M4800 Owner's Thread

[aldarxt]

7 minutes ago, Vaardu said:

The CPU fan has its dreaded rattling again. Is it possible for the rotor of the fan to lose its magnetism? And also when I cleaned it with a swab, black residue came off and I wasn't sure what it really was.

Black residue could mean a leaky seal. From mechanical experience, automotive and power tools but not so much on PC but when a sealed bearing starts to leak the grease inside will leak out and the older it is the darker the grease. Unless you bring your PC in a coal mine that would be my best guess. I just use a very soft bristle brush like a small paint brush to clean my fans. And if it is rattling then best guess it needs replacing, hope this helps.

[Kitje]

42 minutes ago, aldarxt said:

Black residue could mean a leaky seal. From mechanical experience, automotive and power tools but not so much on PC but when a sealed bearing starts to leak the grease inside will leak out and the older it is the darker the grease. Unless you bring your PC in a coal mine that would be my best guess. I just use a very soft bristle brush like a small paint brush to clean my fans. And if it is rattling then best guess it needs replacing, hope this helps.

I got it to stop rattling in the past, as it did appear that the rotor was off balance and hitting the metal part of the fan assembly. I'll make note of sealed bearing leaks... Maybe look into it further to figure out the true cause.

 

Edit: I may buy a new set anyways if possible... Is it possible? I've checked AliExpress and have seen some on there but not sure which to go for. I know I need a CPU fan, but from whom?

Edited January 5, 2023 by Vaardu

[Aaron44126]

3 hours ago, Vaardu said:

The CPU fan has its dreaded rattling again. Is it possible for the rotor of the fan to lose its magnetism?

 

For these, the CPU fan is easily swappable without removing anything other than the bottom panel and you can find new ones cheap on eBay, so I'd say just replace it if it is causing you issues.

[MELOCODI]

Tried to contact one company about a Quadro A2000 MXM, price is scary...
Right now I can only see two options:
ARC A380 6 GB (Nobody knows if it will even work)
Quadro T1000

[Kitje]

20 minutes ago, MELOCODI said:

ARC A380 6 GB (Nobody knows if it will even work)

Unless someone is able to fabricate a dual heatpipe heatsink for higher power draw GPUs for an M4800, this might be tricky. Might not even work at all because of VBIOS and drivers, or the generation of MXM it'd be using. A number of possibilities.

 

For the T1000 I only found a Zbook 17 G6 variant in MXM-B, which would make sense for an M6800, but it's not the right type. Advantech's online price for the type-A is €744 with limited availability.

 

Spotted some M2200's at something affordable though on eBay from a US seller, which I would but currently still fixing up a Precision 7540 (doesn't use MXM unfortunately).

[MELOCODI]

54 minutes ago, Vaardu said:

Unless someone is able to fabricate a dual heatpipe heatsink for higher power draw GPUs for an M4800, this might be tricky.

Heat output is not an issue as far as I know, it has a 50W and 75W versions, I would go with 50W.
 

 

54 minutes ago, Vaardu said:

Might not even work at all because of VBIOS and drivers, or the generation of MXM it'd be using. A number of possibilities.

Yeah, that's where the fun starts, yeah. I wish anyone that someone tries to install it one day...
Thinking about it, I will probably stick to T1000

[Kitje]

4 minutes ago, MELOCODI said:

Yeah, that's where the fun starts, yeah. I wish anyone that someone tries to install it one day...

I mean, I tried a WX4150 in an HP Zbook 15 G2, and not everyone else has really tried it on NotebookReview forums back then (and only not too long ago I saw some people trying it out). Maybe I can at some point acquire that kind of GPU and try it for myself. Not sure when though.

[MELOCODI]

1 hour ago, Vaardu said:

I mean, I tried a WX4150 in an HP Zbook 15 G2, and not everyone else has really tried it on NotebookReview forums back then (and only not too long ago I saw some people trying it out). Maybe I can at some point acquire that kind of GPU and try it for myself. Not sure when though.

That would be interesting. Thinking about it again — I will stick with T1000, because I am really on budget right now, so I am not allowed to take any risks. 

[MELOCODI]

Guys, do you think AMD heatsink can fit on T1000?

[chieukhanhok]

I use Dell M6800 and M4800 laptops, and recently replaced the K2100 graphics card with an M2000m. However, when I turned off the integrated GPU, the screen went black, so I had to turn it back on. During a stress test, the CPU temperature reaches around 80 degrees Celsius.

[MELOCODI]

I remember one day someone was discussing a different heatsink option for this laptop, something from older Dell laptops, it was a CPU heatsink if I remember correctly. Do you know which one was that?

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, MELOCODI said:

I remember one day someone was discussing a different heatsink option for this laptop, something from older Dell laptops, it was a CPU heatsink if I remember correctly. Do you know which one was that?

 

AFAIK there are no other Dell laptops with CPU heatsinks that will fit this one; however, many Dell Precision laptops of this era had separate "one pipe" and "two pipe" versions of the CPU heatsink, and which one you got depended on which CPU you ordered the system with.  (I actually upgraded the CPU heatsink in my Precision M6700 from "one pipe" to "two pipe".)

[Kitje]

5 hours ago, MELOCODI said:

I remember one day someone was discussing a different heatsink option for this laptop, something from older Dell laptops, it was a CPU heatsink if I remember correctly. Do you know which one was that?

Mine seemed to have the 2-pipe with the i5 it was configured with, along with 2 Delta fans so it seemed to be ready for upgrading to i7. Unless the i5 4200M needed the extra cooling, otherwise it would have been using 2 AVC fans and a single pipe CPU heatsink.

 

The only thing bothering me is that it's still using one for the GPU...

[MELOCODI]

I will try to do a BIOS mod soon, didn't have experience with Dell BIOS style, but I will try. I want to enable SPD write and Resizable BAR

 

[MELOCODI]

[unnoticed]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:28 PM, MELOCODI said:

I will try to do a BIOS mod soon, didn't have experience with Dell BIOS style, but I will try. I want to enable SPD write and Resizable BAR

 

What kind of mod are you thinking about? I haven't seen a successful bios mod for dell m4800 since the start of this community..probably with A08 bios way back in the days

[MELOCODI]

11 minutes ago, unnoticed said:

What kind of mod are you thinking about? I haven't seen a successful bios mod for dell m4800 since the start of this community..probably with A08 bios way back in the days

Well, I am not really sure about it right now, because I haven't flashed it yet, even though I have a CH341. I am not really in a place where I can take apart this laptop completely, the BIOS chip is hidden on the lower portion of a motheboard, so it is not the easiest thing to get to. So I am trying to flash it internally, I will probably reach out today.

[Daan]

Honestly just love the M4800 myself and thinking of nodding it. I just recently was able to pick up a model with the full HD screen, liked it so much even made a review video about it. If you’re interested see here: 

 

 

I was reading through the thread and saw that many of you are actually making amazing mods on the m4800. I was thinking of replacing the screen my model has for a higher resolution one and upgrading the graphics card. What places (can’t find much second hand) would you all recommend?

 

also what I have with my model is that the top part around the keyboard has become sticky as in old plastic kind of way, is this common with these models and what would you all recommend to get rid of this?

[Kitje]

4 hours ago, Daan said:

I was reading through the thread and saw that many of you are actually making amazing mods on the m4800. I was thinking of replacing the screen my model has for a higher resolution one and upgrading the graphics card. What places (can’t find much second hand) would you all recommend?

 

It'll depend on the one you purchased as some 2013 models have LVDS (LA-9771P), later in 2014 and 2015 they used eDP (LA-9772P). You can check this by looking at your Service Tag, and checking if the LCD says EDP, or under the laptop when you remove the ODD.

 

There's AliExpress where some bought MXM Type-As like the T1000. But time to time eBay can turn up second hand GPUs. My WX4150 came from eBay, albeit HP branded. I flashed a Dell VBIOS and it works fine, to an extent. CSM disabled and Legacy hardware ROMs is on, otherwise I cannot see the BIOS internally but external only. I plan to swap for an Intel Arc GPU.

 

My M4800 uses an 8bpcc 120hz display. The thing to note here is that opting for a 4K panel disables the iGPU.

 

4 hours ago, Daan said:

also what I have with my model is that the top part around the keyboard has become sticky as in old plastic kind of way, is this common with these models and what would you all recommend to get rid of this?

Ahh the luxury of rubber coating. ThinkPads exhibit this too, in fact anything rubberised. I haven't determined a reasonable workaround, but you could source a new palmrest.

[KMikhail]

I have looked for T1000 and T2000 MXM 3.0A around USA (ebay, amazon, simple google searches) and haven't come up with anything quite a few times 😞

[Kitje]

2 hours ago, KMikhail said:

I have looked for T1000 and T2000 MXM 3.0A around USA (ebay, amazon, simple google searches) and haven't come up with anything quite a few times 😞

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003366309487.html

 

This is where MELOCODI got the T1000 from. I was considering it too but I'm allocating my money for something else.

[KMikhail]

4 hours ago, Kitje said:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003366309487.html

 

This is where MELOCODI got the T1000 from. I was considering it too but I'm allocating my money for something else.

 

Thanks! I wonder, why various searches don't spit this card back? I would think T2000 is still nicer (could be downclocked likely), with the better thermal pad that was discussed in this forum.

[MELOCODI]

15 hours ago, KMikhail said:

I would think T2000 is still nicer (could be downclocked likely), with the better thermal pad that was discussed in this forum.

I am not sure about that, VBIOS is locked from tweaking

[KMikhail]

7 hours ago, MELOCODI said:

I am not sure about that, VBIOS is locked from tweaking

 

What about MSI afterburner? I used it with K2100 and now with M2200.

[MELOCODI]

16 hours ago, KMikhail said:

What about MSI afterburner? I used it with K2100 and now with M2200.

It is completely locked out, I think only VBIOS mod will help, but I don't remember anyone modifying a VBIOS on Turing GPUs