Precision 7710 Owner's Thread

Did the black belt only appear with Switchable Graphics enabled/on? If so, try reinstalling or updating the Intel graphics driver for your CPU (version 20.19.15.4454).

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...de=precision-m7710-workstation&driverId=N8YN8

*verify that release is for your OS etc

I'm still clueless about the intermitent freezing when using dGPU

 

Yes, black belt only appear, when Switchable Grahpics are enabled.
I was lucky to try second Precision with identical spec today and problem is also there,
also Switchable Graphics were factory OFF in this one.

Could anyone help me and give me link, to place where I can report this to Dell ?

 

It is dependent on your region. Login or register at Dell website.

look for "Contact Us". For me it was on right margin on their USA website. Then click Technical Support.

Then enter your service tag when it asks

Then you should see various ways to contact them. I prefer chat.

 

Can anyone recommend a case/sleeve for this large laptop? My preference is for a hard case though but I can't find any. I care about protection, material and design. I have noticed most sleeves don't provide adequate protection for the corners (though they are adequate for top and bottom surfaces). I am looking for a fit case/sleeve not a bag or backpack.

Addendum: (introducing myself) I got a refurbished 7710 with
- UHD IGZO display
-Xeon e3-1535m
- 64 ram (non-ecc; so it will be out being replaced with ecc, already ordered)
- Quadro m5000m
- 512GB nvme ssd
- backlit keyboard

I wished the optical drive was still an option. I doesn't seem smaller than M6600/700/800 line in any significant way; wondering what happened to the space for the optical drive and second hdd/ssd? I don't need all this power in my laptop since I already have a desktop workstation so planning to downgrade tom have some of the money paid returning to me (m5000m, 32gb and the storage will be on sale soon).

At the same time, I also got the Dell UP3216Q to replace my Dell U3011 and the uhd display is just beautiful; no more reason to delay getting them in this finite world!

 

One of our two 7710 would only boot up as a TEMP user profile even after logging into windows with proper local account credentials. The windows user/profile was corrupted. Seems we were too aggressive deleting "garbage" from the temp file folder as that was the last thing they remembered doing the previous day before shutting down. I tried to correct it using regedit and force windows to recreate the user profile. But no luck. Good news is that we created an image backup of his C system drive a few days ago using Windows own Backup and Recovery software.

This would be my first image restore in a real situation using Windows Backup/Restore tools. I will say it went VERY well and was fast.

When we created these backup images we only included the system drive and it's partitions (the SM951 SSD and all of it's partitions). *NOTE: The system drive in this laptop is a factory installed OEM SM951 512GB NVMe. As it came pre-installed by Dell the SM951 has four partitions: EFI 500MB; 500MB recovery (Windows recovery tools); 9+GB recovery (presumably contains factory image as that is an option in restore); remaining 466+GB is acting as the OS partition (C drive).

Windows Backup and Restore has a couple limitations (correct me if I'm wrong about these). It does not permit creating an image of a partition without also including the system partitions on that in the backup. i.e. I would not have be able to image backup just my D drive by itself without also including C drive in that image backup. And what makes that doubly troublesome... Windows Restore does not permit selectively choosing which partition in the backup image to restore at the time of restoring. You have to restore all or nothing. Using Windows Recovery I would not be able to restore C or D without also restore the other at same time. In our scenario we only wanted to restore the system partitions.

We have been backing up our data drives (D) in other ways, using combination cloud sync service of selected folders (with revision history), nightly rsync scripts of select folders to a NAS, and update/commits to subversion linux servers running off site for version control and history. If we could create occasional image backups of D that would be nice too, but I may need to use different image/backup software for that.

The Windows Restore:
We put the HDD containing the image files in a cradle dock connected by eSATA (by the way, I love my old school ePort dock with eSATA). Restarted windows while holding the Left Shift key down. That boots into the WinRecover partition on the system drive giving us access to the windows recovery tool menu.

*Note: if I hadn't had the pre-existing Recovery partitions on my SSD I think I would have either used Dells included USB thumb drive which shipped with my laptops which contains the same two Recovery Partitions that came on the SSD. Or I would have created a USB Repair Disk inside windows and booted with it.​

Selected Troubleshoot --> Advanced --> Selected external drive and the image file to restore and 10 minutes later we are booting back into windows and everything was good. Could not have been easier. So even with a few limitations Windows Backup/Recovery certainly works well.

 

There is a command-line tool "wbadmin" that is a bit more flexible, it will allow you to select partitions to back up, including creating an image of your D: drive only. Here is some documentation: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742083(v=ws.11).aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

For individual partition recovery, the images are stored as VHD or VHDX files, which Windows can mount. I've done manual recovery before by mounting the partitions manually and copying stuff over to the disk.

 

New Dell Precision 17 7000 Series (7710) - Help with customization

If price is not an issue, what is the absolute best spec I could have on a new Dell Precision 17?

Please look at the dell site below - to see the options I have for the order.
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...-m7710-workstation&c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

Irrespective of my work or needs, I want to order the ABSOLUTE TOP SPEC machine I could get. Employer has agreed to pay for the computer and I will be working on it at home.

Thank you for any help or suggestions

 

Well, obviously the better options are those for which you pay more! It's that simple.

On a general note: I have now installed the Adobe CS6 Production Suite on 7710 with a UHD screen and can confirm the icons and texts on the main screen are awfully small. However, when pressing a menu item in main menu tab, the text options are reasonably large. I am not willing to spend money on CC at the moment since CS6 does what I need. I guess I have to get used to it. I have learned about one way to enlarge the interface but not willing to go for it since it sets adjacent pixels identically to create larger texts/icons effectively, lowering the resolution muting the point of have a 4k screen.

 

Somehow I got a few small scratches in the carbon fiber lid already. It feels really great, but I should have put a towel down before turning it upside down on a wood table to install hard drive. I didn't realize the lid would scratch so easily. (they're tiny so no big deal... I liked the "brand new" perfection... I'll consider these theft-deterrent when traveling )

 

I had a scratch or two on my carbon fiber lid. But a month or so later and I can't find the scratches even when wiped clean and under good lighting while wearing my best eye glasses. I think the surface is self healing meaning the coating somehow hides the scrataches after awhile