M4800 Owner's Thread

I think a bad keyboard was triggering lid close... maybe it had bad connectors so it was sending faulty signals to motherboard.

Now the problem is completely gone. I can't reproduce the lid close any longer.

 

and I'd like to mention that it's best to avoid using a cheap 2nd hdd caddy.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-Hard-D...183775?hash=item2a843c7f9f:g:3HcAAOSwfRdZGr5u

I had one of these installed in my M4800. Its connector was so bad.. .that it sometimes disconnected my SSD. I think it could be a contributing factor to "automatic shutdown" ... when you take out a SATA component while window is running, it can make your computer malfunction.

Anyways, here's a list of things to check up when this happens to your M4800:

- Express card slot. disable express card driver.
- Replace your keyboard
- Take out any 2nd hdd caddy...

Now my m4800 is running like a brand new laptop!

 

That's odd. I've been using these cheap 2nd hdd caddy in my E4310, M6400 and M6500 without issue whatsoever. It is nothing more than a physical case with a SATA to SATA interface PCB board.

Regarding the disconnecting of your SSD, could it be due to power saving mode kicking in? My hdds will be powered down after a period of no usage.

*Edit: It does have an issue with the E4310. When shutting down, after Windows powers off everything the E4300 will remain powered on. I have to force it to power off by pressing and holding the power button*

 

I have a similar issue on my Thinkpad T420s if putting the system drive in the caddy, and if using any Linux distro and rebooting without a proper shutdown.
Upon a hot-reboot the system drive is no longer found..? Running Windows with a hot-reboot is no problem..strangely.
So I always have to press "shut down" instead of reboot for example after a kernel update which is kind of annoying and I often sit there and wonder what the hell is up now?! ...the screen is black?! ...and its off, yeah,...I pressed shut down not reboot.. *facepalm*
I am so used to the computers having lots of flashing lights, modern laptops have like one faint little light and no indicators with the exception for the M4800 that has 12 LED's however the status leds above the keyboard are diagnostic lights that will display an error code like most Dell servers do so it actually serves an important purpose..
Anyway I have my suspicion its related to the bios rather than hardware issue as its my old caddy I used before and its fine, I bough a brand new for this laptop and haven't had any issues with.
Only boring thing with the M4800 is that it does not seem to discover any new hard drive plugged in or swapped out after unmounting the partition or just sliding in a drive..I did this a lot before on my thinkpads, but now I have to turn the computer off completely and insert the drive before turning on the power.
Even sliding in the drive before the bios posts will make it not appear if you pressed the power button then inserted the drive.
I have three drives in my laptop, Samsung 860 msata, ssd in ODD and a larger bare metal in the caddy as its too thick to fit in the ODD

 

Yes, I discovered issues with 2nd caddy because of that behavior. Sometimes, my laptop wasn't loading SSD in 2nd caddy.
That means connector on 2nd caddy was malfunctioning.

When you take out a HDD while your laptop is running, your laptop will trigger the automatic shutdown.

Not all 2nd caddies have this problem but some of them do I guess... because they're cheap.
2nd caddy was contributing to the random shutdown for sure.

 

I've had zero issues so far with a caddy from newmodeus.com

 

Anyone here point me to the right 4k screen part number with the right pin 30 or 40, got some ebay bucks cashback earning to use

 

ATTENTION:

I found the ultimate answer to this lid close sensor issue.
So when you close your laptop's lid, it fires a "lid close" event (programming language) that triggers your Windows OS to go into sleep mode.
There's a method to disable this "lid close" event!

Check this link:
https://superuser.com/questions/1424774/windows-10-how-to-lock-not-sleep-laptop-on-lid-close

 

or simply follow steps here!

https://mywindowshub.com/customize-action-windows-takes-user-closes-lid-mobile-pc/


All that we need is making Windows OS not respond to this "lid closed" event fired by the broken sensor switch...

 

I do this setting on all my pc's after installing windows.
Yes it stops the computer from sleeping but the screen will still turn off if you put a magnet there or close the screen.

Anyway I finally have everything working with the AMD Firepro M5100, the computer is fully assembled and drivers are working.
The drivers from Dell website will not work with opengl programs, any program using opengl..either it will end with a fatal error, hang or stop the kernel with a bsod stating PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.
This is what happens if you try to start Adobe photoshop CC.
If you let Windows Driver Foundation do the job to replace/install intel GMA and AMD firepro driver, switchable graphics will not work and the AMD card will always be active while still in idle but the gpu fan always turning on and off, not staying off as if the gpu falls back to the integrated gpu.
The Dell drivers include older drivers for Windows 8 and 7.
It also has the older catalyst client software that will automatically update to the newer amd control panel and brake switchable graphics.


After installing windows do the following:

• Connect to network and run Windows update to install drivers and other updates.
  
• Let it do its thing and reboot again...until its finished, it will take around 3 or 4 hours.
• When pressing search for updates and no more updates are found:

Download the following or have these files ready:

• Guru3D driver uninstaller
  https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

• Intel GMA 4600 driver
  https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...phics-Driver-for-Windows-15-40-?product=81496

• Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2.1
  https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-pro-win-19-q2-1

When you are ready:
Reboot to safe boot

• cmd + R > msconfig > Boot > Safe boot > Network, OK.

Run Guru3D driver uninstaller after rebooted to safe boot and remove everything first on intel then amd.
Choose the middle button, remove but no reboot (can cause black screen)
When finished, now reboot but remember, keep wifi or network disabled so windows update won't download the drivers again.
msconfig will reset to normal boot after you have successfully booted to safe mode, you don't need to reset this switch, just reboot like normal and it will boot into normal boot mode.

To prevent driver update, disable windows foundation to include drivers in windows update.
You can do it via two methods:

• a. regedit
• b. gpedit.msc < this is my prefered method

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials...iver-updates-windows-update-windows-10-a.html

• Now, first install Intel GMA driver, IMPORTANT [THIS MUST BE INSTALLED FIRST]
  Reboot when installation if finished.

• Start amd driver installation, < KEEP WIFI/NETORK OFF!, the installer will search for radeon pro settings updates.
  Reboot when installation if finished.