Aaron44126

https://www.neowin.net/news/qualcomm-has-reportedly-made-an-offer-to-acquire-intel/ I just saw this reported on like 5 different sites. Reportedly, Qualcomm has extended an acquisition offer to Intel. No indication that it will actually go through … yet. But Intel hasn’t exactly been on a good luck streak recently…

Go to the legacy "Sound control panel" in Windows, pick your speakers from the list, go to Properties -> Advanced and disable "audio enhancements". See if that helps at all. These days there is so much Realtek/Maxx Audio fluff that gets piled onto the sound stack, some of it can cause problems, and I find this to be an easy way to dodge them.

I dunno. I'm not familiar with any of the models listed here. I've also never done a used or refurb purchase. I also tend to buy "the best laptop you can get" and then use it for as long as possible. So, I generally am only looking at the high-end stuff. I've only used Precision M4X00/M6X00 or Precision 7000-series systems in the last 12+ years. Most of the Precision systems that I have used were for work and provided by my workplace, but I did have a personal Precision M6700 that I used as my daily driver for a full ten years. If you want something sort-of current in that vein, you could look at maybe Precision 7540? It's pretty upgradeable so you could beef it up over time, with three full-size M.2 SSD slots that take both NVMe and SATA drives, plus the option for a 2.5" SATA drive (if you go for the smaller battery), I think up to 128 GB of RAM, 4K display option, and graphics go up to Quadro RTX 5000 (Turing generation) with 16GB of vRAM. ...Can't swap out the CPU, though. I did switch to Mac last year so I doubt that I will ever get a newer Precision laptop. Since Apple Silicon systems came out, it's the only option that offers both high-performance when needed (for me, basically gaming) and a good "laptop experience" the rest of the time (all-day battery life / no heat or noise). While there are downsides to this choice, in particular in terms of the system's modularity / upgradeability... I don't accept the direction that Microsoft is going with Windows, and I made an attempt to switch to Linux that ended up with more frustration that I'd prefer, so... I don't really see another option.

Yes, previous builds did have version numbers. The build that I have posted is a development snapshot and has all of the latest changes; it is just what I had available to post. As there will be no further development (by me), I won't be releasing any more versioned builds. I don't even have ready access to the build chain right now, my new personal system is a Mac and the Precision system that I was using to build this software is now running Linux.

Or Linux? Easy enough to set up SMB file sharing and Plex.

You normally have to do an INF mod to get the NVIDIA driver to install in cases like this... I have previously posted some details on the process here. But these days I believe you can use the "NVCleanstall" GUI tool and it will take care of it for you. There is a checkbox during install to add additional hardware support to the INF.

The driver will eventually be available through Dell or other OEMs, just need to look / wait for systems that ship with BE201 preinstalled. That said, I highly doubt that this will work even after the driver is made available. Most likely, there will just be an error in Device Manager and the driver will fail to load. Best case, it "works" but just gives the same Wi-Fi 6 speed. CNVi cards are not a full Wi-Fi implementation; the most important stuff is in the PCH, and the PCH in this system predates Wi-Fi 7.

Err, I am the software author so I generated that build. It is an internal work-in-progress build. The 3.0 version never had a final release.

Yep... Unless 64GB SODIMMs become available and "happen to work".

On Precision 7770, I got the fingerprint reader to work but it would stop working after a while — like, if the system was up for more than 3 or 4 days. Couldn’t figure out a way to “fix” it without a reboot.

I posted a new link that will not expire. This is the final public build; I'm not working on this project anymore, and I do not plan to address any of the remaining issues, since I don't even have ready access to any systems that I can test with anymore. (Dell blocked all known fan control mechanisms as of their 2021 systems.) Anyone is welcome to take the code that I have published on GitHub and work with it. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsIwJHFk4EFdqNc2I45BxBqHhwaKIA?e=YjUSPn

I have 22 BIOS versions archived, including 1.23 and 1.26, but nothing in between those two 😕

Well, the group he sued — Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) — has disbanded, apparently because of the lawsuit and expected costs fighting it. So in the end, Musk gets what he wants ...? https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/8/24216202/garm-x-twitter-musk-advertising

Elon Musk tries to sue other companies into purchasing X/Twitter ads? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/elon-musk-declares-it-is-war-on-ad-industry-as-x-sues-over-illegal-boycott/

It will definitely not work. Precision 7550 GPUs do not have the same physical shape or position of components as the Precision 7540 GPUs. If you fit a Quadro RTX 4000 or 5000 into this system, you will also have to replace the heatsink, as those GPUs has screw holes in different positions than the others.

Since Precision 7X60 (2021) you have been able to order systems with a GeForce GPU. You must order through a sales rep to get this option... they don't offer it on the web site.

Anyone tried Animal Well? I keep seeing rave reviews of this pop up from people that I follow on YouTube. Going to start it soon.

Yeah, you have the parts list right, plus I believe a different heatsink/fan assembly is actually needed as well. I didn't think there are any AMD card options for these systems? Or maybe it wasn't until Precision 7X50 that Dell dumped AMD GPUs... At the time, there was a fair amount of attention on NBR around using Precision 7540 GPUs in the Precision 7530, which works fine (but does run into NVIDIA driver INF mod issues that you have with any such "unsupported" GPU upgrade). In Precision 7540, the RTX 4000 and RTX 5000 GPUs use a different heatsink than the lower-end NVIDIA GPUs (which also use a different heatsink than you'd see in an iGPU-only system). You are able to take the heatsink from the Precision 7540 and install it in the Precision 7530 as well to make those high-end GPUs work. I would think it is a safe bet that Precision 7740 GPUs would work fine in the Precision 7730.

Looking like a no go since Intel is not releasing "business" "HX" CPUs for 15th gen. (And there's nothing new from NVIDIA, either.) We will have to wait and see what they have for 2025.

You can get this by installing the package "smbios-utils" from the Ubuntu repos. These commands (run as root) will allow you to change the thermal profile. smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode=balanced smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode=cool-botom smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode=quiet smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode=performance

I agree more or less, these days I find it fine to do the base Windows install, get it online (install Ethernet or Wi-Fi driver), and let Windows Update take care of everything. I think that it will get every single driver. I'd still install the GPU drivers from Dell, and maybe some extra non-driver stuff like Dell Optimizer if you think you actually need it.

I used Linux (Ubuntu) on Precision 7770 for a while and the only issue that I really had was poor power balance between the CPU and GPU (which I also observed on Windows), and the fingerprint reader wouldn't work consistently. Which Dell Command app are you trying to use from Linux, and why?

Yeah, next thing I would do here is: Switchable graphics back off Run DDU and tell it to whack the Intel graphics driver Switchable graphics back on Install the current Intel GPU driver from Dell's site HDR does allow for some more vibrant colors, but situations where it is useful are minimal (IMO) — certain videos, and certain games, which should automatically trigger it when running full screen (no need to switch the entire desktop to HDR mode). I guess, you could also be working with HDR imagery (photos) and maybe then you'd need to switch it on. Please do not disable NVIDIA graphics from Device Manager if the system is running with hybrid graphics disabled. You'll lose the internal display.

1.20.1 is the one I think people were complaining about, with poor CPU performance? The whole reason that bridge BIOS was posted was to get back to an older version to get full performance back, before 1.21.1 was posted. My 7770 has been fine with 1.21.1, or as "fine" as I'd expect it to be anyway given this system's issues, but I have not attempted to enable HDR. (I only use it remotely now anyway.)

I don't have the BIOS bridge file, but you might be able to get around this by ... Toggle "switchable graphics" in the BIOS setup. (Enable it if you have it disabled, or vice versa.) This will switch which GPU is driving the laptop internal display, should have the internal display show up as a "new" display to Windows, and might change the behavior you are seeing with HDR. Get into safe mode, and run DDU, which should reset a bunch of display stuff. That might help you get past this too. ...I don't know why the HDR implementation in Windows is so shoddy. When I tried setting the whole desktop to HDR mode, I couldn't stand it, everything looks so washed out.