Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

The Dell website lists the m3800 as having Thunderbolt 2. I didn't notice this when I got mine 6 months ago. Here's the link: Dell Precision M3800 — 15" Mobile Workstation | Dell

It says: "[...]a new 4K Ultra HD touch display & Thunderbolt 2.0."

Is this an updated model or something??

 

How bizarre. The Tech Specs haven't been updated to reflect those items, though. The XPS 15 is getting a 4K panel option, so the M3800 probably will as well, but it's not getting Thunderbolt. However, the leaked roadmap I found online says that the next-gen XPS 15 will have both a 4K display and Thunderbolt, so perhaps the M3800 will continue to share a platform with the XPS 15 and even retain its current model designation, contrary to Dell's Precision naming conventions, under which the next generation would have been called the M3900. Maybe Dell realized they didn't have a lot more room for future model names since their entire Precision line is now at x800.

The odd part is that the roadmap pegged the XPS 15 refresh at Q4 2015, so either the release has been brought dramatically forward or someone mistakenly added Thunderbolt to the current gen's description when they should have just added 4K, which is how the XPS 15's page now reads (although there's still no configuration with a 4K display listed.)

 

Very odd. Maybe I'll hold off on selling my current m3800 and buying a new one until this is sorted out then.

 

Is this from the same user who, on Windows 10', says "So far it looks like they (Microsoft) have completely abandoned the professional community now". He/She can't even interpret 30 rows of information correctly. I think this says all about the post Windows 7 whiners

 

You think so? Well, then...

 

It would be interesting to know whether the limit here is indeed K1100M itself or Optimus (in other words: the PCI Express bus).

 

I can also confirm that my XPS 15 drives my Philips 40" SST display at 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz, fwiw. Not sure if the P2415Q is SST or MST like the UP2414Q. 4K @ 40" is the same pixel density as a 27" 1440p display, so it can actually be used at 100% scaling. It's huge though, wow. Pictures just don't prepare you for this thing....

 

I noticed today that I'm not getting any audio, and I have a red X on my tray icon for my speaker volume, and it says "No Audio Output Device is installed". I right-click the speaker icon and choose "Playback Devices" and it is completely BLANK (no audio devices present).
In Device Manager, under "System Devices", I have an exclamation mark on the item called "High Definition Audio Controller".
I download and install ALL of the chipset, audio, video, and network drivers from the Dell Support website, and the stubborn problem still persists (P.S. - There are many new drivers released for January 2015). The RealTek High Definition Audio driver had a new version, and it installed without giving any error.
Looks like I may have a defective sound chip. Has anyone ever seen this before? My M3800 is just over 1 year old, and the warranty just expired (of course).

 

You can try it booting Ubuntu from USB, for example opening an mp3 file or any YouTube video. If you can hear sounds with Ubuntu, it is not hardware-related.

 

Try deleting it from Device Manager (do NOT choose to delete the driver files) and rebooting. Sometimes forcing the system to redetect hardware and reinstall drivers resolves the issue. Otherwise, I suppose it's possible that your audio chip spontaneously died, but I think that's relatively unlikely.

If the problem persists, double-click the Realtek device and let us know what the problem description is that pertains to the exclamation mark. That might provide further information.