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Just got my M70!!!

post #1 of 20
7/27/05 at 11:54pm
Thread Starter 
I Just received my M70! It was supposed to get here tomorrow but UPS tried to deliver it today and i wasn't home, so i had to pick it up after work, could not wait till tomorrow

the computer is awesome, very solid, first thing that i noticed was the non-glossy screen and the other thing that i noticed, but on my 9300, is how big it is compared to the M70. Now more than ever i want to keep both since they seem so different, keeping the M70 for more work oriented and the 9300 for games, although i don't play games, but i got a copy of HL2 and i like it so far.

Sound on the 9300 seems way better.

I have not installed Maya yet, so not sure how it runs but i have some questions to people that have the M70 or whoever can answer.

- Is it necessary to do a clean install like i did with the 9300? does it come with the hidden partition (dell stuff)?

- If i decide to do a clean install, the cd "drivers and utilities" that comes with it, contains all the drivers necessary and is it just a matter of inserting it and let it run?

i guess that's about it for now, still drooling, can't wait to take it to my workplace

3dcomp
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post #2 of 20
7/28/05 at 12:17am
I would recommend doing a clean install. All Dell systems come with all that extra software and stuff, and I would always do a clean install.

If you got a separate CD that says drivers and utilities, then, yeah, it will contain everything you need, unless you added something aftermarket. Just pop it in, and if it doesn't autorun, start installing all the drivers.
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post #3 of 20
7/28/05 at 12:25am
Thread Starter 
Another thing that i thought was weird. You know when you have a key drive for example, when you insert it in the USB, you have that icon on the start menu that you can click and it says "Safely remove Harware" so you can remove it? Well, i have that icon but it is for the CD/DVD drive...why is that? That does not show on my 9300...it stays there all the time.

3dcomp
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post #4 of 20
7/28/05 at 5:44am
ON the m70 I you can remove the CD/Dvd Drive Im assuming you can use the bay to insert an extra battery bay designed for the slot or some such, that is why you see this on the m70 and you dont on the 9300 as the 9300's drive is not designed to be swapped out for any other modular acessories for the drive bay.
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post #5 of 20
7/28/05 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cutters
ON the m70 I you can remove the CD/Dvd Drive Im assuming you can use the bay to insert an extra battery bay designed for the slot or some such, that is why you see this on the m70 and you dont on the 9300 as the 9300's drive is not designed to be swapped out for any other modular acessories for the drive bay.
I spoke yesterday to a Dell person, enquiring about getting an external floppy drive. He said the external floppy also fits into the CD bay (in the CD drive's place ), as also does the plastic travel module that just saves the weight of both, for the lightest config.
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post #6 of 20
7/28/05 at 9:19am
Thread Starter 
Thanks guys. I will be doing a clean install today.

3dcomp
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post #7 of 20
7/28/05 at 1:01pm
Don't bother with the drivers/software on the CD; download the latest drivers/software versions/BIOS versions from the Dell support pages for the M70, and you'll be good to go (burn a RW disc with the updated files before formatting the M70).
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post #8 of 20
7/29/05 at 1:41am
I haven't personally found Dell's pre-installed software to be very bothersome on the M70. I know it's a nightmare on the 9300, but I think the business-oriented nature of the M70 kept them from going to crazy with the Dellware. I can tell you for sure that Maya runs flawlessly on the system. It's really rather impressive, as it is more or less just as fast (if not faster) than my desktop. Of course, it handles gaming nicely as well. Anyway, congrats on the new lappy .
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post #9 of 20
7/29/05 at 4:11pm
I have done some freelancing at some nice places here in the city and worked on new Boxx workstations and had certain scenes run better on my laptop than the Boxxs. Shaaweet

This was XSI btw not Maya, but the m70 was the same.



If only I could get his intel 2915 to work,

Tellerve
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post #10 of 20
7/29/05 at 7:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellerve
I have done some freelancing at some nice places here in the city and worked on new Boxx workstations and had certain scenes run better on my laptop than the Boxxs. Shaaweet

This was XSI btw not Maya, but the m70 was the same.



If only I could get his intel 2915 to work,

Tellerve
Make sure you have the latest drivers.
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post #11 of 20
7/29/05 at 9:34pm
A NOTE ON DRIVER UPGRADES TO ALL:

Make sure you do some detailed research before upgrading your drivers for anything folks, will the driver do what you are hoping it will do? Or is it just an upgrade to recognize a new processor or other item? Sometimes the best thing to do with something that isnt broke.........is not fixing it. Just make sure its going to do what you are hoping it will do, otherwise think twice.
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post #12 of 20
7/29/05 at 11:57pm
Quote:
Sometimes the best thing to do with something that isnt broke.........is not fixing it.....make sure its going to do what you are hoping it will do, otherwise think twice.
That's right folks...stick with that 486 you have...everything else is a technological conspiracy...Cutters - do you stand on tall buildings bearing a sign that says "take me to a better world in a far away galaxy" ?
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post #13 of 20
7/30/05 at 5:02am
The latest intel drivers still aren't great (I think its 9.0.2.1 now). Same old signal degradation problem. You'd think that with all the technology at intel, they might be able to release a set of drivers some time in the near future that even came close to fixing a fundamental flaw in one of their most common products. Download the newest drivers, but don't expect a world of difference. They're definitely better, but not nearly acceptable. On a side note, absolutely update to the latest WHQL drivers for the Quadro, as there is a significant performance increase. You can get them from Dell or from somewhere like guru3d.com.

P.S. What's with the new NBF look? Is this just me or has the whole theme changed? I like the old dark blue/dark grey theme better. Any thoughts?
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post #14 of 20
7/30/05 at 7:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cutters
ON the m70 I you can remove the CD/Dvd Drive Im assuming you can use the bay to insert an extra battery bay designed for the slot or some such, that is why you see this on the m70 and you dont on the 9300 as the 9300's drive is not designed to be swapped out for any other modular acessories for the drive bay.
Yeah thats because of the modular bay. The 9300 does not have a modular bay, which means you can't remove it while its on. With the M70 (and my 8600) you can remove the drive while the laptops on. You don't really need to stop it though. I just pop mine out. I use my modular bay for a modular battery. It rocks!
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post #15 of 20
7/30/05 at 8:07am
Thread Starter 
Thnaks for all the info guys

3dcomp
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post #16 of 20
7/30/05 at 8:55am
Enjoy your new toy!
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post #17 of 20
7/30/05 at 9:09am
Thread Starter 
That's cool, i just popped the cd driver out, like you described, really simple.

thanks

3dcomp
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post #18 of 20
7/30/05 at 10:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cutters
A NOTE ON DRIVER UPGRADES TO ALL:

Make sure you do some detailed research before upgrading your drivers for anything folks, will the driver do what you are hoping it will do? Or is it just an upgrade to recognize a new processor or other item? Sometimes the best thing to do with something that isnt broke.........is not fixing it. Just make sure its going to do what you are hoping it will do, otherwise think twice.
The rec re the drivers was specifically about the 2915 drivers. The new ones are much much better than the old. A swag of things are fixed.
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post #19 of 20
7/30/05 at 6:57pm
That may be, but the main function of the card, connecting at 54mbps just doesn't work still. I agree that with this 'popular' of a card in the systems you'd think these problems would have been squashed.

Tellerve
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post #20 of 20
7/30/05 at 7:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3dcomp
That's cool, i just popped the cd driver out, like you described, really simple.

thanks

3dcomp
It is, and its good that it is that simple when you have a mod. battery. If I need to use a CD, I just pop out the battery, use the CD, then put the battery back in!
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