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

I use CPUID HWmonitor. Seems to work the best for me

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

 

Well I downloaded that file and ran it, it said doesn't work on my OS lol, so still not lights.

 

Is anyone else getting scratches on their screen from the screen being closed/keyboard touching the screen while closed?

I just noticed I have 4 or 5 scratches in the screen now that are clearly being caused by the screen touching the keyboard/when the screen is closed without being extremely careful with it...

I'm really pissed about this - I wonder if this is covered by the warranty?

thinking of calling dell and seeing what they will do.

 

Guys,

Been playing with my 1340 for a day and I have run into a real snag. No BSOD... something almost as bad.... a Memory Drain.

While running IE7, the laptop begins to build up its memory usage as outlined in the performance tools until IE is using well over a gig of physical memory and the computer warns me to shut down some applications to free up some memory.

Any ideas on why this is happening and how to fix?

HELP.

Brian
1340, 2.66mhz, 4gig, 275 SSD

 

either try re-installing ie7 or upgrade to ie8?

 

anyone use a 5530 HSDPA card in the 1340? does it work ok?

looking at getting this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-5530-KM2...i-Card-3G_W0QQitemZ280332079654QQcmdZViewItem

 

Hi guys,

I'm planning to get a cooling pd for my SXPS. I just wanted to know your thoughts on this coooler:
Cooler Master X1
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?act=detail&id=4787

Here is a review:
http://forums.techarena.in/reviews/1112001.htm

It has a 120mm fan (runing on USB power)in the middle and has a metal casing.

It looks nice but not sure of its performance.

Has anyone used it?

 

FYI...i went to the A06 BIOS and using the same conditions (powersave mode, moderate 'work' on the computer) I shaved off about 8-10 degrees C. About 50 on the CPUs and 60 on the GPU. Not stellar, but an improvement. Still concerned, and looking to crack 50!

 

I ordered my SXPS and it is being delivered today. I have been reading about the heat issues and they had me a little concerned. So, I downloaded CPUID on my old XPS1530 ran it, and discovered that the GPU (NVIDIA 8400mGS) is running at 69c and I think the CPu was running at about 60, 61. Mind you, I was transferring files over the wifi so there was really no graphic work going on. Seems that the temps on my 1530 are in the same region as the SXPS. I think I can live with that. For those who also have the 1530, have you noticed the the same?

 

I've been having this same exact issue, and I always carry mine in a sleeve. Right now, the scratches are pretty faint (not noticeable when the screen is on), but I fear they might get worse. The flimsiness of the screen is one of my biggest issues with this laptop. If it were a bit more sturdy, it wouldn't bend inwards and scratch they keyboard when you put some weight on it. I'm thinking of just keeping the protective sheet in there all the time now. Let me know what happens if you call Dell about this.

 

I'm quite annoyed by the new BIOS.

The constantly spinning fan is not only annoying but also a drain on power. Seriously, I didn't find the laptop to be hot before... at least, not until I started doing some CPU / GPU intensive stuff. But THEN the fan would kick in and everything would be fine.

Besides, if I start a game or something, it's still getting really hot anyway, so I don't understand what happened here.

EDIT: Someone mentioned reverting back to the A5 BIOS. Any idea where I could get that now?

 

^ are you just speculating that it drains more battery life? From what I've seen, my average battery life didn't change when I went from A05 to A06. (At least not enough for me to notice)

Also, the older versions of the bios can be found here:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...etag=&catid=-1&libid=1&impid=-1&osl=en&os=WLH

 

I'm finding this thing gets about 3 hours on power save mode with this latest bios. As for the fan, it seems to cut in and out now and again. It's not loud or nothing though, I would say this is whisper quiet not really noticable and I'm very finicky when it comes to anything wrong

 

Hi guys, i just bought the zalman nc1000 black for my sxps 13 and the cooler did very well. Maybe you guys can think of this. Here is my result after internet surfing and listening to music around 1 hr.
Before/ After
Cpu0 54 C 37C
Cpu1 55C 37C
Gpu 9200 58C 42C
Gpu 9400 62C 44C

 

Here are my temps after "normal" usage (web browsing, e-mail, etc.). I have the 9400M and the laptop was sitting on my lap for half of the night.

I just can't justify the hassle of carrying around a cooling pad just so my temps will drop 2-3C

 

Just got my scratch and dent 1340.. been running a little over an hour

Both cores between 42-45 C

GPU running at 54 C

This is the fastest computer i've ever used.. its really nice

 

So I received my 1340 yesterday. Immediately updated the BIOS, and still had continual BSOD!! So I proceeded to do a fresh install of Vista 64 with all the updated drivers from Dell. I thought I was all good after about 5 hours of messing around to get my Brand New Laptop working!! So I wanted to see what this thing could do. I ran performance test 7 and got a disappointing 728. Huh?! (Specs P9600, 6gig, Hybrid SLI, 500gb 7200, LED) I thought it was just because I needed to do some adjustments in Vista. But this is where it gets interesting. I was try to load Office 2007 when it started the BSOD Cycle over and over again. So I once more tried a clean install. Nope! So I thought I'll try XP. Put XP Pro 32bit on it and no BSOD. With no working Video Driver I tried Performance Test 7 on XP and to my surprise I got a 828 with a big 0 in the 3D Mark.

At this point I'm at a loss of what to do. I love the laptop it's a great replacement for my XPS M1210. But with crappy video in XP or constant BSOD in Vista. I'm open to any suggestions. Has anyone with the Hybrid SLI and 6Gig been able to go without any BSOD??

 

You should put Vista 64 back on, especially since you have more 4GB of ram and also, instead of getting the video card drivers from Dell, get it from Nvidia directly.

Also, make sure you install the drivers in the order that Dell tells you to install them in.

 

Hey guys,

I'm a prospective buyer for the 1340. Dell Canada has a pretty sweet deal right now ($217 off). The deal ends on May 1st and I am wondering whether I will get a better deal or a worse deal after May 1st (seeing how a new deal starts after another one ends). Does the deal get better each time another deal expires? Should I wait or buy now?

On a side note, I heard some bad things about SSDs. Is it worth getting the SSD or should I wait till prices go down and technology improves?

 

Thats like what I'm getting, but with the 9500 on temps are going up to 64c-65c. This is way too hot and thats with the A06 bios update. I can't do anything multi-media on this laptop, to be honest the graphics suck compared to my desktops Nvidia 8800GTX's, you can't even see detail in facebook photos it's all blurry. Running a game on this is a no no so that brings me to think whats good about the Dell Studio XPS 13.... If I wanted just a web browser a netbook would be a better idea becuase at least a better battery life would be achievable.

I'm thinking about sending mine back this is no good.

 

Why did you get 6GB? That's $400 more and you can get better ram from newegg much cheaper.
Anyway, my guess is that it's the ram. Rum memtest to see if your ram has any errors

 

for those with the ao5 bios, it says on the installation instructions that users who want cpu c5/c6 need to set their bios to default. what exactly is c5/c6. the reason i got this update was i was still having problems with the notebook not waking up from sleep/hibernation despite all the drivers being upt to date.

 

i was wondering with all the problems you guys are having, should i consider buying this laptop? would the problems be fixable?

thanks

 

I bought mine from the Outlet and got a great deal. I actually found the cause and it was indeed the ram. The 4gb chip was bad. Memtest and the Dell Utilities passed it. But with it removed the machine ran great, tried the 4gb solo in either slot and instant BSOD. Dell is sending out a new pair of chips to hopefully resolve the issue. I've been running on the 2gb chip without an issue since Friday night. Thanks for the input.

 

You can put a thin clear gel bumper like this to prevent scratching. It is not noticeable and later removable.

 

Do you guys find your enter key sunk in from the rest of the keys on the keyboard? Mine is and it gets stuck!

 

There is flex around the enter key... maybe that's why?

 

It's sunk in and gets stuck and you have to tap it a few times for it to pop back up but then gets stuck again.

This laptop is a complete piece of s*** with all the issues.

Oh by the way just booted it up and it's frozen on vista login........

This is going back for sure, I'm not paying this kind of money for rubbish like this.

 

quality control is poor; but there are good machines among all the bad ones. my current machine is perfect (but this is after frankensteining parts from 3 sxps 13's, haha)

 

I received my system and there's only two small scratches on the cover. Not noticeable unless you look very closely. I got it with 15% coupon, comes out to about ~$720. No stuck or dead pixel. I immediately updated the bios A06 and burner firmware. Fresh installed Windows 7 x64 (RC 7100) on it with the new drivers from dell except I keep default nvidia (newer). So far running great with no issue. Laptop is warm, I guessed due to 5400rpm hd and 9400m, and I can certainly use on my lap. I can get about 2.75 hrs from normal use out of the 6cell battery.

Studio XPS 13 (1340) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 (6MB cache/2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
System Price : $809.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Disk Drive
250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video
nVidia GeForce MCP79MX
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Interface Card
Dell Wireless 1515 802.11a/g/n WLAN half Mini Card
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Upgrade
6 Cell Primary Battery
125V Power Cord
65W AC Adapter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software Upgrade
Windows Live
Microsoft Works 9.0
Facial Recognition Version 2.3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Camera
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scratch & Dent
Scratch & Dent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laptop Screen
13.3 inch HD WXGA Edge-to-Edge Slim Laptop screen W/LED with 1.3 Megapixel Camera
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base
Studio XPS 13 (1340) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 (6MB cache/2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bluetooth Wireless
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Color
Obsidian Black with Leather Accent

 

WOW you got a fanatic deal there
My studio xps 13 with worse specs cost $1400 brand new
but then again its new if that really matters..

 

That sounds like one of the units I sent back. Those were my specs! I had the BSOD problem, and it was a nightmare so it went back. I have another one here, ready to send back that was a replacement, and it's experiencing the same BSOD nightmare. I will try removing the 4GB chip and will let you know.

 

Hello all,

I am new to these forums I just wanted to say a quick word of hello and I think I should warn you guys:

I am an absolute noob... Spoiler: I will be asking the most basic and annoying questions, question which could make alot of you guys go "jesus" or "waow" in disbelief so I apologise in advanced!

So, since I have apologised I'm gonna shoot!

I purchased a new Studio XPS 13 notebook. It has:

-2 Duo Processors P8600 (2.40GHz/1066 FSB/ 3MB Cache)

-2GB (2 X 1GB) Dual Channel 1067MHz DDR3 SDRAM

-250GB SATA 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive

-256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 9500M-GE with Hybrid S 1
LI(R) Technology

So where do I start?

I looked around in the forums and honestly these forums might as well be in Chinese because I have no idea what you guys are talking about. So please baby steps for me? Cheers.

The notebook gets really hot. Like back left area gets so hot I cant touch it. I think when its idle it says its abour 50 degrees (downloaded something from the net hope its the right thing...) Is it normal? Like after its been on a while I cant touch near the power button because its so hot...

Secondly it lags. Like when I watch something on youtube or I play a game, I've tried playing Civilization 4 on it and it lags alot, freezes here and there but it runs.

Thirdly it takes forever to start up. Like I'm using Vista 32bit(?) and it starts up fine but when it is time to start up vista it goes black for ages, the mouse is cursor is there in the middle but only after maybe nearly 90 seconds does it load into windows.

Lastly, the computer has frozen twice on me already (I've had it 4 days?) Frozen and stopped completely... This aint good right?

Jeez so many issues, apart from that its pretty sweet loving it. Is something wrong? I am assuming the video card etc should be able to handle youtube and civilization 4. Like when watching vids/youtube it runs fine but once every 3 to 5 minutes it lags, the sound goes "de..de...de..." then its okay again... Did I do something wrong? Do I need to go download some more drivers? Are there some checks I should do?

Cheers everyone in advanced, and everyone here seems just delightful I am very happy to have met you all. I bid you good day and till next time stay safe!

Cheers,
ReeNah

 

What is the light on the right of WiFi for? Mobile express card?

 

Everytime my computer comes out of sleep, I get an error "Host process has stopped" and my sound is disabled. This is on a clean vista install. Anyone else having these issues? Is there a newer driver not on the Dell site?

 

I have a similar issue, even tough i dont know if its realted to the sleep or not.
I barely use the sound anyway

 

Guys,

I seem to have my 1340 dialed in now. Admittedly shut down is a little slower than expected but the overall machine is purring along.


Just curious. What are the real differences betwee the 02 bios and the 06 bios. While I am in the school of don't fix it unless its broke with the new machine I want to be sure that I am not missing anything.

Please advise.

Brian

 

2gigs RAM seem awefully low for Vista. How did you get this system, I thouhgt the minimum configuration was 4gb? Anyway, some one else may want to chime here, but the lags may be because of lack of RAM. You also may want to try Vista 64-bit, as this is a 64-bit laptop.

 

06 is supposed to help with heat issues among other things. Mine doesn't get hot at all unless I partially block the bottom air intake.

 

hi guys,

I got my laptop last saturday. I bought it in bestbuy ($963 incl. tax).

congig:
c2d p8600
4gb ram
320gb 7200rpm hdd
geforce 9400g
wifi, bt, 1394, hdmi, etc...

i love it, I was afraid I will have much problems with this ntb, as per i read a lot of reviews. after i turned it on, i immediately upgraded the bios from a02 to a06, splitted the hdd (50gb 4 vista, 230gb 4 data and those 15gb 4 recovery i left alone) and all drivers i found on the dell website. then i installed usual progs, set the appearance, etc... it is really fast. but, could you give me an advice, what program should (or may) I uninstall? the webcam central is annoying, but when i uninstall it, will it be possible to log in using webcam? or maybe it would be better to re-install whole system?

regarding the discussed freezing and bsod - nothing from this happened to me (maybe thanks to new bios upgrade?) also it gets warm, when i watch movies, but not hot. and the ntb ran 12 hrs on saturday and also on sunday. I also checked the ntb with the dell diagnostic utility and found no problems. I found 1 dead pixel - not so bad...

vista is not as bad as i thought (this is the 1st time i am using it)

thank 4 replies...

have a good day

 

crazydc! A big thanks to you. After countless hours (really...like 40 or more) of tweaking and reformating, and reinstalling and all the other Bull****, it turns out it's my 4gb chip that is bad. Just like you, the diagnostic tests didn't catch it.

I did exactly like you did, with the same results. Instead of sending back this machine, Dell is sending me a new 4gb chip with the understanding that if I BSOD again, I can return this unit.

thank you so much

 

It came standard in the deal off dell? My mate said its okay becuase its DDR3 ram so I didnt need 4gigs of it? Was he wrong? What do you mean its Vista 64-bit laptop? Is there a big difference? Will it fix any of my problems?

Thanks,
ReeNah

 

There is nothing wrong with 2GB and Vista, but the more the better (especially with 64-bit versions). Here is a link for info on 32 bit vs 64 bit: Link And you have only one processor, but it has 2 cores.

 

Hey guys, I'm still having a problem after 2 months now that I keep thinking they'll fix on the latest Nvidia driver that comes out. Ever since I upgraded my video driver from the one that came on the factory install, I've lost my "GPU Settings" option on the "Advanced Power Settings." Which means I cannot switch the Hybrid SLI Graphics from "Boost Performance" mode to "Save Power" mode without manually switching my power profile to "Power Saver" every time I run my computer on the battery. The only driver that ever worked properly for this function was the one installed fresh from the factory. I've been waiting patiently knowing that a bunch of other people have already complained about this, thinking that this issue would be fixed in one of the upcoming driver releases. It's been over 2 months now and it's still not fixed.

Working before new driver was installed


No SLI options after new driver was installed


I also posted about this here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=354516

I know there's a fix by installing drivers from LaptopVideo2Go, but I think after spending close to $2000 on this thing, Dell should fix this.


I just need to know if anybody else is still having these problems or it's only mine???


Thanks!

 

if your looking for it to switch automatically from preformance to power saver when you unplug it, then install dell quickset, then right click the battery icon, go to dell battery meter, under dell extended life, click settings and set it to power save when unplugged, then enable. That should do it.

 

as Jayayess said, with vista its always better to have more, it seems 4gigs is the sweet spot with vista. You should also be able to get the 64-bit version by calling dell and telling them they sent you the wrong version and need the 64-bit version. (not that they sent you the wrong one persay, just so they don't try to charge you, even though they shouldn't). And ddr3 won't really help, what ddr3 means is that the RAM is much faster, but there is still only 2 gigs on there, so as that gets filled up the computer will slow down because there is no space on the RAM. Right now my computer is using 2.59 gigs out of 4, so if I only had 2 gigs, that would be full, and either what is on the other 500mb would be running off the hard drive (very slow) or it would dump some processes to add others (wich would slow the computer as well).

 

I already posted a fix for this a while back. Search the the thread.

 

Oh hey guys. Well I have a friend who knows alot about computers and stuff and he said there is something wrong with it. Basically it lags often while doing basic stuff like youtube or watching stuff. He said the ram probably has something to do with it, but I think I'll call up Dell anyways, I've had it less then a week and I would like to know if the heating up is abnormal to.

I really like the notebook looks sweet, has that keyboard light... Only if it didnt have this lag problem. The thing is, I dunno if I am fully wrong left field out far wide or anything here: the ram is said to be 2gb DDR3, but its 2, 1gb DDR3 ram and he said that probably is affecting it. He said I should buy one 2gb ram thingy and upgrade to 3gb should work better...

So my action plan is to call dell, complain that there is too many problems;

its too hot (if its normal then I'll be okay)

too laggy (if they replace everything and its okay I'll be okay)

I wanted 64bit vista, I want a free upgrade because after some reserach I found out the system is made for 64bit windows

and to wrap it all up; I want a free ram upgrade...

Wonder what they'll say... Hope it all works out!

Cheers btw guys really appretiate the help.

Good Night,
ReeNah

 

If not to much time already passed you should be able to send it back and get your money back.
Tell them that and they might be willing to adjust your or get you a new one.

 

I know you said you posted the method to switch the nvidia to power save.. but I cannot find it.. I tried to search this thread for it...