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

Just reformatted and it was a bit of a pain but I got there. About 15 BSODs later and I have a stable system (I hope( now to test if my gaming performace is back to where it was before

 

If you live in the USA, wait till the 19th of November till the new Alienware laptops are released - the prices look very decent.

If you live in Australia, don't wait - prices are rip-off at crappy specs.

If you live in any other country - blank; I don't have any advice. Ignore this post. Lol.

 

Are you talking about the Alienware prices being a rip off, or Dell? I think Dell has pretty good prices here in Australia but Alienware's prices here are outrageous $4000 starting price for the m7950 with 1gb ram 80gb hard drive and t7200 CPU, and only 1 8700m GT GPU, SLi costs $677.50 extra similar specs to my 1730 add up to $6,132.94

 

^ I'm talking about the Alienware Australian prices being a complete rip off! They are insane if they expect anyone to buy it.

Also, the exact same configuartion Alienware laptop is much, much cheaper in the US after taking into consideration the the currency difference.

I meant, if you live in Australia, then don't wait for the Alienware - just go ahead and get the Dell XPS m1730, as it is definitely the best deal. And if you want to get an even more powerful laptop for $4000 Aussie dollers or more, then this is a good one.

 

Agree with the Alienware being a rip-off. That's why I went with Dell.

 

I live in the US and I am hoping there will be something by thanksgiving, if not Xmas is fine because the m8800 might be out then.

 

I wonder if anyone else has been told about back ordered AC adapters?

I originally ordered my m1730 on Oct 26 and was given an estimated ship date of Nov 7. When that passed with the laptop still 'in production', I contacted Dell (Canada) and was told that the delay was due to back ordered AC adapters. My new estimated shipping date is Nov 19.

Reading through the forum, it seems that my configuration: X7900 and N WiFi might also be an issue and may cause further delays.

Does the AC adapter excuse sound a little unusual?

 

Any one heard about the new laptops coming out with alienware?

Next week or so.... Area-51 m17x and Area-51 m15x
(It was in the encoded message)

Could be very (......cough....... 8800M GTX ......... ) interesting systems!

Now to see how the M1730 and the new gen of alienware face-off....

Let the battle begin!

 

My laptop is out for delivery tomorrow. That should mean i have within my 7 days to make it to the 19th, so i can make a choice depending on whats announced then.

 

I've been reading this thread for a while, and I don't think I've heard of that one yet. But it all depends I guess, you might have gotten unlucky.

 

Did you have 4 partitions on the machine when you got it? - Also did you delete the recovery partition?

It's taking up 10Gb and I'm not really that fussed on the recovery partition to be honest as I have all the discs etc.

Was thinking of just reformatting it but I don't know if it'll have an adverse effect on the media Direct stuff... not that I use it, I just heard people saying it used to kill the partition completely if you pressed the button!?

 

Hi to all,

I'm from Spain and I have ordered mine M1730 on 7th Nov, it's still in preproduction and its ESD is on 5th December. I can't wait to get it.
If someone already have one in Spain, please state which screen you have in your notebook.

At first, I ordered an N type wifi card, but my sales person said that this delayed my order by two or three weeks, so I got a standard card. Also, I have realized that from 1st November the price of my configuration dropped about 370 €, I started to talk with Dell from last days in October and luckly I made my order after that.

My conf, follows:
210-18761 XPS M1730 CORE 2 DUO T7700 2.40GHz,800,4M 1
230-10134 17.0" UltraSharp¿ Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife¿ with 2.0MP Web camera 1
320-10173 Crimson Red 1
340-14757 Spanish Documentation XPS M1730 1
340-14764 Resource DVD XPS M1730 - (Diagnostics & Drivers) 1
340-14750 Euro Ship Accessories Euro Power Cord 1
340-14893 Eng, Frn, Ger, Spn Placemat XPS M1730 1
370-12401 4GB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 2G) 1
400-13823 320GB (7200rpm) SATA RAID 0 Stripe (2x160GB) 1
429-12762 Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software 1
450-11569 AC Adapter 230W 1
450-11558 Euro 220V AC Adapter Power Cord 1
451-10485 Primary 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion Battery 1
460-10251 XPS M1730 Backpack Carrying Case 1
490-10695 Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8700M GT graphics with NVIDIA SLI Technology 1
221-10005 Ageia PhysX Processing Unit Card 1
506-10024 Dell™ Travel Remote Control 1
555-11194 European - Dell TrueMobile 355 internal Bluetooth Module 1
555-11010 Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI Card EUR 1
583-11666 Spanish Internal Keyboard (QWERTY) 1
613-10521 Software Drivers XPS M1730 1
619-10917 Spanish - Vista Ultimate (32Bit OS) 1
630-11004 Español Microsoft Works 8.0 (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Outlook Express, Powerpoint Viewer) con CD de recuperación 1
640-10551 Dell Support 3.4 1
640-10404 Spanish - Adobe Reader 8.1 1
650-10804 Spanish McAfee Security Centre 8.0 - 30 Day Trial Version 1
750-10485 Ghost Recon Game DVD 1
754-10791 No Warranty Upgrade 1

 

I just don't understand the logic in this. Alienware is owned by Dell, Dell offers a superior product to the Alienware at a much better price. Alienware hardly ever does coupons and don't offer rebates based upon warranty packages etc. Not to mention I have read nothing but bad things about Alienware customer service (not like Dell's is stellar either but man my Sales rep was absolutely wonderful).

So why pay more for less?

Even if Alienware does debut the 8800M first, the 1730 will have it shortly thereafter. So I wouldn't fret about it.

 

Don't you just hate it when you get good news spoiled by bad news?

Good News: DELL Called! Your new laptop arrives tomorrow!
Bad News: Alienware sliped up. Oh yeah and the 8800M is OMFGWTF AWSOME.

Guess this one will be going back before its opened, since DELL have made it clear there is no upgrade path though them (at least in the UK). No way im gonna void warrntys to add them myself, thats assuming you could even get them from DELL not in a new system.

 

When did Alienware confirm the 8800M as they're new machine only has the 8700GT option. (sorry we're talking about the 19th launch event aren't we) I will just get my card swapped out as a broken part if they do start shipping the 1730 with the 8800M... personally I don't see Dell shipping it until 2008.

 

It's in the other threads, the 8800M has like 96 stream processors, 256bit ect. And Alienware are going to be doing it in SLI!.. they are announcing them on the 19th of November.

 

Have you got an official public statement from Dell stating that?

Or are we going to do the "Well MY sales agent says" from each one of us for the next ten posts or so?

After the past couple of days of complete misinformation and bs i've endured from some there, I wouldnt believe a thing till its in print on the site.

Im delayed till mid December now due to the X7900, so maybe if Dell do come with an upgrade path i'll see if before delivery - and on the other hand Rob - you might well end up being right, and then i'll return and reorder

 

I agree and for me the Big Question is will the 8800M become obsolete with Direct X 10.1.?

In which case you might as well wait for a 9800M or whatever is next from nVidia.

I personally think Dell are likely to offer an Upgrade Path - Otherwise they will get a lot of returned Dell XPS systems. There is a Video on YouTube of the Dell Product Manager saying the 1730 can take 150Watt Cards and that these will be offered to customers. Now this could be taken to be that it will be an upgrade option later - But it might also mean that Upgrade Paths are available.

I think 2008 is also a likely ship date - Try it out in an Alienware 1st - Fix the issues then get it into a Dell.

Overall - I have one on Order and when it arrives I will no doubt be very happy with it. After all I am going from a Pentium M 1.6Ghz Lappy to this beast - So it is most definitely a step up.

Frag. Out.

 

Well I installed the latest 169.04 drivers from LV2G and Crysis runs much better as well as everything else!

I also ran riva tune and overclocked the card and it was even better than that!

The 8700GT has enough muscle it just needs good drivers and it would seem they are coming!!

 

It depends: if the reason for the replacement is you are not happy with your system and not just a convenience replacement, of course you can keep the current laptop until the new one arrives. That's only fair.

In my case both customer support and sales offered me this possibility (meaning both for same-config replacements and changed specs ones).

But even if your sales rep arranges a pick up date for your current system, you can still call customer support and ask them to postpone it until you received your new system.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with all that. Dell service is excellent and my money won't go anywhere else.

But we'll have to see if pound per pound the M1730 has the new 17" Alienware licked...

For me personally I want 512Mb+512Mb (1024Mb) in 8800M. The whole 8800 versus 8900 or whatever GS/GTX doesn't interest me hugely. The idea of 256 bit architecture and a load load more shaders does though!

So what I want to see is the M1730 with that kinda video ram, a proper bl*ody LCD (~I sent back my last one... it was Samsung), and more stability from Vista Ultimate (Not Dell's fault I know but its my wish list).

... I really don't think that's too much to ask for what'll probably be €3k worth of laptop.

 

well not sure if im going to re order now my mate has just baught a road leagal quad(so fast so much fun) for same money as the laptop wants me to get one for weekends of fun not sure what im going to do now lol

 

The Thermal envelope of the M1730 and its power brick make it more than likely the M1730 will be offered with the 8800M. If it is the case, I don't think they will redesign the mother board only for this, so I don't see how the 8800M could be incompatible with our systems.

Even if there is no official upgrade program, you will still be able to purchase the 8800M module separately and install it yourself on your own. This does not void the warranty as long as you don't damage anything by doing this. The Dell service manual is very clear, so if you follow the instructions carefully, there is virtually no risk. I know it because I took my M1710 apart 4 or 5 times to clean the cooling system and had to remove the graphic card each time.

The only issue with this is that you will have no warranty on the GPU module itself (apart from the 7 days return period).

 

can you post an image of you riva tuner settings as I dont seem to be getting much difference.

 

I deleted the recovery partition and I had another partition for media direct which I deleted and then there was unallocated space of about 2MB. I totally formatted everything, reinstalled media direct and then Windows Vista. If you do it make sure that when Windows installation asks you what partition you want to install on that you choose to install the drivers for you hard disk, otherwise the installation won't work properly. And when you boot from the Media Direct disk (if you are going to reinstall it), choose to allocate all of the space to the C partition, that way it only creates a 3gb patition for Media Direct and the rest is left for the C partition.

The reason for the 8700m having 256mb each may be that Dell sees that the 128bit memory interface would put the extra memory to waste and the 8800m is apparently going to have a 256bit interface which would be able to use 1GB of RAM more effectively, therefore I would hope that Dell give us 2 512MB cards, and an upgrade of course

 

I decided to try 169.04 again, this time without overclocking the cpu (i.e. stay at 2.8 GHz).

After configuring SLI and 3d settings, I ran 3dmark06 and it appeared to be getting very bad FPS. I let it run to see what the resulting score would be and, to my chagrin, posting to the futuremark site to get results failed...

I'm back down to 163.75 which works very well for me.

Does that make any sense, that 169.04 would reduce fps? Are others finding this driver acceptable and successful?

 

After re-installing 163.75, I tried SLI mode with single GPU instead of alternate frame rendering and I'm getting much higher FPS. I still can't get my score. The site responds with:

Welcome to the ORB!
Project Submission Failed
There was a problem receiving your project. Please try again later, or if the problem persists, refer to our support section.

 

Have moved to the 169.09's
Had a bsod on first reboot after enabling sli but since that everything has been great, performance is as high as it's been in games so far, overclock works, hib/sus work and power saving features work properly as well.

Keepers, shame the same can't be said about the laptop

 

were you able to get a modded inf somewhere?

 

I just got the problem with the LED in the speaker fixed, the whole motherboard had to be replaced just for that.

 

Ok, got another e-mail today (scheduled SHIP date), telling me that the system "would be further delayed."

The problem for ME, is that EACH time before the system was delayed Dell called me to tell me the "system hold had been released, the part had been received, and the system would be SHIPPED within 2 business days."

THEN I get the e-mail telling me the system is delayed.

I called my Sales Rep in an attempt to find out what the HECK was going on...

Am I the ONLY one who would rather be told the TRUTH about delivery dates, even if it IS a little longer than I would like, rather than constantly have my expectations raised, only to be disappointed OVER & OVER!??!

This is my FIRST computer from Dell, and I may end up canceling it before it's even shipped.... Sad.... If Dell would simply learn how to treat clients!!!!

 

Jim i got the same mail, and i would rather know too, i ordered on sept 25th. new delivery date is the 20th now

my first dell too, and frankly im furious.

 

Wow, Dell is pretty bad in some countries, they have been great in Australia. I got my system within 6 working days and they have had a technician on site twice to repair it with very little trouble. The next business day on site service is almost that, it took them 2 business days to get here but that's still prett good.

DiverJim and Lucid Burner, what specs did you order on your system, have they at least told you if there is a specific part delaying your system?

 

Dell XPS M1730, Mobile Intel 2.8GHz,EX, 4MB, 800 FSB Merom
PERSONALIZATION SHIELD, LCD COLOR WING OPTION,RED
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for XPS M1730
17 UltraSharp TrueLife Wide screen WUXGA for XPS M1730
NVIDIA G84 in SLI, for XPS M17
64GB Solid State Drive and 200GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Edition English,Inspiron
Media Direct 3.3
Internet Search and Portal
Icon Consolidation Application
Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR
DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS M1730
DELL SUPPORT 3.4,DIM/INSP
ADOBE ACROBAT READER 8.1 DIM/INSP
Blu-ray Disc Drive (BD/DVD/CD burner w/double layer BD write capability)
Dell Exclusive MediaDirect Instant Play Software Application
Roxio Creator Basic
Media Direct for Blu-Ray
Integrated High Definition Audio, Inspiron
Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) Mini Card
Logitech Gaming LCD
Network Associates McAfee 8.0 English, 15-Month Subscription
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1730
No Internet Service Provider Requested
MS WORKS 8.5
3 Year Limited Warranty
Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
Warranty Support,2 Year Extended
Warranty Support,Initial Year
Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Extended Year
Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Week ends, 24x7 Technical Support, 2 Year Extended
Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year
Type 15- Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Week ends, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
Soft Contracts - Consumer Complete Care
CompleteCare Accidental DamageProtection, Inspiron, 3 Year

Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
Dell BH200 Bluetooth 2.0 EDR Stereo Headset
AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator
You have chosen a Vista Premium System
Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
No Preinstalled Software

thats it in a post, but its in testing according to my rep.

we'll see

 

There's a number of things there that may cause a delay, but I would probably say the extreme processor from what other people have been saying, maybe the blu-ray drive as well. Hope you get it soon, its a very nice system and yours will perform pretty good, on the basis that mine does and you will have a better CPU, the only thing that lets the whole system down is the graphics card, and these problems should be solved with new drivers.

 

Mine was in testing too and still my system got delayed to mid December because of the Intel Wireless n Card.

Many people have received a system with the Xtreme processor, in different regions, so I don't think the extreme processor is delaying. Those who thought it was usually had the Wireless n from Intel attached to their config as well...

There are 14 days delay on the card at the moment. It would be faster for you to cancel and reorder with the Dell Wireless n card instead. It does exactly the same, the only difference is you don't get the Centrino certification, as the Centrino label now includes wireless n chips...

I was very happy with the Draft n wireless card from Dell (in particular the software was better than the Intel) on my M1710. It was able to reach 270 Mbits and the new Dell is supposed to reach up to 300Mbits.

 

The debate is a bit irrelevant because the 8700M already uses more than 1MB or RAM.

Don't forget that in Vista the GPU can use up to 768KB of shared memory from the main board, so in fact the SLI module is able to use well above 1MB.

The gain from 2x512 KB is too marginal in order to justify the higher price (GDDR3 is very expensive), steeper thermal development and increased battery drain.

It only makes sense in lower spec systems that have only 1GB of DDRAM, as there is then not much to share with the GPU. From 2GB onwards 2x256 KB is makes more sense.

 

I need some help with Vista Ultimate 64 bit...

I've got drivers for everything but 2 devices...the devices without drivers are puzzling me though...if someone knows what these are and/or where I can find drivers for them (64bit Vista drivers) I'd really appreciate it..

Both devices show up as "Base System Device"
Location shows for them as:
PCI bus 5, device 1, function 3
PCI bus 5, device 1, function 2

I've run the Intel chipset drivers through it and that didn't help, everything I can think of has been done to resolve this. Dell support was unhelpful because they, "Don't support 64 bit OS's"...just my luck. Please help, I really want this full 4gb ram to use

Thanks,
Blake

 

In Vista 32 the 768KB are not lost, they are shared. The fact that you see 3,2 MB is due to this only. You still get the benefit of the full 4GB.

I had installed Vista 64 on the M1710 but did not notice any performance improvement personally. On the negative side, I hated the fact that programms install in different directories (program filesx32 and program filesx64).

 

768Kb is shared with what? That 768Kb is used or free memory? Thanks for the info...

Any 1730 owners out there running Vista 64? Anyone have similar issues or has solved this?

 

Dell have announced 2 days ago that they are working with Nvida on an updated SLI driver for the 8700M chip.

It should be released in the coming weeks (meaning before Christmas).

By the way, those of you have performance issues under Vista should instal the following Vista Upgrades for Geforce, compatibility, performance, and SLI:
KB938979
KB938194
KB936710
KB940105

Please also note that the Crysis demo does not support SLI. The full game will and should offer significantly improved performance for all M1730 owners!

 

768KB are shared between the GPU (8700M SLI) and the main board.

 

Oh? Link?

Laptop arrived today. Will post once i get the chance to open it up and play. Unfortunatly my new mouse did not arrive, so im stuck with the touchpad for today.

 

Great! THanks
And guys, visit my m1730 performance thread i've started. I thought I start it to sum up all the tips and tricks have to make this machine as fast-going as possible. It's under the Dell topic.

 

This was disclosed by Markus Schütz, EMEA press reviews manager on the German forum.
http://www.notebookjournal.de/forum/showthread.php?p=47605#post47605

 

How long did it take for your guys dell xps m1730 to come? I just ordered mine. not processed yet but, when it does i cant wait to get it!!!

 

I ordered mine on 10/26 and received it 11/13.

 

9/25/07-11\12\07
still waiting

 

Did you install the Rioch drivers as well? I think the devices that aren't found for you have something to do w/ the card reader... I had similar issues until I installed the Rioch Drivers and Intel Chipset Drivers.

 

I didn't see any 64 bit Ricoh Drivers. Anyone have a link? The devices right with similar locations are the card reader things.