Precision 7510 Owner's Thread

Data science is a different sort of modeling, and GPU doesn't typically help much. It's certainly done on clusters, when you have access to it, but having had to write software that those guys use, I can say for certain some of them are buying big local machines and crunching numbers locally (even if having everything up on a big hadoop cluster is more common.)

I'm sure there are some other sorts of scientists who do simulations locally, as well.

Final renders and work in progress are two different things on the 3D side. And yes, some of those guys (at least on the 3D side) are just going to send everything up to a cluster and let it do the rendering, but not everyone has access to that, nor is it always suitable for every sort of work.

That's a very narrow view of the value proposition of ECC memory. Mind, I don't think it's THAT broadly applicable, but there are absolutely other cases where it's not a matter of "you have only one try" but rather of "time is money" and where re-running something is perfectly possible but where the delay is potentially expensive.

Extreme, silly example: the difference in the ECC + Xeon is about US$500 for 32gb of memory (very rough #, may not be accurate); someone's hypothetical billing rate is $1000/hour. Avoiding a single 30 minutes downtime during the life of the machine has just paid for the ECC.

 

Dear Karman,

if you are using windows, you can find out which model of screen panel is mounted on your laptop using SIW (https://www.gtopala.com/index.php). I really would like to know if your is the same as mine (LQ156D1JW02) ...

 

For me time is money, big money. However, I have never experienced any data errors or lost any data because of RAM error in modern mobile workstations. My notebook lifetime is 12-18 months and than new unit, maybe that is the reason (not much used components). Remember that ECC is last line of defence. Every file has checksums. Every file-system has checksums. Every well-written applications checks not only input, but output too.

Of course, I have nothing against ECC memory. It is great that finally it is available for mobile workstations. I have just something against mobile Xeon CPUs: Intel AMT spying (management) functions hidden in the hardware and temperatures much higher than i5 and i7.

Dear Umiki, currently I am not using Windows and I am unable to check the display model at all. It is strange, because usually FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, Linux or OS X can tell you everything about hardware.

 

I don't think AMT is limited to just Xeon chips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology

 

I contacted Dell to return the laptop today. I bought the laptop as a small business (in the Netherlands) and it turns out Dell won't allow me to return it because of that.

Well. Now that I'm stuck with the machine I tried a fresh install. All drivers installed. And then the problems begin. The machine will go to sleep (close lid, or select sleep in windows 10) but as as soon as you wake it up: a crash and restart. Nothing is shown and the Windows event viewer is not reporting anything except the abnormal restart. So I start troubleshooting and one of the things I did was turn off switchable graphics in the BIOS. I thought the AMD was interfering with the HD graphics of Intel. The machine turned on normally a few times and then about an hour ago the screen of the laptop went dead.

There is no Dell logo (where I can press F12 for the BIOS) and when I start everything seems to turn on (the SSD also) but there is no picture. If I plug an HDMI cable I get my normal desktop on my external monitor. The screen of the laptop is not working but the rest of the computer is starting up normally.

I think it was reported in this thread that the screen went dead on someone. I seem to have suffered the same problem.

My 2nd day with this machine and I'm just pissed off about everything with this machine. All the lost time, the bad Dell service and then this.

I reported the problem to Dell while mentioning I don't want a repair but a refund since I don't trust the product. I'm waiting to see what they will tell me tomorrow.

For professionals who value their time: stay away from this machine.

 

Yup. Core i7 is vPro infected too. However, it looks like Core i5-6300HQ has not Intel vPro and AMT functions.

Did you disabled Switchable graphics in the BIOS? There is some issue with this option.

Probably you can make your system working, do not worry. Remove battery, unplug power supply and press start button to discharge the capacitors. Than start the machine with pressed D button. Do you have anything on display?

Unplug the power supply, remove battery, then remove coin battery from motherboard. It is very easy. It will reset BIOS to default settings.

 

What specifically don't you like about AMT/vPro?

 

Thank you. The above method just worked for the first boot. After booting if I close the lid (which makes the laptop sleep) the screen will not wake up when I open the lid. The machine wakes up but the screen does not. Sometimes the screen will come on but in general it will not. This is an absolute deal breaker because I use sleep heavily when I come from work. I have not shut down a machine in ages except for updates.

Come to think of it: Dell has not changed in the 6 years I have been away since my XPS 16. The screen of the XPS 16 would get a green or pink color. The only option was to remove and replace the battery after which it was OK again. I have never experienced this particular problem with any other machine except Dells and even this new machine has the same problem as the 6 year old one

 

goldme, sorry to hear of your problems. I'm quite surprised because mine didn't have any problems and ran smoothly and also very quietly. I had a 1080p touchscreen though. Not sure if the 4K model is causing some of your problems. Do you have AMD FirePro w5170m graphic? I had the Quadro M1000M graphic.

As for the processor, I didn't expect to have a noticeable performance increase on the 6th intel generation vs. 4th intel generation. To me, it just uses less power for about the same performance.

 

It is a Firepro.

Just got off the phone with Dell. I ran the diagnostics tool and it reported an error on the ssd.

As said I have multiple problems. Sleep issues and the screen not turning on. They still will not refund me even though the problem was reported the first day. They are coming tomorrow to change the motherboard, ssd and panel. That's almost the whole machine! But they are going to install Window 7. I told them that I need to upgrade to Windows 10 and maybe the laptop is not working nicely with it. They said "we will see".

Well. We will see. I can tell you that the Dell service in the Netherlands is miserable. The laptop has now cost me 3 days + tomorrow and no working laptop in sight.

Also the sighting of a 6 year old problem where I have to pull the battery to get the screen to work does no bode well.