M4800 Owner's Thread

its fairly secure , i have moved the laptop around with it attached.

it has to be detached to put on the dock as it uses the docking port to supply power , the battery can be charged with a dell adapter though (has built in power plug)

 

Mike, you are right, I was a bit imprecise about some facts. I tested with the standard 180W AC and its working very nicely. If I remember correctly some people emphasized that the update would be crap in general. And this seemed a bit harsh to me. But of course, it is strange, that the update produces these problems of slowing down, if you plug in a 130W AC.

I meant the SD Card and not the Smart Card, sorry, and indeed, you were the person, who gave the remark that the SD Card is working at least for Ubuntu 14.04 (right now it is not working for me, even with kernel 3.14.2). So, it was my fault by not reading carefully enough...sorry for that. Dmesg shows some entries regarding the HSDPA module but in the end the device is not listed.

I thought it is a gentoo problem, since it often takes some time to get the release for new drivers (nvidia-drivers) and the actual kernel not being stable. But it is possible that it is a general and not gentoo related problem.

Now, I have compiled kernel 3.14.2 and used the nvidia-drivers 337.12. They compile against this kernel, however the SD card reader does not work. So it seems I have missed some settings in the kernel...

Thanks for the advice with the keyboard. Unfortunately, I do not posses any windows system. But, booting from a sabayon live cd (btw. a very nice Linux distribution) the keyboard problems did not occur anymore, although the settings seem to be identical to my settings in Gentoo. That is strange . I also tested, if an external keyboard will work, and it does without this annoying double key issue. So, in the next days I will try to solve this problem...

Cheers ,

Alex

@ Idarzoid: Thanks for the information, this is good to hear. So if I cannot make it work, I still can replace the keyboard and hope that it will work flawlessly.

 

Hi all guys,
I have a wonderful precision m4800 FHD with a little problem. Sometimes during the normal utilization of the laptop when I press a key on the keyboard two letters are written into the window of the application in use. I try to increase the time beetwen repetition of two key but nothing is happened. Of course, when i use an external keyboard i don't have this problem. Could be a broken keyboard? Should I change it with a new one? Some of you have had this kind of problem? Thanks in advance.

 

Did you read any of the thread before posting? This very issue was discussed in the last page or two - no need to read the entire thread.

Yes, others have had the issue, and it seems like a keyboard replacement will fix it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sorry... i read the previous posts (honestly not all i googled it...) and I didn't find this information. Thanks and hopes that this reply could be useful for other inattentive people like me. And thanks for the fast response alexhawker!!!!!! Have a nice day!!

 

Hi guys,

Got my new M4800 today and I'm rather disappointed with the keyboard. Despite being the same part as my E6540, the one in my M4800 is *really* spongy and suffers from flex compared my E6540 keyboard. Does anyone else have this issue?

 

Did you get the backlit keyboard? I have heard the two different keyboards differ in stiffness, but only have experience with the backlit one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I just got a M4800 as well a couple days ago. However this was given to me for work purposes so it's been around the block so to speak. I do agree that the keyboard is spongy, and it does indeed flex. But I actually like the feeling and the flex does not bother me because I type so fast I don't even see the flex happening, nor can I feel it happening. I think I prefer this keyboard over the one in my old T520, but I prefer the Thinkpad's trackpoint.

Just wanted to share a couple other points as a 1st time Dell user:

The M4800 is built to last. This thing feels more solid than my old Thinkpad T520 that I got rid of. The Thinkpad by comparison felt fragile and overly plasticky compared to this beast. And judging by the abuse this particular unit has taken, I am very impressed with how sturdy it still feels. To give you an idea of the condition this guy is in, every corner has been severely dented in, which to me indicates that it has been dropped onto every corner at least once. And yet the chassis still feels like one giant brick. I like it.

I first got the machine with BIOS A03. I found out that when the fans kicked on, they stayed on and this was very audible, and annoying since I wasn't even doing anything demanding. I updated the BIOS with A07, and this problem was solved. If the fans come on they only stay on until I end the demanding tasks. In normal use and light load the fans are not audible at all, and is completely silent.

This computer has the best cooling system I've seen on a laptop, ever. It does not get warm or hot easily. You really have to push it to get it warmed up.

My unit has the FHD display and while it is NOT as good as the FHD that was on my T520, it gets the job done. I don't do any work on the computer that requires accurate color presentation. One word I will use to describe this FHD compared to the T520 FHD is Dull. The colors are a little dull and less vibrant, but it's not bad.

Keyboard offset to the left is not a big deal. it took me 20 minutes to get used to it and I dont' even notice it anymore. This issue is blown way out of proportion. Having the numpad is actually better for me because I create a lot of spreadsheets.

Overall, I will say that the Precision line has surprised me in a good way. I never expected a Dell to be this good, but that may just be because it's their Precision line, which is held to a higher standard if I'm not mistaken, and rightfully so. This unit retails for over $3,000 and you will never find me buying a Dell laptop at retail.

Glad to be part of the Dell family and it's actually a nice change from the Thinkpad. I didn't like how the new T540p felt, it seemed like a step backwards from my T520.

 

Both are non-backlit keyboards. It's a shame to go from a great typing experience on my E6540 to a pretty dire on my new M4800 on what should be identical keyboards.

 

The replacement keyboard I got is also backlit and it's a bit more flexy than the previous keyboard, but not bad enough to ruin the typing experience, I guess it varies from keyboard to keyboard.