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

Just received my 1340 today after a two week wait, plugged it in and turned it on: no video at all, not even the boot screen.

Dell is sending a tech with a new LCD.

I can't believe this notebook was tested prior to shipment.

 

Weird, did you get a machine from outlet or new?

 

Brand spankin' new. DOA out of the box.

Maybe an outlet machine would have been a better choice.

 

Yeah, that is pretty strange. I would have expected them to ensure the computer at least boots to BIOS let alone the OS before shipping it out....

 

Well, after the hassle of the initial machine, I got my replacement 1340 today. It's almost like a whole different machine. Right when I got it, I wiped the machine and did a fresh Vista install, and from the moment I popped the disc in, I could tell that the DVD drive was working. The install completed in under 30 minutes (versus the hours of install time before).

Finished doing the Windows install and did all my driver updates, then I started grabbing DVDs to install them. Sure enough, the drive's working well.

Coincidentally, it's the exact same model as before (the HL-DT GS20N)

So, looks like my laptop woes are at an end. I'm still amazed at what this machine is capable of, and love having all this power in such a tiny machine.

 

Ok, this is to follow-up on a previous post I made. It's been over a week and i had the following problems when I first got it:

1) BSOD at various times w/sleep-hibernate problems
2) Scratched/damaged LCD (cosmetic)
3) 2-prong AC adapter, but came with a 3-prong cord that plugs into the adapter (guess the person working on my order at Dell never understood as a kid that the circle won't fit into the triangle hole)

BSOD was somewhat solved with a fresh install of Vista. Since then I haven't had any hang-ups waking from sleep/hibernation, but did have one BSOD when I was trying to watch a DVD. It happened only once since then so I'll say that was just a fluke....hopefully.

New LCD came in yesterday, screen was in perfect condition. Luckily, Dell allowed me to install it myself and not a tech. This machine has a ton of screws but removal/reinstall was pretty straight forward. New LCD is looking good.

Now, I can't believe this AC adapter mess. I can't believe that they would even send out the computer with mis-matched prongs to begin with. So, when I got the new one yesterday, I was shocked. Not only was the AC adapter a 2-prong and the cord a 3-prong, the thing is a 65W adapter and not the 90W ! What the..... Come on Dell, this is CRAZY! So, I will now be contacting them again for a THIRD attempt for the correct adapter. If I didn't have the 2-prong cord from my M1210, my M1340's battery would have died and my new M1340 would be a nice paper weight by now. Does anybody have the p/n's for the correct 90W ac adapter/plug so I can try to steer them in the right direction this time?

Ok, there's my rant, part II.

 

my xps1340 is being stupid lately.
I will have just burned a few dvd's with nero and then
my whole computer will freeze up and have like 2 minute delays to do anything. All other programs are closed..
Has anyone else had this happen? running vista 64

 

magik,

did u do a clean install? That would be the first thing I would do to ANY dell laptop

 

Amen to that!

 

I gotta hand it to Dell for a fast response.

Yesterday my 1340 arrived DOA (no video). Today the tech replaced the LCD and now it's up and running.

Now to do a clean install...

 

I just turned on my 1340 and it greeted me with a message saying "C/ProgramFiles/x86" is corrupt. Now none of my programs seem to work. This computer is like a week old and has next to nothing installed on it.

What gives?

 

Im having no such luck with my 1340. Staticky crackling audio no matter what the source.

Got a new DVD drive in it, just finished the replacement, it's having a hard time reading discs, and is making very strange noisesl It's obviously DOA.

I called Dell, and continue getting the run-around from everyone I speak to.

At this point I think I may just return the unit.

 

I think those TSST drives are the culprit. I complained about it and they said they would replace it with a refurbished drive. I got angry and told them it was DOA on a brand new machine. They said they had no new ones to send me. So I threatened to return it completely. They offered to send me a new machine as an exchange.

I got the new machine 2 days ago and figured I'd just swap the SSD drive over and call it a day. But the new one had a bad keyboard, a few of the keys were crooked and I couldn't fix them. Also I noticed that the clarity of the LCDs were vastly different. I ordered mine with the upgraded WLED screen. The new one looked as if it was just a glossy layer on top of a matted screen and the screen wasn't as bright as my old one. So what turned into unscrewing the bottom plate off to replace the hard drives turned into taking apart both systems to swap the DVD-drive which was a different model than the TSST. It's an HD-something branded drive. While in there, I also noticed different components such as memory modules and fan. Now I know my old system never really got that hot but it did get uncomfortable on the lap so I wanted to test this new fan out to see if it got as hot as my old one. I put everything back together after swapping DVD-drives and tested both. The new one actually got hotter much quicker and much hotter, to the point where it might actually burn skin. I checked BIOS and it was A05 so I updated that to A07 and while the fan kicked in a lot more often as expected, the laptop still got a lot hotter than my old one.

Point in case, I don't think there is any kind of quality control on these line of Studio XPS machines. I think I lucked out with my original one sans the DVD-drive. Now that I've got that replaced it works great.

 

Yes, I did a clean install of Vista 64 when I received my laptop about a month ago.
I am getting some blue memory dump screens when coming back from sleep mode..
I don't know if it is the RMCLOCK I am running..to undervolt my pc.. maybe that is causing the problems?

 

^

Could be that or the nvidia driver...

 

Another USB problem on the Studio 1340. I've read several pages here, spent too many hours online with Dell Tech Support??? and still don't have a answer to my problem.
I can not get the USB/eSata port to recognize any USB device (it is like it is dead)? Of course the dedicated USB works fine, nothing seems wrong with any hardware devices. Checked the BIOS for info. on this combo port, but nothing.

Sooo has anyone else had this problem? Can some one please help me to resolve this issue?

TIA

John

 

i think theres an option in bios about that usb port in specific, maybe its turned off!

Cheers

 

I had the HD something drive originally and had problems with rubbing the discs, it was replaced with a TSST Drive and I love it! I've seen a few other members post that theirs were replaced with TSST drives and they worked fine for them as well. Guess you just got a bad one.

I'd suggest that you put new thermal paste on the heatsinks if you are swapping them, sometimes bad contact can cause heat problems. Hope you like the 1340 now that its working right!

 

Aaaah...Finally the SXPS 13 in Merlot Red

Linky: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...&cs=19&kc=productdetails~laptop-studio-xps-13

I've been playing around with config's on my EPP Site

Do I *bite*??



Cin

 

cin

just don't know about that red leather....

Get the 256GB SSD, though!

 

Yeah, think that was in my config...

Thing is, if I order..and I don't like it..I simply return for a refund.

Here is what I'm looking at..but I've got some *tweaking* to do!

Studio XPS 13 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (3MB cache/2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
System Color Merlot Red with Leather Accent
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
LCD Panel Edge-to-Edge 13.3" HD WXGA Slim WLED LCD with 1.3 Megapixel Camera
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M G
Hard Drive 320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, Multiple Languages
Internal Optical Drive Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
SOUND CARD High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Cards Dell Wireless 1510 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Primary Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Services 3Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Bluetooth Option Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)
LCD and Camera Edge-to-Edge 13.3" HD WXGA Slim WLED LCD in Merlot Red w/1.3 MP Webcam

My Sub is: $1,311.52..then I get 4% off of that

Cin

 

Hey guys!!! It's now for you guys to buy sxps 13 in the right time! They can give you 25 % off on your dell sxps 13 and a 256GB SSD only costs $281!!! here is the link: http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_xpsnb_deal?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

Thanks, did a config..and before taxes/shipping $1487.25...
I will compare against my config thru EPP and see!


Cin

 

The only item listed in the BIOS that may have something to do with this port is " External USB Port" I've tried it on and off to no avail.
The eSata portion of the port works, but not the USB? Online support has been USELESS !!

I must say that so far my Dell experience has been TERRIBLE, right out of the box BSOD frequently. Since updating all the updates from Dell this machine is running better, but far from the display model at Best Buy.

John

 

John - a clean install will do wonders for you, I promise!!

Dell never really figured out how to properly update their images used for cloning HDD's for new systems.

They tend to be pretty cluttered so a clean install, while time consuming, will no doubt help a lot

 

I will try a new install (I saw a lot here doing so), can't loose much more time than I have already. Honestly, was ready to slam $1200 against our cement deck tonight I'm so frustrated with Dell, and it takes a lot to get me frustrated!
Ahh, I see that Vista is just updating to SP2 so I'll wait until it finishes and maybe that will fix the problem? Thanks...

Regards,
John

 

I have a question

I have a dell xps 1340 or really the best Buy model sx13-163b anyway same internal hardware.

I ran accross something.

When I was trying to copy and paste a windows xp cd rom on to the hard drive the whole comuter froze. (reason I wanted to slipstream) I was at my clients house at the time so when I got home I did the following.

1. Tried other disks sometimes it froze sometimes not (copy from cd rom to HD)

2. Copy From CD rom to External drive same thing.

3. I tried copying the same disks on other computers (no problem rules out disks)

4. From the other computer I copied the disks to my external and then from the external back to my studio 13 computer No problem.

5. I also tried to copy a cd in Roxio on my studio and that worked.

6. I updated the firmware of the cd rom and put on the (A07 Bios) no resolution.

7. Did a Dell Diagnostic system board passes so does memory and the cd rom passes I'm in the middle of doing a hard drive test (but to be honest the machine is brand new and it's been testing for 3 hours already no errors

I called dell (I transfered warrentee services from BB to Dell thank god) and he is sending out a tech with a new Cd rom (dvd burner) To be perfectly honest I don't think it's going to solve the problem because it does burn in Roxio.

I called another tech and he thinks it could be a vista 64 compatablity issue but then why would it transfer from my external to my studio

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

bmw481, if you haven't already done a clean install on the system, that's what I'd recommend. Everybody seems to have a better experience when they used the Vista DVD to reinstall and just put on the essentials.

I'm running Windows 7 and it's definitely better than the way Vista was setup on the Studio XPS 13.

 

Need some help here with my new M1340. For some reason, my download speeds are slow and not sure why. I have the 1510 card w/Vista Ultimate (clean install w/updates) w/most updated dell drivers. I can't seem to get speeds past 65mbs wireless. What I don't understand is I have a M1210 running xp on the same network which consistently gets 130mbs wireless (it's a b/g/n card). The M1340 wireless icon always says "excellent" signal at 65mbs, but so does my M1210 but at 130mbs (the 65mbs/130mbs is what's reported on windows status). I tested both LAN and wireless on both machines and the M1210 is always twice as fast (using real world internet downloads). Both cards are on N band. I'm thinking it's something with Vista settings or something that's bogging it down, but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

 

It may be something with your router.
I am getting 300mbs on my 1340 with a linksys n router

 

A clean install has done nothing to make the USB port on the eSata/USB connector work?
As no one else seems to have had this problem I assume the port is broken, which no doubt means a new Mobo Dang!!

John

 

Call dell... 1800-999-DELL

______________________

 

I never thought I would be saying this or even comparing performance of a netbook to a higher spec laptop but seriously everything that was wrong with my Dell Studio XPS 13 is completely the opposite on my latest purchase, get ready for it ---> an Asus EeePC 1000HE!

Excellent build quality and nice glossy black and silver accents
Amazing battery life at 9 hours web browsing WiFi on Bluetooth off, it is rated at 9.5 hours and some tests have got over 10 hours, my normal day use gives me 9 hours solid.
No heat issue whatsoever, it's cool 24/7!
It's a snappy little thing with the Atom N280, Windows 7 boots up quicker than Vista (I'm running dual boot).
Very nice chiclet keyboard like found on mac books and sony vaio's
Videos play very nice, perfect for watching whilst travelling
Nice instant launch hot keys by the screen.
All my software works fine on it, Office 2007 everything surprising for a 10" netbook.

All in all I'm very pleased with my latest purchase and I certainly would go as far as saying it does everything performance and portability wise what the Dell Studio XPS 13 should be and the Asus is £600 less than my Dell Studio XPS 13, absolute bargain.

You know what to get if you want performance and portability.

 

Call Dell, sounds like a good idea.
Have wasted about 20 hours on the phone and online with people that have a hard time speaking English or understanding the written word.
I almost lost it when one of the dozen people I spoke to told me my warranty has expired (after 60 days) and only the video card is still on warranty.
In the end they told me the right USB port is broken !! Well how about that, just what I told them to begin with.
This has been the most frustrating, time wasting $$, money wasting deal I've had with any computer.
I will NEVER EVER buy another Dell product as long as I live.

Thanks to the peeps here that gave me a hand, appreciate it

John

 

For those like me with the freezing and notebook not waking from sleep, dell changed the motherboard and all seems to be working now. notebook exits sleep and yet to have a freeze. i suspect it was the 9400 graphics card as my bios and drivers were up to date.

i think the tech may have entered the service tag wrong as i can only see a single digit in the bios. does this matter? can i change this somehow?

 

Thank you for your advice it actually made a lot of sense. I did real load os with disk while I made an image of the oringal 3 partitions that came with this computer from Dell. here are the results.

Well It did freeze again which made it either a hardware error or vista 64. Then I came up on something. I had no problems when transfering Data from DVD's I did 2 movies, vista ultimate, and office 2007 not one lock up.

When I did my windows xp disk (the orningal one I had a problem with It froze) To further explore this I also did an office 2003 disk and it eventually froze. (You see it doesn't happen all of the time once in a while it works) So I think we are going to go change the DVD burner.

While the tech is hear I'll see if there is anyway he can cool this things down. it seems like on some surfaces it get's real hot on others it stays cool. (yet other than the CD rom this unit works flawless and based on what I'm hearing from other posts maybe it's better if he doesn't do it well we will see

 

Hi,

I have Studio XPS 1340 with Vista x64. Even I just start Windows, and do not open any program, CPU Usage will become to 50-60%. I couldnt find why this happens. Do you have any ideas? There is not any program processing background. Maybe I should turn off some Windows Services but I am not sure.

Thanks
esteem

 

You can reinstall the IDT driver.. delete then install

 

Does anyone knows where i can get the original wallpaper from studio xps 1340

 

Thank you for your response, but I didnot understand what you mean. Should I uninstall IDT driver? What do you mean with deleting then install?

Thanks

 

Cin, this laptop looks custom made for you!

Gallery: Dell's Studio XPS 13 and 16 laptops with a kiss of Merlot Red

 

I really like the red plastic, but that leather is hideous

 

Awww, thanks It sure is sweet looking..and I don't mind the *red leather accents*, really...Leather like that is made to hold up!

And, I would take awesome care of it! I think eyes would focus on the glossy plastic and the silver trim going across!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, anyways!

I'm just so torn, right now......


Cin

 

Yes. Uninstall the old one first then install the new version. However you still can hear the sound without the IDT driver. Vista has it's own sound driver.

 

I'll assume you have updated the system BIOS and applied updates from Dell.

I had the same issue along with a large number of other issue's from the get go. After installing ALL of Dell's updates including BIOS. I had a system that was not dying with the BSOD frequently.
However I was left with the same problem as you, CPU usage was through the roof (P.S. windows is running many system program all the time, some needed some not).
Anyway I did a clean install using Dells Windows disk and presto the CPU usage is acting normal once again and no problems since.
Why, you ask?? As mentioned by some one else here the original disk image used to load up the HD's may be flawed in some manner. Why else would it work fine after a re-install of Windows when it didn't work properly out of the box.

Let us know if the IDT delete/re-install works, I'm curious.

John

 

Well, after you delete the IDT driver and the CPU usage is still around 50% then it is not IDT driver's problem. Maybe the only solution is the clean install vista.

 

Sorry to hear it didn't work, but then I'm not surprised. Before I had re-installed Vista I tired to figure out which system process's where using up the CPU. I couldn't tell as the usage numbers seemed to be haywire. ie several process's using strange amounts of CPU power. Now the CPU usage for the various process's seems, it evens goes to zero for short periods.

Good Luck with the re-install and note that Vista SP2 is out so don't let your machine DL all those MS updates, just get SP2, then allow updates.

John

 

Hi,

Just purchased a 1340 a few weeks back from Dell Outlet. Aside from a few quirks (heat issue and few random hangups), this is really a powerhouse in a small form factor.

Even though I truly love the LED backlit panel, I am looking for a larger external monitor for daily usage. What does everyone use with this tiny machine? I have my mind set on a 24" 1920x1200 HDMI monitor, but not sure if this would be an overkill for use in a study room environment?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Tim

 

Guys, after getting annoyed at the occasional freezes I'm getting I've decided to get Dell to sort it.. I'm going to assume they'll replace the motherboard. The thing bugging me is, I've applied thermal paste myself onto the parts (which has made it run cooler) .. do you think the techie that comes to replace it will mind, or what?

 

Tim, as long as your buying that monitor for other use's as well. The resolution on your Dell doesn't come near the resolution of the screen. I personally use a 24" LG display for all my machines and it works great. Key in buying an LCD monitor is to find out who's display the vendor put inside the benzel and the quality of the said display. A lot of people may not know that the same model of display sold by whomever, can and does contain different LCD panels.

John