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

Thank you for the tip!!! I was about ready to shave down one of the legs. I followed your instructions completely got rid of the wobble!!!
Thanks again.

 

god it i cant find my stupid tiny screw drivers

 

The wireless in mine is working flawlessly. Sits on 300Mbps, never fluctuates, never drops. Fastest I have ever seen...

The myth about HDDs and heat is over-rated. There may be a 1-2 degree difference between the two, but it's NBD. Just get whichever suits your needs better...

AS5 can be applied, if you wish. I am giving mine a few days, to let the stock stuff 'burn in', and monitoring my temps before I make that move. If I am not satisfied with the temps I see, I have a tube of AS5 on the ready...

As to your first statement, I find that this is anything but a 'terrible, terrible laptop'. The exact opposite seems to be true, and I think that the majority of the problems from the beginning of this thread have been rectified by Dell, or were user-error type issues.

The laptop cools just fine. Yes, it gets warm when you push it, but it cools off very quickly afterwards...

Hope that helps...

@jmoose: LOL...I hate losing those tiny drivers. That's why I bought Craftsman Precision drivers, they are basically full size drivers with tiny heads...awesome tools, and they were only like $4 (USD) a piece...(lol @ language filters)

@kingyubbo: I haven't tried watching DVDs on battery (or anything on battery, for that matter), so IDK on that one.

Also haven't checked latency, and might not, as it doesn't affect my usage.

As to the sound quality, I find it perfect for games and music. Loud enough for me, and decent quality. I wasn't expecting Home theater quality from two tiny speakers, after all...

 

cool! went to sears sent $7 on a 8pc set and now its fixed good look!

oh btw im thinking of blacking out my dell.. like no silver or any dell badges, i got my new system board cover with no logos or stickers on it..

 

Sweet idea...take the aluminum trim off, and have it anodized any color you wanted...would look awesome black...like green myself...

Glad your wobble is gone...my trick worked, then???(Not really a trick, but proper application of physics and such)...

Edit: Does anyone else's AC adapter make light clicking noises??? Kinda sounds like a HDD writing, but it is definitely the adapter...it works, but I have never 'heard' an AC adapter before...hold yours up to your ear and tell me what you hear (mine's the 90 W)...

Superedit: Attached is a screenie of my idle temps while surfing, defragging in the background (1hr 35 minutes into defrag)...

Superedit2: Added another screenshot, this time of temps immediately after 90 minutes of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault...not too bad, and if it keeps this pattern, I won't even F with it. (Yeah, I will...can't help it... )

I can even play Dead Space on this...I love it...can't max it out, but it is quite playable...

 

yep your recommendation worked on adjusting the screw pressure!

yeah im just going thru the service manual to see how easy/hard it is to remove/replace the trim ive got a new set of trim on order just incase i mess a set up

 

So mine came a few days ago (specs below)...and I have a few questions...

1. What's the best way to clean the polished black plastic? I know they're prone to finger prints. I also have compressed air...is that ok for cleaning the keys and stuff?

2. Does the blue LED on the power cord annoy the out of anyone else? xd

3. Anyone have any tips for training yourself not to accidentally hit things like the eject and wifi switch on the touchpad media controls? Its not a big problem for me but I've hit them a couple times. haha

4. I have 4GB DDR3 RAM. There were were options to upgrade to six and eight GB, but Dell always charges too much for RAM and I decided I could do it myself with premium RAM rather than the junk they use. My question is, I hear there's only two dim slots, so what are my upgrade options? Would 2 x 4GB DDR3 sticks work?

Anyway, I love the back lit keyboard and the ability to adjust it when it gets annoying or is inappropriate. I wish I could turn down/off the power white LEDs on the sides. The keyboard is comfortable and appropriately sized in my opinion, and the layout is easy to use.
Heat is a minor issue for me because of my configuration, but it does have a tendency to get hot on the bottom. Obviously, the back vent is a design flaw that may have been avoidable if they had put the vent on the side of the unit like some ASUS systems do. Still, it isn't the biggest issue.
What I like most about the Studio XPS systems is the fact that Dell doesn't put as much junk on them that they do with lower end units. There were only about five or six ty programs that needed to be uninstalled, which was nice. I didn't even need to reformat the drive.
The HD playback is what I expected, it isn't perfect, but its still a big upgrade from my E1705 which wasn't really capable of HD. I plugged it into my 1080i TV using the HDMI port and it looked pretty good on the television...it detected it right away and everything played smoothly.
I don't play games or anything. I bought it for convenience and portability, personally...so the system specs fit perfectly with what I was looking for.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with it.

Specs:
Core 2 Duo P8600 (2 x 2.4GHz)
nVidia Geforce 9400M G
4GB DDR3 RAM
128GB SSD HDD (SO fast; I also used a portable 500GB Western Digital external HDD that is black with a white LED light so it looks like it matches!)
WLED Glossy (I prefer matte, but this is what I got)
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

 

the grainy video on this is SFannoying.. trying to watch nitro circus right now and its sooooooooo bad :\

 

Mind posting a picture?

 

i dont know if a picture would show it? i will try.

picture will not show it..

 

yes, the blue power cord is annoying.. one of these days I'm gonna mod it, and remove that tacky LED

also, I wish there were a software method of controlling the body lights and brigtness.

the front indicator lights are too bright, and the side ones are also kinda annoying.

 

Consider a Dell Latitude E6400, an excellent machine, you won't regret.

 

Hmmm yeah... if it's not a software problem, but a screen hardware problem, it won't. Get the camera out?

@ Lexus Forever - The Dell Latitude based model is $2400 here in AUS, and to upgrade with decent specs, it seems it'll be around $2800... way over my budget and doesn't have any discounts.

 

I'm thinking about buying a 1340, but I'm still not quite sure where Dell is at as far as build quality. How do you guys feel about your purchase? What about heat, screen issues? Any other better alternatives or do you regret buying it?

I'm looking at:
2.66 P9600
500gb 7200RPH HD
4gb RAM
Nvidia9500 G 256mb
WLED Display
4 year warranty/Accidental damage

All for a final price of about $2100 with tax and everything.

 

Hm, I just specced one on Canadian web site and arrived at approximately the same price as XPS 1340. Are you looking at E6400 model, the 14" one (not the super expensive E4300, 13")?

 

There is lots of great information on the Latitude here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1051

On the Latitude/Vostro/Precision section of the forum...
You will prob's find more info there..then here on the XPS forum!
(It is a nice lappy, my bro' has one).



Cin

 

Thanks Cin'.

kingyubbo, its Owner's Thread is this one:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293401

 

If you believe the reliability studies, then Dell's build quality is consistently in the Top 3 of all laptop manufacturers. Sony is also in the Top 3, but sells equivalent systems for much more than Dell. Other manufacturers, like Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, Asus are somewhere in the middle. Apple and HP appear in the Top 3 in some studies, and in the bottom 3 in others.

 

I'm loving mine so far, just got it this past monday. It feels really sturdy and solid, very fast, great screen, nice attention to detail (when you press a key down, a white square lights up around the key to acknowledge you pressed it), and internet is really fast.

As for the system you quoted, you should call in when you order, you should get a better deal. Mine was $600 less than your quote (see sig.), and the only difference is you got the the 500gb hd (I got 320), and 4 year warrantee (i got 3).

 

Whaaaaa? This is new! Does anyone else have this?

 

new pictures!

check out the sticker-less service door

pictures of 9-cell with oem sleeve

also, the reason for the pictures of the rubber feet is to show that you cant tighten the door down all the way because if you do your laptop will most likely wobble, thanks for the tips who said to loosen the screws mine no longer wobbles

 

Those are some nice photos you took! You did a good job of removing all the stickers!
(Do you have your Service Tag and Express Code saved somewhere, if you need to access quickly when calling Support)?


Cin

 

my system is regged on dell.com so i just sign in and it provides me my information

 

Good good! I just left my stickers on my 1530...and they are still there looking the same, over a year later.


Cin.

 

i dont know why i like it without the stickers just do..

now trying to figure out how to remove the rest of the dell badging.. also thinking of switching the silver trim to black or something similar

 

We all like to make things our *own* in our own ways! I finally removed the stickers off of my palmrest after they started peeling..and were bothering me.

Other than that, I left my lappy as is. I had always thought of applying a *skin* to the lid..but never followed through!

That's interesting, what you want to do with the trim!


Cin

 

Me thinks somebody's hallucinating...

No, I don't have that.

Anybody else's power adapter make noise? It's like you can hear the transistors clicking, or something. Don't really care, just wanna make sure that the thing's not gonna catch fire...

Anybody else have screen flicker after installing 179.48 drivers from nVidia? Just random occasional flickers...or maybe it's my power adapter dieing...??? Voting drivers, guess I'll be rolling back...

 

bit worried on doing the trim, i had some on order from dell, got it saturday turned out to be the wrong peices so i dont know if they even have the trim for purchase yet, id like to order another set or 2 jsut to try things out on so i dont mess it up i orginally thought of making the laptop all white but then realized it would look stupid with a black keyboard so.. all black or leave it how it is



my power adapater does not click.. i had the screen flicker but i no longer do after updating to newest drivers but it seems that your getting the flicker on the NEWEST drivers? strange

 

i have pics i can e-mail if anyone wants to post them. but i'm not hillucinating.

 

[email protected]

lemme see them


JUST W T F he aint lying.. just got the picture

 

they been sent.

 

ohhh ok i see what is happening, he has his keyboard set to 2, when you press one key the lights from the other keys surround it.. just did it, it kinda gives it a halo around the depressed key

 

yeah, your right. It looked like it lit up, but its the reflection from the surrounding keys. still looks cool though.

 

yeah deff nice. now it would be cool if the lights got bright when u depressed thatd be really cool

 

that or changed to a different collor

 

yea.. maybe next model they will do something wild like that

oh man bestbuy.com has the 16inch xps in stock now! for $1100 soo tempting!!!!

anyone want to buy my 1340 with 6cell and 9cell battery for $1000.00? :O

 

Build quality is lexus like, solid, no flex at all with rich materials. Makes other plastic notebooks feel cheap. Only thing I change on this is the low res screen, after using 1050 on a 15 inch, its hard to adjust to such low res.

 

Yup, i'm talking about the E6400. It's base price is $2399AU. Pretty expensive for what it is unfortunately.

Thanks for the links to the Latitude Owners thread, but I'm not currently interested. I think I have narrowed my options down to the XPS 13 and with $100 and EPP discount, it seems the best deal for me. Reading more, I'm now not sure whether to wait a little longer for more firmwares to be released and for models to become abundant in the Outlet store... maybe be more months.

Any news on the DVD Playback issues?

 

battery runtimes on the 9cell anyone?

btw, i just had one of my "h" key on the KB suddenly stop working for no reason, reboot fixed it but since it may rearise, has anyone suffered this? kinda weird really. nothing like it has happened before =/

 

you really dont look before you post do you? i posted a 9cell review thread..

 

Thanks, good to hear as I just purchased my laptop yesterday. As far as the price, it was $2100. The $600 more comes with the 4 yr warranty (about $400), accidental damage protection ($100), and the rest comes from an extra mouse and remote I added. I also got a hundred dollar gift card with it. I called Dell, but the best that they were able to give me was the educational 7% discount. I'm so excited! Now I just have to sit and wait! How long did your guy's systems take to ship?

 

Ordered on the 7th, shipped the 12th, received the 13th.

Glad I didn't pay any extra for next day or overnight shipping. Woulda been pissed (apparently they ship out of the Nashville facility. Worked well for me, as it's 20 miles from home. Thus the next day delivery, for free. Sweet... )

 

hey moose, you gonna post the pics i sent?

 

as requested



Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

 

Thats good to hear. Was your system heavily upgraded? How are you liking it?

 

I received mine 17 days ahead of schedule.I took the free 3-7 day delivery. It left Nashville 03/01 at 2:23am and the Fedex guy was at my door 03/01 at 10:30 am!! Knoxville is 180 miles out of Nashville.
Happy Happy Joy Joy.

 

Upgraded processor and vid card. The rest pretty standard, and I am luvving it!!!

Screenshot of max temps after an hour of COD4. Not bad, but could be better, so I may be doing AS5 application...

For teh record, it was running really well. Res 1024x768, Antialiasing 4, everything else on "Normal" (no high option, just low or normal)...

To the guy right above this, was yours upgraded, or pretty stock...17 days early...just wow...

 

Over the standard selection added:
P9600
Nvidia 9500
LED
Samsung 256GB SSD
Blue Tooth
Changed from whatever to Norton 2008
Called the order in will Dell account 5% discount and $150 gift card - told them it was too much - 15 minutes later they called back with a $150 discount offered - called tech support about heat and wobbling and my concern that a 1 year warranty was not enough (a very legitamate concern)- credited $130 to my Dell account to help pay for 2nd year.
What started off as a $1909 laptop cost me $1392.
Granted I will use the $150 gift card to buy another year warranty but if its like anything I did on my M1330 I will get that at a discount.
The SSD alone is worth $750

 

Very Devious.......................... I LIKE IT

 

I had exactly this issue with the same screen type (LGD0145). Upgrading drivers didn't resolve things so I contacted Dell support. They passed the ticket to their engineering team, who couldn't resolve the problem. I had a new lcd installed this morning (same model LGD0145) which has fixed things up nicely, no more problems with flickering lines on battery power.