Anyone own a Dell Precision M4700?

[Mole]

Hi,

I am looking for anyone who owns a Dell Precision M4700 and either owns the slice battery or wouldn't mind meeting up so that I could try my slice battery in their machine (in which case please let me know and we can see if we live close enough).

Basically, I am having an issue with the slice battery I bought for my M4700. When running off this battery (discharging) the CPU speed is limited to the idle speed of 1.2GHz. Running off the standard battery gives me the full CPU speed available.

It is not software related as Windows / Linux does the same. Nor is it a BIOS setting in the latest BIOS (Dell and I checked over phone support).

Dell are arranging for an engineer to visit with a new battery and mainboard with the view of trying the new battery first and, if this fails, to swap the mainboard.

I am understandably nervous about letting an engineer take apart my whole laptop to fit a new mainboard (and any Windows device driver rubbish this causes with the new hardware) if this ends up failing to solve the problem.

So, I was wondering if anyone had the slice battery for this machine and could test it for me or would mind meeting up if close enough. This would let me know if a mainboard swap might help (if the battery works fine in another M4700) or if it is a battery or generic system / firmware fault in which case no mainboard swap will help and I can refuse this.

Thanks,

Martin

 

[Dangerous]

hahah I've read this post on another forum, just can't remember where! EDIT NBR

The 1.2Ghz speed comes from when I select the Dell Power management setting "Cool (reduced temps)" Though if its happening in Linux it has to be something to do with the BIOS or motherboard.

Do you have any Dell Software installed under Linux?

 

[Mole]

Yes, sorry, I should have said that I posted on the NBR forum.

I'm just a little concerned about a mainboard swap so wanted to see if anyone had any information.

I'm certain it isn't software related... I've checked all Windows settings and, as I say, the standard battery runs perfectly well. The Linux I ran was actually a Parted Magic Live CD (used to secure erase my SSDs if needed). Also, the Dell Diagnostics which are available pre-boot show there is something different between the Slice Battery and the standard one, as the CPU heats up more sitting idle in the diagnostics with the standard battery, and it shows a higher discharge rate as well.

Martin

 

[Dangerous]

The M4700 and M6700 are barebones laptops so its pretty easy thing to swap out the mainboard. I have the M6700 and I will be swapping out the K3000M GPU for the K5000M, takes about 20 screws then it just pops out.

I am tempted to purchase a slice for mine but I mainly run on mains power.

The slice has no settings to force the laptop to run on slower speed, I would say its software over a motherboard fault.

 

[ninja2000]

The M4700 and M6700 are barebones laptops so its pretty easy thing to swap out the mainboard. I have the M6700 and I will be swapping out the K3000M GPU for the K5000M, takes about 20 screws then it just pops out.

I am tempted to purchase a slice for mine but I mainly run on mains power.

The slice has no settings to force the laptop to run on slower speed, I would say its software over a motherboard fault.

have they changed the design since the m6600? When I upgraded the gpu in my m6600 you have to remove the entire top section and reroute all the WAN cables to get to the gpu it was a right ball ache!

 

[Mole]

The slice has no settings to force the laptop to run on slower speed, I would say its software over a motherboard fault.

Indeed... what is more annoying is that in a colleague's M6600 (previous gen) the slice powers it at full speed (yet isn't even listed as a compatible battery for the M6600). My standard battery powers my laptop at full speed (not a Windows software issue unless there's some Dell stuff behind the scenes, but as I say I've tried a Linux Live CD and it is the same).

I also doubt a hardware fault and think it is much more likely to be firmware on the motherboard or slice. I'm thinking of going back to the support rep. and asking him outright whether the tech lab actually tested a slice in a M4700 their end or have just given a stock response of "replace the hardware".

I'm a little nervous about having the board swapped (at present my CPU and GPU temps are great so don't really want the heatsinks moved). The main issue is that Windows will detect a load of hardware changes and being OCD as I am, I would probably feel compelled to do a re-install (and my vanilla Dell factory reset won't be valid any more). Unless the engineer re-fits my original board once we have ruled that out as a source of the issue...?

Thanks for the replies... I shall let you know the outcome.

Martin

 

[Dangerous]

I am having a odd issue with mine so keep us posted.

 

[Dangerous]

Martin can you try the following for me?

My GPU performance is shocking on battery, gpu z tells me the clock speed drops to 135mhz on battery. Everything inside the Nvidia control panel is set to max.

Plug power back in and it's back to 654mhz?

On Mains Power

Just by removing Mains lead

No matter what driver I use always reverts to the lower speed on battery, also tried my backup Windows 7 OS

Can anyone do me a favour and see if their M6700 does the same or is it a fault with mine?

Open GPUZ run its own benchmark on mains, then remove the power and keep note of the sensors tab for the GPU clock speed. Make sure its on High Performance or Dell ultra setting

 

[Mole]

Martin can you try the following for me?

Open GPUZ run its own benchmark on mains, then remove the power and keep note of the sensors tab for the GPU clock speed. Make sure its on High Performance or Dell ultra setting

Does it have to be the GPU-Z benchmark or does your system do it with any 3D program? GPU-Z tells me I don't have the D3D version required when I try the Render Test.

If I run Heaven in a window instead and watch the GPU speed in GPU-Z, I get an immediate drop from 745MHz on mains to 465MHz on battery and immediately back to 745MHz when the mains is plugged back in. I expected some drop when running on battery to limit power draw and this seems reasonable to me.

135MHz is the lowest power mode for use in 2D like an idle Windows desktop... no idea why the laptop should be limiting you to this when running on battery (it seems way to harsh). Your GPU memory speed also drops to idle speed... weird.

Martin

EDIT: My machine has the K2000M