M4800 Owner's Thread

[nforce4max]

On 1/10/2024 at 2:24 AM, zhongze12345 said:

I have a quick question about mSATA compatability:

 

- What slot would it be in? the WWAN slot below the left fan? Would it be possible to also put one in the 1/2 height slot to the right of the Wifi card?

- And will SSDs with chips in both sides (double sided) work, or will there be clearance issues?

- Will the answers to the above questions be the same for the M6400/M6500 as well?

 

I saw someone say that the mSATA slot was less stable than the regular SATA slot, so I would like to hear experiences from others

 

Many thanks in advance

Issues with msata slots are pretty much nonexistent so far in my experience, the only gripe is the cost of 2TB but beyond that no physical issues. When there is a lack of msata there is the option of pci-e to nvme however most slots out there are limited to 2242 due to the physical length of the space provided while others no space at all and I've been having trouble with extender cables lately.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Hi there again,

got a new M4800 in great condition off of Ebay!

Already bought a WX 4150 MXM-A dGPU, a 2TB Samsung mSATA SSD and a 3x3 Wifi card (all on their way).

Planning on using my i7-4940MX in this laptop, to things will get toasty.

I do have some questions though:

1.) What are the best fans in terms of performance/noise ratio? I've read that the Delta fans are the best choice, the ones that came with my M4800 don't look like them, although one of them has the Delta logo:

 

2.) What is the best docking station available for the M4800? From what I've seen, there are two distinct models, one wider and the other smaller. Which one routes the iGPU signal to the rear DP ports on the docking station, as mentioned in the BIOS option?

Thanks in advance guys!
 

[Aaron44126]

10 minutes ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Hi there again,

 

1. This thread has some information on M4800 fans types.  See posts by @unnoticed.  Delta is generally considered the best, but not that one that you have there...  There is another one that has way more blades and a sort of cone-shape raised thing going on.  I think that the one that you have was intended to be paired with a lower-powered dual-core CPU.

 

2. The difference between the docks AFAIK is that the wider one has an extra DVI/DisplayPort output (and maybe a couple of other extra ports).  Both of them support an iGPU-attached display through DVI/DisplayPort if you enable that BIOS option, but if you get the wide one then only one of those ports will attach to the iGPU (you'll have to do trial and error to figure out which ... I do not remember).

 

Note that there are also different USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 versions of the docks, but it is hard to tell them apart because they look the same.  The USB 3.0 version might have a little "+" symbol next to the USB ports on the left side ...?

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Thank you for your swift reply! From what I can make out, I've got the AVC fan for the CPU and apparently the less performant variant of the Delta fan for the GPU.

 

What about those heatpipes? Do coolers vary too in this model? If so, what would be the best option in this regard?

Thanks again!

[Aaron44126]

2 minutes ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

What about those heatpipes?

 

Looks like a dual-pipe CPU heatsink, which is the best that you can get.  (I remember upgrading my M6700 CPU heatsink from single-pipe to dual-pipe.)  I also think the only GPU heatsink variations are one for AMD GPUs and one for NVIDIA GPUs, and the difference there was basically to account for different heights of the GPU die/chip.

 

I wish they made still made laptops more like this...  I love how many things you can swap out!  (I guess there is always Framework.)

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

7 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Looks like a dual-pipe CPU heatsink, which is the best that you can get.  (I remember upgrading my M6700 CPU heatsink from single-pipe to dual-pipe.)  I also think the only GPU heatsink variations are one for AMD GPUs and one for NVIDIA GPUs, and the difference there was basically to account for different heights of the GPU die/chip.

 

I wish they made still made laptops more like this...  I love how many things you can swap out!  (I guess there is always Framework.)

It's simply beautiful. I personally think that the M4800/M6800 are among the most meticulously crafted notebooks out there. Very well designed!

Gonna upgrade the panel as well. I was smart enough to look out for eDP mainboard. I'd love to install one of these panels here:

1. BOE NE156FHM-N53 (10-bit-color-range, eDP1.4b)
2. Sharp LQ156M17W02 (8-bit-color-range, high brigthness, high contrast, eDP1.2)

3. Panda LM156LF1F02 (8-bit-color-range, 144hz, eDP1.4)

Do you know if any of these will fit?

Thanks again!

[Aaron44126]

Unfortunately, I never messed with swapping out the display panel in the M4800 so I don't know much about that.  I would think that any "standard" eDP panel should be fine, as long as it has the right connector in the right spot.  You may have to transfer the mounting brackets over from your current panel.

 

Looks like you are looking to stay at 1080p, so it should be straight-forward.  Higher resolution panels (QHD/UHD) will disable integrated graphics, may only work with NVIDIA GPUs in this system, and may require a BIOS reset to get working.  I doubt that mini-LED panels would work at all.

[K4sum1]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

Unfortunately, I never messed with swapping out the display panel in the M4800 so I don't know much about that.  I would think that any "standard" eDP panel should be fine, as long as it has the right connector in the right spot.  You may have to transfer the mounting brackets over from your current panel.

I swapped the panel in my M4800 to a 1080p 120hz one. I used a B156HAN04.5. My laptop is 30 pin, not sure if there's a 40 pin M4800. If the connector has the right pins, is in the right place, and optionally (but preferably) has the mounting brackets in the same place, it should just work.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Thanks for your replies! From what I've gathered, the 120 hz panel that keeps being mentioned here is the Innolux N156HHE-GA1, that features eDP 1.3.

Since that one is confirmed to be working, I'll assume that anything up to eDP 1.3 will work on my M4800.

Another quick question: if fitted with a i7-4940MX (57 Watts TDP), will the M4800 even start with a 90w charger?

Thank you.

[Aaron44126]

14 minutes ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Another quick question: if fitted with a i7-4940MX (57 Watts TDP), will the M4800 even start with a 90w charger?

 

You will be able to run the system, but both the CPU and GPU will be heavily throttled.  These systems are very aggressive about throttling with a low-power adapter attached even if it seems like there should be enough headroom.  You may be able to override this behavior with something like Throttlestop (I haven't tried myself).  You can also use that power adapter to charge the battery while the M4800 is powered off or sleeping, and that should be fine.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

3 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

You will be able to run the system, but both the CPU and GPU will be heavily throttled.  These systems are very aggressive about throttling with a low-power adapter attached even if it seems like there should be enough headroom.  You may be able to override this behavior with something like Throttlestop (I haven't tried myself).  You can also use that power adapter to charge the battery while the M4800 is powered off or sleeping, and that should be fine.

Thank you for your insights. I've settled now for a 240 watts charger for the docking station at my desk and a 130 watts charger for traveling!

Next question: does anyone know the FRU (or how's it called with Dell) for the HDD caddy in the CD-Drive bay?

Thank you!

[Aaron44126]

30 minutes ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Thank you for your insights. I've settled now for a 240 watts charger for the docking station at my desk and a 130 watts charger for traveling!

Next question: does anyone know the FRU (or how's it called with Dell) for the HDD caddy in the CD-Drive bay?

Thank you!

 

You will want 180W to run without throttling.  (They make slim 180W adapters now that ship with newer Precision systems and these will work with the M4800.)

 

You do not need to get Dell's HDD optical drive caddy.  Pick any one that you want from Amazon or wherever.  It just needs to be one that fits a 9.5mm height drive bay, not the larger 12.5/12.7mm.  You can easily take the mounting bracket off of the optical drive and install it on your caddy.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

On 1/18/2024 at 11:01 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

You will want 180W to run without throttling.  (They make slim 180W adapters now that ship with newer Precision systems and these will work with the M4800.)

 

You do not need to get Dell's HDD optical drive caddy.  Pick any one that you want from Amazon or wherever.  It just needs to be one that fits a 9.5mm height drive bay, not the larger 12.5/12.7mm.  You can easily take the mounting bracket off of the optical drive and install it on your caddy.

 

Yeah I've looked into the various off-brand and DIY solutions and none was to my liking. So I guess I'll just wait until one of those genuine caddies pops up somewhere on ebay. 😀

 

Another issue:

I'd like to replace those thermal pads, does anybody know the precise thickness of these?

 

UPDATE:

The correct thickness is 1.5mm. It's the same for the GPU as well.

Edited January 29 by Per Astra Ad Deum
Found the correct thickness.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

I can report full success. With the new paste (Honeywell PTM7950) and new thermal pads (Gelid Solutions GP-Ultimate) I can run the i7-4940MX at full speed without throttling safely at around 87-92°C. This is without the Delta fan (already on it's way) and without undervolting (don't be fooled by the window title in the screenshot, `sudo intel-undervolt measure` is only being used to depict power draw, core temp and clock speed)

 

Needless to say, I'm very happy with this!

[unnoticed]

My battery died last night leaving it unplugged at work.
Anyone have any clue how to restart the circuit board?
I have 0v on the outside from the terminal but total 11.5v on the inside but the circuit board is not active so it wont charge even if I insert the battery in the computer.

 

I know how to restart a thinkpad battery because they have an NC + NO fuse you have you apply power from the inside to the outside starting the circuit board and reversing each fuse so you can reassemble and charge the battery

 

edit:

I fixed the battery by cutting two small wires and shorting them against the battery terminal and LP5 and LP1, now the laptop says its charging and full within 2 hours and 12 minutes.
Already it has 3% power!

Edited February 4 by unnoticed
Fixed

[KMikhail]

Aaron,

 

My journey into M series began with 6700 and I was literally stunned by a) Wide Gamut RGB Led screen (which I have calibrated) - it was nearly hurting my eyes with incredibly saturated reds b) configurability of the system. I bought it to finish my research calculations and it did it just fine (plus it was my birthday). But sometime later the screen stopped turning on once in a while and several service men couldn't really fix it, they swapped out quite a bit. In the end it was exchanged for a new 6800, but its (sRGB) screen was downright poor for both long term work and color sensitive work, so DELL was super nice to exchange it for 4800 (w 4k screen), with a CPU upgrade to keep the system at the same introductory price. Display has some dirt screen effect (pretty much absent in 6700 RGBLED), but the colors and detail' finesse are great.

 

It really is a shame they went with less flexible setups (so the system is lighter and smaller), instead of improving the system within the same size. However, we have to keep in mind the systems are often bought by companies for a higher end positions, rather than for engineers and scientists. Just imagine how much more powerful (or quiet) it could have been, given the progress in thinner modern laptops. But I digress.

 

No thunderbolt, no new performant mxm cards and no pcie nvme, older usb, DP and hdmi do really hurt upgradability. I wish 10gbe would be a standard now. It feels like I could keep it for far longer, as for most aps the cpu is adequate, since many of them are accelerated by gpu nowadays.

 

 

 

[Aaron44126]

I used M6700 as my primary for a full ten years.  Amazing system.  I never got the chance to see the M6700 with the RGB LED screen, but I heard that it was amazing.  I chose the regular WLED screen when I got mine because I wanted Optimus support.

 

I really am pinning my hopes on Framework to make modular/upgradeable laptops a thing again.  I hope that they are able to offer more options for the Framework Laptop 16 available over the next few years.

[unnoticed]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:05 AM, Aaron44126 said:

I used M6700 as my primary for a full ten years.  Amazing system.  I never got the chance to see the M6700 with the RGB LED screen, but I heard that it was amazing.  I chose the regular WLED screen when I got mine because I wanted Optimus support.

 

I really am pinning my hopes on Framework to make modular/upgradeable laptops a thing again.  I hope that they are able to offer more options for the Framework Laptop 16 available over the next few years.

I would hope just hope some day they make a trackpoint with three mouse buttons

[Kitje]

So I haven't been here a while, and have unfortunate news. The storms here a while back caused fluctuations in the power in the house, and in turn fried my M4800. As much as I would like to replace a few parts in it to get it working again I'm not well equipped in being able to afford replacing parts. So basically it's a dead laptop and a dead project laptop too, since I was anticipating putting in an Arc GPU and a better display panel.

[nforce4max]

On 2/11/2024 at 7:30 AM, Kitje said:

So I haven't been here a while, and have unfortunate news. The storms here a while back caused fluctuations in the power in the house, and in turn fried my M4800. As much as I would like to replace a few parts in it to get it working again I'm not well equipped in being able to afford replacing parts. So basically it's a dead laptop and a dead project laptop too, since I was anticipating putting in an Arc GPU and a better display panel.

Boards are very cheap right now even compared to food right now (amazing times for all) and chances are good that everything else is going to be ok.

[Kitje]

2 minutes ago, nforce4max said:

Boards are very cheap right now even compared to food right now (amazing times for all) and chances are good that everything else is going to be ok.

I have a LA-9772P mainboard in it, which I was looking for for a long time until I found one not far from where I live so it was an easy ship.

[unnoticed]

19 hours ago, Kitje said:

I have a LA-9772P mainboard in it, which I was looking for for a long time until I found one not far from where I live so it was an easy ship.

Yep I had to replace my motherboard once, its a real challange to get one. Parts-people rarely has one in stock.
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=category&id=142&subid=457&refine=motherboard

I had to resort to aliexpress but was lucky to get a brand new motherboard still in service mode.

 

 

I need a new usb daughterboard but getting one that works is hard, the last one I received was dead completely.
And one would not play any audio. Its almost as I want to try to replace the usb ports my self.
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=18533

[MELOCODI]

On 2/11/2024 at 1:30 PM, Kitje said:

So I haven't been here a while, and have unfortunate news. The storms here a while back caused fluctuations in the power in the house, and in turn fried my M4800. As much as I would like to replace a few parts in it to get it working again I'm not well equipped in being able to afford replacing parts. So basically it's a dead laptop and a dead project laptop too, since I was anticipating putting in an Arc GPU and a better display panel.

Stay safe, brother, I wish I could help in this situation..

[Kitje]

5 minutes ago, MELOCODI said:

Stay safe, brother, I wish I could help in this situation..

Oh I will. I appreciate the gesture! I'll still try get it going again, it might look or behave like it's fried but I'll try and see if disassembling and reassembling will kickstart it again.

 

It's what I get for not having a protected power strip, and an oversight.

[MELOCODI]

Does anyone have a Quadro T1000 from Adlinktech here? I've been screwing around with mine at night and found a VBIOS on TechPowerUp database that improved my temps without a performance sacrifice. 

I changed my MSI Afterburner OSD configuration yesterday and noticed this:

Spoiler

LIM1 is a stat that shows what limits the GPU (POWER,TEMP, NO LOAD) and in my case it NEVER changed, GPU Power was on 3.5W too. I knew it was something with VBIOS, but when I tried to flash some 1650 VBIOSes - it didn't work, even with nvflashk/omgvflash. But then I tried to flash the sketchiest out of all T1000 VBIOSes - one that had "0 MB VRAM" identified on TechPowerUp. And would you look at that:

Spoiler

(On this screenshot I've been playing for two hours already)

Now temps aren't going higher than 73 degrees, even in stress tests, yay!
Here is the link for VBIOS: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/239942/239942
Flash using nvflashk: https://github.com/notfromstatefarm/nvflashk

How to flash it:

Spoiler

• Disable your Quadro T1000 in a Device Manager
• Open Terminal/CMD in a nvflash(k) directory and execute those commands:
   nvflashk --protectoff
   nvflashk -6 (VBIOS ROM NAME HERE).rom
• Reboot
• Enable your Quadro T1000
(I am not sure if nvflashk is required, maybe original nvflash would be good for that too)