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

I didn't even realize A07 effected the fans. I thought that was the common complaint of A06. I was surprised that A07 was labeled as an "Urgent" update though.

Should be nice to see if this effects benchmarks of either or Hybrid SLI performance in general.

 

Here's 3 users claiming such:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4887576&postcount=2649
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4896025&postcount=2663

I think they just left "Enhance system memory performance" in the description from prior releases

 

Both of those were coming from A05, not A06. It was A06 that increased the fan speeds and was left unchanged in A07. I haven't seen any reports of increased fan speeds in A07 nor have I noticed any (though I don't think the fan speed difference from A05 to A06 was very noticeable).

Well I can always hope they didn't .

 

Hmm, those posts implied otherwise. Anyways I just upgraded from A06 to A08 and my fan isn't running any faster. I also checked and the DSDT and SSDT tables are *identical* between A06 & A08. So nothing was done to the thermal zone config at least.

 

Did anyone notice that the Bios is for the B02 Chipset??
I have rev. B1 so there is a update on the motherboard

 

Yes, I saw that. I wonder if they've fixed ESATA so that it doesn't hang with sata 3 gbps drives. I have a new drive that does not have a jumper to set it to 1.5gbps so I no longer have a workaround for this problem (which remains with the A08 bios and first gen chipset).

 

Just thought I'd let everyone know before you get your hopes up, A08 does NOT fix the DPC latency issue. Maybe B02 vs B01 is sli vs integrated? Mine updated so I have B02 with the 9500m GE. If someone has just the 9400m G and it updated than I am wrong...

 

^ I have just the 9400M G, and just updated a few hours ago. I think I saw the updating skip from block 33 to 27 though, did anyone notice anything similar? (I'm not sure if its just me or not)

 

Ok, so I was wrong about the integrated vs sli thought...Mine went through them all, maybe those were BIOS updates for the dedicated card or related to the hybrid sli settings in the motherboard.

 

The bios update works for old laptops. The fact that your bios updated doesn't indicate anything about what hardware revision you have.

 

I just assumed that since it's for B02, it wouldn't work on B01...guess I'm just assuming too much.

 

I have B01 chip. Installed the new A08 bios and the system was very unstable (even more so than before A07 bios). So i rolled back to A07. The new bios does indeed install on the older chipset version so check before you flash.

 

How do you check whether you have the B01 or the B02?

 

A08 bios is working fine on my laptop. I think it's a misinterpretation to think that the new bios can only be applied to newer revision laptops. I think the brief mention of "for B02" means that some of the enhancements were made to add support for B02 hardware. BIOS release notes are notorious for not being very descriptive in English after all. Note that the "Compatibility" tab makes no mention of any backwards compatibility issue.

You really have to use your imagination to conclude that you must not apply this bios to older laptops.

 

!..I just noticed........my battery (2 months old laptop) has 21% of wear level! ?!?!?!?!.................

Can anybody check that on yours?? Theres 2 ways, 1=click (and leave clicking) the battery button and first it will show the charge level and then the wear level (1 dot in mine)..........Or, you can check it with everest software, Or i think with the dells's battery utility...

 

CPU-z will report motherboard chipset version.



All I know is that after i flashed with A08 system became unstable (like it was before A07 bios). Ofc YMMV, that's just my exprience.

 

Mine says BIOS A08, Chipset Rev B1

You probably didn't select "load setup defaults" from the bios menu after flashing. My system is only unstable when I have an esata 3.0gbps disk attached or bad vista drivers.

 

My mainboard says Rev. B1, and I installed A08 and it seems rock solid like before. The temps have definitely gone down since A05, I've updated A06-->A07-->A08, so it may have been one of those updates that really started to cool the computer down. But I love this little thing now, seems pretty rock solid and without crashes.

 

I always do that after a bios update. I don't have any strange software installed, I have clean windows installation. Have had the laptop since march and I tell you, before A07 it used to freeze or lock up with a torn screen. I checked everything possible, all the hardware and devices are fine. It's the bios. Some machines freeze, some don't. Mine freezes with any bios other than A07, including A08.

 

I didn't see what the A08 BIOS update was supposed to fix. Anyone have details?
I've got the B01 chipset vr., updated to the A08 BIOS, just because it shows up on my list of drivers to update. So far still working fine.

John

 

Hi guys - just wanted to ask what kind of case if everyone using for their 1340's? Are you still using just the sleeve that the laptop came with or another? (ie. neoprene, leather, hardcase etc) I'm looking to buy a different case for mine because the one that the laptop came with is only good for cleaning the laptop, not protecting it.

 

So guys I just received my SGP Corp Carbon Fibre topside skin and synthetic leather palm rest skin at my work's mail centre so I'm about to pick them up and apply them to my laptop! Will keep you all posted on my initial thoughts and impressions.

 

It would be great to see pictures of the wrist rest..

We all love pictures ^_^

 

Haha yes I know we all love pictures, but pictures may have to wait for now.. but here are my initial impressions..

Topside carbon fibre skin:
It's made of quite a thick material, feels similar to that of a vinyl decal (if you have used a decalgirl skin before you'll know what I mean - however it is slightly thicker). The thickness is great protection against scratches and the cut outs are verrrryyyyy precise. Took me only 2 tries to get the skin properly aligned on my lid. The cutouts even cater for the DELL logo too. The carbon fibre texture looks really clean and not cheap at all. It's slightly flexible and stretchy but not overly stretchy that it will deform if you require more than a 2 or 3 attempts to apply the skin. I decided not to cover the brushed aluminium part of the lid because it would have looked a bit weird.

Palm/wrist rest (synthetic leather):
When I first touched it, it was totally not a leather feeling (thank god).. It's more of a soft velvet feeling and covers the entire palm rest area (minus the brushed aluminium edges). As with the topside skin, the palm rest skin is also very precisely cut and fits perfectly - be careful though, the areas that are prone to stretching and possibly snapping are those at the top and bottom of the touchpad, so becareful if you take more than 1 or 2 attempts to fit it.

All in all I'm very happy with my purchase and the quality is great, as always with SGP Corp products. The skins came with two lint free cloths which is also a bonus. Top buy if you're interested in protecting your new investment, whilst giving it that "pimpin'" look too.

Will add some photos sometime soon - but I warn you the photos may not be such great quality (with a 2.0mpx iPhone camera).

 

Ok, as I see my other post was epicly ignored I'll say it again to update my other post............

Had anyone checked his battery wear level?!..........(degrade level)....I checked it with everest......in my last post (yesterday) it was 21% and ROFLMAO..now its 25%........you should check up that..

edit: what brand is your battery?

 

2 Months in and I'm at 0% Wear Level. I use the battery quite often but I never unplug it.

Edit: I'm using version 5.02.1750, if it makes a difference; also mine is a Panasonic

Edit2: I just noticed, Everest says my battery is non-rechargeable.. so I don't know how much it can be trusted.

 

The battery gets quite hot due to the position of the exhaust. This will eventually shorten its life but not that quickly!

 

Actually, although the top left corner of the laptop (head exhaust) gets quite hot, I've noticed that it doesn't have any effect on the battery.

As soon as you move your finger past the line that separates the exhaust and the battery, you can feel the significant difference in temperature (the exhaust being hot, while the battery is cool).

 

Below is a copy of my order history for Studio XPS 1340. Given the problems people report with the computer and the customer service demonstrated below. I am canceling my order and I recommend you consider ordering from a competitor company that doesn't pull this kind of . I was actually told by a supervisor that the order canceled on 6/05/2009 was because Dell's cost on the product increased and its a company policy that their system will automatically cancel any orders this happens on. Ever wonder why your shipment is delayed? I did not cancel any of these orders, except I did to call and inquire about why they increased the price to $2,061.81 and I supposed that one was my fault. I could have paid that price and let the machine ship. My credit card has over $5000.00 worth of authorizations held on it by Dell for this $1339.88 machine. They will keep doing this as long as you keep buying from them. Im not supporting this type of business. My time is worth more. I wonder how much $ per hour people have spent returning and working on Dell computers. That needs to be added to your calculation of the total cost. Not to mention the frustration and annoyance it brings into your life...put a price on that. Dell
Order History:
My Orders
Recent Order Status
Order Date Order Number Order Status Estimated Delivery Date Total
Dell Purchase ID 200047xxxxxxx
6/12/2009 776xxxxxxx In Production 7/1/2009 $1,339.88
Dell Purchase ID 200134xxxxxxx
6/10/2009 7731xxxxxx Cancelled Canceled $2,061.81
Dell Purchase ID 20013xxxxxx
6/5/2009 768xxxxxxx Cancelled Canceled $1,339.88
Dell Purchase ID 2001xxxxxxxx
6/5/2009 768xxxxxxxx Cancelled Canceled $1,339.88
Dell Purchase ID 2000xxxxxxxx
5/31/2009 761xxxxxxxx Cancelled Canceled $1,339.88

 

Mh..mine says non-rechargeable too so..doesnt matter, Well......I see my battery is ed up! lol I have panasonic too..........Have you ever run linux with it? Just curious, I dont think the O.S. could do a difference but.......this is weird......I usually use it plugged in too, so I dont see why it would fail so badly ........but anyway at this rate It will be F/·$"!$·$%&ed up before my warranty expires so..WHO CARES?! lol...Ill ask for a 9cell battery (paying the difference) if possible ^^..

 

Well, for the record, I run Windows 7, I've never used Linux.

Let us know how it goes, maybe we can get a 9-cell too

 

I've run Linux on mine, and though I haven't run any test software to confirm this, I haven't noticed a degrade in overall battery life whenever I switch back to Windows (though battery life is certainly noticeabley shorter). That said, I don't use my battery very often.

Also, Dell likely won't allow you to upgrade to a 9 cell unfortunately. A representative previously showed reluctance on "upgrading" to a wired optical mouse (I at the time using a ball/wheel replacement mouse but that was because Dell's wireless one which I originally ordered drained batteries annoyingly fast) and had to go through a supervisor to get permission.

 

just got my sxps 13 in the mail, very disappointed .

wrong case color
cover scratched
2 leds not working

i smell refurb...

 

did you not order directly from dell?

 

Got my xps 1340 since may 7th and I am a very happy camper. best bang for the buck ever, fastest laptop ever, coming from the dell outlet with the 15% coupon yadi , yadi , yada. I use it almost everyday and no it is not hot (never has a bios lower than a06 though). I have thrown everything, i could at it and it is rock stable. It is still a better performance vs price ratio laptop than the mackbook pro especially the new 13"

But as many have said this is definitely not an easy layup. it is rock stable because of the forum geeks that help us everyday. I had to send back one lemon laptop like many of us. We can definitely blame Dell's poor quality control on this computer or time to market rush
with all the complaints they have received, they could easily create another version that would fix it and keep the same pricing. They just need to listen and read one or two forums.
This would be yet another story like Vista vs. Windows 7, if even microsoft can do it, why not dell.

Go to the asus or lenovo forum on this same website, you will only read exceptionally posts about major issues that we would agree to call accident. for lenovo the only they complain about is the fact that they new thinkpad keyboard is less good than before or that they ship slow, if at least we were there with a dell ( shipping is so fast at dell that i have some doubt on how they check their refurbs). Asus is having a pretty stellar reputation as well.

Michael, please listen, the 1340 and 1640 were a good step forward (even my gf finds them good looking) , i gave you some cash, (ok not a lot), if you dont transform the tryout in the next gen, you will never see my money again period. and also my company's money since we are short listing you and hp just to add a little more pressure in the balance and yes we are way more that 10 in my company.

that was my daily rant. let's get some beers now.

Ps: i am not a native english speaker and i dont know where to find this f. spell checker on the forum so guns down.

 

yup, ordered online, the laptop at least has the right HW components. But still, what is with the quality control. I have 2 other dell notebooks with no major hiccups.

 

Quick question re nvidia drivers. I have 179.82 from Dell installed.

Nvidia has released 186.03. It's supposed to support the 9500M but the option to install drivers doesn't appear when I download.

Are dell's gfx drivers the only option at this point?


I want to try updating my drivers because I've been having video issues with my new SXPS. Video is really pixelated on the integrated GPU in "power save" mode. It's almost as if 3d acceleration isn't working, but it is.

Video is smooth without any problems on "boost mode". It's really odd.

 

Interesting....I hadnt checked that..but I did noticed something strange while watching videos, it will look......could say pixelated as you say, but I hadnt tried in boost mode, Will do and report!

Thanks

 

Hi guys, I just noticed some horizontal lines flickering on my screen. It occurs whilst I'm in Windows, when I'm at the Windows login screen and at the shut down screen. I've tried the diagnostics test by pressing F12 at startup and there were no issues reported. I then did the LCD test by holding down the "D" button on the keyboard and switching on the laptop, but no horizontal screens are seen there either. I'm wondering whether this is an actual hardware issue with the LCD screen itself or is it a motherboard issue or is it just an issue with the graphics card driver? I've tried multiple drivers and this is the first time I've seen it happen. :/ Btw, I'm using Windows 7 RC (64-bit)
Has anyone else had this issue?

EDIT: Also, could this be a Windows 7 specific issue? I'm using build 7202.

 

Its the mobo..... Eventually, the system will boot and vertical lines of diff colour will result followed at some point by a very bright white screen....

Coincidence you said that because Dell just offered me a new fully loaded XPS Studio 13 loaded in exchange for my M1330 which is two years old...and has just had the mobo go.


EDIT....it could also be a short since u have activity while the lines appear...

 

so it's the mobo hey? strange, I would have assumed an LCD fault. but yeh i just called up Dell tech support and we went through the same diagnostics and she eventually decided it was a mobo fault. I hope when the techie comes, he will be CAREFUL with my laptop when he's switching out the mobo, because last time I had a techie come to switch out my M1530's mobo, he was pretty careless with it and ended up getting scratched up and he even forgot one of the screws!

 

So I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these when it shows up on Dell's Days of Deals.

I'm basically looking for something smaller than my monster 15" hp pavilion zv5000. I mostly just surf the net, use Office, occasionally Photoshop, but what I really want to make sure of is that I never have a YouTube (or other video) pixelate or freeze midstream. Also, I'd like to have the option of gaming, if I so choose.

Is this the right laptop for me, or would I be better served with a Sony SR or Z?

 

I have been looking for some skins for my 1340 checked the website and it wasn't offered.... You bought them off eBay? I don't see them there..

 

Can somebody help me? My SXPS13's wireless stop working recently. No matter how many times i reinstalled the driver, it will say that either the hardware is bad or the driver is corrupted. However the driver worked before. It always has a error code 39. Do i need to ask dell to exchange one or there is something wrong with the program?
P.S. the wireless is dell 1515

 

So after the first 1340 I received didn't stand even I called the service and they sent another one. This one had very same problem and so I ordered another replacement. In the meantime there were some serious graphic issues with the first 1340. (colored horizontal stripes occured and everything froze until I moved the lid to a position where it stopped). Yesterday finally the third 1340 arrived and it's standing even. So I transferred all the data from the first notebook to his predecessor and when I had finished this task a major problem with the display occured on the new one. The lighting of the display fails in several positions. So I called a tech and ran the tests. Result: the display is broken and a tech will come and fix it on monday. So what's up with Dell's quality control especially concering this model? I am really pissed by now as this is the third bad 1340 and everytime I have to wait half a day for UPS to bring a new notebook or fetch an old replacement.

To be honest the service staff was very helpful and kind but in the end I would prefer a working notebook instead of talking to them on a regular basis.


saint

 

To Hanming:
It think the wireless issue is to be had with the hardware. I suggest you have the notebook replaced, since you said the drivers that have already worked before. If it's good drivers (assuming it's updated), then bad hardware could shoulder the blame. By the way, the Dell 1515 is a rebadged Atheros wireless card, so you could download the drivers direct from there.

To the s.a.i.n.t
Whew. That kinda reminded me of the XPS M1330's infamous graphics card failure. What kind of screen do you have, the CCFL one or the WLED one?


Is it possible that we can get a bit of refresh on the SXPS 1340 soon, such as an updated graphics card or additional features such as blue-ray? That'll be real sweet.

 

it's actually the WLED-screen


saint

 

Can I put the intel 5300 wireless card in this laptop?
Thanks

 

I thought it was a CCFL. Nothing personal against them, but I just feel LEDs are the way to go for a screen. It's unfortunate the part of your lappie that is broken is the screen, as what I've been reading about its more common problems is heat, its wireless card and audio. Yeah, I agree with you on how defects like this manage to somehow to get through the production line when you're paying a premium for the SXPS 1340. Hope you receive a working notebook soon!

 

I haven't thought of it before, but putting one in the SXPS 1340 could be the cure for its audio latency problems since some say the wireless card would be to blame. The SXPS 1640 has the Intel 5300 though for its configuration, if I'm not mistaken.

I do feel that the 5300 won't be compatible with the hardware setup of the SXPS 1340 since Dell defaults it at the 1515n card. If it were possible, Dell could have offered the 5100 as an option. Still, those are just assumptions so I'll go check.