Dell Precision key posts

[Aaron44126]

If you come across any particularly interesting posts with technical details, part numbers, fixes, or how-tos, let me know and I will include them on this list.

 

Many of these link back to the Notebook Review forum, which is going offline on January 31.  I will change the links to point to the NBR Precision archive once I have it ready.

 

Upcoming systems: Precision 7670 & Precision 7770

• CPU — Intel Alder Lake HX (12th gen) – Intel 7 process, hybrid architecture, 8P + 8E cores, bump up to 55W TDP
• GPU — NVIDIA Ampere refresh – RTX A5500 with GA103S chip; 7,424 CUDA cores; 16GB vRAM; similar performance to GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU
• DDR5 (up to 128GB)
• PCIe4 support — Alder Lake S-BGA supports 36 lanes of PCIe4 (20 at CPU and 16 at PCH), so all NVMe slots in the system should be PCIe4 enabled
• Expected to be available to order in mid/late second quarter 2022; could be earlier, primarily depends on release timing of Alder Lake HX CPUs, which is currently unclear
• Pre-release discussion thread

Driver / BIOS RSS feeds

• See: Dell driver RSS feeds

General Windows tips for newer Precision systems

• Dell Precision / Windows 11 information
• Switching from RAID to AHCI/NVMe mode (same process can be used to return to RAID mode)
• Switching from AHCI/NVMe mode to RAID mode, if the Windows instance has never seen RAID mode before (...specific to 7X60, will need to be tweaked for other systems)
• Remapping keys to get dedicated Home/End, PgUp/PgDn
• Bluetooth fix

Precision 7560 & Precision 7760

• You can order Precision 7X60 with GeForce RTX 3080 GPU (might support 110W in Precision 7560?) (part numbers)
• Solving "disappearing drive issue" by keeping the PCIe4 drive slot switch pressed down
• Display panel and cable part numbers

Precision thermals & performance

• Great interview with Dell thermal engineer Travis North, six parts: one | two | three | four | five | six
• Notes on disabling the CPU power/throttle limit in modern Precision systems: one | two
• Notes on undervolting CPU in modern Precision systems
• Discussion on undervolting GPU in modern Precision systems
• Insights on Precision allocation of PCIe lanes
• Explanation of (lack of) performance difference between NVIDIA 4000- and 5000-level GPUs
• Use 17" GPU vBIOS on 15"/16" GPU to raise the power limit
  • Precision 7560 + NVIDIA RTX A4000 (110W -> 130W)

GPU upgrades

• DGFF upgrades in Precision 7X30, 7X40
• Notes on modding NVIDIA INF file
• Notes on signing a modded NVIDIA driver, so that "test mode" or "disable driver signature enforcement" is not needed
• Working Quadro P3000 / P4000 / P5000 vBIOS images for Precision M6700, M6800
• Dell Precision M6800 / Quadro P5000 vBIOS flash
• Dell Precision M4800 + Quadro T2000 upgrade
• Dell Precision M6700 – Quadro M5000M (worked great for me), Quadro P5000 (not so much)

Other upgrades

• Precision M6600-M6800 / M4600-M4800 – different fan types (Sunon, AVC, Delta)
• Using M.2/NGFF cards in Precision M6700
• Precision M6700 45W CPU heatsink replacement
• Precision M6600 / M6700 IPS display upgrade guide

[Mr. Fox]

This might be helpful to others. Worked for me.

 

The second Dell Precision 7720 that I purchased for my wife (identical to mine, but with 4K display) had the latest cancer filth applied. Overclocking was blocked and voltage control locked. I used this technique to take control and downgrade the BIOS to the last version where these controls were not locked down. Basically extracted all of the BIOS components and made a "cocktail" of files that lied to the BIOS about what firmware version was being flashed. I was able to downgrade the ME firmware several versions as well, but not all the way back to the 2019 branch.