Am i taking a big risk buying a used M1330?

Don't worry, you have the Intel chip. Put some Arctic Silver on the CPU if you like but the GPU (again Intel) has a thermal pad. The failure rate you are referring to is the nVidia GPU. I don't think there are any recorded issues of the Intel GPU overheating.

 

The way it was written made it sound like SQL was an abbreviation of some sort of Dell utility.

 

Oh ok. From some of the posts here i was under the impression that some failures were due to something else. A couple have said the mobo was replaced 4-5 times! Plus the screen replacements makes me think there is more going on than just a GPU meltdown but noone specified what the actual causes were.

Anyway Vista is now installed. Do you recommend i install the dell device drivers or allow windows update to take care of it? Cheers.

 

Windows Update will get a couple of them but you will have to visit Dell.com for most of them.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=&SystemID=XPS_M1330

 

Well, the plot thickens. The problem seems to have been resolved but now when i boot i get this message: *** STOP: 0x0000007B (0x80606BA0, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0X00000000

and then windows reboots so i can't even get into the OS now! Any ideas what might be causing this? It occured just after i reinstalled vista but was fine after that. It's started doing it again since i installed the intel chipset driver and now i can't get past it. I've tried setup repair, system restore and last known config but it's made no difference.

 

2 questions.

1. What kind of HDD are you using?
2. How much memory do you have and if it is two sticks are they matching pairs?

 

1. WD Scorpio Black 5400sata
2. 1gb matched pair that came with it.

I've already tried my other hd which was fine. Same drive but 7,200rpm, 16mb cache. I'm gonna swap out the ram next. I've come across this code elsewhere online but no actual solution. It's also occured when someone has just reinstalled vista and with dell xps laptops.

 

Ok so i switch ahci to ata in the bios and windows is booting no problem. All i can find on it is that this occurs when you switch from ata to ahci after you've installed vista, i never changed anything so why is it happening here? The vista recovery disk didn't include any service packs so is there some missing driver that is needed for vista to recognise the ahci?

Otherwise so far so good with the laptop, looks like the xps could be a keeper. I'm able to multitask without any slow downs. I've kept the laptop running for a few hours and it's fine. It's also a lot faster than i expected it to be as well and it reboots in less than a minute now. Me likey!

 

Welcome to the club. Let Windows Update get all the updates and service packs, go to Dell.com for the drivers and you'll be fine. Enjoy.

 

I think the issue with this laptop is the processor overheating. Once it hits a certain temp everything slows down and the only way to recover is to put it into sleep mode or shut the laptop down for a while. I've since found out that you can undervolt the T5250 to the lowest voltages which i have done and seems to be working. Anyway i've ordered some arctic silver as that which is on the processor is more like a piece of sponge! Can't be conducting the heat well at all.

Overall this is a quality laptop. So please ignore my previous comments.

If you can get a hold of one to try before you buy then they're well worth checking out. Just make sure they have the intel graphics or at least come with a warranty.

 

Cheers. Microsoft seems to be down atm. Can you access the website? Emails working ok but neither update is working or any microsoft links. Just keep getting server not found.

Actually, yeah. I'm running the bare bones version of vista which had lots of issues. I don't know if it's the cpu or vista but it's awfully easy to max out the cpu with some demos in FL Studio. Should i get better cpu performance than a T2330?

 

You can get AS5 at Radio Shack if they have one where you live. Don't remove the "sponge" for the GPU, that needs to stay.

 

I ordered a kit with alcohol wipes and lint free cloths so i've got everything i need whether i keep this laptop or reverse the deal. Unfortunately the problem returned.

Can anyone tell me, what is a nominal temperature for the T5250? I've throttled the cpu to 1ghz and it's 33.5c atm. When i set it to full speed it can reach 40c. The slow down is gradual though and once it's happened i can't do anything but force shutdown. I don't know if it's a fault or simply overheating. If anyone can shed any light i'd be really grateful.

Thanks.

 

40c is nothing. That is nowhere near overheating. Try the original CPU and see if it behaves the same way.

 

That is the original cpu, i was using the t2330 as comparison as they are similar in spec. I think it's flash, I'm monitoring cpu and os load in right mark while a video is playing. Once the OS load gets to around 80% everything slows down and the system becomes unresponsive. If i stop the vid and switch tabs or minimize firefox the os load drops. Once it gets to 80% it stays there though or hits 100%

I'll have to post the problem on various other fora cause i need to know exactly what's happening and how to fix it.

On that note, can you access microsoft? I can't, either via updates or the web. I just keep getting server not found so i can't update. They can't have been down for 2 days.

 

IDK, I just got my M1330 back and booted it up and it told me it was unable to connect to Windows update also. Very strange.

 

Seems to be back up now.

Anyway i put my other drive back in and applied the settings i'd been using in vista to see if there is any improvement. I disabled speed stepping in the bios; before when playing back audio in FL Studio the cpu would jump from 30% to 80% randomly and eventually hit 100%. This is the main issue i've been trying to resolve. It could just be that i lowered the voltages and set the clock multiplier to 9x but i'd tried various settings previously and the same thing happened repeatedly. Also when i set the profile to balance this is not happening. Now i'm seeing the same stability in both vista and windows 7.

The question is the OS load. Why is that peaking when the cpu load is really low?

Otherwise it's a great little laptop. When it's working well!

 

I swapped the drive out to update and M$ is down again! Arrgh! Anyway my cpu issue is still going strong so i'm not sure what difference that would make. Ima post on the Dell forums and see if anyone can shed any light on what's going on/offer me an extended warranty.