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

Shipping is the one thing that can be changed after an order is processed with dell, try calling customer service. call complaining about the wait and that you may cancel your order and see if they offer you free overnight or 2 day shipping. doesn't hurt to try.

 

Usually, you can get them to just bump you to Free Overnight vs. 2nd day... Iv'e seen it work for lot's of peep's (including myself)..and it's nice to get it the Next Day vs. waiting 3-5 days whilst in delivery to you.


Cin

 

So basically, you just tell them I want it fast because their slow responding time or something?
I haven't had much experiences from contacting customer service so I don't really know.
And if my order is in boxing stage, do you still think that I'll be able to get free next day shipping?

 

just be like.. i placed an order on this day... and i am sick of waiting for it so I am thinking about canceling it and getting a PC at a computer store like best buy or whatever. see if they offer you free shipping. or you could just be like I was wondering if I could get overnight shipping for free and see what they say but the other option has more punch to it for the rep to act on lol.

 

The 1737 is quite a bit larger and a couple of pounds heavier. I wasn't comfortable using it on my lap... it is just too big. It is easier to carry than my 1720 but still not something that I would want to pack around.

 

I put my 1640 in my messenger bag today and carried it, for the size, it is LIGHT, if this laptop is too much for you to "lug around" then you're just a wimp (no offense) this laptop is a beaut and is light for the size. Also i've been putting mine through tests and i have not gotten the really hot touchpad ppl have complained about during games and such, did Dell fix this or something?

 

Hahaha, work uses exclusively mac's so it would be a wiser choice for me, its just that:

A) Im a gamer and the mac sucks for that unless it has windows installed...
B) The price in Australia is absolutely rediculous for what it has...

So taking those into account a XPS 1640 is perfect for me, IF I can get a hd 4670. Please Dell!

 

ordered feb 4
delayed until 19
delayed again till 26th

so i canceled.
they canceled it right away with out any offering of faster shipping
XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1640
16.0 inch Wide Screen 16:9 1080p FullHD RGBLED LCD W/2.0 MP, XPS 1640
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 - 512MB
128GB Solid State Drive
BluRay Combo Drive

Your order has been further delayed due to a supply shortage and we need your permission today to continue processing it (as required by the Federal Trade Commission).

ACTION REQUIRED: please contact us today (by 9pm CST tonight) to continue with your order that has a new Revised Estimated Ship Date (see Revised Estimated Ship Date below).
We must receive your permission today or your order will automatically be cancelled.

It’s easy to provide permission! Simply send an email today to [email protected]
stating that you are giving us permission to continue processing this order
(please include your order number in the e-mail) or call us at 1-877-868-3355 (8am - 9pm CST).

 

Hola guys,

this notebook is ideal for home music with firewire M-audio and Protools?

the latency of system is low?

 

I while waiting for my SXPS i think i read every post up until 120 or so, until i got too busy with work. . .

anywhoo, i got mine the other day and I love it so much! The only problem is, i have received two BSOD's in the last two days. Both times the system rebooted itself just fine. I just don't know why or if it will do it again.

I know a lot of people early on had problems with this after installing updates and what not. Have you figured out why this is happening. Any tips or fixes for a computer semi novice?

 

Wooo arrived at my nan's house 9:30am today!

Going to pick it up in Denmark tomorrow, am excited as all hell. PLUS the Empires: Total War demo will be out by then and I'll be able to download it and try out the 3670 on it

 

Do we have an XPS16 backpack thread?
I'm looking for a good backpack / saddlebag for this model, please help me out.

 

To all those people who did a clean OS install. Is there anything I could keep in mind before doing a clean install besides having all the drivers and such?

 

I just got the Targus Campus Notebook Backpack XL - Compatible with up to 17" screen. Dell didn't have any 16" notebook backpacks so I just went for a 17".

 

Yea that is pretty messed up,because as far as specs go,this computer should handle audio with no problem at all(well the one im getting is gonna have thr 6mb cache).I dont think it should be such a problem as the Windows Vista 64 bit,but at this rate,who really knows,i wish there was a proper way to maybe at least dual boot both the 32 and 64 versions.As far as other things to do,just for kicks,try disabling the wireless when you are using it,and turining off aunty viruses(yea i spelt it like that lol)
and anything else just to be sure of even the dell dock.See what happens,when i get mine,i will be sure to install a bunch of programs and see what the latency is like as well.

 

lol did you get the bag way before the laptop?

 

we're actaually trying to figure that out,me and one other guy on here are trying to find out why he's having latency issues,it can be drivers or a number of things,but with the specs going for it,it really shouldnt especially if you are using an m-audio device.(by the way mine is coming so,i cant say for ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY)

 

I know that the Dell wireless adapted causes all sorts of latency issues but on this laptop even with the card disabled it still has dropouts. Haven't had time to do extensive tests on my sxps 16 but will do when I have a moment.

 

that if you care about the facial recognition software you won't have it after a clean install seeing that no one can find the installation anywhere.

 

really,are you talking about the dell ones that come as default(i beleive)or the intel ones?

 

I think it was on that web site, IF you can actually log into it (big if ). I don't even want that (or fingerprint readers) working, so I never tried installing it.

 

I got the Swiss Gear one for mine, and I got mine well before my laptop.

 

Thats what happened to me to,it threw me off because i got the slip saying they passed by and i thought it was the computer lol

 

How is the Swiss Gear working out? Do you have pics you can share w/your lappy and the Swiss Gear together?

Thx!

Cin

 

I'd say no.. For any full time streaming of audio of video over firewire I'd say look elsewhere. I bought this laptop for this very reason and am having a ton problems with it doing simple tasks. If your not familiar with DPC Latency take a look at. http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

 

Hold on! the Saffire pro is a firewire connection?

 

I've tried disabling everything in the bios and the device manager. I had it to the point where it was barely running! But it still would spike every 4 seconds. I've read similar posts with a lot of people having similar trouble and I'm starting to think this thing has hardware issues.

 

Okay,after doing some snoop doggy doggin' around,there are some general conclusions that i have found.First of all IEEE 1394a FireWire port on the machine - if thats what your using,is already slower (400mbs) vs the 1394b FireWire(800mbs) which is usually on those pc slot cards you can buy(and should buy for music - unless you already have it),second of all,there seems to be a conflict with dell's intergrated wireless vs the intel ones.So my suggestion would be to get a firewire card,disable the wireless & dells firewire,(and if you are
yet to order a dell,make sure you choose and intel based wireless card)
I will do some more digging but,these seems to be the problems,also for those who are using straight audio from the computer,there has been some modified drivers floating around for the dell wireless card that is supposed to fix some problems.try it out!

 

Does any of you hear any static/white/interference noise coming from your earphones when you plug them to your 1640 laptop?

 

Mine sounded fairly clean when I had it. I don't know about the 1640, but it seems like a lot of notebooks it's kind of random whether you hear that, I mean one unit will, one will be okay.

Oh, try disabling Wifi, and especially the 'a' band and see if that helps, which would mean interference. But mine seemed fairly clean. (I HATE that staticy audio is such a common issue with laptops-I'm sorry but even on a $400 laptop the sound should be pristine. My Asus is...okay. Far from the worst I've heard, although I think I hear a tiny bit of it.)

 

Install vista 32bit.

 

64-bit Vista should be 100% stable. I mean I'd rather have 32-bit because I've run into quite a few compatibility issues with various programs (and I only have 4GB), but I've now owned TWO laptops running 64-bit Vista, and have yet to have a single crash.

Also if this is one of those systems that crashed while running Windows Update...well I'll say it again, it should never, ever be crashing from that.

 

For BSOD there arent really any "fixes". This happened to me after i installed the os, restarted, installed some of the updates, restarted, installed the rest of the updates, restarted then updated drivers and restarted. It's reccomended that you do not do all of that in one thing then update, but even with restarting that much i still got it, but never since just pretend they never happened and enjoy your great laptop!

 

I use a 17" Messenger bag that was meant for my dad's MacBook Pro but he didn't like it, it fits perfectly!

 

But they should not be happening... There is either a software (probably driver) or hardware issue...

Two systems so far and not one crash. And never ever had a crash installing everything Windows update had at once. Doesn't cause an issue unless there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed...

 

I haven't tried this yet, i was hoping it'd be better than my pc, but i'll post later if i get a chance to try.

Also if you want ABSOLUTELY NO LATENCY get a Line 6 TonePort, they have lower class models to high class and i bought their lowest one awhile back, worked perfectly for months but then just quit on me, but however they designed it i used it on my horrible computer and there was no latency.

 

Yeah, but there is valuable information in here, and forum search features are horrible. It would be more usefull to have more specific topics in separate threads than everything all mashed together in a 100 page thread. Then the rude replies to questions such as "use the search, dummy, the answer to your question is 53 pages back in between the 14 comments about speaker balance, the 5 order status comments and the 26 comments about SSDs".

This thread still has it's purpose, but it's being used as a complete forum on the SXPS 16.

 

Totally true, you could create a guidebook of information about the 1640 from this thread, but too bad it's all spread out, if you were to read through everypage then you'll have alot of info (i actually did that until pg. 120 when i started posting here)

 

There should be a "XPS 1640 Issues" sticky thread.. It would clarify things for potential buyers. I think the XPS M1530 has something similar.

 

FYI: the 256 GB SSD is now available on the Canadian Dell site!

 

Would the latency be a problem while watching a movie or playing a game?
Regarding the comment about using an Intel wireless card over a Dell card, is it just the US site that lacks a Dell wireless option? B/C I don't see an option for a Dell card.

 

I was talking about the 1737. The 1640 is light and portable.

My son said it took 2 hours of constant gaming to get too hot for him. It hasn't been fixed. It was there on my first system that went back and on the new one that I just received on Monday.

 

The software is on the media download site from Dell. You can not access it from your regular Dell account and you have to be on the 1640 to log in.

 

Yes.

I've disabled everything in the bios and device manager to the point where the laptop was running on nothing! Plus, my wireless card is the Intel 5300 which was the first thing i disabled. I did purchase an external firewire express card with a Texas Instruments chipset which comes highly recommended with no luck. I'm running out of options here... I have nothing left to disable and am starting to think I'm going to return this thing.

 

If you are referring to my problem it would be with streaming realtime audio. eg: recording music. I haven't tried video yet, allthough i have a gut feeling the results would be similar since all video cameras that i'm aware of are firewire.

 

For those with a BSOD on boot up or after windows update, try disabling your webcam in device manager, then reboot and it should be ok.
Likely, an updated webcam driver will help. All I know is it's related to the webcam but their could be several actual things causing it.

But no one has reported crashes in a long time so I can't really troubleshoot unless someone is getting one.

 

I was talking about the Dell ones but I believe you've already figured that out

 

lol yea,um have you tried

Control Panel / Device Manager / Network Adaptors / Dell Wireless N mini-card / Advanced / Disable Bands – then disable 802.11a

(replace the dell card with the one you have)

 

Can someone help me with something. I ordered a wireless router but it has yet to arrive so temporarily I am using an Ethernet wire linked to my cable modem. I somehow disabled the wireless card and now I cannot get the wireless option to work.

I ran a system check which says that my wireless is not enabled, but when I click enable, it doesn't do anything. I also tried Fn+F2 but that didn't work. Can anyone help?

 

you might have to try to configure in BIOS. I don't know about dell's bios. But there should be options to turn on/off your hardwares in BIOS.