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

If you guys want to see a vid of it in action here are a couple i made of COD: WaW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE_KF9Q5vqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6bxVd-CH7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygHv7FKWdzM

 

Hey everyone,
Just got my XPS 1640 a couple of days ago!! I love it!!
Theres one thing thats a bit odd though, and I hope someone can clarify this for me.

My laptop makes this little buzz sound (very short and brief) every now and then as if its coming from around the right speaker area. It seems to be some sort of indicator of 'something'. I have no idea..

What is this noise? (it almost sounds like a little fart, haha).

EDIT: I will also mention (since alot of you want to know game performance): I only just installed three games for the meantime. 1. STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, 2. Counter Strike Source, 3. Day of Defeat Source.

Now I know Counter Strike is an older game, but i can happily say I maxed it out at native (1366x768) resolution with 2xAA and 16xAF and the benchmark test gave an 87.5fps result.

Pretty good. BUT! I took away the 2xAA (honestly the screen is small enough to forget about AA with many games) and my result went straight up to 156.6fps!! haha.

I dont know for sure with performance of other games, but the Source engine AA can yield for huge performance increases if it is removed and still looks amazing because its playing at native resolution.

STALKER is running on decentish settings at full dynamic range on 1280x720. Its a pretty unoptimized game though.. More than playable though (i dont have exact fps sorry).

Anyway please answer my original question and feel free to ask anything concerning the xps 1640

 

i watched your vids, cod seems kinda laggy doesn't it? it is it cuz of fraps? could you possilbe record it with a camera and not a screen recorder?

 

wait, so let me get this straight, this card IS way better than the 8600GT in the Dell XPS M1530, right? should i get the m1530 or sxps16?

 

How do you remove the AA? I'm averaging about 75fps maxing out around 125fps right now with it set at 1366x768. Pretty much the only games I play are Source based. CS, Insurgency and DOD occasionally. Thanks in advance!

 

Doesnt the LCD only refresh at 60Hz or that range.. why go above the refresh rate.

 

Just go to your video options and advanced. Set AntiAliasing to 'none'. Your fps seems right though

Those benchmark test are from the built in Counter Strike Source 'video stress test'.

In-game I think I can similar to you. I will double check though.

Do you know anything about that sound I described? haha. I think it could have something to do with the the dvd drive..

 

Cool, Thanks!

I think back in the thread I've heard of others having issues with a sound as well. You might want to call "Tech Support" and see if they know anything about it.

We'll have to hook up in CS sometime.

 

It's not way better. Just a bit better.

 

Mine should be here any minute. It went out for delivery via UPS at 5am. I'm pretty sure the UPS man swings by my office mid to late morning, so i'm waiting eagerly.

No lame unboxing videos from me, i mean seriously why are unboxing videos so popular?

anyway, i'm going to play with it after lunch and when i get off and i'll post my impressions tonight.


Studio XPS 1640 P8600/4 GIG DDR3/Radeon HD 3670/320 7200 HDD/BluRay Combo Drive/720p WLED 1336x768/Vista Home 64

 

I can't understand it either. Who the hell wants to watch someone open a box? What is the big deal about it? I rip that crap open to get to what's inside, I don't care about how it's boxed up.

You've got the same setup as me, I think you'll like it. The only thing I dislike as of now is the size of the desktop because I would like the resolution a little bit larger, but I have gotten used to it. Good luck.

 

Yeah, it's the same class, roughly equivalent. Except no driver support. You have to rely on third party hacks.

They're okay for today's games, though technically low end (though of course they completely destroy integrated graphics, etc.)

 

OK so mine came in about 30 minutes ago. I'm at work so i can't play aorund with it too much. I opened it up, booted it up and set up my user name on vista. Everything looks great except...........one dead pixel and one piece of dust.

the piece of dust i'll live with, its in the top left where most of the IE/Firefox file tabs and back buttons are so it gets hidden pretty well. The dead pixel is about 3.5" down and 3.5" over from the top left corner and it sticks out like a sore thumb on blank white pages and light backgrounds.

Is there anyway to fix a dead pixel? What are my options? I've been without a good computer for awhile and i'd hate to wait another month for one.

I bought this through bestbuy also.

 

Sometimes they come back to life if you tap them gently, but I don't know if you can on these screens with plastic over them.

 

I believe you can use the computer until Dell comes out and replaces the screen. They will send a tech out to do the work, you shouldn't have to send the computer back in.

 

I received mine yesterday and love the machine so far. However I'm having trouble connecting to my crappy d-link G router. Not only does the wireless(5300) fail to connect, I can see my network and it prompts me for the WP key but after that it fails to connect. But even when I connect physically with the ethernet port, it doesn't work either. I get a 169.x.x.x . I disabled the firewall, tried to hardcode the dchp from my router and also tried to set a static 192 ip but none of that worked.

I'm having a hard time believing that my router is incompatible with both cards on my laptop. I can connect fine to the internet if I plug my modem directly in my laptop...

Any ideas?

 

dead pixel isn't bothering me nearly as bad as i thought it would. its almost non-existant now. So im definitely not going to return it unless something else flares up.

I removed most of the bloatware and will finish updating when i return home.



one question...I am going to install a full version of office 2007 this weekend. With that said, can i remove the programs "microsoft powerpoint viewer" and "microsoft office compatibility wizard" or whatever its called? i imagine these were in connection with MS Works that i've already removed

 

Hey guys I just managed to get a windows 7 beta 64-bit product key from micorsoft. i thought that we could no longer access this?

looks like you can still sign up to get a evaluation copy of windows 7 product key but you cant actually download the OP from them...so wondering if anyone can host a iso image copy somewhere so i can take it for a test drive.

thanks.

 

I second that!

 

Yeah man!! Does notebookreview have PM's? If so, send me your steam ID and I will add you

 

Im also having sound problems but don't think its the same type you guys are having... I've only play with my pc for 2-3 days for couple hours. I notice that when i have my headphones on and im watching a video clip the audio is faster than the videos action... or vice versa

sup with that?
anyone esle notice this?

 

I tried to send you a PM but it says you don't have it set to allow them. Send me one when you do and I'll send you my Steam ID.

 

I would have replied but my XPS hasn't arrived yet.

 

We got the same configs - except you got what im now regreting not getting ( your 256ssd) i got a 320 7200rpm

 

does anyone know why when I hit capslock, whatever game I am in, it minimizes? I thought this was due to the popup window indicating 'Caps Lock: On' but I changed the registry key ..indicator.. to '0'...the pop up is gone, but it still minimizes...

 

I think so...um...is the latter thing just something that lets you open Office files in Works? (Or maybe an earlier version of Office?)

Personally I think I'd remove all that before installing 2007 (well, personally I'd do a clean install anyway, but... )

 

how can i make an exact copy of my recover partion from Dell before doing a clean install?

Will it be as simple as to get an external harddrive or flash drive and copy *.* all from the recovery partion to my external drive? -and to retrive it can i simply plug my drive after the clean install and copy it back over?

 

I had been able to play crisis at native resolution on medium settings with the ATI driver that Vista updated on my machine. But yesterday, I found out a newer version 8.512.0.0.0 on Dell site, and I went ahead updating it. But it came out that the driver sucks, I cannot play crisis at all because it lags so much. Anyone having the same issues? Is it ok to remove the driver and reinstall the old driver?

 

Yea you can rollback to the old driver.

 

I'm really bummed. I was going to get an XPS m1530, but then I found out about the graphics card defect (256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT) so I am starting to consider canceling and ordering this laptop. Would you guys recommend it?

 

Its up to you. I have an M1330 and *crosses fingers* It hasn't broke yet. But i now have a 1640

 

YES!

You know you want to, otherwise yo wouldnt have asked

 

Really it all depends on what you are trying to get.

Both are capable of being customized into quite powerful machines, but the 1640 can be upgraded more powerfully. Also it has the newer chipset and higher speed Cache and RAM.

On the other hand, the m1530 can be spec'ed out pretty strongly, and it will come out around $400 less.

 

Hey guys

just wondering if any of you have managed to ger rivertuner up and running correctly on the s-xps 1640, when i try to set rivertuner up to display temps and fps using the customize tab the option isnt there, it may be a drivers or ATI issue but would love to hear from someone that got it working.
Cheers and takecare

 

I just installed my X25-E in my Dell SXPS 16 running W7 x64 b7048

I ran a quick HDTune bench and something's very wrong. I was expecting to atleast get an average of 190 read, but it's far less. I'm not sure if it's that my notebook cannot handle the speed, or maybe it's incompatible, or maybe the hdd's bad?

Any advice?

View attachment 31789
View attachment 31790

 

I ran the Video Stress Test for CS and averaged 175fps with spikes to 299. I have changed my drivers so I'm not sure if this could be why, just thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to change yours as well.

 

I would test it on another laptop to see if its the SSD or sxps. What kinds of speeds were you getting before? And, the sxps is the SATA2, i assume?

 

So i got my XPS 16 shipped to me last Wednesday (11) and I was _very_ pleased with the system. Unfortunately, after merely one day of regular use, the laptop decides that the Dell Power adapter (which is incredibly small compared to the old power adapters ) is not actually a genuine Dell adapter. So now my battery is stuck at 3%.

I read up on this and it seems to be a serious design flaw in dell computers.

anyone else with the same problem??

 

just give dell's 24/7 support crew a phonecall, im sure the issue can be resolved very quickly and you can be enjoying ur unit to its fullest capicity again very soon.
Goodluck

 

Man i love this thing. And am very pleased with Vista 64 thus far. Lightening fast, the screen (non RGBLED) is great, blu-rays look amazing even in 720p.


What are some other things I should look to do with this guy in terms of speeding it up? So far i've removed all bloatware (no clean install for now) and cut my startup processes down and have installed my protection software.

 

I don't have another notebook exept a really old gateway to try it in. I figured the XPS 16 was SATA3 since it's so new and it should be the latest technology, right? I was getting a constant and average read of 80 with the 320 7200 rpm. This thing's only getting around 90 average.

I guess I'll have to return it to amazon because I bought it to use in this system.

This whole expereince has been horible with the SXPS 16 and now getting a very exspensive SSD only to find crappy speed. I'm no professional image/web editor, just an adverage person, and I can't understand why a screen this exspensive has colors worse than 3 year old laptop screens.

 

As far as I know, they would be selling update ones manufactured differently, or they wouldn't keep selling it. As someone mentioned, the 1640 has slightly updated specs. The 1530 has a GPU that actually gets support...so...yeah.

Back when I was looking at them, the 1640 would come out cheaper because Dell was charging to much to add Blu Ray to the 1530.

 

What adjustments do i need to make on this panel to receive the cleanest output from these speakers?

 

Space aside, which of the Dell offered Samsung SSD's is the fastest? The 120gb or 250gb? Thx

 

The 256GB is Samsung's newer generation of SSDs. It is faster than the 128.

 

Got mine mid last week WooT! So sweet! it is a finger print magnet, and can run warm on the left palm rest, but man the RBGLED screen...is...gorgeous...GOOD LORD! Does any one have any recommendations on a cooling fan? So far I heard very good things about the Zalman NC2000, anything else?

 

Undervolt it. Probably the best cooling method you'd ever find for your laptop.

 

I've been playing around with mine for a while now too... And I have to say that these things about the red colours being saturized, I'm really not sure if we even have the same screen. I do have the 1080p screen and was worrying a lot about this, but my reds actually look really good. I'm not sure if they have different panels or something, but mine was assembled in Ireland I think since I'm in Europe. I'm very happy so far, it's beautiful although it's a shame that it's so fingerprint prone. I'm considering ordering a 250ish gb SSD, but does anyone have a link to a review which is testing the new samsung drives and comparing them to the intel drives? Because I believe the intel drives still are the best ones?

 

After 15 posts, you will be good to go with PMs


Cin