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

So far, there is a beta driver that you can get from AMD's website that works with Windows 7.

 

Thx vis! How do you like your 1080p screen?

 

Not a prob. I love my screen although I also do notice the red popping in some movies. Maybe a better color profile would help it.

Oh, and here is a link to those drivers: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=39069

 

Does anyone know why my laptop would be going into sleep mode even though I have it set to never in the power options? I can find a lot of articles about the opposite problem, but nothing about mine. Thanks.

 

I have the exact same problem as you, I just thought I was going crazy and kept forgetting to put it on NEVER. I only set it to never go to sleep while plugged in but every time I'd wake up in the morning I'd find it sleeping..

 

You've adjusted the advanced options too? Shoudln't be doing that. Never tested when I had a 1640, but my new system doesn't enter sleep ever.

 

Hello vishank. I see in your sig. that you are using Windows 7 x86, but you also have 4GB of RAM. I'm wondering that can the x86 windows recognizes all the RAM in your system or it just uses up to 3GB?
I'm intending to install windows 7 on my system when it's delivered, but I cannot find any 64-bit version of the build 7022.

 

I am looking at a 1640 with the 256GB SSD option. Is this drive the latest Samsung SSD? Anyone have a 1640 with one? Does the SSD help with the commonly reported heat issues? I was thinking of pairing the SSD with a P8700 (which runs a little cooler than the T series).

Thanks.

 

No it doesnt. When you go to computer properties, it shows 4.0 GB (2.99 GB usable).

I have the 128GB SSD and it still warms up maybe not as much on the right palm rest.

I am happy with this 2nd unit. Two major things that were improved over my first unit are:

1. Bigger screen-vent gap.

2. DVD Drive on second unit is 100% quieter!!! I tried to copy a dvd yesterday and it was so quiet that I had to mute the sound to make sure it was actually copying. Even still, no sound. It is even quieter when loading and ejecting! My first unit had the Optiarc drive while this one has the TSST drive.

 

I have 5300 wireless card and was using wired connection til today. After setting up my network, I can connect wirelessly (ie. it shows in network center that I am connected to internet) yet I am unable to use it, I either can't do anything (emails or IE etc. which says I am not connected even when I am) and/or keep getting disconnected from the internet and then limited connectivity. I have tried unsuccessfully to find some posts related to this, I don't know if this is a common problem or something not configured right or how to resolve this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

So you decided to keep the better unit and give your brother (I think you said brother or something like that) the other unit.

 

Actually, I ended up returning it because my brother decided he wanted another laptop (Come on, you wouldn't think I would do something like that to my brother, would you? ). He settled on the Asus 1000HE netbook! A big change, I know, but he does move around a lot and the astounding battery life caught his attention! That and the massive difference in price I guess.

That's why I ended up keeping this one and returning the first unit. Good thing though, as I saved a couple of hundred bucks too plus got a full 3 year complete care, 128 GB SSD, and a quieter burner so I cannot definitely complain!!

 

I tested the 1640 with Dawn od War II, you can run everything on high-Ultra, but the shader must be set to medium or you get too much lag and hesitation.

Not a extreme gaming laptop, but it still offers good solid performance when running games.

 

I'm having a serious issue with Dell here.
I ordered the studio xps 16 on the 15th and paid for it with my debit card when the rep called me. The charge appeared on my account instantly and it stayed there for just about 3 days ago and suddenly they dropped the charge even though the machine was shipped. Fedex tracking showed "Picked Up" and the estimated delivery date is: the 24th
I looked into the invoice when the machine was shipped and it showed the balance was 0.
I thought that was just because Dell was verifying my payment or something and they were going to charge again. But to my surprise, until now they haven't charged any.
And now in my dell's account, it still shows there was an order with estimated delivery date feb 24th, but when I click on the order number, it just says it cannot find my order.
This is super weird.
Has anyone had similar problem as me?

 

Is it possible you have set it to never go to sleep in one mode, but one of the Dell "helper" utilities keeps changing the mode back to the "Dell Recommended"? I've had this happen in previous Dell laptops. In this case, the Dell program (Quickset or whaterver) may actually be restoring the settings after you change them.

 

Yes, it's the 220/200 mbps drive. It hauls a$$. I had a G.Skill in my Dell at first which was too hot, and the Samsung was much cooler. I never tried it with any other harddrive.

 

Had this same problem.
Basically windows shows as connected even if no request can be made through the connection: no ping, no connection to the router possible, no internet requests. The intel proset wireless diagnostics shows that its not a wireless issue, and I don't believe it
Being disconnected randomly is quite annoying, and i've been running around this issue since 2-3 weeks, no driver update or whatever solved the problem for more than some hours.
You night solve your case by updating the driver, installing intel pro wireless connection utility. aside from that, I don't see any solution. I hate this !

 

i really want to buy this laptop, my problem is that its got an ATI card, is there any video around i can find where it demonstrates how well the ATI performs? i wont be playing games.

i intend to use this for work with 3d modeling programs like maya, xsi, cinema4d and zbrush


please let me know im really thinking of buying this nice laptop

 

Cool! Do you think I should put in an Intel® X25-E 32GB instead?

 

ws; free notebook time!!

 

One thing I noticed was that even though I set it to never go into sleep mode when it was plugged in, was that the display would still go off after a certain amount of time. In other words, it wasn't really in sleep mode, but my display was all black (making it look like it was in sleep mode).

Since I keep my system in the living room, it is sort of 'furniture' for me. I like to have my desktop always displaying a cool screensaver to add to the room 'decor'. So I went into the advanced settings for my screensaver and saw that there was a place where it has a setting for how long the system goes before it turns the display off. You cannot set it to 'Never', so I just set it to 99999 Minutes.

Maybe you can try that?

I hope this helps...

 

Well, I played WoW on my new 1640 over the weekend. I thought it really ran well with my graphics all turned up (except for shadows).

The only thing was, it did run VERY hot. I even have it sitting on a dual fan cooling platform, but it still ran pretty hot. My guess is that it is not running hot enough to damage anything (I hope anyway), but it is more of a comfort issue. I can see myself getting very uncomfortable if I'm playing WoW on a warmer day in the summer.

Other than that, so far I've been really satisfied. I thought the game ran smoothly, and everything else seems to run well. Also, I still have not gotten any BSODs (knock on wood).

 

I'd check the actual temps with like Hardware Monitor to make sure. Mine ran right at the edge of comfort (which probably wears stuff out faster even though it was still running theoretically within spec).

My new system runs easily 20c+ cooler, even doing more work.

And WoW should run great on anything, given it ran maxed out on a Geforce 4 just fine (though they may have added fancier graphics with updates, I don't know).

 

Yeah...they've had 2 expansions come out since the original WoW. With each expansion the system specs go up as it becomes more intensive. That was the whole reason I bought the XPS. Originally WoW ran on my HP...but since the last expansion it just gives me a message saying that my system no longer meets the minimum specs.

 

What did it have? They CLAIM the same stuff should run it (I mean stuff with an actual GPU), but... (And they claim a Geforce 4 will still exceed the requirements by quite a bit)

And WoW is really weird to me in that I think it looks fantastic when you see it running (at least it did on my Geforce 4) yet I always think it looks terrible in screen shots, which is weird!

 

Wel, I can't really remember the specs for my HP but it wasn't made for gaming. I can't recall what it has in it as far as graphics go, but it was nothing worth mentioning. I guess that is what you are talking about when you mention the system having an actual GPU. My guess is that mine didn't?

(sorry...I'm new to all this tech talk )

Really though, my point is that it is evident that with each expansion the game has gotten more system intensive.

I do agree with what you said about the screenshots. Before I bought the game years ago I had a similar thought. I remember seeing screenshots and thinking, "is that the best they can do?...with gaming graphics getting so much better these days..."

But then I played the game & realized that the grpahics were actually pretty decent (for the type of game that it is).

 

Good evening,

Currently living in Australia and been following this thread from day one, heard the joys and horrors of Heat Issues, BSOD, Faulty Blutetooth/Wireless and overall bad desgin of this laptop - however I had to go away on a business trip around Page 75 and lost track until now.

My general question is I am in the market for a new Laptop (Tossin up between the Dell 1640 or the HP HDX16) - I thought with all new things, to give the XPS 16 a fair bit of time to settle in after hearing all these horror stories I followed since the first batch arrived.

My question is, since my absence - has there been a new design/call back and Dell realizing their mistakes are actively trying to fix the Vent/Heat issues? Are the newer models shipping now with new orders CHANGED from the original batch?

Thanks,
Venomous

 

Same stuff as far as I know. My biggest issue is it uses an ATi GPU, then that it's cooling is terrible. Other than that (which are admittedly huge issues) I'd actually really like the design and features. nice screen too that's not too high resolution.

 

Actually I'm pretty sure Blizzard officially announced new requirements before WotLK.

Carnold40: When you said max details (apart from shadows), does that include 1920x1080 resolution as well?

As many others, the only two things I'm worried about right now are the ATi GPU and the heat. I'll mainly play some WoW on it, do some work and model in Maya, but I'm hoping I can do all of that without any issues and without being uncomfortable. If I can do all of the above, I think this would be the perfect laptop for me.

Also, btw, I've heard reports that there's a constant "buzz" if you plug-in your headphones, can anyone comment on that?

 

Mine shipped, should be delivered tomorrow.

 

So ordered my XPS 1640 through Best Buy on 2/8/09 and it was on backorder, called 3 times to make sure order goes through as their price was much better then Dell's own website. . .then get an email that the order has been cancelled.
Talked with a bestbuy rep and she said that they ran out of this laptop, but did not update the website and when they tried to order more through Dell, Dell no longer is selling the XPS 1640 through bestbuy.
Went to dell website, used epp discount (7%) and am currently exchanging email with sales rep to get better discount or free upgrade or something. . .we'll see. . .as it stands looks like the soonest you can get one from dell.com now is 3/10/09.

 

Well, I just canceled my 1340 order which was placed on 2/18 with and EDD of 3/9. To replace it I ordered a 1640 today (2/23) and got an EDD of 3/4.

So, ordered a 1640 five days later and it should arrive five days sooner, go figure.

I hope you called a rep when you used the EPP, I did and they knocked of an additional $50 and threw in free overnight.

 

Yeah, I guess it depends on where you live. . I'm in Southern California, so don't know if that makes a big difference. I guess a couple extra days wouldn't be such a big deal, but if i'd known that bestbuy no longer offered this instead of making me wait 3 weeks before telling me, I would already have the laptop and would've saved some money on the initial config through dell. They had a cheaper config with blueray a few weeks ago, but they keep upping the price on almost a daily basis. . .
Who knows perhaps they'll send early. . .=)

 

Quick question, how many open mini-pcie slots are there on a 1640? I've got a WWAN card to install and 4GB Turbo Memory laying around.

You know what would have been great on the 1340/1640? An ambient light sensor. Let it handle screen and keyboard backlight brightness like the Macbook Pro.

 

Yeah same thing happen to me I ordered on 2/6 and yesterday received an e-mail that my order was canceled. I guess I will call Dell and hope they can give me some kind of discount.

 

I wasn't able to get any additional discounts but was able to apply the EPP discount through http://www.dell.com/eppbuy.

Here's to hoping we'll get a quick shipment with all the kinks fixed.

 

Has anyone bought the ZeroshockIII sleeve and tried it out with the Studio XPS 16 yet?

 

Is anyone else not able to download files over 2GB on the SXPS 1640? I used to be able to download files of any size on my old desktop. Thanks.

 

What? Why would you not be able to download more than 2GB?

 

It gets to 2GB, then it freezes, and I cannot get it to resume.

 

What are you using to download? This looks like to be a software problem.

 

I downloaded DVD images of 4GB+ and also copied over a VM hdd image of 30GB. No problems. You didn't happen to format your drive with FAT32, did you?

 

Not a hardwarer issue because i have gotten files bigger then 2gb, what are you using to download? I just use firefox and it works great

 

I am using Firefox and Flashget, the same thing that worked fine with my old desktop. The filesystem is NTFS.

 

I'm using 1680 X 1050 (Wide Screen)

It's the highest resolution that my system will allow. I don't have the option to go any higher.

 

I wish I was using anything on mine. It's been sitting in my bag dead for a week now while I wait for Dell to send the technician with a new HDD. It crashed on the update for PowerDVD and took my HDD.

I have until Friday to get my money back, I think I may pack it up and send it back.:/

 

Hmm, that's weird. But thanks for the reply. I guess this computer should be good enough for me then, just hoping that it doesn't get uncomfortably hot..

And I'm still not sure whether or not I should wait for Dell to add new components such as the 4xxx series... Sigh, I hate that they always want to release new models with no precaution.

 

Looks like i should be expecting a similar email from Best Buy any time now . I'm starting to wonder if this laptop is even worth it now.

 

Internally, it's a great bang for the buck. I'm still waiting for my email telling me the part has been shipped. I called 7 days ago and went through more hassle then I'll ever go through again. Dell's "Tech Support" has been nothing short of ridiculous. Not to mention I sent Dell a check for $745 more than what the purchase price was because I was planning on buying an XPS1730 until I saw the StudioXPS. I was told that I would receive a refund of that money with my laptop and no one can even tell me where that money is.

I guess I'm saying I don't even know if it's worth it and I own one.

 

Well I received my SXPS 1640 yesterday. Overall, my impressions are that it's a great laptop. I ordered mine with the P8700, 256GB SSD, 4GB Ram, and RGBLED screen.

The screen is beautiful. I wish it was matte, but I can deal with the glossy. The SSD Drive in this thing SCREAMS. The whole computer is just blazing fast. It gets warm, but NOTHING compared to the HP DV5-1002NR I had been using. I can actually use the SXPS 1640 on my lap without anything underneath it and it's comfortable. The HP would actually start to burn after a short amount of time and become very uncomfortable. The build quality seems great on this laptop. The black, glossy areas are fingerprint magnets. The backlit keyboard is nice and I enjoy the typing experience on it. I am having the issue where it sounds like the right speaker is louder than the left, but it's not enough to really bother me. I understand that it is because of the placement of the subwoofer. A little adjustment in the sound control panel seems to work well.

Overall, I think it's a great machine. I'm having a little buyer's remorse, not because of the laptop itself, but because I'm just not sure it's worth the $2048 I spent on it, especially when I realize I could have gotten a Macbook Pro for about the same price.

As said, I think it's a great laptop and if I end up keeping it, I'm sure I'll be entirely happy with it. I just need a few days to think about it.