Precision 7560 & Precision 7760 owner's thread

[Antonius]

Sad about what happened to the previous forum.:( At least this one accepts Protonmail. I was Chin Chan Lee there.

From what I understand the disappearing drive from the lack of cover pressure is because the plate is meant to serve as a ground. So the lack of proper contact means that the grounding could not take place, so the drive would not run in order to prevent damage.

I was looking to see if there are new drivers to install, and surprisingly, I saw drivers for Px000/Px200/Tx000/RTX x000/RTX 3080 graphics cards on the Dell drivers site for the 7760. Does this mean that Dell officially supports these cards for this laptop?

[Aaron44126]

10 hours ago, Caesar said:

Does this mean that Dell officially supports these cards for this laptop?

No.  RTX 3080, T1200, and RTX A series are supported.  Dell sometimes pushes the same NVIDIA driver update to multiple systems and that’s why you see other cards listed.

[Ionising_Radiation]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:30 AM, Rinconmike said:

Looks like they pulled the 1.6.1 also

Interesting; I wonder why. Maybe Dell reps can comment, so we can rollback our machines if necessary. 

[Rinconmike]

2 hours ago, Ionising_Radiation said:

Interesting; I wonder why. Maybe Dell reps can comment, so we can rollback our machines if necessary. 

Dell support stated: "1.7.0 was pulled due to it causing firmware malfunctions. I also got word that the cause of the malfunction wasn’t necessarily the chip, but the BIOS firmware."

 

No specifics and I assume pertains to 1.6.1 since that was pulled too.

 

 

 

 

 

[NelBro]

Hi All,

 

Is there anyone who can recommend a >2TB TLC M.2 NVMe which is equal or better than the Samsung 980 Pro in terms of reliability/durability (for Dell Precision 7560)?

 

Indeed, I would like to increase the laptop storage capacity without compromising on the risk of disk failure /data loss

 

Additionally, is there any rumor that Samsung will release a 4TB version of the 980 pro?

 

Many thanks in advance for your support

[Aaron44126]

3 hours ago, NelBro said:

Additionally, is there any rumor that Samsung will release a 4TB version of the 980 pro?

 

I have not heard any rumors about a 4TB Samsung 980 Pro.  For high-capacity NVMe drives you can look at the Sabrent Rocket drives.  Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB has 2800 TBW and a 5-year warranty.  An 8TB model will be available "soon".  This drive uses TLC cache like the Samsung 980 Pro.  Note that the high-capacity Sabrent drives are double-sided (chips on the top and bottom side of the drive) — they will fit in Precision 7000-series but may not fit in smaller systems.

 

I have Sabrent Rocket Q 4TB in my Precision 7560.  It's QLC, so less endurance (still plenty high if you ask me), and I haven't had any problems with it.  Sabrent Rocket Q is already available in 8TB.

[Ionising_Radiation]

So, I thought I'd get cracking at my no-hibernation problem again. To recap, both sleep and hibernation weren't working on my 7560 in Windows 10; when I tried hibernating, the display would lock and switch off, but the keyboard lights, fans, and peripherals remained on. The notebook could be brought back with a swipe on the touch pad. Sleep and hibernate worked fine on Linux, so this was clearly a Windows-only problem. 

 

I tried executing `shutdown /h` from PowerShell, and of course, the same thing happened, but now the prompt returned `Element not found (1168).`

 

I ran a search, and came across a straightforward solution, the first one that actually worked: disable Secure Boot. 

 

I realise that this doesn't really compromise the security of my partitions even though unsigned bootloaders can be run, because all partitions on all drives are individually encrypted, except the EFI/boot partition on the Linux drive, that contains system-boot which launches both Windows and Linux. NTFS partitions are encrypted with BitLocker, and the Linux BTRFS subvolumes (/, /home, and /swap) are encrypted with LUKS. 

 

I think this happened because I reset the TPM and cleared the original keys, and replaced them with self-signed keys. Some might recall the little scare I had last August when I couldn't get display out from my notebook's internal display, which I had to fix by re-appending Microsoft's key to the Secure Boot key server thing. 

 

I still wish Dell had fully eked out all possible edge cases with their new UEFI firmware. It is still quite buggy and very slow—I much prefer the old raster text firmware. Modern firmware are entire operating systems with full JS runtimes, even. 

[Rinconmike]

44 minutes ago, Ionising_Radiation said:

So, I thought I'd get cracking at my no-hibernation problem again. To recap, both sleep and hibernation weren't working on my 7560 in Windows 10; when I tried hibernating, the display would lock and switch off, but the keyboard lights, fans, and peripherals remained on. The notebook could be brought back with a swipe on the touch pad. Sleep and hibernate worked fine on Linux, so this was clearly a Windows-only problem. 

 

I tried executing `shutdown /h` from PowerShell, and of course, the same thing happened, but now the prompt returned `Element not found (1168).`

 

I ran a search, and came across a straightforward solution, the first one that actually worked: disable Secure Boot. 

 

I realise that this doesn't really compromise the security of my partitions even though unsigned bootloaders can be run, because all partitions on all drives are individually encrypted, except the EFI/boot partition on the Linux drive, that contains system-boot which launches both Windows and Linux. NTFS partitions are encrypted with BitLocker, and the Linux BTRFS subvolumes (/, /home, and /swap) are encrypted with LUKS. 

 

I think this happened because I reset the TPM and cleared the original keys, and replaced them with self-signed keys. Some might recall the little scare I had last August when I couldn't get display out from my notebook's internal display, which I had to fix by re-appending Microsoft's key to the Secure Boot key server thing. 

 

I still wish Dell had fully eked out all possible edge cases with their new UEFI firmware. It is still quite buggy and very slow—I much prefer the old raster text firmware. Modern firmware are entire operating systems with full JS runtimes, even. 

What bios are you on?  Could it be related to a bios issue?

[Ionising_Radiation]

6 minutes ago, Rinconmike said:

What bios are you on?  Could it be related to a bios issue?

1.16, I think. I have tried all versions, no changes. At least I have hibernate working now, which is much better than anything. 

[heikkuri]

Hi,

 

What is NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework (NVPCF)

From Dell 7560 is can find out:

Device Manager => Software Devices => NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework line

Device status: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

 

From Dell 7760 I can't find it if I look to device manager. Both PCs have the registry key

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{B2FE1952-0186-46C3-BAEC-A80AA35AC5B8}_NVPCF

which DisplayName is NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework.

So this is part of Nvidia driver but is it really required? Both computers have RTX A4000 GPU.

 

I can't find it from registry if I search from Dell Precision 7550 using RTX 3000 GPU.

 

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, heikkuri said:

Hi

 

Do you have "Core isolation memory integrity" enabled on devices with this issue?  (Windows Security → Device security → Core isolation details → Memory integrity.)  I've seen reports that turning this feature on can cause this issue.

[Rinconmike]

15 hours ago, heikkuri said:

Hi,

 

What is NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework (NVPCF)

From Dell 7560 is can find out:

Device Manager => Software Devices => NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework line

Device status: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

 

From Dell 7760 I can't find it if I look to device manager. Both PCs have the registry key

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{B2FE1952-0186-46C3-BAEC-A80AA35AC5B8}_NVPCF

which DisplayName is NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework.

So this is part of Nvidia driver but is it really required? Both computers have RTX A4000 GPU.

 

I can't find it from registry if I search from Dell Precision 7550 using RTX 3000 GPU.

 

There is a post on the Dell Forum that looks to be the same or similar issue.

 

https://www.dell.com/community/Precision-Mobile-Workstations/new-Dell-Precision-7760-problem-conflict-with-Nvidia-platform/m-p/8160053/highlight/true#M9009

 

 

The last post it looks like to bios 1.5 may have solved it.

 

[Rinconmike]

22 hours ago, Ionising_Radiation said:

So, I thought I'd get cracking at my no-hibernation problem again. To recap, both sleep and hibernation weren't working on my 7560 in Windows 10; when I tried hibernating, the display would lock and switch off, but the keyboard lights, fans, and peripherals remained on. The notebook could be brought back with a swipe on the touch pad. Sleep and hibernate worked fine on Linux, so this was clearly a Windows-only problem. 

 

I tried executing `shutdown /h` from PowerShell, and of course, the same thing happened, but now the prompt returned `Element not found (1168).`

 

I ran a search, and came across a straightforward solution, the first one that actually worked: disable Secure Boot. 

 

I realise that this doesn't really compromise the security of my partitions even though unsigned bootloaders can be run, because all partitions on all drives are individually encrypted, except the EFI/boot partition on the Linux drive, that contains system-boot which launches both Windows and Linux. NTFS partitions are encrypted with BitLocker, and the Linux BTRFS subvolumes (/, /home, and /swap) are encrypted with LUKS. 

 

I think this happened because I reset the TPM and cleared the original keys, and replaced them with self-signed keys. Some might recall the little scare I had last August when I couldn't get display out from my notebook's internal display, which I had to fix by re-appending Microsoft's key to the Secure Boot key server thing. 

 

I still wish Dell had fully eked out all possible edge cases with their new UEFI firmware. It is still quite buggy and very slow—I much prefer the old raster text firmware. Modern firmware are entire operating systems with full JS runtimes, even. 

Do you have RAID On or AHCI?  I would not think it would make a difference on hibernate, but last night I was searching the difference of using AHCI or RAID On.  I recall a post (I forget where) that mentioned it could impact hibernation.  

 

On my 7760 early on after setup I switch to AHCI.  I never use hibernate so cannot comment if it works or not.

 

With regard to AHCI and RAIN On.  I am still wondering on these newer Dell machines, is it better to leave it on the default RAID On.  I read another post that AHCI could impact battery life.  Not sure if that is true or not.  On my 7760 with AHCI I am lucky if I get 3 hours.  On another users 7560 I setup I believe I switch to AHCI also he says he can get 8 hours on that.  Specs of the 7560 and 7760 are the same.  So my guess is AHCI vs RAID On does not impact battery life.  The battery life between the 7760 and 7560 is just the 7760 uses more power.

 

Now I have been running in AHCI for a while, is switching back to RAID On same process and should not be an issue even after running in AHCI for a while? 

 

I have added two additional Samsung 970 Pro some time after switching to AHCI will switching to RAID On impact these drives?

 

Does anyone know if the Samsung Magician works with RAID On?

 

[Ionising_Radiation]

14 minutes ago, Rinconmike said:

Do you have RAID On or AHCI

AHCI. I have no use for hardware RAID; I don't think it affects hibernation. Like I said, Secure Boot was the issue.

 

15 minutes ago, Rinconmike said:

I read another post that AHCI could impact battery life.

I don't see how it could. The single biggest impact on battery life on these machines is the NVIDIA GPU. I can also get ~8 hours of battery life, both on Linux and Windows. 

[Aaron44126]

38 minutes ago, Rinconmike said:

Now I have been running in AHCI for a while, is switching back to RAID On same process and should not be an issue even after running in AHCI for a while?

No issue unless you’ve done a Windows 10 feature upgrade (…there have not been any since early 2020) or upgraded to Windows 11.  In that case the system would not “remember” the RAID driver and you’d have to take some extra steps.

[SvenC]

1 hour ago, Rinconmike said:

Do you have RAID On or AHCI?  I would not think it would make a difference on hibernate, but last night I was searching the difference of using AHCI or RAID On.  I recall a post (I forget where) that mentioned it could impact hibernation.  

 

...

 

Does anyone know if the Samsung Magician works with RAID On?

 

 

Last time I checked, Magician was not working in RAID mode.

[Rinconmike]

I am setting up a new 7560 and it has on it Bios 1.8.0.

 

Ordered 2/7/22 and shipped on 3/2/22

 

This system has:

Dell 7560 | Xeon W-11955M | 64GB, 2x32GB, 3200MHz, ECC | RTX 3080 | 15.6" IPS UHD IR Cam | Boot Drive PCIe 4.0 Slot: 2TB Micron 3400 (OEM Drive came with system)

 

My other 7760 and 7560 came with the Samsung PM9A1 2TB

 

Edit 1:

On the Dell Support page for this system, under System specs that lists the components that shipped, it shows the system shipped with the Samsung PM9A1 but it did not.  It has the Micron 3400 with the current firmware.  I am surprised the specs does not match what was actually shipped.

 

Edit 2:

In Crystal Disk Info, on my 7760 and other 7560 with AHCI it notes:

Transfer mode: "PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4"

Standard" "NVM Express 1.3"

 

On the new 7560 with RAID On (I did not switch yet) it notes

Transfer mode: "----- | -----"

Standard" "NVM Express 1.4"

 

Is the difference because of AHCI and RAID On for the Transfer Mode?  or the SSD or the newer dell Bios 1.8.0?

 

What is the difference between NVM Express 1.3 and 1.4? Looking online, the PM9A1 is Standard 1.3c.  I guess the Micron is Standard 1.4.  And these are SSD related specs and not due to the 7560.

 

Edit 3:

In Crystal Disk Info, the Gen4 SSD on my 7760 idles at around 48 degrees when doing nothing.  On the 7560 looks to go down to 35 degrees.

 

Edit 4:

Bit Locker is not turned on by default on this one after setup out of the box (dell image on the drive).  It was on my 7760 and other 7560.

 

Edit 5: 

The new 7560 with Windows setup but no additional apps installed the SSD temp idles at 25 degrees.  I let my 7760 idle, with same power management settings but also turned off Wifi so no internet connection and SSD idles at 48 degrees.  The 7760 is on bios 1.7.0 and the new 7560 is on bios 1.8.0 (not on dell site yet).  I am not sure if the temp difference is the difference between the physical SSD (Samsung PM9A1 vs the Micron 3400 in the 7560), the bios, or something else.  But it is a bid difference.

 

Also, the two Samsung 970 EVO drives I have in the Gen 3 slots on the 7760 haver at 39 degrees.

 

Edit 6:

 

3/9/22

 

The Micron 3400 in the new 7560 runs cooler than the PM9A1 in my 7760 and other 7560.  The Micron 3400 will idle at 25 degrees C where in the 7760 the PM9A1 lowest would be 48 Degrees C. 

 

I did a Crystal Dismark Test (5 passes 1GB) and the Micron did jump to 68 Degrees C and the PM9A1 jumped to 74 degrees. 

 

I am not sure if the difference is the physical drive, the 7560 is on bios 1.8.0 and 7760 is 1.7.0 or the 7560 I am still on RAID On and the 7760 I previously switch to AHCI.  My guess is it is the physical drive that is the difference and the Micron 3400 just runs cooler than the Samsung PM9A1.

 

 

[Rinconmike]

7X60 Bios 1.8.0 is posted.

 

Fixes:
- Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities.
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00470 (CVE-2021-33068).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00527 (CVE-2021-0091, CVE-2021-0107, CVE-2021-0103, CVE-2021-0111, CVE-2021-0114, CVE-2021-0115, CVE-2021-0116, CVE-2021-0117, CVE-2021-0118, CVE-2021-0119, CVE-2021-0124, CVE-2021-0125, and CVE-2021-0156).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00539 (CVE-2021-0161, CVE-2021-0164, CVE-2021-0165, CVE-2021-0166, CVE-2021-0168, CVE-2021-0170, CVE-2021-0173, CVE-2021-0174, CVE-2021-0175, CVE-2021-0176, and CVE-2021-0183).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00561 (CVE-2021-0145).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00575 (CVE-2021-33107).
- Fixed the issue where a yellow exclamation mark is displayed next to NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework in Device Manager.
- Fixed the issue where the systems with 68 W battery shutdown when playing games or running heavy load applications.

 

[heikkuri]

Thank you @Rinconmike

I just updated BIOS from 1.7.0 to 1.8.0.

After update NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework was not any more hidden device in my case.

Device status was still:

A driver (service) for this device has been disabled.  An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)

Driver version was old 472.31 when the main Nvidia driver version is 511.79.

I updated the driver for NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework with right mouse click and now it's 511.73.

No more yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager. Dynamic Boost 2.0 status is changed from no to yes in Nvidia Control Panel.

 

 

[Rinconmike]

Well, looks like 1.8.0 disappeared from the Dell Download page.  

 

I had the page open in a tab from yesterday and refreshing it is gone as well.

 

 

[heikkuri]

I have a copy if someone did not download in time.

 

 Version 1.8.0
 --------------

 Release date 10 Mar 2022

 Fixes & Enhancements:
 - Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities.
 - Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00470 (CVE-2021-33068).
 - Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00527 (CVE-2021-0091, CVE-2021-0107,
   CVE-2021-0103, CVE-2021-0111, CVE-2021-0114, CVE-2021-0115, CVE-2021-0116, CVE-2021-0117, CVE-2021-0118,
   CVE-2021-0119, CVE-2021-0124, CVE-2021-0125, and CVE-2021-0156).
 - Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00539 (CVE-2021-0161, CVE-2021-0164,
   CVE-2021-0165, CVE-2021-0166, CVE-2021-0168, CVE-2021-0170, CVE-2021-0173, CVE-2021-0174, CVE-2021-0175,
   CVE-2021-0176, and CVE-2021-0183).
 - Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00561 (CVE-2021-0145).
 - Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00575 (CVE-2021-33107).
 - Fixed the issue where a yellow exclamation mark is displayed next to NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework in Device Manager.
 - Fixed the issue where the systems with 68 W battery shutdown when playing games or running heavy load applications
 - Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities.

 

After one day light usage , I have not seen any problems.  I can't say if this is better or worse in security related cases. Dynamic Boost 2.0 is working. Now I have to find out  does it really bring any benefits in engineering software user cases like CAD, FEM, simulation etc.

Should I stay in 1.8.0 or switch back all the way to 1.5.0? If new hardware is still coming with 1.8.0 I think I will stay.

 

[Rinconmike]

3 hours ago, heikkuri said:

Dynamic Boost 2.0 is working. 

Should I stay in 1.8.0 or switch back all the way to 1.5.0? If new hardware is still coming with 1.8.0 I think I will stay.

 

Probably just stay on 1.8.0.  That is what the new 7560 came with.  I went to update my 7760 (on 1.7.0) this morning and that is when I saw 1.8.0 was pulled.  On your note on Dynamic Boost, I do not have that option in the Nvidia control panel on the 7760 with RTX A5000 or the 7560 with RTX 3080.  

[Ionising_Radiation]

20 hours ago, Rinconmike said:

Well, looks like 1.8.0 disappeared from the Dell Download page.  

If they pulled it, then they probably detected a show-stopping last minute bug. I'll just wait a couple more weeks to upgrade; I'm currently on 1.6 (I think). 

 

Not fond of Dell's recent firmware releases; they have been especially buggy.

[Ionising_Radiation]

10 hours ago, Rinconmike said:

the 7560 with RTX 3080

It's possible Dynamic Boost has been altogether switched off on the 7560, and Dell wants to maintain a strict 90 W maximum on the GPU.

[heikkuri]

Dell Precision 7760 and 7560 with Nvidia RTX A4000 support Dynamic Boost 2.0. But if you have BIOS 1.6.1 or 1.7.0

the NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework is hidden in under Device manager - Software devices.

Other possibility is exclamation mark in Device Manager, maybe depending Nvidia driver version.

 

Here it's hidden

 

Here it's OK after BIOS 1.8.0 update and Dynamic Boost 2.0 is Yes in Nvidia Contol Panel - System information.

Installed Nividia driver is 511.79. But NVIDIA Platform Controllers and Framework is old 472.31.

So the next step is still click the Update Driver box and final result will be 511.73.