Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

While I love my m3800, I gotta tell you that I miss the RGBLED screen on my Studio XPS 16 like you wouldn't believe. I often felt like I was staring at a high-end CRT Trinitron monitor (this is a compliment). One of the first things I noticed when I turned on my m3800 was how inferior the screen was right off the bat. I didn't opt for QHD so maybe that was part of the hurt. I kinda regret it.

 

After updating most of my drivers, including the Thermal Framework stuff, I am bothered by the fact that I still see those stupid DptfEvent EventIDs 2 and 3 in my event viewer. I know, I know, I'm being anal about this, but I'd really like my Event log squeaky clean, and those two errors just spoil the show...

So, has anybody found a way to fix things, so that these two errors go away?

 

If you type precision m3800 into the search box and then view results in the old search format, you should be able to get links to the drivers that have disappeared. Another option that looks like it might work is to download the full driver pack released in mid December. The instructions say you can double click to extract the .cab file into individual components. I think you can pick off what you need from there.

 

Interesting the love for the GRBLED screens. I had an M4400 with the RGBLED screen. It was sent back to Dell and replaced with a more powerful computer but one with the CCFL backlight. The color was a bit dull and I really hated how the CCFL dimmed over the years. However, the matte screen was really easy on the eyes. I miss that with my M3800. Anyway, not long ago I bought a used M4400 off ebay and pulled the RGBLED screen out of it and put it in my M4400. I'm not sure I'm liking it that much. Were it not for the dim backlight I would be tempted to change back. I don't like the gloss finish. I also don't care for the big color shift depending on viewing angles. When you pan text across the screen it also seems to change tone. So it's nice for static images when you are looking head on but not as good for off axis viewing. The colors are also over saturated. It reminds me of the M3800 display before I turned the vivid setting off. Anyway, I prefer the M3800 screen even if we ignore the high DPI aspects.

 

I really haven't ever seen that 15" RGBLED screen, but what you describe certainly is not a feature of RGBLED screens in general. The one in my M6400 has almost no angle-dependence of the color, within what I would call the normal range of a user sitting in front of the laptop, and is perfectly uniform across the entire screen. It is true, however, that some modern IPS screens have even less variation with viewing angles up to almost 180 degrees. If you have situations with several people trying to watch the screen, so the range of viewing angles is potentially large, there's no doubt that an IPS screen is the way to go.

Oh, and as I have argued before, the "high-DPI aspects" are, at best, of no value to many people, including myself. Indeed, I have opted for the FHD screen in my M3800 for that reason.

 

... while they are of value for many other people, including myself, which is why I opted for the QHD version

 

Yep, and that is perfectly fine. I was just pointing out the obvious, that high-DPI screens are not for everyone, at least not with the current state of the Windows OS, and its applications.

 

+1

Any way, today I was at leptops store an tests some others fhd IPS notebooks (Msi, Lenovo, Dell xps 13 and Mbpro). They all looks good. Not like my m3800.
Maybe someone some of you can take a photo of m3800 black screen works in dark room with maximum backlight tune? If posible, I'll like to have 2 photos for compare: photo of qhd and fhd screens works. If the problem just with fhd config, I will replace screen to qhd...

 

I didn't think the FHD screen was IPS?

 

Now I don't think so too) I chek my panel by AIDA64, it's AU Optronics B156HAN. panelook.com inform, that it is a-Si TFT-LCD Panel.
By the way, qhd screen not IPS too. By panelook.com Sharp SHP13F8 LQ156Z1 - IGZO-TFT-LCD.
I'm surprised.