Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Thanks for that fast and complete summary of the topic! I read ur article and it helps quite good to understand why this occurs and how to handle it. The idea of using two screens at home (without the internal QHD) and the QHD on the go is perfect, haven't thought of that so far, thanks! And also setting the built-in on 1600x900 while working with the external as primary should be fine I guess.

So the price difference between the QHD and the FHD is only around 75€ by now (Germany), delivery date is the same for both of them. I guess I'll go for QHD...

:thumbsup: thanks again for helping me!

 

Glad to help and good luck with your system! Just remember that when you switch between using only the external panels and using the internal QHD panel (or switch the resolution on your QHD panel), you'll need to log off and log back on for everything to scale properly for the new display configuration. Until you do that, when you change your display configuration, Windows only adjusts for the new scale factor by doing that weird post-render scaling behavior. However, if you keep per-display scaling enabled, you at least won't have to ALSO go into your display settings and adjust your scale factor manually. When I first got my system, I kept that enabled, moved the slider to where I wanted it for the external panels (Smallest, i.e. 100%), then disconnected those displays, logged off and back on with only the internal QHD panel active, and set the scale factor for what I wanted in that configuration. After I did that, whenever I change between those display configurations, Windows already knows the scale factor I want to use for the new configuration, so I just need to log off and back on.

 

I like option 4 except that I think you have to log out to change the scaling. That is, if I set the screen to 1600x900 I have to shut things down to change the scaling from 150% to 100%. That's a big disruption of workflow if, like me, you move the computer quite a bit during the day. Not so much if this is a first thing in the morning and last thing at night... or even only on occasion.

I miss simply plugging in the display and going as I did with my M4400. I only have one external screen and currently no external keyboards so #3 doesn't work for me (YMMV). Still, I really like this screen every time I use it. I've even started to ignore the gloss finish.

 

Any news on the letter?

 

SSD installed and currently running. Magician software is working. Thanks for all your help!!! M3800 is working like a champ as of now

:hi2::thumbsup:

Does anyone know where I can download Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Not just driver updates)? I deleted it thinking it was causing issues with my SSD.

Is it both of these packages?
AHCI_Intel_W74_X03_A01_Setup-62G68_ZPE.exe
M3800_Serial-ATA_Driver_62G68_WN_12.8.7.1000_A01.EXE
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=62G68


Thanks!

 

Awesome! The full Intel Rapid Storage application isn't all that useful in your case. It's primarily used for managing Intel Smart Response (which you wouldn't use with an SSD-only system) or a RAID array (which you don't have). Otherwise, its only use would be to notify you if your SSD starts throwing SMART errors, which is pretty unlikely. So I just install the driver myself, but fortunately Intel's page lets you choose which one you want. Get the F6 Floppy x64 version if you just want the drivers (install them using Device Manager), or get the SetupRST.exe file if you want the whole thing: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...&DwnldID=23496&keyword=rapid+storage&lang=eng.

 

Any thoughts on two issues I'm having.

1. Windows loses the hybrid drive (I have the 256gb SSD+ hybrid). Currently I've set the hybrid as my "my documents" drive. I've heard some say this could be problematic but I don't know why. Anyway, when I lose the hybrid drive the Intel Rapid Start window pops up and says the sata drive was disconnected. The computer wasn't physically shaken or anything like that so I don't think we are dealing with a hardware disconnect.

2. When waking from sleep I am having frequent locking issues where the computer simply doesn't want to respond for a while. After rebooting (sometimes it recovers, sometimes I don't wait) the computer can be slow to restart. You get the splash screen (the one with the rainbow colors) that typically is just before the log in screen. So I click to get to the log in screen and then the computer says "Please wait" for a while and takes me back to the rainbow screen.

Really I suspect all of this is some sort of harddrive related issue or driver related issue. Either way I suspect the two above issues are related. Any thoughts?

PS: If it maters, every now and then I hear the "emergency HD park" noise. This was a noise I used to hear with my old M4400 HD before it was replaced. Perhaps this is a HD going bad?

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Can't quite account for the resume issue you're seeing, but for the others, make sure the SATA mode in the BIOS is set to AHCI rather than Intel Smart Response, and then at least temporarily as a test, go into your Power Options and disable hard drive sleeping. Of course that will affect your battery life if you leave it that way, but it would be worthwhile just to see if it changes anything.

Imminent hard drive failure is certainly another possibility (brand new hard drives can fail, after all), but it's worth testing other ideas first. Obviously make frequent backups in the meantime, though. But for what it's worth, that intermittent "emergency park" noise is probably not a sign of imminent failure; it's actually very likely the hard drive heads parking because Windows is putting the drive to sleep. I've also had drives make that noise during normal operation when they're not being put to sleep, some of which are still running strong after quite a long time.

Moving your Documents folder or even your entire profile folder (with a registry hack) over to a non-system drive is pretty safe. The reasons they've caused problems in the past are because some applications didn't look for the profile/Documents folder using the Windows variable (which points to the right place) and simply assumed your profile would be in C:\Users or your Documents folder in a subfolder of your profile folder, which would of course be a problem. Applications that are hard-coded to assume you want to install to C:\Program Files even if you've redirected that folder are similarly problematic (but getting increasingly rare). And then of course if you direct your profile folder to a disk that might become unexpectedly unavailable, you can end up with all sorts of system problems even if your system drive still works.

The slight complication to redirecting entire profiles onto other drives comes if you ever wipe your system drive. When you set up your user profiles again after reinstalling Windows, getting it to start using the profile folder that still exists elsewhere can be a bit of a chore. But just redirecting Documents shouldn't be a problem.

 

In the BIOS it appears that the Intel SR control and the AHCI control are separate. The AHCI control was a choice of AHCI or SATA. I picked (well it was already) AHCI. I turned off the Intel SR which was a separate setting. Is smart response really needed when your OS is on a SSD. My limited understanding was it was just used when you had say a hybrid drive or a very small SSD (16GB)+ spinny drive.

Thanks!

 

You're correct in your understanding of Smart Response and when it's used, but at least on the XPS 15, the three options for the SATA mode are Legacy, AHCI, and Smart Response; it's not a separate option. How strange. It doesn't really matter either way though, since SR just allows the SATA controller to be configured a bit differently to support using the mSATA device as a cache -- but since that's not what you're doing, I figured you may as well turn it off in case it was doing something strange and unnecessary.