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Hi there! I did a benchmark of the temperature and it reaches 73 Celsius degrees maximum. Right now I am running the PC with a 240 Watt PSU so that shouldn't be a problem. Is it possible there is something wrong with the driver?

Hi again! Does anyone experience game freezes here? I tend to get a lot of crashes related to the drivers (sometimes it even gives me BSOD with an info)

If anoyne reads this thread: I was succesful with upgrading M6700's GPU to GTX880m and it is working despite I had the 'unknown video card' message in BIOS. The thing is you need to get it done in a certain order (enabling/disabling GPS in BIOS, installing the OS, going through driver updates and modding the drivers for your case). Right now I can confirm that the 880m works good, including HDMI, DP (haven't tested VGA, but hey - who need it today, right?). The only problems that I ran into are heavy GPU loads which sometimes result in freezes or driver failure, but I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of having a proper PSU (mine is too small for the laptop). I might be a little off-topic, but from what I've read here, the issues I had with mine M6700 and the 880m were similar to those described.

If you are still interested I can help you in the GPU upgrade a bit - just got an M6700 working with a GTX880m. It was a painful thing to do but it runs and seems to be doing it's job. Let me know if you are still on the topic.

Hi! I've recently got myself a used Dell M6700 and since I have some parts laying around I thought it was a good idea to play with it a little. All mods have gone good so far and I am down to the configuration for best performance and data safety. This thread is about configuring hard drives so that they give me reliability in case of emergency. My configuration is: M6700, i7 3940XM, GTX880m, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 x64 Anniversary Edition 1x ADATA DP910 SSD 1TB (main storage) 1x Samsung PM 851a SSD mSATA 1TB (secondary storage) 1x Seagate ST1000LM024 1TB (backup drive) How do I use the PC? I use the main storage for OS (partition 1 with ~300 GB space) and programs (partition 2, remaining space), which are mostly music production tools, video and graphic design tools and some games from time to time. The secondary storage is currently used as a place for downloads and data that I don't use super-frequently, such as old photos, old music projects, etc. The HDD drive is in a separate bay and I can plug it in/out anytime. Currently empty and waiting for further actions. What do I need? I have experienced different drive failures in the past and am aware that nothing lasts forever. I am super nervous about the data I store on my main drive as sometimes I need to carry the laptop with me to play a gig or work somewhere away from home. In these situations I need to be sure nothing happens to the PC or that I have an easy backup. What I want to achieve is a setup that works like this: main drive working most of the time, secondary storage for less important data and a backup drive that'd essentially be a clone of the main drive - if the ADATA fails I wish I could switch the boot sequence in BIOS options to the backup drive and make the PC work again with the same OS, same settings and most importantly, very quickly after the failure. Now, I know that my M6700 comes with RAID configuration, but for now I am using AHCI setup for the three drives. First question is: is the RAID controller of my laptop a hardware one or is it a software option? I don't want to use anything that would slow down the CPU. As far as I know - RAID 1 (never used it before) is something similar to what I want - I believe it clones the drive (does it also clone MBR?) sector by sector. Would it work as I described above? If yes then do I need to reinstall Windows again to change from AHCI to RAID? Or maybe after the change a FIXMBR method would be enough to get it going again? Windows 10 comes with several backup options: File History, System Image Backup and the regular Backup. To my knowledge, none of these options are what I need - a quick way to repair my laptop if the main drive stops working. Yes, I could probably restore my data from these backups, but no, I won't be able to boot the PC in 5 minutes after the failure, am I right? Would it be better to just purchase some backup software and set it to automatically clone my drive from time to time? Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment

Hi again! With your help I managed to get a Dell M6700 going along with Nvidia GTX880m. I generally feel great about that laptop, except there are problems with gaming. Every single game crashes after 5-10 minutes with either a PC freeze or a BSOD saying something about GPU driver error. Is that the fault of 370.90 drivers? I should also mention I have a 210W PSU, so I thought this might be a problem for i7 3940XM and GTX880m. What do you guys suggest?

Thank you @J95! Your guidance allowed me to get a GTX880m working in a Dell M6700 - something theoretically impossible. I didn't need to get rid of the Physx folder, however I needed a different approach to modding the INF file. I followed your tips and now everything works like charm. Now let's get to some testing! CHEERS

Thank you @J95 for commitment! I got a K5100M running and stable. I will give the 880m another try with your advice. And will definitely get myself w stronger PSU in the near future. @trashmonk - people install these drivers when theu upgrade their laptops with different GPUs that were not originally intended to be put in these machines. For instance I swapped an old Quadro for a GTX880m and now for a newer Quadro K5100M card. Then you need modded drivers.

Any help would be appreciated - I am havin trouble installing drivers even now that I've switched to a Quadro K5100M card (originally from Precision M6800). I am getting either failure of setup application or an information that the driver might be corrupted or victim of tampering. Is it possible that the CPU is a problem - i7 3940XM? How about the PSU - I have a Dell 210 Watt one.

I guess that's up to the cooling and vBIOS settings. I got the M6700 very recently and am happy to live with it, despite it's rather big size and heavy weight - it's definitely a desktop replacement for me. For the last two years I've been using a Vaio laptop for pesonal use and it's nowhere near the build quality and performance as the Precision series. Give me the better GPU though! edit Hi again @flodotz! I have just installed the K5100M into my M6700 and guess what - I've got the same problems that I faced with the 880m. Os refuses to install drivers, even though I get them modified. What CPU do you have? I've heard there are problems with Intel's XM CPUs when you try different GPUs. edit 2 The K5100M works now - I managed to mod the drivers even more and somehow got it done (wondering now ehether I should give the GTX880m another go). I have a Dell PR04X docking station which is only a small legacy extender (http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/accessories/apd/430-3115?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=430-3115). When I plugged it in, it was installed as a generic USB HUB. Just ran Furmark and Bioshock Infinite on ultra settings and I got no problems at all. The temperature while running Furmark reached no more then 70 Celsius.

Allright then - I'll give you some feedback when I manage to do the testing. Actually I'm about to fiddle with it tomorrow (I always hesitate whenever it gets to opening the M6700 - already did some damage to the touchpad connector) so I'll keep you updated. If everything else fails, I'll keep the Quadro inside and OC that baby to play The Witcher 3, which is my goal for this Dell setup. The K5100M will be better then the GPU in a Sony laptop I also own (low profile 740m with 64bit memory bus).

I am going to swap my GTX880m for K5100M tomorrow and post the results here. Unfortunately I only have a small docking station for this laptop, but if you want I might give it a shot. How did you find Quadro cards for gaming? Is it any good?

There you go @J95, in the Device Manager it looks like this: PCI/VEN_10DE&DEV_1198&SUBSYS_053F1028&REV_A1 Now, I've come across threads that described successful upgrades to both 880m and 980m and my failure is starting to worry me. In one of the threads there was something mentioned about LDVS and eDP connectors for the screen - as far as I know mine goes to the LDVS slot - am I suppose to change that (I know these are two different formats, but I just plugged the screen connector straight to LVDS when mounting the laptop together), If needed, I can try out a Quadro K5100M in this setup to see if it's running, but I really hope the GTX will work eventually, as I am driven more towards gaming and I know the M6700 is capable of doing that!

I am also wondering as I have the 880M here and can't get it working properly. What do you guys mean by "throttling" in case of a GPU? In my case with the latest drivers installed I can't force any app to use the GTX and when I launched bioshock Infinite I could barely move the mouse pointer over a black screen with no menu textures loaded (?!)...

Hi again I've heard the K4100M should be compatible with M6700, as the K5100M is - they even have drivers for it on the official Dell website. Is it possible that the GPU you had is malfunctioning? When you place the K4000M inside there should be no problem - this workstation was sold with that card so my guess is BIOS will recognize it. In my case the card is only recognized by Windows, yet I can't really install any drivers. Playing around with Optimus gives nothing. This weekend I'm going to try out a K5100M in it and see if it works.

Thank you @J95 for replying - one last thing is that I can't access the zip files - it says there is something wrong with my account. edit Just got the modified INFs and tried your method, but I still failed to install the drivers - the installation program just gave me "failed". I believe the drivers refuse to be installed because there was never meant to be a M6700 with GTX880m combination so there mus be something messed up with hardware id codes. What can I do to install the GPU properly? edit 2 After some additional fiddling around I did install the driver with your method - the GPU is being properly rean by GPU-Z and device manager. Only trouble remains it's usage and switching - it's not working in Furmark or any game that I launch. Why could that be?

Hi @flodotz! How did you manage to install the proper drivers from Nvidia under your OS despite you get an "unknown video card" message in BIOS? Is switching between Intel HD and ext GPU working for you? I am having problems with driver installation, not to mention card detection. In my case it's M6700 with GTX880m inside. From what I know you should be good with the 240 Watt PSU, but if you get a chance, you might want to try out a 300 Watt one. Maybe there's someone you could lend it from? Is the cooling mounted properly? Have you checked whether the heatsink fits your card properly (although it should as it was a NV --> NV swap)? Did you make sure there are thermopads mounted in every important point of the heatsink and your cooling paste is spread in the right way? Finally, are you sure the GPU you bought is fine? It does sound like a throttling problem - some time ago I had a similar situation with a desktop Radeon 9500 PRO that was too overclocked and I damaged it's memory.

Hello! I am a new to techinferno - what brought me here is an issue with a Precision M6700 I bought myself lately. The laptop came with no GPU in it, however I have a GTX 880m that fits it's MXM slot. When I plugged the card in I though it was all I needed to do - I'm used to desktop upgrades, so I thought - it fits - why not? Turns out the PC's BIOS can't figure out what card is in it - with Optimus "off" I can see "unknown video card" with 8GBs of RAM. Windows 10 x64 Anniversary Edition works and recognizes the GPU as "Microsoft Universal Video Adapter", but the HWid suggests it's a GTX880 - in fact I can even see it properly detected by GPU-Z. So I browsed through lots of topics on upgrading, modding and customizing drivers but none of the methods worked for me, apart from one - Mr Fox's modded desktop drivers. I managed to install all the nVidia components, yet can't get the card working properly - launched Bioshock Infinite to see if it is on and it wasn't. Apparently my M6700 wants to perform only on Intel HD graphics from the CPU (3940XM). I tried flashing different vbios, updated the Dell bios to the latest one (A15), and tried modding NV drivers - no luck so far. Installing drivers (DSE turned off obviously) sometimes gives a post "no compatible hardware was found" and at other times with different mods and versions I get a message that it was all recognized, yet the driver "migh have been corrupted or smth"... I still believe that it is possible to make it work if it's only a software issue. Question is - how deep do you have to get into modding to make it work? Is the GTX 880m even worth the effort? Maybe I should search for a way to mess with M6700 BIOS? You might wonder why I want it - the answer is simple - I don't want a Quadro card here as I see a potential for some gaming on the workstation which has excellent build quality and great computing power. That's when I come to you asking for help - I've seen people upgrading their laptops with the impossible, so I believe there's still hope. Other useful info: I have a spare Quadro K5100 to try out, but from what I've read, there might be issues with that one as well... edit If anyone reads the thread - I was succesful with the upgrade - everything installed and working. I wish it was more stable, but still it runs great. If you need any tips, just PM me

Hi @J95! I am reading through some of your posts trying to figure out how to get my modded laptop on. I came across this topic where @DynamiteZerg had success with a GTX980 in a Dell M6800. My situation is similar as I have a M6700 with a GTX 880m but so far no luck with installing the drivers. I am wondering what might be the problem - the OS, the card itself or the platform? Windows 10 x64 shows it as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, but in GPU-z I can actually see the correct name. Would the above mentioned method work for me as well? If that is so, can you reupload the files (getting error messages)?