Dell XPS 1730 with 8700M GT SLI Problem. NOT running in SLI! Low 3DMARK06 Marks!

Just did my 3dmark06 and got 8,150. I have the 169.04 driver installed and the t7500 processor.

 

i just got talking to dell support for 6 hours. YES, SIX. the tech support guy, kyle, was the worst tech support guy ive EVER talked to.

1) he ARGUED with me saying 1730 DOESNT HAVE SLI...

2) ARGUED WITH ME saying 1730 used a 7900 and not SLI 8700M.


What a JOKE! A JOKE. just unbelievable.

I had to ***** to him for 6 hrs and try reasoning to get him to send out a technician.

 

hey MrBubbles. can u tell me how to install the 169.04 driver? i read sum instrctions from a link sumtime back n it said i had to edt he INf file or sumthin... but i dono how thts done. im no techie... can u help me wit tht?

 

It's not an easy process but follow the instructions here:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243

You don't need to edit a ini file but you do need to download a patched version from the guys at laptopvideo2go.com and replace it.

Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter or you will have no end of trouble, believe me I know.

 

Bubbles.. r u runnin on vista or xp? n jus tell me ur xps config... im runnin on T7500, 4gig ram, n SLI 8700m Gt... n ur 3dmark score is on vista with SLI enabled?

 

Yes on all points abe2mir, i have the same rig with vista using the 169.04 driver and sli is enabled.

 

damn... i gotta try the new drivers... can u send me a link from where i can get the modded INF file for the drivers? i got the driver file. but cant find the modded INF for my card.

 

just gone to laptopvideo2go & cant find 169.04 drivers....stops at 167 or something

 

Here is the link to the driver and the patched ini file.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15825

 

thanks bubbles... will try it out rite away

 

well..i happend to hav the 169.01 drivers wit me... so i jus dloaded the inf file for tht driver n tried... it didnt work... i cant get rid of my original 156.69 forceware... any idea how i can uninstall it completely?
cuz even after i uninstall it, and install the 169.01, it shows the 156 forceware... and no difference in performance... HELP!!!

 

hey bubbles... u kno iv got the exact rig!! yes even the Intuos u an artist or sumthin? but im still tryin to fix my SLI

 

Yeah I'm a graphic artist, mainly Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and InDesign. I hope you get the drivers installed. I noticed you said the file didn't help you install, the same thing happened to me, download the driver from the same place you get the modded file at it should work. The driver from the Nvidia website didn't work for me.

 

well.. i downloaded the drivers... it installed this time using the have disk method... but my pc performance is very bad now and all my other drivers keep crashing. the drivers didnt change much... was way better ont he original drivers... ny suggestions?

im a graphic artist... jus strtin 3d at the moment... learnin game development in uni... u got a ur artwork on any site?

 

Sorry to hear the driver didn't work.

Don't have my own website but I've put a quick pic of my daughter I did freehand in Photoshop last month, took 1.5 hours but I screwed up the shading a bit.

Just found another I did a while back of my boy as well. Did that one in under an hour.

I'll have a go at using the XPS M1730 when photoshop is online, just have to get the key of my IT staff (like getting blood from a stone!!!).

 

hey bubbles, how does crysis run on ur laptop? do u run on max graphics? or jus high?

 

Don't have Crysis yet, waitin for the full game as I only have 256kb broadband. Slow I know but the ADSL2 (20,000kb) connection isn't available on my switch!!!

I've found that a lot of the old games on DX8 and earlier don't run very well but DX9 run excellent. I don't have a DX10 game yet.

 

i jus got in touch wit dell tech... they sending a techie to replace my vid cards... sum1 suggested tht the cards don perform well due to heat.... this better work now.

 

dude... we're talkin bout the dell xps m1730 here... i got a 6400 3dmark06 score... dell still ahsnt replaced my gfx cards... shud come this monday.

Mr. Bubbles... im supposed to get the same 3dmark score as u since we've got the eact config...

 

ok.. i jus got gears of war today... n it doesnt play on my XPS... it keeps crashing... the dell tech support guy is sayin ill hafta wait for the nw drivers to play the game.... aaaarrgghh!!!

 

That's a bit of a cop-out by the techs IMO.

 

yea... but i managed to get it runnin... but still runnin on tht defective vid card and gfx to the max... game runs well... cant wait to get my replacement

bubbles, b4 u installed the modded drivers, wht was ur 3dmark06 score? cuz wit the original dell drivers im gettin a 6400 or sumthin... i read in another topic on this site tht a guy was runnin on the original drivers n got a score of 8000+... were there any other probs u faced wit the original drivers?

 

ok... dell replaced my gfx card... n i find no difference, actually im gettin an even lower 3dmark06 score now... and the gfx crds fans go reall crazy n stop. then the card over heats... the technician said dell will contact me tomorrow n he suggested i ask for a brand new piece

 

bubbles... u gotta tell me each n every setting ur runnin on

 

Do you know what this is my first post on here and im reading along avidly takeing this all in..Ive just upgraded from a 1710 to the 1730 and have had an absolute nightmare......Firstly the blu-ray player when un connected from the mains is a joke..i have never had a laptop that cannot play films on the go even if only for half hour.....my 3d mark 06 score was 7785 and never higher and the laptop just never seemed to work...I was continually getting "programme not respondin " all the time , viewing photos in media centre was painful and when i enquired about drivers for the sli setup i am told only dell can provide them and they are not really writting many at the moment as they have ongoing issues to deal with????

Quite frankly after waiting 5 weeks for this laptop i feel really let down and have such cancelled it in the 7 day cooling period and am waiting till monday now for the m17x to be realeased and will get that with 8800gtx sli set up....

 

vxrmarc, I feel your pain! I personally havn't had any problems with my m1730, but have heard a lot from other people. I'm using beta drivers from laptopvideo2go.com because the Dell drivers a pretty crappy (even though they are making one exclusively for the m1730). I hope you'll be happy with your AW system. It's an awsome machine they're building over there!

 

Its a real shame because dell customer service were superb...I bought my 1710 and within 2 weeks the 1730 came out which i had no idea about when ordering...They allowed me as a one off to upgrade outside the cooling period as long as i paid upfront which i did...I got a refund for the 1710 and paid for 1730 but it just didnt work out...I was expecting so much more....

This is video of blu-ray with mains plugged in




and this is on laptop battery



i didnt pay £2500 to not even be able to watch a film when out....

So i suppose its luck that the Alienware system is announced monday or else i wouldnt know where to turn really as in uk i dont think we can get sager systems etc.. I think Rock extreme is the nearest rival for speed....

 

i reckon its sumother hardware prob, cuz im runnin on the modded drivers from laptopvideo n i do get gud performance, but its very unstable. Dx10 don work very well wit those drivers. and my pc keeps hanging, apps keep crashing... dell even replaced my gfx card... n still no difference. im just goin to wait for the next driver release and if tht doesnt work, dell will hafta replace my laptop.
cuz i kno a cpl of other ppl who hav the exact config as mine and they run on the original dell drivers n hav no probs at all.
wit the original drivers i get a 3dMark06 score of 4892, and with the modded driver, 8009. but the other guys get 8200 wit the original drivers.
and yes, same config, same OS too!!!

 

My whole point is simple really......I specified all along that i wanted blu-ray and it was a very important part of the laptop for me...I spoke to technical in great length to make usre i got a matsush.ita uj-220 or uj-215 drive and that it would work so i upgraded the processor to make sure it was within the boundaries of safety with cpu usage...It turns up and doesnt play?????

SO WHERES THE QUALITY CONTROL DELL THEN??????

How can they spend 6 weeks and 2 days apparently testing and send me out a mc that if they,d have simply slipped in a bd disc and pressed play they would have known????

 

Hello fellas...I'll be brief.

I wonder if anybody with a spec similar to mine could perform this simple test and report back their findings:

Install 3dmark pro 06

Install the patch to version 1.1.0

Enable SLI

Start up 3dmark

Under options, set resolution to 1920x1200 and select "loop all selected tests"

Run 3dmark

If anybody manages 10 hours straight without any lockups in between loading screens, please let me know how you did so.

x7900 CPU
8700gt SLI (tried drivers 158.22 (shipped with), 169.04, 169.09 and 163.69
Vista x32
4gb
200gb x2 RAID 0

I've so far been unable to get past 2 hours without the system crashing. The crashes don't occur during the tests, but in between loading them, when you see the desktop for a second or two. Instead of loading the next test, it simply hangs, no control over the mouse, ctrl alt del does nothing, and I have to force a power down. Please let me know if you've encountered the same or similar.

 

Hey Franklins,

Why would you loop the tests at 1920x1200 in 3dmark06????? Do you do this instead of watching a DVD or something?

Your putting a hell of a strain on the notebook for no sane reason IMO.

 

But should it not be able to do it regardless???? Isnt that the question not why??

My 1730 was absolutly a nightmare and just kept locking up all the time.....

I had more problems in 5 days than i could cope with!!

 

Is this a serious question?

One of this laptop's primary selling points is its supposed ability to run highend 3d applications and games.

I always run this benchmark - amongst numerous others - as a means of testing any system that I have either built or puchased as it will reveal any underlying software/hardware instabilities far quicker than one is able to through general use.

If a system is having trouble getting through a few loops of 3dmark, there's a 99% chance it will also falter when running other similarly demanding applications.

As for putting one hell of a strain on it.....??????????????

1. 3dmark06 is well over a year old now and nowhere near as demanding as many of the more recent games and benchmarks (Oblivion, Crysis and Bioshock to name but three).

and

2. It cost £4000!!!

What should I do? Smile nicely, apologise and start compiling the world's most expensive spreadsheet?

Anyhow, as luck would have it, I appear to have found a solution for the time being - changing the desktop's "theme" from "windows vista" to "classic windows" has stopped the lockups, indicating the problem is driver related. Other's experiencing issues similar to mine might also want to try this as a potential workaround.

 

I only use the default settings in 3dMark06 and have never had a lockup, but then again I don't loop it continuously at full res.

So why don't you return it then and get a better machine, there's plenty of competion out there ;-). You'll be happier and we'll be happier for you.

 

Id agree with Mrbubbles on that , return it and get the new m17x in January.....At least you can loop away to your hearts content...

 

hey ppl... finally a driver tht works properly...

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16311

 

I'm having a great time with my drivers though

 

abe2mir, did going to 167.45 fix your issues in vista i have the same problem getting better performance with sli off.
ive installed xp and still the same issue, at best get 5800 3dmark06 games run beter single card. games tested, ghost recon 2, battlefield 2142, under both
used the standerd vista drivers - and 167.51,
xp standard drivers - and 169.09 (sligtly better)



xps 1730
2*200gb hd (raid 0)
8700 sli
2gb ram

os vista pre & xp pro

 

im getting around 9800ish in 3dmark 06. My compare link is in my sig at the bottom.

 

ive got the same cpu but havent uped it from 2.8 till i get avrage enough results from the default, 171 patch version were did you get that, did you have any issue's with your 1730 to beginwith

 

i got 4890 points in 3Dmark06 ='( ive tryed contacting dell, but they wont answer my mails, but can it go from 4800 to 8000 just by changeing drivers? there has to be something else wrong!

 

Try the non Dell drivers. I'm pretty sure it's the crappy Dell driver, not utilizing second card even when nvidia panel shows it's enabled.

 

Check your power settings also, and make sure they are set to max performance.

 

Thanks, tried the 174.31 driver, and downloaded some other drivers (BIOS) and i now have 8208 points in 3Dmark06 thanks again

 

I´ve been reading through the thread. I seem to be experiencing the same problems. Ridicolously low FPS in Crysis

Im on a 1730XPS vista with the dual 8700m GT 256mb card. Im running on 167.51 Forceware and 174.93 Vista drivers (I should be having both of them right?). Sorry but Im new to this laptop maze of drivers and settings.

What are the conclusions here? Is there anything that fixes the 8700m GT performance (on Vista)?

 

No.

But chances are the newer drivers have simply overwritten the older ones anyway, so it's no big deal