===> The Official Studio XPS 1640 + ATi 4670 GPU Owner's Thread<===

Mine's delivered! But I have to drive back home to go get it.

~Ibrahim~

 

Can I ask someone a favour? I'm wondering what brand / model of Solid State Drive is included in the 1640 with the 4670. Can someone check it out in Device Manager and let me know via @McPhattz on Twitter?

 

i had a strange problem so i ask it here hoping somebody knows the answer..
my battery level was at like 20% when i plugged it in to AC and started to play L4D. a played it for around 60-90 mins, and then i exited, put the laptop in sleep mod and plugged out. later when i turned it on i noticed the battery level was around just the same (20-30%) when i plugged it in, it seems it didn't charge at all while a played. later at home when i plugged it in while not playing, it charged properly to full level. what do u think? i can only think about 2 explanations:
-the AC adapter just couldn't give enough power to even charge the battery while supply the laptop for gaming
-it just ran too hot and some security blocked charging to avoid overheating

have anyone experienced this? what do u think?

 

FYI official ati driver 9.9 (for win 7) is out for mobility radeon

 

Hi everyone

I'm new to XPS 16

I have a few question

1. Do I need ghost a partition before install win7 becuase I afraid that I would not recovery it back

2. How do I test the machine properly

3. Need a laptop bag or case suggestion

Cheers

 

How do you update the drivers for any software program on Vista? Also, is the Zelman ZM-NC2000 only available online or is it in stock at retail outlets like Best Buy?

 

Since I now have a few more weeks to wait until my replacement XPS 1640 arrives, I thought i might get some recommendations on accessories for the laptop.

Does anyone have any suggestions besides the Zalman NC2000 for cooling pads? It seems a bit too bulky to be used for school and such, was hoping to get some other options from any satisfied owners of other cooling pads.

I was also curious if anyone uses a USB splitting port, since the XPS 1640 only has two USB ports, and if so what would be a good one to use?

I must apologize if these questions have been answered elsewhere, but I have been searching these forums for a few days and have found nothing conclusive. Thank you very much in advance for the help! ;]

 

For the drivers go to the dell site use your service tag number to find the drivers downloads that are listed for your system find te web cam driver or audio driver if they r the ones you need download then instal as for the
Zelman I got mine at a computer parts store any computer parts stor should have them

 

I remember on my XPS m1530 whenever I was playing World of Warcraft, the battery would charge significantly slower with WoW running than it did with the system idle.

 

3 actually. The e-sata port on the top right doubles as a USB port, which supports powershare,ie you can plug devices in and charge them even when the laptop is off. Very clever design, the eSata/usb in one port, I use it frequently for both

Oh and as far as accessories. And I just got my sleeve from dell,a caselogic. Looked cool, durable, black and plain..exactly what I wanted. It's for 16" notebooks. Its a little big for the 1640 But I have the 9cell on it so it doesnt move around, just doesnt fill it all out. I'm now using the thin fabric sleeve to cover it before I put it in the sleeve and it works out great..No accidental scratches from the zipper or the inner lining threads..

 

i had some hdd issues (i heard clicking noises randomly) and a thread helped me to solve it, it seems many others have/had this issue, so maybe this should go to the FAQ too if you agree:
this and this one.

 

Got my 1640 and mini10v this morning. The power supply for my 1640 is crackling and neither systems service tags are valid. I purchased both on dell.com.....in the U.S...but the site is saying both were not purchased here.

Holding with support now. In the mean time Dell says don't use my brand new SXPS16.

....awesome!

Update#1: Called tech support. No record of a service tag on my orders. He's calling me back in 2 hours

 

Ohz noez! I'm picking up mine in a few hours. I hope it comes out all right.

Good luck, mate. Keep us posted.

~Ibrahim~

 

The only problem I have had with mine is that screen's colors are a bit off. Its not really a big deal. Otherwise I have absolutely 0 problems with my SXPS16. So far its been the best PC I have ever owned. Later on maybe this week I will do a user review.

 

They said Monday's the day that the service tag guys get back. So until hen I'm not supposed to plug my charger into the wall since it is a fire hazard. At least I have my mini10v to hold me over

 

Ah sweet, I did not know that, thanks Tenknics!

 

Ugh....I'm sorry, mate.

Mine is working well. Screen is wider than I expected, so sites and stuff look weird, but otherwise: I love it!

~Ibrahim~

P.S. I already have multi-touch or I don't?

 

I have yet another question regarding the Studio XPS 16.. this is a bit random but I need to know before purchasing accessories for it.

Will the Studio XPS 16 fit into a 15.4" laptop sleeve? Or would I need to buy a larger, possibly 17" sleeve for it?

I checked the dimensions of the laptop and of most 15.4" sleeves, and it seems the sleeves are generally smaller than the laptop. I am not sure if they are meant to stretch over it or not.

I know this is kind of a dumb question but for some reason I cannot figure it out on my own lol.. I really want to be sure of every purchase as this will be my first laptop and I would like to get it right. Any help from those who have experienced this before is much appreciated! ;]

Thanks

 

I had a very similar problem. My system would not boot. It got 3/4 way through the progress bar under the Dell logo you see when the system is first turned on, and then it would just sit there. If you hit ESC, then you see the BIOS stuff. I never saw it get to the point to detect the hard drive. I opened up the system, disconnected the HDD (which was connected fine), booted, saw it trying to find something to boot from CD (so it got further than it had before). Then I shutdown the system, re-attached the HDD, booted, and everything started fine. I had almost returned the system, so I'm glad I'm really I tried this.

The system is very nice. Display is really a beautiful one. Bluray's look ridiculously good. Seems to play Dead Space on high settings fine. Sound is excellent. Vista is a slow piece of crap, so I'll try Windows 7, but not right away. I will wait a little bit. Tried eveything under the sun to get Bioshock to work, but it crashes on startup. That's a Vista thing and I'll just uninstall for now. Awesome laptop!!!

 

Dude, my service tag isn't valid either! What the crap?!

I guess a call to Dell is in order.

~Ibrahim~

P.S. How do I enable LoJack?

 

i just got my a couple of days ago, my service tag isn't valid as well. Weird :/

 

I've uncovered a conspiracy. Possibly set into motion by 1640 owners with the ATI 3670, and their rage at out 1337-ness. I'll search for answers.

Seriously though, if anyone can get a resolution post how you did it. And maybe exactly what went wrong if you can.

 

Service tag activation can take up to 10 days. This is normal.

 

So if my power adapter is failing (like it is) I have to wait up to 10 days to get it replaced?

 

Should have read my post on the page before you posted this, not very hard, I explained the 16" sleeve I got is a tad to big for my 16" xps. I think a 15.4" sleeve would fit it perfectly.


And that's the old touchpad driver, its an older oem version so dell can stamp their logo on it and call it theirs. Read the FAQ in the beginning, or scroll the older posts, and it will point you to the new driver which enables gestures like 2 finger scrolling and 3 finger launch of apps etc.



P.s. my little wolfdale t9800 hit 86degrees today while encoding

 

No, you call them and give your order # to them and they send you a new one. No need for the service tag.

 

Ah, I see. Thanks again Tenknics. I did not notice your post on the previous page until now, sorry for the redundant questions.

 

How long does it usually take for a xps16 to be in production? I ordered mine on the 7th and its still in production. My estimated delivery date is said to be on the 23th so im hoping the i get it before that date.

 

They said no. *pouts*

I know, I know they could see my order, order date, machine accessories and specs. But they said "no tag, no love". It's almost Monday anywho, just annoying as hell.

 

Well it's a b.s. excuse by them and you should press them to talk to a supervisor or someone even higher. They know damn well your 20 days are counting down. If I were you I'd ask for a refund for being sent a defective laptop. At the very least they will get the part to you faster and offer rebates.

 

Hi, I am trying to upgrade to Windows 7 but I guess I have to wait til it comes out in October? Would I still be able to get all the softwares sent to me from Dell after the 20 days?

 

My order was placed on the 29th of last month and it's still "In Production". Supposedly it started being built on last Friday, and that was AFTER they upgraded my order to a priority build due to circumstances that they dropped the ball on. So sorry to say...most likely they haven't started building yours yet....looks like it takes a good 2-3 weeks before they actually start building a system... They're so slow...

 

that's not always the case. I ordered mine on the 8/31 and got it on the 10th. they differ from case to case depending on ur specific build etc.

 

Wow seriously? Did you call them to see whats going on? I would have complained or either yet asked for a refund or get something in return for the waiting.

 

Yeah, you can read about it in my thread here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=416655

Needless to say...I'm quite frustrated about the whole situation.

 

So, I installed Synaptics Driver v13.2.6.1. I uninstalled the old (per instructions) drivers, restarted, installed new drivers, restarted.

But, and I've seen this somewhere, but I can't find the thread: the settings page is blank. Like totally.



What did I do wrong?

Thanks,

~Ibrahim~

 

that happened to me too. I think I just uninstalled and tried reinstalling again and everything appeared ok.

 

Thanks for the reply. I shall try that tomorrow.

~Ibrahim~

 

Anybody know if it's possible to dim the screen? I turn the brightness all the way down but it is still a little bright when I'm in a dark classroom. I have the RGBLED btw.

 

You can also control the brightness with the Catalyst Control Center (right-click on the desktop or find it in the start menu), and lowering that combined with the keyboard controls makes for a pretty damn dark screen.

 

Has anyone else had issues with Vista taking up 1.4GB of memory, while basically doing nothing? I checked with a couple of other people at my office and their Vista systems consume about 700-800MB. Just wondering if this is common to the way Dell builds the system (software-wise I mean).

 

It would most likely be how many visual effects in the display settings you have set... when I first got Vista , I was up to 1.2GB of mem being used then as time went on I was able to drop it down to 600MB and still have the effects I liked.

 

Vista normally caches programs you use often, so Dell may have run certain tests that would make it cache THOSE.

~Ibrahim~

 

OK: to the blank page on the Synaptics settings. It's still blank, even after a reinstall.

Do I not need to uninstall the previous version? Is that what's killing me?

~Ibrahim~

 

From my experience on my 1640, you'll need to uninstall the old drivers, restart and then install new driver support. It worked for me. Sorry man.

 

don't install new version, install v13.2.1.0 instead

 

If you haven't figured it out yet, to enable LoJack just launch it from the mini-launch bar at the top. It should take u through installation and registration

 

Yeh I was told to install this version too and it worked fine

 

GENIUS! Good stuff. That's it exactly. I don't know why the newest one didn't work, but v13.2.1.0 worked great.

@spud

Right: I looked on Computrace's website and figured it out. Quick question: did you guys enable it in your BIOS? I didn't and it still called "home" fine, but I went ahead and turned it on there,too. Hope I didn't do something wrong because, apparently, the BIOS change is permanent.

~Ibrahim~

 

Hmm I was unaware of there being a setting in BIOS. It must be so it can still call home even if the system was reformatted??