Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Hello Guys/Gals,

I got the 4k version with BIOS A09 and windows 10 pro, and for the life of me, i cannot use virtualbox with a windows 64bit guest because VT-x is not available. I have check in the BIOS and virtualization is enabled. I have run the MS Hardware Virtualization Detection Tool and it shows as not supported. I run the Intel Processor Identification Utility and it shows as VT-x not supported. Intel's ARK page for the 4712HQ shows that VT-x is supported.

So my question is, is this a windows 10 problem or a BIOS problem? anyone else with this experience?

FWIW, I did't try to run the VM in windows 8, this need is post upgrade.

Thanks

 

Just saw this, and look like the fitting candidates for the next M3800 iteration.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-...comments-959f1e7d-e627-417d-a05a-162012e07452

Which in the case of Music and ProAudio users may bring back crucial part replacement (motherboard in this case) at what becomes our working mobility center, including many licenses and sensitive software tools. A feature the "H" on the rest of high performance Skylake line apparently negates.
Welcome then Xeon, to the laptop space.

///This looks like Intel is finally realizing mobile workstations are not only utilized by Gamers or Visual pros. Now we just need DELL to acknowledge us and release a M3800 with NO dedicated graphic card and thus, has longer battery life, lower cost and possibly extra space to host additional M.2 or SO-DIMM connectors. Besides, welcome Thunderbolt 3 as well!
Suddenly, 2016 looks much better.

 

Hi, I asked about it in the XPS 15 thread, but as I didn't get a response I am reposting it here, as I guess the owners of the M3800 are more likely to have considered these questions.

I am looking to build a multi-monitor setup for my home office. For the sake of discussion, let's say I have no budget limit (within reason). My main use of the computer is that of an office (remote desktop, Outlook, Word and so on), but I play some games from time to time.

The XPS 15/M3800 2013 can drive via HDMI 1.4 a screen at 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz, and via DisplayPort 1.2 either 2 x 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz displays, or 1 x 4K @ 60 Hz display.

For office productivity, I think it is better to have 2 screens than a large one. On the other hand, for gaming it must be better to have a huge screen (even though with the GPU of the XPS I usually play games at 1600x900).

Maybe the ideal setup would be a big 4K screen via DisplayPort and a smaller 2560x1600 one via HDMI? On the other hand, I am not sure if my OCD would be happy with having an asymmetric setup. Maybe two medium/big ones at 2560x1600 via DisplayPort?

How do games behave with multiple screens? Do they span across the available screens for an immersive experience, or in most cases you will have to choose which screen to use?

And finally, what about the USB 3.0 docking stations? It's accepted that they are only good for office work, right? (i.e. I can expect 30 Hz at most, and maybe some graphic glitches with video or games?)

What are your setups and why? I know this has been discussed in the past, but I would like to hear some updated opinions on the matter.

 

In most cases, the game will run on one screen, which leaves any additional screens available for whatever you'd like to put on them.

The NVIDIA drivers have an option to have a multiple monitor setup presented as a single large monitor to Windows which will allow any game to run across all of the screens. Depending on the game, this may or may not work well, because the monitor will show up as a really wide display and not all games support such odd display resolutions. Also, with only two screens, the focal point of the game (middle of the screen) may be right on the gap between the two monitors.

This might also require all monitors to have the same resolution (not sure) and I'm not sure if it will even work with the Intel GPU / NVIDIA GPU combined setup in the M3800.

USB 3.0 attached displays should work well for mostly static content that you would be using in an office setting (web pages, documents, typing emails, ...). I've seen tearing/jitters for full motion content like video, but it might still work fine for that, depends on the particular setup. They don't run off of your GPU so 3D applications will not perform well.

I don't have M3800 but I do prefer symmetric displays, so at work I use three 1080p displays.

 

I have an M3800, with Windows 8.1 and Secure Boot enabled. I upgraded to Windows 10.

On Monday, the machine would not power on unless I unplugged everything and held down the power button. When it happened again on Tuesday, I called Dell, and they replaced my motherboard today.

Now the machine won't boot. It just hangs at Preparing Automatic Repair. Tried turning off Secure Boot; no improvement.

Dell now says my only option is to wipe the drive and re-install Windows 8.1, and then re-upgrade to Windows 10. Is there anything else I can try before I resort to something that drastic?

 

If you already did an in-place upgrade, you can do a clean install of Win 10. Just use the media creation tool to make a bootable USB, and install from that.

 

Might not work if you haven't activated successfully since having the motherboard swapped out. Windows might detect it as a new PC and fail to activate. You'd have to go back to Windows 8.1 and upgrade again.

The install media (linked above) will also have some recovery tools you can try if you boot from it (startup repair, system restore, ...).

[Edit] Actually the link above is for Windows 8.1 media. Here's the link for Windows 10 media.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

I downloaded the Windows 10 media. When booting from USB into Windows Setup, the high resolution of the screen crops a few lines from the bottom and there is no way to resize the window. So you have to tab to "Next" on the first screen, and then tab to "Repair your computer" on the second screen, even though you can't see either choice.

Once I got in, I was able to find and run Startup Repair. The repair failed, and the logfile said the cause was: "The operating system version is incompatible with Startup Repair."

Because the new motherboard came with a new injected Windows 8 key, I am going to try installing and activating Windows 8.1, and then immediately wiping the drive with a fresh install of Windows 10.

[Edit] This worked. The trick is to run the Windows 10 setup from within Windows 8, but choose the option to "Keep Nothing".

 

Back to hanging on boot. Is anyone else having problems with Windows 10 and the M3800?

 

I guess I will reply to myself.

I have since gotten VT-x working. To do so required UEFI and secure boot. In my case when I changed out my HDD to a 1TB 850 Pro SSD, I installed Windows 8.1 from the USB drive that came with my machine. But I didn't do anything to select the format, so it got formatted MBR. To make secure boot work you need to have partitioned in GPT. I changed my type without reinstalling Windows or losing any data. I did that by using AOMEI Partition Assistant. Once both of these things were done I had VT-x enabled and can now run my Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter in VirtualBox.

I hope this helps someone.

FWIW - I did not try to run the virtual machine after enabling the UEFI only.