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Precision M4800 : Input lag at log in, Switchable graphics not functioning, GPU fan "chirping" when it starts up.
New Issues see latest posts
LAPTOP RETURNED FROM DELL on 9/29/2017
Had Loose screws inside laptop chassis that had to be totally taken apart to find before attempting to power on.
Multiple Screws are now Stripped or missing, including ones that secure daughter cards to the mother board, and the motherboard to the chassis, and the ones that secure the keyboard.
NEW display hinges "stick and pop" again See Video on last page. Display appears to have been replaced as an assembly with Lid, Bezel, screen and hinges.
MOUSE AND TRACK-POINT DO NOT FUNCTION IF USING DELL DRIVERS. Works in Bios/Ubuntu, and windows before installing Dell Drivers. This was listed as an issue when sent in, and was not addressed.
IF ANY DELL REP is reading this thread -> Can I please get some assistance that is not just replacing parts with other used parts? Others with this model were granted replacements. Why do I keep getting junk parts? I've Even asked to just exchange it for an OLDER model like a used m4700.
I get no help if i call the help line Which usually gets me round robinned until I get disconnected. I barely get help if using the online chat. The only thing that's been remotely helpful is this thread and personal assistance from Justin-C from dell who monitored this and has basically ordered all servicing on this laptop for me.
-> Display EPROM failure. No Dell Boot Logo, Cannot Access BIOS. Can Still Boot Windows and Ubuntu. If internal display is active, track pad gets disabled. Manifested after a (stupid) decision to heed DELL COMMAND | UPDATE For Bios A19.
Dell Dispatched a box to return the computer for diagnostics that is comically small (physically smaller than said laptop in x,y dimensions -- Appears to be for an 8-10 Inch tablet or notebook)
Running Failure Log So no one has to read 4 pages of me complaining every so often over the past 2 years:
DOA : Original Hinges, AMD FirePro M5100 stuttering, CPU/GPU Fans that Chirped
Replaced : Multiple Sets (at least 3) of CPU and GPU fans for Rattling, Chirping, Failure to spin.
Multiple Sets of display hinges - Laptop is primarily docked and uses an external display for weeks at a time. There is no reason they should fail - (i have never had a hinge failure on any other laptop, and have had some for 15+ years)
FirePro m5100 First Replacement, DOA, Exhibited Same Symptoms
Quadro K2100m : Replaced 2 FirePros after a year stopped reporting temps, killed GPU fan control. Assume to be related to Bios A19. Replaced with a FirePro Again in June 2017.
MainBoards : it has now had two REPLACEMENT main boards.
This is a complaint, here, not an out right failure. -> This M4800 is also the SLOWEST computer to access my SSD's they have been in. Despite them being in Raid0, it takes 10-15 seconds to open single page word documents with only text. It did it in about 2 seconds on my Lenovo T61p with only a single drive AND not true full speed support for the SATA3 drives, that this was purchased to replace. They open nearly instantly on my DELL E6230 with a cheap 100 buck SSD from a few years ago. All Run/ran windows 7 Pro, All have/had office 2010 Pro.
One or Two of the BIOS versions I complain about on the first page or two were pulled from the driver page for this laptop, presumably due to the same errors I got being experienced by a lot of people.
Original Post Follows:
I recently purchased a new M4800 with an i7 quad, and a Firepro m5100 GPU. So far i have been rather satisfied with the purchase as it does everything i need it to do. However there are some quirks that are preventing it from being 100% :
When I run the discrete only card, the windows 7 log in has lag such that unless i move the cursor the screen does not update : you can type things in and no ****** symbols display in the password box. If you move the mouse constantly when you type the ***** does display in real time ? its a really odd sort of lag i have never experienced before in my life.
This does not happen with the integrated card. HOWEVER, the computer will not dynamically switch between the Intel and the AMD gpu (amd Enduro/ power express) as advirtized. When running in switchable graphics mode the global settings dropdowns are 100% blank in the CCC panel.
If you set it manually per application basis : it either does one of two things :
1) most games seem to launch fine, though monitoring it with RTSS indicates its running on the intel HD GPU, and the performance decreases substantially in reflection of this...
or 2) launching professional software like Chief Architect x6, or SolidWorks2014 causes the display to hang, fans to cut off and the computer wont do anything till a hard reboot via the power button.
*I have disabled the integrated GPU in bios and only run the AMD card as a work around. Is there a fix for this other than to ignore the Intel card ? Googling around brings me to a dell resource that states disabling switchable graphics in the BIOS is the only work around. All the programs work fine this way, but sometimes say in travel or during a lecture class i dont see a reason to keep the amd GPU powered up.
Source for the work around www.dell.com/.../EN
Will this be fixed in a future bios or driver update ?
and Lastly : the computer is dead silent most of the time, even the fans are rather quiet. However when the GPU fan kicks on after being off for a long time there is sometimes a noise i can only describe as "electronic chirping/scraping" before the fan whirrs to life this affects it not at boot, but randomly as you use it on battery and on AC power. setting it to "max performance" thermal management to keep the fan on all the time to some degree eliminates the sound. Is this normal ? or is this an issue ?
toddondell
6 Posts
1
February 5th, 2016 11:00
My personal experience was a long and trying one. First they sent a tech to replace the graphics card with another Firepro. Did not make a difference. Then they had tech replace motherboard. No difference. So I insisted on a new m4800 with the nVidia processor. That's how I got mine. BUT, I would think if you pushed, maybe they could send a tech to switch out your graphics card. Or at least send you a different model (for which you will obviously need a different driver) and then you could install or take to a repair tech.
For what it's worth, Dell knows they have an issue with this hardware configuration and I was told they had elevated the issue to their senior engineers.
lionsroar
54 Posts
2
June 4th, 2015 09:00
I am Following this up with a fix for some of the issues listed above In case someone Else had them.
In order to get AMD Enduro to function I performed the following :
The only downside to this is that the On Screen Display (Dell FEP) for changing Display brightness now indicates Full Brightness no matter what the level you set actually is. It changes Brightness perfectly fine, just the indicator is non-functional.
This still leaves the Chirping Fan, and now the Dell FEP On Screen Indicators to fix.
madridfran
18 Posts
0
August 29th, 2015 02:00
Hi @Lionsroar can you share with me a snapshot where I can disable in the Bios the graphic card.. I am using the A14 but I can not find it..
I have the same problem.. also my m4800 not detect the intel one .. I can not find the drivers there..
would be very appreciated..
best regard
toddondell
6 Posts
0
October 15th, 2015 13:00
Show me as having this issue as well.
toddondell
6 Posts
0
October 15th, 2015 13:00
By way of information, I did go to the AMD website and ran the autodetect utility for my graphics processor. It detected it as R9, although it is in fact the M5100. When I installed the R9 driver it did improve a lot of the issues including the odd way characters on password sign-in do not show without moving the mouse and also the mouse lag in general.
I have a Dell tech onsite at the moment and hopefully we will find resolution and I will post. Replacement of the graphics processor as well as motherboard did not resolve the issue(s).
Mark_Buckley1
2 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2015 09:00
I have two new Precsion M4800 which are both doing the same thing when at the sign in screen. Nothing is displayed unless the cursor is moved. Driving me nuts. I would be very interested to see what else you may have found out about this.
toddondell
6 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2015 19:00
Hey Mark -
I've had about 50 email exchanges with Dell. They did send a replacement system and I asked for one with a different video card. They agreed. But the system somehow would not respect the agreement and I received another M4800 identical to my first one. And guess what? The same exact issue is there. And it is there as soon as you turn it on.
Dell now knows there is a definite issue and they are elevating it to a higher level for their engineers.
Why don't you email me at ? I will send to you the recent email and the contact for the manager I am working with at Dell.
Todd
lionsroar
54 Posts
1
November 2nd, 2015 21:00
My Apologies, apparently google decided all things from dell were spam and swept away anything pertaining to my postings here. Still following my instructions to some degree from my "solutions posting"
My Links look messed up, apparently the forum thinks they are files and wont let you have proper hypertext links.
here are the settings in the bios in the attached image
After doing this i rebooted to windows 7 in safe mode.
Used the following tool to remove ALL instances of AMD or Intel Drivers : Display Driver Uninstaller
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
I then rebooted the laptop to windows, and installed the Intel GPU driver from dell.
Rebooted again.
Then installed the OFFICIAL AMD Firepro Drivers for the computer from AMD, not dell, as the dell is again based on a crippled beta, that AMD does not even offer anymore. Do not let it autodetect, as it will show up as an R9 290m GPU.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/workstation/mobile?oem=Dell&os=Windows%207%20-%2064#
Reboot once more. Now it should function properly. DO NOT update CCC through the AMD application : it will install version 15 and mess everything up again.
Notes : ALL dell applications MUST run on power-saver settings else they are simply clear aero windows with no text, and no interface. Windows 10 drivers do not exist yet for this card, and apparently Enduro is non functional on other laptops with this card in 10.
here are screen shots from my CCC
madridfran
18 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2015 23:00
Hi the big problemis that my precision m4800 in a screen 4k and it not have in the bios the option to change between graphics card. I only can use the amd one. The thing is that I still with the lag is horrible!! I spend a lot of hour in telephone calls with dell for nothing!!!
MadCoder12
1 Message
0
November 4th, 2015 11:00
Your laptop like my M4800 likely only has the AMD FirePro graphics card. I struggled with trying to find that BIOS setting as well. My solution was to uninstall the DELL delivered graphics driver and install drivers from the AMD url listed in a post above.
I also noticed that DELL posted an updated driver in the last couple of days on their website indicating that it fixes this problem but I didn't try it.
Mark_Buckley1
2 Posts
0
November 4th, 2015 13:00
A new driver is now available from the Dell site. I have installed it on both of my Precision laptops. So far so good. The characters now appear while typing at the logon screen. I am testing for other issues.
balthazar0280
8 Posts
0
November 14th, 2015 19:00
I too recently purchased M4800 with win 7 pro. I upgrade to win 10 but what a mistake. I got the dreaded cursor lag and occasional crashes. Clean installed windows 7 again and went to download the video driver but I am now only seeing one from back in March. This now cause lag in windows 7 as well. I am currently forced to run off default vga driver as Intel HD graphics are disabled (I have the 4K screen version). I hope this gets sorted out soon!!
balthazar0280
8 Posts
0
November 14th, 2015 21:00
I have the same issue as you and can sympathize. I have noticed that the most recent windows 7 and windows 10 ATI drivers have been removed. Could this be a sign that they are finally working on a new set of drivers. Hopefully these will fix the graphics issues I and many people are having.
lionsroar
54 Posts
0
November 14th, 2015 21:00
It looks like a number of people have posted in this thread about a 4k screen model not working, not having the option in bios, and so forth.
Because of the way dell designed the graphics pipelines and the type of display connection used, on the 4k models GPU switching is NOT physically possible, and was never claimed as a feature. Many many consumer product reveiw websites state this, and so did the dell configuration page.
also see this article here > www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Precision-M4800-Notebook.104416.0.html
"The Precisions generally feature AMD's Enduro or Nvidia's Optimus technology to switch between the energy-efficient processor graphics and the dedicated professional graphic depending on the task. However, the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 cannot be used due to the QHD+ screen installed in our review sample and is disabled. This naturally has an impact on the power consumption, which is much higher with a minimum of 19.6 watts than that of a system with an enabled Intel graphics."
lionsroar
54 Posts
0
November 14th, 2015 21:00
I dont know how it is working for you, but my experiance with the "new" driver has not really been pleasent and promptly (withen 1 day) ended up removing the driver in favour of the AMD official one.
Issues happened with the new driver that it would not display any image on either the internal, or external screens if the computer was docked while off before starting it up.
I also connected the laptop to a projector via the VGA port on the back, and after that i could never get the computer to scale display resolutions again. It would zoom and distort any non-native resolution to fill the entire screen : ignoring both the intel and AMD settings on display scaling.
Upon the removal of the newest version of the driver, the opperation of these tasks returned to normal. I have sense blacklisted Dells Command Update to prevent it from even bothering to search for new drivers. I will just do it manually from now on.