Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, *Part 3*

Anyone had this reballing of their motherboard done on here and does it work??

 

Thanks for the input.
I can't stop my CPU from throttling under load even at stock 2.8Ghz now. I've cleaned the fans and the vents. I don't feel very comfortable taking the whole beast apart to get to the CPU. Will give Dell a call when I get a chance. If I'm lucky, might even get X9000 as a replacement.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, lowering the voltage doesn't help. System becomes unstable and I get BSOD.

 

Oh and another question, I'm about to put my xps m1730 on eBay

So question is how much would I get for it with the motherboard needing repaired and one of the graphics card is dead I was thinking of putting it up for 380 pounds, starting price seems reasonable as the repair costs would still mount up to be cheaper than most of the returned ones on there


I have to say I'm going back to a desktop lol


Cheers guys

 

What's your full system configuration?

 

4bg ram
9800gt GPU's
300gb hard drive
T8300 2.4 ghz

running vista 32bit

laptop is very good condition, just a bit of wear on the writing on dvd drive

Not a massive spec

380 seems a good starting price as its going to cost 80 to reball the motherboard and test it aswell as about 200 for a graphics card, although one card is working so once motherboard is fixed then its basically fixed

 

The mobo is cheap nowadays and can be found easily, the gpus not thought.
Those are still pricey.
Imho its better you sell it as a lot, specifying that one gpu card is working.
Dunno about the price thought. Mine was 800$ with the same configuration as yours, maybe you can try 450$ in buy it now, but i doubt its worth more than 500 at his state.

 

Yeah ill pablies put it up to start at 350 and let it auction off, id rather get some money for it to fund my tower build if i get 400 id be more than happy its a shame to sell it but im not throwing anymore money into it i use it as a laptop not as a desktop to put on desk so cooling is better, still i did use a zamlam nc3000 laptop cooler with a big 220mm fan

Damn you dell with your lead free solder and cheap internal parts lol

 

Overclocked the x9000 to 3.8GHz and NFS Hot Pursuit is still lagging! It is lagging a lot less, but at certain points I will get huge FPS drops, like when its night time, if i drive past a lit up street light with traffic passing at the same time, the game almost grinds to a hault! Maybe its the GPU's? Other games are running quite a lot better, NFS Shift is running fine fully maxed out.

 

We need more informations.
First, your gpu drivers.
Second, your gpu are?
Third, your OS.
Fourth, be sure that "prefer maximum performance" and "single display mode" are selected under NVCP->3D (Display mode and power management).
Fifth, be sure that you dont have nothing crumbling in background like Antiviruses etc etc
Sixth, GameBooster helps alot. Install it, run it, and keep it running.

Report back

 

Well good news i sent my graphics card off for repair a few weeks back

i had to chase them up about 3 time asking if it was repairable, they replied it wasnt so told them to send it back, after a few more emails they had the cheek to ask me which card it was, anyway it finally came back today and i reinstalled it, did a full system reboot as ive read the drivers sometimes cause a blue screen and all is well

Maybe they sent me a working card as it looks newer to the one i sent them lol

Now its time to sell up for a decent price at least

 

hey guys. m1730 with 9800 sli, this is a system exchange. on my old m1730 brightness used to work using FN-up,down to change the brightness. now it doesnt work on my new machine. it does work in BIOS under the video section. . . any reason as to why it doesnt work??

also is the general consensus here for the lights is to use the vista quickset?

 

You need the quickset for fn keys to work, otherwise under 7 you need to manually adjust it under power management options.
And yes you need vista x64 quickset to get it working.

 

Hi, im running 270.61 drivers on windows 7 home premium 64, 9800m gt sli (no overclock). I dont get those options under 3D? This is a pretty fresh install (although havent reformatted since changing the cpu from my old T9300) and the only antivirus I have is microsoft security essentials. I will definately try gamebooster though, thanks.

 

If you cant see those options under 3d settings in nvidia control panel then something is REALLY wrong.
Please double check carefully.
You can use nvidia inspector too, launch it, click on the small wrench/tools near driver version and edit the "global" profile.
You should see those options.

Also put some juice on those cards!

 

I am experiencing some issues with my graphics card, just for some background my system specs are:
9800M GT SLI (on 270.61 drivers)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.50GHz

Back in late December (2010) I was installing new video card drivers, but decided for some reason that I should do a clean install, so I used software to remove the old drivers. After installing the new I experienced some issues with starting up the computer (black screen when turning the computer on). The only way to get the computer on was to disable the video cards (later figured out I just had to disable the second one only). Anyways, this seemed to get the laptop to run about as well as I needed it to for when I returned to school. Schools out for me now and I want to get to the bottom of the issue.

I am still unable to run the computer with the second video card enabled. I suspect that it might be dead, but I want to hope that it isn’t. Is there a test I can do to see if it is indeed a hardware issue I am experiencing? Any help or suggestions would be great.

 

Download nvidia inspector, then re enable the second card.
Launch the program and at the bottom of it there should be a dropbox. Select the second card and see what clocks it reports.
If it does report stange clocks like 0 mhz then probably its dead.
Another test you can do with both cards enabled (and therefore sli) is to run furmark streess test for a while.
If it fails or the pc lockups then definitely the second card is dead.

 

Hey Guys

I'm having a XPS 1730M
and i'm trying go boost it speed coz i get lags when i play
i have it for a 2 years and never boost it.
after reading the forum i tried to go to boost the speed in the bios,
didn't find where i can do it in.

i've downloaded the program nvidia Inspector,
but i don't know what is the recommended? and does it make the computer fuster.
for how much i set the GPU,Memory Clock and Shader Clock?
what does it do..?

now i have 625/800/1250
the bios tells me my speed is 2.6

my Tech:
Intel core 2 duo T9500 2.6 Gh
GeForce 8700 GT 512 SLI
4g ram
hitachi 200g 7200 rpm
i'm running win7 Enterprise *64bit

thanks for the help

 

and another thing,
i want to speed up my CPU and the graphic card. i understand that the nvidia Inspector offers to boost the graphic card only?
or am i wrong..?

 

bios driver the latest
Graphic Card driver - 258.96
not using the latest coz i had some problems with black screen on youtube
(a common problem i think)

 

Hi and welcome aboard fellow beast owner.
There are two major problems in your configuration:

First your gpu. 8700m sli is on par with a single 8800m gtx, therefore your only option is to overclock it. You already did that and those clocks looks good, so youre fine as it is.

As for the cpu, theres a misunderstanding going on here: the only cpus overclockable thru bios are the extreme cpus like x9000 and x7900.
Therefore your cpu is not overclockable in any way, nor by SetFSB as it doesnt support our xps.

So your option is to upgrade both cpu and gpu like my configuration to keep the beast going.
The performance of my system, oced as it is, is comparable to a gtx460m not overclocked.

Mind that self upgrading voids warranty and its going to cost alot, being $250 for the cpu (average prices) and $300-400 for a 9800m gtx sli.
Hope it helps.

 

Seraejkin,,,, you could try unclewebbs ThrottleStop to OC a Core 2 DUO
http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/477704-how-enable-intel-dynamic-acceleration-ida-both-cores-core-2-duo.html

 

Bad advice, thats a false hope. TS can only enable DualIda and nothing more, which is 200mhz more on both cores.
His bottleneck is the gpu first, then the cpu itself.

 

200mhz is better than nothing ....But atleast Throttlestop can stop dells bios from throttling cpu

 

Well thats right, but throttling happens mainly in overheat conditions, which i hope its not the problem here.
Anyway TS needs EIST disables and that mainly kills the throttling, DualIDA+chipset clock mod helps things going without doubts.

 

Thanks guys for the feedback

i dunno.. I'm a little disappointed..
but, probably i will leave it as it is..
no money for the upgrade

 

Ahh they were there! I'm a bit cautious to overclock the gpu's as I don't want to fry them (taking into account how unreliable these gpus are lol). What do you use to overclock yours though? Rivatuner? Also my second core seems to be running about 15-20 degrees C hotter under load when overclocked at 3.8GHz, the artic silver must not be spread evenly or something! Great lol, this machine is so much effort to disassemble!

 

I've been pretty happy with my 1730...only problem has been with over-heating of the dual 8700 nvidia cards locking up the system (fighting support on getting them exchanged for 8800/9800 or a new system)...

Anyway...while I don't have enough money to justify getting a brand new system (looking at the alienware m17x/m18x) have a couple hundred bucks...

Was looking at upgrading any of the following (maybe all of them depending on final price)

1) Upgrade my current Intel 3945ABG Wireless adapter with a more current Wireless N card....not sure what I can put in...is the 4965AGN card the only upgrade or is there a more current wireless card I can get?

2) Upgrade the two existing hard-drives, 200GB and 120GB, to say a pair of 500GB Seagate Momentus xt drives? Just checked and it doesn't look like I have a raid controller so I could go down to a pair of 320GB..one for my OS and one for everything else? Anyone have/use the momentus xt hybrid drive? Should I put an extra bit of money and get an SSD driver for my OS?

3) Upgrade my memory from the current 4GB to 8GB.

Thanks for any/all suggestions.

Thanks

 

Well Dell finally got my 1730 running again, it's pretty much an entire new system. They replaced my Video cards, Motherboard (twice), RAM, AC Adapter and LCD.

Only a week of downtime and 2 tech visits, I suppose that's not so bad.

I ran FurMark for it for 8 hours straight with not even a hiccup, then spent some time gaming. It appears to be quite solid.

 

Has anyone tried Witcher 2 ? I wonder if the Beast can handle ...

 

I will probably test it in the week end. Quadros 270.73 have a sli profile for it, so im good to go.
I bet we will get a solid 30fps maxed out.

 

Are you SURE about this??? just bought an M1730 from a friend and I would like to put the 8800M GTX in it(Got one lying around). But will it void my waranty if I do so?

Good for you...

 

Is there a version for xp32-bit ? On my current driver (Dell website ) I can't go higher than 30 fps , downfall to 18-20 when fighting . Everything low , 1024/768 . SLI don't work - image like dead memory on sli mode ( painter's palette )

 

Btw beta 275.27 have been released. Only win7 x64 althought its possible to use desktop winxp,but you need a modded inf. Check laptopvideo2go!

 

There is no inf file for me right now. At least I do not see it. Maybe later. I installed the latest possible beta driver and have got 25 to 33 fps in 1024/768 general medium settings ( I play on external monitor wich native resolution is just 1024/768 so it looks very good ) .
Sometimes fps drops to 20 - not very often . It is possible to play , but far , far from comfort . SLI works - no works . It means no crashes , but no benefit too .
Waiting for modded inf for newest beta driver 275.27 xp32bit . Waiting with hope .

 

Hi everybody!

I've been a reader of this forum for a while and now I have a problem in the hope any of you is able to help because it is driving me crazy as I don't find a solution...

Following:

Until now I had my M1730 with a 9800M GT SLI and the Graphic Card had this DELL special S/PDIF connector which also worked. Now I replaced the Graphic card with a 9800M GTX SLI that doesn't have this connector anymore and I am not able to use S/PDIF anymore :-(

I already tried to connect a 3,5mm to TOSLINK adapter to one of the earphones connector and set S/PDIF as standard device in audio devices but there is no sound coming out from my ONKYO HiFi :-(

What am I doing wrong? This is driving me crazy....

I'm using the laptopvideo2go IDT modded drivers and Win7 X64.

Any help would be appreciated. Ty

 

Here's my latest deal. Just got my new (to me) M1730 and got it reformatted and ready to go. But after about the 3rd succesful boot, the BIOS will not find my primary hdd. Secondary it sees fine. And if I swap them, it will read whichever I put in the secondary port so it will only read the secondary HDD. But, it will not boot from the secondary, only primary HDD. Any ideas?? Already replaced the cable. Don't wanna go to the warranty already (just renewed 2 days ago).

 

do you mean u tried another Hard drive sata cable?

ar you getting the reseat Hard Drive Message when booting? had somthing similiar an turned out to be a faulty Hard Drive Sata Cable > used a hair dryer to heat up the copper tape on Sata cable to test if it was the prob, an fixed but for very short time, when the copper tape cooled down couldnt find Primary Hdrive again.

 

Same thing also happened to me and it was the SATA cable.
Dell replaced the cable and all was good to go.

 

A quick report for the newest 275.27 betas.

Finally nvidia implemented some sort of thread optimizations for sli systems and dual cores; performance should be 12% higher in those cpu limited scenarios, shifting the workload on the gpu.

I can confirm that it somewhat works, tested with Black Ops which runs CRAP under Windows 7. Now it doesnt struggle anymore, not alot like it used to be, lets say that there are a few fps drop here and there but the framerate is averaging around 59 fps, sometimes better, sometimes lower.

Still its NO WAY comparable to XP performance.

Other games tested like Crysis 2/Brotherhood/Shift 2 doesnt report any gaings (well Shift 2 does have a better average framerate, and now it can reach 60fps when running in solo with Maxed out settins, which means maxing out the game using video options and then manually convert the values "2" into "3" into config file).

When 15 cars are on scree the framerate hovers around 35-42 fps which is not bad at all.

Crysis 2 still have a solid 30+ fps in SP with Extreme/1200p WITHOUT TWEAKS. These drivers seems stable with my current clocks 620/1575/900 althought idle temp raised a few degrees but its stable, no hovering (was 39°-42°, now stable 40°).

Im waiting for my copy of the witcher 2 to download, but ill take sometime as im on slow connection (7mb), prolly by sunday ill be able to test it out.

Anyway they are keepers for sure.

Note: all the tests are made with the cpu oced to 3,6ghz.

 

To answer my own Q-I called Dell and if I put the 8800 in, the warranty will be intact, just that particular piece will not be covered.

Yes to both of you-the SATA cable has been replaced with a new one. Where it connects to the mobo there is a small 'burn' mark and the old one is issing one of the copper connectors. Something shorted out so it is prolly in the mobo.

 

@Kingpinzero

could you upload your 9800m BIOS files please? I don't get my 9800M GTX SLI to run stable with such values when I change the BIOS with NiBiTor, also not with 1.05V :-(

Thank you

 

Hi Kingpin,

My install of the driver failed due to 'unable to find compatible graphics hardware'. I went thro' the download process twice to be sure: 275.27 beta, for Win 7 x64. What am I doing wrong? I have no issues with my GPUs - all is working well but I'd like that extra 12%!

Cheers, Andy

 

Thats super strange indeed. I have same os, same card, same laptop, installed smoothly without problems.

Grab them here:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...ok-win7-winvista-64bit-international-beta.exe

 

OK, that worked! I was trying with the 'English' version of the driver, and your link was to the 'International' version, which is a bigger file, incidentally.

Now after the change, my FPS is a little less, so I guess it's a settings issue. Check me here please:

Nvidia Control panel:
Sli enabled (reboot)
Manage 3d settings:
Multi-monitor mode = single monitor,
Power management mode = Maximum Performance
VSync = force off

My GPUs through Afterburner are both 620/1550/900

So what did I forget this time?!

Cheers, Andy

 

Seems everything in order Andy.
What kind of fps drop you get? In what game?
Test it with gamebooster running in game mode an let me know.

 

I even installed the Vista to be able to benefit from the new beta drivers. Unfortunately no different - even a drop in productivity have noticed.
In SLI mode I have no more frames per second.
But the overall 3D performance dropped .
Only 3dm06 10220 vs 10870 on XP.
If you will find a profile for sli to TW2 just let me know if you please - if not I will revert to XP .

 

Hi Kingpin,

Well, I'm mainly using Flight Simulator X (I know, an old app by now) but recognise that with high display settings (scenery, traffic, etc), the sim is bottlenecked by the CPU, even at my overclock. Offloading some of this to the GPU would be welcome...I'm using an external fps limiter and had smooth response, limited to 30fps. Since the driver update I am getting between 23 and 27. Also, 3dmark06 started its test obviously at a lower framerate than before, so I aborted and checked my settings again.

FSX was running within Game Booster; 3dmark06 was not.

Cheers, Andy

 

Hi guys! I need some help with a warranty issue I might have.

Last week I had an issue with my M1730. After the BIOS it was just a black screen. I rung Dell and they quickly confirmed that the graphics cards needed to be replaced under my warranty. About an hour ago, a Dell technician turned up and replaced them for me.

I previously had 2 x 9800GT cards in SLI. After he left, and I checked out the system information, I have found that I now have 1 x 9800GTX. I obviously presumed that maybe SLI was disabled, but there is indeed only 1 card in the system. I had a quick look around on NotebookCheck ( Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech) and just as I thought, 1 x 9800GTX is NOT better than 2 x 9800GT cards. I then got a call from Dell to ask me if everything was alright. I told him it was fine, except they have only fitted 1 card instead of 2. He seemed to dodge the statement by asking if the issues I had before were fixed. I said yes and then repeated that I was not happy due to only 1 card being fitted and not 2. He then went on to say that this is OK because sometimes they will replace 2 x 512MB cards with 1 x 1GB card (therefore it was a non-issue) I told him that the card which has been fitted was an inferior replacement. He said, this was unusual but he would look into it for me and give me a ring back later on today, or maybe tomorrow.

After I got off the phone, I checked out the card info again and like he said, the card is a 1GB card instead of 2 x 512MB cards, but that doesn't mean its an equivalent card by any means.

What should I say to him when he rings back and tries to argue that it is OK?

Thanks in advance!

 

Dell never ceases to amaze me.
Dear fellow beast owner, dont even be afraid of those idiots when they will try to argue.

Point is that a gpu replacement ISNT DICTATED by the amount of gpu ram.
9800m gtx is just a 9800/8800 with an increased shaders count nothing more.
So its in your rights to ASK and GET a replacement that its like your original.
A single 9800m gtx is a downgrade from a sli 9800/8800: its like having their sli 8800 replaced for an 8700 sli.

So wait till they call back, express EXTREME disappointment and tell them that you bought a SLI system and you dont care about single gpus, also tell them that its out of this world the fact that they replace a gpu because of his vram.

Also it may be a good idea to talk with a rep that actually knows computers and while doing so tell them that Dell deluded you.

As for a system replacement, you should have a wide replacement history before they take that in consideration.

I say fix the gpu issue first..

 

Seems like this guy did not know what he was talking about and attempted to pass off the Service Call as a satisfactory job. Shame on him and his employers.

Press for the fact that your dual SLi system has now been downgraded and move forward from that point. There's no arguing this fact.

I'll avoid getting into the Dell side of things since T.o.S. on this forum might be violated in the process.