Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Thanks for correcting me. Its not necessary to order a "fully customized" option to get the more powerful battery.

 

jphughan - thank you for your reply and the information!

Please correct me if I am mistaken. I am considering the M3800 over the XPS 15 because it is possible to remove (and replace) the battery in the M3800; however, the battery in the XPS 15 is integrated. I have replaced the battery in my XPS M1330 once and would like to know that I can, if needed, replace the battery.

Thank you. I will

Thank you for clarifying the difference in the types of SSD and for the caution regarding the solid state hybrid drive.

The new laptop will be my critical system. That said, I will follow your advice and purchase a longer term warranty

 

You are mistaken. As I said, the systems are hardware-identical except for the GPU, so they have the same battery options and the same design in that regard. Both systems require removing the underbody panel using a Torx T5 screwdriver (i.e. the battery is not a separately removable unit), and then you simply disconnect the battery connector and unscrew a few screws. You can see exactly what this looks like by looking at the Service Manual of either system, which contains removal/replacement instructions for all components, including the battery. Service Manuals are available at support.dell.com.

However, fair warning: These batteries would have to be purchased from Dell Spare Parts rather than as accessories in the online store since technically these batteries aren't considered an accessory because they require opening up the system to use. But several people have tried to get these batteries through that channel, and thus far nobody has been successful; they've all been told that they're simply not for sale at this point. I imagine that will change, but for now I would definitely order the battery size you actually want.

The only other difference I can see between the M3800 and XPS 15 that I haven't already specified is that the M3800 exclusively has a spec that includes a 256GB SSD, and the XPS 15 exclusively has a spec that includes a 1TB spinning drive and a 32GB mSATA cache module. Each system would of course support the configuration exclusive to the opposite system, but it seems Dell won't allow them to be ordered that way.

 

I thought I would also chime in since I have the exact same model and specs as you are looking for. As for suggestions and cautions, there were just a few things that I had questions about when I first got the machine, and hopefully this will help you:

1. When the machine goes to sleep, the power button doesn't pulse, it just turns off. This makes a little harder to tell if the machine is actually off or just sleeping, but it is normal behavior. jphughan was helpful in confirming this with me. At first I thought maybe it went into hibernate or that I had Intel Rapid Start putting it into a deep S4 sleep state, but it's just normal sleep.

2. I had problems connecting to my iphone hotspot with the wifi, but never an issue when connecting to a normal wireless network. Turns out it has to do with the power settings for wireless cards. If they are set to anything lower than "max performance", then it just refuses to maintain a connection to the hotspot. I'm not sure if this is a Windows 8.1 thing, but I don't have this issue on another laptop which has Windows 7. This was one tough to figure out, as I looked into drivers amd wifi card settings, all of which didn't change anything. So now I have a profile that sets wifi to max performance in case I need to connect to a hotspot.

3. The QHD+ screen. The first screen I got was marred with issues: a number of dead pixels scattered all over, weird greyish smudges, and a piece of dust. That was enough to get me looking into a screen replacement. The replacement I got wasn't perfect either, but much better with 2 dead pixels. After reading this thread, I figured to be happy with it since there are no guarantees the next one would be better. Obviously it sucks, but it's really not that noticeable in everyday usage, and there are definitely more important things in life anyway

Other than the 3 I mentioned, I've been pretty happy with the machine. One thing to note is that my screen replacement was done in less than 24 hour turnaround time, so I highly recommend getting the extended warranty if you know you will be using it for many years to come. I did the swap myself, so that eliminated the time and scheduling for a technician, but even then the turnaround time is probably not much more assuming the screen is in stock. I actually only opted for 1 year at purchase, so I'll have to think about extending it once my 1 year comes up.

Good luck with your purchase.

 

just to share a quick mod. I kept my m3800 as dell wouldn't take it back and I'm getting used to it. I'm still missing the fingerprint sensor for password management.
The quick mod is using a screen protecter to protect the touchpad from wear and tear. I used a spare screen protector I bought from zagg a while ago (invisibleshield) and cut it to the size of the touchpad. It's working fine and not interfering with the touch functions. I was inspired by this site after a Google search: TectY, PC Laptop Touchpad Protector Skin
Important: Don't use any liquid to apply the screen protector as this will certainly kill you laptop.

 

Okay, I've new got findings concerning the coil whine issue: 2 days ago, I've changed my wallpaper. I'm now hearing the coil whine more frequently, when doing nothing on the screen. On my system, it seems to be related to what colors are on the screen / what the screen is showing. Especially when my screen is filled with green colors, there is a maximum of noise; this may vary on your system. So, I would like you to test the following: search and download about 20 wallpapers and look them through; preferably 16:9 wallpapers, watched in fullscreen mode. And keep your ears next to your M3800. You will notice a change in pitch. I've now changed my wallpaper back to the original one and the coil whine disappeared - atleast when I'm on my desktop. Can you confirm this on your system?

 

jphughan - I stand corrected and thank you *very* much for the information!

Hmmm....I am reconsidering my decision between the XPS 15 and the M3800.....and I am not sure what other information I need to take into consideration

Again, thank you for your time and for the information!!

 

THANK YOU!! I've had random disconnects using my iPhone hotspot on multiple machines that I could only fix with an ipconfig release and renew (which got annoying considering it happened every 10 minutes), so I always blamed iOS. It never would have even occurred to me that that power setting would have made a difference. You've just made my day.

And now a tip in return. If you're not aware, Windows 8.x has an option to set certain WiFi networks as "metered connections". That basically tells Windows that the connection you're using doesn't have unlimited data, and thus when you're connected to a network that has that setting enabled, Windows will avoid doing things like download large Windows Updates in the background (except critical security updates). Hope this helps.

I don't see why you would be reconsidering based on my fair warning note about battery availability that you quoted. The XPS 15 and M3800 use the same batteries, so there wouldn't be any difference in the difficulty in obtaining a replacement regardless of which system you chose. Or if something else is making you reconsider, what is it?

 

Coil whine is related to power draw. When different colors are being displayed, the screen will use differing amounts of power.

As a result, you may find the coil whine disappears or changes in intensity when the system is drawing varying amounts of power (as you noticed).

 

Yeah I realize that, but I'm having trouble finding firmware for my SSD, it's the one that came with the system, the 256GB one. From the Device Manager: "SK hynix SH920 mSATA 256GB"

I can't find the firmware for that ssd, on the dell support page, all I see are Lite ON firmwares. Googeling for the model number with the word firmware just takes me to this: SK hynix place and I can't find anything there.

But whatever the case, I should be able to find it on support.dell.com because it's the stock SSD, I haven't switched it out myself. What's up with that? :/