Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Hello guys,
I just received my M3800 and I might have done a big mistake.
I also ordered a Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250 Go mSATA so I wanted to install it right away.
However, as I don't have the right screw drivers, I went to a nearby computer repair store to do it with a pro (and his tools).
This ended up badly as 2 of the screws are now stripped.

I must say that the screw themselves are like butter! seriously dell, with such a high end device...

Anyway, I didn't even remove the cover so I don't have my msata ssd mounted, and I don't know what to do since I don't want to make it worse.

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

WARNING: MIGHT MAKE THINGS WORSE
I've been able to remove stripped screws before by taking a drill and the smallest drill bit that I can find, and then drilling down into the screw. This will mess it up pretty good but once you drill down a bit you should be able to find a screw head that will allow the screw to come out. You'll likely need to have a variety available to find one that works, last time I got it out with a tiny square bit.

(Actually had to do this with my M6700 when I first got it, the screw that holds in the drive-eject slider was very tight and I stripped it when trying to get it out the first time.)

 

If you're in the US, just go to your local Sears (or other hardware store), where you can buy specific stripped-screw removers. They look a little bit like specialized drill bits, and one of these should get the job done no problem.

 

This. I stripped a screw on a hard drive caddy once that prevented me from removing it. I took it to a hardware store and they drilled into the screw with a tiny drill bit. I wouldn't have been comfortable doing that myself, but if you find someone with experience, a steady hand (or a fixed-mounted drill), and a sufficiently small drill bit, you should be fine. A left-handed drill bit would be best of all if you can find one small enough, because with one of those when you drill into the screw, the bit will naturally start turning the screw counterclockwise to remove it.

And that pro shop managed to strip the screws even using the right screwdriver? I find that hard to believe even with soft screws. I'm guessing they used a size or two lower than the actual head size, which is a very common cause of stripped heads.

And when you sort that out, go buy this: http://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/54-Bit-Driver-Kit/IF145-022. It has basically every bit you'll ever need for working on electronics (including the rare ones like pentalobe and Torx Security) because the bit selection was determined based on the fasteners that iFixIt had encountered over their years of doing teardowns.

 

Hi,

Well, I am not skilled or equipped enough to try that ^^

I am in France, but we have something equivalent. I may try that.

Well this is exactly why I went to a pro shop! And the guy had a kit just like that one so I was really confident that this would be a piece of cake

Maybe it's just bad luck..

 

These things work well. Just put the remover into one of those screw-driver handles that accept hex-shank bits and remove the screws manually. As long as you don't use a machine this should be safe.

 

Cautionary tale alert!!!

We have this happen fairly often. People will not have the right torx bit, so they will try to use a small slotted screwdriver to remove the screw. The screws are in tight and have blue loctite on the threads, so the slotted jeweler's driver won't work. Beyond not working, the slotted driver strips 1/6th of the of the screws lobes each time it fails because the driver is only contacting 2 lobes. Also, slotted or phillips driver is designed to cam-out of a screw, so you wear down the lobes from the top down to the center with each failure. You need most of those lobes to be there the first time you remove the screws on a system.

The other thing I have seen is a cheap torx bit or driver being stripped by the SCREW in a notebook. Once the star pattern on a cheap torx bit wears down, it will wobble in a torx screw and start to damage the lobes.

The bottom line is that you should use high quality torx bits and make sure that they are in good condition. The very first time you remove the bottom panel on the M3800, you will need extra torque to break the thread locking compound.

 

Received my 3800 recently. Very pleased. No odd sounds or coil whines...yet. Wondering if someone could kindly provide me with a freeware program link that monitors core temps for CPU and GPU (CPU in particular). For some reason I couldnt get core temp to work...maybe i have a bad link? Much appreciated and thanks in advance.

Cheers,

 

SpeedFan does this.

 

Direct link to 64bit version of Core Temp:
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/php/download.php?id=3

For GPU you could use GPU-Z:
http://us2-dl.techpowerup.com//SysInfo/GPU-Z/GPU-Z.0.7.7.exe