M4800 Owner's Thread

Yeah, fun stuff.
On the M4800, after using Windows 10 for a week, everything seems pretty good (just using Windows 8.1 drivers as well as whatever has come down Windows Update). I haven't had any stability issues except the BSOD mentioned above, which came from using the Windows 10 Wi-Fi drivers from Dell's site (guess they're not quite ready).

 

Thanks for pointing me to it. I have just checked, and there is no MSDM table in my ACPI, only a SLIC one. So I guess I truly did not receive any 8.1 license with my setup, only a Win7Pro license.
This is yet going to be interesting… (with regard to my desire to transform somehow my non-Pro 8.1 installation into a 10 Pro one using the 7 Pro license as a starting point)

 

W7 Pro upgrade to W10 Pro, get the licence key and do a fresh install? A bit of a roundabout method though.

Just finished my battery testing on W10, I'm getting 4:20 hrs with light usage (balanced power plan, 30% screen brightness, WLAN only).

 

Use the Microsoft Windows 10 media download tool to download a Windows 10 Pro ISO.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Upgrade Win7 Pro to Win10 Pro. (Do this on a separate drive so as not to mess up your Win8.1 install.) Verify that Windows 10 Pro is activated.

Once you activate Windows 10 Pro once from an upgrade from a qualifying OS, you can do clean installs and it will activate automatically (it remembers you from your hardware).

Do a system image backup of the Windows 8.1 install (in case the next step goes wrong).

So... Now, use the Windows 10 Pro ISO to upgrade your Windows 8.1 install and see if it activates?
Be sure to use the ISO downloaded, other methods may get you Windows 10 non-pro.

If you are asked for a product key for this, enter VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. This is the product key that everyone upgrading to Windows 10 Pro for "free" from a qualifying OS gets, and it will only activate if you have successfully upgraded from a qualifying OS in the past.

Never tried this particular method but I think the chances of success are pretty good.

 

I did something close, but very similar - clean installed 8.1 on a spare ssd, upgraded that to 10, wiped it and clean installed 10, then put my 8.1 ssd back in so I can dual boot either. They're currently happily sharing all the user folders like desktop, downloads, etc. for a fairly continuous experience.

After the upgrade was activated I never entered a key for the clean install and it happily activated when I finally let it connect to the internet.

I have a drive caddy in place of the optical drive but you could do something similar with an msata drive.

Maybe I'll buy an msata and triple boot 7, 8.1, and 10.


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Thank you all for sharing experience, and especially to Aaron44126 for detailed instructions. I’m going to try that path.
As you warn against other methods, Aaron44126, do you rule out bootable USB install made with the Microsoft’s download tool? Do you believe that it specifically has to be ISO burnt onto a DVD?

 

Actually, that should be fine as well. As long as you tell it specifically "Windows 10 Pro" installed to physical media. (i.e. don't choose the "upgrade this PC now" option from the tool, as that won't provide you with media, and it will upgrade Windows 8.1 non-pro to Windows 10 non-pro.)

 

I upgraded from 8.1 and then created a bootable USB installer to clean install, which worked without a hitch.


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Looks like we are going to see Intel Xeons in the next Dell Precisions:

Bringing Intel® Xeon® to notebook PCs

One highlight is the introduction of ECC memory to mobile platforms.

 

I wonder if they might only go into 17-inchers, or 15-inchers as well.