Are there any known undesirable circumstances to accepting Dell's suggested updates?

[Justin Timetafakitup]

I certainly appreciate finding this resource for my new 7680! I'm not sure I'll take it to the edge as many of you do but we'll see. 

 

Per my title, has there been any chatter about undesirable updates that might limit our capabilities or lock things we can't recover? Dell is offering a slew of updates including FW, BIOS, etc.

 

 

Many thanks!

JT

[Aaron44126]

If you are concerned about losing specific CPU capabilities like undervolting, manipulating the AC/DC loadline, and so forth, then you should avoid updating the BIOS until it is well understood if those things will be impacted. Otherwise, I'd suggest to just install BIOS and driver updates, but avoid any third-party software additions that you do not need.

[Justin Timetafakitup]

Great, thanks!

[Justin Timetafakitup]

Another question, if i may.

 

It seems that the two Samsung PM9F1 512GB SSDs in this 7680 are not nvme. Since they are not raided up as a single drive, I am considering pulling the empty one (D:), putting in an empty 2TB nvme I have, migrating the 512GB system drive (C:) to the new 2TB drive with Samsung Magician or the like, and replacing the 512 GB boot drive (C:) with the newly cloned 2TB drive. 

 

Now, my question:

Is there some sort of microcode on the boot drive that carries any important info?  I assume that the Dell restore image/recovery tools reside in a separate partition that would be brought over to the new drive when mapped by the reputable tools?

 

Thanks again!

JT

[Aaron44126]

No magic code, use any drive clone tool and you'll be fine.

Those drives are definitely NVMe though. Precision stopped supporting SATA M.2 internal drives around the Precision 7X50 generation.

[Justin Timetafakitup]

2 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

No magic code, use any drive clone tool and you'll be fine.

Those drives are definitely NVMe though. Precision stopped supporting SATA M.2 internal drives around the Precision 7X50 generation.

Oh, that's good news! Thanks! Samsung Magician wouldn't recognize them other than "other" drives and said they were not NVMe. I have both as SN850X 2TB and a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB to choose from. I don't think the Samsung migration tool cares about the source disk but it wants Samsung as target. I'll have to go find the WD tool for the other.

 

Thanks again for the help!

JT

[Justin Timetafakitup]

For the 7680, I am assuming that since it has 2 m.2 SSDs, the one under the "quick access door" is the secondary. I'm reasoning that when shipped with only one, the "quick access" bay would be empty for upgrade. Makes no sense otherwise, I'm thinking. We are talking about Dell tho... 😉

[Aaron44126]

The one under the quick access door is primary. Dell will populate that slot first. The idea is that you can easily and quickly remove it or swap it if needed, hence the "quick access".

 

Practically, there is little difference, you can put whichever drive in whatever slot you want and the system is happy to boot from any of them. Do what works for you.

 

(7680 can actually hold three M.2 SSDs, there are two slots other than the one under the quick access door. Though depending on your configuration, one of them may be physically obstructed by the battery.)

[Justin Timetafakitup]

12 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

The one under the quick access door is primary. Dell will populate that slot first. The idea is that you can easily and quickly remove it or swap it if needed, hence the "quick access".

 

Practically, there is little difference, you can put whichever drive in whatever slot you want and the system is happy to boot from any of them. Do what works for you.

 

(7680 can actually hold three M.2 SSDs, there are two slots other than the one under the quick access door. Though depending on your configuration, one of them may be physically obstructed by the battery.)

Thanks! I pulled the empty secondary 500GB SSD and replaced it with a SN850X 2TB and was able to clone the boot drive to it. When I changed the boot order in BIOS, it still booted the original 500GB drive.  I wanted to boot from the newly cloned 2TB as C: and then wipe what was the original boot disk (500GB) but somehow, my selections didn't affect it. Win Boot Mgr was first in boot order (not that I know how it affects boot order) and that probably messed it up even though i moved the 2TB drive above the 500GB. I'll try again downgrading the WBM or just take the original drive out and save the on the heat. I don't need an additional 500GB unless I load a different OS on it. 🤔

Thanks again for all the great info!

JT

[Aaron44126]

With UEFI the best thing to do is explicitly select your boot drive from the boot menu (hit F12 at startup) and then wipe the old drive when you are satisfied that things are working good (diskpart, list disk, select disk X, clean). Then there is no way it will still be trying to boot from the old drive.

[Justin Timetafakitup]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

With UEFI the best thing to do is explicitly select your boot drive from the boot menu (hit F12 at startup) and then wipe the old drive when you are satisfied that things are working good (diskpart, list disk, select disk X, clean). Then there is no way it will still be trying to boot from the old drive.

Sage advice and much appreciated!

JT