Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I have 3 issues with my M3800 and I am very disappointed.
1. My laptop keeps disconnecting and connecting when I plug in a phone with usb cable. I tried with both iphone and samsung. If I plug the phones into my macbook, it works fine.
2. About 1 minutes after startup (Windows 10) it freezes and the fans start to spin very fast. It lasts about 10 sec and after that everything is normal.
3. When I close the lid (sleep) I can not turn on the computer again. I have to push the power button constantly about 10 sec and after that I can turn it on. If I manually choose sleep it is the same.

Coud you please help me to fix these issues?

 

You're not the first one that I've seen complain about the phone not staying connected over USB. It seems like in some cases there are issues with the USB port and particular cables, making the connection loose or spotty. You can try some workarounds --- try different ports on the machine if you haven't already, or see if you can get a stable connection to a USB hub and then plug your other USB devices into that. If this is a hardware issue, nothing can be done except complain to Dell.

(Not familiar enough with M3800 to answer your other questions. For the sleep issue, make sure you have the latest BIOS.)

 

My Dell M3800 was supplied with Ubuntu but I run Linux Mint 17.2 on it. I normally use it as a desktop replacement, so it's sitting with the lid closed, driving a 32" 4K Benq monitor via the minidisplay port and the Intel GPU. Apart from not using the NVidia GPU because the latest driver (352) has problems, my only issue is the fan noise. It seems to run hot all the time. It's quite distracting.

 

I think it's pretty normal that your M3800 runs hot, because you keep lid closed, keep in mind that exit of exhaust air is between keyboard and display.

 

The unit is supported by a couple of touch points on the foot of the monitor so it's base is nearly all in free air so ventilation should be fantastic. This replaced a custom built tower that had 5 fans in it and was totally silent. A bit of aerodynamic, and acoustic engineering should be on the cards for the next model I think.

 

Hi Everyone,

I am a computing student and I am no stranger to the DELL product line. I need a proper laptop for the coming year to replace my old DELL for my university work on the go, and I have been eyeballing the DELL Precision M3800. The recent price cuts and some student promotions that I have been able to secure through our university makes it a very enticing purchase, that is until I stumbled on to this and a few other forums along my mandatory research before purchase stage.

So I have read almost all the thread, at least the parts mentioning the many things that went wrong with the device, and to say that I am rather put off going ahead with the purchase is an understatement. But before putting the last nail in the coffin of the M3800 and deciding to look elsewhere, I decided to ask you all a question and see if I can still go for it, yeah I like this damn thing that much!

Reading the thread I have noticed that almost all who had problems with the M3800 bought the early, unrevised version (The late 2013 Original Iteration). However the laptop has had an update of sorts in early 2015 which added thunderbolt 2.0, a more powerful CPU, and more choices for the SSD.

What I would like to know is that are there any among the community members who bought their M3800 after February 2015 who have all the very same problems, namely with the motherboard needing to be replaced, the coil whine sound, and the USB ports not working reliably?

The DELL fan in me is hoping that all the problems are addressed with the new upgrade, but the logical side of me is very skeptical and worried about the answers from everyone here.

Thanks.

 

Bought mine in March with the Ubuntu option, wiped it and put Linux Mint 17.2 on it. It's been fine. Some slight issues with the NVidia card not fully refreshing the screen in some cases and a bit of a noisy fan when it runs. Other than that, go for it.

 

Very happy to hear that. You have the developer edition which is exactly the same but comes with Ubuntu. I have read about the screen refreshing in other forums as well, but no particular work around was given. Can I ask which version of the screen did you go for? the FHD or the 4K UHD? if the answer is the UHD one, are you happy with it in Linux, I mean about the scaling?

The reason why I am asking is that I think I am going to end up having to install a variation of Linux on mine as well, Kali Linux most probably but Linux none the less.

Thanks

 

I actually have the original iteration and never had one single problem with the laptop. Not a single one. I don't have the coil whine.... at least I don't think I do. The speakers do make an almost imperceptible slight crackle when CPU usage gets hit but it sounds more like a very quiet non-SSD hard drive and it never bothers me at all. In fact, my old Dell Studio XPS 16 made the same noise during high CPU usage (worse) and so maybe I am used to it. I repeat: this noise is not even as loud as non-SSD drive noise. It's not an issue in any way whatsoever.

My only gripe with the laptop is that the touchpad, though not aweful, is not great. In fact, the new crop of touchpads this year on cheap laptops and on machines like the XPS 13 are way better. The reason is that manufacturers have finally ditched the ludicrously outdated PS/2 interface and now use HID after Microsoft put pressure on the industry. The XPS 15 still uses PS/2 and Synaptics horrendous drivers rather than MS's built-in Windows 10 HID driver (which is great).

Another wish is that the screen flipped all the way back to use as a tablet. That would be awesome!

 

Thank you for the quick reply and glad to hear that you never had any issues with yours. I hope it keeps working like that for you.

In case you are interested about what the coil whine sounds line you might want to check this video out. This was apparently made by one of the members of this thread and a link was posted earlier by him as well.