-->*OFFICIAL: Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge*<--

Ok,

A : I'm an idiot

B: how do you get to the bios

B: how do i turn the light on the top of the lid off>?

 

The fact that your pattern is A, B, B pretty much answers A =)

Just kidding dude.

 

Nice website, thz for that Julian.

Well the courier just dropped off my machine, so I'm unboxing it now

 

Hey Pommie, congrats. Nice that it came on time. Mine will be Monday (fingers crossed), which is 7 business days.

Can't wait to see your stats.

 

B) Should be able to access on bootup

B) Maybe some of the other thread users can answer more specifically. I assume what you want is just the logo turned off and not the other lighting (like keyboard etc). Have you looked at Quickset instead of in the BIOS?

 

Ugggh, major issues with desk space here, don't think I can fit both my laptops on the one desk... I think its time my old crappy PC went to a better place...

 

Its funny, I forgot how big the power brick is?!!! lol

 

Arrrgh, both HDD's are seperate not in RAID config!?

 

Further to this Spike010, in the owners manual this is the entry:

How to change the LED colors for the zones, play various LED effects (like
strobe lights, breathing lights, rotating lights), enable or disable visualization
plugins for select music players
To view Dell QuickSet Help, right-click the QuickSet icon in the Microsoft®
Windows® taskbar, and select Help. The taskbar is located in the lower-right
corner of your screen.

 

Ya, Ifti posted a while back that by default the drives are not in Raid and the cards are not in SLi

 

So, to configure for Raid0 you need to wipe the drives, which will require an install. Read the recent posts about difficulties getting Media Direct working when you do this though.

I really wish someone would volunteer their time to post detailed instructions of what to do to get an reinstall working well (raid config, GPU drivers, SLI etc). Anyone?

 

I remembered about the SLI not being enabled when you first get it, but don't seem to remember the HDD's not being RAID setup...

 

There lies the problem mate. I wasn't keen on doing a fresh install, especially with the problems I've been hearing about Dell mediadirect. Hmmm, bit of a bummer, was the problems being experienced only with Vista? Or XP as well?

 

I'm not sure it discriminates.

 

Pommie, you might try taking a look at this site if you haven't seen it yet.

http://www.bootstrike.com/Articles/DellXPSM1210/

 

Thanks for that, a very informative website!

Finally posting from my M1730, had some issues getting into the wireless website. Turns out I was missing out a digit in the password. I love the screen on this thing. Just installed IE7.

One thing im not happy with is the scrolling is very jaggy?! Not smooth like on my Asus W3J? I use the scroll wheel, click on the bar on the right of the screen, or use the touchpad scroll function, and the movement is extremely jaggy and jerky as I scroll? This im not happy with! Is there something im doing wrong?

Well, next I'll download 3dmark and get some scores posted for you guys.

Julian, that bag website you posted was excellent. Anyone, who owns/is getting a XPS M1730, have a look at this website: www.rushfaster.com.au

Even if you don't live in Australia, it has an excellent interface, and lets you pick your laptop brand and type to see if it will fit!

 

Sorry, but can you guys who already have the M1730 check on internet explorer what the scroll rate is like? Is it really jerky and slow when scrolling through a webpage? This has gotten me annoyed, I don't like it. I like my surfing to be smooth!

 

there's an IE setting called smooth scrolling: Tools/advanced/browsing

is that on?

 

I just changed some settings and re-booted, for some reason IE is scrolling smooth and fine again? Weird.

On another note, this screen is incredible. I have the the res set at 1920 x 1200. Noticed the DPI setting was set to "large". Selected Normal and the rebooted. My god, the writing is so small now! I think i need glasses hehe, but wow does it look good. I do have some light leakage from the bottom of the screen.

 

Ok I just changed the DPI settings back to large. My eyes were starting to strain, I don't have the best eye sight unfortunately.

Im looking to download 3dmark06. Correct me if im wrong, but when I originally downloaded it for my last machine, I remember it being a very small little download. Everywhere I look to get it now, its a 580mb download?!

Am I doing something wrong people?

 

Well ... thanks very much. I found it useful too.

I have no idea what the Rep Power thing is, but feel free to shower me in it =)

 

From previous posts, it seems Australia only gets the Samsungs. Light leakage appears to be a by-product of this. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything you can do about it (even if you request a replacement, it'll just be another Sammy).

 

3DMark06 1.1 patch (update from 1.0) is small. 3DMark06 full version (1.1) is 560Mb.

 

Yeah, so I have to download the full version to use it. Oh well, at 30% already. Will have to wait a little to get you guys some benchmarks.

And yes, Australia only get the Samsung, well thats what I was told last time. I did complain, maybe with other people complaining Dell might have changed and start stocking LG's? Yeah, I know, its doubtful.

The Sammy Panel is very nice, the only little problem with it is the light leakage from the bottom, its not massive, but its noticable.

*Edit: Sorry Julian, I never use the reputation thing or pay any attention to it, keep forgetting about it! Rep added for your excellent post!

 

Woot! As I said, no idea what its for, but thanks anyway.

 

Can you confirm that the part number for the display is the Samsung?

 

Sorry mate, I can't remember how to do this?!

 

Anyone know when the M1730 will be released with a single 8800 instead of the SLI ?

 

I can't picture this happening anytime in the near future...

 

It's been stated that they will not offer single 8800's. You could probably buy one off ebay and install it yourself however..assuming someone is selling them that is.

 

Well Dell Media Direct still isn't working....rofl. The Tech Support guy said that Media Direct isn't a very smart program and wished me luck trying to get it working again with my new parititons. His recommendation was to format the Dell Media Direct partition so the button wouldn't send me in the infinite loop from hell.

Fresh install, no increase in 1280x1024 3dmark06, still 12.2k. I think my 1920x1200res score went up however. 11.4k. I can't believe there's only an 800 point difference between the two resolutions.

I'm going to try overclocking next, see if I'm still getting studdering at 3.4GHZ cpu oc.

 

Ok, just finished a 3dmark06 test. Running all the default settings (only ones you can run with the free version).

3dmark score of 11687 --> http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=4B352686FBAB863105F2BE6E6DB08470

Hmmm, I was hoping for in between 12000 and 13000. Haven't changed anything, just installed the latest window's updates along with Windows Live messenger, drivers are still standard.

 

Kermit, what spec do you have? How's the RAID setup going? I'll be looking at getting that sorted out next. For some strange reason I thought Dell would do that at the factory for us...

 

the score you got pommie if fine for the cpu speed. 3dMark06 is very dependant on CPU aswell. When i overclocked my 2.8 to 3.4 i get 2500 more marks

 

So let me summarise this. To get the best out of the drives, Raid 0 must be configured. But in order to do that, you have to reinstall the OS as the drives get wiped. But, by reinstalling you're in for a pig of a time to get Media Direct working again?

Does that sum it up? Thats a worry. Does everyone have trouble getting back all the functions after a reinstall or is it just Kermit? Kermit, are you trying to do something non-standard with the partitions?

 

wow, 5 new pages to read through! lol

Ive only used latitudes in the past, and I have been well impressed with the sound from the M1730. I dont have any plans of purchasing anything extra for sound. If you are really into hardcore gaming or watch a lot of BluRays etc, and want a surround sound setup, then at least you have an option which isnt massively expensive.....I wouldnt mind knowing if anyone has tried it out though......or do I have to buy it and review it myself again?!! lol

Had the same issues with MD, so I left it in the end. Im glad I left it, since I have had no desire to use it since Ive had my lappy. I do use it within Vista sometimes, just to watch a BluRay, and it runs perfectly within Vista, but otherwise, from boot, its a job to get the damn thing working! lol

In regards to partitions - You've done the right thing. I have a similar setup and always partition in the same kinda way....

C: (35GB) - Used for OS and all programs.
E: (10GB) - Used for my documents
F: (100GB) - Used for my photos, home movie video clips, and work in progress, etc
G: (120GB) - Games

I still have around just over 100GB unallocated space, which I tend to keep just in case another project comes up that I want to keep seperate etc.

I regularly backup partitions E, F, and G onto a 500GB External HDD.
On a clean reinstall I created an image of C.
So if my OS ever messes up, its a quick 20min job just to whack the image back on, and my other partitions remain untouched.

rofl!!!
This made me laugh! lol

Anyways, I dont think you can turn off the lights on the top lid from the BIOs. From what I remember the BIOs only does the speaker and touchpad lights.
To turn off the lid lights you need to use Quickset. Go into Gaming Options, and you will see a checkbox at the top where you can switch off the lights on the lid.

Congrats!!!! Its finally arrived! lol

It depends on whether you request the setup in your original configuration. You needed to select the option for RAID0 when the system is first configured vis the site etc, otherwise the discs will be left seperate since you didnt request otherwise.

Its not hard to set up etc (see link in sig), but yes it does ned a reinstall - not such a bad thing since it freshens up your system.

I had this same issue - but realised I was running off of battery power and forgot to switch the socket on the wall on! lol. As soon as I switched to the mains, which I always use anyways, it was fine.

Also enabling SLI makes things smoother as well, as well as changing your power settings to 'High Performance' rather then a power saving mode.

I think it starts with SEC.....

Only if requested - see comment above

 

Thats pretty much correct.
MD is a bit of a pig to get going sometimes. TBH I really didnt bother with it too much since I knew I wouldnt really use it anyways so I didnt go into troubleshooting it etc.

I think you need to keep the partitions it creates before you install the OS.

So you insert the MD disc, and it will allow you to choose the partition size for the OS. Once you do this it will create that partition, create a 2GB partition for itself, and put all the remaining HDD space into one partition. So....

Partition 1 - OS - You decide on size
Partition 2 - MD - 2GB
Partition 3 - All remaining disc space.

When I did the above, MD worked perfectly fine.

Now I, like most people, didnt want partition 3. I wanted to create my own smaller partitions. Hence, like others, I deleted partition 3 and created my smaller partitions as I required. This is where things messed up with MD. I dont think it likes it when you mess about with the partitions, but who wants a massive thirs partition in the first place??

I may be wrong, but this is the experience I had, and the only explanation I have at the moment. I went into setting up RAID shortly after, so didnt bother to troubleshoot and find a workaround to get MD working.

 

Has anyone installed the Lowjack (Laptop theft protection / recovery) software that came with their m1730s? The idea is nice (where if someone steals your computer, they'll be tracked down as soon as they connect to the internet with your computer. The only problem I see with that though is that most thiefs are smarter than we think and would just strip the hard drives out and swap new ones or just strip the whole computer for parts. If that happens, then the whole software theft protection would be pointless seeing as that it's installed on the hard drives (that i'm assuming would be pulled out).

I also lock my computer with a boot up password so even if someone steals it, they won't be able to log on, and thus they can't connect to the internet (therefore the theft service can't be notified).

Either way, has anyone bothered to install it? If so, does it appear to 'slow down' your computer at all and/or take up resources?

 

Ok, so if you're ok with the partitions sizes that they give you, there shouldn't be too much trouble. I think the MD idea is ok, but really I leave the notebook turned on most of the time anyway. Also, the boot time to windows isn't that long either - so I agree, MD really has limited appeal. But for most people I guess if its supposed to work, you want it working.

 

I don't think the AUS site allows you to note that you want Raid. Either that or I rushed through the order process =)

 

Oh I see, I know here in the UK you can opt for a RAID0 setup, if not you get the standard setup of your choice. The last time I checked there were a good 6 or 7 options to choose.

 

right i got my laptop yestarday

boy does it run HOT!!!! i see what you mean now.

otherr than that im loving it.

im having problems with my x-fi extreme audio notebook has anyone else got this soundcard working with their m1730? when i plug mine in nothing happens

 

Well, I had the choice of 3 different drive sizes, but not how they were configured. I definitely want Raid 0 though, so I'm gathering as much intel on the easiest way to do it.

 

RAID isnt very hard - have you checked my video?? (link in sig)

 

lol Here in Ireland we got only two options! RAID0 320GB and SSD RAID0 64GB!

 

Over here it seems like its dependent on which system you go for. If you go for a 8700m system you can choose RAID0 configurations, or a single 200GB drive. If you go for the 8800m system, you get a RAID system - there is no option for a single drive, or 2 seperate drives!!

If I go in the site as a business user - I get RAID setups only!

lol, so its dependent on your location, and which GPU system you go for!

 

lol Just read the news. GeForce 9800 GTX + Core 2 Extreme X9650 sccored only 14014 points in 3D mark 2006. And GeForce 9800 GX2 beat 9800GTX just by a couple of hundred points! And it is so heavy, the manufacturers are atually scared, that motherboard could actually break during the transpositioning.
As a conclusion...the next high end M9800GTX is not gonna be much faster, than 8800GTX We can all sleep tight

 

Excellent news.
*sigh of relief*
lol

 

Was the X9000 available on the US Dell website yesterday?, I just noticed its now an option (no sign of it in the UK though)

 

so X9000 is available to UK, not even gonna bother with it, its exactly the same except for some reduction in heat, woopty doo da!