Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

One more question, now that I have this up and running. Has anyone gotten a dual boot Windows 7 & 8? Dell said they do not support due to only one license on the machine...

 

Although a Win8.1 key is embedded in the BIOS, I believe that's true that technically this system is only licensed to have one version of Windows installed at a time. That said, if you get an extra license, as long as you install Win8.1 after 7, dual booting would work. There are tons of guides to dual booting online. But I think it would be a huge waste of hard drive space considering all of your applications would need to be installed twice, and I also question what you hope to achieve with that setup....

 

Hi guys, I have been a M3800 owner for a week or so and I have a problem which I was hoping someone might be able to reproduce and possibly help me with. The problem is simply that if I have any kind of bluetooth device connected to the laptop the wifi performance degrades significantly. For example, on my dining table (which is about 10 metres away from the WIFI router and through 2 walls) I get 17-20Mbps download consistently. This is the same as I get on my old latitude E6500. As soon as I connect my bluetooth mouse (Logitech M557) i can only get 0.5-2Mbps down. If I disconnect the bluetooth then its fast again. I tried the same connecting my phone rather than mouse. Same problem.

I have had the Intel 7260 AC chip replaced by Dell technician today because of the slow WIFI performance. At the time I didnt realise this problem was related to the bluetooth connection, I subsequently discovered that for myself. So the problem remains. I have the latest drivers for the chip installed. Running Windows 8.1.

Can anyone reproduce this or have any information that may help me?

 

Don't have any Bluetooth devices to test with, but did you update the drivers for both Wifi and Bluetooth? Even though they reside on the same physical card, the drivers are in separate packages. Otherwise I don't see any Bluetooth coexistence options in the Device Manager Advanced tab for the Wifi adapter, so in the meantime the best I can recommend would be moving your wireless router to another channel (use 1, 6, or 11) or better yet using the 5 GHz band if your router supports it and you're close enough that range isn't an issue.

 

I couldn't agree more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I have the latest drivers for both, version 16.8.0.6 for WIFI and 3.1.1311.400 for Bluetooth. The problem only reveals itself when I am some distance away from the router. When I am in the adjacent room it seems OK but it degrades rapidly as I move away. Another router is not really going to help me because I visit clients a few times a month and I am not in control of their routers or the distance I can get to them. Ideally I just need my wifi and bluetooth to work like it does on my old laptop.

To illustrate the problem I did a bandwidth speed test from my dining table (approx 10m from the router through 2 walls) and it was getting <3Mbps. During the test I switched off the bluetooth mouse and the bandwidth shot up immediately. Seems like this 7260AC chip might have a design fault or just lacks the drivers to make it work well when bluetooth devices are connected. Like I said earlier, the same problem can be seen if you connect you phone to the laptop via bluetooth.

I will probably go back to Dell again about this but it would be great if someone else was able to try this.

Of the following options what seems the most likely culprit?

- Intel 7260 AC wireless card (design fault perhaps)
- Drivers for the card
- Windows 8.1 - maybe this doesn't happen with Win7?
- The M3800 design (antenna and stuff)
- Other

 

I doubt Windows is the culprit here. The others are all certainly possibilities, and I admit I wondered about these combo Wifi+BT cards given that both radios are using the same antennas. But since you're already on current drivers and got a replacement Wifi card, you'll just need to hear from others to determine whether something is wrong with your unit or whether this just happens to be an issue with the current card+driver setup. I think it would be a bit strange for an issue that substantial to exist at this point, but then again there were major Wifi issues for some people with the original 16.5 drivers that this system launched with, so who knows?

Of course if you're less interested in knowing the cause and simply want the problem solved, you could always buy a mouse that uses one of those tiny RF USB receivers. I have a Logitech Performance MX that I really like, and fortunately this machine isn't stingy with its USB ports. Of course that wouldn't solve the problem with your phone, but I presume you don't need your phone constantly paired to your system, correct?

 

Hi everybody,

First thanks to Bokeh for the great review and the support! I got this laptop a few days ago, and being a long-time Lenovo T- and W-series user I'm in love with my new Dell

The laptop came with the smaller 61W battery and a 512GB mSATA SSD. So I believe it qualifies for a 2.5" hard drive expansion! I wonder:

1) How can I make sure that it can indeed accommodate a new 2.5" hard drive? Would the answer become obvious when I unscrew & open the back cover?

2) Does this particular model have any limit to the size of the additional drive I can plug in? I want the largest currently available drive on the market (2TB 7200rpm HDD or 1TB SSD).

3) Would the mounting it be trivial and would opening the back cover void any warranty?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Iliyan

 

1. If you're certain you have the 61 WHr battery, then there's a 99.9% chance you can install a 2.5" drive. The only possible way I can imagine you wouldn't be able to is if Dell chose not to include the caddy and SATA ribbon cable with that system purely because you didn't order a drive from them. But yes, that will be obvious when you open the laptop and look in the corner next to your battery. If you see the battery going all the way across the bottom, you have the 91 WHr battery. If you see a gap with no SATA connector, you're stuck unless you can get that ribbon cable. If you see the SATA connector, you're golden.

2. There's no size limit from a capacity standpoint (though larger than 2TB there are some things to be aware of in terms of GPT vs MBR and such), but be aware that you'll have a PHYSICAL THICKNESS limitation. I believe that this laptop accommodates the standard 9.5 mm thickness drives, but the 2TB laptop drives you're talking about are probably 12 mm or more, so they will NOT fit. It's possible that this system only accepts 7 mm drives, but I'm not sure. Hopefully someone who actually HAS a 2.5" drive in their system will share its model name, in which case you can check its specs to confirm its thickness.

3. Opening the case is trivial once you have the right Torx screwdriver, and it does not void your warranty. If you DAMAGE the system while working on it, of course that wouldn't be covered (unless you have accidental damage protection) and of course non-Dell parts you install won't be covered under warranty, but that's about it. As for installing it, you'll need to source the right size mounting screws since you'll be adding a new drive rather than replacing an existing one. If you buy a hard drive that includes them, great. Otherwise, any local computer store should carry what you need, or you can buy something like this online: http://www.amazon.com/INSPIRON-Lapt...77731&sr=8-11&keywords=2.5"+hard+drive+screws.

 

I've had a lot of performance problems with the 7260 card, despite it reporting connecting at a full 240-300Mbps I get 2.5-3 MB(ytes)/sec; rolling back to the MS-provided 16.0.0.62 driver helped, and I get 14-15Mbytes/sec which is more typical of an 802.11n signal.

I don't use Bluetooth, and can try disabling the BT radio.

Any suggestions for this beyond sticking with the older driver?

I would expect Dell to do exactly that, but as you say it will be obvious.

I posted this up-thread, but the bracket included with my system will definitely work only with a 7mm drive (or thinner, should anyone actually have a 5mm drive). A 9.5mm might clear the case, not sure, but it will not have its screw holes line up properly.

There is no way a 12mm or 15m drive will even clear the case.

If I have another occasion to open my machine, I can post photos of the dual-drive interior and/or the drive bracket.

The bracket and cable from the motherboard to the drive are both entirely non-standard, BTW, so if you don't have one that came from Dell the only hope is Dell-specific spare parts (either from Dell, or from eBay.)