Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Did the new WLAN card solve your problem? I'm having internet connectivity issues too. Drops out, doesn't render pages correctly or finish rendering pages, whether using dongle or via internet through usb3 dock. Also wifi gives "connection - no internet" when a public wifi requires you to click a button to accept.

 

Your willing to make alot of assumptions about what Dell will and will not do that I am not. If you work for Dell then maybe your comments should be taken seriously, otherwise your only offering up further speculation on what Dell may or may not do. The fact is neither you nor anyone else on the board knows what Dell will do, and the only recourse one has is to return the machine within 30 days or otherwise "hope" that what your saying does happen within a year, otherwise as other problems have shown ie.XPS 12 image retention issue, after your year is up ...its good luck to you.

Im just being safe than sorry. I do not know what Dell will do or not do. However. one would think if its so widespread and occuring on what is Dell's flagship unit for business customers, they ought to know. Surely, some large corporate clients have raised the subject, Its true there are XPS 13 and 15 forums on the subject but how many complaints exist there ...25? Its 7 pages long. Thats NOT enough for Dell to consider the problem systemic...also note there is NO forum on the M3800..so to assume a fix at Dell's expense for those units would "automatically" lead to a fix on the M3800 is reasonable but not assured since there again, is no evidence that the M3800 is experiencing this issue. We all know that it does..but there is not in my opinion, enough evidence for Dell to warrant a fix for 7 pages of complaints on a board which may amount to something like 50 total complaints when consdering how many units have been sold...thats statistically insignificant and will not lead to the fix that you maybe hoping for. Again, I refer you to Apple's image retention problem that took more than 75,000 people to take part in a class action lawsuit to get Apple to fix its problems, not to mention the image retention problem on the XPS 12 which is also a widespread issue and can only be fixed by recalling all screens made by the previous manufacturer. Later models are now using Samsung I believe.

But anyways, I would rather be safe than sorry. Your right 7 months may exist, but then again 5 already have passed. I'd rather return the machine then to kick myself in a years time if the problem still exists or gets worse and I say to myself I had the chance to return the machine and did not. Dell will surely be telling you the same if your 1 year support expires and you find yourself complaining. They will say to you, "if this was a problem for you why didnt you return it" - what will one say? I assumed Dell would fix it? Never assume because as a wise man once told me, to assume is to make an A** out of U and ME.

There are new machines coming out that are worth looking into, there is the Broadwell chip scheduled to come out this year. If I can wait..why not. Thanks for your response, but "hope and assumptions" of what is now a private firm will do, are not a serious risk management plan for me.

Good luck and I hope sincerely Dell fixes these issues because everyone here paid a full price and deserves to get what they paid for at the very least. I would at least advise to get your complaint "on the record" now, so IF your 1 year warranty has expired without a fix you can at least, when on the phone arguing with customer service, which u will inevitably end up doing, have some documentation that u raised the subject with Dell within your 30 day return period or at least within your 1 year period. Write a letter, address it to the correct person, send it registered mail - be proactive.

Cheers,

 

Hi guys. I wanted to confirm something: Does the M3800 suport RAID in the bios?

I search the thread and it was mentioned early on (before the m3800 started shipping) that it has the chipset but it is not enabled. Bummer since it will probably prevent me from getting it but wanted to make sure.

Thanks
Ernie

 

Well as I told someone else asking about this a while back on the XPS 15 thread, if coil whine is so irritating to you that you'd rather have another system if you know it won't be fixed, then by all means play it safe and return it, then either repurchase it when it gets fixed if that happens, or if you can't wait that long then buy something else. But if on the other hand you're like most people here who find coil whine annoying but still find that there isn't another system on the market they'd rather have, then you have nothing to lose by keeping the system. If a fix is developed, then you can use your warranty to obtain it if you still have coverage. If not, well then you decided to keep the system anyway because there wasn't another one you'd rather have despite the coil whine. If that's not you, then I definitely can't fault your logic on that point.

In terms of whether a fix will happen, the Latitude E6430u cat urine thread was shorter than the XPS 13 one at the moment and that led to a fix. And of course Dell has been receiving complaints about this issue through customer service reps as well, so it's not as if the forums are the only complaints on record; it's just the place that you can go to get updates from Dell. I haven't seen a case of Dell publicly acknowledging an issue in their forums and confirming that it's under investigation and then not coming through with an actual fix -- but you're right, I can't predict the future here. As for the M3800 possibly getting left out in the cold, I can't imagine why that would happen. The motherboards are identical except for the GPU, so it would actually be MORE manufacturing effort (and cost) for Dell to keep two separate motherboards in production, a fixed version for the XPS 15 and a still-broken version for the M3800, than to implement the fix on both parts.

 

No it doesn't. The only RAID-ish mode it has is to support Intel Smart Response, but that's it. I don't really see the point of RAID in this system anyway though. Modern SSDs are plenty fast without RAID 0, and that setup doubles your data risk factor anyway -- plus it also becomes impossible to pull data offline if for example your drive is unbootable and you want to access it on another machine via a SATA to USB adapter. And I feel that modern SSDs are also reliable enough that RAID 1 seems overkill -- and I'm pretty sure that even a single disk from a RAID 1 array can't be accessed via the offline recovery method I just mentioned either.

 

Thanks!

RAID 0 still has its benefits for performance - albeit in specific situations. Would like to have the option at least. Decisions...decisions...

 

A: I bought your laptop. It has problem. I want it fixed. B: Are you going to keep it?
A: What? B: You're keeping the laptop or not?
A: No. I don't accept this kind of problem. I won't keep it. B: OK. Here's your money.
A: What about the problem? B: You're not an owner. It has nothing to do with you.
A: All right. What if I keep the laptop? B: OK. If you keep it, it means you accept the problem. Why are you still complaining?

 

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. Yes, coil whine is irritating for some people, even though it's certainly not unique to these XPS 13/XPS 15/M3800 trifecta. Of course in an ideal world Dell will fix it, and if that happens, then everybody's happy. But in case that doesn't happen, people who find it a deal breaker and are worried that they could end up stuck unable to return the system AND unable to get rid of coil whine should indeed take the option of returning it. I on the other hand have decided that even with its imperfection(s), it's the best overall system for my needs, and thus I will keep this system even with its flaws. There's no such thing as a perfect laptop, or perfect any kind of product, for that matter. I can look at all sorts of things I own and think of "problems" that they have -- and yet I still own them, because guess what, the alternatives I considered had problems of their own. If you've managed to live your life surrounding yourself only with products that are absolutely perfect for you in every way, then consider yourself blessed.

I'm not saying there isn't a purpose or value to complaining about things. Complaints can lead to improvements, and they HAVE led to improvements on Dell products. Of course voting with your wallet by actually returning a system can lead to improvements even more effectively, since obviously a company that produced sufficiently inferior products and then took the position you described in your post wouldn't last very long. But even the people who complain sometimes end up having to accept that their complaints may go unaddressed, and then they have to decide what they want to do about that. People can pontificate all they want that for spending X amount of money they shouldn't have to put up with issues, but whether or not that's true, it's ultimately a meaningless assertion. It's not a perfect world, and even people dropping $300K+ on a Ferrari have to put up with issues that don't get fixed. All you can do is decide what course of action under those circumstances is best for you.

Despite possible indications to the contrary, I'm not the type to just be satisfied with mediocrity. I've simply learned that griping about problems with your current solution when a better solution isn't forthcoming is nothing more than a recipe for being unhappy.

 

Hi could you please provide a link to where Dell made this official statement. Or is this from your correspondence with a Dell representative? Thank you

 

Sam,

I recieved a physical letter...which I will scan and post on the weekend (keeping of course my name and address etc out). This talk of "coil whine" is only speculation and nothing more. NOBODY has shown that this is definitively coil wine. So far the MOST Dell has acknowledged is there is a "noise" ...A "noise" is a very generalized word. A "noise" can lead to catastrophic failure, it could lead to nothing, it could lead to degradation of your hardware over time...a "noise" is a far different classification than a "coil wine". Dell has NEVER acknowledged a coil wine...show me where they have classified this as anything other than a noise. A noise sounds like an inconvenience more than anything....doesnt it? Watch the words carefully...Dell will NOT and HAS NOT acknowledged a coil wine. A coil wine means Dell acknowledges a hardware issue - a defective componet along the line somewhere -..something that is under warranty and that they are obligated to fix under warranty....a noise is not under warranty and does NOT obligate Dell to do anything other than say..we are working on it, until your warranty runs out ...after that...u better hope its just a "trivial noise" and nothing more...but if its not, cest la vie mon amie. Watch carefully how Dell chooses its words. They are not dumb. Get ur rep to write to u that he acknowledges a "coil wine" ..that then brings in the warranty into the picture. He/she wont. What I am trying to say is that given that Dell classifies the problem as a noise thus not under warranty, then the best you can do, is HOPE Dell decides to fix it. If they classify it as a coil wine, then under warranty they will be obligated to fix it and u can EXPECT a fix. Thus far, the only thing owners can do is HOPE until Dell reclassifies the problem.

Again, I like the machine, its terrific, but if it has a flawed component that Dell will not acknowledge, then that speak volumes about the route they are taking towards this problem.