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

lol. Congrats on your new addition! Have you thought of a name for your new "baby" yet?

 

That is what I want to hear - a happy customer

 

Another question...

How do I really test the integrated woofer? I was playing a Korn CD and in the opening of "Are u ready", there's a deep bass string being played that I don't hear at all! On my regular desktop (with 2.1 external speakers), it's loud and clear.

When I play the 'test' windows sound thru the Audio panel, I only hear test tones from left/right speaker.

 

You've probably already answered this 12 times, but have you run Memtest on it overnight? A stick of bad RAM would cause all that.

The 1640 is basically the replacement for the 1530. The 'XPS' as a separate line is dead (although from the markings on the bottom, I'd guess that decision happened after the 1640 was made?) I'd guess it's just the 1530 was always overpriced, and the 1640 is less so, and they just haven't adjusted the 1530 downwards.

I don't know if it's really coming off or not, but there's some space between...oh it's too hard to describe. It's on the outer edge of the right hinge. I think it's basically cosmetic, even if it did come off. There is also a visible bump in the silver plastic on that hinge too, but I don't really care about either that much if it works.

I should note I don't seem to have any light bleed on the screen, but this is the 'low' end screen. (And I really, REALLY wouldn't want anything higher resolution than this.)

 

Congrats! Isn't she a beauty!!

 

I think that Dell shouldn't use the leather, way to fragile, and will look like crap when it's old, hint, hint Dell,
and the speaker grill with the little holes, gets dirty real fast, and hard to clean the stuff in the holes,
try to make it solid and smooth, and do something about that power cord adapter, like make it flat & connected better, so that we dont have to bend the cord in order for it to lay flat face up.

Just my 2 cents...

 

Oh you are FREAKING kidding me. I was sent two orders, no idea if either is what I need...and I was BILLED OVER $30 for one of them! What the HEY?!?

I guess I'm chatting again, but this is just getting stupid. I probably should just try to get it all back.

Oh geez, their chat isn't working now. That's just perfect. I am soooo close to just being done with this company (and I was a huge fan since '97).

 

Typical DELL!

I feel ur pain, I can go on all day from my experience ...

 

Agreed. This company seems to just keep getting worse.

 

They Killed AW also!!

I will never do that again

Now I know why theirs a site called dellhell!

 

good to know. i ordered the wled screen too,

 

Hi, I'm just going out of a week of first use with my studio xps 16, and so far, a bit mitigated but it's not sooo annoying :

>If someone finds the solution for the unbalanced speakers, I'm buying, considering I have this problem. In my case it's not a big deal, I'm mainly using headphones (I've got roomates and I like loud music ). In fact I just noticed it today after a week of use

>The heat problem is only a problem if you're considering using it on your laps for a prolonged period of time, the heat being a problem only on the bottom of the lappy. The touchpad, the palmrest, etc are quite warme than to other lappies', but its not too much. Btw, if you have access to tables everywhere on your campus, tables in your home, the need for using a laptop on your lap has been considerable reduced.

>This laptop is in fact pretty lightweight, I have no problem moving it around campus during a whole day. I'm just looking for a backpack ajusted to the form factor (its obviously much longer than a regular 15.4). Using a 15.4 backpack works, but it's a little bit too tight inside.

>Its sexy, I'm obviously repeating opinions said before. I was considering a MBP before, but now I don't see the design advantages of the MBs against it (maybe the grey instead of the black ), but forget this, I'm not here to start a MB/rest of the world trolling war, lol. Open or closed, this lappy is a beauty. Even the AC adapter has been (at least) relooked.

>The positioning of the wifi switch is annoying sometimes. Just have to stop the habit of letting my hand rest over the keyboard, cauz it stops the wifi in no time (touch buttons are sexy, but too responsive

>I had issues with the wifi intel 5300 card randomly stopping working, but so far its been quite solved with new intel drivers

>The lid is closing the vent when opened, that's a bit weird, and probably one of the source of the heat.

>The 1366x768 resolution is a little bit narrow, maybe I'll switch to a 1020p later. its doable, but using office or internet leads to a lot of scrolling, or getting the habit to use fullscreen options. But I'd say its a question of habit, its not that annoying.

>6cell battery life is not extraordinary, with doing some light tasks you can do 2h-2h30, but dont expect watching a dvd or BR during that time. A good thing is that power saving settings are pretty automatically set up as soon as you unplug it (even vista is muzzled, obliged to switch off aero).
If a 9cell is available someday, I'd be a buyer, + it would hopefully get the venting in the bottombetter. We'll see in the future. Maybe I'll switch to a Linux distrib to see if the battery life is improved.

>I didnt do a lot of hard gaming (yet) on it, but for what its worth half life 1 series goes smoothly, lol (would go smoothly on an integrated, I think).

Maybe I'll post again later if new problems/solutions come. On the whole this laptop is really good ! Minor problems arised, but probably due to the fact that I've been one of the first purchasers. And yes, she's a beauty !

 

well that's refreshing. glad to hear yours is working!

 

I noticed the unbalance speaker the sec I booted it up, it sounds louder on the right side, and now my msn webcam sounds like crap, on top of it ecoing wth!

 

Is it possible to somehow speak to an American in this company? I just tried calling, got the usual Indian, and on top of that the connection was horrible.

 

For sure there all working, there just manufacturing, and design FLAWS!

 

That's why I email for on now, plus have solid records of my case!

Talk to CS, very promt and good

 

Understood. But no need to make excuses for Dell here. These are consumer level laptops, and the fact that the relatively tech savvy crowd here at NBR are having issues getting the 1640 to work properly is problematic. What about the majority of laptop buyers who have never joined a forum, know what a driver does, or understand the difference between 32 and 64 bit OS's. They are just s**t out of luck i guess.

That reminds me - I should call my mom.

 

Oh you are FREAKING KIDDING ME (AGAIN!) They're closed! Now! Even though it's in India, and who knows what time it is there. Unbelievable.

For people who are considering Dell...REALLY think long and hard. And I do not say that lightly, and this is a company I have LOVED for well over a decade (and I had over 20,000 posts on their forum until it was disbanded two months ago).

 

Trust me, I'm not on Dells side lol, these are things that I see as flaws cuz I'm the most pickiest person yull ever meet, I think I should help build these suckers with these peeps with there lazy minds!

 

wth , 20,000 post, that's crazy, they don't deserve someone like u lol!

 

They lost a whole ton of people like me when they 'upgraded' their forums in November. There were plenty with even more posts than I had. And I'm sorry, but we were a HUGE resource-a HUGE reason to buy Dell over another brand. Those forums were fantastic...until November.

 

Ya I remember then, they had a very nice and EASY layout, when I saw the new one, I was like this Is garb, PEACE out, LOL

 

Some old things In life will never go bad, new, & change Is good, but not always....

 

Ooookay. So I finally got through on chat....and he's claiming I'm not being billed for these two shipments, and that it does include Blu Ray software.

And...on the orders page, it no longer shows any money info. It doesn't even say $0.00 anymore...it just lists nothing at all. But I still have the exact same orders open on a different page, loaded just an hour ago, showing a $30+ charge.

Soooo hopefully this is okay. I'll be monitoring my credit card...

 

I purchased 3 desktop systems from them over the years and the only issues I had were related to 3rd-party software I installed. Now, I was ready to order my first Dell notebook. Maybe not. I'll have to wait a month to see what people are posting about their new XPS 1640s. If it's not good, I may have to take a chance on a Sony or HP.

If only Dell focused on their consumer division like they do on their business division or like they used to back in the day on their desktops.

 

When I ordered my XPS 16 a couple days ago, I got a message from Dell saying I need to call them back to authorize or confirm my payment/order.

I ordered online & payed though PayPal. My PP account already shows the hold that Dell placed on the funds.

Do you really think I have to call Dell in order for my system to be shipped? I won't have access to a phone for awhile and therefor cannot simply call.

I guess I'll just wait and see if the order goes through.

 

One person's experience doesn't apply to masses. I, myself, have several Dell h/w (from laptops to monitors) and I never had a problem from the ordering process to returns to warranty coverage. All these items were ordered under 'home' cateogory as well.

When you are dealing with a big retailer (and yes, that INCLUDES HP), u will find most of the business segments outsourced due to cost factor.

If you read the HP forums, people have had bad experiences with them as well ...does that mean, u shouldn't order that HP laptop just cos 5 people reported a bad experience?

I'm not trying to defend Dell but simply stating that I've had a very good experience with Dell for all of my products and yes, in one case, I did have to get an escalation to a manager to have a full replacement of a LCD monitor after 2 refurbished replacements didn't fix the issue under warranty.

As this makes one feel any better, I've had HP replace 2 screens, one system board and RAM on a single 6910p business laptop within the last month before it worked to specs. But they wouldn't bulge on sending me a replacement laptop and yet if you account the technicians pay, drive-time compensation and parts, that amounts to more than the cost of a new 6910p

Reality is you can go with any major computer retailer and you still have a 50% chance of receiving bad h/w and dealing with bad customer support.

 

...sad but true.

 

Just an update. My order has shipped!
Order date: 1/21
ESD: 2/9
EDD: 2/11

Ship date: 1/28
Delivery: 1/30!! I should have it on friday! 9 days turn around from the originally estimated 3 weeks. I'm SO FREAKING STOKED!

Really ready to get rid of this old Inspiron 6000....

 

"Mujibar was trying to get a job in India .

The Personnel Manager said, 'Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one. Unless you pass it , you cannot qualify for this job.'

Mujibar said, 'I am ready.'

The manager said, 'Make a sentence using the words Yellow , Pink and Green .'

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, 'Mister manager, I am ready'

The manager said, 'Go ahead.'

Mujibar said, 'The telephone goes green, green, and I pink it up, and say, ' Yellow ', this is Mujibar.'

Mujibar now works at a call centre.

No doubt you have spoken to him. I know I have."

^I got this email a few days ago
[No offense meant by the derogatory photo, just a little humor]

 

That's jokes lol

 

Mine has been working just fine, except for one glaring problem. Whenever I try to use a wired correction, at best it just doesn't recognize, at worst I get a BSOD. I've looked at the dell drivers and installed it, but it hasn't really done anything. I'll call up dell tomorrow morning and see what they can do.

Besides that, I think it's a fine model once all the problems are accounted for.

 

Guys, do you think it's messed up that the screen blocks the system's vent? I showed that to my mom, and she's even like 'this was designed by an idiot'...but surely I'm missing something about it

But...the vent's totally blocked if the screen's open

 

Is there a close up picture of the vent somewhere?

 

I've only used Ethernet, and haven't had any crashes at all. Haven't used Wifi yet though.

 

We were/are discussing this same issue in the 1340 owners thread. One guess was that while the screen is fully open, it doesn't block the vent but reroutes the air flow to come up from the vent, between the LCD screen and the keyboard. Look towards the top of the picture below. Some people in the 1340 forum as saying that is enough space to let the heat through that the vent might be like that by design, so it goes up through the crack between the screen and into the air rather than down onto your legs/desk

If it is, I really gotta wonder how well the LCD screen will hold up in that kind of heat.

 

Sure! Took me a while to get the photos. Not sure if these'll come through, but the first is with the screen open a normal amount:



This next is the vent uncovered (by closing the screen most of the way).



Doesn't it seem a bit odd to cover over the system's vent?

(EDIT: Pictures can be linked for 640x480 versions)

 

Kind of a different design [not bad if it works]. I don't see how it could work as well as if it were placed somewhere else unless the exhaust is rerouted to come out between the keyboard and screen. [shoot hot air at the user?]

 

I've checked everything involved with it, and it all seems to point at hardware right now. Here's hoping it's a quick fix, I like this thing too much.

 

At least on the 1640 I can say that there's no air flow up between the system and screen. The vent is in fact almost totally blocked. If I lift the system up, some of the air does get redirected...but it's straight down into the surface the system is setting on.

I'm really confused by this design...I mean this is as dumb as I think it is, right?

 

Yeah, I haven't touched any drivers yet except the video drivers (which has pretty much gone nowhere so far).

 

Almost sounds like the hot air is slowly ushered below the laptop to be sucked up again?

 

1. I have sent 2 emails to Integrated Device Technology concerning their part #92HD73C1 when used with the Intel ICH9HD controller. Haven't received any reply.

2. I recently noticed the bleeding but thought that maybe it was there since the beginning. hopefully, it will not be an issue.

3. I've been very happy with the BT mouse.

Even though this sound issue may not ever be rectified, it may be worth it for me to keep this laptop and just use earbuds. For the price, I don't think that you can beat it.



Thraak

 

Downloaded CoD4 demo and running it on pretty much 90% high settings except for few bars on 'medium'.

The game is completely playable (I suspect around 30fps) at my native 1366X768 res and it looks breath-taking. This was one of the reasons why I opted for a 720p screen and it paid off.

I'll be installing Fallout 3 tomorrow but I'm confident I should be able to play that fine at my native res. Big plus for the GFX.

Been using the lappie on my lap (in my bed while wife is watching her soap operas ) for the last hour and while it does feel a little warm on my thighs, it's livable. I usually keep my lappie's on my kitchen island so this is not a big deal for me.

And I just can't get over how gorgeous the LED panel is.....CoD4 looked nothing like what it looks like on the console version! And the backlit keyboard is definitely a huge plus. So far, so good....no complains here for now.

 

YEA! Mine finally came.

I am happy so far. No blue screen no missing things .... that i know of.

Heat is not bad at all my 1505 was hotter and noisier than this. Typing is great but i am not comfortalbe with the mouse cant seem to get to the right of the screen very well for some reason.

Mine was built in Reno and the odd thing is my battery was installed i have seen videos of unboxing where the battery was seprate. I did get my CDs but i think I might be missing some docuemntation.

Cover doesnt seem to be so bad with the finger prints but the area by the mouse pad is so I will be getting a skin for that.

So far so good i wish i had gone with the better screen i think the resolution would have been fine.

Update.... i dont like the trackpad

 

Have you tried FRAPS?