M6600 Owners Thread

[dvanburen]

I called Dell today too, about our M6600 that came in on Friday with the bad video card. He wanted to send a tech out tomorrow, but I declined since the last tech visit on our other M6600 was a disaster. He said they had to have a tech visit and attempt a repair before tech support could do a replacement. They transferred me to customer care to arrange for a replacement through that dept, customer care transferred me back to tech support since only tech support can do a replacement.

Tech support finally agreed, but I had to explain the different types of Outlet PCs Dell has: Refurb, New, and scratch and dent.

Since this one was a "New" outlet M6600 that's what we wanted in replacement. They really are the best cosmetic ones to get, should have only new parts, and they should have no Chi Mei panels. He said he had no official way of requesting that, but he would mark the request that I wanted a "New" outlet M6600. That's not Kosher if you ordered a outlet "New" and got back a refurb. You usually pay a bit more for the "New".

I got no offers of upgrades on mine at all, especially after the fiasco we have gone though.

They kicked me to customer care as well, they processed the replacement request. It's rather odd that our experiences were so different, I suppose it depends on the tech. My tech really wanted to know what was causing the problem but didn't want to make me go through multiple visits to fix an intermittent problem.

Customer care seemed a bit reluctant to process a replacement. I didn't want to go the refund/rebuy route as they are so darn hard to get in the first place.

If they send me one with the junk panel it'll get swapped before the old one gets shipped back. I really like the AUO panel I have in my current M6600. It's too bad they don't know me from a hole in the wall. They could send me a chassis with just a new board and an MXM card, I would be happy to swap all the components over.

Edit:

They didn't really offer me any upgrades. I assume upgrades occur when they find a laptop that meets or exceeds the required specs. Personally there are a few things I can live without, such as the FP reader and slot load DVD. I also don't need any RAM, so I specified 2G as the minimum. I don't know how much, if at all, they pay attention to those details. I suppose I'll find out when the replacement ships.

[DallasGeezer]

They kicked me to customer care as well, they processed the replacement request. It's rather odd that our experiences were so different, I suppose it depends on the tech. My tech really wanted to know what was causing the problem but didn't want to make me go through multiple visits to fix an intermittent problem.

Customer care seemed a bit reluctant to process a replacement. I didn't want to go the refund/rebuy route as they are so darn hard to get in the first place.

If they send me one with the junk panel it'll get swapped before the old one gets shipped back. I really like the AUO panel I have in my current M6600. It's too bad they don't know me from a hole in the wall. They could send me a chassis with just a new board and an MXM card, I would be happy to swap all the components over.

Edit:

They didn't really offer me any upgrades. I assume upgrades occur when they find a laptop that meets or exceeds the required specs. Personally there are a few things I can live without, such as the FP reader and slot load DVD. I also don't need any RAM, so I specified 2G as the minimum. I don't know how much, if at all, they pay attention to those details. I suppose I'll find out when the replacement ships.

The return and buy another one is a crock. They just tell you to go to the outlet and find one, good luck finding one quickly, or they say talk to a outlet rep, and sometimes he can find one fast, and sometimes not. They should give a priority to customers wanting a replacement.

[dvanburen]

The return and buy another one is a crock. They just tell you to go to the outlet and find one, good luck finding one quickly, or they say talk to a outlet rep, and sometimes he can find one fast, and sometimes not. They should give a priority to customers wanting a replacement.

Agreed. There was no way I was going that route.

[dafunk60]

Anyone here notice that dells driver page is showing newly released drivers but they are actually old versions? I was really hoping to see a revised version of the Intel Graphics drivers that do not drop my custom color profiles every time the screen is locked or a UAC window pops up. There is a newer version on Intel's website that does not do this but you cannot adjust the screen brightness. The dropping of the color profiles is a know issue with many versions of Intel's Graphics drivers and Windows 7 and can be mitigated somewhat by removing the Intel Graphics startup items from the registry.

I've also been getting the same BSOD for a while now:

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
0x0000009f	
00000000`00000003 
fffffa80`0ea9aa10 
fffff800`04ad33d8 
fffffa80`16432b60
ntoskrnl.exe
ntoskrnl.exe+7cc40
NT Kernel & System
Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Microsoft Corporation
6.1.7601.17640 (win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
x64
ntoskrnl.exe+7cc40

This seems to occur if I do the following:
1. Place the system in standby while on AC Power using the integrated graphics.
2. Resume the system on battery power.
3. Open an application that uses the NVidia card.
4. Close the application using the NVidia card.
5. A few seconds later BSOD. I am guessing this is when it is trying to switch back to the integrated graphics.

Any of the guru's out there have any ideas? I'm running the latest Intel Graphics driver from Dell, Intel_multi-device_A09_R307994, NVidia v285.62 (the nvida drivers from dell were giving me all kinds of BSOD's) and the A07 BIOS, although this happened on A06 as well.

On a side note if anyone is curious how my repair from dell went (previous post). I received the machine back from round two of repairs and while some of the scratched up pieces were replaced many were not. The touchscreen now had a dead spot in the bottom left and the LCD bezel was very loose. I called Dell and informed them of the situation and the rep offered to replace my machine with a new one. I asked if the replacement was a new machine or a refurb and was told it would be a new machine. I received the new replacement after a couple of weeks and so far so good. If I had to find something nice to say about the experience it would be that Dell kept trying until they got it right. I just wish it didn't take so long.

PS - If there are any dell folks reading this thread the new drivers page stinks as I cannot bookmark it! I either need to enter my service tag or select my system every time I want to check if there are new drivers.

[Smooth_J]

I just placed an order for the following m6600:

Intel Core i7-2860M
4.0GB, DDR3-1333, 2 DIMM (will upgrade - have some ram left over home)
Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit
AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro Graphics with 2GB GDDR5
17.3" UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) with Premium Panel Guarantee
8X DVD+/-RW Drive (tray)
Integrated webcam with single digital microphone, HD/Full HD
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, Dell Mobile Precision
FIPS Certified Fingerprint Reader and Contactless Smartcard Reader
128GB Dell Solid State Minicard, Dell Mobile Precision
250GB Additional Hard Drive, 7200RPM, Dell Mobile Precision
250GB Additional Hard Drive, 7200RPM, Dell Mobile Precision

I picked the hard drives just in case they didn't come with any of the hardware, but after reading a bit more, it may come with the hardware :/

I also wanted to get one from outlet, however two things concerned me:

1) I saw a number of posts having issues with outlet machines, namely the m6600. I also had a few machines from outlet over the years and they usually had some type of issue.

2) I could not pick or select complete care during checkout. Even though I was told I can get it after the fact, I had issues with prices in the past.

[MoldCAD]

Speaking of BSOD and reboots, my so far perfectly working M6600 started acting on me today. Twice it rebooted (unattended, so I have no idea what it was doing when t happened), the trace in Event Log is this:

"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

+ System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2011-12-20T10:11:38.010006100Z

EventRecordID 80158

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer MoldCAD-2

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress true
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

What can it be? I don't suspect power loss, as it's docked AND has the battery full...

PS Interestingly, after reboot Optimus is OFF, just like it happened before. But with the current driver, it's the first time! My nVidia driver is 285.62

[grumpy42]

Speaking of BSOD and reboots, my so far perfectly working M6600 started acting on me today. Twice it rebooted (unattended, so I have no idea what it was doing when t happened), the trace in Event Log is this:

I have had an m6600 since about July and aside from a bad memory module (Kingston HyperX) and some Eyefinity weirdness it has performed quite well; however, about once a month it seems to shut down without cause or warning. It seems to only happen with the computer is idle (and usually unattended), but a couple weeks ago it shut down while I was sitting in front of it (it was idle and the screens were off). Again there was no warning and no BSOD. Every time that this has happened, I have perused the logs, but I have found nothing to indicated the cause. I don't know if my problem is the same as yours, but it sounded similar enough for me to post.

Also, the computer is rarely restarted/shutdown (just in and out of sleep mode) and it spends most of its time in a docking station.

For now, it is only a minor inconvenience, but it is a cause of concern. It passes all of the built-in diagnostics plus MemTest86. I have also run several CPU/GPU burn-in programs (prime95, Furmark) and the m6600 has performed flawlessly.

I have the latest video drivers installed (M8900 - dell drivers)
BIOS version is A06 (I like to wait a while before updating the BIOS)

[TimTams]

Hi All,

Being primarily a gamer, I have ordered an M6600 with the FirePro GPU. Does this mean I won't experience any of the issues with Optimus seeing as it won't be applicable?

Thanks,
Tim

[MoldCAD]

I have the latest video drivers installed (M8900 - dell drivers)
BIOS version is A06 (I like to wait a while before updating the BIOS)

Thanks for the comment; it's even more interesting because you seem to have similar experience even though your graphics is not nVidia!

So, it looks like it's not the Optimus thing... It certainly switches off in the BIOS, but now I dare say it's a result, not the reason of the random reboots. Could it be some Microsoft patches, causing this tendency to reboot while idle (mainly)?

BTW, I'm on the A06 BIOS, too - but this behavior I also observed several months ago, when I was on the A04...

[Bokeh]

Hi All,

Being primarily a gamer, I have ordered an M6600 with the FirePro GPU. Does this mean I won't experience any of the issues with Optimus seeing as it won't be applicable?

Thanks,
Tim

That would be correct.

I will be buying a lot of new games over the next couple of weeks from all the Steam sales. Will be testing them on the 5010M and posting benchmarks.

One interesting thing about the 5010M, it looks like you can enable and disable the ECC RAM in it through the nividia control panel. Not sure if it will affect performance or not.