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

Havn't played that game, but you might check into the throttling threads and see if the game is triggering it.

Also a common config issue is the ATI sped step needs to be left enabled and set to max performance. Disabling speed step will lock the video card at half speed or so.

 

how do I enable the ATI speed step? Right now I just have whatever drivers Windows 7 installs, as I have always found CCC to be very bulky and bad software.

 

I think its a CCC only settings, so should be on by default if you have just the driver installed.

You can confirm the GPU is clocked correct using GPU-Z.

 

Well here is what GPU-Z shows while running Mass Effect 2... As you can see, my max clock speed is less than half it should be :/

 

Makesure powerplay enabled in catalyst control centre? And that its set for high performance

 

Just installed CCC and it booted it up to 675mHz right away... does this mean that dell's drivers are underclocking their gpus by 50%?? that's ridiculous!

 

Wouldn't that make it fraudulent for them to call it an 3670 or 4670 card then seeing as it's clocked een lower than it's lesser?

 

Shady Business Practice and Crappy driver writers

 

Let me make sure I've understood this correctly--when I get this machine, I need to install the CCC to get the proper GPU speeds, or do I have to change out other drivers as well? Should I go to my 1640 section of Dell support, and overwrite the current drivers with these downloaded ones too?

What software are you using to test it?

Thanks.

 

ummm, no.

The GPU will throttle up and down depending on the load.
However, once it reaches 84c, it will begin to throttle as it reaches Dell's thermal limits.

There are numerous discussions on this very topic.

 

I am using GPU-Z to test it (just do a quick google search) and I was having horrible graphics performance with dell's drivers. The core would only clock up to 50% no matter how hard I stressed it. Before the temperatures even reached 55 degrees C it was already glitching and performing poorly. I then went to ATI's website and installed their drivers then started up Mass Effect 2, only to find that all of the sudden the core was running at the proper speed. I don't know what this means, but I do know that I will be using ATI's drivers from now on. I also know that my card is still not running quite right, as I am still experiencing glitching even when all of my settings are low and temperatures are well below 84 degrees C.

 

Probably experiencing throttling: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=458668

You can test for it or get the A14 BIOS and a 130w power adapter (dell should give this to you upon request).

 

I have the A14 BIOS, however, when I asked for the 130w power adapter I was told that was only a fix for the 1645 and 1647 and that it was not compatible with my 1640. Is this true?

 

No they sent me one

 

What do I tell them? I'm on the phone with someone currently...

 

I found the Michael Dell email address to be pretty fast/responsive to the problem.

You could try having your current phone tech read Dell-Bill_B's posts in the throttle thread or PM him and see if he can get it worked out for you.

 

Thank you but I got it taken care of! I got a hold of a good tech representative who not only helped me with the adapter, but he set up a replacement for my computer so I will be receiving a 1647 so I have the updated chassis and I requested a new i7 820 and the new ATI card which i think is the 5730? Anyway, we'll see if I actually get it. It would be nice

 

1647's don't come with 820's as they are quadcores. 1647's come with dual core i5/i7

And you definitely won't be getting a 5730

 

Yup that would be a 1645 and Tenknics is right definitely not getting a 5730 as they dont exist for the SXPS this has been stated by several reps and even Bill that the 5730 will not be on the SXPS so honestly they will give you either an i7 620/i5 540 and a 4670

 

Well... I do not understand how their numbering works on these systems, I just figured that the latest model was the 1647 and it was an improved version of the 1645, which was an improved model of the 1640. I have no idea, that was just me assuming. Anyway, I told the guy that I would not accept the same ATI 4670, as it will currently barely perform the moderate tasks that I need it to, and forget about the harder tasks. I realize this is a laptop, however, I am thoroughly disappointed with the 4670. I do not know what this means I will get, but I do know that I will not accept the same card I have, and the representative agreed. In any case, I'm being optimistic and hoping for the best.

 

What can i use to control my fan's speed? I tried I8kfangui, but i can't install it, because it wont let me (need digitaly signed driver...)

 

Try Rivatuner they have a seci=tion for fan spped

 

Hey guys, my 1640 freezes for about 10 seconds every time i try to check the temperature... Any ideas??? :/

 

I just purchased my studio xps 1640 from ebay how do I know if I have a tv tuner? in device manager under sound,video,audio devices there is an item called wintv-nova but when I look inside the laptop I cant see a tv card. Does anyone know where inside the laptop it is installed???

 

Arrrrgh! This puppy is hottttt!

I ordered a 1640 refurb off of Ebay and it was definitely a good deal, but lord I wish I had found the heat threads before I decided on this laptop. I'll bet they don't replace refurbs; just repair them.

I have undervolted it with good success on core temperatures, but there is no denying that when I'm doing simple tasks like web surfing and site editing this is a very uncomfortable computer to work on. I like it on my lap; that is where it is most comfortable. Except when it's this computer...

I really really don't want a hot computer. I don't even game; I just like using Photoshop and a half dozen other progs at the same time. Is there any hope for me? I love everything else about this computer except the heat. Are 1645s as hot?

 

1645 is really hot too... I don't know of much hope in this model besides an i5 1647 possibly...

 

You should be able to enter the service tag at Dell and get a list of all installed components for your particular machine. At least, that is what I did.

 

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

Ok, so I have found that for most of what I do, running a "power management" profile kept at the lowest multiplier keeps the computer cool enough and does not impede with function or speed in any way. When I have to use several graphics programs at once, or if I'm working with images or video, I can crank it up to "performance on demand" and deal with the heat; as long as most of the time it's not annoyingly warm I can live with it.

Core temp while on power management: 35c.

 

For all you RGBLED owners, admire the amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing colours, ignore the black levels.

http://vimeo.com/10446351?hd=1

 

This may seem like a pointless statement, but it seems that dell has painted the inside of the heatsink (the bladey bit the air flows through) black. I was cleaning out the heatisnk yesterday and it seemed to be painted black all the way through. Why would dell do this as it would make the cooling inferioir? I can't see paint as beeing that good a conductor of heat.

I'm tempted to put it in some paint stripper or some other solvent to get rid of it and then re-dunk the very outside end of it in some new paint to make it look like it did before.

I'm not totally sure whether it is all on the inside too though, I don't feel like taking the thing off again to check with a torch since I've just applied new thermal paste, can anyone confirm this?

 

Hey does anybody know what teperatures shows speedfan coz on my 1640 shows 6 temps. 1.HDD, 2.ACPI, 3.ACPI, 4.ACPI, 5.core0 and 6.core1
The ones that i dont know are arround 45C and the video card is not betwen coz gpu-z shows 52C on gpu.

 

They're the southbridge, probably the northbridge and then some other part of the laptop (possibly the battery or something like that). I know for a fact that one of them is the southbridge because I've seen it hit 95 degrees before while gaming.

 

OMG 95C thats creazy. Well i played street fighter 3 like 20min and already got hot it took like 10-15min to slow down the cooler.If you whant to play on this machine you should do it with periferial like gamepad or usb keyboard coz its getting to HOTT(and i have it under volted also). Its getting preaty hot even with the things i do like some virtual machines and browsing but i must say it has good looks and everything you whant for a multimedia machine.I realy love it.

 

Yeah, unlike the processor, the SB doesn't throttle at 91. It's the bit under the trackpad, game for a few hours and then have a metal battle with yourself over how long you can hold you finger in front of the trackpad on the metal.

 

I'm trying to buy a Studio XPS 16 and I don't know the different model numbers but below are the two I am interested in. Could you please help me decide? I'm just trying to decide whether to go with a i5-540M or i7-720QM processor. Thanks!

i5-540M, 6GB, 500 GB HDD

i7-720QM, 6GB, 500 GB HDD

I heard a lot of heat concerns so I wanted to ask the owners before buying it. I do not need this laptop for gaming, just for running and stats software and everyday use. Thanks in advance!

 

The i5 one will do just fine if that's all you're going to do with it, you'll get better battery life and it'll run cooler too, plus you'll have less chance of having the dreaded throttling issue.

 

I have the 1640 with the P8700 and HD4670 its preaty ok for me coz i dont real do gameing.I only run some vmware machines on it and movies+office work.The heat is not that bad under this conditions. But if i whould play on it probably I whould try to use some periferials Anyways i love it and if you have some money to spend yes you should by the i5 if you dont need ultimate processing power.

 

Any 1640 owners want to trade batts? I got an extra 9-cell and would like a 6. PM me if so. Thanks guys.

 

I whould change but your from US and im from EU

 

It's ok man. What do you guys use to check the performance of the battery(charge levels)?

 

Battery bar i think is one of the best but i already have RMclock for under volting in startup so i dont use anything else coz it already has a battery indicator but it doesent have battery wear.

 

Hey guys a buddy of mine was trying to get into Age of Conan with me and is trying to run it on his 1640 but he only has the 3670m anyone know if that will be a huge problem? As I recall AoC was a pretty graphically intensive game, was hoping he could maybe run it on low settings

 

If you do a little gg search you see the minimum specs probably with thease he can play minimum detail and low rez. He should be able to play no problem on low detail maybe medium comparing the minimum specs and the xps+3670 (i'm not talking from my own experience, my xps has a 4670 and i didn't even tried AOC)

Minimum System Requirements:

3Ghz Intel Pentium 4
1GB of system memory
NVIDIA Geforce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800
32GB of Hard Drive space
Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista
Internet Connection

 

I run Dragon Age on mine at lower settings and it's just fine. Conan should work easily on similar settings.

 

cool thanks for the help guys, I did take a look at the min specs but never know exactly how the desktop cards correlate to the mobile ones

 

I have 2 small particles inside on the glass, how do i clean them or at least how do i stop more dirt getting in.

 

hi all,

i purchased an xps 1640 a few days ago from ebay - you can find the link here.

just wondering what you guys think of the spec for the amount and also what the potential is for upgrading any of the components in this machine?

thanks!

 

Well the price is right, I bought the same machine only with Cpu P8700, wifi 5300 and WLED screen at the same price. About the upgrades you can upgrade probably CPU, HDD, Ram if you find it necesary.(gfx card is build in) (one recomandation from me if you didnt read the forums put something betwen the screen and the keyboard when you close it, if not you will see scraches in some time) Its a nice laptop altough build quality could be better in my opinion.

 

hiya,

thanks for your reply.

what is the max cpu that this mobo will currently take?
also re ram, is it possible to expand larger than 4gb?

i currently don't need it - just for future reference i suppose.

what do you put in between your screen + keyboard? is it something you can buy?

cheers.