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

Guys which OS is better 32bit or 64bit,wid 4gigs of ram?
Will the vmware and routing sims work on 64 bit?

 

I would tell everyone to hold off on the Studio XPS systems. the company i work for ordered 45 systems ...30 Studio XPS 13 and 15 Studio XPS 16........We had to send most of them back jue to overheating issues. I was told by the dell tech that the motherboads for the 13 inch models was under revions to be released later this month. They are great systems but the head is an issue ..a few of the 13 inch would get so hot that it automatically shut down. What was dell thinking......if only they could put the sme technology into the old xps m1330 chasis it would be a winner of couse with a few design mods to the xpsm1330.....dell really missed the b oat on this one. they could have added that stupid leather to teh m1330 and redesigned the colling aaspects of the m1330 get rid of all the nvida grapics and come up with a new grapich solution. i have many friends and coworkers that got burned by the m1330 and we won't be going down this road again. my suggestions is to stay clear of dell at leasat for a year so they can get their act together

 

ahhhh too many spelling/grammar errors in one place. the internet is about to asplode.

did the dell tech tell you when we can expect the revision?

 

I believe he said "later this month"...

Wether it was an omission or not, he specifically said 13 inch was under revision...interesting.

I'm closing in on my 21 day return time, I love this notebook alot, but if there's a new cooling system (or atlesat improvments) in the works, I want to jump on it rather than keep this.

It's quite a finicky situation.

 

The XPS 16 has been out for a while now so I'm sure they're going to refresh it sooner than later. Now would be a good time to get that refund. Seems Dell has gotten exceedingly good at processing them. I returned my 9 cell battery about 3 days ago and received my refund this morning. The laptop refund came in less than a week as well.

 

First off, let's make it clear that I want to see an updated Studio XPS 16 just as much as everyone else. Since I don't need a laptop now, I can afford to wait.

I do not think, however, it is wise to advice others to return their SXPS 16. It is also rather irresponsible to be spread rumors about an imminent SXPS 16 update without SOLID proof. We all know that Dell will eventually release such update; however, there is no indication that it is going to occur any time soon (at least not soon enough to justify returning their laptops).

The only "clue" that we have so far, is the A07 BIOS update. For all we know, it could just be a typo on Dell website (no one has dissected the BIOS to proof 4670 support), or maybe Dell did plan to release an update and then retracted it. The bottom-line is, it has been two months since the A07 BIOS update, and we have heard nothing about the 4670 since then.

In addition, Dell has just released the Merlot Red chassis, meaning that Dell is planning to keep this chassis for a while. Unless the new SXPS 16 has a redesigned cooling mechanism (i.e. new chassis), I really don't think it can handle a more powerful GPU.

The most important thing is, even with the current configuration, the SXPS 16 is still selling like hotcakes. There is no reason for Dell to rush the update any time soon.

Now, the problem is, if everyone who bought the SXPS 16 start returning their laptops, that means Dell will be losing money. This would only make them more likely to raise the price of the new model (whenever it is going to be released).

Please stop telling people to return their current SXPS 16. The new SXPS 16 may be coming tomorrow, or it may not be coming for months. No one knows!

 

Aye Aye Cap'N.

Who put you in charge?

Also, it's irresponsible of Dell to put something on a BIOS update knowing that most of us can read.

 

well it depends, to use the full 4 gigs of ram 64 bit would be better, but i know the 32 bit runs all programs and doesn't seem to have a problem with people. i went with the 32 bit just cuz a lot of programs work with it, but also the 64 bit is starting to become popular. Also with the 32 bit you can do some fancy thing and make it run off of 4 gigs instead of 3.5 gigs or whatever.

 

Haha seconded. I think he's just worried about his own bottom line since he thinks Dell will charge us more for the new 1640 if people return their systems. What he doesn't take into account is that people on forums like this make up a tiny fraction of Dell's overall sales and it would have virtually no impact.

 

I wonder if something IS going on at DELL though. It seems the delays are starting again! My SXPS was ordered 5-20-09 with a EDD of 6-18-09. Earlier today I called and it was changed to 7-10!! So I called and complained and there was a message that said due to supply issues many computers were delayed?
Now I checked at the EDD is 6-25 so we will see. I may cancel but dont know where else to get a compariable Laptop?

 

Comparable to speed, yes. Comparable to looks, yes. Not both in the same delightful package though.

 

Tell me about it! I am finding the same thing. Either nice looking or great perfomance. Looked at Sony but there are pricey for same thing and HPs have been pretty ugly. I just wish DELL didnt take orders on things that took 2 months to get!?

 

Dell has 21 days return policy , if nothing is wrong with it they will charge you up to 15% restocking fee and sell it on the outlet site . that's all

 

A quick heads up to all who experience delays!!!

If you get the 500GB 7200 RPM drive, it WILL BE delayed!

The drive is in very short supply. Seagate is slow to produce these units. Modders pick this drive up a lot for MacBooks and MacMinis.

 

oh wow im happy i got the slower drive then, i can always upgrade if needed maybe possibly to a Tb when they become cheap in the next few years.

 

I didn't even know 1TB notebook hard drives existed...
You can get 1TB 3.5" hard drives for ~$70 nowadays

 

I got the slower version as well I mean the 5400 RPM HDD (If thats what you meant), My friend got it for me 3 weeks back and i should be receiving it soon, i was hoping to get a SSD but my friend went ahead and got it with the 500 GB 5400 RPM version before I could let him know.
I was quite disappointed about it. But then I cheered myself up thinking that i could upgrade to a SSD which should be cheaper and faster in a few months.
And that i should try the 5400 RPM out first

However when I asked Dell if it would be okay if i got the SSD after a while they said that there was a strong possiblity that installing the SSD would void the 3 year warranty I had taken... I went omg ...

I then asked him if i had it installed by a Dell technician would it still void the warranty and he replied yes...

So i asked him in the end " Is there any way I can install the SSD without voiding the warranty" to which he replied "No"

I was thinking omagawd I cant upgrade anything on my own laptop for 3 years (warranty period = 3 years)
Are they punishing me for taking an extended warranty in the first place lol.

I have been quite upset about this for a couple of weeks....
Can neone share some light on this.?

1) What happens if i install something new (hardware) during the warranty period?
2) Is the 5400 500 GB HDD that slow than the 7200 RPM one?
( I am fine with waiting 10 or 20 more seconds for booting , if that is the only "noticeable" delay of the 5400 RPM )
3) should i upgrade to a 7200 or SSD later on?


Specs just in case:
P8700 2.53
4GB RAM
500 GB 5400 RPM T.T
graphics card the same thing everyone has xD
Blu Ray 1080 p screen RGBLED

Well this should be way more better than my current PC
2.4GHz P4 Prescott ----> Heat Generating Unit (the case is open or else the CPU would explode)
512 RAM DDR sad...
80 GB Sata ---> o.o
intel 865GBF onboard graphics ---> I know, can this get any worse..

youtube LAGS on this pc.... its so sad.. and I am a gamer...(well I used to be before my gFX card exploded)... T.T


So do you guys think that the current laptop will be ------ my current desktop?

Options
A) P0wning
B) >
c) <
d) no comparison.


Srry about the long post.... i went bonkers again xD

 

the 5400 rpm won't be much slower, the new computer will replace your desktop easily cuz its way faster than your desktop. my computer (desktop) i believe is the same as yours kinda and it stinks at multi tasking and that.

 

eh i don't think theres one but the way hard drives are moving and that i have a feeling 1 TB for notebooks will become available.

 

Harddrives have always been user replaceable from what I know. It should not void the warranty. If he said it would void the warranty even if a Dell technician did it... well, then he is likely talking pure bull.

 

I wouldn't worry about the warranty but if you want to be really sure keep the drive. If anything ever goes wrong put it back in and then get teh warranty work done.

 

This sounds like the way to go!

 

that sounds the best option i guess, now I need to learn how to install a HDD in the first place.(this is ma first laptop)

thanks for all the replies everyone !!!

 

check this out: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/sxl16/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1109848

 

Thanks wlepse, but when i remove the hard disk wouldnt there be signs that something was removed or the laptop was opened ( like a seal being broken etc)

So if the technician sees the broken seal or any other signs that indicate the laptop was opened up would that lead to him voiding my warranty :S

If this is so much of a hassle i will just stick with the 5400 RPM drive, I can wait for 10 or 20 more secs for Vista to load, I just hope it doesnt affect real time performance that much. (compared with a 7200 RPM)

Is it possible to have a external SSD hdd connected Via eSata or does that sound impractical..

 

it is possible but you would be wasting your money. and you couldnt boot from it

 

Hello,

Sorry if this has already been brought up, I ran a search and couldn't find anything about it. Hope you can help me!

Got a Studio 16, love the thing to death. BUT.... (there's always a but...)

....my wireless card likes to shut itself off after I play games for an hour or so. I'm not sure if this is overheating or if there's something I can do software-wise...

I've updated the wireless drivers, graphics card drivers and BIOS... no cigar though.

Has any one else experienced this? Any luck in finding a fix? It has done it a couple of times when I wasn't playing games too....

Thanks!

Oh yes... it's an Intel 5100 WiFi; I'm running on a P8600, 500 GB HDD with 4GB RAM.

 

I wouldn't worry about it...on my last Dell I had a HDD go bad and Dell sent me a replacement that I had to replace. They consider them to be user serviceable so there are no seals to worry about. If you are really concerned just take a lot of pictures to document exactly how everything was oriented and you can always return it back without any issues.

 

I dont think the issue is wid overheating,for two reasons-first one:as u mentioned,the wifi turned off when not playing games,this means,probably there is no overheat.Second,I dont think it wil off the wifi (if it is due to overheat)as at the treshold of overheat,the machine wil not respond and of late it gets shut down.
Did u observe the same behaviour on other laptops or wifi enabled desktops?(if u have any)
Are u sure that its not the issue wid wifi modem or router?(This once had happened wid my friend`s wifi modem,it was picking up low signal and after 45mins or so,it used to get disconnected)

 

Just installed my Invisishield from Zag and I am fairly happy with the results. I have a few bubbles and of course somehow my dog managed to get a hair stuck to the film but otherwise looks pretty good. Nothing like those photos that were posted earlier.

 

Yeah, it's just that it has done once, maybe twice when I wasn't playing games... yet it does it every single time without fail when I am! It isn't a gradual thing, it just goes and I have to restart my laptop to get it working again. Which it seems to do fine, even if I restart immediately!

I've had 5 different comps on this router without problem and tried my laptop on 3 wireless networks with the card breaking on every one.

I wonder if it's just a dodgy wireless card if no one has has had this. I have read one or two other people having the same problem when looking around google but there weren't any fixes being offered

The machine gets hot but not really scorching... and I assume there are far more powerful laptops around that get a lot hotter!

I'm going to try dell support tomorrow and see what happens. I think it may be a Vista 64 thing but no idea really

 

and you did check to make sure you didn't accidently press the off button for the wireless right?

 

vista has lots of advanced power options that include turning the wifi off after a certain amount of time, or when on battery power, so make sure your power management settings are all good

 

I have a quick question regarding the keyboard of my 1640.

For some reason, seemingly randomly, my keyboard changes alternate functions to really wierd keys.

Like right now, instead of a slash, my slash button creates this symbol ÉÉÉÉééééééé.

Why does my keyboard suddenly turn on this alternate function...

 

looks like you have another language other than english installed ( this looks like turkish?.
you can remove that by going to control paneel language on keeyboard settings.

btw, i opened up e2e plastic cover with one of my least used financial cards--citibank banking card.
its glued to the lcd as told by dell tech support. i didnt remove the plastic cover becuz if i did, i dont have any glue can seal the e2e cover properly.

 

That happens with all my computers dont know why thow. To fix it hold shift and hit ctrl twice

 

Thanks Brendan, that did get my keys back to normal...

Wish there was a permanent fix.

 

Did u check the language option,as mentioned in earlier post,change it to english(if not done yet)this is a permanent fix

 

Will a T9300 processor work on the XPS 1640 ? I have one from a XPS M1530

 

galgalisandeep: I went into keyboard and language options. Everything seems to be set to english...

It's odd, because it works most of the time. I must accidentally press a combo of keys (still not used to the laptops keyboard) which turns on this alt-functions.

I've browsed through Control Panel pretty carefully with no luck...

 

Alright, in keyboard options (a little area I missed before) theres an area to assign a shortcut to changing the input language.

I guess Windows 7 detected my Canadiancy and decided I would like to have a french alternate inputs.

I just removed the shortcut ALT+SHIFT, which I must press all the time thus switching to this other language input. Stupid, but atleast its solved (hopefully).

 

Has anyone found an easy was to clean the speaker grills.. its starting to look not so nice with all the white bits of stuff. Thanks.

btw, 3 months with my SXPS16 and it still runs flawlessly.

 

new BIOS...A08

 

compressed air? if you truly want that crap out you will need to take your computer apart.

 

Well, I guess this mean the chances of Dell releasing a new Studio XPS 16 within the next couple weeks is very slim. Curiously though that the Studio XPS 13 has also received a very similar BIOS update on the same day.

 

Hmm, seems it's an update for the 3670 bios.

 

My red Studio XPS 16 was shipped yesterday. Should have it by Thursday.

 

Dell XPS 1640 System BIOS A08

Fixes and Enhancements
Update Graphic card VBIOS and improve display quality and performance.


Does this gives us more proof that Dell will soon upgrade the videocard on the studio xps 1640?!

 

No, this is just updating the bios software for the 3670 it appears. I recently benchmarked my 1640 with the SFIV benchmark, so I'll try it again with this update and see if any things improved.

 

Thanks Fitter keep us posted, im interested to see your results.