Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

No need to format in advance -- and actually I'd let the Windows 8 installer or live environment do the formatting so it gets set up with the latest version of the NTFS spec.

I recently sent a friend of mine a Rebuild Document to guide him through setting up Windows 8.1 on a Latitude E7440 since it was his first time with Windows 8.1 and he hadn't done a clean install in a while, during which time lots of new technology had been introduced. I just modified that a bit for the M3800 with SSDs and a QHD panel and attached it here. It also includes some of my own preferences and recommendations. Enjoy! View attachment Rebuild Instructions - M3800.pdf

 

Well Im sorry I was not able to post the letter I have ..due to Dell knowing who I am. But I will say this.....this 4th M3800 looks like its a winner FINALLY. No issues. No coil whine. No glitches. No screen defects and a lot of Dell extras thrown in such as 2 additional years of pro support and a 90 day warranty rather than 30 day warranty and revised price. So initially all looks fine and I am satisfied. I only hope and wish everyone else is happy with their machines as well because we all work hard for our money and when you pay full price u deserve a trouble free item. On the down side, this has been a 7 month ordeal.... which just goes to show, just how hard and time consuming trying to buy a computer can be these days and truth be told, probably lost more $$$ with time wasted than the overall worth of the machine. In the end wasted far more time and effort than one should ever have to, mais, cest la vie.

cheers,

 

As someone having a lot of issues with his M3800 as well, I'm happy for you!

How did you get them to replace your M3800 so many times? They swapped my first one with a new one, but said I'd have to send my current one into a repair depot if I wanted it fixed (which I intend to do soon).

 

Wow, my support seemed unwilling to replace after they replaced it once. Now he is offering me possibly trying out an Alienware... but the M3800 is very good in my opinion that I would prefer to stay with it.

Regarding the coil whine issue tho, a fix I did find that is working for me right now is if I use a power setting on Windows 8.1 that isn't "Balanced," I do not hear the coil whine unless I am scrolling. Even when scrolling tho, this sound is very minimal. I wish I could just get a system without any of these headaches tho..

 

Remove both drive
in bios sata mode put : ACHI
plug your wind 8 keys and boot on it , if it doesn't do this from start , press F12 on start and go on boot option , select USB key and tape enter ....it will reboot on it ...fallow the steps ...you will have the option to format /create partition but il like to do it later ....

Drivers instal :

01.1 : Chipset Driver
01.2 : Intel Management
01.3 : Realtek PCIe Card Reader
01.4 : Motion sensor Driver
02.1 : Intel GPU
02.2 : NVIDIA
03 : AUDIO
04.1 :Bluetooth
04.2 : WIFI Intel
04.3 :Airplane Mode
04.4 :Nearfield Proxy (don't forget that one)

In no specific order then :

Intel rapid storage
Thermical efficency (crucial)
Touchpad

APP : "Dell Quick set .." to be able to put yourself (the screen) in a regular profil , not magnify (colors are just crazy from stock)

 

everytime i close my laptop for the night , when i wake up , its defenitly stopped (no hibernation or some) , it boot froms scratch with an error prompt sometime ....

Did i missed some , i desabled hibernate and select the action when i close it ....

Thks

 

Same thing happens on my W7 installation. Pretty much everyday (sometimes multiple times per day), actually.

 

The Precision M3800 doesn't have an NFC card, so the Nearfield Proximity driver isn't needed. Only the XPS 15 has that. I assume it's because NFC isn't supported on Windows 7 and the M3800 defaults to shipping with Windows 7. But at the moment it's not very useful anyway because there aren't any standards for exchanging meaningful data between smartphones and PCs (or even phones with different operating systems), so I think all you can do now is send browser links back and forth. Not even images can be exchanged, never mind arbitrary files.

 

Check the System log in Event Viewer to see if there are any relevant entries after the time you last used the system for the night or when you started it back up. Ordinarily I would guess Intel Rapid Start, but if you did a clean installation and didn't enable it (and when your OS is on an SSD, you shouldn't enable it), then that's not the answer.

 

Good idea ...i will