Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I hope you can help me, I am quite lost! I think I have narrowed down the problem with my m3800. It has 2 SSD disks, C and D. The D drive keeps "disappearing". With a reboot it is back. It disappears about once or twice a day. I think this is the source of the BSOD's and some other minor problems.

How do I fix this? I don't even have a clue how to track down the problem, I have never seen a disk drive keep disappearing and reappearing like this. I am not using RAID, I have used the change location to move Documents and Pictures folders to the D drive.

Any help you can give will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

A few pages ago I posted instructions on how to create an external manifest that will force windows to scale a pseudo-hidpi aware program like Illustrator. It should work with older versions, give it a shot.

 

It sounds like a loose connector or possibly even a short in the motherboard. If you feel up to it you can take the back off with a torx driver and check this, or contact ProSupport.

 

Given how long Adobe has taken to even START providing HiDPI support on the Windows versions of their apps, I wouldn't hold your breath for updates to older versions, unfortunately. They'll just consider this an incentive for people to buy upgrades.

A spontaneous disconnection of an internal disk can definitely cause a BSoD, especially if it's storing important files being accessed by the system (like your user profile folder). I agree with the above suggestion to disconnect and re-seat the problematic SSD, and then also check the ribbon cable that attaches the SATA connector to the motherboard itself. Also, if the SSD in question was purchased at retail (as opposed to included with the system from Dell), you might also check for a firmware update for it.

 

As far as I know, you'll have to be using Illustrator CC, I doubt they'll port major features back to older versions. You'll probably have to move along with the software in order to get the new enhancements, so you'll have to either deal with it as it is, or shell out for the upgrade. (I don't have an older version to test with, though, maybe they'll fix it; however, I'm pretty sure when the same thing happened on the Mac side, only the latest version [CS6 at the time] got the update.)

At least if you join their subscription model, you'll always have the latest version so you won't have to worry about this again. (Whether or not it is cost-effective for you is a whole different story.)

 

Many thanks jphughan.

Is there a difference in the quality of SSD supplied between the XPS 15 and M3800?

For example would the M3800 SSD be “enterprise” quality whereas the XPS 15 SSD be “consumer” quality?

 

Thanks, and thanks to Craig for the reply. The SSD came from Dell in the original purchase in December. I'll check that stuff out!

 

Yes, 512GB SSD on XPS15 is a Samsung SM841 instead 256GB SSD on M3800 is a Lite On model, performances are better on Samsung model.
You can find even tests made with CrystalMark on this thread.

 

I just had my first client meeting with the M3800 and the touchscreen is wonderful for gracefully flipping through images, slides and scrolling.

 

That doesn't directly answer the original question, which was whether there's a difference between SSDs (presumably the same capacity SSD) purchased with the XPS 15 and the M3800. And the answer is no, there isn't. Yes, you will get different model SSDs depending on what CAPACITY you select, but that's true on both models, and the XPS 15 and M3800 use the same set of SSD models for their various capacity options. For 512GB it seems to be just the Samsung SM841 at the moment, whereas the 256GB started out as a Lite-On M4M, but apparently some other vendor has been added into the mix. I can't remember which vendor, and it's not clear whether that new option replaces the M4M or is just another model Dell added to eliminate supply chain dependencies; if it's the latter, then which one you get would just be luck of the draw.

Yes, the Samsung is a bit faster than the Lite-On, but I doubt you'd notice much if any difference during real-world usage.