Precision M4600 Owners Thread

[Hertzian56]

Thought I'd start a general thread about the m4600, pretty much the same as the rest of the line of that generation of tanks just the different cpu/gpu and etc configurations and sizes. It's a great aspect of these really, I can get an M6600 and a lot of it is interchangeable between the 15/17 all the way up to m6800. When I had an M6700 I could pretty much go back and forth on keyboard, ram, hdd/ssd holders, charger, battery etc built in redundancy. My largest gripe is that if you have a dual core dell locked out more than 8gb of ram or one of the ram slot pairs, of course to solve it is to get a compatible quad cpu but at this point it's not really worth what people are charging for those imo

 

I still use this as a mobile cad/engineering platform for the occasional contract work and it's a great travel laptop because of the tank like durability of these things. I have Win10 LTSC 1809 installed and no problems even with the dual core and 8gb ram. I've got an AMD firepro M4000 in there which was about $20, a huge step up from the original 1000m lowest entry level card. I can play the Witcher 3 at medium/low settings fairly comfortably during normal play, high action and battle sequences I would need to turn it WAY down no doubt. I tried to go up to the M5100 but had no luck getting the right one with the right vbios etc off eb. There are so many excellent games that don't require much horsepower that it's not a problem though.

[Aaron44126]

NBR Precision M4600 owner's thread

NBR Precision M4600 GPU upgrade thread

Precision M4600 driver RSS feed

[Hertzian56]

The M6700 is the gold standard among the tanks imo, I'm still sad about the terrible bad luck I had with mine, 980m burned out playing Doom Eternal of all games and when I took  it out and restarted I had a stray screw in there which I think shorted the mobo, total loss of a masterpiece of a laptop. I had a 3940xm cpu too, at least with these truly fully modular laptops I was able to sell the cpu and get over half what I paid for the base model with a k4000m in it back. Even the burned out 980m went for almost what I paid for it, maybe the buyer was able to fix the burned out cap who knows. That was truly recyclable tech which companies talk about but actually do the opposite: BGA stuff that is disposable and sits in some landfill. Makes them more profit though.

[Hertzian56]

I guess one thing Ive noticed though is that with ltsc 1809 it does not turn off all the way. I always have to hold the power button down to get a full shutdown. While Im at it the screen brightness is not adjustable either or only in amd software not hotkeys. The m4100 was never offered stock w this it had a pitiful nvidia 1000m in it before.

[raptorddd]

hi guys.. i just found out about NBR was down. was going to search for information there. but now am here.

on NBR i posted  i thinik there was like 2 -3 threads for m4600 owners i used the latest.

am still using my m4600 and was hoping to find help.

the last post i had on NBR was that my m4600 got bricked when i was installing win10. onced it copied the files from usb and automatically restarts. then it got bricked after restart. it stayed at dell logo (actually frreeze). pressing F12 or any key would not work. at that time i did a lot of research and they mentioned it was the motherboard.

so i went ahead and bought a motherboard. the old one i accidentally broke the GPU fan socket. ok so guess what ... i also bricked this board as well after 2 weeks of use.

how.??? exactly the same as the old board.. installing win 10 using usb  after it copied files it restarted and got bricked.

after seraching on the web i came across a thread in another forum where a user had the same laptop m4600 had the same problem as me freeze at dell logo.

he mentioned he fix it by manualy flashing the bios.

 

so after research i went ahead and bought a ch34a1 programmer and manually flashed the bios. and that fixed the freeze at dell logo.

 

now my goal is to keep temps as low as possble. 

my cpu die is chipped at the corner just a bit. not sure if this might be the cause of overheat.. i mean using laptop the highest tmep ive seen was around 85 doing benchmarks.

now it gets to 99.

 

before doing the manual flash of bios . i have sent it to a repair shop and in there the cpu die is missing a very smal piece at the corner. not sure what can be done to this. maybe this is causing temos to go higher.

 

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, raptorddd said:

it stayed at dell logo (actually frreeze). pressing F12 or any key would not work. at that time i did a lot of research and they mentioned it was the motherboard.

.......

not sure what can be done to this. maybe this is causing temos to go higher.

 

Welcome; glad you found us.

 

Very strange on the Windows 10 install bricking, I've never heard of something like this happening (but clearly you aren't the only one that it happened to).  I am curious, is your system set to legacy boot or UEFI boot?

 

Regarding temps, I'm not quite sure what to make of this either.  I am wondering if your previous high load 85 °C experiences had the CPU throttled in some way.  For reference, on my M6700, if I put the system under a high CPU load (gaming, video encoding, ...) then it pushes 99-103 °C on all cores.  Maxing out the CPU temperature has been normal for high-performance laptop CPUs for a while.  (It makes sense — If the CPU is not hitting 100 °C, then there is still thermal headroom to push the clock speed higher and get better performance.)  And I know I have a good thermal setup in the M6700; I actually upgraded the CPU heatsink to the dual-pipe version, drilled larger holes in the bottom cover for the CPU fan, and I've done proper cleaning of the CPU and heatsink surface and repaste jobs whenever I have had to remove the CPU heatsink (for GPU swaps).  ...If there are any other M4600 users out here, maybe they can comment on what temps they typically see in these systems under load.  (@Hertzian56, you still have one right?)

 

As long as the turbo boost clock speed that you're maintaining is adequately high then you don't really have anything to worry about there.  I'm not that worried about the "chip" in the die as long as it is not affecting proper complete contact of the heatsink surface with the CPU die surface.  (CPUs heat up in very small "hot spots" around the CPU cores themselves, the heat is not spread out across the entire die.)  I would suggest that you make sure that the heatsink and die surfaces are thoroughly cleaned any time you detach them from each other, and repasted with high-quality thermal paste (Arctic MX-4 or similar).

 

If you want to lower the temperature for when the system is not under load, you can disable turbo boost.  This is easy to do on the fly in Windows 10.

• Use the "balanced" power profile.
• Set the power slider (appears when you click the system tray battery icon) to the middle setting.
• In Windows advanced power options, set the maximum CPU speed percentage to 99%.
• Ta da...  Turbo boost is disabled.  You can verify by looking at the clock speed in the "Performance" tab in Task Manager; it won't go above the mid-2 GHz range even if the system is put under load.  If you need to enable turbo boost, just move the power slider to the right.

[raptorddd]

10 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Welcome; glad you found us.

 

Very strange on the Windows 10 install bricking, I've never heard of something like this happening (but clearly you aren't the only one that it happened to).  I am curious, is your system set to legacy boot or UEFI boot?

 

Regarding temps, I'm not quite sure what to make of this either.  I am wondering if your previous high load 85 °C experiences had the CPU throttled in some way.  For reference, on my M6700, if I put the system under a high CPU load (gaming, video encoding, ...) then it pushes 99-103 °C on all cores.  Maxing out the CPU temperature has been normal for high-performance laptop CPUs for a while.  (It makes sense — If the CPU is not hitting 100 °C, then there is still thermal headroom to push the clock speed higher and get better performance.)  And I know I have a good thermal setup in the M6700; I actually upgraded the CPU heatsink to the dual-pipe version, drilled larger holes in the bottom cover for the CPU fan, and I've done proper cleaning of the CPU and heatsink surface and repaste jobs whenever I have had to remove the CPU heatsink (for GPU swaps).  ...If there are any other M4600 users out here, maybe they can comment on what temps they typically see in these systems under load.  (@Hertzian56, you still have one right?)

 

As long as the turbo boost clock speed that you're maintaining is adequately high then you don't really have anything to worry about there.  I'm not that worried about the "chip" in the die as long as it is not affecting proper complete contact of the heatsink surface with the CPU die surface.  (CPUs heat up in very small "hot spots" around the CPU cores themselves, the heat is not spread out across the entire die.)  I would suggest that you make sure that the heatsink and die surfaces are thoroughly cleaned any time you detach them from each other, and repasted with high-quality thermal paste (Arctic MX-4 or similar).

 

If you want to lower the temperature for when the system is not under load, you can disable turbo boost.  This is easy to do on the fly in Windows 10.

• Use the "balanced" power profile.
• Set the power slider (appears when you click the system tray battery icon) to the middle setting.
• In Windows advanced power options, set the maximum CPU speed percentage to 99%.
• Ta da...  Turbo boost is disabled.  You can verify by looking at the clock speed in the "Performance" tab in Task Manager; it won't go above the mid-2 GHz range even if the system is put under load.  If you need to enable turbo boost, just move the power slider to the right.

hi. not sure if we are allowed to share links but here is the other guy that got his bricked. he was doing dual boot.

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/solved-dell-m4600-stuck-on-bios-load.82115/

 

Very strange on the Windows 10 install bricking, I've never heard of something like this happening (but clearly you aren't the only one that it happened to).  I am curious, is your system set to legacy boot or UEFI boot?

 

well in order to boot to win 7 it has to be on legacy and UEFI f on win10. at that time it was on UEFI. i had installed win10 before many times. (i do remeber that i enabled fastboot both times) i dont even know either why it happened i can only think fastboot enabled on bios.

 

Regarding temps, I'm not quite sure what to make of this either.  I am wondering if your previous high load 85 °C experiences had the CPU throttled in some way.  For reference, on my M6700, if I put the system under a high CPU load (gaming, video encoding, ...) then it pushes 99-103 °C on all cores.  Maxing out the CPU temperature has been normal for high-performance laptop CPUs for a while.  (It makes sense — If the CPU is not hitting 100 °C, then there is still thermal headroom to push the clock speed higher and get better performance.)  And I know I have a good thermal setup in the M6700; I actually upgraded the CPU heatsink to the dual-pipe version, drilled larger holes in the bottom cover for the CPU fan, and I've done proper cleaning of the CPU and heatsink surface and repaste jobs whenever I have had to remove the CPU heatsink (for GPU swaps).  ...If there are any other M4600 users out here, maybe they can comment on what temps they typically see in these systems under load.  (@Hertzian56, you still have one right?)

 

on high load stress test around 87-90. now it gets to 99. all this after repair shop open it up. i had never seen it hit RED numbers on hw info.

 

I actually upgraded the CPU heatsink to the dual-pipe version, drilled larger holes in the bottom cover for the CPU fan

right .. thats why i went to NBR to see if there we mods i could make to make it run cooler. 

but theres nothing i can do to fix the chipped part.? am sorry i cant upload a picture i dont have a phone right now. aybe ill be able to take a pic of it later in about 2-3 days

but die cant be fixed.?

 

sorry i didnt understand how to quote you.. 

 

if anyone here has mods please share them.

thanks

 

 

 

[Aaron44126]

12 minutes ago, raptorddd said:

but theres nothing i can do to fix the chipped part.? am sorry i cant upload a picture i dont have a phone right now. aybe ill be able to take a pic of it later in about 2-3 days

but die cant be fixed.?

 

(Fine to post links.)

 

Windows 10 can run on legacy boot as well.  ...It might depend on how you have your install media set up.  If you use Rufus to build USB media from an ISO then it will probably be compatible with either UEFI boot or legacy boot (but not both)...  But a DVD burned from the ISO will be compatible with both, as should USB media from the official Microsoft media builder tool.  (This is more "knowledge for next time"; I don't recommend attempting to change your boot setup if it is already working.)

 

Anyway, as I understand it you are saying that a tiny piece of your CPU die has actually been chipped off somehow?  I don't think that it would be wise to attempt to repair that, but at least this system has a socketed CPU so you could outright replace the CPU.

 

If you had better temps before the repair shop messed with your system, then I'd wonder if they did a good job with the CPU/heatsink cleaning & repasting.  (I guess Sandy Bridge may be from before Intel was pushing CPUs to the breaking point with turbo boost speeds.)  A slapdash job will result in poor temps (or lower turbo boost clock speed).  They might not have bothered with cleaning it, just throwing some new paste on top of the old/dry junk that was already there — I've seen techs do that before.

[Hertzian56]

If you installed win10 from a usb and used rufus there's a hard to find setting where you enable BIOS legacy or some such, otherwise I'm not sure it would work on the laptops of that day, always have to remember to enable that when I use rufus usb on older hardware. If that's not an option yeah just burn your windows ISO to a disk and go from there.

 

I don't remember the temps specifically but I don't think I get anything out of the ordinary. Mine is a DUAL core CPU. I know the AMD Firepro M4000 does run hot but never had problems. I don't do any game that's recent on there, or anything heavy graphics, since it's more of a backup and travel system only, Witcher 3 is the most taxing game I use on there and it works fine at appropriate settings. If you take the time a repaste isn't that big of a deal but I'd make sure to get quality paste since you don't want to do it a ton. I used Arctic Silver 5 or such but I'm sure there's similar priced modern thermal paste.

 

I think I disabled Intel Speedstep in the BIOS to get better performance since it's always plugged in anyways. I have the 130W power adapter, from the attachment if you have a 180w adaptor looks like it doesn't do much. Uh I've attached some benches and info. If the die is chipped I don't think it would be a bug free experience, you might be better just getting another one they're relatively cheap for what you get now.

 

I ALWAYS make sure my vents are clean and I put risers on the whole thing to get more airflow underneath, you can get cheap felt/rubber risers etc

 

Those benches are a few years old and probably on a legacy scoring numbering system, I think both Firestrike and Passmark have re-scaled their bench numbers since then. I can't remember if they were on Win7 or Win10, from the dates I'd guess win10 but not 100% sure.

Dell M4600 Performance Improvement (Disable Intel SpeedStep) _ Maverick Limited.pdf

[raptorddd]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

(Fine to post links.)

 

Windows 10 can run on legacy boot as well.  ...It might depend on how you have your install media set up.  If you use Rufus to build USB media from an ISO then it will probably be compatible with either UEFI boot or legacy boot (but not both)...  But a DVD burned from the ISO will be compatible with both, as should USB media from the official Microsoft media builder tool.  (This is more "knowledge for next time"; I don't recommend attempting to change your boot setup if it is already working.)

 

Anyway, as I understand it you are saying that a tiny piece of your CPU die has actually been chipped off somehow?  I don't think that it would be wise to attempt to repair that, but at least this system has a socketed CPU so you could outright replace the CPU.

 

If you had better temps before the repair shop messed with your system, then I'd wonder if they did a good job with the CPU/heatsink cleaning & repasting.  (I guess Sandy Bridge may be from before Intel was pushing CPUs to the breaking point with turbo boost speeds.)  A slapdash job will result in poor temps (or lower turbo boost clock speed).  They might not have bothered with cleaning it, just throwing some new paste on top of the old/dry junk that was already there — I've seen techs do that before.

yes i was using rufus.

yes a very micro size piece at the one corner. 

well getting a new onw isnt an option to me. i get panic attacks. i dont have a job. ( when i leave home i start to panic)

and if that wasnt enough i live in mexico. in a very small town.  

 

well as i said before i live in a small town and i do no go to the city due to panic attacks.. when i said repair shop its not like you imagine.

i had my cousin come to our ranch. and hand him laptop.  he mentioned a friend repairs pcs so i asked him for his number to see if he really knows. because there are places that can fix but easy fixes. not like mine that was freezing at win10 logo and spinning dots.

so he seemed he knew and sent it to him.. he had it for 1 month and he could not find the cause.. i think he said he repaste cpu and gpu.

so he could not find the problem so gave it back.. but at this time my cousin has gone to usa. so had to ask my other cousin if he could take it to a certified dell shop that i found.. but instead he broght it to his house and said he would take it to school hes a teacher they fix computers there. he said he would find the problem. after 2 weeks he said it was the bios problem.. now i dont know who messed it up. i believe it was at the school. i was very angry. because when i open it 7 screws were missing... some thermal pads on the gpu are missing only 1 is there.. and cpu is chipped micro size and the heatsink had a small pad for the  integrated gpu wich was not there.

i was very pissed ..( at the end i fix it myself. it was flashing erroron files.)

 

[raptorddd]

1 hour ago, Hertzian56 said:

If you installed win10 from a usb and used rufus there's a hard to find setting where you enable BIOS legacy or some such, otherwise I'm not sure it would work on the laptops of that day, always have to remember to enable that when I use rufus usb on older hardware. If that's not an option yeah just burn your windows ISO to a disk and go from there.

 

I don't remember the temps specifically but I don't think I get anything out of the ordinary. Mine is a DUAL core CPU. I know the AMD Firepro M4000 does run hot but never had problems. I don't do any game that's recent on there, or anything heavy graphics, since it's more of a backup and travel system only, Witcher 3 is the most taxing game I use on there and it works fine at appropriate settings. If you take the time a repaste isn't that big of a deal but I'd make sure to get quality paste since you don't want to do it a ton. I used Arctic Silver 5 or such but I'm sure there's similar priced modern thermal paste.

 

I think I disabled Intel Speedstep in the BIOS to get better performance since it's always plugged in anyways. I have the 130W power adapter, from the attachment if you have a 180w adaptor looks like it doesn't do much. Uh I've attached some benches and info. If the die is chipped I don't think it would be a bug free experience, you might be better just getting another one they're relatively cheap for what you get now.

 

I ALWAYS make sure my vents are clean and I put risers on the whole thing to get more airflow underneath, you can get cheap felt/rubber risers etc

 

Those benches are a few years old and probably on a legacy scoring numbering system, I think both Firestrike and Passmark have re-scaled their bench numbers since then. I can't remember if they were on Win7 or Win10, from the dates I'd guess win10 but not 100% sure.

Dell M4600 Performance Improvement (Disable Intel SpeedStep) _ Maverick Limited.pdf 230.58 kB · 0 downloads

rufus does everything automatic. all set up when you choose file.

 

yes i can repaste its no big deal. i can even remove the motherboard completly  in less than 30 minutes.

i use MX-4 paste

 

i have no idea about power supply watts  i have model GA240PE1-00

i once tried speed steps. when it was ok with temps but that made it go higher.

 

i just added rubber feet from an old laptop as the one were worn. it help just a bit.

 

 

attached pic.. just did a clean install and played solitaire..... 97c thats way too much.

 

how would i troubleshoot.???

 

 

[Aaron44126]

If the system is not under high CPU load, then the temperature should not be hitting the 90's.  Assuming there were no high-CPU bootup jobs still running, that is definitely not reasonable.

 

Not sure what to suggest other than just make sure that the thermal setup is good, if you have not repasted since it was taken in for... "service".  Use isopropyl alcohol to clean old paste off of the CPU die and heatsink surface thoroughly, and then paste with MX-4.  (You can get isopropyl alcohol cheap at a pharmacy.)  Not a whole lot of paste is needed, just a "pea" in the middle should spread out to cover the die when the heatsink is pressed down on it.

 

If you've done that already and it's still running hot...  Eh.  I don't really have any other ideas 😕

I guess I can suggest that you make sure that SpeedStep and C-states are ON in the BIOS.  (The CPU might not go to lowest power states if they are not.)

[Hertzian56]

Edit: looks like windows install went fine for you so disregard. This might help others though so I'll keep it up. Those temps do spike but the normal operating temps don't look that bad, around 60 from your screenshot probably just loose screws or bad TIM etc I'd just take it apart, repaste, make sure all screws are in place and tight etc We don't know what your ambient is either so it can vary depending on that too.

=================

 

 

yeah rufus is pretty easy to use but there is an MBR or GPT mode which might make a difference, I can't remember but I think on mine if I tried the default which I think is configured for UEFI systems, it wouldn't work so I changed the setting to MBR and it worked fine. This was all 3 years ago or so.

 

He goes through it at 56 seconds.

 

 

[raptorddd]

8 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

If the system is not under high CPU load, then the temperature should not be hitting the 90's.  Assuming there were no high-CPU bootup jobs still running, that is definitely not reasonable.

 

Not sure what to suggest other than just make sure that the thermal setup is good, if you have not repasted since it was taken in for... "service".  Use isopropyl alcohol to clean old paste off of the CPU die and heatsink surface thoroughly, and then paste with MX-4.  (You can get isopropyl alcohol cheap at a pharmacy.)  Not a whole lot of paste is needed, just a "pea" in the middle should spread out to cover the die when the heatsink is pressed down on it.

 

If you've done that already and it's still running hot...  Eh.  I don't really have any other ideas 😕

I guess I can suggest that you make sure that SpeedStep and C-states are ON in the BIOS.  (The CPU might not go to lowest power states if they are not.)

well i let it settle for a while after install. then played solitaire.

i already pasted and it still high. 

i did checked and both are on.

what i also did was turned turbo boost. played and it was on the 85-88c.

only thing ca,e to my mind is.. the heatsink.. i do remember once having the same problem. since on old board i broke the gpu fan i had a usb cable inside one time it got th cable and i guess it bent the heatsink.. and bought a heatsink set that was used and pretty cheap. and that fixed the high temps..

someone must have bent t while put in it back. 

will try to search for a heatsink.

[raptorddd]

6 hours ago, Hertzian56 said:

Edit: looks like windows install went fine for you so disregard. This might help others though so I'll keep it up. Those temps do spike but the normal operating temps don't look that bad, around 60 from your screenshot probably just loose screws or bad TIM etc I'd just take it apart, repaste, make sure all screws are in place and tight etc We don't know what your ambient is either so it can vary depending on that too.

=================

 

 

 

yeah rufus is pretty easy to use but there is an MBR or GPT mode which might make a difference, I can't remember but I think on mine if I tried the default which I think is configured for UEFI systems, it wouldn't work so I changed the setting to MBR and it worked fine. This was all 3 years ago or so.

 

He goes through it at 56 seconds.

 

 

i guess its when it does turbo. cause yes those temps at idle looks fine. supposely temps here were 26c.

what is TIM.???  screws are tight.

yes rufus does it automatically it select the correct partition depending of the iso or version of windows you use.

[raptorddd]

here are pics of cpu die corner chipped.  and a pic after i removed the heatsink a spot wasnt covered with paste.

 

anyone here has expirience with BIOS clearing the  ME region.? i want to learn how to do it. 

and also how to update mannagment engine. theres guides on win-raid but i dont understand completly.

[raptorddd]

@Aaron44126 you had an app to control fans on NBR. could you please create new thread here.?

[serpro69]

@raptorddd, it's already here ;) 

 

[raptorddd]

On 4/10/2022 at 10:53 AM, serpro69 said:

@raptorddd, it's already here ;) 

 

sorry.. my bad. i did looked over NBT and did not see it. thanks

[raptorddd]

how do you know what kind of ram memory the m4600 uses and if there is a limit on speed.?

[Aaron44126]

3 hours ago, raptorddd said:

how do you know what kind of ram memory the m4600 uses and if there is a limit on speed.?

 

It just depends on what the CPU supports.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/52227/intel-core-i72820qm-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz.html

DDR3 1066/1333/1600

[raptorddd]

3 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

It just depends on what the CPU supports.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/52227/intel-core-i72820qm-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz.html

DDR3 1066/1333/1600

i have 2760qm.  thanks

32 GB	32 GB
Memory Types	DDR3 1066/1333/1600	DDR3 1066/1333/1600
Max # of Memory Channels	2	2
Max Memory Bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	25.6 GB/s
ECC Memory Supported ‡	No	No

[raptorddd]

any one could help.?

have quadro 2000m 

Monitor Name:     Samsung 184HT

Monitor Name (Manuf):    156HT   [DELL P/N: JHNX6]
 

fire pro.

m5950

m5100

w5170m

any would work fine.?

 

 

[Hertzian56]

I'm pretty sure the m5100 is the most powerful card this system will take. I can't remember which version works though. I tried one a few years ago but could never get it to work, there are blue, red and green pcb versions. I think I tried the blue pcb version. Had to send it back.

 

==NVM from my post on NBR looks like I tried the green ok422c version, I think the red pcb is the one that works plugnplay with the m4600.==https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/possible-gpu-upgrade-for-precision-m4600.772547/page-94.html

 

The firepro m4000 I have installed is around 25% lower synthetic benchmark scores than the m5100 but it works for Witcher 3 med-low settings so is totally fine for 900p/720p light gaming.

 

The m5950 should work as well but I think it's actually LESS powerful than the m4000/m5100, not worth it to tear the thing apart for.

 

So in order of gaming performance it would be m5100, m4000, m5950. From what I can make out the w5170m is the same as the m5100.

[raptorddd]

7 hours ago, Hertzian56 said:

I'm pretty sure the m5100 is the most powerful card this system will take. I can't remember which version works though. I tried one a few years ago but could never get it to work, there are blue, red and green pcb versions. I think I tried the blue pcb version. Had to send it back.

 

==NVM from my post on NBR looks like I tried the green ok422c version, I think the red pcb is the one that works plugnplay with the m4600.==https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/possible-gpu-upgrade-for-precision-m4600.772547/page-94.html

 

The firepro m4000 I have installed is around 25% lower synthetic benchmark scores than the m5100 but it works for Witcher 3 med-low settings so is totally fine for 900p/720p light gaming.

 

The m5950 should work as well but I think it's actually LESS powerful than the m4000/m5100, not worth it to tear the thing apart for.

 

So in order of gaming performance it would be m5100, m4000, m5950. From what I can make out the w5170m is the same as the m5100.

thank you.

i already read the whole thread tooks me days. 

but wanted to be sure i understand all.

so m5100 i read about the gpu fan not working. at least thats why i sort of understand. but almost at the end of the thread someone said using A17 bios the fan worked but not optimal speed..

that you had to manually turned them on. also read that some didnt get display on laptop monitor but could use external one.

does the m4000 have the same problems.?

am just trying to see if i could afford one and that it will work for me..