan on running Windows 7 Ultimate on it instead of the Windows 7 Home Premium that they decided to bundle with it.

Here's the original specs of the device per the Dell Warranty page (of which there is none left, of course):

System Summary
Computer Model Precision M6500
Country United States
Components
Part Number Quantity Description
378MC 1 BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., NOTEBOOK..., SILVER..., CTO, M6500
3E476 1 Information, Equipment
NY1KX 1 MODULE..., ASSEMBLY..., BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., THIRD PARTY MAINTENANCE..., SLEEVE..., CLF, M650
WG335 1 MODULE..., BATTERY..., PRIMARY..., 90WH, 9C, SIMPLO..., SILVER...
CV2RD 1 MODULE..., BEZEL..., CMRA-MIC, 3MP, M6500
CMK79 1 MODULE..., CARD (CIRCUIT)..., GRAPHICS..., ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES..., BROADWAY
P05N4 1 MODULE..., CARD (CIRCUIT)..., NETWORK..., 6300, E2P2
XX1J7 1 MODULE..., COVER..., ASSEMBLY..., HINGE..., M6500
06M9X 1 MODULE..., COVER..., BACK..., RED/GREEN/BLUE..., SILVER..., M6500
C4WRV 1 MODULE..., DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE..., 16GB, 1333MHZ, 4X4G, DR3
4X2VX 1 Module, Dvd+/-rw, 8X, M6400, Hitachi Lg Data Storage, 7
HD4KK 1 MODULE..., HARD DRIVE..., Pentium M Dothan, 1.86GHZ, 2 MEGB, 533FSB..., 7.2, P11, 4KE, SGT-DRU
D853D 1 Module, Information, NO-MODEM E-SRS
M4821 1 Module, Info, No RSD, Cross Linesof Business
1V30N 1 Module, Information, REMOVE, Dell Control Point Connection Manager
W303P 1 Module, Keyboard, 101, United States, English, E-Series Number Pad Dual Point Backlit, World Wide
F3 1 MODULE..., LABEL..., INTEL..., NO BIOS..., CI7E
W3HMK 1 Module, Label, Microsoft, Notebook, Windows7
G353C 1 Module, Label, Regulatory, E-SRS Clear, Apcc/dao
P8GC1 1 Module, Liquid Crystal Display, 17WU, Red/Green/Blue, Samsung, M6500
YTFFG 1 MODULE..., PALMREST..., W/O CTSC, M6500
WFNTG 1 Module, Processor, Clarksfield, I7-940XM, 2.13, 8M
364JR 1 Ship, Minitower, Precision WorkStations 530, UNITED STATES..., NORTH..., AMF
8U335 1 Ship, Notebook, Inspiron Sputnik, 250N, UNITED STATES...
9RY9V 1 Module, Software, Certificate Of Authenticity, W7P32/64
F98X2 1 SERVICE INSTALL MODULE..., SOFTWARE..., Mobile Precision Workstation..., M6500
KHT90 1 SHIP GROUP..., NOTEBOOK..., NORTH..., M6500, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION...

 

Good thing you got the M7820 video card. It is pretty much on par with the Quadro 5000m in performance but at half the power dissipation, 50W versus 100W. So that's part of your heat management.

The M6500 supports 32GB of ram so why don't you go with it? Just make sure the rams support 1.5V and if they are DDR3-1600 make sure they are CL10, as they will usually run at DDR3-1333 CL9 with the full 32GB setup.

From my own experience, if you want Bluetooth 4 WPAN, the only option are the WiFi-Bluetooth combo. No other possible cards. However, the combo cards might present issues of their own.

All Blu-Ray drive should work as long as they are the 9.5mm variety. I stuck a Panasonic BDR-UD02 BD-RE drive into my M6500 and it works great!

 

Good to know - yeah, I had a feeling that the ATI (now AMD of course) cards were more power (and heat) efficient than NVIDIA. I do wish it had 2GB of memory though, because I may eventually want to set up a triple-monitor config, using the DisplayPort connectors on the E-Port Plus port replicator and the on-board DisplayPort together, and I wonder how performance will be then.

As for the 32GB of RAM, I thought my choices were 16GB of DDR3-1600 or 32GB of DDR3-1333. I didn't think I could get 32GB of DDR3-1600. So people have done it, huh? That's great! I'm disappointed to hear I'd have to run CL10 though... I wish there was a way to guarantee I could get CL9 DDR3-1600 compatibility in the M6500 with 32GB. Has anyone done that successfully? If so, which brand/type of memory?

On the Bluetooth, it sounds like I'm going to have to settle for the 2.1 WPAN card. That's OK I guess - as I understand it, it's not really a functionality difference, it's just that BT 4.0 is more power-efficient (when communicating with other BT 4.0 devices).

I'll definitely expand my search on the Blu-Ray drive. I want the best/fastest drive I can find that fits & works inside my M6500.

Thanks for the reply! You've given me more to look into. :thumbsup:

 

OK... I have another one. I had previously installed the Latitude ON flash module in my company-issued E6510 (bought it on my own dime). I see that my M6500 has the ON button, but it does not appear that the flash module is installed. Was this not a standard feature on all M6500s? If not, I gather it was an optional one? Does anyone know the part number? Also - is the flash module the same one between the E6510 and the M6500? Since they are the same generation (2nd), maybe I can just transfer the module over from my company laptop to my M6500. Hmmm... thoughts? Experiences?

 

The M6500 will only run 32GB at DDR3-1333 even if you used any other higher speed/spec DDR3 rams. Good thing about using 32GB DDR3-1600 (CL10) is that it will down clock to DDR3-1333 but at CL9.

 

I had a look at the Latitude ON flash thingy too. My best bet was it should use the same module as the M4500, since they are the same generation Precision. The part number is FW67Y.

 

Bummer... but what happens if I use 32GB of DDR3-1600 CL9 memory? I'm leaning towards buying the best, fastest I can find. Seems there are 3 vendors who offer kits of 2x8GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 SODIMMs.

This morning I opened up my company Lattitude E6510 to remove the Latitude ON flash chip... and what do you know? It's DP/N 0FW67Y! Awesome - I never thought when I bought this chip 3 years ago that I'd be able to use it again after I return the company laptop (due back on lease). I'll slap it in my M6500 today and see if it works.

OK, a couple more things - has anyone ever retrofit either of the following to their M6500?

• Fingerprint Reader (either FIPS or standard)
• Contactless Smart Card Reader

If so, does anyone have the part number(s) needed to do the retrofit(s)?

Finally, over 4 years ago, way back on Page 59 in Post #581, user worldww3 posted a link to a Precision_M6500.zip file hosted on Dell's site that he had previously described (in post #579) as:

Unfortunately, the link no longer works. Does anyone still have that file and can I get it somehow? I have the Service Manual from Dell's public site but it misses important details like part numbers. It would be fantastic to have the actual service info. Since this model is no longer sold nor warrantied, I'm hoping it's not a big deal to share it now.

 

It will still run at DDR3-1333 but most likely at CL8. It depends on the setting the manufacturer has set.

Lucky you! Let me know how it turned out. I just bought one off fleabay...

• Fingerprint Reader DP/N FRNJN, you will need to replace your entire power button bar with this. Before you can get the reader working, you will need the specific cable for it. If you buy a secondhand FRNJN ask the seller whether it comes with the cable. Sometimes you might get lucky!
• Cable for Fingerprint Reader DP/N K121P or G747F. Either will work.
• Contactless Smart Card Reader DP/N Y94M5, you need to buy an entire palmrest.

I would love the above too!