Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

After reading through this thread and doing a lot of thinking, I think I may be going in a different direction. I really wanted to get a M3800, but it seems to be very hit-or-miss whether you get a unit with little-to-no problems or one with a bunch of issues (both physical and OS-based). I am extremely technical and I don't mind figuring out some things on my own, but some of these issues (such as the now infamous "coil whine") are problems that I just don't think I want to deal with in a machine so expensive. I do realize that no computer is "perfect", but I have had almost zero issues out of my current M6600 running Windows 7 for over 2 years now, and just by reading this thread, I am very skeptical that I will get the same experience from the M3800.

It kind of sucks, but it is what it is I guess. I do hope that current M3800 owners who enjoy their machines continue to do so, and that people who are having issues with their M3800's are able to get them resolved ASAP.

 

Really I suspect that the overall rate of problems is very small. When you are on a forum more often than not you hear from EVERYONE who has a problem and almost no one who doesn't.

 

I can't necessarily argue with that statement. You do make a good point, but there are some times when forum complaints represent a problem that is bigger than we may think. I just can't tell one way or the other with this situation, and I think I'd rather go with a machine that has most of the major kinks already worked out.

 

I would recommend getting something else. If you've read my posts in this thread, you'll know that my experience with the M3800 has been terrible.

That's often true, but the problems that exist with the M3800 are very real. I've had two M3800s, along with a repair service call for the second one, and both of them (even after the repair) have had tons of issues.

I think that's a very wise decision. There are clearly some serious design or QC issues with the M3800. I would do anything to be able to return mine.

 

Yeah, I have decided to move on. I am sorry to hear about your issues with the M3800. I can tell by your posts that you are really exasperated and desperately want to get rid of that CPU. I know the feeling, as my very first laptop (4 years ago) was a Dell Inspiron 15 that was absolutely HORRIBLE. It kept overheating, blue screening and shutting off like crazy. I had 4 service calls in the course of 2-1/2 weeks and they literally replaced everything but the processor, and I was STILL having issues. Then I moved up to a Precision M6600, and other than a bad video card, I have had zero other hardware or software issues out of that machine in 2+ years. From my understanding Dell consumer laptops are generally garbage while their business laptops are very nice, so hearing about these issues with the M3800 is very surprising to me.

 

Hi all,

I'm having some trouble installing the latest Intel Iris 4600 driver on M3800 win7pro...

The latest version (release on 3/11/2014) can be found here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23714

The issue says the driver is not validated for this computer.



Can I not update to the newest version? Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

Well I returned my unit. I should be able to post that letter this evening when i return home from work.

 

First, this system doesn't have Iris. It has the next level down because it also has an NVIDIA GPU. But the reason you're having trouble is that this system's particular Optimus setup seems to require you to use the Dell-customized Intel GPU drivers unless you want to hack a few INF files.

 

Ah! No wonder. Thank you so much for that information. I am clearly a newb to all this.

Looks like I'll be leaving it alone then.

Thanks for your help!

 

Has anyone had any luck installing a 2.5" Samsung SSD in their M3800?

I'm having issues being able to flash the latest firmware onto it using Samsung's magician software...ssd is not recognized. Windows recognizes the drive though...

Thx