--->The Official Studio XPS 1340 Owner's Thread<---

How is the fans running when you have SLI turned on? My fans always run with SLI on, but with SLI off, the computer gets less loud. Is it dangerous to turn the SLI mode off when I have the power cable on?

How is the fans running at other 1340 owners?

 

I may not be as bad as you think. Others may have ideas about what Partition Magic did to your system and may be able to assist in getting the MBR working again but if not, and your recovery partition is intact, I can walk you through getting the OS back the way it left the factory.

Until then, try rebooting and tap the F8 key to see if you can get into the automated Recovery Enviroment (vs. the disk Recovery Enviroment you tried and apparently doesn't work).
Tom

 

Easy fix Boot from the cd, get to the install screen, then when it wants you to pick where to install, delete ALL of the partitions listed. Once you do that, create a new one, it will ask how many megabytes you want to allocate to that partition, I'd recommend using the max available. Then, simply install to that partition.

Sometimes previously created partitions can get corrupted when messing with them with something like partition magic - just delete em and create new

note** - don't delete the recovery partition if you want the computer to be as it was when shipped, for more advanced users, they generally don't care about this and would rather have the space - it is fairly easy to get a laptop working at 100% without the recovery partition however

 

I did both, and disabled everything else in Device Manager that I could. Mystery Spikes prevail.

 

Well soon we might have a test on how one is able to still record music...
It is not possible to turn off eSata in the Bios? (I know its not really possible under Windows...)

 

Take things slow and don't rush to anything. If you want to get your system back the way it was, DON'T delete or mess with the D:\RECOVERY partition. It is your lifeline that can restore the system as-built, reset the Master Boot Record and clean everything up. THEN, you can decide whether to reformat and reinstall. Hard drives are cheap. You can get a really good 320GB hard drive from like Newegg for $60 delivered and you can use THAT one for experimenting. But once you delete the RECOVERY partition on the original drive, there is no going back..... Well, actually there is. If you ask Dell real nice and convince them the recovery partition had errors, they can send you a set of DVD's that set up your system like if left the factory. Not the standard Vista DVD, Drivers DVD, etc., but an automated DVD set that does everything.

 

Hi Tom,

Can you please guide me through the steps, if you know what to do?

I would really appreciate it.. i have skype if you wish?

Regards

 

anyone know where I can find the facial recognition software the laptop ships with? can't find it on dells site...

 

Well there is a free software called "banana security"... Maybe someone who still has the "real" software installed could tell us the name

 

I checked, and nah you can't, but I tried disabling everything else anyway. No change.

 

Hm....hopefully they will fix the eSata problem soon with a bios update... Maybe this will take care of the spike problem aswell... And I think someone, with a XPS13 should tell Dell about the problem, or atleast ask..

 

NOTE

That i do not care about the recovery.. If it is does not put me in a worse situation when contacting dell if it doesnt work, i'd rather have the extra space.. I am experienced use, i have just never encountered this before.

So, if I can get it to work with just going back to factory, or getting 1 partion to install windows on, then fine.. as long as it works..

But i could not install on the 283 un-allocated partition.. and recovery didnt work.. so any help is so much appreciated.. i wont have to send it back to dell...

 

Check your PM

 

Update; I cant delete, create or resize the 283 GB partition, I get error code 0x8004240f

That looks bad, right?


EDIT:

I googled the error code. And found this
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/701756

So , you think it will work, if i find a xp cd? will i be able to get all 320 GB (i know the solution involves deleting all partitions, hence loosing recovery)

 

The last time i used Partition Magic, it messed up my 2 partitions and i could not recover my data. After that i swore i'd never use it again.

If you insert the Vista bootable disc and [re]start the computer, it will show you all partitions and allow you to create/delete/allocate/etc. and also format it and install the OS. I think that's the best way to go, instead of experimenting with Partition Magic, IMHO.

EDIT:
The best thing is to get a Windows XP bootable disc. Start booting from the disc, select "Recovery Console", from there in command prompt type "diskpart" and you will see all your partitions and will be able to edit them and then format as needed.

 

As I said, I am not allowed to change anything to the 283 gig un-allocated partition.. but your right, according to the googleling of the error code, it is due to partition magic..

 

Partition Magic isnt support Vista..

Tried run repair from Vista DVD?

 

I just installed windows 7 on my 1340 which drivers on the dell driver CD do i install for hybrid sli to work?

 

nVidia (video card) drivers.

 

It gives three options one of them is nvidia 9400M G and the other two is avermedia avertv hybrid. So installing the nvidia 9400M G would be fine?

 

Yes, and it did not work..

Perhaps the lexus4ever route by getting a XP cd is the only way??

Tom suggested to find the D:\tools folder and specify the wimfltr file as the driver, but it then says that the selected file does not contain info about my hardware..

 

If you cant find a XP CD try this:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Good luck with your repair work! Partition Magic is the PC-Killer #1, not because it is a bad program, but (too) many users dont know what they are doing.
No offense intended Tissie!

 

Lol, thats OK, but i never even got into part magic before it died.. i installed, then opened, and BOOM BSOD!..

I can get an xp cd tomorrow from my girlfriend..

Are you guys sure that this is fixable? Or do i need to return it to Dell??

 

Not exactly. Well, I agree, it works fine when doing the most basic operations, like creating partitions. BUT: i tried to do something more advanced: resizing and merging partitions --> and it just messed up my data during the merge operation -- it restarted the computer, the data was gone and unrecoverable. The good thing those were just movies and music, no big deal. Since then I don't trust it

 

We cant tell you yet if it is fixable...

 

Oh crap.. if not? what then? will dell replace my harddrive, or will they say it is my own fault, by a new one....?

 

First thing: calm down! There is no reason to panic
Tomorrow you will know if the HDD is still ok, which should be the case.
If its not just call dell and dell them that your HDD stopped working...

Once again, dont panic

 

Lol, i am sorry.. I need some valium or prozac now....

My girlfriend will bring XP and win 7 beta1 tomorrow evening.. any hope for that?

Otherwise.. I have the issue that i need to travel abroad pretty soon, so I do not have time to send it to dell, wait forever, and get it returned..

And they will ask, why it stopped working and waste my time telling me to run diagnostics.. and if i give them the error code they can see that it is because of partition magic

 

Once again I can only tell you to wait until you KNOW if anything broke on the hardware level... If so ask dell what to do... Most likely you will get a new HDD, and if not have to buy a new one.
You should know all of this by tomorrow

 

Yes, should be fixable (99% chance ).

 

Okay, thank you guys.. i will try to sleep now, it is getting really late here in DK... (i wont be able to sleep, just speculate and panic more).. but thats just my persona.. lol...

But i really hope this is fixable.. and i sincerely thank you for your kind help. I will return tomorrow.. hopefully to see the thread filled with step-by-step guides for getting all 320 gig back online

 

And i can try the ultimate boot cd.. but i have no clue where to begin with that stuff :S

Yes, i'll go to bed now.. sorry

 

DONT use it without knowing what you are doing! Just be patient and wait!

 

Latest nVidia drivers are now downloading, and installing normally, for anyone interested.

 

Are people still having problems with the esata ? because i just tried mine and it worked perfectly fine.

I plugged in a esata drive, it detected it right away. I could browse files read files, write files, and transfer files. It did not freeze once while i was testing it.

 

Did you test the DPC latency Aaron? Please do so
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

 

okay ill test it out soon and post back when i get back from the airport

I'm running windows 7 btw

 

Ok, thank you

 

Thanks, Aaron, good to hear that! I thought the whole 1340 series is affected with a non-working eSATA. Great that it works.

Did you install or configure anything specific for eSATA? Or did it just work after installing Windows?

 

Interesting. We only had two people with non-working eSATA but that was all that had tested it at that stage. Didn't work for me in Win 7 or Vista. Can I ask, are you using 32-bit or 64-bit? BIOS A02?

 

If you really want free, gparted. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ There is a live-cd version that you can boot off of.

 

Finally received my 1340 today! It looks incredible, I love the keyboard, screen, backlight, touchpad, it all feels good.

The first few times that Vista started up, the touch pad stopped responding to input completely. Very frustrating. After I did a clean reinstall of Vista, it hasn't happened again.

Another major thing I will note, is that all of my burned CDs and DVDs will not load at all. I am unable to try or even install Ubuntu 8.10. :/ I have tried several different types of CD-Rs at several different speeds. None of them work within Windows or trying to boot from the CDs. The included Vista/Dell discs work as well as normal audio CDs, but this is frustrating since Vista is crap for programming and web server software.

EDIT: This CD drive is DARN noisy for some CDs that do work. It sounds like a freaking race car. It sounds horribly wrong.

BTW, anyone using US EPP had luck getting a 9-cell battery?

 

ugh, I hate it, my lappy has the hanging sleep mode, anyone come to a resolution on this?

 

Btw, how did you do a clean install of vista? Can you give me a guide please?

 

I just formatted and installed windows 7 and installed all the drivers from the included dell driver CD. I never tried my esata before that but it works so im happy

Im gonna try testing that dpc latency thing. What should I be looking for?

nition: im using 64bit windows 7 and im not sure which bios i have, how do i check?

 

Just run the programm and post a screenshot
If everything goes well you should not have any red bars! Good luck

 

Thanks for the info, that's what I was running too. When your computer's starting and on the Dell splash screen, press F2 to enter the BIOS (like it says) and I think it says the version at the top. Then you can go across a few tabs to exit the BIOS again.

 

I might return my XPS13, unless I can figure away to get rid of the sleep mode hanging, because its rather quite annoying.

 

So I was actually able to get my 1340 to boot using a Ubuntu 8.10 CD, but halfway through the drive started to spin down to a stop and I had a bunch of I/O stream and read errors because the CD had spun down. This is really unusual and I'll be calling support less than 24 hours after receiving my new laptop. :/

Sleep and hibernate work just perfectly for me after a clean Vista install and the proper nVidia drivers installed.

 

DPC latency test: doesn't look so good =(



My bios version is A02

btw is there any way to make the touch media controls display on screen when pressed for windows 7 like in the dell installed vista?