Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

1. After splendid mode is disabled in Windows Mobility Center (may not exist on the M3800, but definitely exists on the XPS 15), it wasn't uncommon for calibrators to get an average Delta E below 1, which is amazingly good, particularly for a laptop panel.

2. Never encountered that before, but if you've got the latest Intel drivers, try right-clicking your background, going to Intel Graphics Properties > Power > On Battery and make sure "Display Power Saving Technology" is disabled if that's available as an option. It messes with the backlight to save power but causes all sorts of contrast and color issues. When I first encountered it I thought I either had an unbelievably crappy or else defective panel.

3. I've never even seen a report of this. Maybe make sure you're on the latest BIOS? Are you running an official Dell AC adapter? Do you have another suitable (130W) adapter to test with just to rule out an issue? Typically bad/unsupported adapters just trigger a boot warning though....

4. Go into Windows Mobility Center, then click the Keyboard Brightness icon -- not the slider underneath, actually click that icon. You'll then be able to choose your backlighting timeout. This is an extremely unintuitive UI design since most icons in Mobility Center aren't clickable, but there you have it.

 

Very thorough responses, thanks a ton. I should mention I've had my motherboard and power input replaced by a Dell technician, so that could be a thing.

It seems my intel control panel doesn't have that option, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I was looking for exactly that for a while, couldn't remember how to get to the screen, so thanks for the reminder. As I said though, no dice; just "Panel Self-Refresh" and "Extended Battery Life for Gaming". I don't think it's related to On Battery settings because I just tried sleep/wake with it plugged in and it still happens.

I also don't have the keyboard brightness icon... I'm beginning to think my issues have more to them. When I first got the laptop, I had a rough time transferring the OS from the mechanical drive to the SSD, to the point where I had to do a clean wipe. I thought I made sure I downloaded all the drivers from dell's website, but I don't know. Maybe a full wipe is a good idea, just dreading the thought atm due to how much work it took to get my applications working nicely with DPI scaling.

Also, good call on the BIOS. Seems I'm a version behind. Unsure why I didn't check that first. Totally fixed it the power on issue.

Thanks for all your help!

Edit: Found that I needed Dell's Quickset application to get the keyboard setting, so I nabbed it for the XPS 15 and voila. As I stated above my power button issue was resolved with a BIOS update. Still don't have a resolution for the colors on wake issue though. As a work around I plan to use Hibernate instead, since the issue doesn't occur there.

Edit 2: Oh wow... So apparently my problem was SPLENDID MODE was engaging each time I awoke the computer from sleep, yet I didn't even have Quickset installed. Upon installing Quickset and making sure the setting was set to "Generic Color", the issue is completely fixed. Why on earth isn't this application on the M3800 driver section...

 

Anyone noticed that the M3800 Dell download page seems to have gone bonkers? There are multiple files with conflicting dates and version numbers. The BIOS is down to A03 even though last I remember A06 was the most recent. It's all a mess.

 

Thanks very much for such a comprehensive reply (from both yourself and others).

I will try your advice on drivers, etc. and see if that helps to get Sleep to work. I had already tried disconnecting all USB devices but that did not help.

I am an end user rather than an IT pro, so at the risk of exposing my ignorance, a couple of basic questions:

1)On updating drivers, as I am very much an amateur, should I stick to updating drivers from the Dell Support website? To me that method would seem to give me less scope to mess things up (and have recourse to ProSupport if I did).

I ran System Analysis on the Dell Support website and it showed 5 driver updates available: Intel Rapid Storage Technology; Intel HD 4600 Graphics; Intel Lynx Point Chipset Family; Intel Dual Band Wireless AC7260 WiFi; Intel Management Engine Interface. Is the System Analysis tool an accurate way to determine what needs updating? My M3800 was only built in Oct 2014 so hopefully there will not be too many drivers out of date.

In System Info on the My Dell application it shows BIOS version string A06, which I understand is the latest.

2)I am a little lost regarding Intel Rapid Start. I opened up Intel Rapid Storage Technology from the Control Panel. Under Status it says:

“Your system is functioning normally.
Your system is configured to enable enhanced SATA features for optimal power management and increased storage performance.”

I take it that means Intel Rapid Start is enabled? If so, how do I disable it?

I guess ProSupport may be able to help me with this…

 

You can certainly stick to drivers on Dell's site, but they just won't always be the latest available from the manufacturer. Plenty of people get drivers directly from vendors whenever possible and generally don't see any ill effects. On this system the Intel GPU driver directly from Intel won't install on this system without messing with Device Manager a bit, but everything else should be fine. I personally feel that if you're experiencing issues that could be caused by drivers, it's always preferable to get the latest available release, not just the latest one the system vendor has posted to their site. In any case, the NVIDIA installer is very straightforward even for a novice. The Rapid Storage driver is pretty straightforward as well if you Google "Device Manager how to update driver", or I think there's a SetupRST.exe download provided that packages the update in an installer. But if you're nervous, then stick with the updates provided by that Dell tool. I believe that only retrieves drivers available from Dell, but it sounds like even those would be newer than what you have now.

As for Rapid Start, it's actually not shown as part of Rapid Storage (just like Smart Connect isn't part of Smart Response -- don't you just love all of these similarly named Intel technologies??) But check your Programs and Features list and see if Intel Rapid Start is installed. If it's not, you don't have it, which is a good thing.

 

Is Quickset not part of the M3800 factory image, or does Dell simply not list it on its Driver page for some reason? In any case, yes before I saw your edits I was about to say that you need Quickset to see those features. Glad you're all set though! And you'll probably like your display a lot more after disabling splendid mode. It just grossly oversaturates colors to make things "pop", but the sad part is that in generic mode colors are amazingly accurate even pre-calibration, so by making splendid mode the default, they took a great display and turned it into a cartoon -- and by burying this setting in such an unintuitive location, a lot of users will never even know about it. When AnandTech first reviewed the XPS 15 and mentioned that the colors on the display weren't great even post-calibration, I had a feeling they tested with splendid mode on, so I contacted the author of the review to mention this setting. He was indeed unaware and immediately saw the improvement from turning it off, so he actually posted a followup article with new results and a much more favorable impression.

By the way though, if you calibrated with splendid mode enabled, definitely re-calibrate with it off now.

 

That's the weird thing - splendid mode has been visibly off by default and that's how I calibrated it. For whatever reason, without the Quickset application, resuming the computer from sleep would engage splendid mode (again, visually, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes). Once I installed Quickset and finally hand-enabled splendid mode and saw the awful red tint, well, it was a eureka moment, but one full of "what were they thinking?!". It definitely makes me think back to the notebookcheck review and how they got such large deltas on their reds and magentas and I have no doubt splendid mode was the culprit.

Dell Quickset was not on the m3800 driver page but as cmoya posted the driver page seems to be in disarray. Many things are missing and the BIOs I just updated to (A03) may not even be the latest. I assume Quickset is one of the missing items. No idea what's going on there, but I was able to nab the application from the XPS 15 side.

Product Support | Dell US

 

1 year update:

1. SD card slot stopped working a few months ago. Stopped feeling friction from the pins when inserting the card in. Fortunately I got the Dell ProSupport so they fixed replaced that entire I/O card next day.

2. Wifi card fails after waking up from sleep. Have to manually disable and re-enable to get it working again. My solution was just to disable sleep while plugged in. Anyone know if there's a particular driver version that fixes this?

3. I accidentally let the laptop sit unplugged for a month while the battery was already in a low state of charge. BatteryBar says my battery wear has increased from 1% to 6%. Doh! Remember to fully charge or just remove your batteries before putting it away for a while.

4. After using it without a secondary monitor for a year, I finally got the Dell P2415Q to pair it with. I have to say this thing looks pretty amazing. I'm driving it with miniDP port at 60Hz. The IPS panel looks much, much nicer than the 28" Samsung 4k we have lying around. I like the pixel density of the 24" a lot more too. The GPU has just enough juice for it, when I open a full CAD assembly it starts stuttering but it's still manageable.

5. I have heard the coil whine on occasion after reading this thread, but I haven't heard it in quite a while to be honest.

Other than that, the laptop has been rock solid. I have to say I'm pretty thrilled with this purchase.

 

2. The latest intel drivers (17.13.11.5) solved the resume from sleep problem for me.
4. I use the machine with the UP2414Q and it works great.

 

Agree. The new Intel driver changed tons for me. So far no more wake-from-sleep problems. Also, my Wifi speed immediately went from ~40 Mbps to ~140 Mbps making its performance more in line with the speeds that my iPhone and Dell Latitude were getting. So far very pleased with this update. Strongly suggested for anybody having wifi problems with the Intel 7260 card.