Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Fyi if you can hold off, Samsung just announced that various sizes of the 840 Evo are coming to mSATA form, which may perform a bit better than the Plextor, though perhaps not enough to worry about. And I don't know what UK availability or pricing will look like. Good luck!

 

Thank you!

 

It's certainly doable via a rep with medium business or via premier -- while I wanted the two drives for my personal one, the trial one my employer is ordering for our internal new laptops dog-and-pony show is 256gb msata only with the big battery.

No idea if a small-business rep can put that order in, although at least one person up-thread indicated that they were able to do some customization via small business rep.

 

A little off topic, but does anyone know if Dell can transfer you to a U.S. based rep if you request, OR if anyone has a number for US based customer support? I received the wrong laptop, As my previous rants indicate, And i have sent back the XPS they sent me. But when i check my status of the "dell service request" it just shows that it was "under investigation" and now is showing "other". I have not received an email from the rep i got on the phone, and have not gotten any type of new order number or anything. SO.. Im out 2500$ and sent back the XPS.. with no idea where my M3800 is, or IF its being shipped or built or ANYTHING. Any one that has had similar experience, or info or ideas Please let me know. I'm actually worried that Dell is seriously going to ROB me of my money at this point with their lack of any type of service, info or updates....

 

I have to agree on the matter of the keyboard font. When you turn up to a business meeting, you don't want to be showing up with what looks like a gaming machine - it comes across as unprofessional. I've always regarded XPSs as gaming machines and precisions as business machines - the problem is that it looks like they took an XPS, changed the GPU, and rebranded it a precision, and I feel the font really makes it look like a gaming machine (fortunately it doesn't glow green or anything like that!). It's not a dealbreaker - much more annoying is the change in keyboard layout compared to other precision machines - but it does count against it in my book.

 

If you purchased your machine with a credit card you should have some kind of buyer protection. Call up your credit card company and ask them what they can do for you. You should have proof (tracking/receipts) of you sending back the machine as well as proof of when it arrived. Keep us posted on your situation as it's not the first time this happened.

 

Well, I purchased it with a Debit Card that was taken out of my checking... Stupid, should have bought with a credit card. I do have tracking info for when I sent the machine back, and so I will see when it arrives. But I have no info on when the correct system will be assembled, sent etc. So, I would call but they are not open on the weekends (so crazy. The more I see how POOR Dells Service is the more mind boggling it is). So I'll have to wait Till Monday to even know what is going on. I mean, I know people don't want to hear someone complain, but this is the last time i ever buy a Dell product again. What a Shame. Hoping someon has maybe a US number or some sort of like.. escalation team or SOMTHING. It's not like I bought a Ipad.... Its 3,000 dollars for gods sake.

 

I felt compelled to join and help out. I had the exact same problem right up to not having a T5 torx bit lol. The problem is a bios setting. It shipped with Windows 7 and the bios is set up for 'secure boot' which is for Windows 8.Check out page 39 of the manual

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...on-m3800-workstation_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf.

If you go into the bios you'll notice there are no boot options but you can access the drive and see all the files, that's what told me it wasn't the cable or the motherboard. So turn secure boot off and it should boot right up after you save the setting.

I agree with all that say Dell's customer service is a joke. They had me open it up and test the drive. They should have linked me to that manual as I had no idea where all the screws were and could have broken it. Then later, after running all the tests I got back on and another tech tried to help and sent a call out a service guy with a new motherboard. Thinking this was the problem, I was quite pissed that they'd need to tear my new computer open before I even got to use it and who knows what problems it would have later down the road. Thankfully I figured this out before the guy arrived. I tried to cancel the dispatch the next day and the tech assured me it was cancelled and a day later I get a call from the service guy saying he's 20 minutes out lol. So I imagine it cost them a few hundred bucks to overnight a board and pay the service guy. Ooops!

Service and QC aside, I'm extremely pleased with this machine. It runs all my programs flawlessly, has a great feel to it, and is gorgeous. It's the base model, 8gb ram, hd display, 500gb hard drive.

 

Debit cards support chargebacks more or less the same as credit. Obviously it's better to work it out with the seller, but you can certainly contact the bank and file a chargeback.

 

I've had some luck with their Unresolved Issues form:
https://support.dell.com/support/to...es?c=us&l=en&s=gen&redirect=1&DoNotRedirect=y