EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Computers => Topic started by: Sredni on November 28, 2023, 03:01:00 am
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I bought a used Dell Precision M6800 [testing thread here (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/i-bought-a-used-dell-m6800-what-tests-to-run/)] from a... peculiar seller (brick and mortar store, no refund for change of mind) that so far has shown to have a different vocabulary from the rest of the people I know. [see footnote]
In particular the 240W power supply came as a 180W power supply, which might as well be original (stays cool, seems reasonable good quality) but I have to swap it with the real 240W one. So, I am asking, since my gut feeling tell me this 'peculiar' guy will try to give an 'alternatively original' product, what should I be looking for to assess that the product is genuine? Or, what are the tale-telling signs of a fake one?
It would help if someone had an M6800 with the real thing, so that I could see the label, the stickers and the hologram if present (the one 180W one has an hologram that says "original", is this what Dell does?). The weight can be a sign?
I am looking for other signs that could be spotted in the store and then later at home (can I scope the output to try see some sign of the switching frequency? Sniff the position of inside components with some field probe?)
[note]
This laptop was guaranteed to have a back-lit keyboard (https://youtu.be/uup22rXmQRE), and came with stickers on the international keys
Should have had a new battery, it was the original 2015 battery (https://youtu.be/OLUVs0pYf4I) with 60% capacity; the replacement (https://youtu.be/86japGyQIW8) is allegedly manufactured in 2023 but has 40% capacity left
Should have had two new SSD but one of them has 12 thousand hours (https://youtu.be/VCrW1y_WVok) (and the peculiar guy tried to deny they were supposed to be both new, until I showed him his own webpage...)
And then the power supply (https://youtu.be/iFBwK4pLPEU), which is a potential fire starter...
Yes, I know what you are thinking. But this was supposed to be an ex-leasing dealer and a friend of mine bought one and, apart from the nonexistent battery life, his was not such a nightmare.
(Yes, I do look like a sucker - I could be the love child of Mr. Bean - the character, not the actor - and Steve Bannon 15 days short of a shower)
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I guess you bought it used? If so the guy may not want to cheat you but he just find a charger that works and package it that way. A lot of time people lost their charger or broke it. As far as battery I have 2 Dell batteries went bad on me in less than 2 years.
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If you take a look at the list of difformities I have found in this notebook, you would reconsider the "maybe he doesn't want to" part. 😁
He has, how to say... applied a different meaning to words on basically all the characteristics of the product.
Backlit keyboard -> keyboard with opaque labels
240w ps -> 180w ps
New SSD -> 12 thousand hour SSD
New battery --> 2015 battery that dies at 30%
New new battery ->"2023" battery that dies at 60% (which means it even lasts way less than the 2015 battery)
No, I don't think I can rely on his word. Since he insisted all his parts are original Dell parts, I will try to get an original part right there in the shop. If it isn't I will skip the consumer association step and will report him directly to the authority for selling counterfeit parts. I wonder if Dell would care to take out distributors of fake parts, but he's probably too small a fish for them.
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I don't think Dell would care and besides I don't think he is a Dell distributor either.
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The larger Dell laptops talk with their power supplies. There
is a third wire for the communication. A third party ps did
not work with my Dell Precision, the smaller Dell ps of a
colleague did work (from a Latitude or so), but it did cut down
CPU speed to make up for the smaller wattage.
My Precision laptop died in a really hot environment this summer
after maybe 10 years of heavy service. I bought it new from Dell.
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Thank you very much for your kindness, Gerhard.
Yes, there are chips inside the AC adapter, but they can be spoofed. And from what I've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised to receive another fake.
The picture is at least helping in getting something with a slightly higher chance of being genuine.
EDIT: I downloaded and opened it but... is this a Dell adapter???
For example, the battery that has been replaced, looks exactly like a Dell one, seems to be recognized by the Dell power manager as original 97Wh, comes out as 72Wh in hwmonitor, and does not even register as installed by powercfg /batteryreport as launched from an admin cmd window. (I am posting the picture in the test thread).
May I abuse of your kindness a little bit more for a side question (non related to fakes and defects)? I noticed that the dedicate graphics card is seen but does not seem to do nothing (presumably until it's needed, as I would like it to be), but it sucks some 20W by just being idle. See picture (not the highlighted part, the part at the top)
[attachimg=1]
Do you know if this can be reduced by some setting/configuration? (I don't feel like starting yet another thread)
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The ps I got directly from Dell in .de was made by Delta Electronics.
I know of no way to force the graphics dissipation to shrink. In fact,
my laptop died from a "molten" Quadro graphics card, so it seems
to be impossible even as a thermal self defense.
But then I ran Linux on it with Windows only in a virtual machine,
so my driver configuration might be different.
Cheers, Gerhard