Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I went with ODE, it worked fine

The reason I asked is because when I tried doing this right when I got the machine, I ran into some issues.

First of all. Windows would disable the GPU because in the device manager it said; Windows has disabled this device because the driver reported problems" or something like that. So I had to uninstall the drivers and let windows install whatever one it had available, the previous one. So I tried the Performance driver and went to custom and only chose the drivers, not nView, the 3D stuff, or any of the other things. And it slightly worked, except that every time after exiting a game, the desktop would be unclickable, it was so ing frustrating. The Metro UI worked, but in desktop, I couldn't click anything. I had to log out and back in to get it working again...

Anyway, it works now, thanks for everything!

 

USB Ethernet adaptor is doing 42 MB/s !!! Is this normal?
Using a CAT 5e cable and a synology NAS.
Desktop is doing 90 MB/s with the same cable and same router.
Tested on both USB ports on the left, near the HDMI port.

 

Just for the record, this morning I have received and set up a second M3800 (FHD screen, and Windows 7, of course; 16GB RAM, 256GB mSATA). The machine is just as perfect as my first one. No coil whine, no issues that I can see so far.

 

If you're referring to the adapter that comes with the system and supports PXE, that's a USB 2.0 adapter, so 42 MB/s = 336 Mbps, which seems reasonable given USB 2.0's theoretical max of 480 Mbps before protocol overhead, etc. If you're sure you have a USB 3.0 adapter, obviously make sure you didn't connect it to the system's single USB 2.0 port (right rear). If neither of those explains the behavior you're seeing, I'm not sure what to tell you. My StarTech USB 3.0 to Gigabit adapter can push about 750 Mbps raw (so roughly 660 Mbps on Task Manager) when I run some LAN throughput tests with software for that purpose, which is about what I see on built-in NICs.

As for why Dell included a USB 2.0 adapter, I'm guessing it's because PXE support was the priority (in order to allow enterprises to image these things over the network) and maybe Dell simply doesn't have a USB 3.0 adapter that supports PXE booting yet. Given that this is (I believe) the first enterprise-targeted system in Dell's product lineup that both has USB 3.0 and lacks a built-in NIC, the need for such a product hasn't existed for very long.

 

Which USB Ethernet adapter do you have? Is it USB 2.0 or USB 3.0?
If it's USB 2.0, then I think it's normal. USB 2.0 itself cannot do more than 60 MB/s.

Edit: of course jphughan beat me with his reply.

 

well that explains it. I thought it was a USB 3 adaptor. thanks.

 

Just to bring this up once more I'm pretty happy with the smoothness of the touchpad now feels like a smart phone screen

 

New (QHD+) M3800 user here. I went through most of the 200 some odd pages some time ago, but without having the computer in hand, it's hard to retain information w/o context.

Anyway, I have a few questions:
1) Has anyone successfully installed the Intel Wireless Display Application?
I get a "Your wireless driver cannot find or load necessary components for Intel(R) WiDi"

2) Any resolution to the blank display on resume from sleep? There was a period of time where things were great but now it's back to mostly not working.

Also, Dell updated the driver page today (5/28). Looks like a new BIOS and touchpad (supports touch keep-out for button area) are available, among others. Does anyone have an idea on the BIOS update? The release notes aren't very helpful.

 

WiDi is built into Windows 8.1, so you don't install it, which is why WiDi isn't listed on the Dell Drivers page when you select 8.1. If you're running Win7 or (for some reason) Win8.0, I'm not sure what the deal is. But for 8.1: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...nology/widi-software-setup-win-8-1-video.html.

For the blank display on resume, if you've already disabled Intel Rapid Start, maybe try the latest Intel GPU drivers that were just posted (at least on the XPS 15 page). I installed the A05 BIOS, install went perfectly fine but I haven't noticed any difference one way or the other -- but that's pretty par for the course on most BIOS updates for most users.

 

I'm on Win7. It turns out that WiDi requires some Intel PROSet Wireless utilities. I guess my corporate image didn't have those installed. Intel has an installation utility in their download center and that reported what was missing and gave a means to install it. I shouldn't have bothered going through the Dell driver page for WiDi.

As far as the blank display, I don't have any Intel utilities installed apart from the RST driver available on the Dell page. I think at one point I tried to update the HD4600 driver using the one from the Intel website, but the install aborted and gave a message that I need to obtain it from the OEM. I guess I will try again later when I have some more time.