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

small random access reads will tend to be faster on your SSD, but unless it's one of the high end SSDs, large sequential reads and writes will be slower than a fast spinning disk... although this is changing and will continue to move in favor of solid state. There was an article today about micron and intel working on a very fast SSD... we'll see.

 

How do I change the region code for the BluRay drive?
Ive seen it somewhere before, and you can change it 5 times I think, but I cant remember how I got to it!
Currently its on Region A, whereas Im actually in Region B......

 

Did you check Dell web site for Vista drivers? If there is nothing there, try http://driverzone.com/ It finds drivers automaticly for you. And remember, you can always re-install xp and download xp drivers from dell web site

 

I just thought I'd post my experiance with Dell, when trying to sort out the upgrade to the 8800's.

I must have spent over 2 hrs on the phone yesterday, and basically got no where.

Technical support claim "its not going to be possible to upgrade, and the 8800 are only available on new orders"

Sales, pretty much confirmed the same, so I'm really confused now as to whats going to happen.

When I ordered the laptop, I was told an upgrade to the 8800 would be available, now I'm not so sure.

 

Hm...I don't have a blue-ray drive...yet But shouldn't it ask you if you want to change region if you insert disk with a different region set up, like it does with DVD?

But if you want to change it manually, that's how I do it in XP for DVD drive (guess should be the same for blue-ray). Right-click on your disk ->properies -> devices ->choose your blue-ray disk from the listed and double click on it -> and in the menu, which will come up you`ll see region for blue-ray...there you can change it.

 

Dell promised that it will provide an upgrade programm for M1730, so it will. Just give them some time....when they will have enough 8800 in stock, they will start an upgrade programm. That's only my opinion, but i think, that`s what gonna happen.

 

Threat to return the system and see where that goes.

Most people got the system after reading the promised upgrade program, and Dell needs to get it's head out of it's butt and start honor it.

It's people who got the initial systems who helped spreading the name M1730, and we deserve little better than "it can't be upgraded" B u l l s h i t from Tech's for Sales people.

 

there will be an upgrade program. ifti has a price for the card already and hes ordering new laptops with them in aswell. £657.80 i think or summat round that region. Its way too much for the card. It only works out at about £350 ish with a new laptop.

 

This is pretty much the same story I got. There is no part available for order yet so you can't even order the 8800M to have installed on your 1730.

Although when that crazy broad told me it would be a year I flipped my lid.

 

Haven't posted for a while but I am totally p*ssed off with Dell. I have enquired with Dell about upgrades etc and IMHO it aint gonna happen! They have their money, that's all they care about. I am actually exploring the possibility of cancelling my finance agreement and letting them take possession if the laptop. If the penalty payment is small then I will bizarrely just go and order a brand new machine M1730, as it is less than what I paid for with 8800GTX SLI than what I paid for 3 months ago. This is a totally crazy situation that is not being helped by Dell's less than useless customer services (what a misnomer that is!) Dell should just announce that they are officially not bringing in an upgrade program if that is the case. One of the main reasons for buying the M1730 when I did was the prospect of the upgrade program. This now seems a total pipe dream and something that Dell probably never had any intention of fulfilling.

One very, very, very unhappy Dell customer. The irony is that I work in IT procurement for the largest PLC in the UK and my Director has been considering switching suppliers to Dell. I can tell you now I will be sittin ghim down and having a very interesting chat Monday morning!

 

Thats nonsense, if dell cant keep up such promise I recon a lot of people are gonna get angry as phuk.

 

Thats not where it is. A message comes up saying the region for the DVD is incorrect - and it doesnt bring up the box to change the region.
Ive tried in the properties of the drive - thats where you can change the DVD region - but theres nothing about BluRay in there.
Oh well, I was thinking of sticking to the US region A anyways, since they get beter uncut films then we do over here in the UK, guess this has made up my mind!
Gonna have to resell this BluRay I got though, and reorder as a Region A from somewhere!

Exactly the same crap I got. Im gonna be speaking to my account manager on Monday, so I'll let you know how I got on.
On Friday he told me the price for the card and said that he would get the quote emailed across to me so that I could order the card etc. I have a business acount with Dell, so maybe I'll get somewhere?

If I am able to order the card, I may try to order a few extra if any of you guys are interested in buying em??
I'll get em through work so the price would be a bit cheaper since we dont pay VAT etc at work

Yeh I had a price but no news of an upgrade program. I think we will get ripped off even with the upgrade program though, since demand for the card is quite high so Dell will take advantage of that. Also, as someone mentioned above, they are likely to wait until stick levels are high, and when they wanna just shift em.

 

What would happen if I ordered a M1730 and returned it within 30 days?
I get a full refund right?

Im thinking - what if I was to buy a basic M1730, with the 8800 card, but all other compoenents the lowest I could get. Then I could swap my card over with the new 8800, and ring Dell and complain that the new laptop was supposed to have a 8800 and only came with the 8700, and that I want a full refund?............

 

Then you will be comiting fraud... XD

On the other hand they were diserving it....

 

^^^
true
If worst comes to the worst I may just order a basic M1730 with the 8800, request a large discount with my account manager, and swap the cards over, then use the spare M1730 as my work machine or somethin......

 

Annoying as Dell are I'm sure their lawyers/solicitors are well paid and would gladly chase down a fraud case!

Best not to try that one me thinks...

 

^^^
lol agreed

 

You look like you deal with Dell almost everyday, it wouldnt be nice to be involved in a fraud case... yet, it seems the logical solution for such a nonexisting upgrade program.

But hey, wait till monday to see what ur account manager has to say about this. Think also about that their first priority is to sell 3k+ computer rather than selling you a 1k graphics card...

 

Guys.. i think we should not be so worried.. I agree that the communication channel from DELL is very frustrating. We have seen from the very beginning of this thread (all the way back to page 1) that there is a HUGE disconnect from what the sales reps know/say and what is really going on at DELL. However I am sure will eventually get our cards upgraded. This following quote below is from Direct2Dell. That quote is not going to be put up on that site and then all of us 1730 owners not be able to upgrade.

"Back when we launched the XPS M1730, I mentioned that we would offer an upgrade option for customers who purchased their laptops with the previous-generation graphics solution, the NVIDIA 8700M GT SLI edition. The upgrade option will also be available to customers who bought the XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition as well.

Pricing and additional details about the graphics card upgrade program will be coming soon."

 

Take look at the below links seems like the upgrade is only a matter of time
.

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx

 

I know from an internal source that there WILL be anupdate program for US clients. For European and MEA they are still discussing it. Customers will have to pay for the SLI Module+installation, so it won't be cheap, but cheaper thn selling on ebay and reordering a new system.

 

Thanks Caption Obvious.

 

For Europe the price should be over 1000€ according to Dell, because of the cost to them. They are currently studying whether there will be enough demand at this price before they make a decision.

In other forums there was a poll on this exact question. Here ar the results:
54% were ok to spend up to 500€
22% were ok to spend up to 1000€
0% were ok to spend over 1000€
16% were not interested in an update.
5% would prefer to sell they system and buy the new one
3% would prefer to sell their system and by from competition

So for Europe at least, because of the high VAT, it seems that Dell won't find enough demand to offer their update programme unless they decide to make a loss on it.

 

Is the usd price going to be the same the euro price .so are we talking about 1500 usd with instol .Do they take anything off the price since they are getting your old card back

 

Patience my grasshoppers! It will happen in time. On another note; is anyone aware of an angled adapter for the power connection in the back Laptop? I have to set this on a small desk, and I am worried about "jacking up" the connection with repeated bumps. Help?

 

No, because VAT is higher in Europe. Just compare the European vs US prices, you will see the European prices are higher in spite of the EUR getting stronger. This is because many components are not purchased in dollars anymore (many of them come from Asia).

I would be prepared to spend up to 1200 EUR on an update (including intallation from Dell) assuming I am able to keep the 8700SLI module.

Otherwise I would be prepared to send up to 980 EUR (including installation), because this is what I would (at least) lose by selling on ebay and buying new. (I have sold my XPS M1710 on ebay, so I know, and I have used the ebay market function to see what the average selling price should be).

Excluding installation and purchasing the SLI card only I would be prepared to pay 690-810 EUR (the 8700 SLI costs around 500 EUR).

 

Haha Dell says "At the moment, we still do not have the upgrades avaialble. It might be
available within 6 months or so."

 

What's your source for this?

 

I have a new idea. If they cant supply just the card alone yet, I am thinking of doing this.......

Right now, at work Im about to order another 3 laptops for members of staff.

2 of the laptops are standard Latitude D531's since they are for standard members of staff.

The third laptop is for the top boss. He has requested a higher spec laptop then anyone else, so I was gonna get him a high spec D620 - since he will be carrying it about etc.

HOWEVER.........

I came up with a brainwave.

What if I but the D531's for the 2 members of staff, and buy my boss the M1730 with the 8800GTX. I can swap the 8800GTX out with my 8700GT, since he wont be using it for games etc........

 

WHAT A BLOODY RIP OFF!!

For the UK - when building a new system, the price to upgrade from the 8700m to the 8800GTX is only £340!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So?

This only means the 8800 GTX costs more than £340 (£340 plus the price of the 8700 SLI, which is at least £250).

So if you want to purchase the 8800 GTX separately you should be prepared to pay at least £600...

If you want Dell to do the installation, count the cost of the technical service in addition and you come up with the price stated by Dell.

You can still get some money by selling the 8700 SLI on ebay, though probably not much.

Dell can't buy the 8700 card back from you...What would they do with it? Put it into new XPS M1730 systems sold as new?

They also have to consider the fact that graphic cards hardly ever fail, while many people would upgrade.

I think a fair price is in the £700/€1100 zone assuming you are allowed to keep your 8700 SLI.

 

^^^
I didnt say Dell would tak ethe old card back. In fact a few pages back I said they wouldnt for the same reason you describe above.

I would however, as a customer who has spent a lot for this laptop, expect that an 'upgrade' should be less then the cost of buying the card as new with labour thrown in.

When you buy an upgrade of software, you pay probably half the price of the full version of the software. Fair enough, Dell may make a loss if they chose to do this, which is why its probably not a viable option, but I would expect a fairer deal then £700 TBH, being an existing customer, who has spent more on the laptop in the first place due to the prices dropping etc. I would at the very least expect free installation.

Personally I would probably prefer to install the card myself rather then have some techy contractor mess things up, as they have done in the past. All they do is read over the service manual and learn that anyway. I am probably a lot more technically competant in installing components then many of them are - trust me Ive had many Dell contractors change parts where I work, and some of them are completely useless.

Keep my 8700? And do what with it? It'll be either a spare part that will fit into nothing else except a M1730, or an expensive paper weight. You wouldnt be able to sell the 8700 card, well chances would be very slim, since anyone buying this laptop will do so for games, and I cant see anyone buying it with a single 8700 who would want to upgrade to the SLi 8700.

On the other hand, maybe Dell could recycle the cards or somethin?

I dont know, just throwing ideas out. I just thought Dell would have a fairer deal for their existing customers - who were promised a 'rapid' driver release program (what a joke that was) and quick upgrades etc. I'll probably end up buying another M1730 for my boss anyway, and swap the cards over.

 

You should atleast be honest and just ask for a system swap with your boss.

 

I could do, I could even just tell him that Im swapping cards, since my system is a higher spec then what he needs so I wouldnt want to swap systems altogether. Plus the system I get him will be registered to work etc. Im 100% sure he wouldnt be bothered so yeh I'll probably let him know.

 

HATE calling dell on Phone
they ask you 200 Qs
Before u can ask them 1

 

What you're saying that you don't enjoy the New DELLhi phone experience ?!?

I don't think any does.

 

This programm might help http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

 

^^^
Thanks, but I really didnt want to buy any more software just to get it to work.
BluRay region coding is not hardware/firmware coded - like DVD is. Apparently the BD region coding lock is within the software. If you use PowerDVD you can easily go into the registry and edit a key to give you 64,000 chances to change the region rather then the typical 5. If you use up that 64,000 you just reset it! lol
Im gonna see if I can find anything similar with Dell MediaDirect - which is what I prefer to use to watch BD Movies, since PowerDVD Ultra seems to keep stopping after every 10 mins!

 

Dell is a listed company. As a listed company they have an obligation to only venture into profitable programs. If they would offer this exchange programme at a loss, financial analysts would be quick to point this out and shareholders would be disappointed, Dell's share price would drop.

As you said yourself, Software is different to Hardware. The proportion of variable costs in the case of software is negligible. Once the development has been amortised, anything you sell, even half price, increases your profit.

For Hardware companies, variable costs dominate.

So no, the realistic market price for an update is not a rip off. It reflects Dell's rational effort to meet market pressures.

People who didn't wait until the 8800 GTX can't expect Dell to finance their impatience when the only viable strategy in this business it to exploit people's impatience to finance future hardware developments.

I knew the 8800 GTX was coming so I waited, and now I get the same config with the 8800 SLI instead of 8700 for the same price, so overall the update costs me 0.

Every year it is the same...minor update with inflated prices around December (7900 GS, 8800GS) and large update with falling prices in January (7950 GTX+Bluray, 8800GTX).

I agree with your comment on installation, though. Dell should at least offer the 8800 SLI module on their web site for self-installation and should make the price competitive. They should only force customers to buy 1 computer per year, not more, when they change the whole platform.

 

Yes hardware is different, and you raise some valid points. I had no option but to purchase early as it was part of my Xmas bonus which I would have lost otherwise. I just feel Dell shouldnt just forget their previous customers and offer them some sort of incentive to purchase upgrades from them.

Anyways, either way I'll be getting the card. Whether its alone, or within another system which will be used elsewhere in my workplace.

 

I unmounted my M1710 many times, to remove dust, and the graphic card was very easy to remove. As you said the servie manual makes it very easy. Let's see what the price in the US will be, this will give us a good hint.

 

Yeh I took my M1730 apart to put the Ageia card in (since Dell forgot it!) and it seemed pretty easy to change the card etc. Thats what I like about this machine, its simple to upgrade etc.

If I do put the card in myself, which is more then likely, that obviously voids my Dell warrenty. Im not too bothered by that TBH, since I place large orders with Dell quite often, and I know my account manager can always get a techy out to me for normal warrenty repairs whenever need be, in order to 'keep me sweet'.

But was just wondering - how would Dell know? I mean if I claimed under warrenty for a part other the the graphics card, surely they would just come and replace that part without knowing about the graphics card?

 

Exchanging parts yourself doesn't really void warranty.

I've changed GPU and fans on M90 which Dell allowed, and was okay with it.

 

Thought you might find this funny...

I was watching a youtube video just there and disconnected the power cable on my current laptop and the battery (from a "full" charge) died after.... 4 minutes!!!

Yet another good reason to get the M1730, with its -heh- slightly better battery life!

 

It's funny because nothing's gonna change when you get your XPS m1730.

BTW there's a typo on the Dell link you have they say the system comes with "NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GT graphics" at the top and the bottom says 8800m GTX

 

Does Dell have this too ?


Matrox DualHead2Go External Monitor Video Controller
http://www.xoticpc.com/matrox-video-adapters-a-19.html

 

Question here for you guys, does anyone know when Australia will be getting the 8800 option for the XPS M1730?

 

Not sure about dual display, but it already does support dual dvi.

I use 3007wfp @ native(2560x1600) and looks great.

 

I chatted with Dell online, and they said they had heard no news for the 8800m GTX graphics card and I asked if it would be soon and they didn't reply so I quit the session.

I spoke to a guy from XPS support back when I first bought the system and he told me he knew nothing about it but said it would be on the website when it is available. Getting the upgrade program is another question though.

If you really want to know I suggest you call the XPS support line instead of the Customer service or sales.

 

I sent tech support an email last week.
They just replied now and said they cannot help with upgrades and parts, and that I need to contact sales.

Trouble is, sales tell me that its a Field Replacable Unit, which is fair enough. But then they say I need to speak to technical support. So I get passed back and forward between both!