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

DELL have £150 off the XPS M1730 now. Infact i think its on any inspirion.

 

i tried to check the screen on the one i just sent back and could not find it anywhere

 

I was able to install the 156.73 drivers using the modded inf. Is this the same protocol to install the 169.04? I noticed that 156.73 includes the 8700 in its manifest but the 169.04 does not. Is that a problem?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2624648#post2624648

I posted exact steps to find the info in the link above mate, leebaldock also posted a similar description.

nm - I hope you get the spec you're after - i'm waiting to see what happens on the 19th.

 

I'm also interested on what happens on the 19th, though i pray its nothing groundbreaking because im getting tired of waiting .....

However i might as well order my M1730 as it wont come till after the 19th anyway. If nothing happens, then i lost nothing. If a new system appears, then i can cancel and go for that instead.

Anyone else (from the UK) find that the Customer Service is really.... poor? It's not that they dont help you (well maybe it is) its the fact they seem very unflexable.

I tried to get discounts, met with a brick wall. When ive had problems the only solutions seemed to be "re-order". First time i had a problem was days before it was due to be delivered, and i found out their "Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy" was just a CD with some drivers on it. When i asked that it be removed from my order because it was misleading, they wanted me to REORDER! I replied it seemed stupid to reorder simply to remove a single CDROM from thebox. Then they said they would give me 3% off and i could keep it. Unfortunatly when it turned up I didnt like the rear color (Bone White) and the LCD screen had light leakage at teh bottom, the colors were also uneven. No one location gave u the perfect view, you moved your head around and other parts of the screen got better color wise and others got worse. On top of that the thing was performing like a dog. Anyway i wont go on.... I had to return it, and i re-ordered and upgraded the spec a little.

Just today, i checked on the website to find that the XPS M1730 had droped in price by £150. So the config i ordered would cost me £1739 nstead of £1889. I called DELL to find out if my 3 day old order would be charged at this price, since its not even in production. No, im told. The only option if i want the new price is to? Yes, Re-Order. So now im back to waiting for a confirmation....

Is it unreasonable to asked to be charged the price of items at their current value, if you have not even recieved it yet? and its not even in production??

I was so frustrated that i even considered buying an Alienware system, which costs more (for less). Then i went to Rock... unfortunatly nothing to tempt me to spend so back with DELL for the long haul.

 

Just had the same problem mate, follow the link and you can get the modded inf which has just let me install.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15825

 

sweet. just installed and some video playback is noticeably better. Will post 3dmark scores shortly.

score with 156.73 driver : 8377
score with 169.04 driver : coming up...

 

Have other ppl had issues with the machine locking up? For some reason after installing updated drivers (incl 169.04), trying to open the nvidia control panel freezes the computer... not even the LCD refreshes... and I have to hard reboot...

 

It happened to me as well straight after the restart of the machine after installing 169.04, no problems since.

 

happened again running 3dmark06... rebooted. will try again.

 

Well, Just got a call that told me my "computer had been received for shipment and would ship on either Monday or Tuesday.

One week delay.... Not too bad...


My Components
Crimson Red
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition - English
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
RAID Performance: 400GB (2x200GB) 7200RPM
Blu-ray / DVD / CD Burner (Blu-ray Disc Drive)
NVIDIA®SLI™Dual GeForce®8700MGT with 512MB GDDR3 Memory
Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
AT&T built-in cellular mobile broadband (HSDPA 3.6)
Dell Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Bundle
Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
Dell BH200 Bluetooth 2.0 EDR Stereo Headset, VOIP Capable
ExpressCard Media Remote for Bluetooth-enabled Notebook
9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery
Dell External Mini USB Modem
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition

My Software & Accessories
Network Associates McAfee 8.0 English, 3-Year Subscription
Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint
Remote Control for Vista Home Premium and Ultimate
Dell XPS Notebook Backpack

My Service
Get $70 Gift Card with 4 Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service
Add Accidental Damage and LoJack Theft Protection to 4Yr Warr.
Dell On Call 30 Day Unlimited+12 mos, 5 incidents. Coverage All School Year
DataSafe Online Backup 10GB for 1 year
1 Year Automated PC Tune Up
No ISP requested

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
AGEIA PhysX™ 100M Processor
Windows Vista™ Premium
Logitech® GamePanel Display
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Processor Branding: Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme Processor

 

it locks up on me in 3d 06 as well

 

yep, rebooted and still locks up in 3dmark06.... and nvidia control panel.

But on the positive side, i am observing better video playback quality... wish i could see nvidia control panel tho...

 

Remove the drivers properly and then reinstall them, I had problems when I installed them over the top of the other drivers and now that I did a clean install, they work fine. Go to the devce manager and uninstall the graphics card driver and then use driver sweeper to remove the other files and registry entries and restart, then install the 169.04 drivers and they should work much better.

 

Hey Diver Jim, when did you order it, and how many times has it been delayed? To let other people know, I have had mine delayed twice. I have gotten 2 (two) $50.00 coupons, and my shipping was upgraded to overnight, since I have complained about the delays. Just to let you guys know. I find this "forum" interesting to say the least, and it IS informative. Great work guys!

 

Hi James,

I only ordered it on 10/26/07.... It's "only been delayed ONCE, for a week".... (SO FAR).

The thing is Dell has called me before... First telling me "it's almost ready to ship," THEN telling me "it's still in PRE production and should begin production SOON," to "it's been delayed until 11/13/07."

I will believe them THIS time when I get a notice that it has shipped..... Mmmm... Maybe not until I get the knock on the door?..... GRIN

 

Mixed results.

Followed your advice and the nvidia console seems to be working for the most part, although I had to reboot once.

Video playback is very good.

However, 3dmark06 still doesn't run and freezes until i reboot. Can't even kill the process in task manager.

Now, IE7 crashes alot too

 

I ordered mine October 9th. It was supposed to ship NLT October 31st. I talked to an American, and they stated that it was bench testing on Monday the 29th of October. Then on Wednesday, I got an email then, the 31st telling me that it was delayed until the 12th. I am SO damned excited about this. WOO HOO!

 

Now the system is locking up randomly... i'm going back down to 156.73 for the time-being. 156.73 seems to be the latest of the 8700M GT certified drivers...

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15643

Reduced frame rates, but definitely more stable.

 

These are my nvidia control panel settings. What are others using?

 

I just installed 163.69 (most recent WHQL driver), and everything seems fine with it so far, including nvidia control panel and 3dmark06 tests.

3DMARK06 score (163.69 driver) - 8386.

Is this a respectable score?

 

That is a good score compared to what others are getting, did you close all of the unneccesary processes and applications when you ran 3dmark and got that score?

 

Yes. I disabled all the cruft startup programs and services. I start up now with 56 processes.

The only apps I had running in the tray were
a) MS office One Note
b) Bayden Slickrun

 

My 3D Marks 06 Score:
Main Test Results
3DMark Score 7763 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 3736 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 3309 Marks
CPU Score 1857 Marks

I have the 2.2Ghz T7500 CPU with 4Gigs of Ram. I have not done any driver updates. If I change to the 163 one or the 169.04, will it improve the score? I feel like my CPU is underperforming. Any comments?

 

i thought 3d mark was a GPU measuring device not cpu......

 

I dunno about you guys but my DVD drive keep randomly opening at the weirdest times... only like once a day... not even every day... but it will just randomly pop open and I wouldn't have to touch anything really...

I think it's sensitive

 

Hmmm I'm not sure if I am going to keep this machine. I have managed to get a few hours yesterday and today spent on it and it seems to be running like a dog! It takes like 1-2 minutes to even start a simple process like unpacking a demo, everything just seems to take longer than it should, I have the X7900 processor but it's like the thing is stuck in treacle. I am just un-installing the 169.04 drivers because of lock outs and freezes.

I have tried a few games and to be honest I am underwhelmed so far, Crysis was like watching a slideshow and that was on 1280x1024 everything on medium, what's the point of having a HD screen when you have to lower the res to that of a 3 year old monitor! So far the only game that has played with anything approaching a playable frame rate is the COD4 demo and even that judders on 1280x1024.

I didn't expect desktop performance but I certainly expected better from a machine touted as a pure gamers machine.

Games tried so far:

Bioshock
COD4
Crysis
Company of Heroes

Feeling pretty glum at the minute!

 

I have nearly the exact same setup as you (2gb of ram compared to 4gb), same overclock and I got 8711 w/ 169.04 drivers ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2639388&postcount=97)

Mine also locks up in 3dmarks every now and then but never locks up in any game I play. No problems in Nvidia control panel either. I do however have issues using the dvi output ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2650917&postcount=112). The other issue I had was with the screensaver ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2639388&postcount=97).

EDIT: I did a fresh install of Vista as soon as I got my computer (almost identical, but no Media Center). I have the 10GB recovery partition converted to use for linux
EDIT: I followed this process to install the drivers http://www.notebookforums.com/thread204406.html

 

what drivers are you using?
what OC'ing if any did you do?
fresh install?
did you do any optimization?

details brother Doove, heaven is in the details....

 

That's happened to me too... once... it was weird.

 

Had the same problem with 169.04, so I went to the 163.69 and am happy with the results.

Freezing up the computer, crashing IE, etc, is not an acceptable tradeoff for higher performance...

Anyway, my 3dmark scores with the 163.69 driver -

http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12019796

 

yeah, when the cpu tests ran, i was seeing 0 (ZERO) fps... dunno what that means, but seems strange.

 

there is a cpu test component...

http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12019796

click on the result details tab.

 

Have uninstalled 169.04 and am on 163.69 just run 3d mark 06 and got 8046, no overclocking, I might try the games again to see if it has a positive effect.

For the overclockers amongst you can you either let me know how you oc'd the processor and if you managed to oc the cards.

Many Thanks

 

X7900 can be OC'd in the Bios.

 

Is it easy and have you managed to oc the GPU

 

its easy, and no i havent oc'ed the cards

 

Try to change the resolution to 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1200 in the Vista display properties so the displayed area is the same and put your Sony in 1:1 pixel/just scan mode. Also try to change to Nvida from clone mode to dual mode.

 

Now, using 163.75 - also stable - my 3dmark score went up from 8386 to 8478

http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12051411

 

Nvidia Control Panel Settings:

Anisotropic filtering ----- App Controlled
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction ----- On
Antialiasing - Mode ----- App-controlled
Antialiasing - Transparency ----- Multisampling
Conformant texture clamp ----- Use hardware
Force mipmaps ----- Bilinear
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration ----- Single display performance mode
SLI performance mode ----- Force alternate frame rendering 2
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization ----- O
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias ----- Allow
Texture filtering - Quality ----- High Performance
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization ----- On
Threaded optimization ----- On
Triple buffering ----- On
Vertical sync ----- Use the 3D app setting

 

Wow, cheers for these, all my sus/hib problems have gone as have the random crashing.
Perf is a bit lower but tbh I would rather have a rock solid system.

People on the 163.69, can you confirm sus/hib works properly on battery and in max savings mode?

 

I've been trying out the different drivers and 163.75 seems to be the latest stable system (i.e. able to use nvidia control panel and run 3dmark06 without random freezing and such)

3dmark score with 163.75 is better too at 8478

Sleep works fine for me, but I have hibernate turned off.

163.75 driver - http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15369

 

Just downloaded FRAPS you get a nice diagnostic display on the LCD as you run.

 

hey,

I've to soon receive a refund for an order returned earlier this week. ~had a problem with the screen leak (curtain effect!) and the fact it wouldn't lie flat on a surface (warped board or something.)

My question is - is it worth reordering the system. I'm gonna wait till the 8800M GTX comes out with 512+512 in Sli, but even then the vista problems are a bit too much to deal with for the money......


Any advice, yah / nah ????


Cheers,

72oo

 

I am reordering on Tuesday when my system has finally arrived. Of course you should reorder.

My reorder will cost less now the prices have gone down, so yes I would recommend it.

Which Vista problems are you referring to? Vista is very stable, unless you are using bad drivers for the graphics adapter...

Also the ergonomy of Vista is entirely customizable (back to XP-like experience) if you wish to...

You should definitely reorder. Many people are very happy with their system and get 3dMark scores betwen 8,300 and 10,000 with their machine...

If the 8800M appears you can still send back your new order and order again.

 

Well I've taken the plunge to join you people... I just hope this experience with Dell is as good as my previous one.

The step up to SLI 8700m's (From a 7600GS AGP), a T7700 (From a 3000+ Venice), 4gb ram (from 1Gb), Vista ultimate (from XP Pro), 1900 x 1250 screen (from 1280 x 1024) and - limited - mobility (from big clunky desktop) should be mind blowing!

 

welcome to the club, ignore the ignorance of misinformation. (none seen in this thread, so youre safe here)

 

Have any of you guys installed the dell audio drivers from their website, they seem to make the crackling noise I have worse, but my speakers still crackle even when I dont have the dell drivers installed, I am using generic drivers that are included with Vista but they still crackle but no where near as much as with the other drivers.

 

Just been playing around with oc'ing the processor, currenlty at 3.2Ghz just ran 3D Mark06 got 8405, which seems about the average that others are getting, where people have been reporting around 10,000 I'm guessing these are really stripped down installs with oc'd cards. Tried coolbits last night but no luck getting the overclocking functionality working, has anyone had any success with riva tuner?

 

Doove71 - were you advised of any delays due to the Extreme CPU in your order at any time?


and lol - just checked Dell UK - there's 150 quid off offer.