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

Maybe someone sprayed an air freshener nearby and some went into the box right before it was closed.

 

I tried that, but I can't seem to tell if that actually fixed the problem.

Anyway, so far, after toying with the 1640 for a day or so, I seem to be having more trouble adjusting to Vista 64-bit more than anything else. Lets put it this way, I have used 32-bit XP for more than seven years on my desktop. This is my first laptop, first non-xp operating system, and first 64-bit OS. I have a lot to learn.

All in all, the laptop itself is very impressive, and satisfied my initial impressions and more. While playing Crysis demo on high @ 1366x768 I had very smooth results and very minor heat. Although I only played for about 30minutes, it was warm, and not burning as some have reported in the past.

Has anyone does a clean install of Windows 7 so far, and if so how were the results? Better than Vista?

 

I can understand the transition from XP --> vista, but what difference would it make going from 32 to 64? Aside from some compatibility issues, could you really notice a difference on the UI?

 

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone here does any music production. I recieved my Studio XPS 16 roughly a week ago and am very dissapointed. The laptop arrived with 2 dead pixels. Plus, I find it completely unusable for recording music. Lots of dropouts and popping/crackling. I'm running Vista 64 Bit and Sonar 8 64bit. It seems that this laptop has issues with DPC latency. Check http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml. I've tried disabling everything that i could in the device manager/bios with no resolution. I purchased a separate FW expresscard with a TI chipset which didn't help at all. At this point i'm ready to return this thing seeing as this was the main reason for the purchase. Any thoughts??

 

I would send it back. I would like a consensus of those who decided to keep their units, despite any minor issues & those who have sent them back. I just would to see if more people are keeping the 1640. Maybe we could do a poll.

 

Unfortunately i am the bearer of bad new. Dell is not improving in production, My ESD was for the 20th also, and i ordered on the 12th.
Logged into my email today and had an email from dell saying the ESD is changed to the 5th of march... No explanation.

 

I'm really getting pissed off now, I put my laptop to sleep for a few hours and when I resumed I wasn't connected to the internet anymore, just local access.

I've tried different combinations of things for the past hour and it still won't connect to the internet... anyone else having this problem??

 

Did you order something special for your system?
I placed my order on 15th, with most of the default configuration except for the bluray player, and mine is currently in boxing stage. Haven't got any emails from dell about changing the ESD.
You might have to call the 800 number to check which state of production ur in

 

Okay so after a whole day of using my laptop, here is my review so far

Pros:
- Very Fast and Responsive
- Graphics card runs quite well for a laptop in this price range
- Great for CG work
- Multitasking is phenominal!!!
- Resolution even on the 720p screen is amazing
- Vibrant Colors
- Vista has a nice interface (dock, gadgets)
- Great Wifi
- Stylish
- 2 Headphones slots

Cons:
- I installed os, restarted then installed the windows updates and restarted as reccomended (instead of all at once) and when it started back up i got the blue screen of death!!! I ran recovery and it was fine, nothing since.
- Star menu is a little slow at times, even though everything else is fast
- Only 2 usb drives
- No better graphics option
- Max battery life with 6-cell battery doing a medium amount of work on the computer is limited to about 2.5 hours...
- Bottom get HOT (touchpad didn't get too hot for me)
- They ran out of Centrino 2 stickers and put just a regular old Centrino sticker on mine lol

Other Thoughs: Great laptop, love it, the base config is a great purchase it's self... it can run most modern games on medium to high and anything made mroe than a years ago on all high pretty much. The sticker thing ^^ i though was kind of funny, i penned in a little "2" in there. Facial Recognition software is not as slow as other ppl say, it can log you in after about 5 seconds unless you just started up your computer,then you'll need to type your password if you are that impatient. And for the size this laptop was rather light?

 

^There are three (3) USB ports. The one on the right side is shared with eSATA.

 

My was basic config but i ordered the 5300 wifi card. call the number and its in building stage still.. since the 13th

 

Thought I'd let you know that my son decided to keep my 1640. He put all of his "Steam" games on it and they play great. He hasn't seen another BSOD. I'm positive that it is a driver issue so I'm not too concerned about it. Drivers can be fixed or changed.

I picked up a sweet Studio 1737 from the Outlet for my husband in place of the 1640. He is going to love it... the palm rest doesn't get hot. It isn't far from the 1640. Has the WXGA+ LED screen, P8400, 7200 rpm hard drive, and Vista 32. Not a single BSOD and I did all of the windows updates at once. I haunted the outlet for days until one came up with the LED screen and the same processor. Picked it up for $860 with overnight shipping. Can't beat the price!

Funny thing is that it was suppose to be Jet Black and it is Graphite Gray with Black trim. It look great so it isn't a problem.

 

I went into the Startup folder and the registry and stopped all startup programs except face recognition, sidebar, McAfee and Quickset. Ever since then, my Wifi has not disabled.

 

Just wondering how much of a size difference is there between the Studio 17 and 1640? The 1640 still seems to be in its beta phase while the 17 is an older design with the kinks worked out.

 

I did the same thing and i've never had any probs with my WiFi either!

 

The 17 has had it's "kinks" worked out but the 1640 has had most of it's share of "kinks" worked out as well. I love my 1640, it's runs about as nice as a macbook pro! And $1,000 less, plus it is more powerful than the 17... so i'd go with the 1640 if i was you.

 

Not with the UI, but I've run across a LOT of programs that don't work right. I mean tons do-a lot of really system intensive stuff even, but then tons don't. I would have gotten 32-bit if I could have, and after using 64-bit I'm even more heavily in that camp.

The one good thing is now I can arbitrarily upgrade to 8GB if the prices come low enough. No real point to it, but what the heck, why not? The prices would have to be about 1/6th what they are now (for DDR2 SDRAM) though for me to do that, so that may never happen.

 

If they offered the Studio 15 with 1900x1200 RGBLED, i would pick that up in heartbeat.. with integrated graphics and i would bring my own SSD. Maybe with the refresh, they will have it?

The closest is the SXPS16 with its display; the updated components is nice, but, at the cost of heat and money. With the 17, its closest in terms of what i want in terms of specs.. but, its also huge and has the asymmetric keyboard (for some reason, that annoys me..lol)... ughh.

 

Thats actually what I meant, because I was downloading a bunch of updated drivers just for backup. Otherwise I wouldn't even know it was 64-bit

 

finnally someone else buying it for the reason i am.lol ordered mine and a bunch of things were going wrong in terms of delyed delivery(apparently because they wanted to get the blu-ray software right.Anyway,with the specs of these computers,it shouldnt be going slow with sonar,what are your exact specs?

 

the 1640 woudl be the PERFECT machine if dell offered it with:


1. an ATI 4670

and

2. a 1600x1200 resolution.


Im i right...or im i right>???

 

Studio XPS 16. 4 GB Ram, 320 GB 7200 RPM HDD, RGBLED screen, Duo Core 2.4 GHZ. I opted out on the Blu-Ray and got the regular DVD. The problem is with the DPC latency on this thing. Every 4 seconds it's causing spikes which renders it completly useless for any type of live use/recording. Sonar on the other hand runs fine with the plugins i use etc. I use 2 Focusrite Saffire pro's for my interfaces which work fine with my Toshiba Satellite 5200 and my desktop. With the Studio XPS 16 i can't even playback a simple mp3 with out popping and crackling.

 

I'm right with you on the screen res issue, fxny12004 - I don't get why Dell refuses to have a mid level screen option. I think a 1600 resolution is perfect for a 15/16 inch screen - too bad the Dell execs don't

 

I think it would be perfect if it had better cooling and a Geforce 9800 class GPU-or at least a 9600 class

Those are my two big complaints really.

 

Ugh. I was VERY happy with 1368x768 on a 16" screen. Actually useable. 1280x800 on my current 14" screen is too small, and 1600x1200 or whatever on a 16" would be way too small.

 

I'm sure the 4670 is coming this spring. As for the resolution, did you mean 1600x900??? No notebook is "perfect". Most of us just want "good enough".

 

I hate to settle for "oh well, I guess this is as good as I can do"

 

Couldn't have said it any better, you ask to yourself why is Dell offering the 3000 series cards while all of their competition are offering 4000 or GeForce 9? Granted the ATI 3670 is really close to the GeForce 8600 a 4670 would probably attract A LOT more customers!

 

thanks for the heads up, I'll give it a shot later tonight

 

Well, Studio 15 just got leaked as having ATI 4570 ...almost there guys!)
Link

 

yep, I mentioned it yesterday in this thread. The question is what's "almost there guys" as far as Dell is concerned. Do we get the 4670 next month or 3-4 months from now?

 

Considering the 1640 was six months late, I wouldn't hold your breath.

And geez...ATi? Where's at least the Nvidia option?

 

Has Dell ever offered an ATI and Nvidia card at the same time for the same model before? It seems like they want to keep ATI for their studio line. As for driver support, Nvidia just started official driver support, so by this time next year, maybe AMD/ATI will do the same. Well, we can hope.

 

yes youre right, if cooling issues were taken care of, or if it had a hight end Geforce 9k series video card it would be perfect. However, i meant perfection in terms of a reaslistic compromise. Putting in a slighty better video card and a medium sized rez is more likely to happen than to put a 9800, and turn whats supposed to be a media notebook into a full blown gaming rig, not to mention with absoluetly no heating issues....

so without further ado, i am goint to change my words and say I WOULD BE HAPPY if it had a medium rez and a 4670

 

Yep. Used to all the time, but then they used to be the first out of the gate with new technology, not the last.

Maybe. I hope so, but ATi's shown zero interest, where a year ago Nvidia was talking about how they were attempting to put this program together, and said they'd actually been trying privately for years, but the OEMs really resisted it. Plus even before they publicly said anything about it, their desktop drivers actually had support for mobile GPUs, whereas ATi STILL doesn't (in a 'wink wink, nudge nudge' manor where it claims not to work, but actually does anyway).

At any rate, I 100% agree with Anandtech. I wouldn't consider anything but Nvidia in a notebook at this point (of course their desktop drivers are better too, but at least ATi does support their desktop GPUs!)

 

Yes I agree 100% you are right!

Except I think you mean a 1600x900 WLED screen!

I will give Dell till the end of next month for these inclusions, if not I'll get a Macbook Pro...

 

thats funny i currently have that toshiba laptop you mentioned as well.
Have your tried asio4all drivers?,that is usually what you use to reduce latency on computer intergrated sound cards because lets face it,the computer may be superior but the sound card and its compatibility with your production software is a different story. http://www.asio4all.com/
Also am i to understand you are saying that when you use the interface(with updated drivers etc) that it still pops and cracks in sound?

 

just to be clear when you say registry do you mean msconfig or you actually went in regedit?

 

scratch that lol it was A200 but my questions still stand bro!

 

Regedit but you could use msconfig too.

 

lol yes, i was at work when i was writing that and i was actually working on fixing one of the rez on a digital projector lol so i was in a hurry lol

Please luke, Dont turn to the dark side....

maybe this will turn you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrQjfgvqJQ

may the dell force be with you

 

I've disabled the onboard sound and use the Saffire pro as my sound card. So the onboard shouldn't be an issue. You are correct though. I've updated all my drivers and it still pops and cracks. All though I haven't tried asio4all on the saffire. I have still have my doubts though... I'd love to know what's causing the DPC latency spikes every 3-4 seconds.

 

wonder if it might be nice if some of these common topics had their own thread. this thread varies from general chit chat, to various problem solving to various other specific topics like video, screen, mini-reviews, bluray.

 

Not true.

3670's performance sits between 9600M GT DDR2 and 9600M GT GDDR3:

Mobility Radeon 3670 definitely outperforms 8600M GT:

 

Well it is the 1640 thread..and I would hope that most peeps try and stay on topic. I think generally they have.

And, most of what has been discussed has to do with the 1640..in one form or another.




Cin.

 

The 1640 is back down to original price of $1,199 USD on dell.com. It was $1,219 for a while.

 

I meant to say 9600 not 8600 sorry bout that! A few pages back i gave a bunch of links to benchmarks where the laptop with the 9600 outperformed the 3670 by 1 fps although the computer had better parts (cpu, ram, etc.) which shows that if they had the same that the 3670 would either be equal or better!

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3670.9595.0.html

and according to ATI & notebookcheck.net, the upcoming HD 4670 will perform substantially better than the HD 3670.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4670.13881.0.html

 

Ordered myself a Studio XPS 1640. Also just so you know I placed this order twice, once online and lastly over the phone to make a change. The website puts the part number for the Centrino Sticker in the order, when you call on the phone you get the part number for the Centrino 2 Sticker. No idea why its messed up like that but that is why some of you have the wrong processor sticker, not really a big deal, but ya.

Here is the difference:
330-1062 Intel Centrino Label
330-1757 Intel Centrino 2 Label

They probably just grab the part numbers out of a bin, put them all together and build the laptop, most likely they don't check during production that it isn't the right one.


I reordered because online I ordered a T9600, but then saw they changed it to the T9800 for the same price, hence the reason for the phone call and the EPP rep that helped me saved me an extra $170. So I also ended up buying a Dell Mini 9 as well as the 1640.

Part number: 224-1944 XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 (2.8GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache) - The P is a typo, its was a T series, the P9600 isn't 2.8GHz, its 2.66 something, dumb Dell.
Changed to: 224-5213 XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo T9800(2.93GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache)

Anyways I finally ended up ordering and if they change the video card in the next few weeks to the 4000 series I am going to be angry:

1 224-5213 XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo T9800(2.93GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache)
1 320-7330 Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish with Leather XPS 1640
1 311-9487 4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1640
1 320-7329 16.0 inch Wide Screen 16:9 1080p FullHD RGBLED LCD W/2.0 MP, XPS 1640
1 320-7337 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 - 512MB
1 341-8989 500GB 7200RPM Free Fall SensorSeagate Hard Drive
1 420-9319 Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1 Home Premium Edition 64-bit Edition English - Formatting and Installing Vista Ultimate SP1 x64 when I receive it
1 330-1917 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP XPS 1640
1 420-6576 DELL WELCOME,Software Dimension/Inspiron
1 420-9100 Dell Dock Consumer
1 463-2282 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access
1 420-6436 Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-7938 Dell Connect 2.1
1 421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
1 421-0323 Windows Live Search,Multiple User Interface
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 313-7056 BluRay Combo Drive
1 420-9850 Roxio 10.2 DE
1 420-9681 PowerDVD DX 8.1 Bluray Playback, True Theatre High Definition
1 313-4783 Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
1 430-2955 Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
1 410-1595 Norton Internet Security 15-Month, English
1 312-0811 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion P Primary Battery, for XPS 1640
1 412-0148 No ISP requested
1 420-8051 Microsoft Works 9.0, English For Inspiron
1 950-3337 1 Year Limited Warranty
1 993-3487 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year
1 992-4500 Third Party At HomeService, 24x7 TechnicalSupport, Initial Year
1 950-9797 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 412-0360 Soft Contracts - Banctec
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!
1 988-7717 5GB DATASAFE ONLINE 1.1 FOR SDO/DIM/INS/XPS
1 988-0099 To activate your online backupaccount, go to Start, Programs, DataSafe Online
1 420-9519 DATASAFE ONLINE 1.1 5GB FOR DIM/INS/XPS
1 313-6234 Dell Wireless 5530 HSPA 7.2 mobile broadband built-in mini-card for AT&T - I had to have the built in AT&T WWAN Card.
1 430-3206 Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate)
1 320-7618 Premium HD WLED Display Obsidian Black, Leather 2.0 MP Webcam
1 420-8223 Dell Video Chat
1 420-9330 Dell WebCam Central 1.0 XPS 1640
1 420-9699 Facial Recognition Sensible Vision
1 310-8628 You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System
1 330-1757 Intel Centrino 2 Label
1 420-9800 Dell Remote Access free basic to access your PCs from outside your home
1 993-1919 Dell Remote Access, free basic service - access your PCs and files from outside your home

Subtotal: $2,057.49
Shipping and Handling: $0.00 - Free Next Day Shipping w/ Expedited Production
Sales Tax: $102.39
Total: $2,159.88

Order Date: 02/17/2009
Est. Shipping Date: 02/26/2009

However Dell called me today to let me know with the expedite that it is currently in the boxing stage and is on its way from the Malaysia manufacturing plant to the USA. Then it will be overnighted to me, so pretty fast service on the new order.

------------------------

Mini 9 Order that I also got:

1 224-0776 Inspiron 910 Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533Mhz512K L2 Cache
1 311-9264 Obsidian Black Color with Gloss Finish
1 311-9262 512MB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM - Ordered a 2GB DDR2 Chip on NewEgg for $25, Dell wanted $75
1 320-7130 8.9 inch Wide Screen WSVGA TL
1 320-7126 Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
1 341-8862 64GB Solid State Drive (mini-card Module/PATA)
1 420-9205 Mini OS powered by Ubuntu 8.04.1 - I'm Putting Vista Ultimate on it from Microsoft TechNet once it arrives
1 430-3223 Base LCD Assembly
1 430-3225 Wireless 802.11g Mini Card - Putting in an Intel Wireless N Card once it arrives, from my old laptop
1 320-7129 No Camera Option
1 312-0776 32WHr 4-cell Battery
1 992-2067 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Return To Depot, Initial Year
1 990-7989 1 Year Limited Warranty and Mail-In Service,Notebook
1 991-0320 Type 12- Mail-InService, 24x7 TechnicalSupport, Initial Year
1 960-2780 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 950-3337 1 Year Limited Warranty
1 988-6059 No Warranty 2 and 3
1 900-9987 Standard On-Site Installation Declined
1 430-3227 Bluetooth 2.1 module via USB I/F (Option)
1 313-7127 Base LCD Assembly in Black
1 461-2675 Special Offer - $50 off (included in price)

Subtotal: $339.67
Shipping and Handling: $0.00 - Free Next Day Shipping
Sales Tax: $16.98
Total: $356.65

Order Date: 02/17/2009
Est. Ship Date: 3/10/2009

Not in a rush for the Mini 9, was kind of a extra for $189 difference with the 1640 savings the EPP rep saved me, and got a great price on it.

- Dan

 

wow, I kind of wish that I got your next day shipping and rush delivery. I talked to the sales prep and he didn't give me anymore discount rather than my 7% EPP + 20 bucks off