Precision M6800 questions and upgrades

[chieukhanhok]

On 1/17/2023 at 9:09 PM, Aaron44126 said:

See:

https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/graphics-card-upgrade-for-m6800.806352/page-17#post-10748094

(Sorry the pictures aren't working, but the needed commands are there.)

Thank you for your help. I created a Linux USB and ran it. But the screen was just lit up a black... There was no sign but a black screen.
  Do I need to use an LCD monitor? Because I tried Linux USB boot with another computer and it worked...

[Aaron44126]

14 minutes ago, chieukhanhok said:

Thank you for your help. I created a Linux USB and ran it. But the screen was just lit up a black... There was no sign but a black screen.

 

This is after putting the new GPU in?

 

Do you know if you have an LVDS or eDP display panel?  Did you have Optimus (graphics switching) enabled in the BIOS?  If you have an LVDS panel then Optimus must be enabled to get any signal to the laptop built-in display.

 

You can try running with an external display, it might work.  Turn the laptop on and quickly shut the lid and the BIOS screens should come up on the external display.

[chieukhanhok]

8 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

This is after putting the new GPU in?

 

Do you know if you have an LVDS or eDP display panel?  Did you have Optimus (graphics switching) enabled in the BIOS?  If you have an LVDS panel then Optimus must be enabled to get any signal to the laptop built-in display.

 

You can try running with an external display, it might work.  Turn the laptop on and quickly shut the lid and the BIOS screens should come up on the external display.

Yes...

My M6800 has an LVDS Panel. After I put the P4000 card in it came a blue screen with the code "ACPI BSOD". Graphics switching in BIOS is always on.
But after every Linux USB boot -> Select "Start Linux Mint..." The fan howls and only black screen...
Where did I go wrong?

[Aaron44126]

31 minutes ago, chieukhanhok said:

Yes...

My M6800 has an LVDS Panel. After I put the P4000 card in it came a blue screen with the code "ACPI BSOD". Graphics switching in BIOS is always on.
But after every Linux USB boot -> Select "Start Linux Mint..." The fan howls and only black screen...
Where did I go wrong?

 

Alright, I see.  I thought you were not getting any display at all.

 

I'm not sure what to make of that.  I'm going to suggest that you try Linux Mint 18.3.  When I did this (...about four years ago now...), I used a newer version and it did not work (I do not remember if the symptoms were the same as yours), but I tried an older one and I was able to boot to the desktop.

[chieukhanhok]

4 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Alright, I see.  I thought you were not getting any display at all.

 

I'm not sure what to make of that.  I'm going to suggest that you try Linux Mint 18.3.  When I did this (...about four years ago now...), I used a newer version and it did not work (I do not remember if the symptoms were the same as yours), but I tried an older one and I was able to boot to the desktop.

 

  Great! Linux version 18.3 worked USB boot in my M6800. And the latest version of Linux Mint 21.1 didn't work... Thanks to your suggestion I saved 1 day... Thank you very much.

 

On 1/17/2023 at 8:05 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

Yes, unless you plan to use Linux, you will need to flash the vBIOS for Quadro P3000/P4000/P5000 to avoid the ACPI BSOD when booting Windows.  (You can boot to Linux using a "live USB" environment to do the flash, Linux will not have trouble booting.)  Make sure that you have Optimus enabled if you have a LVDS display panel.

 

@TheQuentincc has a working vBIOS image here.

But I'm having another problem as I'm fiddling around with how to flash vBIOS using nvflash in Linux...
I discovered here that I received a vBIOS P4000 file with the extension "...bin". Also in the vBIOS P3000/P5000 "...rom".

 

So what do I do next? Do I need to change the .bin -> .rom extension? Since I've Googled there is no documentation to do that...

[Aaron44126]

The file name extension doesn’t matter, it’s just a raw vBIOS dump in either case. You should be able to use it with nvflash directly.

[chieukhanhok]

 

  

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

The file name extension doesn’t matter, it’s just a raw vBIOS dump in either case. You should be able to use it with nvflash directly.

Thank you for your reply.

 

On 1/17/2023 at 9:09 PM, Aaron44126 said:

See:

https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/graphics-card-upgrade-for-m6800.806352/page-17#post-10748094

(Sorry the pictures aren't working, but the needed commands are there.)

I have tried flashing vBIOS following this guide many times. It showed an error: " Nothing changed!"; "ERROR: Invalid firmware image detected.
nvflash CPU side error Code:2Error Message: Falcon In HALT or STOP state, abort uCode command opening process."
Please help me get rid of this problem again. Thank you.

[Aaron44126]

Hmm.  @TheQuentincc, are you around?  Do you have to do anything in particular to flash your P4000 .bin vBIOS file?

[chieukhanhok]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

Hmm.  @TheQuentincc, are you around?  Do you have to do anything in particular to flash your P4000 .bin vBIOS file?

After I changed to another nvflash version and tried again... Another error occurred: "Adapter not accessible or supported EEPROM not found, skipping
A reboot is required for the update to take effect..." after I press "y"...
Did I do something wrong?

[Aaron44126]

2 minutes ago, chieukhanhok said:

After I changed to another nvflash version and tried again...

 

I'm sure I used the one from TechPowerUp when I did this.  (It was a P5000, though.)

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash/

[chieukhanhok]

18 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I'm sure I used the one from TechPowerUp when I did this.  (It was a P5000, though.)

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash/

Yes. I make sure to always try different versions of nvflash downloaded from your link... And it came up with such errors...
Can you give me another version of vBIOS P4000.rom please? 

[Aaron44126]

That's the only one that I have.  @TheQuentincc is the only one I know of who had a P4000 working.  I'm hoping he still stop by.

[chieukhanhok]

16 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

That's the only one that I have.  @TheQuentincc is the only one I know of who had a P4000 working.  I'm hoping he still stop by.

 

Hi,
Thanks to your enthusiastic support I was able to flash vBIOS P4000 for my old Dell Precision M6800 laptop.
Thanks for your support...

 

After many failed attempts to flash vBIOS P4000... I finally succeeded.
I don't know any reason... But maybe I got lucky trying to go to an older nvflash version...

It failed to run the first few times. I then tried to re-enter the Flash command again in vain... Basically ./nvflash -6 P4000.bin -> Enter And something changed... It ran 18% and keep reporting error...
I re-entered the command above and it said complete.
A feeling of happiness comes over...

[TheQuentincc]

Well, I used an external programmer to flash the vbios of the P4000, a CH341A + 1.8v adapter is like 5~10$, I never bothered using software programmer like nvflash because it's a real PITA.

[dpriest442]

I'm about to buy an M6800 which comes with K3100M. I was planning on upgrading to the M2200, rather than something like the M5000M as I don't feel like I'd need the extra power and am more wondered about thermals. Does this GPU require a heat sink modification? 

[chieukhanhok]

28 minutes ago, dpriest442 said:

I'm about to buy an M6800 which comes with K3100M. I was planning on upgrading to the M2200, rather than something like the M5000M as I don't feel like I'd need the extra power and am more wondered about thermals. Does this GPU require a heat sink modification? 

M2200 is a small card suitable for Dell M4800. M6800 should install M5000m card. GPU temperature shouldn't be a big deal for the M6800. I have installed the Nvidia P4000 with stress tests for the card's temperature around 75 degrees Celsius.

[Aaron44126]

Well, actually the short MXM cards will work if you can get the heatsink mounted properly.  I don't remember seeing anyone try it in the M6800 specifically.  You'll have to check the position of the screw holes (should be the same) and make sure that copper parts of the heatsink cover the RAM chips & VRMs, and that there is no other physical obstruction, and then you should be good.  The heatsink is mostly flat so you can just cover the important bits with thermal pads and let the rest of it just hang off the end.

[dpriest442]

11 hours ago, chieukhanhok said:

M2200 is a small card suitable for Dell M4800. M6800 should install M5000m card. GPU temperature shouldn't be a big deal for the M6800. I have installed the Nvidia P4000 with stress tests for the card's temperature around 75 degrees Celsius.

What sort of modifications need to be made to the NVIDIA heatsink for an M5000M?

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, dpriest442 said:

What sort of modifications need to be made to the NVIDIA heatsink for an M5000M?

 

You have to cut a piece off that hits one of the VRMs at the "top" of the card (far side from the socket/connector).  People have done it with a Dremel or similar tool.

[dpriest442]

42 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

You have to cut a piece off that hits one of the VRMs at the "top" of the card (far side from the socket/connector).  People have done it with a Dremel or similar tool.

I'm struggling to decide whether or not that's worth it. A dremel + M5000M is over $500 for me, whereas an M2200 is less than $200 and is already twice as powerful as what I'm using now 

[dpriest442]

Just received my M6800. I have to say that after using it for a bit I'm even more hesitant about upgrading to an M5000M than I was before. With a K3100M the temperatures are higher than I was expecting, and the fans louder. Where I live it's quite warm, and the laptop doesn't take too long to become uncomfortable. Not sure how other people's M6800 handle a 100 watt card

[Hertzian56]

1 hour ago, dpriest442 said:

Just received my M6800. I have to say that after using it for a bit I'm even more hesitant about upgrading to an M5000M than I was before. With a K3100M the temperatures are higher than I was expecting, and the fans louder. Where I live it's quite warm, and the laptop doesn't take too long to become uncomfortable. Not sure how other people's M6800 handle a 100 watt card

yeah be careful and make sure if you're heavy gaming to elevate the rear end. My m6700 w a 980m died on me playing doom eternal which isn't that heavy of a game. Think the 980m is 110w. Clean out the grilles, some updated TIM etc

[Nowan]

check this out what stumble. possibly it opens gtx pascal support? 

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Hello fellow M6800 users!

I assume this is a general thread so I hope you don't mind if I ask you some questions.

I just bought my first notebook, as you've probably guessed it's a M6800.

The one I bought is fairly low-specced, and I made sure it comes with an eDP-motherboard. After getting used to IPS, there's no going back for me to TN displays.

Sadly, the one I bought ofc comes with this really subpar TN-Display:
AOC119D - Panelook.com

 

So first question: How do I switch this panel for something better? Does Dell impose a Whitelist on it's customers? If so, which panels are available, and where do I get them? If the available displays turn out to be just as mediocre, are there any ways to circumvent the whitelisting? E.g. by modding the BIOS?

 

The next issue is the CPU. My M6800 is really low specced, and comes with an i5-4310MQ. I want to upgrade to  a quad-core. Sadly, the i7-4702MQ I'm running in my ThinkPad T440p does not support VT-d, which is a feature I want for my M6800. That narrows it down to six possible CPUs:

i7-4940MX (4.0 GHz Turbo, 57 Watts TDP),

i7-4930MX (3.9 GHz Turbo, 57 Watts TDP),

i7-4910MQ (3.9 GHz Turbo, 47 Watts TDP)

i7-4900MQ (3.8 GHz Turbo, 47 Watts TDP)

i7-4810MQ (3.8 GHz Turbo, 47 Watts TDP)

i7-4800MQ (3.7 GHz Turbo, 47 Watts TDP)

Despite being almost equally clocked, the i7-4940MX is 3-10% faster than the i7-4910MQ according to various benchmarks (1) (2).

 

The topic has been grazed here already. Which CPU would you prefer? I'd had good experience with undervolting, maybe the i7-4940MX can be tamed this way? Otherwise the i7-4910MQ would be the logical choice, as long as both CPUs are equally priced.

 

The next question is a little more special.

 

I'd like to make use of both HDD slots in the M6800, and use a dedicated M.2-SSD in the WWAN-Slot as a system drive. Has anyone tried that before? Seems like a wasted opportunity to not use the WWAN slot for a SSD drive, since you're hardly carrying around an 3,5-4,0kg (7.9 +  lb) notebook with you to make use of the mobile internet.

 

I'd appreciate if someone could shine some light on these matters. Thank you all!

 

[Aaron44126]

There is no display whitelist. You can install any display that will fit and is electronically compatible. (M6800 has limited eDP bandwidth, 20 lanes instead of 40 or something, so high res displays like 4K are out.) PanelLook is a good place to see what options are, but sourcing one would be through aftermarket parts sites or eBay.

 

I believe that you can install “any” PCIe device in the WWAN slot, including an NVMe drive if you can fit it in with an adapter, but the BIOS won’t look there for a bootable drive. So, using that drive as the system drive would require the boot loader to be on a different drive.