Precision M4800 Slowest Computer I have ever owned

Question

Is there a way to find out which of the 4 memory slots the Precision m4800 are made for which type of memory. I find it interesting that my m4800 came from the factory with memory in slots 2 and 3 and not in slots 0 and 1. The memory reports in as DDR3 with correct speeds, but my laptop is the slowest PC I have ever owned. I have done a lot of checking and it sure looks like a memory access or bus issue that makes anything using general memory really slow. Novabench give me a score of 330 on the Dell M4800 but my Toshiba that is slower gets a novabench score of 1200 and all the tests are right at 10 times faster on the Toshiba. It sure looks like a memory / bus thing. I have tried every trick and diagnostic that I could think of and the boot ones report a great laptop but windows runs really slow as though memory is the slowest thing. SOLVED – POWER SUPPLY Affects MEMORY SPEED You have to use the newer 9 AMP power supply with the M4800. If you are using the older 6.7 AMP power supply that is with many docking stations your entire system will slow down drastically. You will receive no warning from within windows that it is your power supply that is forcing the system to operate in slow mode. There is a bios warning on time but your IT department probably cleared that message on first boot and you will never see it again. Check you power supply to make sure it is the 9 AMP one.

Bruddah Iz · Accepted Answer

SOLVED - POWER SUPPLY AFFECTS MEMORY SPEED The M4800 uses a 19.5v 9 AMP ( 9 AMP the important detail here) Many Dell Docking Stations use an older 6.7 AMP power supply. The M4800 runs slower when the 6.7 AMP power supply is hooked up. You have no Warning or indication in Windows that you are running in slow memory mode. There are no log entries etc. You will see a bios warning only ONCE normally. So the first time you IT department or Tech person set the PC up they probably ignored this detail and you will never see this slow down message again. If you ever run the PC on battery your PC will seem faster when you are not connected to your docking station. I have heard that Dell has a new USB 3.0 docking station and it may come with the newer high powered power supply that is 9 AMPs. My Dell 24 inch narrow edge monitor works way better now as well. The low powered slow memory did not respond fast enough to the monitor and you had to time your power button this just right, now it works as expected.

PaulaJava · Answer

I imaged my end user's new M4800 with a lesser power supply and hit F1 at every boot. Its was fine when I had hit. Now the user is set up with the docking station that came with it and is powered by the power brick that came with the laptop. He is experiencing the same slowness. How exactly do I correct this? He obviously can't just use the battery all the time. Is there a way the set it for the higher amp?

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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