What to Do with Your New M6700: Windows 7 Clean Install and Minor Tweaks

Anyone have any clues or guesses as to what device I'm missing? I followed the guide for the first drivers and then proceeded to install the rest of the drivers and still have this one missing:

 

HDD FreeFall Sensor?

Accelerometer - should move to System Devices after installed.

 

Ah, makes sense, my SSD optimizer prevented me from enabling it anyways.

Thanks RCB!

 

It will deactivate if it detects a SSD, so you might as well go ahead and install it. It could be the Management Engine driver too, you should check the hardware ID code to get an idea of what it is.

 

Any USB externals plugged in? My freefall sensor error looked different. And mine showed error until 8.1, but I just ignored it since I had no HDD.

However, I am planning on installing one in my OD bay soon we'll see it its detected.

 

Hi everyone,

I just went ahead (finally) and did a complete refresh of my M6700 Both Win7 and Linux reinstall.

This tread is a very useful guide, but I encountered a few problems I might as well share.

1) VIDEO: Both the NVIDIA and Intel HD drivers provided on dell.com for Win 7 64 bit were "incompatible" with my system.

I did use my service tag, I do have a non IPS panel and I do have Optimus enabled in BIOS so both the 3840QM's Intel HD and Quadro k3000m are up.

I had decided to use Dell's a bit outdated drivers because I do not plan on gaming the latest and greatest and just needed drivers that are "guaranteed" to work. A no go obviously.

I just went ahead and downloaded the latest Intel 15.33.14.64.3412 drivers and Nvidia 332.76 - both installed without problem. Both up and running.

2) WIFI: Same here...the driver on dell.com did not want to intstall. Strangely when I run the dell update package it shows as Intel 6200, although on dell.com it said "Intel 6235/6300/6250/6205/6200 WiFi Driver". I have a Intel 6300. The drivers on Intel's website are a joke - it appears there is nada for Win 7 64 bit ?!?! All support dropped so Win 8 can look cool!?!

The solution was to just extract the dell drivers and manually update an unknown"Network controller" from device manager.

It makes me wonder whether the Nvidia and Intel drivers could also be manually updated this way...

3) Intel Rapid Start: I headed to install it without doing my research and bumped my head in the wall a few times. Could not install it, looked up in Bios - there it was but greyed out... After reading a bit I concluded that it is a sleep/hybernate driver for hybrid mSATA-HDD or SSD config, right? I only have an HDD (Win's own cage) so no need for this.

4) Management Engine Components: I had decided not to install it, although tijo listed it as 3rd in the Install order. However before thinking much clicked "update driver" on the unkown PCI controller and there it was...I disabled it, but...is this enough?

I will not be using my laptop as a server or a corporate property so a backdoor, however secure, is just not necessary. From what I read it is just slowing start up, with no real benefit.

I am very much interested in any opinions on 1), 2), 3) or 4). I think I got right 3 and 4, but might as well be wrong...

@tijo in case I am right about 3...possibly 4 as well...maybe u can add a few notes to the guide for people with no mSATA/SSD. For those installing Rapid Start there seens to be a few more things they need to know - like reserving a hibernation partition [link]

A great guide, this is the first time I am doing a Windows installation where everything is 100%!

 

Intel's site can be a bit obtuse for finding drivers, but there are definitely drivers for Windows 7 out there. Note that if you bought your Intel NIC aftermarket, it won't be detected as a Dell card and the Dell drive will not install.

I am puzzled by the refusal of nVidia drivers to install, that shouldn't happen.

Rapid Start is for quick wake up I think, I don't know of a M6700 user that actually uses that. It may require UEFI and Secure boot to be enabled (took a while since I looked it up) which is usually disabled by default on the M6700. It'a matter of having legacy options available in the BIOS.

MEI: isn't really needed for most people and you can safely disable it. It doesn't take up any meaningful amount of resources anyways. I just don't like seeing those ! in the device manager, it's an OCD thing.

Thanks for the comments by the way. I've done dozens of clean installs by now so I have cumulative experience as well as other guides that helped me write this one down. After a few Windows installs, you get the trick.

Also, be careful not to confound Rapid Storage, Rapid Start and Smart Response. The problem is that Rapid Storage and Rapid Start have the same acronym: IRST while Smart Response is ISRT. It's all very confusing and Intel has always been great at making a mess of naming their CPU lines and associated software.