M4800 Owner's Thread

Hi everybody...I need your help, especially from the guys who already replaced the lcd panel...
This is my story:
I bought a defective m4800 (had fallen on the corner where the power supply goes) which didn't turn on, c3v2k motherboard, k2100m and 4k edp lcd (lq156d1jw02).
It did boot with the quadro installed but only without lcd panel.
I thought the mainboard was defective so I bought a new one, another c3v2k -> same behaviour.
So I bought a new quadro k2100m (taken from a dell so apparently with correct vbios) and now with the newer quadro both mainboards behave the same. The backlight on the lcd panel turns on but no image. With a VGA screen I can boot to windows and everything works fine on the external display, no signs of life in the internal... Hwinfo shows the 4k panel but if I try to turn it on in windows I get an error.
I even bought a FHD panel and cable but I got busted an received a LVDS assembly: no image and no backlight at all.
I'd like not to buy another unnecessary part, but I woud like to fix this bad boy...What would you suggest me to do? I already tried upgrading BIOS and VBIOS but nothing change...
Thanks a lot in advance to who might help me.

 

Something to check which has helped me in a similar situation with my M6700 some years back... Not really sure if it would help here.

I'm assuming that you are not seeing an option for graphics switching in the BIOS. (I believe an M4800 with 4K screen installed can only use the discrete GPU so the graphics switching option will be removed from the BIOS.) However if I'm wrong about this, try toggling graphics switching to whatever it is not currently set to and see if there is any difference.

But, assuming you have graphics switching on (or there is no option), and assuming you are running in UEFI mode, try this:
* DISABLE UEFI secure boot
* ENABLE legacy option ROMs
* Try again and see if you get any output to your internal display.

 

Thanks for your suggestion but unluckily it doesn't work...still no image at all

 

So I'll be getting an M4800 soon, and I have a question about which drivers to install. I see there's some, Dell Command, Device Manager Diagnostics, etc. and am wondering if I need to install them? I'm more used to installing drivers for consumer laptops rather than business ones.

 

My opinion: Install enough to get rid of the errors in Device Manager and then you're pretty much done. You don't need the rest of the random Dell stuff. Actually, Windows Update will take care of almost all of it automatically if you can get the system online with a Wi-Fi or Ethernet driver.

Some extra stuff that you will want to search out:
* If you're doing a fresh Windows install, decide if you want to put the system in AHCI or RAID mode before you start, and set the appropriate option in the BIOS (I say AHCI if you aren't going to do any RAID arrays); if you select RAID then you may have to provide the Windows installer with the Intel Rapid Storage "F6" driver before you can see any drives to install onto
* Install the latest BIOS of course
* Install the touchpad driver from Dell, the touchpad works without it but you don't have the GUI control panel with extra options
* If you have a fingerprint reader, install the Dell ControlVault software
* Dell Power Manager lets you select between a few thermal profiles if you want to control how the fans behave somewhat

 

Good to know. Thanks.

 

i got a weird question, i replaced a faulty motherboard on my m4800 and now the keyboard doesnt light up on the new motherboard, same model number and bios as the old one any ideas?

 

1. Make sure that keyboard illumination is enabled in the BIOS setup
2. Press the keyboard illumination light key and see if it changes (FN+right arrow key)
3. Verify that the keyboard cable is seated properly

 

the keyboard illumination option is completely missing in the bios on this new motherboard. i tested the key and it does nothing, even the dell software doesnt think its a backlit keyboard. and i checked a couple times and its fully seated. not sure what to make of this never seen anything like it before.

 

I got a mint M4800 today and got the horrid Chimei panel. I'm looking too for a decent 40 pin panel but can't find any of these Auo models.