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

I got in on the $1799 offer they had until yesterday. I called back to the rep with the quote I got from him and he got it approve. I am not sure I need both battery or not. If the 9 cells last long enough, I might sell the 6 cells once the laptop arrive. My estimate ship day is March 19 for the laptop and March 13 for the battery.

 

I checked the Power options from Control Panel but it does not have any option to set the brightness setting. Or are you referring to the one in BIOS (AC brightness and DC brightness)?

The issue I have with my 1640 is like this: I usually set the brightness of my screen to just about 35%. If I shutdown the laptop and turn it on again, it would turn on with 100% brightness. But just one press of Fn+down or Fn+up will bring the brightness to a step below or a step above 35%.

 

The same thing happens to me. I always have to turn it up and down one notch to fix it.

 

The setting should be under the advanced properties (though maybe it still won't work). I sort of wish there was a setting to remember what you had it set for last, but around 50% works okay on my laptop.

 

Is there a windows vista severice pack 2 out yet that we should download onto our new 1640s?

 

Soon. It's in release candidate status right now. I would NOT install a service pack or patch that's not final though. Just wait for it to show up in Windows update-probably within a few months at this point.

 

coo beans. Thought i seen one the other day but turns out to be for vista severs.

 

"Microsoft has decided to release Service Pack 2 in the form of an OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) to their OEM partners 60 days after the date of Windows 7 General Availability (GA).

In other words, don't expect to see any products with Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2 until at least 2-3 months have passed after Windows 7 is launched. End-users, though, can receive Service Pack 2 via Windows Update (online)."

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=605&pgno=2#when

 

I remember seeing it. It is listed on the left side of the screen but on the main window it is at the very bottom and easy to miss. Change the setting there and you won't have to do it manually again.

 

jst FYI,
remember the chips ATI released ?? Those ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4860 MXM modules will carry the industry's fastest 5 GT/s GDDR5 memory chips made by Qimonda. Come on Dell .. y not jst add them now. :-D

 

best way to check all pixels is use binoculars backwards on the screen

 

Is that sarcasm?

 

hahaha I surely hope so. I would say the to use a normal magnifier

 

I've attached below two color profiles that I created for my 1640 after doing some calibration using Eye 1 Display 2 device.

NativeGamma&WhitePoint.icc - Just a color profile that does not calibrate the screen (as it uses my screen's native gamma and white point).

2.2gamma6500k.icc - calibrated color profile. Uses the recommended 2.2 value for gamma and middle white point value of 6500K.

I prefer the first one because I don't like the yellowish cast of the "recommended" profile.

 

It may seem like a flaw but I say it's really not. Air can still flow adequately out of the vent even if the laptop's screen is "blocking" the vent. My 1640 even runs cooler than the 1210 I had.

 

Seems like there is a lot of FUD going around.

 

It works perfectly. The part of the screen that blocks the evnt doesn't even get warm because air needs very little room to dissipate.

 

Well good for you daz. I own a 1640 and i own a 1330. The 1640 hasent even topped 80 when underload. And my 1330 use to pass 105 then throttle down majorly. The 1640 is defeinatly fine. The screen pushes the air up when covered by it. And if you bothered to look theres a huge gap so please go cry somewhere else

 

if you think its a design flaw then fine! leave it to be

honestly,
nobody cares what you think

we dont think its a design flaw so to us it isnt
to you it is

if you truly think its a design flaw then get out of this thread
nobody wants you here if all you are going to do is complain how it gets a little hot

grow up

 

Ok Daz ill be sure to crawl in a corner with my 2000$ paperweight when it fails

 

okay then thats our problem
not yours
now get out of here

 

To be honest, I couldn't care less what a dell rep has said. Dell rep's are often full of [Funny Smelling Roses] and they don't even know what they're selling, what's good or what's bad. I bet you the guy doesn't even know what you're talking about (probably hasn't even seen the laptop in person) but if you mentioned a design flaw he probably just agreed to not get busted. I doubt he was the one who brought it up...

 

Exactly what you have been told and read. You haven't experienced it first hand. Stop flapping your mouth on something you have no clue about

 

None of those reviewers have actually proven nor tested that it's the screen "blocking" the vent that causes the heat issue.

My 1640's idle and load temperatures (of the CPU, GPU, harddisk) do NOT change whatsoever whether I open the laptop screen > 90C or < 45C. So the heat being felt from the laptop is not because of the "blocked" vent at all.

Yes, the laptop's underside is usually warm (and very warm when on load). The touchpad is always warm. But that's the case whether I open the screen all the way up or barely at all.

So if there's a heat design "flaw" in 1640, it's not the vent being covered by the screen. It's maybe due to how Dell cramped the components inside.

 

wow daz.. just how old are you?

You are comparing cnet's review and listening to dell's reps to users here who has their first hand experience on their OWN 1640 for at least a week...and what.. you only played around with it for couple of hours?? Did your friend have any problems with his 1640 because of the heat? From what I have been following thus far I believe almost every single one who bought it loves it.

What are you still trying to argue about? If you like to listen to cnet's reviews and dell's reps so much then dont even come here in the first place.

 

thats exactly what i was saying...cnet reviewers are being paid to do reviews.. and who paid them? How did they get their laptop? go figure.. In this forum every one here used their hard earned money to buy this laptop and to share their experience here.

In the computer world... a spelling mistake might as well be a typo. So don't go all out and attack like you know how to spell. If you really want to go at it look at your very second post here.

 

Guys please stop insulting and bypassing the language filter. When you see that a member do that do NOT respond him/her in the same way, you're better off reporting the post instead. I had to delete and edit a bunch of posts from the last 2 pages of the thread.

 

Anyone having issues with Win7 64bit and the face recognition software? Worked fine on 32bit but is doesn't run with the 64.

 

I had the same problem, I tried to run win 7 build 7048 64 bit with the fast access and it got worse than build 7000 (problem with tray application crashing). Better wait for the final release of win 7.

 

Other than the face recognition, is everything else working fine under 7048 x64?

 

Just got my 1640 today! finally a month later. She so Sexy, I just popped her cheery. she's running hot under her hood.

 

So...many... thinly veiled... sexual references.

I thought I was reading erotic fan-fic ;P

 

i hope mine comes on time =D

 

the bloatware on this suxs. hey i'm brand new to Vista. when i click "start" i dont see the run cmd like in xp. i want to run msconfg to remove some start up programs and icons from the system tray. can someone tell me where this is located?

 

you can just type that in the search field it...it should come up..

you waited for a month? What was the estimated delivery date shown on the dell site? cuz i ordered mine 4 days ago and it said it should be here on the 14th....

 

Just reformat, it's the best thing I did.

 

N20D50H,

Im thinking bout it. couple questions for ya, all i need is the vista operating system CD that dell provided? i thought that was only for recovery? is it possible to do a clean install with that cd?

also if i format my 1640 will i loose Dell recovery partion?

Thanks.

 

I'm in the us and my SXPS 16 came with a sleeve when i bought it.

 

If you get a vista OS DVD you can reinstall it and just get rid of the recovery partition cause you won't need it. After you re-install vista, you just go to dell.com/support and download the drivers

If you want to do this you could make a seperate thread if you need more help

 

Oh! Does anyone know when the outlet will get the sxps laptops in?
I hope its soon because I am considering geting a 1640...

 

Right click on the start menu and select properties, customize. Then you can add run to the list.

 

Anyone have much luck on under volting the T9550?

 

haven't tested many softwares on win7 yet, but photoshop cs4 couldn't be installed (at least on my system), and bitdefender antivirus is also having problem with build 7048.
I've decided to stick with vista until win7 is finally come out. I had several blue screens while running win7 build 7048. But not that many on build 7000, so if you wanna try it out, you should try it on build 7000 first.

 

First of all, the things 3rd tier Dell support and telephone sales reps are not necessarily the opinion of Dell as a whole. And not necessarily true. I put a Core 2 Extreme in mine and have been using it for a week. I see no heat issues. The only time I had a heat issue was with a G.Skill Titan in it, but I have the Samsung SSD, now, and there's no heat.

 

The Screen blocking exhaust doesn't causes too much of a problem, although there can a change in future, but i don't think that's the reason behind..
The problem is laptop runs warm underneath..., its usually more warm just below touchpad...
There is no serious heating issue, that can cause any perf. concerns.

 

Does the SSD help with the heat on the palm rest/Trackpad?

 

It may be 7200RPM hdd causing heat under trackpad area....?
But hdd is on the right side of the trackpad, not below the trackpad...

So its not clear whats the reason of warm trackpad..., rest not much of heat issue anywhere...

 

the hdd is the front left, not the right

 

ya i was telling from bottom side..

From top , its front left...,

The thing is wht could be the cause of trackpad getting warm, hdd is not below it...?

Rest Anyways, there's lot of positives about the notebook that we are'nt talking about...:-

1] Great Display
2] Great Performance
3] Good Speakers
4] Good Graphics
5] Gr8 Keyboard
6] DDR 3 RAM

No Notebook in the market is perfect.., but its best...

 

You can also click start then enter msconfig into the search field and it will run.