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

The Sony's about right for me, except that Sony's laptops are one of the few excluded from Nvidia's official notebook drivers, so that's bad. I posted in a thread but no one's answered if you can install drivers through device manager to get around that (Of course I'd rather have a 9800 class GPU also, but...)

A lot of us spent days in the testing phase too. Who knows what it means.

 

well yea.. even i would suggest tht.. u can infact ask for some extra stuffs coz of all this trouble and if they refuse then cancel the order.. (which u have decided to do anyway )

i had order mine yesterday but it wasn't finalised as i didnt made any payment .. they called me today and its still in halt.. will do it on monday

i also clarified about the remote and noise cancellation ear buds.. they said they will send tht too..

can someone give me the hardware details.. lemme see if i can find XP drivers.. i am so used to XP that i just cant live without it..

 

Wolf

If u go with Gateway, be wary where u buy it from...I had the FX gaming model for 2 weeks from BB and had several audio issues and G/W support seemed reluctant to help me since I did not purchase from them directly. The tech support (if u think Dell is horrible) is about the same level of 'hit-n-miss' where it seems there are some good techs while some are simply reading off a 'troubleshooting script'!

The LCD screen is also sub-par compared to the LED panel used in the XPS16. The build quality is also not that great ....the only thing great about them is the awesome specs plus GPU that they throw in there.

Just my own experiance with the FX/Gateway.

 

Thanks for the input! I do at least like the feel and look of them in store, if nothing else.

Not sure what I'm doing. One person's said you actually can install Nvidia's notebook drivers without doing anything special on Sony's AW models, despite Nvidia saying Sony's stuff is excluded, so that's an option. (Though obviously I'd much rather have a 9800GTS than a lowly 9600GT!)

 

Guys...You may want to keep the talk limited to the thread title.
FYI...because threads have been closed when it go's offtopic.

@Wolfpup, sorry you had to return yours with all the prob's you had, and after that wait for the delivery..

Cin

 

With all the talk about damaged systems and such; im going to give my 1640 a thorough inspection when it arrives. I didnt order the BD drive, so at least i wont have to worry about that, but, im surprised about built quality and slip ups.

The last two laptops (Toshiba and a Sony) ive owned worked great out of the box... so im not sure what to think; this is my first custom order unit.

 

^ I've had no problems with mine except the BSOD caused from the Vista 64 updates. But mine actually booted fine after that and has been running flawlessly since then.

Finished Fear2 demo last night at my native res with med settings for everything.

 

That's weird though, as I DIDN'T get any BSOD at all, and ran all the updates. I mean the updates shouldn't be causing any crashes.

I'd run Memtest overnight on...well really you should do it on ANY new computer or RAM, but especially if you're getting crashes.

(I never got around to it on mine, and I think everything was fine, as it was completely stable Folding for hours on end...and actually fairly cool doing it, IF you put it into an unatural position so the vent was less blocked).

 

COUNTRY, ORDER DATE, PHASE

Canada, 11 jan 2009, delivered
Denmark, 13 jan 2009, production
Spain, 16 jan 2009, production
UK, 24 Jan 2009, production
Canada, 21 Jan 2009, delivered on Jan 30
Germany, 13 jan 2009, production

 

So far everything has gone well for me, besides the US bluray powerdvd problem. System arrived in perfect condition

 

Ok 3 days.

I had the BSOD during the install and when it rebooted it fixed itself. I did have another BSOD today in regards to something Video driverish but i had the second monitor up and was working between the two when it happened and well all is working fine again.

Other than that i have had no problems so far. It is a great screen (base version). I had AutoCad, Adobe 9 with 7 files up, Outlook on the second monitor, Word 2 files up, Firefox with 5 tabs, IE with 3 tabs 1 file being a county interactive map site, and running World of Warcraft.... yes i have a.d.d. and yes all programs were running with no delays and i was at 36fps in WoW which is amazing considering i have never had a laptop to really play games with and am used to 12 or less fps and lived in a shutter step world.

At that point it did get warm (not uncomfortablly so) on the left of the trackpad area. I checked the vent area and it was slightly warmer air on that side than the right side but nothing that i could ever see affecting the monitor.

It is quiet and more comfortable on my lap than the E1505 i had. So far everything i have plugged in downloaded and or bluetoothed has gone without a hitch.

Crossing my fingers but i am happy with it and glad i didnt go for the 13" i do love the realestate on the screen. The glossy is a negative and i have not figured out if i am just going to order a 17" or 18" skin and cut it down but it is a fingerprint magnet.

 

Oh wow, you didn't get anything either? Wow, apparently NO ONE has actually gotten Blu Ray playback software with their systems :lol:

Brilliant. And hilariously, the tech support people will insist that you did.

 

i would never go to sony over these problems. if you have issues with the machine id get it replaced. if you dont like the model, id go the sony machines are straight forward crap. they are shiny computers aimed at kids, overpriced, and poorly constructed. i was absolutely in love with the sony vaio, and i would have bought the fw had i not walked into a sony style store. those machines look like the kind of thing a high schooler covered in stickers. as far as vista, you guys are out of your mind. it is hardly worthy of the windows name. they never could lay the foundation for the business market to move over to vista. you can win end consumers til the day you die, but without getting john and jane small and large business owner to swap, youve got problems. it was a slow pig operating system that required more hardware for the same functionality, and worse security. windows 7 is the fix. for day to day, none of you are going to notice vistas problems, and most of you probably have the wherewithal to fix the ones you run into. the normal user does not.

anyhow, back to the point. i set out for a good laptop, this is the one i found for the right price, speed, and overall style. if you are willing to compromise one of those three than there are lots of other options. however, i simply do not see there being any sort of normal transition between the macbook pro and any pc. it means you are in a totally different market.

how easy is this return policy? my experiences with dell customer service leave a lot to be desired, dell probably takes weeks to give you your money back after receiving the machine. you guys talk about returning the machine like i return a bag of stale chips.

 

When it comes to getting my money back, Dell does not take long at least in my experience. Max a couple of days. But I guess this could vary.

 

those of you who did wipe and reinstall vista, did you ever get the facial recognition reinstalled again?

 

Uh...how? The build quality on the AW seems marginally better than the 1640, which is already just fine IMO.

Huh? Vista's more secure, not less. It's got all kinds of security features that are firsts in consumer operating systems. You're not really mentioning anything specific (which was something someone else pointed out...just random general hate).

Windows 7 is Vista, basically.

I'm not sure what that means, but personally I kind of like the 1640's design. The vent placement is idiotic, but then the Macbooks aren't well ventilated either, as far as I know (and this guy can definitely cool itself better than a Macbook Pro I used).

I hope it goes smoothly. I filled out a form, and they've gotten back to me through email saying it's approved. Except...they want to have UPS pick it up, which doesn't really work. Supposedly I can take it to a "UPS Store" the "Day after tomorrow" and they'll have labels or be able to print labels, or something. So...I guess that means...Monday (?) I could drop this off at the main local UPS place? I guess supposedly.

I'll be glad once that part's over. The email said it can take up to a month to get a refund.

Also hopefully I really wasn't billed for the discs they sent out (that weren't what I needed), as that's started showing up again. We'll see how this goes.

Bad thing is I'm still interested in Dell's upcoming G series monitors (with the LED backlighting) but I'm really scared to order from them now. They're the only company that makes comparable monitors though.

 

no offense, but you sound clueless. im glad you entered in your two cents about the 1640 while you had it. its important for those who ordered, and those interested, to read all the comments. as far as you drifting toward sony, its my opinion that had nothing been wrong with your 1640, you still ordered the wrong machine. you sound like a sony fanboy but you still managed to so easily drift between the macbook pro and a dell. it is safe to say you were in the market for this machine for totally different reason than me. good luck with your return.

 

This boxing process is killing me. I ordered last friday and it has been in the boxing stage since monday. 5 days in boxing? My ESD is 2/11 which is ridiculous because if you order right now, the website gives you a 2/6 PSD. I just called the customer service and they don't have a clue why it is stuck in the boxing stage. I guess I won't be able to get it on monday or tuesday if it goes like that.

 

Umm...how so?

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. What on Earth are you even basing that on? I've never even owned a Sony computer. You're just making these blanket statements without even giving any rational (both in this post and your earlier one). I'm a "Sony fanboy" for some unknown reason. Vista's bad, for some unknown reason, you've made stuff up ('Vista's less secure!') etc., etc., etc. You've resorted to personal attacks before even bothering to explain your reasoning. You're also the first person in this entire thread to start insulting someone.

Such as what? What reasons are you in the market for a computer? I want something with Blu Ray, at least a decent GPU, and LED lighting, of which there aren't many choices.

Darn, I wish I could remember how long mine was, but it was at least several days, which seems to be normal. One site suggested that the 'boxing' stage actually includes time spent waiting for other systems to be sent out. That would kind of jive with what happened with mine, as mine shipped at the same time as people who had ordered earlier.

 

Hey all I'm a total newb when it comes to laptops. I ordered the xps 1640 on 01/27 and esd is 02/11

P8400 (2.26GHZ) CORE 2 DUO 1
VISTA PREMIUM STICKER 1
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHZ,2 DIMM, XPS 1640 1
56 WHR,6-CELL,LION,PRIM BATT,INSP 1
HD AUDIO 2.0 1
BLURAY COMBO,INSP 1
OBSIDIAN BLACK LTHR,INSP 1
16.0 HD WLED, BLK-LTHR W/2.0 MP 1640 1
ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 3670 - 512MB,INSP 1
DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS 1640 1
320GB HARD DRIVE,7.2K, XPS 1640 1
MCAFEE SECURITY 9 30-DAY SUBSCR,DIM/INSP 1
ADOBE READER 9.0,MLANG,I/S/X NB 1
ISP SEARCH ASST PORTAL,DIM/INSP 1
VISTA,PC-RESTORE, DIM/INSP 1
DELL WELCOME,SW,DIM/INSP 1
DELL CONNECT 2.1,DIM/INSP/XPS 1
DELL VIDEO CHAT,INSP 1
DELL DOCK CONSUMER,INB/XNB 1
WIN VISTA SP1 HOME PREM,64,ENG,INB 1
DELL WEBCAM CENTRAL 1.0,INSP 1
POWERDVD DX 8.2,INSP 1
FACIAL RECOGNITION SENSIBLE VISION,XNB 1
ROXIO 10.2 DE 1
DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG 1
INTEL 5100 WRLS-N (1X2),INSP 1
THANKS FOR PURCHASING YOUR DELL 1
HW WRTY + SVC,STUDO XPS1640,INIT CA 1
RTD,STUDO XPS1640,SOL,INIT CA 1
MS WORKS 9.0,ENGLISH,INSP 1
XPS WARRANTY SPRT, INSPIRON, INITIAL YR 1
XPS WARRANTY SPRT, INSPIRON, INITIAL YR 1
SHIPPING FEE 1
INTEL CENTRINO 2 LABEL,INSP 1


and with the wireless router it came to 1796 Canadian funds

my question is What does DSOP mean and did i make a decent choice for my first laptop..

 

Where is it saying DSOP? And it's hard to say if it's a good choice without knowing what you need it for. For most stuff though it'll be plenty powerful enough.

Just make sure to test if it actually has software on it to play Blu Rays! Apparently they're not shipping it to the U.S. (but the service people think they are).

 

I read in previous posts about DSOP on start up that's all i don't have mine yet, I got the laptop for general internet browsing and so i can leave the desktop alone and the kids can have their machine, I often work on some boring jobs where all i am doing is waiting and watching some movies while being paid would ease the pain of bordem

 

Are you talking about BSOD? BlueScreen Of Death.. the plain old windows bluescreen

 

Oh, maybe the 'BSOD' (Blue Screen of Death)? I'd guess either there's some driver issue with some piece of hardware they ordered and I didn't, or else they had some (slightly?) defective hardware. Mine seems to work just fine-it never crashed or anything like that.

It'll definitely be just fine for internet usage and movies and whatnot. The screen seems pretty nice quality to me (especially for a laptop), and actually I had to dial down the brightness to about halfway at home (and the LED backlighting won't fade as it ages!)

Just double check when you get it that it actually CAN play Blu Ray movies, because in the U.S. they're shipping these systems without the Blu Ray software-the version of Power DVD they're including only plays DVDs. (That may only apply to the U.S. store though, so you might be safe, hopefully!)

Good luck with it!

 

Ok since i reinstalled windows after it crashed I found that dell did not provide me with a powerdvd disk. So what do you guys use to watch bluray ?

 

when I returned my xps 1530 Dell sent UPS the next morning with a printed shipping label and had the funds credited back to my CC 5 days later when they received the package. Very smooth I must say.

 

Contact Dell and have them send you the disc for it. But did you try a Blu Ray disc before reformatting? If you're in the U.S. you probably never actually had any Blu Ray software on there. You'll need to try to get them to understand it has to support Blu Ray software (I failed three times, so...)

Also, when you reinstalled-you do mean you did it from scratch from disc, right? Otherwise, if you just restored from the hard drive, it should have whatever was originally on there. Which, if you're in the U.S., is probably a version of PowerDVD that only supports DVDs.

That's good to know. Guess I'll try to drop it off on Monday...although I wonder if they have to first fail in their pick up attempt, and THEN they'll have the labels or whatever back at their main location.

 

Canada, 11 jan 2009, delivered
Denmark, 13 jan 2009, production
Spain, 16 jan 2009, production
UK, 24 Jan 2009, production
Canada, 21 Jan 2009, delivered on Jan 30
Germany, 13 jan 2009, production
Canada, 16 Jan 2009, delivered on Jan 29

 

Hi Metro, Yes, you can get that software re-installed from a Website on dell. You get a card with the Laptop documents which gives the address. http://downloadstore.dell.com/media You have to register your system there and it gives you the option to download most of the software which came with the system. Can't find DellDock... But don't really care personally.

 

"Please be advised that there is currently an extended delivery time of approximately 3 weeks."

That was on Dell's site for the studio xps 16.

 

Yes i did a complete reformat.

 

Sorry to repeat, but does anyone know why the 9 cell battery and integrated TV tuner available on dell.uk would not be available in the US?

Also, any hypotheses about what additional components or configurations might become available in the weeks/months ahead?

 

The UK Site also says a 3 week delay (I ordered a week ago so I hope I'm not also in delay !)

Also, I've noticed they are now charging 30 pounds for the integrated TV card, whereas, it was free when I ordered..

 

On the other hand, the cost of the 1080p screen, Blu-Ray drive and larger hard drives have gone down by about £10 each, so the cost of a full-featured system hasn't really gone up. The TV card has a special "this will delay your order" mark by it so it might just be that they didn't want to delay every order for a component that plenty of people don't care that much about.

 

Has anyone been able to get this to work? It says my system is not supported when I put in the service tag.

 

Wolfpup, I think that you made the right decision. It may not be the right decision for everyone, but, it was the right decision for us.
Yesterday, after calling Dell, they immediately sent me my return labels. At 1 p.m this afternoon it was on it's way back home. (Tenn. not Malaysia where it was made). I did not have any regrets and really didn't think about it. It was not a sad departure.
The sound issue was the first issue that bothered me. The second was the vent placement. Last night I ran the diagnostics test for the last time and when the memory test gets into full swing, the vent can be used as a hand warmer. (If the display is not at a 90 degree angle). If the display is at a 90 degree angle, then the heat is either constricted or rising up the left side of the display. The bleed-in on the the sides also seem to get worse as the days go by.
I do not know what my next laptop will be, however, owning this machine has been an education tool that I will be able to use in selecting my next purchase.

I wish all well,
Thraak

 

my order is still in testing stage, it is unusual for a system to be in testing stage for a day...I'm very nervous right now. what do you think, guys?

 

No, to my knowledge no one on here has reported that actually working. Mine failed at various stages when I tried it the last few days, but I never got it working either.

Don't worry about it, that seems to be normal. Mine spent days in 'testing' (three maybe?) and others have had similar.

I think mine's going to Tennessee too! Or will be, on...Monday, I guess, if they know what I'm talking about when I show up at UPS on Monday afternoon!

I guess I'm considering the above mentioned systems. I had been looking at an Asus too before I bought this, but it seems to be sold out. MIGHT do that Sony AW now, I don't know. Need to do something fast :-/

 

Hi Bukket, Yup Worked for me... Just went on the site, enter the info and it logged right in.

 

Could it be because you're on the Canadian site?

 

Well the site was a .com and not .ca but you can also try https://smartsource.dell.com/Web/Login.aspx or http://tinyurl.com/7h9kmd (Which basically redirects to the smartsource login/registration page) Dell Support gave me these ones, thinking my McAfee Subscription would be there... But It Was Not.

 

Hey! I thought I would give you some good links here on the forum, that will help you in your decision on what brands you may want to check out, and have mentioned!

Here is the Sony Forum on NBR:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8

Here is the Asus Forum on NBR:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

Here is the Mac Forum on NBR:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Hope that helps you in your search for your new lappy! And, of course here on the Dell forum, in case you decide to stay with Dell!


Cin.

 

Well I'd like to stay with Dell. I even kind of like the 1640, but...I don't know, this has just been a mess. :-/ That and I really, REALLY don't want ATi video now that I know drivers for it can't be force installed like they easily can for Nvidia's stuff.

 

Don't be nervous! Be excited your getting the lappy you wanted!
It is normal to be in the testing stage for a day..It can last for an hour to several days!

Just think new lappy soon...

Yes, understand!

If anyone else wants any other links to brand's other then Dell, let me know and I will be happy to link those that are here on the forum & you can go check them out.

Cin

 

It sounds like the ATI videocard is the biggest kicker for you. Thats too bad. I personally am waiting for everyone else to work out the kinks of this system before I place my order (that and a 9 cell battery and more colors/no leather).

What do you mean Nvidia drivers can be force installed? I havent heard of this before? Do you mean installing a different vid cards driver for yours? Guess im confused...

 

hi there all, long time lurker, first time poster here so PLEASE be gentle!

Has anyone got time to run 3dmark03 and 06 on their 1640 at defualt settings.....im curious to see how the GPU performs compared to the 8600GT in the m1530.

 

Are there any figures for what market share percent ATI has in the laptop gpu area?

 

Hey guys! First post on NBR!

The 1640 is my fist notebook and I'm very excited about it... Spent the last 2 days reading everything you said: got me really scared! A friend of mine is bringing the lappy from the US to Brazil and I got no international warranty. You can see that if the system breaks down, I'm fuc***.

I guess the only thing to do is ask him to inspect everything he can. If you guys help me make a list of things that are already giving headaces to owners, it might help on the search for PROBLEMS!

From what I recall:

- Heat issues; (nothing 2 do!?)
- Bluray software missing; (since I did not got one, not a problem for me)
- Fisical damages!?;
- Remote control missig?; (My Sales Representative told me it would come with one)
- More sound in one speaker than the order; (Everybody got this one, right? Somebody fixed it?)
- Windows vista DVD; (Is it included? What to do in case of a reinstall?)

I cannot remember anything else at the moment..

Please forgive my poor english and thanks in advance!

 

Nvidia's regular drivers will install on their notebook hardware WITHOUT any third party hacks or anything, even though it claims it won't. ATi's really won't. Of course now Nvidia is also providing official notebook drivers for most systems. But even if they weren't, you're better off than with ATi where you have to rely on third party hacks (which isn't something I'm very comfortable with-not with something as low level as video drivers).

I guess have him look over the top and bottom for anything obvious.

Mine didn't come with a remote, and I don't think I've heard of anyone in the U.S. getting a remote. It does seem to have an IR port on the front right though...but at least with mine there's no remote. (I never saw any mention of a remote online either.)

I wish I could say if I have it, but I never even got that far. Seem to be several people with that same issue. Some have adjusted the right/left balance until it sounds right, but technically this might be a hardware or software bug (that might possibly fixed through a drive at some point if it's widespread and lots of people complain).

It SHOULD be. That's one of the really cool things about Dell-one of (THE?) only companies left that give you a clean OS disc...except a lot of people, myself included, were missing discs when we first got ours. All mine shipped with was a Works 9.0 disc, and an anti-virus disc-I had to request everything else.

And I never did get a Blu Ray program disc (though that won't affect you since you didn't get a Blu Ray drive).

Your English is excellent!

 

Hey Wolfpup! Thanks for the fast reply!

If there are any discs missing, I'll call dell imediatly. Which ones did you asked for? Did you get the Vista one? Took long? My friend will be back to Brazil 2/14, so thats a deadline.
About the remote, these r the emails:

And about the sound... I guess it's not a major problem. Could certainly live with it!