Precision 7680 & Precision 7780 Owner's Thread

[Chalybion]

20 hours ago, woffe said:

Hi, 

i tryed to change the power limits with throttlestop on my 7680. I will set PL 1 to 90W and PL 2 to 120W. The change on PL 2 will work, but the PL 1 change will not work, PL 1 will always be around 77W. A lower PL 1 (e.g. 60W) will work, but not a higher. Has Dell this blocked?

 

Kind regards, Sascha 

Disclaimer:  I have a 7540, not a 7X80, so take this with a huge grain of salt.  Perhaps the same principles apply?

The PL1 may be able to be increased by changing hidden BIOS variables.  There should be variables for PL1 and PL2 that can be overwritten with a higher limit; you'll have to test whether the higher limit actually takes.

If not, there should also be a variable called IMON slope that can be changed to a value of 80 or 90 - in essence only reporting 80-90% of the actual power draw (so a limit of 77W corresponds to actual power draw of 85-96 W).  Do this at your own risk, of course - I would probably set a battery profile with a corresponding lower PL 2 / PL 1 to avoid damage to the battery from drawing too much current.

[iieeann]

On 10/17/2023 at 9:44 AM, nero519 said:

Would this kit be compatible (7780)?

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws SO-DIMM 64GB (2 x 32GB) 262-Pin DDR5 SO-DIMM DDR5 5600 (PC5 44800) Laptop Memory Model F5-5600S4040A32GX2-RS - Newegg.com

 

 

32gb module will work, unless it is faulty.  I just got a pair of Micron 48GB 5600 and they work, although both Dell & Micron websites did not list 48GB x2 as compatible.  Anyway when this laptop was launched 48gb module was not yet released. The ram runs at 5200 eventually.

[nero519]

I understand undervolt is not possible with this laptop, is there any recommendation in the same aspect to do? Like some throttlestop configuration or similar apps, I'm fairly new to this in laptops but I've been doing it for years on desktop, so not entirely unfamiliar with it.

7780 - 13950hx, I already have ptm7950 on the way

[yslalan]

Just flashed RTX3500ada vBIOS extracted from 7780 to 7680, i got the GPU boosted to instantaneous 160Watt and the total power consumption is 280Watt using the AW GaN 330w brick.😃

[nero519]

My vram temp is reaching 102c after some minutes gaming, is that normal?

7780/4090

 

I applied ptm7950 the other day and got great results overall, but didn't check if vram was like this before or I just misplaced something

[MMMax]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:34 PM, yslalan said:

Good news here:

48GB*2 5600MHz SODIMM works pretty well on 7680 (running @5200Mhz bcz dual channel)

hi yslalan

could 48GB*2 SODIMM works on 7670?

i would want to upgrade my 7670 too, but not sure it works or not

Thnaks

[Sco]

Hi, I've just got a 7780 this week and had a couple of questions:

 

1. Is anyone's trackpad slightly uneven? Mine's off to the right slightly and slightly sunken left side. I've fixed this before (on Dell laptops) by taking the bottom off, battery out and replacing, but this didn't make a difference on the 7780. All screws seemed to be tight.

 

2. What are the grey L-shaped things on the left and right sides? (left of 1, right of 11.) When I had it taken apart, they sort of looked like LEDs, but I can't find any reference to them online.

 

[win32asmguy]

1 hour ago, Sco said:

Hi, I've just got a 7780 this week and had a couple of questions:

 

1. Is anyone's trackpad slightly uneven? Mine's off to the right slightly and slightly sunken left side. I've fixed this before (on Dell laptops) by taking the bottom off, battery out and replacing, but this didn't make a difference on the 7780. All screws seemed to be tight.

 

2. What are the grey L-shaped things on the left and right sides? (left of 1, right of 11.) When I had it taken apart, they sort of looked like LEDs, but I can't find any reference to them online.

 

 

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the community!

 

I have not had an uneven trackpad but it is probably something that they would fix if you setup a repair or had them dispatch parts if you are comfortable with replacing it yourself.

 

I believe the L shaped cutouts are for wireless signal reception.

[Sco]

31 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

 

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the community!

 

I have not had an uneven trackpad but it is probably something that they would fix if you setup a repair or had them dispatch parts if you are comfortable with replacing it yourself.

 

I believe the L shaped cutouts are for wireless signal reception.

Thanks! After 2x disappointing/returned AW M18's, I opted for a refurb 7780 (£3.3k): i9/64GB CAMM/2TB/4090/4k

 

I think you're spot on with the wifi, I'm so used to them being routed up through the screen, I didn't even register that the wires went straight to those L's.

 

I forgot to ask something else, is there a way to enable numlock on boot? It doesn't seem to be in BIOS (v1.7.0), I use SSD passwords instead of Bitlocker, so I'm entering a pin every boot, this is the first Dell I haven't been able to enable numlock on boot.

 

[win32asmguy]

13 minutes ago, Sco said:

Thanks! After 2x disappointing/returned AW M18's, I opted for a refurb 7780 (£3.3k): i9/64GB CAMM/2TB/4090/4k

 

I think you're spot on with the wifi, I'm so used to them being routed up through the screen, I didn't even register that the wires went straight to those L's.

 

I forgot to ask something else, is there a way to enable numlock on boot? It doesn't seem to be in BIOS (v1.7.0), I use SSD passwords instead of Bitlocker, so I'm entering a pin every boot, this is the first Dell I haven't been able to enable numlock on boot.

 

 

Thats a nice spec machine. I am always glad to see more people choose to take it as an option. It sort of proves to me that the gaudy, gamer oriented laptops are not universally accepted as being better. Lenovo is also starting to release a 4090 option for their P16 Gen2 as well, sort of bringing back what they offered with the T15g a few years ago.

 

I think having numlock enabled on boot should be in the keyboard section of the bios. If it is missing, contact support and report it as they should always have that option available.

[1610ftw]

On 11/25/2023 at 10:33 PM, Sco said:

Thanks! After 2x disappointing/returned AW M18's, I opted for a refurb 7780 (£3.3k): i9/64GB CAMM/2TB/4090/4k

 

I think you're spot on with the wifi, I'm so used to them being routed up through the screen, I didn't even register that the wires went straight to those L's.

 

I forgot to ask something else, is there a way to enable numlock on boot? It doesn't seem to be in BIOS (v1.7.0), I use SSD passwords instead of Bitlocker, so I'm entering a pin every boot, this is the first Dell I haven't been able to enable numlock on boot.

 

 

Congrats on your purchase - could you elaborate a bit on the AW M18 issues you had and on the password system you use? I hope you can sort out the numlock issue as I agree it is annoying not to have control over it.

[Sco]

On 11/27/2023 at 10:04 AM, 1610ftw said:

 

Congrats on your purchase - could you elaborate a bit on the AW M18 issues you had and on the password system you use? I hope you can sort out the numlock issue as I agree it is annoying not to have control over it.

The M18's both had terrible display bleeding from the factory, this refurb 7780 has barely any bleed compared. The weight was ridiculous too (just over 4KG.) All in, it didn't feel like it was worth the money. The PMW/7780 is a great device but it's also too expensive to fairly compare to the M18, not a lot of 7780 refurbs appear with this spec. PMW is deff aimed at companies buying it for their employee's I think.

 

I use SSD/NVME passwords via Dell BIOS - this works with self-encrypting drives (SEDs) - the drives included with my 7780 and M18 were all SED's. I find this better than being tied down to BitLocker (which usually fails to use hardware encryption anyway, even with the relevant policies in place.) It essentially gives me encryption on the drives without the overhead (that comes with software based encryption such as BitLocker.) To enable it, boot into BIOS and goto the "Passwords" section - you'll see the ability to set passwords for each compatible drive.

[1610ftw]

36 minutes ago, Sco said:

The M18's both had terrible display bleeding from the factory, this refurb 7780 has barely any bleed compared. The weight was ridiculous too (just over 4KG.) All in, it didn't feel like it was worth the money. The PMW/7780 is a great device but it's also too expensive to fairly compare to the M18, not a lot of 7780 refurbs appear with this spec. PMW is deff aimed at companies buying it for their employee's I think.

 

I use SSD/NVME passwords via Dell BIOS - this works with self-encrypting drives (SEDs) - the drives included with my 7780 and M18 were all SED's. I find this better than being tied down to BitLocker (which usually fails to use hardware encryption anyway, even with the relevant policies in place.) It essentially gives me encryption on the drives without the overhead (that comes with software based encryption such as BitLocker.) To enable it, boot into BIOS and goto the "Passwords" section - you'll see the ability to set passwords for each compatible drive.

 

There obviously is a point where display bleeding gets annoying and given that it is mostly an issue with mounting and not the display itself you really got to wonder why companies mess it up on a regular basis.

 

Thanks about the password explanation, not currently using a Dell as my daily driver so too bad that it is a proprietary solution. 

[Sco]

21 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

 

There obviously is a point where display bleeding gets annoying and given that it is mostly an issue with mounting and not the display itself you really got to wonder why companies mess it up on a regular basis.

 

Thanks about the password explanation, not currently using a Dell as my daily driver so too bad that it is a proprietary solution. 

I guess not enough people complain about it!

 

The HDD/SSD password isn't native to Dell, it will appear in other BIOS's (not all) but be careful as the password is not transferable between different manufacturer's BIOS's. I'm not even 100% confident it works between different Dell machines. Unlike Bitlocker where you can plug your drive into any Windows machine and gain access using the recovery key.

Basically only do it if you're comfortable losing the data or have it backed up. Personally I use cloud and backups, I'm only concerned about my laptop being lost/stolen and is the only reason I encrypt.

[1610ftw]

6 minutes ago, Sco said:

I guess not enough people complain about it!

 

The HDD/SSD password isn't native to Dell, it will appear in other BIOS's (not all) but be careful as the password is not transferable between different manufacturer's BIOS's. I'm not even 100% confident it works between different Dell machines. Unlike Bitlocker where you can plug your drive into any Windows machine and gain access using the recovery key.

Basically only do it if you're comfortable losing the data or have it backed up. Personally I use cloud and backups, I'm only concerned about my laptop being lost/stolen and is the only reason I encrypt.

 

You're probably right that not enough people complain even though display bleeding is really annoying for gaming where there are also a lot of dark sequences.

 

Will have to check my bios options as it is the same for me - backups in place and only concerned about loss or theft.

 

Hope you get some decent performance out of the 7780 - probably not quite as much as out of the M18 but we can't have it all!

 

[Sco]

5 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

You're probably right that not enough people complain even though display bleeding is really annoying for gaming where there are also a lot of dark sequences.

 

Will have to check my bios options as it is the same for me - backups in place and only concerned about loss or theft.

 

Hope you get some decent performance out of the 7780 - probably not quite as much as out of the M18 but we can't have it all!

 

I prefer the 7780 over the M18 by a mile! I know the 7780 is capped at 240w vs 330w on the M18 but I'm not a massive gamer, I'd rather have the 4k screen and portability. I can use the 7780 on my lap for work/leisure etc but the M18 was a no go both due to weight and design (fixed lip on underside sticks into legs - deff designed for use on a table.) I'll be happier with the electric bill too 😆

[Sco]

Does anyone else with a 7780, notice issues with their keyboard backlight? It's more noticeable at an angle rather than head-on. I've had the keyboard replaced twice, same issue.

[Aaron44126]

25 minutes ago, Sco said:

Does anyone else with a 7780, notice issues with their keyboard backlight? It's more noticeable at an angle rather than head-on. I've had the keyboard replaced twice, same issue.

 

I mean ... on my Precision 7560 here, there is definitely an "angle" similar to the one pictured here where you can see the keyboard backlight LEDs directly through gaps between the keys and the chiclet lattice.  Is that what you are referring to?

 

(Much harder to see anything like that on my MacBook Pro where the keys are more flush against the lattice.)

[Sco]

18 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I mean ... on my Precision 7560 here, there is definitely an "angle" similar to the one pictured here where you can see the keyboard backlight LEDs directly through gaps between the keys and the chiclet lattice.  Is that what you are referring to?

 

(Much harder to see anything like that on my MacBook Pro where the keys are more flush against the lattice.)

It's just more visible at an angle, rather than it being a problem only viewable at certain angles. It's noticeable, more so at night. For comparison I have a Latitude 5510 + 5520, and a G15 5521 (pictured) - all do not have this issue.

 

The main reason I ask, is so I can be sure if this is expected on all 7780s or if there's some fault with mine, I have a feeling they're all built like this (Dell's build quality has been going downhill for some time.) I'm currently waiting on a reply from "Level 3 support."

[win32asmguy]

9 hours ago, Sco said:

It's just more visible at an angle, rather than it being a problem only viewable at certain angles. It's noticeable, more so at night. For comparison I have a Latitude 5510 + 5520, and a G15 5521 (pictured) - all do not have this issue.

 

The main reason I ask, is so I can be sure if this is expected on all 7780s or if there's some fault with mine, I have a feeling they're all built like this (Dell's build quality has been going downhill for some time.) I'm currently waiting on a reply from "Level 3 support."

 

I think it could be better. Here is my 7780:

 

[Sco]

On 12/9/2023 at 5:32 AM, win32asmguy said:

 

I think it could be better. Here is my 7780:

 

 

Yours looks ok but then again so does mine in most pictures, it's strangely only evident to the eye. Non-US keyboard layouts are an afterthought for Dell, they rarely offer the same, so it's possible mine is lower quality.

 

I've unfortunately decided to return my 7780. Between 2x Alienware M18's and a 7780 with 2x service repairs, I'm just disappointed with what Dell offers at those pricepoints.

 

Instead I bought a 16" Macbook Pro M3 Max/48gb RAM/40core GPU. I know this will be an unpopular choice, I usually avoid Apple like the plague but I can't fault the qualiy of their laptops. I'd have considered myself a Dell fanboy until this experience.

[Aaron44126]

16 minutes ago, Sco said:

Instead I bought a 16" Macbook Pro M3 Max/48gb RAM/40core GPU. I know this will be an unpopular choice, I usually avoid Apple like the plague but I can't fault the qualiy of their laptops. I'd have considered myself a Dell fanboy until this experience.

 

Welcome to the club 😕

(I dumped my Precision 7770 for an M2 Max MacBook Pro 16" this past summer after ongoing frustrations.  MacBook has its own idiosyncrasies but I am generally more happy with it and I think I am a permanent Mac convert.)

[win32asmguy]

7 hours ago, Sco said:

Yours looks ok but then again so does mine in most pictures, it's strangely only evident to the eye. Non-US keyboard layouts are an afterthought for Dell, they rarely offer the same, so it's possible mine is lower quality.

 

I've unfortunately decided to return my 7780. Between 2x Alienware M18's and a 7780 with 2x service repairs, I'm just disappointed with what Dell offers at those pricepoints.

 

Instead I bought a 16" Macbook Pro M3 Max/48gb RAM/40core GPU. I know this will be an unpopular choice, I usually avoid Apple like the plague but I can't fault the qualiy of their laptops. I'd have considered myself a Dell fanboy until this experience.

 

I have seen some Precision keyboards with uneven backlighting like that but it was usually the older models that had a plastic lattice that could get deformed after removing a few times (and with those models some of the memory was under the keyboard so it usually had to be removed at least once). Either way it should not be an unrepairable defect at the pricepoint of these machines.

 

Macbooks are nice, especially if you only need excellent quality native MacOS apps. I still like to game so Windows 10 continues to be the best choice for me. I also like running Linux natively which the Precision does pretty well with a few caveats. The prices on the Macbooks are pretty high and the storage and memory costs are insulting.

[J A]

Hi,

 

currently using precision 7750 as my daily driver, and I'm thinking of upgrading 7680/7780.  At the moment my main annoyance is that as soon as I plug in the 2 USB cables of the dell docking station, laptop's fans start revving up, and remains so forever. I read in a few discussions, that this is due to the (poor) design of the thunderbolt chips in 7750. 

 

Therefore I was wondering, if there's anyone with experience on the thunderbolt ports of 7680/7780 ?  Ideally with the docking station, and multiple monitors connected? 

 

Appreciate the help in advance!

 

J A

[Aaron44126]

22 minutes ago, J A said:

At the moment my main annoyance is that as soon as I plug in the 2 USB cables of the dell docking station, laptop's fans start revving up, and remains so forever.

 

There's a fan control oddity in these systems.  Load on the PCH seems to cause the EC to want to spin up the fans in an effort to cool off the PCH, even though the fans don't actually do much or anything to cool off the PCH because of the physical design of the heatsink.  So, it is pointless fan noise.

 

This could affect anything going through Thunderbolt, which is connected through the PCH, but you can also reproduce this behavior just by connecting the system to a gigabit Ethernet network and running a high-speed transfer to another device on your LAN.  It doesn't load the CPU very much, but it does cause a load on the PCH which causes the fans to ramp up.

 

I have not tried a Thunderbolt dock with my Precision 7560 or Precision 7770, but I have observed the same fan-ramps-up-on-network-transfer behavior on both of them.  I don't have high hopes that Precision 7680 or 7780 would be any different.