===> The Official Studio XPS 1640 Owner's Thread<===

I did roughly around 3 hours but thats with call of Duty world of wars. the touchpad gets hot i think the hottest part on the top part of the computer. i use a mouse so i don't use, the keys are fine, the computer stays around the same temp so i really don't see a diffrence. The Hot issue was cuz there was lack of air that was sucking from the bottom. i felt the vent on the left and it feels real cool to the touch. hence air is coming in.

 

I was also considering for the purchase of SXPS 16 and tracking/reading its review from different sites/forums.
One thing what I found very common for this model is ITS UNUSUALLY TOO HOT.
Apart from this all are satisfied with this model. Yes, offcourse few are shouting about the leather being used in this model, with a fear that the leather would tearaway after a couple of years or it will start bad smell
Few are guessing that Dell will consider its customers input and will come-up with a 2nd version of SXPS 16 ! Lets hope for the best.

 

NEW OWNER HERE!!!

I recently purchased a new 13"MBP and i LOVE it, then again ive been with apple since tiger dropped. Before the mbp i had a refurb gateway p7805u from tigerdirect. But i returned it just before the new MBPs were announced since the GPU was reaching 95c in furmark.

Anways two days ago i noticed the email from dell for their outlet store, and decided to take a gander at their stock of sxps16's and i saw a "base" 2.4ghz scratch and dent for $779 before I added it to my cart it was unavailable. Kept searching and found a $869 scratch and dent with these specs:

p8600 core2duo
320gb 7.2k rpm hardrive
4gb ddr3 ram
BLU-RAY read disc drive
Bluetooth
etc...

After thinking about it and looking for one with the RGB display for under 1k, I roboCOPPED this beast.

Grand Total with Overnight shipping, $814, i think i did alright even thought i would have loved the new Ati gpu, but im not much of a pc gamer as i have a Ps3 and 360.

My only problem so far was my blurays not playing in the drive with the stock dvd software. Now onto run pc decrapafier, also anyone have any good profiles for the 768p screen? tried messing around with the ati catalyst thingy but im not liking my progress.

peace.

 

Any good links to installing Windows 7 on the XPS 16? It's pretty basic install, I know, but I had Build 7100 running mostly fine, then decided to clean install 7201 on a new OCZ Summit. Of course, BT wasn't working, and I installed the same BT driver package I had on my 7100 install, but could not get the BT mouse to work (it was found and supposedly paired, but would not move). After a couple of reboots, it started working.

But now, the "Eject" soft button along the top does not eject the CD/DVD. It worked on my previous 7100 build, so not sure what I am forgetting to do.

I could not find a good writeup in this thread regarding Windows 7 on this unit. Can anyone point me in the direction I need to get the eject button to work?

Lastly--I know it's been bantered back and forth here, but the XPS 16 does run hot. After messing with it last night for 3 hours, it was noticeably hot, all over. One thing I did notice was that the lid design blocks the hot exhaust from properly escaping. Using HWMONITOR for temps, I noticed an almost 10C drop in CPU temp and 8C drop in CPU just by lowering the lid most of the way to allow the hot air to leave the chassis correctly. What idiot designed this? Plus, the left side of the LCD is much hotter than the right. Why, because what hot air does get exhausted, hits the screen and rises up the left side.

When I grow up, I want to be a highly paid design engineer.

One last thing...anyone installing the Quickset program under Windows 7???

 

Well its a beautiful notebook! The screen is, in a word GORGEOUS! I can't look at other monitors now!

As for heat... yeah... it gets warm. I actually only feel heat right on the track pad... nothing much from the left or the right of it. This just after I did some video editing and encoded a movie. Which took 15 mins, the cpu was pegged the whole time, I felt the heat was bearable. I really don't think its any cooler or warmer than even my unibody macbook after doing 20 minutes of video editing and encoding... which just goes to show you how much -heat- is subjective.

I think the bottom might be just a tad too hot to keep on your lap for an extended period, if you are going to do more than just surf.

 

Staples has these on clearance for 8.50 snatch em up while you can! The SXPS 16 fits perfectly on this.

 

Now is a really good time. Theyve update the GPU and you get Windows 7 as well.

The mobile Core i7s are going to take a while to roll out; actually, they were supposed to be out now, but, manufacturers asked Intel to delay them since they were already having problems moving laptops with existing high-end CPUs. They also require a completely new mobo, so, not sure what that means for an i7 SXPS16...

If you dont need Core i7 (or i5, i3), then i would say it is a good time now. Of course, the same specc'd config will be cheaper in the Fall as well.

 

Link to them for that price ? I see $30 it must be an in the store deal only

 

4670 owners, tell us about the performance so that we can be jealous!!

 

hey ppl,got the sxps 1640 today and no wonder its the same as all ya guys discribed it.
Thanks to all ya guys as,I felt I know this laptop since long,as u ppl discribed it in such a manner.
Screen is great.fantastic keyboard.I did not notice much of heat,Its on for almost entire day.
But...(Why but is there everywhere?)I tried to re-partition and intall vista,to make sure all is clean and according to my customization,Hence deleted the default partition and started creating,Once the partition where created,I noticed that,the partition number starts from 2,wherein I believe that it must start from 1 or 0.Thats my worry.

Is there something wrong wid hdd?
Ah...One more thing,the lap was shipped wid the following DVD`s
1)Vista x64 Hm Premium
2)Drivers and Utility
3)Works
Do I miss some DVD`s?

 

im sorry, i know this is flaming, but i have been reading a lot of your posts, and i have to say, that spelling/pronouncing the word "with" incorrectly makes you sound like such a moron.

to answer your questions, the partition number does not matter, and those are the only disks i got with mine

 

Did you ever think that they might have a learning disability and can't spell ? I find post like yours to be classless and in very poor taste. Who are you the spelling police ? Now back to 1640 XPS talk!

 

lol (btw, i am not disabled in any manner )

 

Just ignore such kinda ppl,they are here to make some noise and get noticed.

 

or hes typing while eating which makes me misspell like crazy

 

Exactly which learning disability is it where the afflicted one spells the big words correctly, but uses shortcuts (ppl, wid, and ya) for smaller, common words??? Learning disability? Puh-leez.....more like a teen who's confused whether he/she is texting or is just plain lazy.

 

I am simply trying to find the /an owners maual guide with specifically cleaning instruction re my 1640. Anyone know where I can grab this? Also I (like so many others) am not getting any action of my eject touch button since upgrading to the A07 bios. as we are now on A08 I am not willing to rollback that far. Anyone found a fix for this issue?
Thanks for any feedback. Especially re the cleaning issue.
Regards,
J23

 

I found that by reinstalling the Quickset software from Dell.com that the eject button starts working again. I did the same thing...but A05 --> A08 and the eject button stopped working. Installed Quickset and it started working again.

 

lmao, sorry, i didnt know you had such a problem wid it

 

I just discovered something rather odd about my 1640 and Win 7 install:

The Eject, Wireless, Volume, and Mute buttons work fine, but the Pause/Play and Forward/Rewind buttons do not (atleast not for Winamp).

Curious...

 

Yeah it probably is... I am going to pick up the last one today.

 

Previously,I had asked for partition table allocation number starting from 2 and I suspected the hdd to be a bad sector one.It is not bad sector,there is a hidden and protected partition ie EISA Partition,created by Dell,for easy recovery (Google "EISA Partition" for more information).
hurray,My major doubt is cleared.

Now I can go ahead,re-partition the hdd and dual boot RHEL5 and Win 7.

 

Everytime I wake up my computer or start it up, i get a message saying dell quickset is causing my vista aeros to not work porperly or something.

whats going on? whats dell quickset?

 

Hey guys, I will post pictures on Tuesday. I am away for holiday and will be back with my new laptop on Tues. After playing with it for a few hours, the first thing I noticed immediately is the heat. I installed GTA (which took about 10 minutes) then played it for about an hour and had to stop. I shut the game off and inspected the laptop and the entire area below the keys were hot....what is worse is the underneath the laptop was even hotter.

This does not stifle my love for this pc, but it is worth mentioning to give all of you the heads up: cooling pads can't compensate.

 

HM so it still runs hot eh? No surprise hopefully the temps are looking good.

 

Sorry for jumping into wrong board room.
But I thought it wil be the right place to get answered.

I'm confused among Dell SXPS 16 and HP HDX16t. Now both are approx same price with ...
1. P8600 processor
2. 4GB RAM
3. 320 GB 7200 rpm HDD
4. 16' LCD
5. 512 MB ATI/nVidia Graphics card
6. Intel wireless
7. 6 cell battery

Then its very difficult to choose one among them. Its a tough competition and putting me in trouble. Heard a lot about un-usual heat problem of SXPS 16 which leads me to rethink. Can you help me out ?

 

I have both (well, an HDX18t, not the 16t) and the basic difference, to me, is that the XPS 16 has the LED Backlit LCD panel and it a bit thinner and lighter (I think), but it does run warm. My HDX18t also runs warm after prolonged use, but not as hot at the XPS 16. Build quality on both is excellent, and I would recommend either, so it's a hard choice. I know you can get a killer deal on an XPS 16 at the Dell Outlet (even better using the current 15% off coupons that are around). I did see that geeks.com was selling refurbished HDX18t with Q9000 for $1100 (in case you were interested in something a bit bigger).

It's going to be a tough choice as both are good.

 

I have the HP DV7t which is the 17" version except I have a T6400. It runs cooler than the Studio XPS 16 and the ATi 4650 1GB is almost exactly like the 4670 except it's clocked slower (performance should be within 5%). The screen isn't as nice as the Studio XPS 16 but it's better than other laptops. The build quality is pretty good but again, not as good as Dell. The keyboard is not backlit and feels more cheap. The entire computer is plastic and that's why it doesn't feel as hot as the Dell. Overall, HP is a nice laptop but the Studio XPS 16 is better.

 

I was just rereading this & it occurred to me that you might have meant that you found the owners manual trough the quickset install? Is this the case? If so great. If not the q remains. Where does one find the owners manual or official cleaning intructions for the d xps 1640?

 

hey, ok im planning to do a clean restore on my cmoputer, haven't decided yet but how would i go through the process of doing that? Also are there webcam, facial software disks that was supposed to come with the computer? or is that already in a disc?

 

ok just to let others know, i bought a one fan quick notebook cooler and put that one fan over the processor and gpu fan and it seems to be keeping temps down while i game which is quite nice. It doesn't feel as hot as it did before but the down side is the screen is pushed farther back creating more blockage for the air to come out. Also i did use a note card to let the hot air go out but not allowing the hot air that was just released from the computer to cycle again making it a tad cooler.

 

Just installed win 7 and got everything working,used the quickset of vista 64. Eject and all other button seemed working fine,but the volume controller,will not display the bars level going up or down,it just displays the block with the speaker symbol and the bars below it.Did anyone got this one working?,if so can you post the url of the quickset,that does this work.

Downloaded the bios A08(My laptop came with A07),can I update it using win 7 OS?

Did anyone try dual boot win 7 and RHEL 5?

 

i have the block and the speaker system thing that you are seeing right now...is windows 7 still downloadable? where would i get it? and for the quickset is there a cd for that or where do i download that?

 

mine says that on my C dive I have 377gb out of 450 remaining. I added up all the files on that drive and they came to 30gb, where's the extra 43gb gone to??? It would be nice to have it back as I can't see it being used for anthing and I doubt there are any backup partitions on it seeing as I can see the recovery partition as the D drive

Edit: it's actually 39gb being used, I forgot the hibernation file and page file, my bad. Even so, that's still 34gb missing which could be used. I know it doesn't make much difference now but when it starts to fill up, 34gb is a lot of space to play with

 

my question is, why is it that when you get a 500GB HDD you only get 450GB (or in my case, i got the 320, and i only have 298GB showing).

Just curious...

 

That's actually a good point, even when you add together the recovery patition and the main partition they only come to 464, that's still 36gb missing excluding the missing bit in the boot partition.

Another question, why did they make the recovery partition visible let alone double the size it needs to be?

Edit: even on the recovery partition there is 2gb missing from what it says is there even when I enable it to view system files and hidden ones, this is confusing

 

because hard drive manufacturers measure one gigabyte as 1000mb and microsoft measures one gigabyte as 1024mb

 

I find it weird so many people are having problems with Win 7 installing correctly. I hate Quickset, so I won't install it, I never had one problem with any of the media keys working correctly with just the base install of Win 7 and updates. I still had to go through and install Dell Vista 64 bit drivers to get certain things working, but not the basic computer itself.

 

dell just gave me a ringsaying my estimate is now 14/7/09 and got delayed a week as they ran out of old 128gb ssd's and they need to restock newer models so they can create my order.
plus the fact that samsung no longer make 128gb 90mb/70mb old gen ssd's, theres a good chance dell now ship 220mb/200mb ones

 

hey everyone,

just got my xps16 today

all good cept i've got a funny bright spot.

really notice it when looking at webpages such as this one with all the white

any fixes?

 

Give them a call and get it replaced.

 

Performed dual boot with win 7 and rhel5,lucky to get both the OS options on the boot menu.But sad thing is redhat has not installed drivers,updated the kernel.Still the same.

Has anyone installed rhel 5 and got everything working on this machine?
If so,can you provide the details about the kernel version or any important suggestion on getting the drivers on rhel 5

 

how can i install windows 7 while removeing the vista install but not the factory restore.
as last time i tried it, windows vista stayed on my laptop and took a whole 50gb and a "previous windows files"

 

Ahh, thanks, that makes some sense. But still, a 320BG should then register as 312Gb (mine only shows 298) according to that and a 500GB should register at 488GB. Oh well.

Back to funky monk's original question. He got me checking my HDD more closely. Of the 298, it says i have 224 free, which means i used up 74. But when i go into my c drive and "select all" right click -> properties, it only comes out to 30BG, so where's my other 44GB? I don't have any other partitions, i did a completely clean install after receiving it.

It wouldn't be a big deal if it was a few gig's but 44 is decent chunk

can anyone explain this?

 

I ordered my sxps on saturday and I'm so excited! too bad it gets a bit expensive here in Mexico and they took out almost all processor options! they only left the P7350 and the P8600, so I ordered the P8600 2.40 GHz one and I wanted the 2.53 GHz will it be a lot of difference?
It's supposed to arrive the 17th I can't wait!

Btw, has someone installed OS X succesfully in this laptop? (i just wanna mess around with it).

 

We're not allowed to talk about putting OSX on non-Apple hardware here, because the moderators here are afraid of Apple's legal team. But since you asked, it kind of works but some really important stuff does not (like video, since there is no ATI support in Apple-world). The Studio XPS 13 is more likely to work since it has nVidia 9400M (same as Macbooks).

This message will now self-destruct. (poof!).

 

do you really ahve four computers? do you use them all?