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

Actually, 8800s aren't as 'hot' as some might lead you to believe. The issue with card problems is related to thermal cycling; temperture fluctuating based on use. If you take care of your system by regularly cleaning the vents and perhaps keeping the rear end up the system raised by about an inch, the peak temperatures should stay below 85c, which is okay. FYI: My 8600m SLi GPUs ran hotter than the 8800s.

 

Oh and some days ago I posted that ME2 was running great on the 1730 but that i had a little stuttering in the cutscenes, well turned out that sli was disabled the whole time (might have used the beast for months with disabled sli, haha, didn't notice anything while gaming though, that proves again that the 9800m GT cards are pretty awesome even with the latest titles !!) now I am playing Bioshock 2 (big dissapointement as a game ...) this one also runs fluid as hell with all maxed out and SLI 8xAA (looks awesome) but i would not recommend it to anyone, nothing changed in the game, its just bioshock 1 all over but then with no cool introduction and a lame storyline.

 

kinda expected smth like this, same on my 1710 with the 7950GTX

 

Nice to hear. . .

Tell me one thing: Does your frame-rate drops into the single-digits when engaged in heavy battle? Some M17x users have been experiencing this problem. I was eager to find out why such a this bizzare drop in performance seems to effect the machines with the faster video cards.

 

thx, would get a 8800m or 9800m when possible.

Some questions before i do go out and search for it, how much would each GPU cost around now, which one would you prefer, and why?

 

Mass Effect 2 runs great for me, no drops to single digit here in heavy battles.

 

Nope, none of that here
all is fluid

 

In UK, Dell charges a lot for the cards.

8800m GTX is around £500+, and 9800m GTX is around £750+.

Now you can search for resellers and other outlets, which normally retail 8800m GTX for around the £350 mark. 9800m GTX is about 450.

For the additional hundred, I found the 1GB of extra texture memory very useful. It really helps make a difference with texture-heavy, and texture-heavy DX10 applications. While theoretically, the difference between the two cards is not that great in real-world gaming, the extra shaders and the massive VRAM helps with certain games that demand such hardware. Crysis in DX10 became a whole new experience thanks to the added memory.

You can read my review of the 9800m GTX, which includes some important performance review of the cards with certain games.

Link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5645798&postcount=1009

I might get one of these myself, but I am quite content with the 8800m GTX as they run pretty much everything. Those games that do demand more--STALKER - CLEAR SKY/FAR CRY 2/Crysis/GTA IV--can be tweaked a little with custom configurations to run well on the 8800s.



Edit:
Thank you for the inputs, Magnus and Psyloid. Always appreciated.

 

Just thought I'd share, on Saturday my m1730 froze mid screen (just browsing the web) wouldn't reboot, would freeze before getting to windows. Eventually booted in safe mode, disabled one of the GPU's, then rebooted normally. Device manager listed the GPU as having a hardware fault.

So, went through the usual long wait with tech support on the phone (phoned on monday night) 2 hours later, the guy has agreed that its the GPU and he'll be sending an engineer out to replace it. Now, after all I've read about the lack of cards, I was very sceptical, but went along with it.

So today, the engineer phoned about 1pm, turned up at 1.30pm. He had a box with him, allegedly containing an 8800mgtx sli card.

Despite my extreme scepticism, he installed the card and re-booted. Checking device manager, it identified it indeed as an 8800m gtx.

Off he went!

So, fearing I've been given a dodgy refurb card (the box did have refurbished on it) I've just got home and got temp monitor software running. Temps seem good, lower than before! 3dMark 06 got me a score of 11411 (previous was 200 points higher, but that was done about 10 months ago) so its close enough.
Going to do some gaming now and see how it goes.

Still very puzzled where these cards have come from...

Possibly good news for us from the UK (or not if you were after an M17x... )

 

Well, temperatures are not going to get you the real results. Quality of the refurbished parts is largely contingent on their life-span.

 

What I was worried about was a defective card just being pulled from a returned m1730 and sent out again.

I've still got just over 900 days of warranty left yet, so not too worried at the moment

Just had a couple of hours on GTA IV, so far so good!

 

Good call. I just thought I'd add to your concerns, which isn't good, but helpful. Many of my replacement cards were nicely serviced out of the box, but long term stability was another issue.

 

I am having a few issues with my xps m1730.

My xps m1730 has nvidia 8800M GTX SLI. My notebook only recognizes one of my cards and not both of them. How do I get it to recognize the second one?

I am having the Yellow screen problem. I noticed they released a vbios for some of the other cards but not but not for the 8800m GTX that was supposed to correct this.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...d=707B58E89164B8F1E040AE0AB7E131D0&doclang=en
Is there a way to fix the yellow screen problem on the 8800m gtx?
I have read in other forums that you can put the 9800m GT BIOS on a 8800m GTX card on some systems. Can this be done with the xps m1730?

I am running windows 7 64-bit.

 

Just had to make one more post from my m1730 before I send her back to meet her maker.good luck all

r.i.p.
beast

 

My bubble has been burst.



lol

Yeah, remember the hassles you've had with it. I'll give them a 3 strike situation with these cards, if they fail on the 3rd time I'll really push the issue.

Was there ever anything official about the design flaw in these cards? Something that I can email my dell rep to show him?

 

Okay, decided to keep my 8700's atm b/c of financial concerns (approaching limit), but thx for the input! Will likely go for the 9800's since i LOVE those games (Far Cry, Stalker, Mass Effect, etc. etc.)

 

what vbios should i have on my 8800m gtx's on 64-bit windows?

 

Haha. Nah man. Take it easy. You got warranty, so you're set.

Link to G92 issues:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-GPU-failure,6248.html

Keep in mind, if you can avoid extreme cycling, then the GPU won't go bad. My current 8800s are doing great now because I treat them right. As for the 280s in my M17x. Well, the M17x is an overall cooler system, so the cards are never subject to the extreme levels of a hot thermal cycle. So the trick with the beast is to keep the back of the system raised by about an inch, which should give the GPU ample breathing room to stay within the so-called 'limits'.

 

Which processor is better for the m1730 the T9500 @ 2.6GHz or the X9000 @ 2.8GHz? I have been the told the T9500 is more compatible and runs better, is this true?

 

the x9000 you can overclock via the bios and the fans will run full out and help prolong the life of your gpu's.

 

Would you recommend the x9000 then? Which will give a higher 3D mark? What else do you have to look at in the bios when overclocking?

 

I don't know about the recommend part. I have the x9000 in my when I ordered the laptop. In the BIOS, there is an option that allow you to overclock the CPU in: 2.8, 3.0, 3.2, and 3.4 Ghz. Any settings above 3.0 will start all three fans full blast (which is pretty loud; air movement; to my ears). Originally, Dell's BIOS allowed too much voltage to the CPU which resulted in the CPU overheating which led to throttling and eventually, shutting down the laptop due to heat. But with the latest BIOS, the voltage has been reduced (don't remember exactly what it is now) which allows the CPU to run at any speed and fully loaded without over heating. I know over heating means different numbers to different people. Mine used to run into the three figures (C) before shutting down. Had to use third party software to regulate the voltage. Now with the latest BIOS, fully loaded at any speed only getting up into the 70s (C) without any third party software interference (and idle between mid-30s to mid-40s).

 

damn, i couldn't help myself today and I bought Aliens vs predator, modern warfare 2 and left for dead 2 on steam. will post how they perform on the beast when i downloaded all the installers (almost 35 gigs !!!)
I also looked at ebay for prices for an x9000 and imho its too xpensive for me to upgrade. i'll stick with the t9300

 

In my opinion if you've got the cash to get the X9000 and the patience to pull your M1730 apart to replace your processor... get it. I've been running overclocked at 3.4Ghz for nearly a year and haven't ever had any problems. Running at 3.2 or 3.4 automatically causes your CPU and GPU fans to run full-blast... noisy, but that also cools the GPUs to the point where the failure rates are dramatically decreased. You can see my sig for what I've gotten with dual overclocked 8800Ms and an X9000... that hangs with some of the M17x's around here.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll be using that when the next failure occurs! Need a stack of ammo at the ready, I really don't want to be messed around like alot of people have been on this forum.

Ever since I got the m1730 I've kept the back raised, was force of habit from when i had a m1710 with the 7950gtx card, that would see some high temps!

I think its just inevitable with this card if its got the wrong solder its going to fail. Heating from 20c up to say 70c would be enough over time to cause it to crack. Mine has lasted about 18months before the first failure.

 

So, i had that problem where my windows graphics score was 3.1, while my gaming graphics windows index score was 6.5..
Well, i had the 185.xx drivers installed.. I installed the 195.62 nvidia driver and now i have 6.2's in both categories.
I've also gained major performance boosts in Dragon Age Origins.. (i guess it could all be in my head.. but for some really strange reason i get more FPS at higher resolutions rather than lower... hm)

 

You mean the A10 BIOS and that this is an actual option, correct? You don't mean to edit the BIOS, right?

 

Awful, awful game. Crappy PC port. Graphics wise it's fine though, if you wanna' benchmark.

 

Tough questions. What gpu driver are you using? Did the yellow problem start right after installing Windows 7 or has it always been there?

 

I've used all the revisions since, I think, A03, and the voltages haven't changed.

They are still WAY too high when you overclock, up to 1.575v at 3.4. This will not only overheat your system, but it can cause serious instability (as it did in my case) or destroy the CPU.

If you overclock the x9000, I strongly suggest that you use RMClock or CPU Genie to lower the voltage to something more reasonable. Most will be stable at 3.4 at around 1.4v, or less.

 

The yellow problem would come and go sometimes, I am not sure what would bring it on. It did not start until recently, after I have had Windows 7 installed for a while now (since it's release). I installed gpu driver 195.62 after this problem started but had 18x.xx (I'm not sure anymore) before and when the problem started. VBIOS 62.92.2C.00.01.

Edit: I am pretty sure the GPU is dead/dying. I just renewed me warranty the other day, should I be covered? What is the max years of warranty I can get for my M1730?

 

Yes, the A10 BIOS. The option to select speed is in there.

 

I tried AvP and its a horrible, what a shamefull port, it runs like pants ( eg huge frame drops, DX10-11 modes totally unplayable, unexplainable stuttering ...) but I managed to get it tu run acceptable in DX9 @ 1920*1200, texture quality high, ambient occlusion on. the stuttering is minimal now and framerate has an average of 45fps (max : 65fps - min : 20fps). the internet is apparently flooded with complaints about the game's performance under WIN7 x64 and/or NVIDIA cards (both on my machine, so ...) apparently Rebellion is aware of this and hopefully it gets patched soon.

I do love the game btw. I'm 36 and I almost crapped my pants a few times while playing, really scary stuff is going on (singleplayer)
I'm ditching MP untill the game gets straightened out though.

 

. . .maybe I'll get it for the PS3?

I don't know. I do hope that they solve the issue because this game would look bad on the beast compared to the consoles.

EDIT:
Have you tried running it in Single GPU mode? Maybe it's a bad SLi profile that's holding you back.

 

I kinda tried everything, but there's already a 40+ page thread on the steam forums, so i'm not the only one

 

on second thought: i think i will postpone playing the game all together untill its fixed. I did buy modern warfare and L4D 2 as well so i'll play those games first. Its just so frustrating since i was looking out for this (AvP) title for more than 6 months (I am a huge Aliens fan ! )

 

How is AVP 2010 running for you guys? I had to drop it to 1440x900 and normal details to get it to run super smooth.
Not that I can complain, the game looks stunning.

Oh, lol, didn`t read above

Already finished the Marine missions and man...the game has an awesome story so far

For those who saw the Alien series movies, this will make more sense.

 

I tried Left 4 Dead 2 on my old XPS M170 and it ran the game at 1920x1200 and medium settings with frames ranging from 50+ down to around 25 when lots of zombies are around you slashing. Not too shabby for the old one :=)

 

Hello Magnus72,

What Windows do you have on your M170?
I have the same M170 configuration as you running Windows 7 and it runs good, I haven’t tried any games though, I use it and a media PC. I did try Vista when it first can out and it ran real slow, but for normal thing like recorded TV and streaming music it runs like WinXP did.

 

I use Windows XP Pro on my XPS M170 along with tweakforce 180.84 drivers.

Believe or not but here´s Crysis Warhead running on my XPS M170 at 1280x800

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jH1VfcuAKc

 

That looks great!
I have not had any problems with my M170, I like it a lot. I loaded Win 7 to see how it would work compared to vista and I see now how much better it runs then Vista did. In the future I might go back to XP Pro though. I got two copies when Microsoft was selling them for $50.00 each. I got one for my M1730 and one for when I build a new desktop computer, so until I build one I thought I would try one copy on my M170. I still have one year left on my M170 warranty.

 

Nice to hear metalman, I revived my GPU go 7800 GTX using the oven technique. So now I am testing newer games on the old XPS M170 and see where it stands today.

It´s too bad the CPU can´t be upgrade to an Dual Core though.

 

Yes the GPU is the part I think about the most, but at least I have a year before I might have to bake it. LOL!
About a year ago I did have a corrupt bios screen and though this was it GPU gone, but after that no more problems.

 

Anyone tried Bad Company 2 Beta yet? I recently got a key and the game runs really well in multiplayer on the XPS M1730 at 1920x1200. With tweaking and making my own profile for it it works wonders.

 

er... no, you wouldn't have a spare key left? or do you

BTW: Modern warfare 2 runs beautifully on the beast all maxed out @ 1920*1200

 

Strangely it runs great on my desktop which isn't THAT more powerfull than the beast, but it has ATI graphics ...

 

Just finished AVP. Rather short for my taste, but oh well.
Bring on the expansion pack

 

Psyloid no sorry, I just signed up to a site and got the key an few days after. One hell of a game I can say. Though I have the demo on my PS3 and Xbox 360 too but the PC version is of course better graphically

 

Oh yeah. Bad Company 2 looks nasty good. Dare I say, some of the production and cinematographic-effects actually match Killzone 2.

 

Hi guys i know this is lazy but is there a full list of drivers out there for the Dell XPS M1730 Windows 7 64bit system?

I'm having a headache with Music as it keeps skipping and scratching... I know its a Dell fault as a friend has a the same problem on his new Alienware laptop.
I hear the cure is to start again and with the right drivers for my laptop and need a good website with good explanations on what drivers to use.

The only game I actually play is World of Warcraft and listen to music... I have had this laptop for the past year and only now have I really been using it as my main PC is packed up..