Is anyone else having stability issues with the Covet?
How would I go about measuring heat on the CPU and GPU? I can't seem to find any utilities.
NTune crashes Vista 64 so that's out...
What I'm getting is normal fast operation for maybe an hour, and then fairly reliably the screens will all blank out for a second and then come back. Windows delivers a popup saying the NVidia drivers have stopped responding and then recovered.
Event logs show the message also: Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding.
I got the Quad Core Covet, and the Quadro 3700. I have it set in the High Performance power mode, plugged in to the wall on the (extremely large) factory charger. The system will run all day if I'm not using Maya.
Also ever since receiving this I have been getting a security audit failure:
Code:
Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid.
The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid
hash could indicate a potential disk device error.
File Name:DeviceHarddiskVolume3WindowsSystem32drivers cpip.sys
Network works fine so I don't know what to think of that. Anyone have this too in Vista 64 Business or Ultimate?
Yup me again, in my hunt to determine if M6400 is right for me as it costs just about as much as a used car, I want to make sure its a good investment before I buy it.
What is the main difference with the M6400 and the M6400 Covet?
I configured both with the same specs and the Covet is about $900 more in price?
After a few weeks I have noticed a few problems with my M6400 Covet.
Here is an overview.
1.) Random hard-locks. My M6400 will sometimes hard-lock... it will completely freeze up. CTRL + ALT + DEL doesn't respond.. Caps Lock doesn't respond.. Everything simply freezes up. This is usually after I switch "off" the WiFi switch on the side of the covet.. or when connecting to a new WiFi network. I've updated the drivers to the ones on Dell's site.. It works for a while then does it again.
2.) Random video errors. My M6400's display will "freak out" every now and then. Seems to be completely random. Sometimes the machine is at idle, I come back and the screen has random artifacts on it.. sometimes it occurs when I'm working hard. It occurs when docked with an external monitor.. (however, it only affects the primary display on my docking station.. not the secondary display) and un-docked on the RGB LED E2E display. I think this is a driver error- but I've installed the drivers on Dell's website. Here is a screen-grab of the problem on the RGB LED E2E display. (Somehow I was *actually* able to prnt scrn it and save it in photoshop despite the horrible screen) My external monitor is fine and works fine with other computers.
3.) My WiFi/Bluetooth lights on the Covet don't always work. Sometimes i'm connected viai WiFi and the light isn't on. Strange. Are there supposed to be on-screen displays with the Covet? i.e. when you turn up /down the volume should there be an on-screen display? My old M90 did this.
Here are the vitals on my M6400 Covet: Intel Core 2 Dual Extreme Edition QX9300 2.53GHz, 1067MHZ, 12M L2 CacheDual Core 8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 4 DIMMfor Mobile Precision 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M Mobile Precision M6400 Covet Intel X25-M 80GB SSD (main disk) 160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS (storage) 17 inch Wide Screen Edge 2 Edge WUXGA RGBLED LCD, Blood Orange, for Mobile Precision M6400 Vista Ultimate 64-BIT Service Pack 1, with media, English Mobile Precision Integrated megapixel VGA webcam with single digital microphone, Mobile Precision M6400 Dell WLAN 1397 (802.11b/g) 1/2MiniCard for Latitude E/MobilePrecision
I am about to buy a new anchor and have narrowed it down to the above two options. Quotes pasted below. Prices ommitted.. The Covet is about 100 bucks more then the w700 out the door.
I have always been a Dell guy, never had much experience with the IBM/Lenovo's. (Dropped my D630 in a pool so I get to finally get a dcent computer) I understand the raw spec differences in that I am getting more power all around with the Dell. What I don't know is that if the Covet is of the same build quality as the lower end business or consumer models (Not so great) as opposed to the Thinkpads which are wonderful.
Also, is the only difference between the LED RGB E2E and the non E2E the piece of glass? Is it identical except for that? I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with the matte screen and think it is beautiful, did not like the Apple Glossy (read, glare) option. Am I losing out on anyhing other then the Glare with the Non-E2E screen? ...
Has anyone successfully calibrated the RGB LED screen on the M6400 Covet using a colorimeter?
I have a Pantone Huey Pro and I'm getting really bad results after calibration (washed out colors, greenish cast). After about 2 months of back and forth with Pantone they have told me that "maybe" my colorimeter doesn't have enough range for a screen with such a wide gamut.
The "maybe" part, which suggests they don't even know their own product, is what I find unbelievable
From all the specs listed on this machine it should be a CAD powerhouse, however it seems that there are a number of people on the net reporting lots of driver issues when trying to run CAD software.
I'll be running things like Solidworks and some other engineering aps that use some 3D modeling and am wondering if there is any kind of a consensus yet as to weather this machine is good to go or not. This machine will be used for work, so I don't want to mess around with something that will be crashing all the time.
Is it just the Dell bloatware that is causing the issues? If I reformat and reinstall the OS how difficult is it to find all the proper (stable!) drivers to get this machine up and running again?
This is driving me crazy. The left rubber bumper on the keyboard deck of my m6400 keeps coming off. I called dell and they ended up replacing the entire deck just to replace this one little rubber piece and it just ended up coming off again.
I really don't want to call dell and set up a service call just to replace this one little piece. The last time I did the tech completely disassembled my laptop and it took him 3 reassembly attempts to get it to boot,
but I'm worried the my screen will get cracked if I don't (I have the covet with the glass screen). Seems like a really bad design.
I've had my covet for arround less than a month now and i've now got serious issues with photoshop cs4 and all the cs4 suite.. like selecting actionscript in flash cs4s actionscript panel.. (major lag)
It must be the graphics drivers, but i have installed all the varieties i have read about on this forum both from nvidia & laptovideo2go to no availe.. after opening a few psd's and trying to move layers around from one to the other (via the tabs etc..) it really starts to become unusable.. it feals like there is a graphics card memeory leak or something, also when i open the nvidia control panel to see what's going on the 3d logo start to stutter when i move my mouse over it continiously...
is anybody else having issue with cs4..?
covet, quadcore, 8gb ram, 3700m + 320 hd..
about to install another 320 hd and was happy to see that i don;t have to reinstall everything.... via (ludicrus speed)
***I should also note that some of the close screen shots are a little blurry. I wasnt using a camera stand and taking shots with no flash. So like in the sunset shot, dont compare resolution cause the m6400 pic looks blurrier than the 9100 pic. Just compare color and brightness. Sorry, I just noticed this hours later *
Ok, Ive taken some side by side pics. Old laptop, Dell 9100 15" about 4.5 years old. New Laptop - M6400 Covet
As you can see, for me at least, buying this 17" isnt much bigger than the 15" Im used to. Ok, yeah. I wish the power supply wasnt so big but I will still carry this daily with me to work.
I have a backpack by Spire that I LOVE. They make a sleeve that fits this laptop fine and though the backpack I bought isnt SUPPOSED to fit that big of a sleeve, it actually works.
I highly recommend Spire backpacks. My old one for the 9100 has been carried almost Daily for over 4 years with good weight in it and it still really seems like new esp in the strength department.
I am no expert in video card and monitor stuff as Im an audio guy, so I havent tweaked anything with these screens. They are just both set to highest brightness level and as they came. Im not sure how "fair" it is to compare these since one is an LED screen and one is not and right there, you should expect one to be "colder" and one "warmer".
The LED on the m6400 is definately more saturated with color and way brighter. In whites, my old one looks a bit yellowish though it doesnt really show on the pics.
I tried to so some comparison glossy vs matte (9100) screen. Yep, the Covet is glossy as it IS glass after all, but nope, it doesnt bother me a bit. My first glossy screen too.
I tried to show the screen at angles but both these screens seem to have a wide angle range for viewing.
So yeah I wasn't exactly handling the thing with utmost care, was holding the open laptop one-handed by the left front corner, heard a plastic snap sound... I press down on the flat black plastic area where your left palm would rest, just above the PC card slot.. it's a bit squishy. Does it flex for yours too, am I paranoid? Its not a problem just wondering...
Dell is finally starting to help me out as far as the screen glossiness and some other issues I've been having.
Before I tell them what parts I need in a replacement, I need to know if the M6400 RGBLED screen (not the Covet) is matte finish?
I'd really appreciate it - I can't trust their sales staff to actually know. My gut instinct would be that the E2E RGBLED screen is glossy, while the other is matte... but I don't want to replace my glossy with another glossy!
I think the question explains itself. I tried installing maya and I can't find the licensing program that I need to register it. And Maya keeps whining about the inability to launch the product configuration wizard. SO...
I may as well use it in windows since I have a working copy for that. However, I know bootcamp yields the best result but I want/need to be in osx also instead of isolating myself totally when I use Maya so between parallels and vmware, which would run Maya better? You can throw out a guess, doesn't have to be based on factual real life tests.
TLDR version: Which runs Maya better? VMware or Parallels?
I'm going to be getting a new laptop soon. I will be using Solidworks 64-bit mostly and also using some other engineering software that has 3D modeling involved.
Searching through threads it seems like a lot of people are reporting problems. Should I look at another laptop? Or has Dell worked out all the bugs with this machine?
How black is your RGBLED screen? If you look at the black screen (say, black desktop background) in a completely dark room, is the screen uniformly black? Mine has some slightly brighter "shadows" (well, it's actually the opposite of a shadow) towards the middle of the screen. Granted, this is a tough test for a laptop LCD, but for that kind of money I would have expected more. My M90 certainly does better in that regard, but I do seem to recall that the screen on that laptop had a similar issue, and did improve over time.
So, is what I am seeing normal, or should I get them to give me a new LCD?
I got it in November, sometimes when i go to ANY of my browsers to view pages with flash. The whole browser freezes and crashes, so i start it up again and go to the page, and crash again.. so i try to use another browser (i literally have chrome, Firefox, safari and IE) all of them do the same exact thing.. and once it crashes there's no way to get it back up unless you restart. It gets very annoying having to restart my laptop about 5 times a day. I've done everything, uninstalling flash player, reinstalling it, reinstalling browsers.. I've even reinstalled my OS because nothing else would work. I don't understand why this laptop has so many issues. Randomly freezes, crashes etc. Its basically brand new and i shouldn't have these issues. My old Compaq presario cq60-215dx NEVER ever did any of these thing this Studio laptop does. This laptop is about 400 dollars more than my Compaq.. Also, i dual booted Vista and Windows 7 and Vista is a hell of a lot faster, it boots up faster and never crashes.. It just seems as if Dell did something to this OS to make it a piece.. help?
Whenever I close the computer it will crash. Upon re-opening it I am greeted with the BIOS loading screen and the the message telling me my computer was not properly shut down.
I'm not really sure why this happens. If anyone has had this problem and knows how to fix it ....
I have my 9400/E1705, when playing games for a while say sometimes 10min-1 hour it will lockup with garbulled sound from the speakers at full volume. Ive tried different video drivers and sound drivers and done a complete fresh install but the problem still exists.
i have owned this dell XPS M1730 for over a year now, and it has always seemed to have this weird problem with graphical pauses.... the setup is a core 2 extreme edition 2.8 GHz proc with "dual 8800GTX" graphics cards offered from dell. the rest is pretty standard but if needed i can just slap on the long and mostly useless dxdiag list now then, on to the problem. with certain games the game will play just fine at a high/good frame rate, but every so often the game will just freeze. sound will either not be effected, or also freeze with it, and naturally mouse movement I/O is also frozen. this usually lasts for about 2 seconds or so then everything resumes. originally i thought this was a graphical issue but one day i decided to look at the task manager after having it happen nearly every 30 seconds (although time and amount of pauses per time varies) the CPU usage would spike to 100 % from the normal 30 % or so. now originally i thought this was just the game having horrific coding issues but recently i got borderlands and it also has the same issue. i really am getting tired of the little "unknown nuances" of the 1730 and would like to fix these problems or know how to **** at dell tech support if possible.
I have a Motorola BT stereo headset....it connects fine, but shortly after streaming audio, whether Hulu, Music or Gaming....
maybe after 3 minutes, the entire BT system crashes, icon disappears and sound returns to notebook speakers. The only way to get BT back is a COLD boot.
I've tried cleaning removing and reinstalling all BT drivers to the same result.
Any clues anyone? I've read about some Win7 'quirk' w/ Bluetooth but don't know much about it ....
I've got a XPS 15 L521x that was running Windows 7 for weeks with out incident. I decided I'd like to try Windows 8. I installed (after changing Sata to AHCI) without incident. After the install completes I reboot and it crashes. The OS goes to "attempting repairs". I can run a "refresh" of the OS and it will fix the issue and then crash again after a reboot.
I bought my XPS 13 3 months ago and I immediately found out that there was a hardware failure when the computer goes to sleep. It refuses to reboot after I press the power button and instead I have to force shutdown before rebooting it. I disabled the sleep mode and it has worked fine ever since. However, recently I am experiencing it again. I think it's just that it went to sleep after I let it sit for some time, but I still want to resolve this issue once and for all.
My 2013 Inspiron tended to come out of hibernation either quite slowly , taking 20 to 30 seconds to get to the log-in screen, or crash altogether (not every time, but every 2 or 3 wake-ups) which required a hardware reboot.. After doing some research, I found some information. It appears there may be some conflict between BIOS settings and Windows (8.1 in my case).
I checked BIOS settings and the only thing I found was that Intel's Rapid Start Technology was enabled. So I turned it off and rebooted. Turns out, the Rapid Start actually delayed the boot process: my computer boots MUCH faster now (about half the time from before) in the full boot process, it comes out of hibernation almost instantaneously (as I would expect from a system with i7 processor, 16 GB Ram and SSD) and it has not yet crashed when coming out hibernation.
