Dell Precision M3800 Dead

Hi andyjstew,

Sorry to hear so many of those systems have had trouble out of the box! I’ve not come across any other customers reporting this yet but would certainly like to investigate further, especially given the number of your systems effected.

I’ve sent you a private message to follow up on those service calls.

Thanks,

I have had a Dell M3800 since January 2014. I use it for high-end structural engineering MathCAD modeling as well as professional-level Photoshop image development. I should say "used it" because it is now virtually dead. I have never abused the unit, but it has traveled with me to several international locations and worked really well until the last trip in February.

While on a cruise through Antarctica in February, the M3800 decided it would not come out of hibernation. I have closed the lid many times, and it came right back to life when I opened the lid...but not that time.

I tried all combinations of power button pushes and lid openings to no avail. Finally, the unit started beeping...eight beeps followed by a pause then eight more beeps, etc. It stayed that way for four days while on the ship...keeping me from getting my work done.

When I got home, the M3800 suddenly decided to start working again. I was pleasantly surprised and assumed the failure had something to do with the ship...until it happened again four weeks later. This time it did not recover after sitting idle for a few days.

The unit was just one month out of the one year warranty when it started to fail, but I initiated repair through Dell anyway. To make a long story short, Dell initially misdiagnosed the problem as a system board failure. When their contract repairman came to my office and replaced the system board, the problem was still there. The repairman came back a few days later with a new LCD screen/cover. That fixed the blank screen and beeping, but the unit would no longer charge when plugged into a power outlet. The Dell repairman came back a third time to fix the charging problem and replaced the system board again. That fixed the charging issue, but one fan no longer worked. The one that did continue to work made way more noise than both fans made before this failure.

Beware of Dell repairmen bearing system boards.

Just had a 4th machine of this model fail with the exact same issue, totally dead.

Over the weekend, I received an update from the Dell repair service who has been working on my M3800. As you can see below, Dell management has decided to repair my laptop one more time at their expense, but they imply that it is a lost cause.

I give them credit for doing this fourth repair, and I hope it works. Going from a simple screen failure to multiple failures that appear to have been caused by their contract repair service is really disappointing. I expected more from Dell. At least in my instance, they have poor quality control over their repair services....or the M3800 truly is a total lemon.

Here is the note I received from the Dell repair service management team this past weekend:

"Since this issue is somewhat related to the previous issue, I escalated the case even higher and got a one time approval for a dispatch so that we can address your fan issue. However this is the last time that we can provide a repair to the computer because we think that the system is already beyond economical repair because of multiple issues happening with it and normally, 1-2 dispatch would fix the issue."

A contract Dell repairman came to my office today to repair my M3800 again. He brought the repair parts Dell had ordered and shipped to him. The kit included two new fans, a heat sink as well as a new mother board and back cover.

Since the presenting issue after the last repair was a fan that was not working and a VERY noisy fan that was working, the repairman replaced the fans and heat sink. However, the diagnostics (F12) showed that the CPU fan was still not working. Thus, it was the motherboard causing the problem, not the fan itself.

The repairman then replaced the motherboard with the new one that came in the repair parts.

The M3800 is now working fine...passing all diagnostic tests multiple times.

So during the past month my M3800 has had one LCD replaced and the mobo replaced four times in order to get it to work properly.

The repairman said the unit probably overheated which caused the initial failure and he showed me how much heat comes out of the vent on the bottom and how close to the table the unit sits. When I reminded him that the mobo had been replaced four times to correct the problem and none of them had had time to overheat before the failure was detected, he just smiled.

Just to be certain over heating is not a future issue, I ordered a fan pad from Amazon. That will add 1.6 lbs to my laptop bag...so I will be back to lugging the same weight I had with my old Lenovo that never failed.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

well you can add me to your list too!  just had a M3800 delivered today for a user and its DOA.  Booted once with some messed up text on the screen but now won't boot at all, power button stays lit for about 20secs and then it powers off.  Should have a motherboard (on back order, grrrrrr) and technician onsite to fix it.  Not going to send it back DOA as the user needs it next week when he travelling away from the lab.

I could not travel for business for a month while Dell kept repairing my M3800 (four service calls about a week apart each time). I now have a Lenovo W550s as my primary travel laptop and the M3800 sits in another laptop case next to my desk in case the Lenovo fails.

I thought I would be disappointed with the Lenovo W550s after using the Dell M3800 for a year, but the opposite is the case. The battery life and power management are far superior with Lenovo, and all else works perfectly well for my structural engineering work.

We have bought a number of the Precision M3800 's.  On our Midlands site we have had 2 of 4 die within 3 months, with each requiring multiple visits by  Dell Engineers to replace motherboards and then the replacement failing within a week - in one case within 30 minutes.  At our London site we have had 4 out of around 14 have the same failure with the same results.  The response from Dell has been to deny that there is a fault with this model.  6 of 17 would suggest otherwise.

I'm having the same issues, Dell came less then five months ago and they fixed. Now my warranty expire and facing the same issues the exact same problems, the battery goes dead so does the computer. Now they dont want to be reliable for their faulty parts and their incompetent technicians. this is ***! the M3800 is not a reliable workstation.

I have two m3800s, and both have failed motherboards.  Now i'm scrambling to find a replacement motherboard and no one, it seems, not even Dell, has any in stock.  This ***.

We have had the same issue. We got the first laptop and after about 3 months it would not boot up! Dell replaced mother board. Now we have another new laptop - a month old and same thing. It died and will not boot up! This is so frustrating!!! I am amazed that Dell screwed up so bad!

I too had a mobo failure it was replaced along with the touchpad and lcd due to dying pixels. After replacing the touchpad was replace it was almost unusable it wouldn't detect movement hardly at all and I eventually got the device replaced. Now I have a new machine and it emits a high pitched noise when plugged in and the wireless card is randomly not being detected which wasn't a problem with the previous device and I've tried 4 different linux distros and they all have the same issue with the wireless. Anyone looking to buy this device should look elsewhere.

I have had the same reoccurring motherboard problem since I purchased this laptop last year.  It was replaced twice so far.  The warranty expires tomorrow and I have created another support request.  This time they want me to send it to their repair depot and promise to have it back to me in 7-10 business days.  I am seriously considering buying from somewhere else next time (which may be as early as next week)!

I'm out of warranty with the same problem.  The laptop has barely been moved in 2 years, never left the house but gets used in various rooms.  It is treated with ridiculous extreme caution.  So the notion that such  a hardware problem has occurred is very disappointing.

Out of warranty means the onsite repair (of a new motherboard and display) is about the same as a new machine. The replacement parts would be refurbished.  So it's an offer I cannot accept.  I have asked about the cost of sending me the parts to make the repair myself.