Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

I placed an order on August 25th for an M4400 with the RGB LED 1920x1200 display. Originally the expected delivery date was September 23rd. I checked last week to see if it shipped, and saw the date had been updated to November 4th! I suspected the delay was caused by a problem with the supply of the display. I came to that conclusion because as of right now the RGB LED display is no longer an option for the M4400. They've removed it.

I sent an e-mail to my Dell rep, and he replied letting me know he'd look into it for me. A couple days later I checked the status, and saw it had been updated again. This time to September 30th, with next day air delivery. My Dell rep called me to give me a status update. He confirmed that the delay was in fact due to a delay in receiving the displays from the manufacturer. He told me they are scheduled to receive the monitors on the 25th, today.

As of right now my expected delivery date on the order status page is October 2nd. I'm not going to complain about that, I just want it already. Yesterday the delivery date was November 6th! Didn't think I'd have to wait this long for a laptop.


So, I'm posting this to simply inform people of the supply chain delay, and also to see if anyone else is waiting for an M4400 with the RGB LED display? What's your expected delivery date?

 

yep, i am in the same boat. ordered a 4400 with the led screen, same as yours, on the 8th september, and the status page is showing delivery on 9th october. dell phone guy says the screen is causing the delay. seems there is a snafu at the screen manufacturer...samsung?

 

IIRC the RGBLED screen is made by AU Optronics

 

Just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that the internal WWAN GOBI card you can purchase for the M4400 works fantastic. It's a heck of a lot more convenient than fishing through my laptop bag to find the old USB modem I had.

The beauty of the card is having multiple radios and it will work with Sprint, Verizon, or the devil himself (AT&T). I'm currently using it with Sprint and when my contract is up in November I'm planning on hooking it up to Verizon for a month long test and then deciding between the two. AT&T is never getting another dime from me again.

 

Im pretty sure I read somewhere that it's made by Samsung, Not sure though. Anyone actually have the info on who makes the RGB LED panel lol?

 

might be both of them. dell commonly has 2 suppliers at least for most parts

 

Has anyone had an issue where the ALS suddenly stops working under Windows 7? I've checked BIOS settings, tried seemingly every combination of driver uninstalls/reinstalls, confirmed that both the Dell and Microsoft ambient light sensor services are enabled and running (and tried disabling, one, the other, and both) and have not had any luck. Unlike some other posts I found on here with the same-body Lattitude models, I can control the backlight manually with both the keyboard and software - it is only the ambient sensor that does not work.

Any advice? I am running BIOS A15, and Windows 7 x64 RTM.

 

I have the same delay. Ordered mine early August. Delivery is now 9th October. Called Dell to confirm screen manufacturer for my notebook. The screen is a samsung.

I ordered the 1920x1200 RGBLED Trulife.

This is the second delay I have had. I initially ordered the unit with 2 x 320GB 7200rpm drives (The dell sales guy said that was fine). It sat at manufacturing for a month until I complained about the delay. I then found out that that build was incompatible. They never notified me until I chased them.

I changed the drive config to a single 500GB and got the process started again. The sales guy assured me the unit would be with me within a week. That was on the 3rd September. Delivery date then blew out to the 9th of October because of the screen delay.

The one upside is that I did beat the guy up for a pretty hefty discount (approx 19% off web price). That is the only reason that I am willing to wait until this arrives. I have not been able to get a comparable price on a unit with similar specs from anywhere else. The m4400 is the only unit that meets 90% of my notebook requirements. It still irks me that Dell charged my credit card immediately and I will not receive the unit until 9 weeks after payment. I could have used that cash elsewhere.

All in all the communication from Dell around this delay has been very poor. I had to threaten to cancel my order before I received any information about the delay. All emails and phone messages I had sent prior to that were ignored. This is the 5th precision I have purchased and I have never had hassles like this on prior purchases. I really hope the unit is worth the hassle

Ben

 

Hey Ben,

Thanks for confirming once and for all that the screen is indeed manufactured by Samsung. I purchased my M4400 in early July and I can say that I absolutely love it. It's not perfect but it's damn near close. This is my first Dell notebook, and my first Business line Notebook. I have had 8 notebooks before this. 4 hp's, 3 vaio's, and 1 Micron way back.

When I was looking for my last purchase it came down to this M4400 and the 17" MacBook Pro. I was worried about purchasing it because I couldn't even check one out at a store to have a better idea of what I was buying buy now I would not trade this thing up for a macbook anyday.

I do graphic work and 3d animation using maya. The RGBLED screen is great for colors and the Quadro FX 770m works great in Maya. Sadly enough, It blows away the brand new Apple Imac desktop computers we use in school. You can't even get a workstation graphic's card in a mac unless you get the giant, extremely expensive, Mac Pro Tower. Not to mention, Dell gave me close to 600$ off when I placed my order and it came with a 3 year warranty.

I really recommend getting the Zalman Notebook Cooler ZM-NC2000, it really compliments the notebook and if your gonna be doing any serious work the M4400 will get hot. This things keeps it ice cold and its real quiet. Worth every penny. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...998686&cm_re=ZM-NC2000-_-34-998-686-_-Product

It'll be worth the wait, you'll be glad you stuck in there! As with Dell's support, I feel like it's hit or miss with the agent that you get. The one I got on the phone was great. However, The guy I got for tech support when I had a problem was absolutely awful! Wasted and hour of my life.

 

Thanks for the link to the cooler. I will look at one of those. I was worried about heat as I have the QX9300 CPU as well as the 2nd HDD bay from NewModeUS. Thats a lot of heat producing things in a little space.

Edit: Newegg wont deliver to Australia. Need to find a local supplier.