Dell Precision M3800 - Graphics Issues

Hi Guys,

I bought a refurbished Dell Precision M3800 a week ago from a Dell re seller on eBay and I've been having some really annoying problems with the descrete gpu. I thought I'd post a question on this forum before calling a technician to see if anyone has had similar issues.

When I first got the laptop, I assumed that the drivers needed to be installed manually. I've installed the Intel and Nvidia Quadro drivers from the Nvidia site, from the product page on Dell as well as let Windows Update download and install them automatically. The symptoms haven't differed across driver versions.

Symptoms:

- Sometimes upon boot, the screen stays black for a very long time before flashing the default lockscreen wallpaper briefly and then showing the one I set. Sometimes the screens would flash black a few more times after logging in.

- After booting 3D applications such as 3DS MAX or basic 3D video games set to run on the Nvidia card will return error messages and not run.

- Opening Nvidia control panel on some driver versions returns an error message about the display not being connected to a nvidia card

- The Nvidia card will not be visible in Device Manager

In order to fix these problems I have to shutdown or reboot several times and the symptoms will return not long after. If I put the computer to sleep the same black screen symptom will occur.

Any ideas? Is the likely to be a driver issue or a hardware issue?
I reinstalled the operating system from the WIN 8.1 OEM Disc that the laptop came with, but the issues haven't changed.

Thanks for the help!

 

I would venture a guess that it's bad hardware.


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Bummer.. Might as well call up Dell then.
Off topic, but If you don't mind me asking, I notice you've got a QHD display as well.
Running most games at a lower resolution letterboxes them and some apps render tiny ui.
Do you know of a scaling fix?

Thanks for your help

 

I haven't been gaming much, but I feel like I remember reading somewhere in the giant owner's thread something about a newer graphics driver fixing that (or enabling an option that allows it). It's late and I've had a few whiskeys, so take that with a grain of salt, but see if there's a newer driver available.

 

Hi Pebblefarmer. I'm looking to purchase a refurbished M3800 from eBay. Just wondered if you remember the seller you bought from? There's two big resellers based in the US who I may be buying from and I'd like to check if I'm buying from the same place as you.

Thanks

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