Aaron44126

The file name extension doesn’t matter, it’s just a raw vBIOS dump in either case. You should be able to use it with nvflash directly.

This is normal. These days, CPUs turbo boost way higher than the base speed. Basically, automatic overclocking as long as thermal and power constraints are met. The base speed is basically the absolute minimum speed that you should be able to maintain (under load) if your cooling system is working properly. i9-11900H can turbo boost up to 4.9 GHz. Most systems will level off above the base speed but well below the max turbo speed, which can only be maintained for a short time.

Alright, I see. I thought you were not getting any display at all. I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm going to suggest that you try Linux Mint 18.3. When I did this (...about four years ago now...), I used a newer version and it did not work (I do not remember if the symptoms were the same as yours), but I tried an older one and I was able to boot to the desktop.

The "USB composite device" is a real physical device that offers multiple devices/services over a single USB connection. It could be a standalone device or it could just be a chip on the motherboard that just talks "USB" to the rest of the system. The fingerprint reader seems to be wired up to go through it. It might be this thing right here. -> My supposition is that it might not be included if you don't order the SmartCard reader. This would explain why Dell blocks configurations with the fingerprint reader but no SmartCard reader. If that is the case, I doubt that the fingerprint reader would work. The only way to find out is for someone to try it, really...

They're not independent in the system, both the SmartCard reader and fingerprint reader are connected to the same "USB composite device" — whatever that is, I am wondering if it is missing if you don't get the system with a SmartCard reader (and then the fingerprint reader would not be properly detected by the OS, even if there is technically a place to plug it in).

And then I guess the next question is, will it work if you don't have a SmartCard reader? @craigeryjohn, does your system have a SmartCard reader? (It's a slot on the left side and it is labeled "SC" at the front.) On Dell's web site you cannot configure the fingerprint reader without a SmartCard reader. The reason is that the SmartCard reader really gets you Dell's "Control Vault" security solution which also runs the fingerprint reader. It used to be in older systems that the fingerprint reader actually plugged into the same little board that the SmartCard reader plugs into but I'm not sure if that is still the same since they integrated it into the power button. [Edit] Just checked @MyPC8MyBrain's eBay link; $100 for one of these things? Holy cow. You can get a tiny USB one for like $20.

This is after putting the new GPU in? Do you know if you have an LVDS or eDP display panel? Did you have Optimus (graphics switching) enabled in the BIOS? If you have an LVDS panel then Optimus must be enabled to get any signal to the laptop built-in display. You can try running with an external display, it might work. Turn the laptop on and quickly shut the lid and the BIOS screens should come up on the external display.

It's not the same as prior generations. In Precision 7X60 and earlier, you can easily pull out the keyboard trim separately from the palmrest so the keyboard is easy to access. (You just have to disconnect cables from the bottom, like you say.) In Precision 7X70, there is no separate keyboard trim. The chiclet keyboard "lattice" is essentially part of the entire palmrest. The keyboard can only come out from the bottom, and that means getting the heatsink, motherboard, and inner frame out of the way. (This is similar to their XPS-style systems which have been like this for many years.) You also can't pop the palmrest off separately as you could in some prior systems. I've already whined about this a few times. It's a major step backwards in serviceability — the keyboard is a part that should be easily replaceable. I think I ended up replacing the keyboard in three different older Precision systems that I have used for one reason or another. It was a job that could be done in just a few minutes. I hope the Precision 7770 keyboard holds up, I'm not looking forward to the day that I might want to replace that. There might be a slightly easier way to get to just the power button. I haven't looked.

I wonder how easy that would be to access. Replacing the keyboard itself requires basically taking the system entirely apart, motherboard and everything, to replace it from the bottom.

Fingerprint reader — Definitely possible, but I have no idea what parts you'd need. Obviously it serves two purposes (fingerprint scanning and power button) so there is probably two cables running off of it. It's probably part of the palmrest, as far as Dell's part system is concerned. .......You can get tiny USB fingerprint readers that can just plug into the side of the system and work with Windows Hello, that could be an OK workaround. BIOS — 1.8 is a great one to be on, they have made the loadline fix in this version (you don't have to do it yourself), and you can still use undervolting. We are concerned about the end of undervolting but Dell hasn't pushed out a BIOS version for this system yet that kills it. We have seen undervolting killed in other models (from Dell & others) so it's probably a matter of time. [Edit] Noticed that you said you bought a Precision 7760. Maybe you meant 7670? This is the Precision 7670 + 7770 thread, but we do have a separate Precision 7760 thread.

In the old days, I'd just RDP to my desktop whenever I was using my laptop, because that's where all of my stuff was. I actually still do that to access my personal laptop from my work laptop. The RDP experience is pretty slick if you don't need to run full-motion video or games, you could give it a try instead of buying a KVM. More recently, since I moved to a laptop as my primary daily driver, I have taken to migrating my entire Windows install every time I get a new system pretty much for this reason... My Windows install is highly tailored to me with many years of history and I don't want to set everything up again; I simply do not have time for that. I just did such a migration when I got the Precision 7770 this past summer. There's a little bit of work to get driver issues sorted out and cruft to clear out with this approach, but it takes way less time than getting everything configured all over again. Migrating your whole Windows install used to be a pain, but it is easy nowadays, since Windows 8 came out. Just clone your drive, throw it in the new system, and boot it. Windows will recognize that it is in a new system and do a pre-boot device discovery. Afterwards, you will just be left to install whatever drivers it couldn't find on its own, just as if you had done a clean Windows install, but all of your old programs and files will be present. I've done a number of migrations for other people (friends & family) as well, including desktop-to-laptop migrations and vice-versa. Rarely is there an issue that takes longer than a few minutes to work through (assuming that you are generally comfortable working with Windows configuration + drivers + Googling + etc.). ...I guess in your case, this might not be easily possible because of the space crunch of just having a 512GB SSD. Really, you'd just have to clone your base OS drive (after upgrading it to a version of Windows supported on your new system); data drives could be mapped for use over the network? ...I don't have such a storage issue on my system, but those 8 TB drives that I threw in admittedly weren't exactly cheap.

Interesting article on the Twitter "debt payment due soon, what to do?" conundrum. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/looming-twitter-interest-payment-leaves-elon-musk-with-unpalatable-options/ Another one just recapping the last few months of Twitter from a sort of "what's it like to work there" perspective. https://www.theverge.com/23551060/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-layoffs-workplace-salute-emoji

See: https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/graphics-card-upgrade-for-m6800.806352/page-17#post-10748094 (Sorry the pictures aren't working, but the needed commands are there.)

Yes, unless you plan to use Linux, you will need to flash the vBIOS for Quadro P3000/P4000/P5000 to avoid the ACPI BSOD when booting Windows. (You can boot to Linux using a "live USB" environment to do the flash, Linux will not have trouble booting.) Make sure that you have Optimus enabled if you have a LVDS display panel. @TheQuentincc has a working vBIOS image here.

I think this is pretty unlikely, we'd sooner see a 8P+24E configuration. If you're going to raise the core count, adding more E cores is the only thing that makes sense. Four E cores will outperform one P core for a multi-threaded load (those are about equal in terms of physical space and power required). Single-threaded loads of course do better on a P core, but for single/low-thread counts, there's no real need for more P cores... I'd say there are no traces with as much impact as the RAM traces, but PCH/PCIe could maybe use attention at some point as bandwidth increases for PCIe 5/6...? +1, Apple seems to be the only one capable of making a good mobile-first CPU these days. Too bad so many other compromises come with using a Mac.

CAMM is making progress towards becoming the next standard, replacing SODIMM. It could be approved in late 2023 and show up in other devices in 2024. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/camm-to-usurp-so-dimm-laptop-memory-form-factor-says-jedec-member https://www.pcworld.com/article/1473126/camm-the-future-of-laptop-memory-has-arrived.html The "wall" for SODIMM Is somewhere around DDR5/6400. They're also saying that it could allow for modular LPDDR6 implementations, not requiring that memory to be soldered on.

11th/12th gen systems don't work well with this program. There is no known interface for manual fan control on these newer systems. The "consistency" mode option that you have selected is just a quick hack that I put in place to prevent the fans from turning off by putting an artificial CPU load on if the fan speed gets too low.

Eh. 1. I have VBS disabled. I have tried it and it causes performance issues for me. Microsoft themselves even recommends disabling it for best gaming performance. 2. The guy in the Reddit thread I linked above reports undervolting working with his XPS with BIOS 1.11.x, broken after the BIOS Update to 1.12.x, and restored after rolling back to BIOS 1.11.x. (I might have the version numbers wrong.) It seems clearly tied to the BIOS (+ microcode) version and not the OS configuration. ...Also, Dell has since released another newer BIOS version for that XPS system that does not allow a BIOS downgrade to a version that allows undervolting.

Huh, I didn't realize that this is out. I am also interested, as an iOS user, I do prefer to do messaging on my PC and I actually use a Mac Mini via VNC to handle iMessage sometimes; a clunky solution that I'd like to do away with. ......But I'm not upgrading to Windows 11 until there is a LTSC version, so, I guess that gives them plenty of time to fix up the bugs 🙂 There are new regulations coming out of Europe that might force Apple to open up their platform a bit, and I'm interested to see what comes from that too. In addition to allowing some form of side-loading on devices, the rumor mill says that Apple is (reluctantly) considering allowing third-party browsers (that don't use the OS-provided Safari rendering engine) and also opening up iMessage in some way to comply with the new regulations. Any such changes are probably at least a year out.

If they just patched this in November, 13th gen physical design was of course long finished by then, so it will almost certainly get the updated microcode (likely before any laptops even ship to customers). Anyway. The good thing here is you don't have to upgrade your BIOS. If your system is working good now then you can keep it that way. Good thing Dell put out an update that addressed some of the thermal concerns before they put out one with the undervolt "fix". For anyone concerned by this, turn off capsule updates in the BIOS and let other users "go first" when a new version comes out to see what happens.

Heads up, it looks like Dell might be looking to block undervolting in later firmwares. https://notebooktalk.net/topic/685-enable-undervolting-on-your-dell-xps-9500951097009710-or-others/?do=findComment&comment=23585 https://www.reddit.com/r/DellXPS/comments/1019me5/dell_xps_17_9720_issue_with_undervolting_after/ (This is regarding an XPS system, but of course they share a lot of BIOS code between all models.)

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/third-party-twitter-clients-are-broken-whether-by-policy-or-glitch/ Third-party Twitter clients are broken, whether by policy or glitch

So if you look at how LCDs are mounted, there are typically little "tabs" that stick out on the top and bottom of the panel that have screw holes. You can see one in your image right above, partly obscured by the hinge. These mounting tabs are actually not part of the panel, but just an aluminum thing that "sticks" to the back. They can be pretty easily removed and "migrated" to a new panel as long as the physical dimensions are the same. Here is an image of the back of a panel and I try to illustrate what I am talking about:

BIOS update 1.19.0. - Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities including (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures - CVE) such as CVE-2022-30704. - Fixed the issue where the system cannot boot after the BIOS update. - Fixed the issue where the Dell logo is displayed incorrectly when the system boots to the operating system and the system lid is closed. - Fixed the issue where the system auto wakes up on days not selected by you in the Auto On Time function in the BIOS setup. - Fixed the issue where the brightness function stops working on the systems with the Linux operating system. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=R75HT @Light

Microsoft is supporting Windows Server 2008 R2 until at least January 2024 for Azure customers, and I am assuming that those patches will be able to be shoved onto Windows 7 somehow, since the codebase and patches are largely the same?