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I have experienced the freeze between Nvidia and Intel GPU switching too, but only when manually doing it through Nvidia control panel (like a software MUX switch), not when launching games and stuff. The buzzing speaker sound I have experienced also, when I am on the battery saving power plan and do some multitasking on the battery whilst listening to spotify through internal speakers. The third issue I have not experienced.

Today, a strange thing happened, or two. So, yesterday evening I have been working on the machine, transitioning from the old laptop, moving databases, installing software, etc. I have also opened the laptop to insert a 990 PRO 2TB drive from my former laptop. Everything was working fine at this point. Once everything was properly set up on the new machine, with the old drive already inside it, I have wiped the 990 PRO with DiskPart and then did a complete read test, zero fill and read test again (to check for degraded NAND). No problems there, however, the common read speeds for the 990 PRO were somewhere at PCIE GEN 3.0 level, hovering around 2.500 MB/s. Also, the factory OS Drive (PM9E1 which is an OEM 9100 PRO) runs somewhere between 6000 to 10.500 MB/s in benchmarks, dont know why. I know that the Sequential R/W is not important, however, I dont know why does it act like this. I yet have to perform a full test in Anvil to see IOPS, but I suspect that the drives are not working to their full potential in this laptop. Could anyone with PMP18 please confirm the drive performance with either CDM, AS SSD or Anvil? After I have finished the work with the drives, I have launched a Passmark Performance Test 3D benchmark to run in a loop till the morning, to test the GPU for possible errors before I fully commit to this machine. This morning (7 hours later) i came to the machine, ended the test, checked HWInfo and tried to restart the OS. When I came back from kitchen, the PC was in recovery mode, unable to post. No luck with startup repair, always loaded just into recovery. The filesystem was fine, the drive was detected, files were accessible. Ran 3 different diagnostics on the OS drive, all fine. Fixed the bootloader partition with bcdboot, everything started working again. I am flabbergasted. Now, is the OS drive failing in some weird, unpredictable way, or it was some Windows shenanigans?

I will certainly try to observe such behavior, once Ill be able to spend more time with the laptop. Could be during this weekend. 7 - Yes, exactly this. Nvidia tray monitor says that the GPU is inactive, but it keeps getting active. Once I got rid of the Intel control panel, it is almost always off, but the corellation with the monitoring software is a spot on! Each time that I open HWInfo from tray, the GPU comes alive for a split second. So no hardware monitoring in the background when I want to maximize the battery, okay. 9 - I do not see any eventlog entries for connecting or reconnecting the FP Reader device. It seems like it only becomes active about 3 second after the login screen appears. First, there is only PIN option, but after a few seconds the fingerprint option appears. It is a FIPS reader, so I get that its a slowpoke. 11 - I know where you are aiming at, but I perfectly understand what is the SC slot - I use Smart Card reader for our Govt application. However, I have done my research regarding this issue, and everything points me to the WWAN. The actual SmartCard reader is called "Broadcom Corp Contacted Smart Card 0" and shows under Software Devices in the Device Manager. This SC Reader is also detected by our Govt software that works directly with the SC Readers. It also registers the Contactless one, and then the third one - Microsoft UICC ISO Reader. I believe that it handles the SIM / Virtual eSIM slot as a SmartCard. https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000200467/inspiron-latitude-and-precision-wwan-with-esim-causes-login-issues-for-smart-cards

24 hours with this machine. My feelings and findings so far: The body is really sturdy with amazing torsion strength, does not twist, just acts like an ingot. One screw (front right corner) was loose from the factory. I have not opened the device, yet. As for the problem with the bottom door, well, in the 3D Visualisation on the Dell´s website, the laptop is pictured with some sort of a halved, sliding bottom door (the one that I have posted prior to this post). I do not have this, I have normal bottom cover that is one piece. Anybody here has a PMP18 with this sliding door? Keyboard is...well, its not a ThinkPad but it is not that HP abomination as well. Its quite good. No complaints except for the arrow keys. The 2560x1600 120Hz panel looks amazing color-wise, almost like IPS Black from the new Ultrasharps, but its slow AF. Ghosting is just there. Lenovo had way better panel in the P16G2 regarding this. I miss that screen, it was really good. Touchpad is very pleasant to work with, both its surface and the click feedback are good. Fan behavior is very good, at least during office work and basic multitasking its like passive or just very quiet, have not had a chance to try out some proper loads except benchmarks. Surface temperatures are pleasant. Sound coming from the speakers is nice. Not MacBook Pro level nice, but usable for both movies and some background music. Weirdly bugged Optimus. I have installed iGPU drivers from Dell. They install as a driver only, without the control panel. If I install the control panel for the Intel iGPU manually from MS Store, it results in bugged Optimus, with the dGPU (RTX 4000) running at 8W idle basically non-stop. Have you encountered this as well? The battery life is all over the place, ranging from 2 to 6 hours in idle with no apparent causes. The total system consumption is very wild, going from basically zero to 50W, again, without doing anything other than web browser with a few tabs (brightness at 7 out of 10) Fingerprint reader dropped once in 24 hours, was missing in device manager with no apparent cause, was fixed by a reboot. I hope that I wont have to RMA this week after the delivery. The internal, factory 1TB Gen5 (Samsung PM9E1) drive tops out at +- 8400/4000 R/W and I do not know why. Eventlog keeps getting spammed with "Smart Card Reader 'Microsoft UICC ISO Reader rejected IOCTL TRANSMIT: Parameter is incorrect" - seems like a SIM/eSIM issue, I do not use WWAN currently. Anyone getting these errors on their machine? Same thing with PCI Express Endpoint / PCI Express Legacy Endpoint WHEA Corrected errors. I am unable to find the source of these. Laptop seems to be working fine. Score in Passmark seems okay, getting about 62k / 4.8k MT/ST ratings, which are quite higher than the median for the 285HX. This is just some basic rambling about the machine, I will do a proper review once I feel "at home" with it. That feeling aint coming yet.

Hey guys! Just unpacked mine. Abnormal behaviour that I have noticed so far: There were some corrected WHEA errors regarding PCIE Endpoint / Legacy Endpoint. Could be related to the first power-on and the driver updates, as they were logged at that time. Have you noticed these? Also there were about 5 ACPI Errors about EC timeout, again, at the same time as the WHEA ones. I am updating the factory OS to the current day, so all the devices will get their firmwares updated (as well as the BIOS and EC itself) and then i am going with a fresh install. PS: I have ordered the system with the SSD door, but the system came with the normal bottom cover. Does anybody here have the PMP18 with the sliding bottom door? The one that you can see on the 3D Visualisation:

Guys, perhaps someone here will know, who is the OEM for the 1/2TB Gen5 drives in the PMP18?

I am now looking at the comparison between the PMP18 and 7770 side by side, and the new model has way more reinforcements / underlay on some places. Particularly above the keyboard (between the hinges) and in the battery area + the additional magnesium cage there. If the keyboard baseplate is some sheet metal, I do not know, but that would also help + the gargantuan heatsink screwed into the motherboard, running across the entire back will do its part. I repeat, I have no first hand experience with this model (yet), but from the looks of it, the palmrest should be very stable, rock solid almost. Definitely the most heavy-duty palmrest design since 7720 era. Does it feel that way when you pick up the laptop by the side? What about bending under pressure, some squeaks, etc? Sorry for being so curious 😄 Anyways, the plastic surface might be better for me after all. Liked it a lot on the P16. The metallic palmrests of the Zbook series always collide with the clasp of my watch, resulting in scratches on both. That is great to hear. Any notable issues, freezes, hangs or similar, so far?

Brass nuts molded in, thats definitely plastic. On the other hand, the black ribbed material to the left and right will definitely be metal. If you search for Precision 7770 palmrest, its more or less the same thing, but without the rubber. Lets see how the paint will hold up.

And of course I love when I can look at some comparison data, its just that it would be nice to have it in one room 🙂 About the case material, well, I do not have the laptop yet, but from all the videos, spreadsheets and also from the 3D rendering of the internals on Dell site, it really appears to be bonded from two different materials, main body + some reinforcements here and there: But the official PDF only mentions Magnetite, and magnesium in the chassis: Magnetite is not really suitable for laptop bodies, it is essentially a common iron ore. If the thing feels like plastic - not having the common "cold" touch, it will probably be an Elektron or other, similar alloy, with some additional magnesium cage underneath it. Does ThrottleStop or XTU, or other similar utility works, at least for undervolting / limiting the ratios or power limits? Also, this tool, you have to run it on each POST/BOOT for it to be active, or you set it once and its done?

TBH I was just about telling you that the performance measurements should be moved either here, or to a new, dedicated Pro Max Plus owners thread 😄 And as we are long past release, this thread should be renamed. I am fine with the 8x PCIE, the mobile (and almost all of the current) GPUs cannot saturate it anyways - waste of lanes to go x16 in a laptop. I have a desktop 5090 running at x8, and I am still competitive in 3DMark with it. However, the plastic palmrest is kind of disappointing to me, to be honest. I fear that it will smooth off and then wear out very fast, just like the common Dell plastic surfaces on Latitudes. Is it at least feeling sturdy? Is there any kind of tutorial / manual for the SREP tool? What exactly can it do? First time hearing of that.

The Pro Max Plus 18 has a plastic palmrest? It surely looks like a unibody aluminium chassis.

Same here in CZ/SK, the pre-configured models are probably identical across our region. Anyways, its not a problem to order even for a private person, but you would have to pay the VAT of course. Send me a PM with the config you would like and I can forward it to them, they will make an informational, non binding price offer with the same discount as I got.

About the same price, or about the same config? 🙃 This is a Dell AD that I have long term relationship with, ever since I bought my Precision M4800 back in 2014. Would you be ordering as a company with VAT ID? Oh and guys, I cannot find any document regarding the M.2 config on this laptop. Is it gen 5/4/4/4 or 5/5/4/4?

I have receivIed a price offer from my sales rep, specced exactly as I have requested: The OEM drives I do not care for, taking the Gen5 1TB as a base for the OS (for 100% compatibility and firmware updates) other than that I will fill the remaining slots with Samsung 990 PRO´s. I dont know about prices elsewhere in EU when going through sales rep, but this is priced roughly at €3900 (non-VAT), which seems like a very good price, considering that for this money you can usually get something with RTX3000, no WWAN, basic battery and Gen4 drive. Also, Lenovo is asking me €4400 for the same configuration of P16 Gen3, and that is with 4k60 screen, which I would swap for 2560x1600 165Hz afterwards (adding more cost). Plus, their machine has a 100W lesser power budget as was mentioned previously. Have to mention that I am buying a single unit, so no bulk company purchase etc. What do you say? I guess that I am sold at this point.