M6600 Reliability and Stability

That's pretty sick setup Bokeh, no wonder you need Precision series.

 

Kingston must exist see prev pic but considering the pic only shows a 2gb module then the point that claims dell goes with cheaper and available rather than best in class could still stand As we already know even this ram is not best in class on paper performance per say but it depends on your needs meaning do you want 2% faster with random probs or steady with no issue I know what I would choose

The most important fact here imo is the support which is invaluable because the money you save in initial cost when buying cheap can be made back quick with non stop replacement parts when buying from dell I know this because my last dell system went through 6 video cards in 3 yrs cause of nvidia design flaw but imagine how much I saved by purchasing one instead of six gpus although I will say for objectivity that the service was not always the fastest but mainly because of nvidia backorder

 

I think this highlights bokehs previous point about problems stemming from Frankenstein systems I mean this setup is all over the place with random ram sticks and re flashed os and not only that but now your stuck coming out of pocket or scrounging for replacement parts I wonder what the cost benefit analysis would be in terms of money spent on extra parts and hours or work lost in productivity vs getting a system you know will work and if it doesnt you know will be fixed

I am not a computer tech but I need my machine working constantly with no flaws for my work and I think thats the main point of this thread So I go stock and take my 2% loss on fake tests and 2 sec real world loss over days for the piece of mind that my system will run when i start it and if it doesnt then it will be fixed with no more money coming out of my pocket Dont get me wrong though if you are tech savvy and can fix all your issues in house then buying budget and fixing issues is the best choice but that wont work for me and I think most professionals outside the computer tech sphere

 

Is there a speed penalty for having 4 sticks of 2gb ram vs 2 sticks of 4gb as long as all of it is 1600mhz?

Also, yes, the point that I was trying to make is that I have yet to see a blue screen on an M6600 while running my normal Windows 7 build. I have seen a couple of anomalies with the dock, but never the machine itself. I have also had to deal with a few quirks related to how the mSata SSD is handled in the boot sequence as well as how Optimus operates.

Quirks are easy to deal with because you know what to expect. When you swap hard drives in an out of the removable tray, it might knock the mSata drive down in the boot sequence which means going into the bios and moving it back. We know that the post screen only shows up on VGA connected external monitors when Optimus is enabled.

What is tough to deal with are the random blue screens and shutdowns. It could be flaky or improperly seated components. It could be a cable connection that someone does not realize that they broke when they took their machine apart. It could be that a dropped screw or static discharge damaged the system when it was being torn down. Maybe overclocking the video card was not a great idea. It could be software, or a virus, or bad settings. Maybe you should not run the machine with the air vents blocked by a heavy blanket on a bed. So many variables. So many ways to make a system not dependable.

 

Great recall

I was speculating that a 2gb stick of kingston is not super expensive or possibly more readily available than a 4gb or even 8gb stick thus the previous statement that dell goes with cheaper and more available over speed could hold true

 

I am surprised that you only use 8g of ram so is this on both systems and if not then what ram manuf is on your newest system with ips

Is the ips on the right in the pic with both systems

 

I think you misunderstood my post - at least parts of it.

I have not flashed the OS, all I did from receiving the laptop new from Dell was replace the 4GB or RAM with 16GB of HyperX RAM. I also instered a second SSD in the secondary HD drive.

I also said nothing about different RAMs they were all Kingston. Why you may have thought that is only after I started testing the system (because of all the problems) did I have to use different RAM (but all of the same size).

All of that is common practice.

You are right though that it can be advantageous to buy stock from Dell when you get the machine. But there is a BIG difference between Dells 16GB RAM price and what you can procure some of the latest "big name" RAM.

I removed all HyperX RAM 24 hours ago now and replaced them with 8GB Samsung RAM, and have not had a single problem (yet). The machine is even deadly quiet compared to before which is great.

No problem for me I just have to buy a couple of more 4GB RAM to get back to the 16GB I was at before.

I will do that though only after I have run more tests. But for me the inital (very early) results indicate to me that there is some kind of problem with Kingston's HyperX RAM in the M6600, but like I say I will keep testing.

Disclaimer: Oh and just to let you know, I do not overclock, game or mess around with my system. It is a business machine and used as such, I need to do video, images, and a few other things. It is very well taken care of.

 

This Kingston is in the Touchpanel M6600. IPS came with Samsung.

16gb would be better for some of the things I am starting to work on now.

 

EKNIGHT1 - your above words got me thinking, because once I discovered the one faulty HyperX I took that out and put in a Samsung as a replacement. It was the same size (4GB) but very different speed.

I am now testing all three good HyperX just by themselves and will see how that goes, definitely rebooted nicely.

It may just be a case of having to replace the one faulty HyperX with a new good HyperX rather than a different RAM. Fingers crossed.

I do not mind admitting when I am wrong, and you may have (perhaps unintentionally) nudged me in the right direction. Thanks.

 

I am glad you got your system working and kudos on being diligent and figuring out your issue hopefully it will keep working

I was assuming your ssd was new but I guess I was wrong about that but I was mainly referencing driver probs from fresh os install which is mentioned a lot in the owners thread

I am curious though if you dont mind disclosing the amount you spent in total in getting back at a working 16gb ram system including initial cost of stock ram from dell plus new 16gb hyper x and 2 new 4gb samsung sticks and replacement sticks for your old comp assuming you still wana use it

I am speculating a lot here and I may have gotten some of your details wrong but if you dont wana disclose the amounts i can understand that but I just think it will be near the cost of stock 16gb from dell and that could have even been from samsung