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

Why can't we get a 3 year extension warranty like Sony offers?

 

Can we ask for a swap for a mobo with integrated graphics? I mean, I'd rather downgrade and stop the madness than wait for another failure.

 

Agreed ... Dell should step up and offer an additional 3 years, not 1 year.

Love the Nvidia Graphic on the Sony ...

 

I have done the copper mod and have had positive results but due to the hot summer ambient temperature my m1330 gets quite hot especially during gameplay (70-80 cpu and 90 gpu), and yet at these temperatures the fan does not spin to full speed to cool the laptop. This is especially annoying as at these temp the cpu clocks down, making games unplayable. I have the latest a15 bios. what is the best bios, so that the fan turns on fully when the cpu/gpu gets hot.
Thanks

PS. does anyone know if the warranty is valid in a country which is not the one where it was bought ( i bought mine on ebay from an irish retailer, but i live in Malta). Should the local Dell agent handle my warranty.

 

can anyone tell me where I can buy Gauge 16 & Grade C106 - 14x14x1.5mm copper sheet? I mean like what actual stores sell them. I dont want to buy it only its extra copper and shipping charges. I tried looking in Home Depot and wasnt able to find it there? Any stores that you would recommend? Do hardware stores carry copper sheets? I just came back from one and all they had was Copper pipes, which there pretty thick....
Thanx

 

^^ made a typo... what i meant to say: I dont want to buy it online!

 

I'm really interested in performing the copper mod my my m1330 laptop.

...on average...how much longer can my laptop last if I do the mod?

 

All depends on your hardware and how you have the unit under stress .
Using a 2 year old M1330 from new only did mods back in June of this year temps are well down to what they had been.

 

I got started on the heat sink mod but can't get the 4 screws holding the heat pipe clip off. So far, the heads of three of them are pretty well stripped. Anyone know what kind of screws these are? M2.5x5's or something else? I might be able to remove the stripped ones with a screw extractor, but it'd be nice to have replacements on hand so my machine isn't out of commission while I try to track these things down.
thanks

 

I have a 2-years old M1330 and got the mobo replaced by DELL once (about 6 months ago). I'm not an heavy gamer but frequently use multi-monitor configurations with big big screens.

I started being worried after my warrantly expired and the notebook was unbearably hot during the summer.

I did the mod and monitored my notebook behaviour in the past few days; I must say I can see a sensible improvement after the mod, not only an average of about 4-5° less on everyday working-browsing use but now the temps return to lower values more quickly after gaming.
(before they remained about around 72-73°, now after an hour of games the top temp was 76° and in 10 minutes has dropped back to 63°! Yay!

I think a good thing that I didn't read on the guide is to clean the heatpipe vent; i used a compressed-air bottle and blew a while into the fan and saw a lot of dust go out of it.
This combined with the mod could make some difference I think.


4 European modders: I live in Italy and bought the copper sheet by Ebay user "metaloffcuts", which is the one suggested in these pages.
No problem at all shipping to Italy, even with the cheap fare (2 €) the envelope arrived in about a week.
Cheers!

 

I had this problem too;

I solved this using 2 screwdrivers, one cross and one flat:
with the cross try to turn the screw, while with the flat screwdriver push down the flat sheet of metal that holds the screw; with the combined forces you should manage to get going..!

good luck!

 

Hi guys,

I just order my copper sheet and should arrive in a coupleof days.
Since I will have to apply ne thermal paste I would like to know which one to use. I've read so many reviews on thermal compound for the last days...

1. Acrtic Silver 5
2. Arctic MX-3
3. Coollaboratory LIQUID PRO

Which one of those would you recommend? Or if there is any other out there much better for the copper mod.

Thanks!

 

Go with Arctic MX- 2 OR 3 which is the lastest from them. Using A MX2 with very good results right out of the tube. AS5 I found good for my output stage on my audio amps..

 

Same here (Vienna, AT)

 

Well I just applied the copper mod and have to say that temps dropped dramatically.

I was OC'ing the card @: 600/1200 GPU/Shader & 900 memory and after 1h of playing temps were about 99-100C.
After the mod with same frequencies temps are arround 75C max 80C after 1hof gaming.
IDLE is arround 51-52C
I used Arctic-MX3 but have to say it's a piece of crap when it comes to applying it. That stuff is soooooooo sticky, it's almost imposible to apply!.
AS 5 is so easy to apply but couldn't find it @ the store...
Anyway performance should be about the same with both TIMs...

 

I was about to do a copper mod too, but went with simply applying a thermal compound without a piece of copper in between. It was a 15 minutes job and I'm very happy with the results. I posted here about my experience:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5285904#post5285904

Thanks!

 

Thermal compound between a thermal pad and your GPU...

That's so like

EDIT: Sorry, just read the thread. Numbers are good, so I can't deny it, but I'm still a "steel is real" man myself

 

No dude, he took out the pad and replaced it with just ICD7. Lots of people are doing that now.

 

is 1.25mm copper thick enough?
will that extra 0.35mm make a big difference?

 

After reading this thread for over a year, i finally got the guts to carry out the mod on my M1330. it was a piece of cake, took 20 mins.
All i can say is that I am amazed and shocked at the temperatures.

Before mod, my temperatures use to reach 104 C while playing cod4, idle around 67 C
Now, max 78 C while running a FurMark on my native resolution with minor overclock, and idle averages around 56 C.

Definitely recommend it. Just a pitty that dell didnt think of this.

Cheers,
Mtwap

 

Want to mod my D630 because of overheating gpu issues . Does 1,5mm is enough for D630 with nVidia NVS135 GPU?

 

Has anyone done something similar to JHL90? Because the temps are nuts, after a hou of playing my gpu was max 104C.

 

So here is my situation with my M1330. I had the vertical line problem on my laptop clearly my nvidia card had died, and right after my 1 year warranty had ended. I called Dell technical support asking for the extended warranty for M1330's with the defective nvidia chip. The tech support said that my laptop does not fall under the extended warranty because it does not have the defective chip. And only laptops that shipped within a certain time frame have the defective chip. Of course my laptop's GPU is died, and what tech support just gave me is BS. So then I opened my laptop to find that on top of the GPU there is a heatsink then under that a thermal pad, rather then just a thermal pad like others.
Here are some pictures:

 

Call Dell and ask to speak to a line manager if you don't get any where with Tec support again. nVidia GPU which in your case has gone R.I.P would need a motherboard replacement keep at them till you get your replacement..

 

So if I can get the motherboard can I do the copper mod over the heatsink? Similar to your heatsink/copper mod.

 

Yes you can.

 

Hi guys... I'm new here, so pardon me if I'm asking something that bothering you.
I just want to know, is there anyone here who has been doing coppermods but at the end still get the nvidia chip died? Cause I'm near end of my warranty and I've been thinking to switch to another laptop before my M1330 died.
Thanks for any comment.

 

What do you mean "over the heatsink"?

Your question only bothers me because it is answered in the first post of this topic.

So yes, it will still fail. It will just take a little longer.

 

Sorry, and thanks for the answer. I think its time for me to switch for another laptop. I've been thinking to get the new Studio XPS 13. Is it safe or will it happen to have the same problem as M1330?

 

The Studio XPS 13 has 9 series cards which supposedly are not affected, but we know that at least some 9500M GS cards are affected, as we've seen an equally high failure rate (oh... and that the 9500M GS is a renamed 8600M GT). The 9400M GT or the GT210M should be safe.
But personally, I would not buy nVidia right now unless it was the 2xx series (like the GT210M)... and even then, right now I'd prefer ATI. I am only talking about mobiles here, I think nVidia is the only way to go on a desktop, but that's separate.

 

Oh no... I think M1330 will be the last dell I bought. Such a disappointment though, since I've been used dell for many years now (missing my good old Inspiron 6400). Can you recommend any good 13" laptop which has dedicated vga chip (ATI will do), similar feature as Studio XPS 13, that's in price range as Studio XPS 13? I'm really appreciate your comments.

 

I actually haven't been keeping up with the 13" notebooks as right now my interest is primarily in the 11.1" subnotebooks. I would suggest filling out the What Notebook Should I Buy? FAQ and creating a new topic in the appropriate subforum. There are lots of valuable opinions here on NBR, not just mine. You'll get best results from that.

 

OK then, thanks for your help. I'll follow your suggestion. Sorry for being OOT in this thread.

 

Dudes,

I'm doing the copper mod in a few days. I got my Arctic Silver 5 today and I'm waiting on my shim which should be here in a few days.

I've got two questions.

1. How much Arctic Silver 5 should I use on the CPU and GPU? I've heard that half a grain of rice is the right amount. Should I use the same amount for both?

2. What is the best method of evenly spreading the AS5? I can't think of anything good.

Cheers,

Jonny

 

I use a small piece of cardboard or an old credit card cut to the right size. Then I put a dab of AS5 on each applicable surface, and spread it evenly with the piece of cardboard/credit card. And that's it. The amount is usually half a grain of rice to start, but you want to evenly put an as-thin-as possible layer on the full CPU/GPU die. This is sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

 

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere but I am thinking about applying this mod to my laptop and have noted some discrepencies with this set of instructions and the ones from the Shim supplier.

I found a person on ebay that sells both the GPU and northbridge so thought I might aswell do both. I know the guide says not to bother but as I have the thing in bits, I might aswell go for it.

My question surrounds the application of the thermal compound. This is what the copper retailer recommends:

1) Apply a thin layer to all three prepared chips
2) Place the copper shims on the GPU and Northbridge chips
3) Apply a thin layer to the top of the copper shims? ***
4) Apply a thin layer to the three contact points on the Thermal Cooling Assembly.

*** this is the bit that differs from the main guide on this forum as it does not mention applying any thermal paste to the top of the copper shim?

Is step 3) unnecessary or is it worth doing for completness? I note that for the main CPU you apply the paste to both the cooling assembly and chip but nothing is mentioned for the GPU? Should I also think about applying thermal paste directly to the bottom of the copper shim, before placing this on the GPU / Northbridge chip? or is the fact that I have applied paste to the top of the chip be enough?

I guess the last thing I need is all this past squishing out if I apply too much?

 

Do you know guys if for Latitude D630 will be the thickness of the copper shim (1.5mm) same as for XPS 1330? Thanks.

 

Hi,

This is interesting. I now have two xps m1330's as a result of the vertical line problem - just out of warranty etc.

A few weeks ago I decided to fire up the broken one - sure enough, got the vertical line problem, so switched it off. then I decided to switch it back on again and let whatever was happening to complete whatever it was doing - got the vertical lines - then the screen eventually started to go bright white - eventually went back to black screen.

Then nothing happened, so switched it off.

Switched it back on again - DELL - the thing fired up wihtout so much as a hiccup. It has been perfect ever since - that was nearly 4 weeks ago. I ahve run 3d mark just to throw rocks at it and it's worked great.

I thought I would let you guys and gals know.

Incidentally, my second xps is running Win 7 (the previous broken one is running vista). Both are identical - core2 duo, t8100, 4gb. However, the new one running Win 7 runs A LOT cooler than the one running Vista, there is very little fan activity and the aluminium wrist rests are almost cold to the touch on Win7 - they are hot on Vista, but I am pleased to say the old one is still running perfectly - I am going to put Win7 on that one too now.

If any of you ahve the vertical line problem, just try and let it run through as I did...

Cheers,
j-c

 

Hi J-c. I don't want to worry you but my laptop did exactly the same thing. I got about 2 weeks more use out of it before the GPU died completely. Make sure your data is backed up as it will almost definitely die soon.

 

Hi,

Yes, that did worry me, but I've been using it daily for 4 weeks. Ran 3D Mark several times just to get the gpu burning...and it's still going strong. At one point I left it running for 36 hours with looping graphics test.

Right now it's running a fresh install of Win7. I also put a seperate HD in it and run an Ubuntu install - no problems.

Got all the data backed up - when it failed first time took the disk out and dumped it to another disk.

Fingers crossed, but so far so good. When the W7 install is done, I'm going to take the back off and see about this copper cooling mod.

Will keep you posted.

 

It's definitely going to die again, the question is when.

My girlfriend's Inspiron 1520 recently died, had a faulty 8600M GT. I took the board out, removed all plastics that I could, and baked it in the oven for 9 minutes at 385F. Been working like a charm since. Highly recommended for dead systems, especially out of warranty.

 

Hmmm...so you're saying I am more likely to win the lotto than this thing staying alive

On a similar note, I used to deep freeze an irksome HP nx7400 laptop when it decided to play tricks like die on me.

About once a month would do it - 3 hours at -19

 

Give it time it will die on you...I would just call Dell up and get the boards exchanged now...

 

Will they still do this on an out of warranty one?

My newest xps m1330 is approx 3 months old - are new ones affected like this, or rather, when did they fix this problem?

 

Yes there is a link with details but any how it free replacement of mobo and cooling unit make sure that do that too!!!

 

Yeah, dell extended the warranty by one year on the laptops with faulty GPUs (most of them anyway, of course not on the Inspiron 1520).

 

Just did the copper mod, I feel like a right techie now.

Just wondering, how much am I supposed to be using my XPS in the next few days? Should I use it at all?

Cheers,

Jonny

 

I used mine straight away, it's fine.

 

Just use it as you normally would.

 

What good does it do to bake it in the oven??