Dell Inspiron 7577 - Teardown | Mods & Upgrades | Technical Details | Pics of Internals | Optimizing

LAST UPDATED: 03-14-2018

I thought I would start this new Inspiron 7577 thread to avoid cluttering the original Dell Inspiron 7577 thread started by @Sugil1844 that is aimed at more general type questions, comments, and concerns focusing on whether or not to buy a Dell Inspiron Gaming 7577 and new owners' initial impressions.

Feel free to contribute hard data, screen shots of benchmarks, technical details, etc.

My motivation for this thread stems from the fact that there aren't really and detailed teardown pictures or images of the good parts of the inside of the Dell Inspiron 7577 available online. I hope to change that and accumulate the best technical minds and guides here in this thread. My goal is to construct the table of contents in a way that makes using this thread easy to use as well as to reference in discussions to eliminate ambiguity and make it easy to point 7577 owners to necessary resources, downloads, and guides.

Disclaimer: (This is a long-term thread that will be under construction for a while.)
It will take some time for me to get the ToC set up properly and polished. I may or may not update the download links as new versions come out, so be aware of that at least. At the moment I am currently still waiting to receive my replacement Dell 7577 laptop from Dell, so this thread will be delayed for a while.



EASY WAY TO SHARE SCREENSHOTS: https://www.snag.gy/


Table of Contents:
[A.] General Information & Discussion
1.) Dell 7577 Non-Technical NBR Thread
2.) Dell 7577 User Manual
3.) Dell 7577 Service Manual
4.) Dell 7577 Review (UltraBookReview.com)
5.) Dell 7577 Review (YouTube - Dave Lee)
6.) Dell 7577 Review (YouTube - Andrew Tran)
7.) Dell 7577 Review (YouTube - Jarrod'sTech)
8.) Dell 7577 Review (LaptopMedia.com)
9.) Dell 7577 Review (NotebookCheck.com) [4k] [UHD]
10.) Dell 7577 Review (NotebookCheck.com)

[B.] Hardware
[a.] Specs & Drivers
1.) Dell 7577 Drivers & Downloads (general / no service tag indicated)
2.) NVIDIA GTX 1060MQ Certified Driver (Download | 12-1-17)
3.) Intel i7 7700HQ Specs
4.) Intel i7 7300HQ Specs
5.) NVIDIA GTX 1060MQ Specs (Click > Specs > View Full Specs)
6.) Intel i7 7700HQ v 6700HQ v 5700HQ v 4710HQ Benchmark Comparisons (UBR)
7.) [How To] Manually Install Synaptics Touchpad Drivers Instead of Windows Precision Touchpad Drivers (NBR Thread - closed)
8.) Win-Raid AHCI RAID NVMe Recommended Drivers

[b.] Benchmarks & Comparisons
1a.) @kweniston - Dell 7577 Backlight Bleed - Out of the Box (NBR Post)
1b.) @Maleko48 - Dell 7577 Backlight Bleed - Out of the Box (NBR Post)
2.) @vibhawa - CrystalDiskMark - 128GB SK Hynix SC311 SATA SSD (NBR Post)
3.) @Wertzius - TimeSpy - UHD 7577 (NBR Post)
4.) @vibhawa - AIDA64 & Timespy (NBR Post)
5.) @custom90gt - TimeSpy (NBR Post)
6.) @spoonablehippo - FireStrike (NBR Post)

[c.] Experimental Mods & Upgrades
1.) START: Custom Screen Upgrades Discussion w/LCD Screen Model Numbers (NBR Thread)
1.) END: Custom Screen Upgrades Discussion w/LCD Screen Model Numbers (NBR Thread)
2a.) External Battery Packs & Power Supplies Discussion (NBR Thread)
2b.) SEE ALSO: [Bd5a] [Bd5b] [Bd5c]
2c.) Powering a Laptop in the Field (Cloudy Nights Photo Forums)
2d.) WARNING: Cheap Inverters Are Dangerous! (Stack Exchange | Electrical Engineering)

[d.] Learning
1.) System Management Mode (Wiki)
2.) Embedded Device Hacking and Reverse Engineering (PDF | DefCon)
3.) Reverse Engineering Firmware (c. 2011)
4a.) Intel SpeedShift vs SpeedStep & How to Manually Control It (NBR Thread)
4b.) ThrottleStop EPP Settings & CPU Latency vs Power Consumption vs Performance (NBR Thread)
5a.) Dell Power Adapter Secrets & Failure Analysis (TLJ | Dec. 2008)
5b.) Dell Power Adapter Secrets & Failure Analysis (TLJ | Jan. 2009)
5c.) Dell Power Adapter Secrets & Failure Analysis (TLJ | May 2009)
6.) Battery Firmware Hacking (BlackHat | 2011)
7.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: Physical Memory (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
8.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
9.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: Paged and Nonpaged Pool (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
10.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: Processes and Threads (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
11.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: Handles (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
12.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: USER and GDI Objects - Part 1 (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
13.) Pushing The Limits of Windows: USER and GDI Objects - Part 2 (Mark Russinovich | M$ Tech Blog | 2008)
14a.) Secret of Intel Management Engine (SlideShare.net | Igor Skochinsky)
14b.) Secret of Intel Management Engine (YouTube | coincides with 14a slides | Dec. 2014)
14c.) Secrets of Intel Management Engine (Reddit | discussion)
14d.) Secrets of Intel Management Engine (additional discussion & comments)
15.) Brief Rundown of How Mobile i7 CPUs Work (LTT | Nov. 2014)

[C.] Flaws | Fixes | Patches
[a.] Flaws
1.) Intel ME/TXE SA-00086 Advisory (NBR Thread)
2.) Intel ME/TXE SA-00086 Advisory (Dell Knowledge Base)
3.) Intel ME/TXE SA-00086 Advisory (Intel Q3’17 ME 11.x, SPS 4.0, and TXE 3.0 Security Review Cumulative Update)
4.) Intel Skylake & Kaby Lake Hyper-Threading Microcode Bug (NBR Thread #1)
5.) Intel Skylake & Kaby Lake Hyper-Threading Microcode Bug (NBR Thread #2)

[b.] Fixes
1.) Intel Skylake & Kaby Lake HT uCode Bug (NBR Thread)
2.) [How To] Update MicroCode from Windows Using RW Everything (NBR Thread)

[D.] Software | Utilities | Other Downloads
[a.] Overclocking
1.) ThrottleStop Download & Guide (NBR Thread)
2.) Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility
3.) MSI Afterburner (Latest Version - MSI.com)
4.) MSI Afterburner Remote Server for use w/ Android app (Latest Version - MSI.com)
5.) EVGA Precision XOC (Requires Registration)
6.) SpeedFan
7.) Prime95
8.) RWEverything

[b.] Hardware Monitoring
1.) HWiNFO
2.) GPU-Z
3.) CPU-Z
4.) AIDA64
5.) CrystalDiskInfo (HDD & SSD Diagnostics | SMART Info)

[c.] System Cleanup & Maintenance
1.) Display Driver Uninstaller
2.) MiniTool Partition Wizard
3.) Driver Store Explorer
4.) TreeSize
5.) Blue Screen View
6.) O&O ShutUp 10
7.) Macrium Reflect FREE

[d.] Optimization
1.) Bitsum Process Lasso
2.) Bitsum Park Control
3.) Bitsum CPU Balance
4.) M$ SysInternals Utilities
5.) ShellExView
6.) ShellMenuView
7.) Chrome Extension: Tabs Outliner
8a.) Useful Google Chrome Command Line Switches & How to Use Them
8b.) Complete List of Chromium Command Line Switches
9.) Touchpad Blocker & TouchFreeze (Prevent Accidental Trackpad Touches)

[e.] Automation
1.) AutoHotKey
2.) DevManView
3.) RBTray

[f.] Benchmarking Tools
1.) Unigine Heaven
2.) Unigine Valley
3.) Cinebench
4.) ATTO Disk Benchmark
5.) 3DMark (TimeSpy / FireStrike)
6.) CrystalDiskMark

[g.] Essentials
1.) Microsoft C++ Redistributables (All-In-One Installer)

[h.] Dell 7577 Specific
1.) Dell 7577 COMPLETE DRIVER PACK [12-29-17] (Dell.com > Support & Downloads)
2.) MaxxAudio / MaxxWaves Files (NBR Thread > MEGA)
3a.) Dell Power Manager on Clean Install - Instructions (NBR Post)
3b.) Dell Power Manager on Clean Install - Files (NBR Post)
3c.) Dell Power Manager v3.0.81.0.zip (Direct Download | MEGA.nz)
4.) FHD LCD Screen Data Sheet (PDF | MEGA.nz)
5.) UHD LCD Screen Data Sheet (PDF | MEGA.nz)
6a.) BIOS Screenshots (PDF | MEGA.nz)
6b.) BIOS Screenshots (.zip of PNG files | MEGA.nz)
7.) Color Calibration Files (MEGA Folder Link)

[E.] Windows O/S: Installation | Guides | Known Issues
[a.] Windows 10
1.) Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide (NBR Thread)
2.) Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide On System With Multiple Drives (NBR Thread)
3.) Windows 10 Tweaks & Fixes (NBR Thread)
4.) Windows 10 Services & Configuration Guide (Black Viper's)
5.) Intel Drivers Installation & Updates (NBR Thread)
6.) Battery Saving Tweaks (UBR)
7.) Remove Password Requirement When Resuming From Sleep
8.) How to Determine Your Windows 10 Build and Version (HowToGeek)

[b.] Windows 10: Known Issues
1a.) Unable to Install Dell Power Manager from Windows Store (NBR Thread)
1b.) Dell Power Manager .EXE Download (NBR Thread)
2a.) Right-Click Desktop Lag on Dell 7577 (NBR Thread | Post 1 of 2)
2b.) Right-Click Desktop Lag on Dell 7577 (NBR Thread | Post 2 of 2)
3.) Power Slider Issues & Other Dell 7577 Power Plan Quirks (NBR Thread)
4a.) Broken Start Button Search Function (Clicking search result doesn't load program.)
4b.) Remove or Reset Cortana To Fix Broken Start Button Search Function
4c.) Rebuild Start Menu Index (Fix apps, files, etc. not showing up in search results.)
5a.) dGPU Not Shutting Completely Off When Not Being Used (NBR Thread)
5b.) dGPU Hanging in Active State Due To Windows 10 Store (NVIDIA)
6.) HOW TO: Fix Blurry Fonts in Windows 10

[c.] Windows 7
1.) Installation Help for Intel Skylake and Kaby Lake Laptops (NBR Thread)
2.) Windows 7 Image Updater for SkyLake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Ryzen Thread Ripper (NBR user: @Atak_Snajpera )
3.) Windows 7 Clean Installation Guide (NBR Thread)

[d.] Windows 7: Known Issues
1.) Hard Drive Corruption on Dual & Multi Boot Systems (SuperUser)

[F.] Thermal Management: Guides | Learning | Discussions
[a.] Guides & How To's
1.) Fix Uneven Core Temperatures (NBR Thread)
2a.) Improve Laptop Thermals (NBR Thread)
2b.) Companion Guide to (2a.) for XPS 15 Laptops (UBR)
3a.) ThrottleStop (v8.00) Tutorial - Setting Up Profiles For Optimal Performance (UBR)
3b.) ThrottleStop Primer (NBC | 04-05-17)
4a.) Forcing Manual Fan Control on Dell Laptops (NBR Thread)
4b-i.) Dell 7567 Manual Fan Control Confirmed (1 of 2 | NBR Post)
4b-ii.) Dell 7567 Manual Fan Control Confirmed (2 of 2 | NBR Post)
5.) Add Extra Heat Pipes for Improved Cooling (TRL Blog | Jan. 2012)
6.) How to Undervolt With XTU Without Opening XTU (NBR Thread)


[b.] Scientific Learning
1.) Properties of Liquid Metal (NBR Thread)

[c.] Discussions
1.) Dell's Power / Thermal Management Philosophies (NBR Thread)
2.) Disabling Turbo Boost To Reduce Temps & Increase Battery Life (Reddit)
3.) Custom Heat Pipe Mods and Best Methods (NBR Thread)
4.) Indium Corporation's Heat Spring c.2013 (NBR Thread)

[d.] Disassembly Info
1.) Dell 7577 Mainboard Images & Benchmark Results (NBR Post)
2.) Dell 7567 Mainboard Images (Closely related to 7577, but still different.)

[G.] Other O/S: Installation | Guides | Known Issues
[a.] Linux
1.) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

[b.] Hackintosh
1.) MacOS High Sierra Installation Guide for Dell 7567 (TMx86)
2.) TonyMacx86: UniBeast Install Guide for Intel Hardware (TMx86)


[c.] Other / Multiboot
1.) Easy2Boot
2.) EasyBCD
3.) VisualBCD
4.) Dual Boot Repair

[d.] Virtual Machines
1.) VirtualBox

[H.] Product Recommendations
[a.] Thermal Solutions
1.) Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut [73 W/mK] (Liquid Metal | Conductive)
2.) Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut [12.5 W/mK] (Thermal Paste | Non-Conductive)
3.) GELID GC-Extreme [8.5 W/mK] (Thermal Paste | Non-Conductive)
4.) Fujipoly SARCON XR-m [17 W/mK] (Thermal Pad | Non-Conductive)
5.) MG Conformal Coating 422B (Silicone Modified PCB Sealer)

[b.] No-Risk Hardware Upgrades
1.) Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III 500GB (SSD)

[c.] Tools
1.) ORIA 86 in 1 Precision Screwdriver Set (Amazon)
2.) Wera 12 Piece Precision Driver Set (UK)

To Be Continued...

 

Pictures of the 7577 Internals - taken from Dell 7577 Service Manual :

 

Pictures of the 7577 Mainboard & Heatsink Assembly (w/Benchmarks) courtesy of user - @custom90gt :


Original Post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-inspirion-7577.808514/page-64#post-10654484

 

QUICK & EASY MOD TO LOWER NVMe m.2 SSD TEMPERATURE:

Ok, so my initial results did not hold as tightly as I had hoped, but I still have a 10C reduction in maximum temps under the harshest conditions, which I am still very happy with. I remembered reading somewhere that ATTO disk benchmark hammers the disk much harder than CrystalDiskMark does, so I switched to that to finalize my results and it definitely drove my temps up a bit more. My ambient room temp is between 27.2C and 28.0C for the record.

The pads are cheap blue silicone type, approximately 1.05mm to 1.09mm thick so I will call them 1mm pads. The label on the package states: "COOLOOdirect30Pcs2...forCPU GPU Heatsinks Made in China" with a barcode that reads: "X001J1AV9Z" and measure: "20mm by 20mm square"

Upon examining the heat spreader plate in its stock configuration from Dell, you can see blue edges peeking out from one side under the heat spreader plate that are sandwiched between the actual memory chips mounted on the PCB and the heat spreading plate itself. There is approximately a 2mm air gap between the surface of the heat spreading plate and the bottom cover of the laptop.

Initially I only added 2 layers of pads and they made minimal contact on the center thermal pads with the foil flashing that is bonded to the inner side of the plastic bottom cover. I placed these very carefully and tried not to handle them too much because I did not want my oils from my skin getting on them or degrading my test results. After running CDM a time or two my temps maxed out at 70C (laptop had been off all day prior to these runs, so the chassis had minimal additional heat soak). The problem was that I hadn't taken a baseline reading or specs with no pads at all so I didn't have anything besides my previous post here to go off of. And I also forgot I had posted stats and screens here previously anyways, lol. So I decided to pull the pad job off and run the test again with no pads. On CDM I saw my temps quickly max out at 89C before CDM even got through its first half of tests. Success was confirmed at this point, but I wanted more hard data and proof to offer you fine folks.

Next I reapplied the same set of pads I had removed and re-ran the tests with CDM. This time with the same set of pads I noticed my temps kind of shooting up unusually compared to the original test that maxed at 70C (of which I had no screenshots for), but still not as bad as when tested with no pads at all. This round of testing with the reapplied pads maxed out at 76C. I assumed that peeling the pads off then reapplying them made them ever so slightly thinner and thus contact with the foil flashing was reduced or inadequate (in addition to possible finger oil contaminations). Upon removing my laptop's bottom cover, all of the pads were actually stuck to the foil flashing pretty much confirming my theory.

So naturally, I went back and peeled them all off once more then reapplied all of the same 2 layers of pads back onto the black metal heat spreading plate then added an additional 3rd layer for a total of ~3mm of thermal pads stacked on the heat spreader. By this point I didn't care so much about the finger oils as the pads had been stretched and handled enough that the results would be what they were- and contact pressure/consistency seemed most important anyhow. I should note that the 2 layers of pads equaling 2mm seemed to sit flush with everything and the 3rd layer that made their collective thickness 3mm had a more satisfying protrusion I was happy would maintain solid contact with the (admittedly flexy) plastic bottom panel with the foil flashing bonded to it. Upon running my CDM tests with 3mm of (reused / reapplied) pads it scored maximum temps of 71C and 75C on the first and second passes respectively. It was at this point I remembered I should have been using ATTO all along- doh!

Next with ATTO fired up, I ran 3 passes with no changes to the padding and saw max temps of 77C / 78C / 79C respectively. It was at this point I decided I was satisfied and did not bother running additional passes.

So my final conclusion was an approximately ~10C reduction in peak temps when running harsh hard disk tests was good enough for me. Compared to no pads at all where the temps spiked nearly instantly during the harshest portions of the CDM test, with the 3 layers (3mm) of pads on the even harsher harshest portions of the ATTO tests the temperatures creeped up much much slower. Overall I call it an easy success.

Now the annoying part is whenever I take the bottom cover off it peels off the pads with it and I don't like assuming they will end up placing correctly on the actual surface of the heat spreading plate when re-attaching the plastic bottom cover to the laptop, so I feel the need to peel them off the cover and reapply them back onto the heat spreader covering the SSD prior to re-attaching the plastic bottom cover back onto the laptop- but that is probably just me being too OCD. Additionally I have considered using thermal compound to smear the area of the foil flashing where the pads like to stick to in order to keep them on the heat spreader plate when removing the plastic bottom cover for other service / modification reasons- mostly just as a hassle and time saver. (I don't expect that to change the results any.) Sorry for the wordy response but I feel the need to be precise and clear with my procedure and results here for obvious reasons.


NOTES:

Crystal Disk Mark was v6 (64bit) and averaged approximately 67% CPU load when performing its tests. (Since CPU is primary heating source in most laptops this may matter more in other machines or configurations- worth keeping in mind in the back of your head imo when performing trials such as these.)

ATTO was v3.05 and averaged between 5% and 15% CPU usage despite being much hotter and harsher on the SSD temps themselves.

My machine's fan was approximately 3k / 3000 RPM during these tests as that is where it idles when I keep my external monitor plugged in and it keeps my dGPU active and prevents sleep states deeper than C3 on my machine.

All tests were performed with my machine set to absolute maximum performance profiles (SST: 0) using ThrottleStop and (Windows power scheme) Bitsum Highest Performance profile. This essentially maintains an all-core minimum of 3.4GHz on my CPU and a maximum boost clock of 3.8GHz. Additionally I was running a stable -0.150V undervolt during all tests as well.

And finally I selected 8GB test lengths with Queue Depths of 9 which I have been under the impression are slightly harsher test conditions than the defaults that CDM and ATTO open up with.

SCREENSHOTS & IMAGES:

 

A FEW MORE IMAGES TO GO WITH THE POST ABOVE ^^^ :

 

A FEW MORE IMAGES TO GO WITH THE POST ABOVE ^^^ :

 

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