Dell XPS M1330 - nVidia GeForce 8400M GS - Copper Mod

So do you think I need to sell my XPS? Just want to have your opinion though.

grrr.... still cant think what to do...

 

No, I don't think you need to sell your XPS. I believe that a properly modded GPU will live pretty much as long as you need it - that the failure rates will be along the lines of an average GPU; a few years. All that aside, how much money will you lose if you sell it? At least 200 bucks probably. Replacing the motherboard costs ~150. I am selling my XPS not because of the 8400, but because it does not meet my size requirements any more.

 

Hmmm that's a good point Hep!. I'm planning to sell my xps @ $400 is it to much? Anyhow I will give chance on xps for couple of days. Still waiting for a sign . Is the currency you are telling is in $?

I still did not tried the mod because I don't have the proper tools yet. And still afraid to do the mod :-(. I'm not that techie person.

Thanks

 

What are the specs of your XPS? How much warranty is left (if any?)
I am talking about USD.

The mod is not too difficult, even for a non-technical person. If you still do not feel comfortable with the help of the people of this forum, a local computer shop (NOT GEEKSQUAD) should be able to do the job for you for 50-100 dollars, if you provide the parts. I think we'd charge $75 for it if someone wanted our shop to do it.

 

Just finished the mod....................the most nerve wrecking start up EVER!!!


But it WORKED

 

I've got a new plan: I'll do the copper mod for people for 30 bucks. You pay shipping and parts. If you cannot obtain parts, I will get them and charge accordingly.

(For serious)

 

Hi, please let me know what could be the re-sale value of my xps.

Thanks.

Specs:
Intel C2D 1.8ghz
1GB Ram
160GB HD
Usb modem
Newly replaced mobo
All parts/accessories working
Vista Home Premium
All installers included

Warranty just expired last august 16, show problem related to GPU last september 4 & dell replaced my mobo sept 8.

 

Hmmm... maybe I'll think of this one... problem is I'm here in Saudi & maybe this one will be cost me more rather than having do it by regular shop here. but I will consider this one because I'd rather pay more to the experts rather than cheap which I'm not sure if they do it correctly.

Thanks

 

Greate guide!
Did copper mode also on my xps1330. Improvements are significant!

Before mod: Idle=75C, Load=97C
After mod: Idle=60C, Load=73C
Load temperature was measured by running FurMark for 5 mins, and monitoring temperature iwht CPUID Hardware Monitor.

Also laptop keyboard now is less colder. Previously it was uncomfortable to hold hands for a long time on it. Now it is just a little bit warm (when on idle then it is almost impossible to tell that keyboard is warm).

Laptop specs: T9500 @ 2.6Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows XP SP3.

 

I'd suggest posting in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, you'll get much more response there. Just make a topic like "Price Check: XPS M1330" with what you just posted here.

 

Just an update on Direct2Dell's Blog on Dell GPU limited warranty enhancement:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/arch...ate-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

 

Well, my laptop is now on it's deathbed. Everytime I boot up I gte the wonderful vertical color bands. Once it goes into windows bootup it looks okay but I will still get some strange distortions every so often.

I have ordered a new heatsink assy from Dell (which includes new blue foam pads) for ~$20 shipped. I will undo my coppermod with this so they won't give me greif when they have to fix it.

I had hoped the laptop would hold out until the new NVidia GPU's were being provided to correct the issue but it doesn't look like this will be the case.

 

So even with the copper mod your GPU failed? What a letdown. I just ordered my copper piece.

 

I've been saying from day 1 that this mod is only to lower temps, making gaming possible (as it prevents the overheat/underclock junk), and a side effect is that it will increase the longevity of the GPU, BUT the death of the GPU is inevitable as the issue roots in a faulty GPU core, not just in Dell's **** poor cooling system

 

^^^Very true. Until the underlieing issue of a faulty chip is corrected these failures will continue. It is a matter of heat cycling causing the crummy soldering on the NVidia chip to fail. The Cu mod does reduce your operating temps but it does not eliminate the cycling that all chips experience.

I can only pray that they have corrected the fault on the new motherboard they install (doubtful based on recent posts).

 

I just did the mod and am quite pleased with the results:

Before mod:

idle: 62
load: 94 (5 minutes of RTHDRIBL)

After mod:

idle: 50
load: 72

Thanks to everyone who contributed to make this mod possible!

 

Hi again,

do you know if XPS1330 can be equipped with an additional mini-pci-express video adapter as a replacement of the integrated one?
The idea is - get XPS1330 with integrated Intel video (which is not expected to die the same way like nvidia's chip) and then place in the internal mini-pci-express slot an additional video card.

 

You could get a ViDock which allows an external video card, but also requires an external monitor. It's very expensive, and in my opinion, pretty pointless. Other than that, no, what you have suggested is not possible in any way.

 

Need some advice from the copper modders...

I installed the copper mod a few weeks ago and was quite happy with the results: after about a week's settling-in time, my GPU temperature never exceeded 75 °C even when overclocked to 500 / 720 MHz. However, beginning yesterday, I noted a rise in GPU temperature again to around 85 ° C while gaming. At first I thought the fan was defective, but the I8KGUI fan monitor verified both slow and high speed operations, although the fan seems to kick in a bit later than before.

Has anyone experienced this problem after having installed the copper mod? I hate to disassemble the fan assembly again but would be glad to do so if anyone here recommends it. Still have plenty of Arctic thermal paste left. And another question: If I do go ahead and redo the mod, should I skip applying thermal paste to the CPU as some have suggested here?

Thanks for your help!

 

Just open it up and make sure that the copper has not shifted out from under the GPU. If you have to redo the mod, reapply thermal paste, it's important.

 

HEY guys!
DEll ppl definiately read our forum, because I opened up my dell insprion today, ( I just got the mobo of the laptop changed) and I SEE A PIECE OF COPPER aboce the GPU! Just like wat our forum said.

However, the thickness of the copper is just like a piece of paper, very thin. And a thermla pad is put above the copper. Strange right? So its like a sandwhich of copper and thermal pad between GPU and hear heatsink.

Also, Nividia seems to be trying to fix their problems of bad soldering. I see platic glue at the fours corners of the GPU, which make it look like sort of glued up. The glue is the common type of glue we can buy and use in glue gun.
something like this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glue_gun.

Just a note, the DELL copper mod sux, my temp still hit 103c threshold whenever I overclock my card and play COD4.

Thanks

 

By the way, i am using Insprion 1420.

 

OK, I went ahead and redid the copper mod this morning. At first I tried to insert a new heat sink assembly which I'd purchased from EBay, but the computer shut down immediately and reported a high temperature warning. The heat assembly looked a bit different than the original, with support extensions surrounding the GPU area, and the fan also kicked on during startup, but I didn't dare try to restart and replaced it with the original.

Idle temperatures are already down to 55 - 60 °C but I hope I won't have to do this again any time soon! I even considered purchasing a new motherboard and replacing it myself after all the horror stories of Dell technicians ruining perfectly good laptops with their bare hands, but there doesn't seem to be any way to guarantee that a new board will be better. The motherboards for sale on EBay seem to be revision 04 if I read the labels correctly, which is newer than mine, but they're not cheap. I suppose the best thing to do is wait until my GPU dies and look very carefully over the shoulder of the guy Dell sends to replace the motherboard!

 

If Dell is going to modify their cooling, they should do it the proper way as documented here! Why go through the effort of putting a copper shim only to put a thermal pad on top of it?

Perhaps with their mod, they might be more 'forgiving' if they find our pieces of copper when doing a motherboard replacement.

 

Dell should give me a free M1730 considering how much they will save in motherboards they won't have to replace now.

Well, or they would save, if they could do something right with the cooling assembly.

 

When I was on the phone with tech support a couple of weeks ago, in order to get a new mobo/hdd, I told the guy all about the copper mod. He said the idea is very interesting and that he understood how much better it must be with the copper than the pad and that he'd forward it to higher authorities of Dell. I gave him the measurements.

I don't know if this is the reason to why you found a copper sheet in there, but if it is they seem to have gotten it all wrong, if they still leave the pad on there and only use a thin copper slice.

I wasn't really able to properly credit you who came up with the idea when I spoke to tech support, I just said that some people on a forum figured out the solution.

 

Hello there, just got my mobo replaced for the 2nd time & I noticed also that "glue" thing on the GPU but I don't have the copper on it. :-(

What is the color of the glue thing on your mobo? Mine is red.

My mobo now is REV A04 but I'm sure it is a refurb one because they just put the "REV A04" on top of the "REV A01". I think my mobo is already on its third generation because I have already 3 layerd sticker. First sticker is " REV X00" and then "REV A01" and lastly the "REV A04.

I hope this one will be good enough to last for at least 2 more years.

 

I love your avatar by the way. He's SOOOO cute, that little panda cub.

 

Mine is transparent color...those very common glue.

 

Thx for the panda Mystey

Btw, I NEED SOME HELP !
I just did my copper mod. The temp went up slightly instead of down!
Here is was i did, i used a piece of copper from a section of copper water pipe, hammered it into a sheet. Apply those cheap silicon thermal paste in the way as instructed, and put it back. The fit of copper is just nice. But temp went up

Anyone know wat went wrong? Thx a lot....

 

I have found this picture on the net, is this way of applying AS5 will be good?

Thanks

 

@anuclearbomb - A piece of flattened pipe is not sufficient for this as it will not be perfectly flat. Especially after being hammered. It's thermal conductivity capabilities will be very very limitied.


@elg3ne - Never seen the masking tape but many people use a credit card to even out AS5. Me, I just use my finger wrapped in a bit of saran wrap

 

o thx hep!
I am thinking of sanding a piece of 2.5mm thick copper (from my old CPU heatsink) into 1mm thick.....possible? Becuase i cant seem to get any copper around here.......... thanks

 

I doubt you'll get it perfectly flat.

Save yourself some hassle and just get it from here (where I got mine):

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-5mm-Copper-Sh...NameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em122

Now go feed that panda--he looks hungry!

 

I bought it from this guy and it got here faster than the Arctic Silver that I bought from the US. (the copper thing is from the UK)

Very good and extremely fast

 

Pretty much everyone uses metaloffcuts. That's where I got my original piece, but I changed my whole design later to only use a thin copper shim. So that piece is just sitting around now.

 

Mind telling us about your new cooling design?

 

I mentioned it a few pages ago in this topic. I basically just bent the assembly towards the GPU (well, carefully. It still has to lie perfectly flat against the GPU). The copper heat pipe is very flexible, but you must be careful not to break it, bending it too much will cause it to become brittle. The only reason I use a shim at all is because I have the raised "L" cooling assembly, people with the engraved L's will likely not even need a shim. The purpose is to give me a more direct contact to the GPU.

I had plans on making a custom bottom panel out of sheet aluminum that would rest against the heatsink right above the GPU as well, to help wick out more heat, but as I am now selling my XPS I decided against it.

 

which one is better in terms of cooling down the gpu? is it your new thin copper shim or the original one?

what is the advantage of using the thin shim over original?

thanks

 

The thin shim gives you a more direct contact to the cooling assembly. There's really not much advantage, slightly increased thermal conductivity perhaps, but not as good as it would be on direct contact. I really just like to tinker. The best thing for most people will be to use the original mod, as it is easier, has less room for user end error, and using just a shim provides little real world improvement.

 

So I just got off the phone with the tech support folks. They are going to send out a technician to repair my machine.

Here is the kicker, they tried to tell me that there really is nothing wrong with the GPU's and that the BIOS update would correct the problem I am having. I politely informed him that I applied the update in August and the computer is still not working right. After I mentioned the warrentee extension on the direct2dell blog he changed the tune and started processing me for a repair.

I just feels like this whole issue is being buried. The GPU's are obviously faulty but the problem is not being directly acknowledged by either Dell or NVidia. I realize that Dell just uses the chips and is not directly responsible but they should be leaning on NVidia to accept the truth and rectify the problem.

We shall see if this permanatly fixes the problem (doubtful).

 

I was looking at getting an M1330, are they still built the same or has Dell done anything on the assembly line to help fix the NVidia problems at all??

 

Don't buy an M1330, they have not changed. Buy an Ideapad U330, all the same features but better specs, a new architecture, and less chance of a premature death. Or I mean, you can have my M1330, and I'll get an Ideapad.

You really should just fill out the "what notebook should I buy" FAQ

 

So I went ahead and did the mod on my XPS m1530. The results have been a bit better. It didn't blow me away by any means, but I'm running about 5 degrees cooler now. I'm idling between 58-62 with copper, without I was 61-66. While gaming I'm peaking at 87 with 178.15 but I've gone back to 177.84 and I peak at 84. Previously I was peaking at 88 with 177.84 and 92 with 178.15. So on average I'm 5 degrees cooler, which isn't bad!

After some time now of letting the mod settle in, my temps have dropped a bit more. I now idle at 55-61 and gaming is between 70-73, peaking at 78-79 under heavy load.

 

I havent had any problems with my M1330, but I agree that its not worth the risk of buying one. There are other, more current competing laptops, such as the U330 or Vaio SR.

 

Hi guys, I just notice my cooling assembly is different from the picture on the first page.

Can someone tell me what version this cooling assembly?

Thanks

 

I think that's the same one that I have - don't recall the revision though.

 

Im guessing this mod works for the 8600 series? I have an 1530. Does it eliminate the problem completely?

 

I bought a m1330 heatsink like yours, its the new revision. It might be more efficient.

 

Please read the topic, it's been gone over tons of times.
1) People have done it on the M1530
2) It does not really need to be done on the M1530
3) It does not fix anything. It lowers temperatures, which will EXTENT the GPU's life. The GPU is faulty though, period. There is no fix beyond replacement with a non-faulty GPU.