M4800 Owner's Thread

Hello frustrated DELL customers.

I have owned Dell mobile workstations for over 10 years (for MAYA and PSD) and was about to buy the M4800 till I found a worrying thread on Spiceworks.The problem for many seems to be issues of freezing and BSOD, with a lot of different people, in a lot of different countries, suffering very similar problems. for your own info I recommend you take a look, I wonder if anyone here is suffering from the same and not reporting it? :

new dell precision m4800 few probs should i send back? - Spiceworks


Not very encouraging, nor are Dell's sporadic responses. I am holding off for a few weeks to see how this goes. I have posted a v similar reply on their thread too to get as much info as I can. I am wondering how widespread this issue is? If it is a small number of unlucky owners or if it is a general M4800 problem. Has anybody here experienced this?

This is a high end work machine, so I cannot afford to have sporadic failures. Besides at this price I do not expect sporadic failures. I expect quality.

Basically I am trying to get an idea of how satisfied owners are with their M4800s?

The fact that QHD and optimus are not compatible is a real downside too.

Is the FHD screen really that bad? Can u let me know how it compares to previous Precision FHD screens please. eg on the M4400?

I have been a loyal UK Dell customer for years and was very clear I would buy from Dell again. However, as well as these issues, I hear customer services has now been moved from UK to India, which means possibly dealing with someone whose first language may not be English, and their understanding of UK culture could be compromised too. I have no issue with dealing with anyone from any background, but this can effect subtleties of communication and so rapidity and smoothness of resolutions.

I am now considering a BOXX 1920 or better, a Thinkpad w540 or an HPEliteBook 8570w. Any suggestions welcome.

On another note, I was considering an XPS15 too, but I have also heard that the Dell XPS15 has a critical design flaw which means meltdown on the motherboard is likely within the 1st 2 years. All this is putting me off Dell very quickly. if you are interested in the XPS15 issues further details can be found through this post:


"Guys, I'm an XPS 15 user . my xps got fried after using it for 1.5 years. let me warn you.. don't buy a xps if it has a nvidia graphics card in it.. the nvidia cards in all xps laptops are faulty in design. and they will last only for maximum of 2 years (just as mine did). when i googled, i saw many frustrated users like me. here's the proof -- Purchasing a replacement XPS M1530 Motherboard - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community. just think about it. after the problem starts, you will have to call the dell customer care, and they will tell you to replace the motherboard (because u can't just replace the graphics card, since it is integrated to the motherboard) for another 8000 rs !! The main part is - this new replacement motherboard will also be having the faulty nvidia graphics card in it, and you can use the laptop again for another 2 years max !!!! SO GUYS--- THINK a 100 times before deciding on laptops with nvidia graphics cards.."

 

The QHD screen is awesome, IMO, and I have not seen any heat issues. The Optimus incompatibility is stupid, but I can live with it.

I have seen a handful of BSODs, but not really more or less than I've seen from any platform. It's definitely annoying but doesn't seem nearly as bad for me as for some on that spice works thread, which I have been following.


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Hello,

I have a Precision M4800 with the FHD screen & nVIDIA Quadro K1100M GPU. I wanted to find out the definitive answer about how many displays (external + mobile) I can use simultaneously and at what resolution. I'm coming from a Precision M4600 where I was limited to 2 simultaneous displays and I thought I'd read in my research that this M4800 system can handle more.

Specifically, I have a Dell 3007WFP display which as I understand it can handle a max resolution of 2560x1600, but only if using an active DVI-D Dual Link video adapter with a DVI-D Dual Link cable - otherwise it's 1920x1200, which I understand is the native resolution for my laptop display on the M4800. Since the M4800 doesn't have a DVI connector (and the 3007WFP does), I'm instead researching getting either an active DVI-D Dual Link to DisplayPort cable or a DVI-D Dual Link to HDMI cable, which I'm hoping would allow me to display to the 3007WFP at its max resolution of 2560x1600. Can anyone confirm or deny this, and whether the HDMI or DisplayPort is advisable for this? An active adapter/cable is a pricier thing than a passive one so I want to make sure I'm barking up the right tree.

Once I get this situation resolved for the 3007WFP connecting to my M4800, I'd like to know if it's possible for me to connect a second external display, the Alienware AW2310, which has a max resolution of 1920x1080, and in order to display it at max resolution, which connector is advisable (given that I'll have one in use already for the 3007WFP).

Thirdly, I'd like to know if I can also have the laptop display active while I would have these two monitors going - so effectively having 3 displays at their max resolution simultaneously. If the laptop display wouldn't be available, I'd like to know if I need to disable it somehow, and how to do that.

Lastly, if I had the 3007WFP and the AW2310 connected simultaneously, would it be possible to have a 3rd external display (perhaps off the VGA connector) connecting simultaneously?

Thanks for a reply.

 

I've been using a dock, but have had no issues running the built in 3200x1800 screen and two 1920x1200 monitors all at once. I do have the K2100M though.


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yes QHD does look awesome however I understand that PSD (and some other graphics and anim software) is not compatible with that level of resolution. Tiny buttons and menus etc. If thats the case then it becomes unusable.

 

True, but illustrator recently gained support (and I think Lightroom had it already), so it's reasonable to expect photoshop might be next.

I don't use the adobe suite, except after RD'ing into another work machine, so I would have the issue either way.


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I am not an owner yet, but am wondering if it is possible to 'under'clock the GPU with one of the many tools in order to reduce power consumption. How to Overclock Your Laptop's Graphics Card

This says the power consumed is proportional to frequency Underclocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Say, you know you will be working on a word document for the next days, could you underclock it a lot and lengthen battery life?

Has anyone tried it?

 

OP in the referenced Spiceworks thread got the problem resolved. It had to with hybrid drive firmware. As a matter of principle, if you are going to spend the coin on this type of machine you should go SSD all the way. Especially since USB3 makes real external storage usable.

I'm pretty sure your power options will throttle your GPU as it does for the CPU

 

If you read the thread, many are experiencing these issues without any hybrid drive installed, so that's definitely not the issue.


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Jumbie,

Hows your evaluation of the M4800, so far ?