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

Hi guys,

Has anyone experienced the lid not holding at angles? All of the sudden, my screen won’t hold at angles anymore, if I try to put it tilted backwards (opening) it will fall backwards…same if I put it forward; it won’t hold and will close the notebook. No cracks, no “clicking” sounds, everything seems to be in place…
Has anyone experienced that? Is there something where I can manually tighten up the lid so it will hold? Should I just contact Dell (it’s under warranty)?

Thanks

 

That definitely sounds like its too loose! It shouldn't be like that!

 

hey Ive had my 1340 since like March, and recently ive been finding some problems:

1-the hinge joint and the LCD screen seems sort of loose from where they belong (i feel like its going to get ruined in due time) - should I call dell and ask them to fix it?

2-this one is really weird, i dont get it, but when i have the AC adapter going, my computer runs NOTICEBLY slower than on battery, as matter of fact its so sluggish its impratical, i dont know why ( i have A07 BIOS ) - cant find anyone with this answer (and btw I had freshly reinstalled vista a month after getting my laptop)

3-finally, sometimes when i come back from standby, the sound is activte and all but its not giving audio, so i gotta go in control panel, and then mute sound and then unmute it to get it working?

any ideas on 1 or more?

id really appreciate it, thanks

 

If anyone is looking for BIOS A08: http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1340_A08.exe

 

About the speed on AC. Try going into the power options then go to advanced for your current profile and look at the CPU options. Make sure the max CPU speed when plugged in is 100%

 

I recommend calling dell and having them tighten up or replace the hinges.
However if you want to try yourself it might not be very hard.
If you have the correct torque tool, you could unscrew the torque screws on your hinges and remove the aluminum piece. That may give you all the access you need in order to tighten up the hinges

1-Above I wrote my recommendation on what to do about the loose hinges.

2-When running on AC is the vista power manager on Save power, Balanced, or High Performance?

3-Is drivers, conflict with the dell custom ones

I'll upgrade to it soon

 

I'v got a Studio XPS 1340 with the nvidia 9400 and the intel P8600 cpu. which I've had for about a week. I think it runs awful warm, even with the new A07 bios and the fan is working pretty hard. I put Everest Ultimate on it to check the cpu temperature and the motherboard temperature. It shows 48 C to 52 C on the cpu and 58 C to 62 C on the motherboard chipset, at idle, just surfing the web or doing nothing. Can anyone post there temperatures for a similar setup? Thanks

 

Are you sure there's nothing eating up CPU cycles when your machine is supposed to be idle? I have the P9600 and it idles around 42 C with the fan switched off. Things get much much hotter when it's doing even light work though. It's the discrete GPU on my 9500M that really makes the system get hot. Things generally remain nice and cool with the 9400M running on its own.

 

No and cpu usages bounces around from 4 to 8% and cpu is 52C and mcp is 58c.

 

Hey guys,
I just got a refurb 1340 from Dell and overall it's quite nice.

My main problem is when I use Skype or Itunes on occasion the computer will just shut down entirely.

I have bios a07.

Does anyone else have this issue or have any suggestions?

 

Does it do it when you have it plugged into the ac outlet??? might be only doing it if you have it on battery power and power save mode, with dell extended battery life enabled, there just isn't enough cpu power to stream or play music.

 

It does happen even when on AC power in high performance.
Any other ideas?

 

I'm having the exact same issue as you. Whenever I plug it in the CPU jumps to 100% in about 10-15 minutes and stays at around 95-100%. I've called Dell and they remoted in. The guy changed some power settings ad told me that it was fixed. This was not the case. Any suggestions out there? I usually have the power settings on Dell Recommended; sometimes I switch it to Performance Mode.

 

I am new to this forum, and I purchased the dell studio xps 13. My order was placed on 6/16/09 and origionally was suppose to get to me by the 1st of July. I checked today and it has been pushed to 08/13/09! That is a little over 7 weeks. Does anybody have any idea on what is going on? Of course by the time I figure it out the change, dell customer service is closed. 7 weeks is a long time to wait on a computer. If anybody has had this issue; what have you been told for the holdup?

Thanks, Josh

 

Hey Josh,

Holy smokes.. I also placed an order on 6/16! -my status still says shipping on 7/7. What is your system? I was told the 500G drives @ 7200rpm are back-ordered but will be in 'soon'... hmm.... waiting 7 weeks would be brutal.

XPS 1340, Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 (2.0GHz/1066Mhz FSB 3M L2 Cache)
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish with Leather XPS 1340
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1340
13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA WLED Backlit LCD with 1.3 MP Camera, XPS 1340
NVIDIA GeForce NB9M-GE - 256MB
90 WATT AC ADPTR, NB ST
500GB 7200RPM Free Fall SensorSeagate Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1 Home Premium Edition 64-bit Edition English


cheers,
Phil

 

Hey guys, I just bought an XPS 1340 on eBay, and I'm about to send the payment, but before I do, is this a good deal?

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500M
8X DVD +/- RW
320 GB 7200RPM HD
13.3 inch LED
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
6 Cell Primary Battery
4 GB DDR3
BlueTooth
1 Yr Warranty

I paid $875 total, and the laptop is a factory refurb, built in May.

 

I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should cancel or keep it and try to get some upgrades out of it or what. I am thinking maybe the SSD drive is holding the order up. If you try to order one today the 128GB is not available. I am very dissapointed. I heard they will be releasing Windows 7 on all orders after July, somebody correct me if I am wrong. Maybe thats the hang up, they have no more vista disk. Here is my system below:

XPS 1340, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 (2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB 6M L2 Cache)
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish with Leather XPS 1340
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1340
13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA WLED Backlit LCD with 1.3 MP Camera
NVIDIA GeForce NB9M-GE - 256MB
90 WATT AC ADPTR, NB ST
128GB Solid State Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1 Home Premium Edition 64-bit Edition English

 

7 doesn't come out till October. They're giving upgrade keys out with Vista starting in July. The cause of the delay is most likely a back ordered part

 

Actually starting tomorrow.

 

Another dell tech came today to change the one day old TSST drive with a LG drive. Finally it works!!! I like the LG one, it is more quiet than the TSST one. Yay!

 

That is a good deal I payed a $1400 for mine with the same specs /

 

Something strange with mine....I cannot see the HDD temps in CPUID

 

Now that we have got the ATi Mobility Radeon 4670 GPU upgrade in the Studio XPS 16, is it time to think about possible upgrade to the Studio XPS 13? After all, both system were announced at around the same time...

 

Yeah the upgrade will be....cool for new users but not for old users. I think Dell deals with the heat problem with this laptop very well after some bios update. So it might have room for upgrade to newer graphic cards that Nvidia just announced.

 

I would stay away from A08. I installed it at the same time as Service Pack 2 for Vista and my laptop has been sluggish and I've had lockups for the first time. I thought it would be SP2, but it was actually A08. Also my games had lower FPS and lots of pausing for some reason. I reverted back to A07 and everythings stable so its good again.

 

Very excited to see some Nvidia 200M cards on the Studio XPS 13. Hope it's a 210M or a 230M. The 210M performs 10x better than the Intel 4500MHD, compared to the 9400M which is 5x faster. It's twice as powerful.

But I do think they'd stick with the Nvidia chipset. The 200 series, if ever they are to be introduced, would work in Hybrid SLi mode...Just like the current 9500M.

 

I'd hope they aren't upgrading too soon...I just bought my 1340 yesterday.

Sigh....this is exactly what I wanted to avoid.

 

Well, I guess before they do some upgrading, they'd have to sort out some heat issues on the SXPS 13 first.

 

If anything I think they'd be putting in a card like the GT100 series cards. GT(S)200 series cards were supposed to be targeted at larger notebooks, weren't they? If I read correctly, only 15" and up laptops were getting them. I could be wrong though, I usually am

 

GT series cards are reserved for notebooks with much larger form factors. As always, heat would be an issue here. Plus, the 100M series stems out from the previous G92 core, while the 200M is from the new GT126 core. Most likely that the SXPS 13 would get a G type card, perhaps a G 210M. Changing the integrated graphics to 102M is nice, but then again it's based on the 9400M.

BTW, what graphics do you have on your SXPS 13?

 

I've got the 9500m.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-G-210M.17638.0.html

That's a link to the suspected placing of the G210m. Looks to be in between the 9500m, and the G105m. So aside from running cooler, it wont do much for performance it seems, if Dell chooses to add it.

 

Well, we won't know for sure until we get a SXPS13 with the GFX card and benchmark it. Does the 9500M really run hot on performance mode?

 

I would like to see the RGB-LED backlit LCD screen in the SXPS 13, hopefully with the option of 900p.

 

I'm not sure if we are going to see any upgrades for the 1340... The 1340 uses 16:10 aspect ratio so it is very unlikely they'll release a 16:9 screen for it.

 

Personally I like 16:10 screens. 16:9 is just too narrow for me. I really like the lower res too. Easier to play games with the graphics card on the 1340 Plus, I've got an HD monitor I dock to anyway, so it doesn't make much of a difference.

 

Maybe you guys can answer my question. I have an xps m1330, which I got pretty much a year ago on the dot. I love it.

My little sister is getting her first laptop, and she likes mine, but has a little more money to spend (the 1330 is around 1000$, she can spend about 400$ more). She likes my laptop, quite a bit, and I showed her the studio xps 13 inch, and the macbook pro 13 inch, telling her that if it were up to me, they're the two laptops it would come down too.

She wants the studio xps, but the one thing that has her frightened are the battery life tests. It's going to be a school machine for the most part, but at home it'll be used for games (sims 3, not crysis) and more than likely plugging into her tv (has a hdmi port, so she can watch movies from her hard drive) for HD video and what not.

Like I said, she was worried about the battery life, and when I watched one cnet review with her, they also noted that when the screen is up (at a normal viewing angle) it blocks the air vent. I was kind of thinking that this couldn't be a real problem, because no one would see a laptop with a flaw like that and stop it somewhere along the design process and fix it, but I have heard the studio xps 13 runs kind of hot.

So, I'm asking people who own them, what's the real world battery expectancy? And I'm talking a six-cell battery here. I just want some opinions, because it would kind of suck if she's paying 1400$+ for a laptop and getting two hours of use of it in school.

 

About 3.5 hours for regular web browsing, IM, word processing at medium brightness.

 

If you really prioritize battery life on the SXPS 13, get the 9-cell. The screen when tilted past 90 degrees does not block the air vent. It just deflects the hot air upward.

 

If battery life is the primary concern, I'd definitely suggest just getting a 9 cell. MBP's have an advantage here with an integrated battery. I definitely get less than 3.5 hours of battery life on a 6 cell with a P8700, LED monitor, and 7200 RPM hard drive though. That said, I can use multiple batteries if I wished and battery replacements aren't near as expensive (e.g. I could get 2.5 x 9 cell batteries for the price of one MBP battery replacement).


At my current viewing angle (~110 degrees), one of four air vent holes is "blocked". My unit doesn't really get too hot IMO and heat levels are tolerable while using it directly on your lap so long as you are in a power saving mode with the 9200M GS disabled (assuming you add the 9500M GE). It is when the 9200M GS is enabled that you either need a "barrier" or desk between your lap and the computer (e.g. a text book works fine for me XD). Remember that Macs aren't known to run the coolest either.

 

I think that heat with this laptop is really hyped up more than it should be. Generally, putting a computer on your lap, no matter what the specs, it'll get hot. When you do it with a 13" notebook with dedicated graphics, a fast HDD, and a fast CPU, of course it's gonna get a bit toasty. Fact of the matter is, you can't fit a lot of heatsink material in such a small package, so yes, it's going to heat up quicker than a larger notebook with more cooling and similar internals. As long as you use a flat surface under the notebook, heat is not an issue.

 

Go for the 9Cell and you'll be fine

James is right, the laptop has not heat ISSUES whatsoever. It actually runs pretty cool considering the specs it has along with a 13" chases.

If there had been a defect with so called "blocked airvent" dell would/could have very easily made a new airvent with more slots arranged in a better way. The airvent in the 1340 is separate piece of magnesium alloy which is secured by 2 screws. It would be very easy to replace and dell could send them out to all 1340 owners.
Of course this is unnecessary because it doesn't cause any heat issues

 

Plus, updating the BIOS also helps with that.

 

Just orderd an XPS 13, but I just have a quick question. Does upgrading the hard drive void the warranty? If I recall correctly, the whole bottom cover has to be unscrewed to have access to the hard drive.

Also, I am wondering what your guys' hard drive temperatures are? The reason why I ask is that on my current Inspiron 6400, the hard drive is located very close to the graphics card, and as a result, the temperature idles at around 55C.

 

My XPS 13 stopped showing the HDD temp in CPUID. Does anyone have an idea why?
Also, what battery life you get with the 9 cell in Vista?

 

out of curiosity if there was a graphics card update what do you guys think it would be? taking into consideration the limitations of the current xps13 (ie heat)

 

I'm guessing a Nvidia 210M in Hybrid SLi with the 9400M.

 

Or a 210M + a 102M.

 

I will be happy with a 512MB 9600M + 9400M. (I want to run OSX on this baby).

 

That maybe too much to keep thermals under control. 102M performs less than the 9400M so I'd still opt for it. What I really want in an SXPS 13 is a 200M series GPU+Blu-ray. Whatever manufacturer gets to those two specs in an ultraportable, I'd buy from them!

Oh. The 9600M does not sound do far fetched. The LG P310 is proof.

Anyone tried the audio on the Dell? Some users are complaining of hissing/popping sounds when playing audio files.

 

Heh, I don't see that as being likely. Apple doesn't ship their own 13" units with it XD.