New M6500 Discussion Thread

Yeah, it really sucks, but what can we do?

Where can I get detailed instructions on where the cable goes? There's a blurry picture in the service manual but it's not very informative.

Ahh - thank you. My Dell 365 Bluetooth card arrived yesterday (it's much smaller than I imagined) and I was able to install it behind the bezel of the screen. I was paranoid about breaking something during the install but I think I did OK. Lots of new fingerprints on the screen though (since removed with a microfiber cloth & gadget cleaning solution). Oh, and for the collective record - the part number of the (non-Covet, of course) screen bezel itself (with camera) is MHP2W. It's on the back, I figured I'd write the part number down as I had it off the screen.

Absolutely! Funny enough though, I did a thorough spring cleaning at home this past weekend and stumbled across the original spacing bracket for the ON Flash anyway. Heh.

I gather you meant Corsair Vengeance, not Crucial Vengeance? Crucial's performance line is Ballistix. Anyway, the Corsair Vengeance ones are out of stock, and I've had very good luck with Crucial memory products in the past (Micron manufactures much of the RAM for other companies), so I opted for Ballistix DDR3-1666 at 9-9-9-24 timings. I just couldn't bring myself to buy the faster 1866 memory with 10-10-10-30 timings. It was psychological - I remember the days of buying CL2 RAM! I suspect that the RAM I bought will throttle down to DDR3-1333 at 8-8-8-23 timings, just like yours. We'll see.

I ended up ordering the rest of my parts (SSD drives, RAM, etc) yesterday, in addition to ordering a bunch of Dell parts both from eBay and Dell themselves last Friday. I added up all of the stuff I've ordered for this laptop... OUCH!

I'm looking forward to the end result though - a truly "fully loaded" silver M6500.

 

LOL... made a big typo. You are right, should be Corsair Vengeance and not Crucial. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me!

Yes, the upgrades ain't going to come cheap!

 

Hi,

I can confirm this. When I finally got rid of my M6500 (DELL took it back after 2.5 years of pain [on my side *g*]) I bought 4x 8GB Corsairs and tested them in the M6500. They were recognized but ran on 1333 (instead of 1600 or 1866). In my M6700 (DELL's replacement of the darn M6500) they're stable on 1866 CL10.

Cheers,
Alex

 

*** STOP THE PRESS ***

So... today my 32GB (4x8GB) of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 CL9 at 9-9-9-24 arrived, as well as my new palmrest (with the contactless smart card sensor) and the control power button bar with the FIPS fingerprint reader... so I decided to install them all, all at once. I am amazed at just how much I took my laptop apart (more than I've ever deconstructed a laptop before)!

Amazingly enough, the computer powered up the first time... and guess what? It's all running at 1600 MHz! Not kidding. Amazed and happy.

Now, I can appreciate that proof is always preferred, so I offer up the following screenshots from the BIOS, from CPU-Z and also from Piriform's Speccy:



I don't know what to say to explain it... maybe they solved the issue with one of the later BIOS updates? Maybe this particular memory config from Crucial is more compatible? Who knows... but I'm not complaining!

Out of curiosity I ran a Windows Experience Index (WEI) performance test both before (with the 4 x 4GB DDR3-1333 chips) and now with the new ones. The Memory (RAM) category bumped slightly from a 7.5 to a 7.6. Not too shabby.

Now I'm just waiting on my mSATA SSD and my BD-RE drive to arrive and I should be all set.

 

Wow! Sweet~~~ What's the part/model number for those "Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 CL9 at 9-9-9-24" that you bought?

I might need to check my BIOS version later tonight!

 

Here you go:

16GB kit (8GBx2), Ballistix 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 memory module, part number BLS2K8G3N169ES4

Link to its page: BLS2K8G3N169ES4

At $183.99 for a pair ($367.98 for all 4), they aren't cheap but I'm guessing your Corsair Vengeance ones weren't either!

I was already a big fan of Crucial memory for upgrades (since they are one of the actual memory chip manufacturers (Crucial = Micron)), and now my faith in them is even stronger.

As for the BIOS, as you can see in my first screenshot, I upgraded to the latest, A10. Upgrading the BIOS and all of the available firmware was one of the first things I did when I received it.

 

Will give the BIOS upgrade a try first. If not I'm getting the same rams as you and selling my Corsair Vengeance! Another big expensive exercise...

You bought yours straight from Crucial's store? 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 PC3-14900 Part #: BLS2K8G3N18AES4 is selling for the same price!

 

Good plan! Yes. I initially went back and forth on which set to buy, and settled on the DDR3 PC3-12800, for 2 reasons. First, a lower latency start point, which should guarantee no higher than CL9 to begin with. Secondly, I knew the M6500 couldn't take advantage of higher than 1600 MHz anyway. It just seemed like the "rightsized" decision and that has born out to be true.

And yes, I bought directly from their site. I've had great experience doing so in the past (many times - for me, for friends and for clients). The shipping was free, they arrived 2 days after I ordered (shipping to northern VA), and their direct price was only $1 higher than NewEgg. Plus, I figured there was a higher chance that both pairs came from the same manufacturing batch (higher compatibility) by ordering from them direct.

 

Looks like I'm out of luck. I'm already on the latest M6500 BIOS A10. Could be the Corsair rams' SPD settings.

I'll get the same rams as you, direct from Crucial as well since yours worked! No point getting the PC3-14900 parts as they might not work the way we want them.

I'll have to sell my Corsair then, should be able to get a good price for them!

I helped you first, now you are helping me! How good is that!

 

I'm very happy to return the favor! I hope that your results are as good as mine were.

Now I have to make an even more difficult decision... which OS to run. I'm torn between Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. I know I don't want to run Windows 8/8.1 or Server 2012 because I want maximum driver compatibility.

I know I want to set up a virtual machine capability (have to take advantage of that 32GB of RAM) - Virtual PC in Windows 7 sucks because it is limited to 32-bit Windows, basically, so I'd have to spring for VMware Workstation to get full capability. With Windows Server 2008 R2, I could run Hyper-V server, but I know that hibernation/suspend options are limited, as is Bluetooth support, amongst others.

What to do, what to do...