Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I know for sure that I am using the latest drivers from Dell and I am still having the same issues as before. I may have to go the "back roads" rout with this one like you guys did before to see if I can get better results. I really love the screen and performance of this machine, but the trackpad is killing it for me right now. I will try your method and report back.

EDIT: I was able to install an older Synaptics driver and so far things seem to be somewhat better. One big issue was being able to disable that stupid "Edge Motion" crap, which would send my mouse flying off in a certain direction when I don't want it to. I will play with the settings some more and see how it goes.

 

Is anybody know, how we can use right click mouse button on keyboard (menu button)?

 

^ try shift-F10

 

It works, but not everywhere (in chrome it not works, for exemple). I've installed mkey program and put this function on win+z hot-key. Thanks.

 

I'd like to report back again that after I finally figured out how to install the newest generic Synaptics drivers (I could only install the older ones before) I am getting a lot better performance from the touchpad now. Still not perfect, but much better than I was getting before. I had to disable, tweak and play around with a bunch of settings, but I finally have something that seems to be more than workable. I will probably be keeping my m3800 after-all, which is a good thing.

 

OK guys, now I need some driver help. I went to the m3800 drivers page and I downloaded and installed all of the drivers that were displayed. My problem is that I am still getting 5 errors with 4 of them being in my Device Manager.

1. When I try to install the WIDCOMM Bluetooth drivers I keep getting an install error which reads: Activate Bluetooth using wireless switch. How do I fix this?
2. In my Device Manager I now have 4 driver errors which I can not figure out. They are:
a) PCI Device
b) PCI Simple Communications Controller
c) SM Bus Controller
d) Unknown Device

If anyone could point me in the right direction to correcting there errors I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

I just noticed that the Dell QuickSet utility (via Mobility Center) has a "Enable Ambient Light Sensor Control for Keyboard Backlighting" popup if you click the keyboard icon. It's kind of a hidden setting. Although it takes pretty strong light, I can confirm that it works. Very cool! Now the kb backlight isn't always on if it doesn't need to be (although, again, it takes pretty strong light). Not sure if this setting existed before the new 10.16.12 QuickSet version.

I wasn't even aware the m3800 had an ambient light sensor.

 

How about sharing the secret? Links, step-by-step, etc.?

 

It has certainly always been there for the XPS 15. Though, as you say, the fact that you can click on the icon next to "Keyboard brightness" is not immediately obvious.

 

What keyboard icon? I don't see a keyboard icon on mine. Can you post a screenshot?

I don't have a keyboard brightness item in Mobility Center I tried to un-/reinstall Quickset, but the result is the same: My Windows Mobility Center has one bottom row labeled "Customized by Dell Inc., with the items (from left to right) Bluetooth, Radio control options, Function key row, and Touchpad. I do, however, have a program called BacklitKB.exe in C:\Program Files\Dell\Quickset, which does have the functionality mentioned above, allowing me to "Enable Ambient Light Sensor Control for Keyboard Backlighting".

This is on Windows 7, of course. Can you guys that have the Keyboard tile in Mobility Center check your registry settings in HKLM\Dell Computer Corporation\Quickset, and in HKLM\Dell Computer Corporation\Quickset\SelectedFeatures, and let me know what you have in there?

Thanks!

P.S.: I assume that what you guys are seeing looks like this; mine looks roughly like that. Note that the two top rows are different from these images, I'm just talking about the extension tiles added by Quickset, the bottom row.