M4700 Owners Thread

i will see what the next tech date brings, i won't stop that's for sure. As i already said maybe some really small corner tints would be acceptable. otherwise they have to change the whole book but it has to be resolved in some way. thankfully they seem to really take care to fix it until now

 

just ran into the first #Fail on Dell's part

installed M4 msata. using Dell's Windows CD installed Windows - easiest windows install ever - didn't even need to look into bios even once.

then it was time to install drivers. geniuses at Dell zipped all the drivers and put the zips into folders which are not named just numbered. to install them you use Dell's app that finds the right drivers and unpacks them. after i installed 2 drivers this way the application wouldn't start any more. i couldn't even connect to the internet because i hadn't installed network drivers yet. and i couldn't install the drivers manually because they are all archived into some gibberish folder system that only the app can understand.

i had to download network driver on another computer and transfer it to M4700 using USB drive, only then i could connect to the internet.

FAIL ! ! !

I PAID MONEY to have drivers available to me on CD. but they decided the drivers wouldn't fit on one disk so they compressed them. should have included TWO disks if you couldn't fit it on one. all the drivers should have been labeled for manual installation.

Dell = 0
Apple = 1

Installing windows drivers is easier on an Apple ( using Boot Camp ) than it is on a Dell ...

 

I'm sorry you had that experience. I download all the drivers from their site, and rename them as I download them to what they are. Dell for years has always named them random numbers. Its very irritating. Bill are you listening? Can you PLEASE tell dell to change this terrible practice?

 

mini-Fail:

when i removed the hard drive from caddy, the rubber filler underneath it was installed the wrong way ( mirror image ). how they managed this i don't know, even apes know how to put various shapes blocks into appropriate shape holes ... not the person who assembled my M4700. they just forced the hard drive in on top of the filler that didn't fit.

because the rubber filler was upside down it actually protruded outside the caddy, and the caddy itself got jammed in the chassis. i barely pulled the caddy out to get at the hard drive - i thought it was just bad design. but once i took out the incorrectly installed rubber filler it went back in the chassis smooth as butter.

i bet he assembles every computer this way. i bet he doesn't even look at what he is doing just shoves everything inside and if it doesn't fit he just pushes harder. i know people like that. not only should he be fired - but whoever hired him should be fired as well.

also it is interesting to note that USB3 ports on the right side fit fine, but USB2 on the left is 10 times stiffer and you can barely fit anything in. very odd.

also the rubber filler ... is actually rubber. why not make it out of foam ? save some weight. what's the point of making the chassis out of magnesium then use a huge and heavy chunk of rubber ( perhaps an ounce or so ) when a piece of foam 1/10th the weight would do just as well. oh yeah i remember - they just use magnesium for marketing.

FAIL !

apple vs dell is like bmw vs chevy ... that is not to say that i wouldn't drive a ZR1 corvette

 

Deleted...

 

Well, for one, I agree, thats terrible its built that way.

I prefer rubber, and I consider it a mark of quality over foam. Plus the rubber probably dampens the vibrations of the HDD much better than foam, no?

I've owned BMW and Chevy. I'm not sure thats an appropriate analogy lol. They are completely different classes of machines. Plus the magnesium is probably for strength and light weight, not purely for weight.

 

in any case, what is that icon that looks like a lock with a number 9 inside ?

 

The numlock.

 

windows experience index with M4 msata and crucial 8gb ram

i should say the graphics score is for HD4000 integrated graphics. is there a way for WEI to test the Quadro instead ?

and that little crucial msata is performing better than i expected.

thanks, makes sense, it was driving me nuts

 

I think it also has to do with heat dissipation if the other choice would be plastic.