Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

This. 9 cell would make sense because it is physically larger, but it doesn't matter.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Not worried about nubmer of cells. I just have heard confusion on the batteries, and want to make sure if im not getting an adl. Hard drive, that i have the Larger capacity battery. Which I assumes 91Whr obviously is the larger. BUT... I didnt know why there was a "6 Cell and 9 Cell" or what the difference was if any.

 

Hm, that's my exact configuration. I don't have a rep though, perhaps they're pushing them out before xmas for those people and the rest wait until after the holidays. Oh well, I'll be out of town those 2 weeks anyway.

Still bummed I won't be able to get it set up during the downtime.

 

Don't spend too much time looking at the build list details, they're pretty weird no matter what system you order. But to answer your questions:

You only ever have one Intel 7260 driver at any given time. There isn't really a Dell driver and an Intel driver. It's always an Intel driver, it's just that Dell hosts a version of it on Dell's own Support site. The issue is that Dell doesn't have the MOST RECENT version of the driver on their site, presumably because they conduct some sort of compatibility testing on new releases before offering them up to customers -- and in this particular case, the older-than-current version hosted on Dell's site has been causing performance and connectivity issues with certain routers, and updating to the very latest version (which you can do by retrieving it straight from Intel) seems to solve that. I'm sure Dell will eventually update the version on their site, but until then you can just go straight to the source. Not sure what version your machine will ship with, but it's simple to update. Same goes for the NVIDIA GPU driver; often you can get newer updates faster by getting them straight from NVIDIA. That WOULD be true for the Intel GPU as well except that that driver doesn't seem to work on Optimus systems like ours, so for that one you have to stick with the version Dell offers, which seems to be tweaked somewhat.

WiDi is Intel's acronym for Wireless Display, basically their version of Apple's AirPlay Mirroring. You need a receiver box plugged into your TV to use it (or a TV that has built-in support for it, which is rare), but if you've got it, you can wirelessly mirror or extend your desktop over to your TV or whatever other display you want to use. Dell doesn't seem to have it on their download portal if you wipe your system, but I didn't bother installing it since I'll never use it and at over 200 MB, it seemed like a lot of driver bloat for no benefit for me. But here's the link to the download: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...word=intel+wireless+display+software&lang=eng

 

Call your Dell sales rep and ask what's causing the delay. In my case it was just a cover slip that I had a misfortune to order with my system! Unfortunately they can't modify the order when it's in production I am told, but in your case, it might be faster to cancel the old order and place a new one. Just don't include any extras that can delay the shipment. Order them separately!

 

I ordered the 256gb msata + 500gb hybrid version on 11/14. I didn't add on anything additional. I received an email today that instead of 12/06/13, the estimated delivery is now 01/06/14.

I'm thinking of just canceling my order. Too bad now I've missed all the good Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals.

 

If it helps at all, I don't think there were Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals on these systems. Those deals tend to be for lower-end systems and/or hardware that's about to be replaced by a newer generation. I can't say for sure that there weren't any deals since I didn't bother looking, but the email I got about Dell deals for Black Friday didn't mention these systems.

 

Yeah, there weren't any deals on these systems. I probably would have gone for something lower-end if sticking with a PC. Best Buy had a good deal on the high end Macbook Pro 15 inch. Anyway, I'm going to give it some thought and probably call Dell tomorrow to see if they can tell me anything about what's going on.

 

Be carefull about the newer version 16.6.0.8 Intel wlan driver, it might disable your bluetooth, I had to reinstall the dell wlan driver to be able to use the bluetooth mouse etc. The funny thing is my driver version is still 16.6.0.8 after reinstall of the dell driver version 16.5.1.6

 

Does the 3800 come with a DVD player? I see you can buy PowerDVD software, but I don't see anywhere that a CD or DVD player is included. Thanks!