Precision M6800 questions and upgrades

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

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.

Hey @Aaron44126, thank you for the answers!

I did indeed looked up some panels on panelook.com, the questions is however how do I know if it will fit? Surely there are frames and holes to align the display. Do you know by chance any precise models that will fit?

 

Regarding the WWAN slot: actually, my purchase is in part due to an ongoing endeavor to port the notebook to coreboot. If I'm not mistaken, coreboot should well be able to boot from that drive on the WWAN slot!

 

[naztam]

Hi guys. I have a problem with my m6800. It turns out that the original battery does not work. In the BIOS, no battery is detected, and the orange light on the battery icon flashes incessantly. I was about to buy a new battery, and to my surprise the exact same thing happens, the BIOS keeps saying that it does not detect any battery and the orange light is flashing. I also have an m6700, I tested the new battery there and it works fine. This m6700 already had a functional battery, I decided to put that in the m6800 and it doesn't detect it either... so... what can I do? Will I have a problem with the motherboard? all the best

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, naztam said:

Will I have a problem with the motherboard?

 

Yeah...  I guess you could check and make sure that the battery contacts are clean in your M6800.  But most likely, if the battery seems good in another system, then the motherboard is the next suspect.

[naztam]

Thanks for your help. I think I found the problem. As you can see in the photo, the power connection cable, the first three pins, seem to be burned. I don't know what could have caused that. The rest of the laptop works fine... I'm going to have to look for a replacement motherboard...

 

[nforce4max]

If anyone is wondering Starfield is playable on the M6800 with fairly reasonable settings at 1080p with 100% up scaling using FSR2.

[naztam]

What graphics card do you have?

[nforce4max]

8 hours ago, naztam said:

What graphics card do you have?

Dell WX7100 mxm as it is drop in and just works without much of a fuss.

[naztam]

On 10/9/2023 at 20:28, nforce4max said:

Dell WX7100 mxm ya que se instala y funciona sin mucho problema.

I bought your graphics card to update my system. I have some doubts. With the wx7100 did you have to update the graphics BIOS or do something? The thing is, I have installed it on my m6800, but I have the problem that the fan that cools the graphics card does not turn on to cool it, it only turns on when the CPU is heavily used, that is, Windows detects and I can use the wx7100 but the fan only turns on if the CPU gets hot.

[nforce4max]

7 hours ago, naztam said:

I bought your graphics card to update my system. I have some doubts. With the wx7100 did you have to update the graphics BIOS or do something? The thing is, I have installed it on my m6800, but I have the problem that the fan that cools the graphics card does not turn on to cool it, it only turns on when the CPU is heavily used, that is, Windows detects and I can use the wx7100 but the fan only turns on if the CPU gets hot.

That is very strange, I've used this in both the M6700 and M6800 without that issue however the driver acts up once in a while beyond that it is well behaved. I got a another in an 7710 as well and no issue there. For the m6800 and 7710 I do have it where the IGP is active for non gaming tasks. If your M6800 has an edp screen you can disable the IGP if needed as for thermals you can use hwinfo 64 and manually set the fans if needed.

[nforce4max]

I have to wonder if anyone has given one of those rare converted i7 4980HQ a try with this machine and how were the thermals like. Also is there is a reliable source as I am interested in at least collecting one.

[Reciever]

5 hours ago, nforce4max said:

I have to wonder if anyone has given one of those rare converted i7 4980HQ a try with this machine and how were the thermals like. Also is there is a reliable source as I am interested in at least collecting one.

They will work, though I think I tested on LVDS variant. You lose the mDP port on the T440p so Im not sure if that will persist since the t440p doesnt have an option where the dGPU is wired to the display.

 

I have one but 3 pins broke off when removing it from the M6800, it was really stuck in there, I still have the 3 pins as well just lack the tools and motivation since it doesnt work in my P157SMA (different chipset).

[nforce4max]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:33 PM, Reciever said:

They will work, though I think I tested on LVDS variant. You lose the mDP port on the T440p so Im not sure if that will persist since the t440p doesnt have an option where the dGPU is wired to the display.

 

I have one but 3 pins broke off when removing it from the M6800, it was really stuck in there, I still have the 3 pins as well just lack the tools and motivation since it doesnt work in my P157SMA (different chipset).

 

Yea back when this available on eBay years back it didn't take long at all to figure that the T440p just wasn't a viable platform though the M6800 wasn't exactly cheap back then so I didn't buy one. I did manage to collect a couple examples of the Xeon 1575m V5 (7510 and 7710) and was pretty happy with the results but looked back and had to wonder what I may have missed out on other than worse thermals.

[Reciever]

1 hour ago, nforce4max said:

 

Yea back when this available on eBay years back it didn't take long at all to figure that the T440p just wasn't a viable platform though the M6800 wasn't exactly cheap back then so I didn't buy one. I did manage to collect a couple examples of the Xeon 1575m V5 (7510 and 7710) and was pretty happy with the results but looked back and had to wonder what I may have missed out on other than worse thermals.

It did well for me at the time in my t440p, let me downclock pretty aggressively and get around 10-11 hours out of the t440p when I was actively using it work. From my testing, any QM87 chipset should work. M4800, M6800, E5540, t440p all accepted the chip without issue. Alienware 17 R1, P157SMA both wouldnt post.

 

Need to find someone to send the chip off to repair the pins that broke off, maybe one of those techrepair youtubers.

[nforce4max]

5 hours ago, Reciever said:

It did well for me at the time in my t440p, let me downclock pretty aggressively and get around 10-11 hours out of the t440p when I was actively using it work. From my testing, any QM87 chipset should work. M4800, M6800, E5540, t440p all accepted the chip without issue. Alienware 17 R1, P157SMA both wouldnt post.

 

Need to find someone to send the chip off to repair the pins that broke off, maybe one of those techrepair youtubers.

Interesting it didn't work in two laptops but still not bad compatibility wise. I'll keep this in mind if more copies find their way to market someday.

[Reciever]

35 minutes ago, nforce4max said:

Interesting it didn't work in two laptops but still not bad compatibility wise. I'll keep this in mind if more copies find their way to market someday.

The Ranger 17 R1 and P157SMA are both HM87, different chipset. its only a guess but seems to line up for now.

[AdamPBB]

Hi,

I have a M6800 Product Number 95V1K12 that I tried to upgrade the memory to use all 4 slots of 8gig sticks and the current processor I7-4600M 2 core supporting only 16mb of ram.

 

The current processor only supports 2 slots for a maximum of 16gb memory.

I want to determine the best processor supported by the motherboard that is the highest performer supporting all 4 memory slots at a maximum of 32gb memory with 4 8gb memory cards.

 

Thank you

Adam

[Aaron44126]

Any quad-core CPU will support four memory sticks.  The best would probably be Core i7-4940MX?

[AdamPBB]

Hi,
 

I have the i7-4940MX on order.

 

Now my next step is to add a SSD along with my 1tb HDD.

I want to add the SDD as the primary operating system drive for all processes to greatly speed things up yet keep the HDD as the primary storage that keeps an updated image of the SDD on it so that when I get another computer I have only that to copy the files from and the SDD only is an operating system drive.

 

This may be too complicated.

 

Option 1: Get another smaller SDD to move the operating system to while maintaining the HDD for storage.

Preferred.

 

Option 2: Get a 1tb SDD to make an exact image from the HDD and then replace the HDD with the SDD.

 

What do you think?

 

Thank you

Adam

 

Hi,
 

I need some more professional with maxing out the performance of this antiquated M6800.

 

I want to add an SSD drive to migrate the operating system over from the HDD.

 

I am not sure about the best way to proceed.

 

There is a secondary drive physically installed.

 

I thought that I needed to install an SSD into this position.

Could it just be dead?

Is the easiest way to just replace the 1tb HDD with a 1tb SSD?

There is a slot for the M Sata SSD Card but I don't know what the purpose of installing one is.

 

Please reference the attached picture

 

Please see following post for more pics.

 

Thank you

Adam

 

Please see the pic of the physical secondary drive that does not show up in the system.

 

Thanks

Adam

 

What is largest Msata card I need to support this computer?

What will e stored on the Msata?

How will the computer use it?

 

Thanks

Adam

[Reciever]

Do not quadruple post, it reduces visibility of other threads. 

 

Thanks

[nforce4max]

Just gave one of those 2280 2TB Sabrent drives a try and no dice though it worked without issue in the 7710.

[jaybee83]

On 11/15/2023 at 1:03 AM, nforce4max said:

Just gave one of those 2280 2TB Sabrent drives a try and no dice though it worked without issue in the 7710.

hmm thats weird, capacity shouldnt matter...

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Hi there,

quick question: I'm in the middle of upgrading my M6800 (got a i7-4940MX and a WX 7100 on the way) and I'd love to upgrade the display, too. Can anyone recommend a good FHD panel and a seller that doesn't scam ("send compatible panel")?

[nforce4max]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:21 AM, jaybee83 said:

hmm thats weird, capacity shouldnt matter...

I think it is due to the number of nand modules as it 8 and and is double sided.  I've seen the issue turn up once before with Linus reviewed one of the 8TB models which didn't work in a much newer Asus laptop but beyond that no issue at all in the 7710. Still I am the only one who has done an 2280 in the M6800 thus far without sacrificing the mxm.

[nforce4max]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:01 PM, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Hi there,

quick question: I'm in the middle of upgrading my M6800 (got a i7-4940MX and a WX 7100 on the way) and I'd love to upgrade the display, too. Can anyone recommend a good FHD panel and a seller that doesn't scam ("send compatible panel")?

Good luck as finding nicer panels that aren't 40 pin EDP are a real challenge and if yours is an LVDS then your options are likely even more limited. The EDP version of the M6800 is 30 pin only and from what I've seen online adapting 40 pin has mixed results with some releasing the forbidden smoke.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

On 11/19/2023 at 4:08 AM, nforce4max said:

Good luck as finding nicer panels that aren't 40 pin EDP are a real challenge and if yours is an LVDS then your options are likely even more limited. The EDP version of the M6800 is 30 pin only and from what I've seen online adapting 40 pin has mixed results with some releasing the forbidden smoke.

I have an eDP motherboard. There are 30 pin panels, but they are scarce...

On another note:

I tried to install an AMD WX 7100 today. I've just swapped my Firepro 6100 for it, just slightly realigning the thermal pads. Otherwise I was under the impression that it does fit just nicely.

Guess I was wrong, though. Once I hit the power button the status LEDs light up for a second before the whole machine loses power instantly.
After switching the GPUs again and booting up this error message is shown (see attached image). I don't think it has something to do with temps though, since the machine is only powered for 2-3 seconds and there's no load...