Precision 7710 Owner's Thread

If you can tell me how to create that SPI dump without disassembling/soldering/etc. I'll help you

 

You have to have a programmer and have to take off the bios chips

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

 

Ok, I'm out

 

Anyone have a 7710 where the LCD panel just flashes on startup then fades to black? At first it was where a section of the screen wasn't working (like a vertical strip about 20% of the width of the panel would be black),. Then it got to the point of just flashing white (sometime bars, sometimes just the outer edges of the screen, or some weird checkbox pattern), then fades to black. Would it be the display cable, the panel itself, both or something else that could be the problem?

Laptop out of warranty and was wondering how much effort and cost it would be to potentially fix it since everything else works fine (I can remote desktop into the machine).

 

I mostly suspect that the panel itself has failed.

Replacing the panel is straight-forward, it is one of the easiest parts to replace in these systems. Pry off the plastic bezel (it is only attached with some sticky stuff and a few plastic clips, you can do it with your fingers working from the inside, you might need a small plastic object to wedge in to get you started, be careful not to scratch the display), then you just have to remove a few obvious screws and the panel is free. You can disconnect the cable from the back (it has a clip and some tape). If you have access to another 17.3" system you could swap the panels to test this out, assuming that they use the same connector.

Finding a replacement panel is another story. They are readily available on eBay and other places for under $100 (assuming 1080p) but I personally have never purchased an aftermarket panel that I was happy with, they've always had some issue or another (stuck pixels, strange colors, ...).

 

Did as suggested and got a replacement panel. Was about $140 for a 4k UHD replacement. Was easier than I thought it would be. Just a little nerve wrecking taking the bezel off with all that sticky tape, then trying to remove the tape that holds the cable in place... Other than that, works right off the bat. The colors look ok for now (a little over saturated but can probably tune it a bit), but will test it tomorrow in the office to see how it looks where I would be using it more. At least I have a decent test laptop again.

 

Picked up a used 7710 a few months ago to replace my old M6700 w/GTX 980M.
Specs as purchased:
Xeon E3-1535M v5
32GB 2133MHz DDR4 nonECC (4x8GB)
Non-Thunderbolt chassis
Quadro M4000M 4GB with the wrong heatsink installed (AMD MXM-a)
3840x2160 IGZO screen
Intel AC 8260 wifi / bluetooth card
no HDD or SSD

My original plan was to install a HDD and the GTX 980M from my old laptop and add an m.2 NVME boot drive into the 7710 and call it a day...
After tearing it apart and finding the wrong heatsink, I kinda went spend happy and bought a few more upgrades to go along with correct heatsink. Then a couple of weeks later I plopped down too much money for a Dell Quadro P4000.

Here are the current specs:
Xeon E3-1535M v5
32GB 2133MHz DDR4 nonECC (4x8GB)
Thunderbolt IO board and chassis
Quadro P4000 8GB (Optimus disabled by choice)
3840x2160 IGZO screen
Intel AC 8260 wifi / bluetooth card
DW5811e LTE card
m.2 Boot Drive : WD Black NVME 512GB
m.2 Storage : Intel NVME 2TB
SATA : Seagate 2TB
240W slim AC adapter KJXPP (The new extra slim one that came out with the 7730)

This is an awesome computer. It runs whisper quiet during everyday computing tasks, and stays reasonably cool and quiet during gaming and rendering jobs.
One thing that I noticed when part shopping is that the 7710 and 7720 share most of the same parts. Because of this, you could easily replace a dead 7710 motherboard with a 7720 part (or upgrade from a 7710 i5 to a 7720 Xeon motherboard).

 

One qouestion, you just install thunderbolt IO board, and thunder works straight away?

 

No. There is a different variation of the motherboard, I believe. (This was an issue early on when people would have their systems serviced and the Thunderbolt port would stop working because the wrong motherboard was supplied.) Plus, if you received a system without Thunderbolt, there is no hole for the USB-C port in the chassis.

 

Mine was just plug and play.

Dell part number : CJFG2 (IO Board with Thunderbolt Port)
Dell part number : 4M07T (Bottom Base Assembly with USB-C Port)

Both parts are selling for around $15 each on ebay right now, so you would only be out about $30 to find out if yours is thunderbolt compatible

Here's an interesting thing that I noticed when doing my upgrade: The "Bottom base assembly" is two parts. The main dark metal part, and the bright metal trim that goes all the way around the base. This is held on with a few screws and some double stick tape at the exhaust vents. The main dark metal base has the usb-c port opening on both versions. because of this, you do not need to remove the motherboard/cabling to do the upgrade. You just need to remove your trim and install the new trim with the Type-C opening.