New M6500 Discussion Thread

Thanks MotoGP! That's the answer I'm looking for and is the only combination I haven't tried before!

Will give it a try later this week.

BTW MotoGP, does Win7 create a System Partition on your mSATA drive or does it just create a boot sector?

 

I have a question.

So, I'm looking to run a M6500 with 32GB of RAM, a lousy video card, and one of the better i7s. However, there is one thing stopping me: the previous gen i7's lack of AES-NI, which is Intel's AES acceleration feature which is available in most of the good CPUs from the 2nd gen on. I will be using a fully encrypted system, so the acceleration feature should improve operations noticeably.

I actually went on Intel's website and filtered out CPUs and was able to find two previous gen i7s that were compatible with this laptop that also had AES-NI. They were the i7-620M and the i7-640M. However, they both seem to have limitations that prevent attaining a reasonable RAM speed and going over 8 GB of RAM. Also, they're only dual core.

So I guess my question is, is there any way to outfit this computer (this is really all about the 1920x1200 screen....I may end up having to buy a M6600 instead unfortunately) to be compatible with a 2nd gen or higher i7 or somehow make the i7-620M/i7-640M work with the specs I'm looking for?

 

The M6500 can only support 1st gen i7. It should be able to support the i7-620M/640M if it is the same gen as the ones used in the M6500. However, you will not be able to support 32GB of RAM with a dual core.

 

I believe the M6500 has a different motherboard for the dual vs quad core processors and thus limits the 16 vs 32 GB of RAM you can get for the machine. I believe i5/i7 dual cores can support 16 GB of RAM but not 32.

 

IIRC, this was true for the early batches of the M6500 with dual core processors as there were only two sodimm slots soldered to the motherboard. However, the later batches all came with four sodimm slots soldered to the motherboard. This is regardless of whether the processor is dual or quad core. If a dual core processor was used, the two sodimm slots at the back are disabled.

I might be wrong though.

 

I just bought a used M6500, but seem to be having a couple of issues:

1. The touchpad does not work correctly. It seems to get stuck on the left side of the screen and keep jumping back over there. This problem is intermittent and seems to be quite common: Precision M6500 touchpad jumps left a few inches when moving finger right - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Is there now a fix?

2. The keyboard smells like chemicals. Just the keyboard - all of the other components smell normal. I assume this is a consequence of the previous user, but I want to make sure it isn't from Dell itself - do any M6500 owners have keyboards that came smelling like chemicals?

Thanks.

 

1. The problem seems to be a design issue with the original palm rest assembly. A revised version of the palm rest fixed the problem you mentioned.

2. Mine is ok. No chemical smells.

 

Hi Guy's I have a question about the M6500 DVD.

I was quite surprised to find that my machine only has a basic DU30N DVD drive, what DVD Writer replacement options are available that will fit this machine, think its a 9.5mm slot.

Looking to get something online at a reasonable price, but I have heard that there are issues burning with some of them, Its not that I will be using it much, just and invaluable asset when your stuck on site some times

 

Hi,

I just bought a m6500 off ebay with a few dings and dents, but almost maxxed out internals (840qm, 16gb ram, RGB LED screen, FX3800m...)
So far so good, no problem with overheating, also that might be partly due to having only a 130W AC adaptor.
I will upgrade to 32gb ram in the near future (I'm using for CFD post processing hence the large ram requirement)

Anyway I'd like to swap out my lcd cover that is badly bent, and maybe my base assembly that also have a big dent on the right fan grill. And while I'm at it I thought I would swap everything for the orange covet version

Few questions:
- Are m6400 lcd cover and base assembly fully compatible?
- Is there any difference between the covet lcd cover and the normal grey one? (I'm only talking about the cover, I will keep the screen and bezel that are in good shape)
- How does the edge 2 edge glass screen compare to the AG screen? I couldn't find any new orange lcd covers, but I found a new complete assembly for 130$. My last gloss screen dates back to 2005 when I had an old inspiron 6400. From 2007 onwards I only had matte screens on my laptops and loved it.. But maybe gloss screen have improved since 2005 and are not as reflective nowadays.

I also have a problem with the keyboard backlight: it is too dim, no matter which setting I use, with or without dell control point or trackpad drivers. Is it related to windows 8.1? I can't get the jog shuttle to illuminate either....

 

hello community,

i have a problem with my precision m6500. it has the samsung rgb screen and i read it performs better at gamma 1.8 than at gamma 2.2 ( AnandTech | Dell M6500: A Precision Strike on Bling ). now my problem is, i can't change gamma in the dell control point software. there is simply no option. dell control points' help states that color settings can only be changed on precision models. so my guess is that the software doesn't recognize my computer as a precision model. dell customer support couldn't help. does anyone know a way to fix this?

alternatively: does an .icc profile change gamma settings the same way as changing gamma on the hardware itself?

any help is appreciated