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

Question

Does anyone know if enabling peformance mode in the bios for the hard drives increases game performance? Or is that just a waste of time and noise?

Thanks

 

In Riva Tuner I seem to idle around 50-55. Gaming takes me up to 60-65 but still not quite near yours. I guess ambient temps could be at play here as I am in freezing cold south England :O) Still, quite a difference there.

Im using 169.28. You can change when the fans kick in via riva tuner low level fan control. Ive never actually heard mine kick in yet even when gaming. Guess the temps are not getting high enough.

@banton, I have performance mode enabled and tbh it doesn't seem to make any difference to performance or noise levels at all (Although I have replaced the HDs different from the stock ones.)

ten

 

I turned performance mode on as well (for hdd). I'm using the stock HDD and noticed no extra noise.

My Laptop was idling on the ground at about 60-65 degress (GPU). Now that I have it on my lap its hovering at below 50.

 

Now thats strange. Most notebooks generate more heat when they are on your lap.

 

Unless "the ground" means something soft/carpeted.

 

Yep, ground was a carpet in this case (not a soft one that it sinks into though).

And I had my knees either side so it got air from under it. Might be worth getting a docking station for this.

 

Ive been thinking of getting the Zalman Silent Notebook Cooler forgot the model number). I would probably just turn it on when playing a game......would you recommend it?

I would never use the laptop on carpet. Since the intake is under the laptop, it would be sucking in extra dust etc that may have settled on the carpet.....

 

anyone know how easy it is to go from one 250gb hard drives to 2 ? for raid purposes

cheers

 

Check the video guides here....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206068

 

awesome thx

 

Man something must be wrong with my temps then because mine are usually sitting around 70 and when idle about 60 - 65...

even when I sit it on a cool desk, I'd hate to get a dock for it because playing games and holding the arm up would be a painful task after a little while

 

Actually right now, just being on this forum they are sitting on 71

 

someone convince me i need Raid LOL, or should i just add another HD for storage

 

PLaying WoW it is sitting at 80 degrees

 

Hey can someone HELP
which woud u say is better ?
Alienware m17x or Xps m1730

 

Which one is better to you? I would say dell because of the Service and this laptop is really nice

 

When I set up 2 discs non RAID - the second disc never seemed to show up in Vista. In the BIOs it was fine. After booting up, I had to go to device manager and search for new hardware, then it would show up and work fine - having to do this with every reboot annoyed me.

The problem could probably have been fixed, but I just went for RAID. And Im glad I did not. In Vista Performance Index, the HDD went for 5.4 to 5.9 with RAID, so its definately a performance increase. Then again, nothing majorly noticable under normal circumstances.

I would say that if you are like me, and have an external HDD and back up regular, then go for it!

 

Thx for the reply, do you think i will notice Raid then ?, or should i just add another hardrive for back up and forget raid

 

^^^
Its really up to you. You wont really notice a major performance boost with RAID unless you are running games or HDD intense apps....

 

I need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried drivers 167.45 from Dell, and am currently using 169.25 (direct update). With both I am getting crashes every time I close my lid to put the system to sleep mode, or when I shut down it gets half way and just crashes!!!! I then have to keep the power button pressed in and shut don manually!

I dont know what else to do. Everything else seems fine, its just when I reboot/sleep/shut down.

Any help is MUCH appreciated!

 

I didn't notice any reference to this and thought I might pass it on, the NVIDIA site now shows beta support for GForce M/Go. Here's the link to Beta 167.51 drivers for Vista 32bit

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_notebook_167.51.html

I have only started testing these drivers but it has resolved the cold boot BSOD I had with the 167.45 version. My 3dMark06 is 8231 with everything set to stock.

I find NVIDIA now supporting mobile GPU driver release pretty significant since up until now they always sent the end-user to the notebook manufacturer for drivers.

 

Checked the logs and my GPU Temps are 83 degrees during a game... thats shocking, its not even overclocked

 

Very strange... I installed the beta drivers from nvidia's website for the GO/M GPUs and strangely - it's not WHQL but Bluray still plays?? Is that due to left over remnints of the 169.25 forced drivers?

Or does Bluray NOT require WHQL and the previous beta drivers were just stripped of bluray playback?

Is there any file to add for riva tuner overclocking for the 167.51 beta drivers?

 

From the release notes it looks like this version supports Blu-Ray playback as there is a reference on page 6 of the notes about an issue with certain playback software and hibernation.

Don’t have an answer for the riva tuner question, but I did notice release notes referenced ntune software for OC and GPU temp, which would lead me to believe no file needed.

 

You think thats stange, then check this out....

Windows Vista Rating - Using 169.25 drivers (direct update)

CPU - 5.6
RAM - 5.0
Graphics Performance for Vista Aero - 4.1
Graphics Performance for Games - 5.5
HDD Performance - 5.9

Here are the result susing the STOCK DELL drivers (not even the performance ones. ALSO WITH SLI TURNED OFF...

CPU - 5.6
RAM - 5.0
Graphics Performance for Vista Aero - 5.9
Graphics Performance for Games - 5.6
HDD Performance - 5.9

Note both the graphics ratings!

How come the card tends to perform better with the stock Dell drivers with the Vista rating??

Ive tried other drivers and keep getting crashes - the stock Dell drivers seem to work best for me!

The only games I want to run are Gears of War and Company of Heros. If they run fine on the stock Dell drivers then I'll stick with them, since they seem to be the most stable for me!

 

No Change for me numbers are the same as before with 167.45 drivers. Now I am using 167.51.

CPU - 5.1
RAM - 4.8
Graphics Performance for Vista Aero - 5.9
Graphics Performance for Games - 5.6
HDD Performance - 5.1

 

I seem to be getting no crashes and better performance with the stock Dell drivers!
Obviously my 3DMark06 score is lower (just under 8400) whereas with 167.45 it was at 8800, but as long as Im getting more stability Im OK with that.
Just hoping I can run Gears of War with all settings maxed out with the stock Dell drivers!

 

UT3 is almost unplayable with all settings at max and SLI enabled.

Yet when I disable SLI, I can play the game all settings maxed fine?

WTF?!!

 

Question on overclocking video..

I've tried using ntune and rivatuner 2.06

Even if I only overclock up to 650.. not even 750 I get lock ups right away...

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

must be screwing around too much ifti - mine plays UT3 just fine with SLI on... prob something with all those extra programs you've installed to help overclock or monitor temp or something - driver cleaner maybe? I dunno... bad settings most likely - not your fault - just program glitches. Your Aero score is a key indicator of that to me...

My scores stay the same no matter if I have SLI on or off (for the most part - not varying greatly anyway)... you still in 64bit?

I use 64bit on my desktop and it's just fine. On the 1730 - it just didn't like it. Something was always a bit quirky in 64bit on the 1730... I put up with it for a week but finally gave up with the quickset program stopped working and I couldn't change the LED lights on it anymore. I love 64bit and think vista has the best support yet for it - but the 1730 was designed with 32bit only in mind I think. Can't explain it yet - I'll try again after the real SP1 comes out for Vista.

 

Ive got no extra programs to monitor temp etc whatsoever and Im not overclocking at all.
All I have on is Vista, Office 2007, Fireworks CS3, Flash CS3, and a few small programs like Acrobat Reader, FTP Explorer, etc. Nothing else. Things just seem to run a lot better in Vista itself with SLI disabled. Just playing back clips in Media Player also seems much smoother...

Personally I think the SLI on this system is rubbish.
I get MUCH better frame rates, and MUCH better stability in Vista itself with SLI turned off. I cant see the point in turning SLI on in this laptop. Just upgraded my driver back to 167.45 - the one that kept crashing my system before, but now with SLI disabled, everything runs smooth and fine, and games play MUCH better.

I hope Dell offers the 8800GTX in a single card configuration - I'll much rather take that other the SLI, especially since Dell cant seem to suss out the drivers properly!

 

Same thing happens to me. Using SLI, Graphics=4.1, but with SLI disabled, Graphics=5.9

I'm using 169.25. I also get occasional system freezes... I"ll see if that diminishes with SLI off.

 

you guys both overclocking? Perhaps the speed you are overclocking is minimizing bandwidth to the pci-express slots?

 

When I first tried the 167.45 drivers I had similar problems with lockups and crashes. It wasn't until I uninstalled the drivers, ran CC and installed 167.45 with the inf instead of the exe that I got great performance with these drivers. Only downside was BSOD on cold boot, which I remedied by unplugging AC adapter on every cold boot (Thanks to johnIdol). Since I upgraded to 167.51, I have had no problems at all and performance is very close to the 167.45 version.
I also really never had any luck with modded desktop drivers. When I tried 169.25 they worked good until I started tweaking the SLi settings in the NV control panel then everything went south and I could never recover the performance unless I uninstalled and reinstalled.
I am totally with you on the single card, Dell is really slacking in driver support for this high end laptop. I am hoping with NVIDIA getting into mix maybe they can improve the cycle time on mobile driver releases.

 

can someone tell me if Driver versions can have an effect on the temp of my GPU's, Today I ran wow for about 45 minutes and the temps weree 87 degrees...

I don't like this, It's not a hot room or anything either, sitting on a flat surface..

 

oddly, after re-enabling SLI, my index did not drop to 4.1 this time, and graphics remained at 5.9. I'm having a hard time trusting the assessment after getting inconsistent results on numerous occasions.

Is it possible that it only runs a proper test if it thinks that hardware has changed?

 

When I was running 169.25 my temps started out about 10C warmer 66-67 and 86-87 playing COD4. With 167.45 I saw 54-57 idle and about 72-76 playing COD4 multi-player. I haven't had a chance to look at temps with 167.51 drivers.

 

The system just seems much more stable with SLI off overall. Sometimes I can just open My Computer Properties and it will crash, and it would crash every time I tried to put it in sleep mode or try to shut down!
Not very healthy for my hard discs!
Turned SLI off, and everything runs perfect. UT3 also seemed to run much better!

No overclocking at all.

I may try re-installing the way you describe and see how things go.
How do I run CCleaner? In safe mode?? Which settings do I need to check etc? Do I uninstall the driver, then run CCleaner, then install the new ones?

Thanks

 

I think its if the hardware has changed, or if you completely uninstall and reinstall new drivers....

 

ifti try disabling VSync. If its not this then you have exactly the same problems I had, My drivers weren't uninstalling properly and it has conflicts with cards having different driver types or something, even though it will say they are same version, I had to uninstall AND delete ALL driver files and registry (Probably what Driver cleaner does) and reinstalled after I had 1 VGA Adapter and 1 unknown device, when I installed the 169.25 drivers it installed on both cards simultaneously. And all was fixed..


As for the Temps, Im thinkin the Drivers 169.25 because they are intended to be Desktop drivers would run the fans at lower speeds because of the space inside Desktops, and 167 being laptop drivers might run the fans faster....

Im gonna try installing those new drivers and also benchmark against my UT3 benchmarks with 169 to see if there is any performance differences...

Wish me luck lol, ill probably lose SLI again...

 

Hi All,
There seems to be alot of confusion over which driver is the better performer, my system runs smooth with sli enabled on the 169.25 driver, running crysis on a hacked config file (med-high) runs great once it has cached...but can anyone quickly explain the correct way to uninstall and re-install the drivers for the 1730, i use cccleaner, to remove all related nvidia files, but do i need to install the drivers twice to accomodate both cards if so how??

 

Cheers mate. Do I uninstall the drivers via Device Manager first, and then run CCleaner? Or should I just uninstall via CCleaner?
I think this may be it, since I have been messing about with drivers by just uninstalling them, and installing the new ones without cleaning up!

With 169.25, if you are doing the manual install, and choose another card etc, then yes, the tempertaures will be higher, since the driver has been produced for desktop GPUs, not notebook GPUs. Hence the fans for desktop cards dont kick in as often as they do for notebooks do to the difference in space and size etc.

How are you doing it at the moment??
If you are running smoothly as you are, then its probably fine.

 

Uninstalling, restart, then running ccleaner, restart...but i only install once, should this have been twice?!?!...but as you say, if it aint broke....
Just worry i could be getting slightly beter performance on other games, Bioshock for instance runs like a 3 legged dog on high full res.

 

Hmm there is a guy who installed the 169.09 desktop drivers for his 8700m GT SLI setup and choose to rename the cards as 8800GTX instead, he went from 30fps in 800x600 to 30fps in 1920x1200 resolution all settings at medium on his M1730. Maybe someone should try to do that, configure the cards so the drivers recoginizes them as 8800GTX instead.

 

^^^
Zergworld has done that. I also installed 169.25 as 8800GTX's, but was getting the same freezing issues as before, although this may have been down to the fact that I didnt run Driver Cleaner etc!

It does work, but remember you are fooling the OS into thinking you have a desktop graphics card, hence it will run hotter before the fans kick in since laptop cooling requirements are obviously different to desktops.

I gather the best way to change drivers is....

1. Uninstall the GPUs via Device Manager.
2. Reboot the system into safe mode.
3. Run Cab Cleaner to delete any remaining cab files.
4. Run Driver Cleaner to remove any remaining driver files.
5. Empty recycle bin.
6. Reboot
7. Install new drivers (rumoured to be best to install directly using the .inf file rather then the setup file?!)

Hopefully this will fix my freezing/crashing problems whenever I enable SLI!

 

This is the way I did it...

1. Device Manager Uninstall 1st card in List first (Uninstall and Tick the box 'Delete all drivers and software' etc)
2. Choose not to Restart Yet
3. Uninstall second Card (I do this without going into Driver details but just click on the Video Card and click uninstall)
4. Reboot
5. Run Driver cleaner
6. Manual install of the driver by finding the inf file yourself where you have the driver you downloaded on Unknown device (One should be Standard VGA Adapter, one should be Unknown Device)
7. Reboot
8. Done

That's how I did it 1 hour ago and Just reinstalled 167.51 drivers...
I Benchmarked it against my earlier results with UT3 Benchmark Utility and gained an approx 2 fps average, This isn't a bad result and my temps seem to be sitting lower now..

I recommend these drivers, it is a pain updating drivers though..

 

Are the 167.51 drivers from Dell or Nvidia??
Im using the 167.45 from Dell......Im gonna complete the above though, and hopefully I can run with SLI enabled properly!
Thanks

 

167.51 are from NVIDIA and are beta for 8700m GT SLi specifically. They have pretty good release notes with them also.

 

^^^
I may try them out - does blu-ray work ok with them also?? Thats the main reason why I stuck with 167.45 from Dell, so I wouldnt mess my Blu-Ray up and could play BD movies properly.....

 

I hear blu-ray works with it even though it does not have WHQL.

Yeah official release for laptops, and even if you have no luck with SLI Try again, it's definately the installation process that buggers them up