Precission M6600 w/ NVidia Quadro 3000M -- screen repaint problems

Could you repost your screenshots?  I can't see them.  I'm curious what it looks like as I am having intermittent problems on our M6600 with Quadro 3000M.  I have four laptops with identical configurations that seem to have a similar problem.  The problem I see occurs after the system has been up for a while (a day to a week) and will start having problems running OpenGL applications.  When I run an OpenGL application, the screen will have pixels that flicker different colors and the application has all sorts of artifacts.

One major difference from your configuration is that we are running Linux.  I have tried a bunch of different NVIDIA driver versions with no success.

We still have this problem.  After my research, I'm pretty sure it is an NVIDIA driver problem.  I'm hoping that an update will be issued soon to address this problem.  In the meantime, I have been monitoring these threads.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=174759

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=177732

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=181666

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=174848

Did you ever resolve this issue?  We are seeing the same thing with 3 M6600's fresh out of the box with Ubuntu 12.04 installed.  I've even seen the artifacts persist across a reboot on the opening Dell logo screen.

Try using OmegaDrivers.net they take the base drivers and cut out all of the crap. They're smaller and have given me better performance in the past.

hi, unfortunately, I have not resolved the issue.  Dell themselves spent about 4 months on this issue, replacing the motherboard, the video board, replacing the laptop, and finally escalating to the highest levels of technical support folks, confirming the issue residing w/ the NVidia video card.  In the end, they 'fixed' my issue by building me a replacement laptop w/ the AMD FirePro card.  Happy ever since, with no issue.    Due to the fact that I'm only doing software development and I'm not into gaming or heavy graphics, this solution (the entry level video card) suits me just fine.

i am having the exact same issue and unfortunately am very dependant on the graphics of my precision 6600.   does anyone know if there has been a fix for this since the last posting?

unfortunately, this is a confirmed problem w/ that specific card, on that specific laptop.  I have literally spent months with their senior tech support, going back and forth, to no avail.  The only workaround was to get the other type of non-Vidia  -- the AMD Firepro.  In my case it suits me fine as I am not doing any graphics intensive work... I'm a database consultant.  :-) 

This is an now but I believe that I discovered the solution so I thought I would share.  We are still looking to confirm this with Dell.  I purchase dozens of Precision M6600’s, and only a few have the ghosting/artifact issue.  We believe that the LCD display is the bad part, but only in combination with Ubuntu, Nvidia card and Nvidia drivers.

I found the following list of display Dell internal part numbers that were available on the Dell M6600 at various times in its lifecycle:

   4259G --- LCD,17.3FHD,RGBLE,LVDS,AG,Z,LG --- LCD, 17.3FHD, RGBLE, LVDS, LG

   983RG --- LCD,17.3HDF+,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,LG --- LCD, 17.3HDF+, WLED, LVDS, LG

   H8D3K --- LCD,17.3FHD,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,AUO --- LCD, 17.3FHD, WLED, LVDS, AUO, Full HD (1920x1080)

   HC9GK --- LCD,17.3FHD,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,CMO --- LCD, 17.3FHD, WLED, LVDS, CMO, Full HD (1920x1080)

   K57WM --- ASSY,LCD,TSN,17.3,FHD,M6600 --- LCD Touchscreen assembly, includes LCD panel and Digitizer

   M99C0 --- LCD,17.3HDF+,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,AU --- LCD, 17.3HDF+, WLED, LVDS, AUO

   MGNC7 --- LCD,17.3FHD,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,LGD --- LCD, 17.3FHD, WLED, LVDS, LGD

   VCV1F --- LCD,17.3FHD,WLED,LVDS,AG,Z,LG --- LCD, 17.3FHD, LED, LVDS, LG, Full HD (1920x1080)

One of the systems we have this issue with, based on doing an asset tag lookup on Dell’s support site, uses the 4259G screen.  It has an Nvidia Quadro 4000M, not a 3000M.  We thought that the problem was with the 3000M specifically until we discovered the 4000M machine just this week when we installed Ubuntu on it.

The bad Nvidia 4000M system with LCD part number 4259G was ordered with the following part number:

FHDRGB               [312-1305][320-2919]

I checked several of the other M6600’s that also have Nvidia Quadro 4000M’s, and according to their asset tags, they all have VCV1F’s.  I looked up the original order for those laptops, and the part number that showed up on those orders for the LCD was:

FULLHD                [318-0364][320-1925]

When I checked the 3 M6600’s that I originally had the problem with that prompted me posting on this forum, all 3 of them were ordered with FHDRGB [312-1305][320-2919].  

So the problem with the ghosting/screen artifact on the Precision M6600 is most likely a combination of Ubuntu with Nvidia driver, any Nvidia Quadro card (3000M and 4000M) and the FHDRGB/4259G LCD screen.  

Can any of you following this thread check your systems and see if they match this screen?  You can use your service tag on the support site to check the parts that your Dell was built with.  

We just sent this info to Dell and are hoping they will try swapping our LCD panel to test the solution.  I'll update this forum if it works.

I am also having problems with multiple M6600 Dells - my issues are with the

AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro Graphics with 2

GB GDDR5

The problems are the screen will split down the center putting the icon tray in the bottom center and the desktop icons in the center on the right.  Sometimes the screen just goes blank requiring a hard reboot.

The latest drivers are installed - acquired from Dells website.

OS is Windows XP SP2 - we are running XP because the training software only works with XP.

When Diagnostics is run sometimes it detects a video memory issue (error code 2000-0332 - Validation 13030) - other times no issues are detected.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have not had any problems with AMD FirePro M8900 Mobility.  All my problems were with the NVidia cards.  It is true that they've shipped me a new laptop w/ the AMD card so I cannot tell if it was the LCD or not, although all my problems seem to have been w/ the Nvidia cards.  Have been running fine ever since but spent some 3 months troubleshooting the issue.