Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Hello all,

I have been lurking on this forum for quite some time - having used it to base my decision to purchase a M3800 on. Despite reading of various issues with the machine, I put that down to a higher chance of people reporting the negative rather than the positive, so went for it and bought the laptop. I use it for heavy 3d modelling/rendering and media work. I must say it is an immensely powerful machine - but I am plagued by this infamous coil whine.

The noise is an electrical wail/screech which increases in intensity as more demand is placed on the graphics card and ONLY when the laptop if fully charged and plugged in. As I am primarily using the laptop for 3d work running off mains power this is becoming exceptionally distracting and, whilst this could be forgiven on a budget machine, my M3800 was considerably expensive so I naturally expect it to work perfectly given its age.

Today a Dell technician replaced my motherboard and power input to no avail. Whilst I have heard that Dell have produced new motherboards to solve this coil whine, the motherboard replacement I received was identically named Rev. 1.0, so Dell support are clearly not talking to their technical team. Now, as the issue persists, I am told that the only option is to send the machine back to Dell for testing in their depot.

I will report back on the result of this, but am not holding my breath.

D

 

I'm not sure if this will work but you can try it for free. I've really never noticed the coil whine with my system (an early model). One of the things I did a long time back was change my power settings so the system battery doesn't charge over 85%. The idea is I'm trading run time for cycle life. My M4400 was showing significant battery deterioration after just 2 years even though I used it on AC power most of the time. Limiting the peak charge MIGHT help deal with the coil whine since it appears to be related to the battery state of charge. I'm not at all certain but it's easy to check. You have to boot into the bios and then adjust the battery charge settings to something like no more than 85%, don't start charging until the battery is under 80%. Of course these settings might not work well for you, they knock down your battery run time by about 25%. However, this is a check to see if it deals with your coil whine. Perhaps I never noticed the whine because I changed my battery settings almost as soon as I got the computer.

 

Thanks Regnad - I actually did this exact thing thinking it would solve the issue because the battery would never be at 100% charge. I set mine to charge between 80 and 90%. However the noise now kicks in at 90% instead once the battery cuts out and the laptop is purely running off mains. So I presume no matter what level it is set at, once it it purely running from mains power this ridiculous noise will start up.

 

Guys, am back again and have been running Windows 10 on a number of Dells older laptops and various Desktops. Have anyone fully installed it on an M3800? I do not have room for a dual boot with my SSD.... Wonder how it works with the screen. Drivers are supposed to be there....

 

I have used Windows 10 on the sister model XPS 15 since the first beta and it works quite well.

 

After 3 screen replacements, 3 touchpad replacements, and a motherboard replacement Dell just went ahead and issued me a brand new M3800. I am starting to wonder if I had a "beta" M3800 to begin with. I have noticed that the keyboard keys on my new M3800 are much softer and more "Macbook-like" than my original M3800 was. I also noticed that the touchpad feels a bit better as well. It's not head-and-shoulders better than on my old M3800, but it does feel a bit better.

I was considering getting rid of this thing, but outside of going back to Macbook-land (which just isn't an option) there just isn't another mobile workstation out there with the specs and form factor that I am looking for.

Hopefully this new M3800 holds up better than my last one did.

 

Gentlemen,

one question regarding the M3800.

Currently, I am imagining that it doesn't get ANY better than the M3800, with the following requirements:

- style
- touchscreen
- build quality
- power for work
- variability (e.g. SSD and HDD)
- future-proofness (drive external monitors with 4K @60Hz)

You guys think that this is correct -- or is there an even better choice than the M3800?

Thanks in advance
David.P

 

Depends on how much power you need, and how important the slimmer form factor is for you.

 

The M3800 is definitely powerful enough, and the slim form factor is very important.

So a potential candidate should not be any bigger -- but rather smaller, like 13-14 inches.

 

The E7440 can take two storage drives (2.5" bay and mSATA in the WWAN card slot) and the Intel GPU is more than capable of 4k graphics output. The newer E7450 has a dGPU option but Dell changed the WWAN slot format and currently few (if any) SSDs will work in that slot.

You might also want to compare the E7440 and M3800 keyboard layouts. Dedicated navigation keys are a useful productivity feature.

John