Precision M4600 Owners Lounge

Guys, i've got a question:
There are two memory slots under keyboard of my M4600, I ever tried to install two memory sticks (DDR3 1333 * 2) on them, but i could not even boot the machine after i powered it on. My current processor is i7 2620m which i know it cannot support 4 DIMM, but i wanna know, if later i replace it with other quad core i7 model like 2820QM, will those two memory slots be able to work? I really hate to be restricted on 8G RAM with those two primary slots.

 

I am still hesitating if i should go get a back lit keyboard for my M4600, I know how to install it, quite easy, but i am not sure if what i have to do just simply replace the back lit one with current keyboard? will the BIOS recognize the back lit one and support the brightness control automatically?

 

I read I think earlier in this thread that the m4600 uses the same keyboard as the e6520. Can this be confirmed? I'm thinking the same thing, but m4600 keyboards are few and far between on ebay.

In the past I replaced a standard with backlit keyboard on a e6400 and it was just a case of doing the swap. Everything else worked straight away.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see it confirmed on just the previous page!

 

Does anyone else's M4600 make extremely irregular (and irritating) fan noises? My laptop's fan seems to loudly click on and whirr for around 30 second then turn off and repeat this process roughly every minute or so. This makes doing any non-computationally intensive work on the machine unbearable.

After a quick search, all I could find to tackle the issue was I8kfanGUI, which doesn't seem to have been updated since 2007 and aborts when it tries to install the actual driver...

[My specs: i7 2820QM, 16GB RAM @1600MHz, AMD FirePro M5950 Mobility Pro Graphics with 1GB GDDR5]

Edit: having read back a few pages I see that many people have this issue. Why is this huge flaw not fixed yet? Unbelievable!

 

You have to have a quad core processor installed to use the top 2 memory slots.

I had the same CPU, and upgraded to the 2720QM works great, and all 4 DIMMS are used no problem.

 

Yes it is basically plug and play

and a very nice upgrade from the standard keyboard.

 

Mine came without the ribbon cable, so i removed the cable from my standard keyboard amd installed it on the new one.

It took a few tried to get the cable properly alighned, but works fine

 

Xajaja -and everybody concerned with the fan issue-, I would highly recommend you to contact your local Dell support, tell them about the fan management problem, and ask for a BIOS update, or whatever can fix this noise. Insist this is a hardware/software problem and not a feature request.
--> The more we will be asking for it, the more likely they will fix it, because I highly suspect they actually don't give a damn.

I also fantasize over a switchable graphics BIOS option for us poor FirePro owners, but let's keep realistic for now...

 

Thank you for confirm this! I am really glad that my machine has potential to up to 16G RAM with 4 DIMMs. Currently I am using 2 * DDR3 1066 4G, i guess the machine will be running with much more speed after i replace them with 4 * DDR3 1600 4G after i upgrade the processor.

 

Perfect! Then i will go get a backlit keyboard for my M4600 soon! Thanks!