M4800 Owner's Thread

that is true, but I have tried to cover the apocalypse where Dell server is down... and Email Server where you sent reminder is still operating half capacity

 

I’d like to share my experience with typing on M4800.
(With some delay; I had been busy, and then I wanted to catch up on the forum.)

The BIOS first known as A09 (What’s wrong with Dell?) saved my day with regard to keyboard input.

In April, I suggested to someone on this forum that his particular keyboard might be faulty, or that he might have a weird typing style. Ironically, once I started working on my own M4800 full-time, I was horrified to see that my keyboard exhibited the very same behavior. For instance, when I would want to terminate a word with ‘m’, the keyboard would often register ‘m m’ (m, space, m); or ‘l’ (el) would frequently double, and the like.

I would not reckon the particular keyboard of mine defective as such. I blamed my clumsy typing aggravated by a flimsy design of this keyboard that ‘would not lead my fingers properly’. (The keyboard on my old laptop had 3mm travel distance, 60g actuation force, very crisp go and registration, and powerful ‘kickback’; M4800’s is meek and shallow in comparison, though less tiring to type on for prolonged time.)

Also, the problem would get worse when I was nervous, and slightly better when I was focused; and I never failed in typing in passwords (for which motoric memory tends to be superior to regular typing).

But I was hating the keyboard, and filling my autocorrect lists quickly, and pondering external keyboards…

Then BIOS A09 came out; with the note it fixes keyboard input. After flashing it, my typing horror was magically gone. And I recalled reading once something about some ‘magic’ that goes into implementing low-level keyboard drivers, to prevent false double registrations.

I’m sorry to read that it reverted the situation the other way for some of you. I also have been genuinely surprised to read (while catching up with the forum) that some of you were previously helped by replacement keyboards.

It seems Dell still needs to do some fine tuning, and hopefully will they not make it yet worse for me while helping the others, in some upcoming BIOS release (numbered what?!).

 

I am not sure if this relates or not, but I have noticed lag when for example you are playing music and trying to decreases brightness. I am pretty sure its BIOS related as it binds there, non of the BIOS ver. have remedied this "LAG-Stutter" when adjusting such. I went through A05-06-07-08-09 now back at A08 seem slightly better at precision of keyboard (maybe Placebo). I also remember that US ver that I had on my First machine was sightly tougher this confirms that EU ver. of keyboard that I have now (UK) is weaker, I hope Dell doesn't use country size vs strength of keyboard algorithm? lol

 

I was wondering if all the keyboards were made by one supplier. Dell might buy from several suppliers manufacturing seemingly same keyboards to Dell’s specifications.

 

Has anyone found a Privacy Filter for the screen that they can recommend? I got one of these: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Privacy-Fi...408837776&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+17"+gold+privacy and it looks cool, and works VERY well, but its JUST a bit too small, and doesnt stay put when opening/closing the notebook. Also, you can see some unprotected screen around the edges, while not a security risk, looks stupid. I was thinking of buying a 17" filter, and opening the bezel and installing it behidn the bezel, but this would make it permanent

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I travel a lot, and I work as a consultant. So while I would love to not have one and be able to enjoy this gorgeous screen, it is a neccessary evil for me.

 

It’s in advanced power settings alright, but where is the sensor physically on M4800?
I remember that initially, the sudden changes in display brightness bothered me, so I switched it off.
After some time (and possibly some updates), I have set it back on but cannot see any effect of it whatsoever.

 

I would overall advise against letting Dell tools update anything. They just don’t work right, any of them. To have them only check for updates is OK, but you still can’t trust the results and must verify them manually.

And when you do verify them, it is still not advisable to let, say, Dell Client System Update proceed with installation, for it will run the installation silently, robbing you of a chance to possibly see and modify options.
I find it safer to download a package from Dell and run it myself.

 

What about this?



Not only will it increase privacy, it's also super stylish. With winter coming I'm sure it will also provide many hours of warm computing (or you could run IBT + Furmark).

 

I still believe the M4800 has no such sensor - I actually went through the old paper to find my quick start guide. It doesn't show up anywhere, nor do I see something I don't recognize as being anything "extraordinary"

 

Hi guys,

A while back I posted about my problems with random shutdowns when I moved my M4800. At the time, I thought this was linked to the free fall data protection, but this works by parking the HDD head, and not triggering a shutdown.

In the UEFI I have noticed in the power log that every time I have this shut down problem, I have a 'ASF2 Force Off' message. Previous Dell machines have had this problem, but it looks like I'm the only M4800 owner to have this at the moment.

I've disabled everything that is linked to wake on LAN, as mentioned in previous discussions about the 'ASF2 Force Off' message.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? It's a real pain in the when I move the machine, and it turns off.