Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

The processor I purchased is a Q9100 (core stepping E0, verified it after I installed the processor), on eBay for $270. The seller was shirleyfu1117 and it was shipped very promptly. I have been stress testing the processor off and on, stress tested the RAM and hard drive with this processor installed, and have encountered zero problems. I did not have to reconfigure anything in Windows. Not only that, I am seeing amazing runtime on battery even with the Core 2 Quad installed (well over 2 hours, much to my surprise!) I am seeing no down side whatsoever to the processor upgrade. It's only a hair slower than the Q9300 in the real world and I am very satisfied with the purchase. I've also set up OpenSUSE 11.2 (everything working except the jog dial and webcam - I just haven't got to the webcam yet) and no problems there either. I'll post /proc/cpuinfo in a few minutes.

Item URL:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250591317693


kim@linux-0dtu:~> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9100 @ 2.26GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 2268.000
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm ida tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 4522.50
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9100 @ 2.26GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 2268.000
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 1
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm ida tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 4521.76
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 2
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9100 @ 2.26GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 2268.000
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 2
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 2
initial apicid : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm ida tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 4521.80
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 3
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9100 @ 2.26GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 2268.000
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 3
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 3
initial apicid : 3
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm ida tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 4521.78
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

kim@linux-0dtu:~>

 

Do you all hear two fans running inside your m6400? I can only hear the CPU (top left one working). There is definitely another fan at the top right for the GPU but I dont think it's working - even if i turn both fans on according to 18kfanGUI.

 

Both in mine are working right now but are almost silent and there isn't much airflow if I put my hands by the vents. However if I flip the notebook over I can see that both are spinning.

Are you doubting yours are working? Download a stress test app and run it for a few seconds and you should hear both fans and feel a strong air current coming out the back.

I rarely ever hear them; I'm actually surprised at how quite this notebook is compared to my previous notebooks (Lenovo 3000 N100, Dell Latitude D60, and even an old NEC Versa 6200 (Pentium 266MMX, that goes WAY back!) all had louder fans than this notebook has under normal conditions. When I run a stress test though, the fans in the m6400 really crank out the air but never get loud. The difference is the heat sinks in this notebook have a lot of surface area and aren't being forced through small vents/grilles so a lower velocity/higher volume fan does a more than adequate job at keeping things cool.

Download any 3D intensive app and run it, and turn the notebook over. You'll see that both fans are running.

 

Here's my story on the fans and the sound they make. I'm responding mostly because you mention you use 18K and that is something I know enough about to offer this bit of advice. When I first received and setup my Covet I never heard any fans at first and wondered if either of them worked. That problem turned out to be the ambient sound of the three table fans and the ceiling fan just drowning the sound out. And running on 'slow' I still can't hear them, ambient noise or not, but running fast they are noisy enough to be called sort of loud. I had both fans set to run high speed all the time but never heard them until one day the electric was out and I spent some time running on battery, which I, for the most part only do when in the field and there's a volcano and attendant explosions and avalanches as background noise there. And since it could fry anyone within miles should they be having an unlucky day those noises occupy my mind more than fans in my laptop.

Somewhere in all the pages and all the info it offers the program warns you that if you take manual control you better be sure what you're doing because it overrides its controls and any the computer has. Keep that in mind, I have it set to 'automatic' temp. control but if you choose 'manual control' it's all on you. And be thorough going through all the option pages, there's many settings and I think no matter how you do it the program takes control from any Dell settings and for that reason alone be cautious. But just set the tray display to tell you if the fan's running or not. There are two and you can either display the rpms of each fan or just whether they are running fast or slow or off. The only things that make 18K less than 100% perfect is that it doesn't recognize my second drive and the GPU temp. is consistently 10 degrees low. Considering that the program hasn't been updated since the M90 I find that impressive. So go into the 'options' menu and turn the tray icons on to show what state the fan is in. And be sure to activate both fan monitors as well as the tray icons to show their state. Under the 'status' tab there is one setting I'm not sure of and I usually have it set to 'let the BIOS monitor' the CPU speed and load. I just changed it to the 'realtime speed calculation' choice to see what that does. Look at that particular tab, the 'status reading' one and tell me what you think it should be on. I pose the same question to anyone that's gotten this far and uses 18K too. There's four choices and it tells you the speed and the load on the CPU and the BIOS info is slightly different than the 'Realtime' one and I'm trying to figure which is best. And please post what you find out about your second fan, I didn't know fans ever stopped working and would like to know if that really is your problem.
___________________
Precision Covet | QX9300 | 4GB 1066 | 64GB Samsung SLC SSD & 320GB Seagate | XP Pro 32bit & Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

Thanks guys. I'm not an expert on 18K at all, infact since I installed it I usually keep all fans maxed to high until the laptop cools enough for me to turn it off. The setting you mention is on realtime speed calculation, only because I suppose it sounded the best to me. I am pleased to say that I found both fans to be working with RPMS that stay within 3900-4700. I did this while trying some 3D rendering. I do note the sound of the CPU fan does pulse, like it is in a feedback loop... every second or so I can hear it pushing air then slowing down.

For the first year of ownership I remember not hearing the fans or worrying about temps but its recently that I have found it to be a concern. I have a suspicion that some dust is blocking the airway in the GPU heatsink which is why the fan is spinning but I cannot feel any air suction and why the GPU seems to heat up so radically when just watching an MKV file - never happened before. I have just ordered some compressed air and will see if I can clean it out, I will remember to hold something against the fan to stop it spinning while I do this but I hope this will solve the problem. I hope so, and as I have not done this type of cleaning on it for the year I have owned it, it should be interesting to see what happens.

At the moment I have the laptop sitting on the home-made laptop cooling pad ive made. Just watching a small MKV movie the 18K temp guage steadily reaches 50 degrees (you said it's 10 off, so this might be higher). When I put it on the pad, the temp drops about 20 degrees which keeps it cool. Without it I think I would be suffering from much downclocking because at these sorts of temps the PC gets real sluggish and I used to think it was a RAM problem until now.

Veni

 

When you clean it with compressed air, blow into the vent on the back with the notebook powered off; you will be blowing the dust in the opposite direction of airflow. Only after dust stops coming out should you blow in the normal direction, and then reverse direction again. To really get it clean, consider opening up the notebook if you have the patience and stomach for it. If you have any experience servicing laptops you should be able to open it up, clean it thoroughly, and reassemble it in a half hour or less (in fact, a CPU or video card swap takes under an hour in the m6400 - if you take your time).

From here on, clean it with compressed air every few weeks so dust does not build up.

As far as the "pulsing" is concerned? That's normal. Once it's cleaned it will probably be less noticeable but if you keep an eye on the fan RPMs you will find it normally fluctuates when running anything CPU intensive, even though it won't be as drastic as when the radiators are clogged with dust.

 

Optical Drive Upgrades

I really like the slot loading drive in my notebook - but really wish I could get blu-ray or light scribe support (or even one or the other if I can't get both). I'm trying to find a drive that fits; do you think that if I buy one of these (it's blu-ray but does not do lightscribe - I can't find one that does both lightscribe and blu-ray):


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827257001


. . . and remove it from the case, that I can install it in my m6400?

 

Thanks guys I'll give it a bash with the compressed air but will probably open it up and do a thorough clean. Regarding the bluray drive, to fit the m6400 it needs a 9.5mm slimline profile - thats the hardest thing to find in these drives. I think this one will be thicker so wont fit into the bay.

I was thinking of buying the more readily available 12.7mm versions and maybe crushing down the case a little but then that would be an expensive experiment!

Veni

 

"firmware RAID" as you put it is very often referred to as fakeraid. In the case of RAID5 fakeraid, striping and parity calculations are done by the processor and not a RAID controller coprocessor. In the case of RAID1 and 0 fakeraid, software executed by the CPU is in charge of striping and mirroring, not a RAID coprocessor. All the "RAID" controller on fakeraid does is provide a utility in firmware for creation/definition of volumes and enumerates the volumes. It does not include a RAID controller such as you would find on, say, an LSI RAID card. Fakeraid controllers such as Intel Matrix (the ICHR series) do not include a raid controller processor. All RAID features are carried out in software executed by the CPU.

Hardware RAID offloads those calculations, RAID rebuilds, and so forth to a coprocessor on the RAID controller. Performance on hardware RAID is generally vastly superior, the RAID can be ported from one computer to another fairly easily in the event of motherboard failure, and the CPU is not burdened by RAID functions.

Intel Matrix definitely = fakeraid.