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

yeah u clearly didnt read i want pics of the 9cell attached to the laptop.. i already own a 1640 with 6cell..

 

did a simple search and found this... try using Google lol

 

yeah u clearly didnt need to be rude. Some people....

It's the NotebookReview site that has them, not the NotebookCheck site.

@killaz

Thanks.

 

i spent hours on google. damn it to hell :\ what keyword did u use?

god that white looks amazing. wish i would of gotten that over black

 

It's the first hit if you type in "studio xps 16 review"......

lol, all right, I'm done being an a-hole.

~Ibrahim~

 

I just put dell studio xps 1640 9-cell and searched under images... its not a big deal

P.S.- I much prefer the black lol

 

WAIT....SO I WAS RIGHT. It is at NotebookCheck, too, because that image is from there. I just didn't scroll down far enough.

Hmph.

Yeah, the black is nice, but finger-prints galore. The white seems more resistant, but too Apple-like for my own tasttes.

 

i wish the entire laptop was white.. keyboard everything look like a macbook BUT ON CRACK! and not out of the world pricing

 

i was looking thru the thread cant seem to find the page.. has neone sucessfully got a 750gb/1tb drive to fit inside? if so what model? link please? thanks

 

None available AFAIK.

Wait a few more months, Seagate's supposed to have a 1TB, 9.5mm one out soon.

~Ibrahim~

 

Wow-that would be incredible but has anyone yet made a 640GB notebook drive?

It seems like we don't even have 500GB 7200RPM drives that work right, so we'd be going from 320-1000GB

 

Yeah, 640GB is out: WD has one, but it's at 5400RPM and has 8MB of cache.

 

i could have sworn the new 750s and 1tbs fit inside the dell.. because they fit in the 15.4macbookpro

 

Compare the dimensions....and tell me what you find.

~Ibrahim~

 

Use a GPU tool to track the GPU clock speed. I haven't had my 1640 long, but disabling powerplay with the ATI desktop driver caused the clock to be locked at 200 or 400 mhz something like that. Used whatever the latest driver was early december. Enabling powerplay (which is the default settings) allowed it to freely clock itself to suitable levels and GPU-Z showed it going up to 650mhz if i recall.

 

I was thinking of getting a 1640 since they are currently on an amazing sale. How is the cooling for this laptop. I have a Inspiron 9400 and ended up having issues due to the heat so I'm a little iffy about laptops with heat issue.

 

let me start by saying this is my first post here on NBR, although I've been following for quite a few years now! You guys do a great job in this forum...kudos!!

well... I won't say that the studio xps 16 is an ice cube, if you know what I mean . But hey! for the amount of ammo this baby packs, you can't claim to not have expected any heat! I know the first few lines of the sxps 16 had severe heating issues. My first one was a replacement piece that was provided in place of a xps m1530 by DELL . It used to heat up quite lot. BVut I recently got myself another sxps 16, and m happy to see that DELL has significantly reduced the heating probs. Sure with 2.53 ghz processor and a dedicated 512 MB GDDR3 graphics card running, the machine heats up a bit after long usage, but its nothing that would cause panic. You can probably try using a cooling pad!
Also win7, ive found, runs like a breeze! The most amazing thing is for this price range, dell gives you a lappie with significantly higher config than a mbp. I've played all sorts of game on the 3670, with 6 gb drr3 ram, including FEAR, Project Origin, Bloodcall, America's Army, Age ofConan: Hyborian Adventutres, Crysis, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, GTA San Andreas, GTA IV and World at War. All of them have run smooth at satisfactory details. I am not the kind who would have a heart attack if the FPS falls a little, and I won't steer up a controversy on what card can play what and at what details. All I will say is I am happy with the game play experience of this lappy. It is super fast, the designing is premium, looks sexy, feels solid and sophisticated and the screen is a treat! I love the studio xps 16.
I have a sony fw 45gj, and a mbp unibody at home, for my mom and dad, and I will chose my SXPS 16 over either anyday.

 

Having had both the 1640 with ATI 3670 and ATI 4670, definitely the 4670-based 1640 runs cooler due to a redesigned heatsink and cooling system. My current 1640 w/ATI 4670 1GB runs fairly cool and quiet. I use RMCLOCK to undervolt my T9550 CPU, this also helps greatly in keeping the temps even cooler.

If you buy a 1640, get the model with the 1GB ATI 4670.

 

Hello people! I'm back from a long absent time... I think you might have heard of me, I'm the guy who opened the screen with a piece o metal (it's on youtube
So, now we bought a Home theatre system, but I'm having hard time getting a 5.1 audio from the sxps into it... I made a research (google and here) and got to some conclusions... I wanna know weather I'm right or wrong:

FIRST: It is absolutely impossible to get 5.1 over the HDMI port?!
SECOND: The display port CAN'T transfer 5.1 audio!?
THIRD: The only way to get 5.1 audio would be through the 3 jack ports (mic, headphones, line in)?!?!?!?

My home theatre has a HDMI out, a DMPORT, a coaxial and a Optical input... It's the sony's DAV-DZ77T. Currently I'm using the following config:

XPS HDMI out > in TV HDMI > OPTICAL TV out > in Home Theatre OPTICAL.

I would really really appreciate some help!

Please folks! Please!

 

@Brazilian

I have the exact same setup with my SXPS 16. HDMI-TV-Optical-Sound System. I *do* get 5.1 Dolby Digital while watching Blu-Ray movies. You have installed the HDMI Audio Driver that comes with the Catalyst drivers, yes?

DisplayPort audio is available in Catalyst 9.12, according to Wikipedia.

Someone asked a while back about how to configure analog 5.1: I never figured it out. Tried changing IDT over to 5.1?

~Ibrahim~

 

I have the 9 cell, i'll try and take some pics of it, I like it because it keeps the laptop raised allowing a little better cooling, plus it makes a good handle to when pulling the thing out of a bag. I think I get just under 4 hours on battery although I haven't tried to run it all the way down, says that in the battery meter so not sure how accurate that is. I'll find out for sure when I take it on the plane next week.

 

The cooling is pretty good. I don't have a 9 cell, so just put a book under the back end and its good for a 1-2 hour gaming session. The only real hotspot is under the touchpad.

For longer sessions I got a zalman 2000 and it keeps everything cool to the touch and I'll tune the fan speed from lowest to highest depending on the game, but lowest works good for most.

Play in a room around 72f.

 

thanks id love to see some nice snaps of it, does anyones laptop wobble on the right corner by the windows/intel stickers?

 

I installed a driver from Realtek last week after trying a bunch of other things, including changing IDT configurations, with no success.

 

Hmmm...what program and media are you using?

Do you get no sound or just stereo?

I had to manually change my program to HDMI Output 5.1 (PowerDVD) to get 5.1, but I had no sound before that.

 

I tried media player classic and gom player... I think that the problem lies elsewere: if you go to your control panel > audio > manage audio devices > right click on the hdmi (while plugged in) ask for properties > click on supported formats, how many are the supported channels? Here only show TWO!
Always!
:/

EDIT: I'm playing .mkv files, not disks... Those huge bluray rips...

 

Hmph...mine said the same thing (two channels!), but I was only using Windows. I didn't get a chance to watch a BD-thru-HDMI with it. Hmmm...

My amplifier, though, I know has shown Dolby Digital 5.1 when watching Blu-rays through the laptop. Maybe it is just up-converting stereo to Dolby Digital 5.1? I'm no audiophile, but I'm rather certain I heard 5.1 coming through the speakers and not some up-converted stereo.

Ugh...sorry I can't help more. I'm trying to think...have you tried playing some just regular 5.1 files instead of *.mkv rips?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/Multichannel.aspx#link6

?

 

Anyone gotten Stereo Mix or What U Hear working on these IDT cards? I tried using Rec. Playback, but it doesn't pick up anything (volume bar doesn't move when I play music).

 

Ok quick question people.
Dell Studio XPS 16 OR Sony Vaio F

 

studio xps 16 duh haha

 

neone elses intel sticker say intel centrino inside? my 1340 has core 2 duo but 1640 has centrino inside

 

Centrino is just a marketing word, not a CPU. In the case of the 1340, it doesn't say Centrino because it doesn't use an Intel chipset.

Personally I *like* having it say Core 2 on my laptop, both because I like having my CPU named, and because "Centrino" is such a goofy word :lol:

 

My old thinkpad say centrino pro. If I remember correctly, only laptops use all intel branded chipset, cpu and wireless card have that stick.

 

hmm well my 1640 has a intel 5100 for wifi so maybe thats why? either way this logo is ugly where can i order replacement badges?

 

You have no self-initiative, do you?

http://www.google.com/products?hl=e...es for laptops&aql=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

No sense of doing something yourself instead of asking people on forum? Just because we will answer you?

 

lol u like picking on me dont u!

 

lol, no, I don't.

In all seriousness, a forum is kind of your "last resort" to fixing a problem. At least show us you tried to search. Instead, what I assume you did is had a question, thought about it, couldn't figure it out, and then posted here. Obviously, you were missing a few steps. Now, that's just my assumption.

Just use Google a bit more often and you'll realize about two minutes of our time is all you need. Not even that. Ten seconds.

~ibrahim~

 

Ok, i tried that file, and several others... The center speaker is mute. When I watch some dvd directly in the home theater it is on, 5.1!
Any other clues?

 

Hello Ibrihim. You seem to know a lot on this forum. I have googled my situation and have found nothing. I have also posted my problem with no responses over a week. That makes me worried. This is what my problem is. I have the xps 16 and the first couple of days the quality of watching something in full screen hd was amazing. About a week ago I noticed that when I watch something full screen hd it is pixelated. I know this because I watched the same video I had in the first couple of days. Is this some sort of driver issue? I can;t find anything about this anywhere. These are my specs. Any help would be awesome. Thank you in advance.
1 224-6025 XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 (2.66GHz/1066MHz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
1 320-8178 Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish XPS 1640
1 311-9977 6GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1640
1 320-8180 15.6 inch Wide Screen 16:9 900p HD+ WLED LCD W/2.0MP, XPS 1640
1 320-7337 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 - 512MB
1 341-8989 500GB 7200RPM Free Fall SensorSeagate Hard Drive
1 330-1917 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP XPS 1640
1 330-6222 Windows 7 Label
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-6576 DELL WELCOME,Software Dimension/Inspiron
1 420-7938 Dell Connect 2.1
1 420-9100 Dell Dock Consumer
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
1 421-0187 Dell Support Center Software 64 Bit 2.0
1 421-0323 Windows Live Search,Multiple User Interface
1 421-1193 Download Store Links
1 421-1737 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
1 420-9352 Dell, Software, Wild Tangent Inc Games
1 430-2600 Integrated 10/100 Network Card
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 421-1361 MOD,SW,RXO,EZCD,10.3,DE,FI
1 421-1582 Cyberlink Power DVD 8.3 Playback
1 313-8874 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive
1 313-4783 Integrated High Definition Audio 2.2
1 430-3603 Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-card
1 410-2090 McAfee Sapphire MUI, 15-Month
1 312-0811 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion P Primary Battery, for XPS 1640
1 420-8051 Microsoft Works 9.0, English For Inspiron
1 950-3339 3 Year Limited Warranty
1 993-3498 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Extended Year(s)
1 993-3497 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Initial Year
1 992-1212 QualexServ Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis Plus Nights and Weekends, 2 Year Extended
1 992-4460 QualexServ Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis Plus Nights and Weekends, Initial Year
1 960-3652 Warranty Support,2 Year Extended
1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
1 991-1179 LoJack Theft Recovery Service,XPS - 1 Year DHS
1 420-8655 LoJack Theft Recovery Softwarefor Laptops, 1 Year
1 467-7771 Thanks for choosing Dell!
1 988-7707 2GB DATASAFE ONLINE 1.1 FOR SDO/DIM/INS/XPS
1 988-0099 To activate your online backupaccount, go to Start, Programs, DataSafe Online
1 420-9518 DATASAFE ONLINE 1.1 2GB
1 330-0171 S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forDHS Notebooks
1 320-0985 15.6 HD+ WLED Display Obsidian Black, 2.0 MP Webcam
1 421-0188 Facial Recognition
1 421-1010 Dell Webcam Central v1.4
1 330-5125 Intel Core 2 Duo Label

 

Question regarding mouse pad. When I use IE, I have no problem using the three fingers to go back and forward on the browser, however, when I use Chrome it doesn't work. Do I have to install anything so I can do the same on Chrome?

Regarding speakers, I noticed that when I listen to music the volume is adequate, however, I was just playing MW2 and with the vol to max both in the game settings and the laptop speakers it's still too low. Has anyone else had this issue?

BTW, I played MW2 today for about 2 hours at max settings. It looked pretty nice on the screen. I only encountered one problem which was when I was using that vehicle in the snow that was going fast, the pc kind of slowed down a bit. Other than that so far so good.

 

@Brazillianguy

Hmm...well, it's good that those files worked! I figured out how to do analog through the three ports: in the IDT control panel, on the right-hand side click the little jack icons. You can reassign them for 5.1!

Also in the IDT Control Panel, try turning up SRS Center? That's probably not it, though.

@krilla

It's pixelated? Just out of the blue? How sure are you? I notice things in videos all the time that I didn't notice before.

But, if you are POSITIVE there is a huge difference between what it used to be/what it is now:

Go to your Power Options, "Change Advanced Power Settings", and scroll down to Multimedia Settings and "when playing a video". Mess with those?

Tried reinstalling ATI drivers? Mess with the AVIVO video settings, as well.

What program and playback file are you using? Can you try playing them on another computer to compare?

Thanks for the praise...I don't know much, just too much spare time.

@PDZ

I hated that when I used Chrome, too. I eventually just migrated to FF. Try holding down alt? That worked for some people with a two-finger flick on some touchpads? It's definitely just a Chrome issue.

MW2 issue: open the Volume Mixer and make sure that MW2 has full volume.

~Ibrahim~

 

ikjadoon,

thanks for your response. Just tried the Alt + 3 fingers with Chrome and it worked! Thanks for the info!

Will try vol to the max on the mixer.

BTW, I actually own a 1645. I just realized now that I posted this on the 1640 forum.

 

Ibrahim,
Yes I am very positive. My other computer is a desktop and I just tried it and it looks better with no pixelation at all. Mind you the desktop is a 4 yr old gateway, tower and monitor. I tried to mess with the power options like you said and I have it set for best quality and makes no difference. I went and downloaded the ati drivers as well from the dell support site and no difference. I am not sure what you mean by AVIVO settings. I noticed this problem with a youtube video. It is still doing it. Now I just tried to watch a movie on my netflix account and it does the same thing but gets better after about 3 seconds. the youtube video doesnt get any better though. I just tried it with the avatar trailer as well on youtube and it looks horrible. It was the official trailer too, not some copy or something. any of this make any sense? Thank you.
Keith

 

Ibrahim,
I mean I can't find where to mess with the AVIVO settings. I googled avivo and found that it is part of the amd ati deal but I can't find where to mess with it on my computer. I searched for it in my start menu as well with ati and amd and nothing.

 

Do you use flash 10.1? Youtube give bad quality on 1st beta version, it seems fixed in 2nd beta I think. First few second netflix is always bad probably due to dynamic bitrate switching.

 

I'm not sure what I'm using. I never noticed this with netflix though. are you talking about if i use flash 10.1 with youtube?
Thanks
keith

 

I'm not sure what I'm using. I never noticed this with netflix though. are you talking about if i use flash 10.1 with youtube?
Thanks
keith

 

Yes, I mean that. You can right click a flash to figure out which version you are using.

 

Oh, cool thanks man. I have version 10.0.42.43

So I should download that 10.1 beta?

 

You can always uninstall it if it doesn't work. I only had bad quality with first beta version.