Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

No MXM cards will work in the M6400 or M6500 as Dell used a proprietary form factor and interface for the gfx cards.

 

DynamiteZerg is correct. The M6600 was the first of that line to use a standard MXM Slot. As far as I know its standard anyway, some companies are so devious they use revers pin MXM slots.

 

No, I meant AMD FirePro M5100 (similar to AMD 8870M GPU), the latest MXM3a model which comes in the Precision M4800.

I see, thanks. I keep forgetting that the M6400/M6500 haven't used MXM3a, but some Dell custom standard (e.g. like Asus uses on its gaming models still).

 

I'm quite late to this party, but I've just got myself a M6400.
It hasn't actually arrived yet due to Parcel Force and their ways.

I have a problem with the service tag, I cant actually find out whats inside the damn thing.
I only just got the service tag.

Service Tag: GYVG04J
Express Service Code: 36937182115

But all it shows on the Dell site under Components is:
Part Number Quantity Description
PJ289 1 PRECISION M6400 - 2.26GHZ - 120.00GB HD
PT015 1 ARB DELL OUTLET REFURBISHED MACHINE
R0920 1 BASE WARRANTY
TM318 1 3YR BASIC WARRANTY - NEXT BUSINESS DAY -
X9675 1 ROAD FREIGHT CHARGE PER UNIT 1-10 UNIT

I realise its a refurb (although the listing didn't say so, bit naughty if you ask me).
Even so I would have expected to get a bit more info on what screen, GPU etc.
PJ289 doesn't have any helpful answers either.

I know its a 1920x1200 but have no idea what variant.
Got to assume its the CCFL basic one.
Reckon I'll look for an E2E complete screen/lid.

I'd be grateful for any handy hints regarding the service tag.
I'm about half way through reading this thread from the start and have some tasty morsels bookmarked.

 

Can't help with the Service Tag component list, but you can check the display once it arrives in the Windows Device Manager hardware ID. The RGB screen for M6400 should be LGD018E or so (a quick search for older threads on this seems to say so). IIRC, there were also Samsung RGB screens, but they were only available since the M6500.

 

I too am late to the party; bought two M6400s, call them 'A' and 'B', both running Win7 PRO.
A has software on it that I cannot reinstall.
B is a better equipped model (memory, display, cpu) that I want to use as my primary laptop.
I bought a 240 Gbyte SSD and installed it in A , cloned it and successfully booted from it. Now I moved this drive to B but Windows won't boot from it and is unable to repair off SAFE mode.
Is there a way to have the cloned SSD be bootable on B?
Thanks in advance for any help with this.
Bill

 

Perhaps you could try the sysprep tool - put the SSD back in the M6400 A and run this tool - it would remove the drivers and stuff so that the other configuration can mount it.

How To Make Sure Windows 7 Will Boot After Changing The Motherboard

 

Thank you; will try tonight and report back.
Bill

 

Forgot to mention - of course, it's always best to backup the drive first - e.g. create an image of the SSD out to some other external or internal drive.

There seems to be another tool for resetting the OS drivers worth trying:

Make Windows 7 bootable after motherboard swap - Windows 7 Help Forums

Another way, might be to try to do an upgrade installation of Windows over teh existing one:

https://www.winhelp.us/non-destructive-reinstall-of-windows-7.html

Third way would be to export the program and its registry settings so you can restore it later to a fresh install:

http://lifehacker.com/5983652/how-t...without-losing-your-files-settings-and-tweaks

If you knew the differences between the two configurations and the drivers, there is also a manual way to install drivers for the new components (but that's somewhat complicated and experimental):

http://www.dowdandassociates.com/bl...indows-7-install-after-replacing-motherboard/

 

Thank you for your help. I used this thread: Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer - Windows 7 Help Forums
and was completely successful. Did not have to reactivate Windows.
I will be following this forum on a regular basis and contribute what I can.