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

I have a 1gb Flash Cache Module installed on my M1730.

I found the Intel Turbo Memory drivers for Win 7 64-bit, "INVM110ENU".

Unfortunately, when I go to install them I get the blue screen of death and I get a reboot.

Can anyone help me with this?

 

The X9000 is 45nm, which means lower power, longer battery life, less heat, and better overclocking potential. It also has more cache and is significantly faster.

Check out this review (German), which shows the X9000 system is 5-20% faster in games and has nearly 20% better battery life.

Although the X9000 will run cooler because it's 45nm, and will therefore require less fan power, there probably won't be much real world difference in noise. First, most of the annoying noise comes from the GPU fan. Second, I know I've said this 100 times by now, but the single most important thing you can do to tame CPU heat in the M1730 when overclocking is to download RMClock and reduce those crazy default voltages.

Personally I waited for the X9000 to become available before I ordered my M1730, and it is clearly better, but if you can get a very good deal on an old X7900 and want to save money it should be sufficient.

 

spradhan01 has a brand new X7900 from Dell available for sale or at least he did a few weeks ago. He is on the forums here.

I ended up buying an X9000 off of eBay and it works as advertised.

 

Heck, I was thinking about getting an X9000 also, but I just can`t let myself spend so much on an old gen CPU, with I7 and I5 quads blowing everything away...so I`d rather break it before my warranty ends and get whatever high end comp they`ll have then

 

Until I don't see a good I7 with SLi, or even better, a proper next-gen SLi card, nothing will justify the obese retail price tag to a 'next gen' machine that will play the same things a little faster.

 

The driver I use for Win7 64bit is "INVM110CD".
Working great here.

 

GTA 4 has been quite a hot topic here when it comes to performance tweaking and getting it working properly.
Now that I finally have it going and have the HDD space for it, I was hoping someone could give me a few quick tips.
By now, I suppose it supports SLI with the latest drivers from nVidia in combination with the latest patch available?
Google helped me a tiny bit since I found out about getting a lot more performance by disabling PhysX in the nVidia control panel. (Haven't played with nHancer yet.)
But still it doesn't really run that smooth.
I run it at 1920x1200 with default settings at this point.

 

Overclocking Questions,

I've got an M1730, to be exact about my parts:
CPU: T7700 @ 2.4GHz
GPU: 8700GTM Sli

I also have a 3 fan cooling pad.

My warranty has expired, my laptop is about 2 years old, and has never been cleaned for dust inside. It has a 3 fan cooling pad.
Is it safe to overclock my GPU or CPU? If so how safe, and to what degree?

Thanks

 

You will not be able to OC the CPU as its not an Extreme model - those would be X7900, X9000 (X7800 as well if its out there still).

GPU - well, yeah but why would you want to? Its out of warranty so just continue to use it at stock clocks. If its fails, you are looking at a nice replacement cost. Just a thought.

 

GTA 4 Never ran well on my M1730 unfortunately even with the latest patches and drivers. The M17x is night and day and runs GTA 4 smooth with high settings. I personally think it requires 1gb graphics cards, I remember the video memory running out on medium to low settings on my M1730 that had 512mb.

 

That is correct. In GTA IV, one primary factor of limitation is the sub-1GB texture memory. Hikkoo got it to run nicely since he has/had the 9800mGTX with 1GB, and Magnus created a tweak configuration that compensates for the large texture data on our 512MB cards.

It's like when I played Far Cry 2 with all the tweaks. The game would lag at 23-28 when in motion, due to heavy stuttering - I am guessing the memory of the GPU was busy handling all the texture data. The moment I moved the textures from ultra high to very high, everything became smooth and absolutely no direct difference to visual quality. The same issue with STALKER Clear Sky. With textures on high, everything would run 'okay', the moment I'd put the textures on maximum, the frame rate would collapse to an unplayable halt when I'd move the character around. I did the same test on a 1GB video card, and that frame rate dip virtually disappeared. Some of these games really do require very large amounts of vram to store all that data, so just take the textures and subsequent resolution settings down a little.

Get a hold of Magnus' tweak, and your game should start running at an acceptable rate, even with a slower CPU. However, keep in mind that you will still need the update patches and SLi profile.

 

you are insane!!

 

I have the same issue, are you using a Sennheiser headset by any chance? (not that it should make a difference). Please let me know if you find a fix... I'll do the same if I get there first.

 

As far as running games go, how big a deal is it if the game calls for a dual core 2.6Ghz and I have 2.5Ghz? All other game specs are met or exceeded? I have m1730 w/ SLI 8700s and 4GB RAM. Thanks - seriously wanting to check out this game, but don't wanna buy it if that .1Ghz is gonna kill it lol

Thanks - Mike

 

Reformatting Questions :>,

I've decided it's time to reformat, but instead of just chucking the disk in and going, I need some info since this well be my first reformat ( I'm a virgin D: ), So heres a little list of things that I need info on.

Backing up:
My Hard drives are nearly full with gigabytes of stuff, I have an external hard drive that's 500gb's, what is the best way to back up data? what data should be backed up? Any other crucial information?

Partitions:
My m1730 came with 3 partitions, OS C, Recovery E, Datapart1 D. When I'm in the windows vista installer ( I heard it is not noob friendly ) What drive do i need to select? Should I keep threes partitions? Wright to whole disk etc...

Things I need:
I have a pretty big magnet, will that be enough to wipe the drive?
No seriously tho, I have all the CD's that came with my m1730, which ones do I need before/after installation?

Any other relevant Information?

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Doing a two in one here :>

Description of the problem:
My problem persists as recently, my laptop has gone into hibernation on three random occasions. It has also shutdown on one occasion. All of these were not authorized by me.
I have changed no power settings and the laptop was plugged in at the time.
My laptop has also been slowing down after prolonged use, and resets to normal performance after a restart.

Actions Taken:
Malwarebyte's and McAfee scan - Found nothing.

Other notes:
Running Vista 32 bit.
Laptop model Dell m1730.
I have an application that display laptop temperature and fan speeds, I've only seen the GPU go up to 81c Max when gaming.

Is a hijackthis log needed?

Thanks

 

Are you monitoring the GPU temps? Could be GPU heat/failing related. My want to run HWMonitor in the background and get an idea of where you stand.

 

EDIT: I've only seen the GPU get to 81c, if that bad or good :/

Also accidentally kicked the Adapter a few times loosing power to my system before the hibernating occurred ( My battery has been dead for about 8 months. )

My laptop is 2 years old, but has a 3 fan cooling pad.

 

Well, once your re-install is complete then you will have your answer. Hopefully this issue will vanish.

 

Yes that's what I'm hoping for, now to wait to find out how to do this

 

Received my M17X today. I was surprised my M1730 was so yellow and poor quality compared to the M17x. Both parts are Samsung SEC5443.

 

Isn't there a Nvidia bios update for the yellow tint on Dell's site?

 

I've run into a sound issue with my M1730. The onboard soundcard is sort of garbage. The audio sounds empty and lifeless and I can't really find a way to give it more bass or something to give it a heartier sound. I imagine it's just the simple fact that it's a Dell laptop soundcard.

I have been using a plantronics USB soundcard which works perfectly on the multiple PC's I've used it on, but for some reason, on the M1730, the sound has a crackle to it occasionally, and the entire soundcard crashed, occasionally locking up the computer. I have to unplug the soundcard, plug it back in, and then restart the audio applications or at least fandangle the audio settings on those programs to get them to work again.

It's become so frequent that I have to do it almost every 10 minutes in some cases, and it's making me want to pull my hair out.

What are my options? Can I upgrade the onboard soundcard to not suck? Has anyone had a similar problem that they fixed or found an alternate route for?

 

As far as running games go, how big a deal is it if the game calls for a dual core 2.6Ghz and I have 2.5Ghz? All other game specs are met or exceeded? I have m1730 w/ SLI 8700s and 4GB RAM. Thanks - seriously wanting to check out Assassin's Creed, but don't wanna buy it if that .1Ghz is gonna kill it lol

Thanks - Mike

 

If we are talking about the first Assassin's Creed, then I had it running on a pathetic 2.0 GHz T7250 with 2mb FSB and 2x8600m GT.

You'll do fine, albeit at a lower resolution, such as 1440x900. This has little to do with your CPU, but more to do with the 128-bit bandwidth of your GPU.

 

Since my reinstallation Windows 7 and running the latest WHQL driver available from nVidia, I have a weird new problem with Left 4 Dead 2.
I can start a campaign (online or off) and the first level will play fine.
Then the second level starts, and suddenly the frame rate drops about 40 percent and the mouse feels sluggish when I am moving about.
If I change a graphical setting and apply this (like FSAA or what amount of screen buffering needs to be done) it's suddenly fine again.
But I don't even need to do that. Just switching back to the desktop and switching back into the game fixes this as well.
I am running on the audio driver that Windows 7 has installed. It's my only explanation apart from now using the latest WHQL driver I am using from nVidia.
Left 4 Dead 2 is the only game suffering from this problem.
Does anyone run with the default sound driver that Vista / Windows 7 installs? Or is it recommended to install the driver from DELL?

 

Thank you - just making sure I will be able to run it and "enjoy the view" ;-)


Later - Mike

 

Darkwolf,
I used the default driver.

However, this problem of yours seems to be something new, yet something old. What I mean to say is that even my experience has been similar - swapping around drivers will usually increase performance in certain games, and then ruin performance. Similarly, performance will also vary within the areas/parts of the game.

Weird.

 

Guys, any experience with installing non-standard HDDs in M1730? Like 750GB and 1TB drives (12.5mm) or even VelociRaptor (15mm).

 

Pretty sure it won't work, the M1730's HD's sit on top of each other. The tolerances for anything bigger that the standard 2.5" won't work.

 

i have a m1730 with 2 1G PC2-5300 (667mHz). can i upgrade to 800 or 1075mmHz? there's no normal bios on this thing to tell me what the options are for my MB.

 

You can, but the FSB and memory divider are fixed, so it won't operate at a higher frequency.

 

Hey guys


Experiancing a rather werid issue. I' am playing left for dead 2, my first 2 weeks of playing were fine, however for some reason my performance in game is not as good as it once was, and every once in a while the game will freeze for a second then continue. I'm praying this is not a grahic card issue


any help would be grealty appricated


update: Seems a disk cleanup has sorted it

 

Hey guys, For some reason my Laptop has been restarting constantly after 30-1 hour of gaming running World of Warcraft. Before i ran WoW burning crusade and it ran fine now that i upgraded to wrath of the litch king .... as i am writing this the laptop froze suddenly and i had nothing running in the background except MSN and AIM. I first thought it would be caused by overheating but then i ran a temperature check and i checked it with two wow windows open it only went up to 60-70 degrees.

A couple days earlier i started getting an error "Com Surrogate has stopped working" (although it only happened whenever i would load my usb drive or external hard drive).

Any ideas on what i can do to fix this problem? Only recent changes is that i installed a new copy of WoW (so now i have two) copy pasting 10GB of wow from one folder to the other ...

Edit: I have two copies of WoW on my laptop. some of my friends told me that thats the cause of the crash. since two wow folders in program files might conflict with each other in registry and cause the crash (as far as i know its NOT overheating since the temp are low). Tried playing cs for a while 3-4 hours and it didnt crash once or restart

If that is really the cause of it. Having two wow folders that conflict in registry then how do i fix it?

 

Uninstall the app (using control panel, not just deleting the files), reinstall, and don't do that again.

For stubborn issues you might have to go into the registry and manually delete the keys, but uninstall will probably take care of it.

However, if the laptop is spontaneously restarting as opposed to just crashing, I'd suspect a possibly hardware issue, especially a heat issue.

 

Rub our noses in it?

 

I did uninstall it, it only uninstalled one of them. the one i copy pasted into program files did not get uninstalled. so it was still there. i reinstalled wow again and it still gave me same problems. do i have to delete the file that i copied too? and if i put it in another folder apart from program files or maybe desktop or E-HDD will that fix it?

 

It shouldn't affect anything if it's just sitting in a separate program files folder and you aren't running it. If you are still having crashing issues after cleaning the registry and reinstalling, I wouldn't rule out a hardware problem or some other problem with the OS or drivers. Maybe something was installed or modified when you upgraded the game. A simple crash in the software should not reboot your system spontaneously.

If you're up for it, the gold standard for troubleshooting these problems is to reformat, and it usually takes less time than trying to track the exact problem down.

 

Sorry . A week ago I would have said my M1730 looked great. Didn't really notice until I put the 2 side by side.

 

Hey haven't heard from wodstock in a while. How are you doing man and what's the current situation?

*Edit: glad to see you're happy Gadget.

 

i guess they both have their own charm. i like the way the m17x is sleek and has a nice shiny professional look but the m1730 just shouts IM UNIQUE

i miss the logitech lcd like hell though.

 

the 1730 has been sent back, the 1645 is pretty nice and overall i am happy with it i think. not too much time to mess around though with the new house... thats a project...

 

Yea funny initially I didn't think i'd get much use out of the LCD, but I find everest and sir real's app - are just excellent!

 

So, What are some good apps to fully utilize this LCD? Google is hopeless...

Also, When I reformat, what partitions should I have? Or does the 1730 have two hard drives? I'm clueless with reformatting

 

http://www.g15forums.com/

 

Bah. I'd try to keep those comments in other threads anyway, because this is the M1730 owner's lounge. Besides my M1730 display was an LG and it was very comparable to the M17x's screen.

The M1730 also owns the M17x in media buttons, the M17x *touch* ones are a total joke, half the time they dont work and the other half there's no feedback to let you know if the keypress went through. Also, I prefer the Audio Card (and audio out) of the M1730.. the M17x one is buggy. Oh well..!

PS: My graphics cards also just crapped out on my M17x after a month, my M1730 lasted a year so.. another win for the M1730!

 

Are M17x's having graphic card problems as well?

 

You need to read my previous post, it has nothing to do with saying one system is better than the other.
The point of my post was LCD comparison of the same model Samsung SEC5443 in 2 different systems and to show the yellow tint, which probably is related to my bad 8800m card.

 

I just got unlucky i guess. And bonusly the ATi's are not in stock, and they dont know when they'll get them, but *soon*. LOL... can you say flashbacks

 

Don't want to shamelessly plug, but I have a new palm rest/extra g15 screen available for anyone whose g15 has bad pixels or whose palm rest is worn or their touchpad is worn or they spilled coffee on it etc. etc. Link in sig.

 

Well It's finally gone, I've sold my 1730.

I must admit I will miss the portability.

I now have the cash towards a gaming desktop

I will miss you guys a lot.

Thanks for all the help you have given me in the past,

Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS!