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

well if you can wait for a week. i am getteing mines.

 

Yes, and as a result, the GPUs stay in better health.

I don't see the fuss over the noise. Yes, I see the fuss, but I don't see how that weighs out against the hell that these G92 cores go through from the bad thermal cycling.

As for the speed. . . well, it has its uses. Newer, more CPU intensive games benefit greatly from the X9000. Not to mention, Nvidia's own PhysX software and the DX10 cards are designed to run certain features in concert with the CPU.

And yes, I too would like a review on what games the M17x truly owns, because aside from Crysis, I cannot think of anything that is so fantastically GPU intensive that one needs a next-gen AW or Clevo to run the game at a whole new setting. Well, there is GTA IV, and that stumbles even with these new machines because it's mostly CPU hungry; throw in the X9000, and you're good on that front. Note: Please, no Vantage and 3dMark06. Magnus' machine breaks 11k, and mine just broke 12k last month, and yet his machine runs games better at settings that 'look' the same as mine.

 

It isn't so much an increase in performance as an increase in build quality and a dramatic decrease in temperatures. Once Alienware sends me another M17x with the proper processor (they originally sent one w/a 3mb cache which isn't "equal or better" to the 6mb cache I used to have on the 1730), I'll be able to let you know. For now, overclocking my processor to 3.1ghz has gotten me up to far better results in games like Sins of a Solar Empire.

 

The fans when overclocked to 3.4Ghz are too noisy, its too much of a distraction in my opinion for what ever your doing.

I have mine sat on a mains powered Cryo LX, it seems to cool the laptop well, i don`t use my M1730 for gaming that much but i run video editing software and graphic editing software which is why i went for an M1730 and the Extreme X9000 processor.

I certainly couldn`t run it at 3.4Ghz because of the fan noise, Extreme is the word.

 

This upgradeing to the x9000 makes interesting reading. Iv seen one for £286 brand new from a company. I'm after the 800mhz , 6mb cache Penryn-Santa Rosa chipset/motherboard one am i correct?


Tell me though, how do you overclock? is there simple intel software? What are the fans like at 2.8ghz?

 

Ah, I see. I kinda' read too much into that one. Although I must ask: Does the M17x have fans kick into high at an earlier point?

You do bring up an interesting observation about Sins of a Solar Empire. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but didn't this game run fine on an M1730? An old contact of mine ran that game on his Qosimo armed with the 9800m GTS SLi and an X9100 CPU. Ran perfectly on this system. Seems to carry the typical requirement of a PC strategy game - significantly demanding in terms of CPU power.

And Drfxeelgood,
The X9000 can be overclocked by accessing the BIOS when you power-up your machine. Very simple.

As for the noise at 2.8 GHz. None. It operates normally at that level and 3.0 GHz, meaning your fans will kick into full blast rather late.

 

yes it ran fine. A bit choppy 5 or so hours into the game when you're playing w/8 or so AI's and each person has 16 capital ships + 30 or so planetsx20 fighters at each planet and etc etc etc.

The fans kick on at 70 C. I haven't been able to get temps above 71 or 72C even blocking the vents on the botton w/my couch! And this is after overclocking the FSB from 1066 to 1330 MHZ.

 

Nah, didn't have that issue on the Qosimo. Then again, he had a good CPU.

CPU overclocking with these new chips won't overheat the system, and by new chips, I mean Penryn, and beyond.

 

in the benchmarking thread I created in the xps section, I will post the m17x benchmarks aswell. 1 more week left

 

As a reference point for any interested:

This is what I had:

Dell XPS M1730 - Smoke Grey
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2
200GB HDD / 7200RPM / 16MB Cache
Dual 512mb NVIDIA SLi GeForce 8800GTX
Ageia PhysX 100M Processor
Blu-ray Disc Combo


This is what I'm getting as a replacement:

Alienware M17x - Silver Metallic
1 313-7710 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Combo (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0818 Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-0762 SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (NB10E-GTX1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-5418 Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade Coupon, W0, ENG,SPN,FRE,GER JPN
1 341-0011 250GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
1 420-3250 Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
1 421-0415 Mouse Pointers,STANDARD
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO

 

Thanks for the help hankaaron. I have just been on the telephone to Dell support and after more diagnostics they have booked an engineer to call out on Wednesday to replace the LCD (again) only had it replaced last Tuesday and a new keyboard.

I took out a further 3 year warranty for £160 whilst I was on the telephone as mine expires on the 30th of this month and I will be honest, I envisage more problems with this machine.

Thanks again

Simon

 

I need some LEGAL ADVICE.

A few of you will already know that my M1730 developed a fault where after 2 replacement parts and 3 Dell engineers failing to turn up Dell decided they would replace my M1730 with another one of the same spec.

Initially Dell told me that they had no M1730`s in my spec, a week later they called me to say they had found an m1730 with my exact same spec and they would confirm the spec by email, they emailed me the spec which seemed fine.

A week later i got another phone call to say they had no M1730`s in my spec, i thought whats going on here ? Anyway a manager thats been dealing with my case called today, he basically said that they were not going to give me a replacement of any kind and i had to take a refund.

I bought my M1730 from a Dell re-seller with a 4 year at home warranty, now the refund that Dell are offering is only what the reseller paid to them which is £500 less than i paid the re-seller which is approx an $850 difference.

Where do i stand legally, Dell have messed me about for 1 half months and during that time the refund option from my re-seller has elapsed, because of Dell taking so long and dragging this out without my M1730 being repaired or replaced i am left in limbo where Dell are offering me considerably less than what i paid for the machine.

Should Dell be offering 4 year warranties on a computer that they knew themselves they would be pasing out and discountinueing very soon, can they force me to lose a considerable amount of money because of them not having a replacement due to them knowing that in the near future they would have no M1730`s when they took the money for the warranty ?

As an example, if you buy a TV from a leading department store over here called John Lewis they give a 5 year wearranty for free on all TV`s, if it fails after 3 years and they have none of those models in stock they will give you the latest model in the equivelant spec, what responsibilities do Dell have to people like me in this situation ?

Can they force me to lose a lot of money by taking a refund or do they have obigations to their warranty seeing as people have paid for them and they have took your money knowing a certain model was about to be discontinued ?

Ive seriously had it with Dell, the way they speak to you on the phone and walk all over you when your trying to speak and not letting you get a word in edge ways is a joke in itself.

Can you tell me what rights i have ? Mine is a 4 year at home 24 x 7 warranty.

 

Thats certainly a tough one. I would refuse the refund and demand the system be repaired. There treating you very badly to be honest. It might be wise to try and contact dell directly (ireland) via a formal letter of complaint, or find a solictor who deals with merchandise complaints and see what they can advice you. There offereing you a refund which would be great if it was for how much you paid. How much did you pay?

 

Stig, I always thought that, the re-seller was responsible for any goods they sell.
As you said in your example, John Lewis would be the ones liable for replacement, not the TV manufacturer.

The best thing to do in your case is visit the Citizens Advice Bereau, and they will help point you in the right direction.

Saying all that, Dell are well within their rights to offer a refund for less than you paid, as you have had substantial use out of it before it went faulty (this is mentioned in the Sales of Goods Act), BUT they are also suppose to offer a replacement as good as or better, if they are unable to repair the item.

TBH, the Sales of Goods Act is our friend in the UK, and Dell are failing to comply on a number of fronts for many of us:
1. Institute repair within a "reasonable" amount of time (in my mind I would consider that up to 4 weeks).
2. When repaired it could be argued that repairs are not of reasonable standard.
3. Argubly, the M1730, or parts of it, weren't fit for purpose (this is hard to prove without a little work, but the shreds of evidence are there).

...etc, etc.

They are obligated by their warranty, but there are so many clauses, that the Sales of Goods Act is where people should really look if they are unhappy. I pretty much ignore the warranty, when it comes to the stage where Dell have pushed many M1730 owners.

I'm fully expecting to have to go to the stage where I'm sending Dell a letter, asking for a 48hr response, before I inform the Small Claims Court and Trading Standards.

 

I would certainly contact a solictior who specialises in these kind of issues. From experiance citerzens advice anet too hot. It might take some time and work but you will get there

 

STIG,

this is what they tried to do to me. I declined and called and called until I got a non deusche bag on the phone that would actually help me out. I also wrote to dells corp offices explaining the situation and also filed a complaint with the BBB in the states. good luck with that, I'm still waiting for a fix, I have been without a working laptop since 09/19/2009

 

@ Stig

Take the refund and run. Once you have the refund secured in your bank account THEN go after the 4yr warranty.

Make sure that when you agree to the refund you state (and make sure you have a detailed diary of your calls; times, who, what, when etc) that you are unhappy and will follow up the 4yr warranty etc. BTW if DELL state that the warranty is between you and the resller then take them at face value and later on let the two of them slug it out for the $850. As long as either DELL or reseller blame each other and not you then you have them exactly where you want them.

 

Sucks man, sorry to hear :/

 

I had a phone call from Dell this morning from someone called customer services, to be honest it was as laughable as any other previous Dell call.

Again they offered me a refund for considerably less than what i paid for the laptop, i naturally said no to that as i`m not prepared to write off £500 which is approx $850.

This is the funny part, they said they would offer me another M1730 but with a lesser processor than my Extreme X9000 but as a courtesy give me more RAM lol .... Hilarious

I put the phone down on them after a while because to me it seems each person you speak too at Dell is reading from the same script, if you buy from a Dell re-seller you basically have no rights is the impression ive had even though they are quite willing to take your money for a 4 year warranty where they knew they would be discontinuing that model very soon knowing full well that they wouldn`t be able to replace parts on it in the future if yours was a top spec M1730 if anything did go wrong with a major part.

 

Hmm re your last paragraph Stig, I heard it from the horses mouth today, "We offer 5yr warranty on desktops and only 4yr warranty on laptops as parts may not be in stock or in production during that time frame but if parts were unavailable we would upgrade you to a better machine but you have the 1730 and it's a very reliable machine." ->Press mute to hide guffaws....

 

Can you post a link where you heard or read that...

 

I`m curios, has any of you undervolted the cards yet?
I`m not OCing anymore, and I was wondering if undervolting would help keep the temps lower?

 

ive tried lowering clocks to minimum using ntune and it did reduce temps for me quite abit.


though everyone says ik8fangui will kill/screw the cards up, i had used it since i got the laptop and it kept my cards alive for almost 2 years till i got an m17x as replacement(and it wasnt because of a dead card) so id say if you dont have a x9000 using ik8fangui to force fans to max speed isnt such a bad idea. of course it isnt as good as having a x9000 cos the program only detects 2 fans so the third fan(the middle one) is still bios controlled and mostly never comes on for me.


having said that, i noticed a little performance reduction when ik8fangui is used. i guess it must be because of the program and bios fighting for fan control so if 1-2 fps is important to you, dont use it

 

Update on my situation:

I've now had two supervisors flat out lie to me about the availability of the 8800m GTX replacement cards.

Received a call just now from a rep who said that yes, my shipment was in fact delayed till the 15th instead of today. This is getting ridiculous. I'm sure I"ll get another call on the 15th saying it is delayed further. If this doesn't come through on Thursday I will be performing an Executive Email Carpet Bomb thanks to these email addresses for Dell Executives.

Now that I've given something of value, if you guys could help answer a couple of my questions that would rock.

Questions about OCing and Fixing the Temperature Issue

1. I believe I have the Core2 Extreme X9000. What should I overclock my machine to in order to have the fans where they need to be but not damage my machine?

2. Does OCing in this manner void my warranty?

3. How do I monitor GPU temps so I can judge the effectiveness of this?

4. Dell mentioned they have a BIOS fix on their site that makes the fans cut in at a lower temp...anybody know if this exists and if it actually works to solve the issue?

 

Alot of the Dell re-sellers are unauthroized, and not an official source to purchasing Dell computers. Its kinda a buyer beware situation. Dell has no obiligation for the L500 difference, they are well within their rights to offer a refund for what they were paid.
Its not a good customer service option to go this route, but after seeing what some people have done to scam their way from a inspiron9300 > xps M1710 > XPS m1730 > Alienware M17x with "I-OC'd-it-to-the-max-now-I-broke-it-now-i'm-mad-as-hell-at-dell-replace-it!" warrenty issues and brag about it on forums everywhere, I honestly dont blame Dell for starting to go down this route and just handing the money back. Its cheaper and a smart business decision from their point of view.

 

1: The fans can be noisy going full steam. You can overclock the X9000 at 4 intervals, stock, low, med, max. I usually go with low-medium. The manual itself warns and doesnt recommend running at 3.4Ghz for long intervals.
2. Nope. The laptop has oc presets which are covered under warrenty
3. EVGA precision is a good, free one, there are many other apps out there that work well too.
4. Always ensure you have the latest Bios installed for this reason. If i recall correctly, the 1730 was not included in the last "Nvidia Alert! update your Dell laptop Bios" campaign as it was supposidly already addressed in a previous Bios update.

 

I understand what your saying but that doesn`t forgive dell for the following.

1. I had 3 engineers fail to turn up to try and fix my laptop when they should have done, i`m self employed and i had to turn away work to be here for when Dell stated. That was a considerable loss financially on my part which was down to Dell.

2. Dell should not be offering a 4 year warranty or a warranty of any kind on a system that they knew was being discontinued, they knew they wouldn`t have key parts in the future like Extreme processors and certain Nvidia graphics cards to give a customer the aftercare that they paid for, they were willing to take the money for the warranty knowing full well they wouldn`t be able to offer the aftercare required to the customer, that isn`t acceptable at any level.

3. Numerous managers and other people at Dell failing to call back when they said they would which meant i had to chase them up and pay for a lot of phone calls that lasted 40 mins to an hour on quite a few occasions.

4. They told me initially they had no replacements for my M1730 after decided that trying another repair wasn`t viable, a week later i was then told that they had my replacement and it was the exact spec of my current machine, they emailed me the details for my approval and it all seemed fine. A week after that i had a phone call to say they now had no replacements in my spec, what sort of pantomime are they running ?

Their is no two ways about it, i had numerous promises made to me by Dell starting with the fact that i paid for 4 years of aftercare and Dell knew full well that they wouldn`t be able to offer me that but that didn`t stop them taking my money for the warranty, i was also told they had a replacement for me which was the exact same spec, that vanished into thin air and yet again it was another failed promise.

 

Thanks for the answers. Unfortunately since my cards are fried, EVGA Precision says it can't find any supported hardware.

Taking it a step further, I "acquired" Everest 5 Ultimate and it gives me the following info about my current system temps...any thoughts on these? Are they super high? I'm particularly worried about the GPU Diode temp and I'm curious what others with healthy systems get for their temps.

Temps:
CPU 30C/86F
CPU #1/Core #1 30C/86F
CPU #2/Core #2 30C/86F
Chipset 52C/126F
Aux 45C/113F
DIMM 49C/120F
GPU Diode 67C/153F
Seagate ST9200420ASG 36C/97F

Cooling Fans
CPU 2007 RPM
System 1975 RPM
Fan #1 2101 RPM

BTW, longer I leave the system on the higher these numbers climb...

 

This is normal, the fans dont really kick in till a certain temperature threashold, a good cleaning of the fans never hurt. But if the cards are fried, yeah, thats an issue and Dell is in a pickle to replace them and honestly Dell is at the mercy of Nvidia to provide them with replacement cards......

 

Ok, but those temperature ranges are all in the norm? What sorts of temp readings would be considered much too high to the point where my card will fry? Trying to figure that out for when I get my replacements so I know if I'm in a danger zone.

 

Oh I hear ya.
1: sounds like incompetance. When the first thing I hear when I called in with my issues was "Have you reformated and restored your hard drive" my frustration level rose tenfold.
2: This isnt limited to only Dell. Every manufacturer offers warrenties for anything they sell, even if its the last item of its kind. This is where the equal or better clause comes into play. Problem is, being next to the end, they are also within their legal right to offer a full refund for what they were paid for it. Which unfortunatly you bought through a 3rd party, most reputable 3rd party vendors (ones I have dealt with anyway) had said to go through them for warrenty issues, not Dell directly. Which is why I dont go through 3rd party vendors. This is what has greatly complicated the issue. You are not Dell's customer, you bought it through a 3rd party vendor. The 3rd party Vendor is the primary guy responsible here to give you your money back, have you talked to him? He is the guy who sold you a lemon.... why is he getting off scott free?
3: again not limited to Dell, Call centers in general suck, especially when contracted out to outside centers which arent even Dell, just contracted by Dell....all in all it sucks and in no way in any shape or form a decent way to run customer service.
4. People drop the ball. They probably did locate one, but were not able to secure it fast enough and it got sold, stripped down for parts, or was an invintory glitch in a wharehouse DC somewhere that never existed, who knows. No they probably shouldnt have told you they had found one unless they had it "in hand" but this is how businesses work with invintory. Its happened to me on many occasions where I order something in stock, and was held for me, I go in and it isnt there.

None the less I feel for your frustrations, and I wish you well in getting it resolved one way or another. And Dell has a mess on its hands.
All you can really do is keep trying. Its a matter of getting though to the right people and actually finding someone to try to help you. sometimes you gotta butter them up a bit too, yeah it doesnt sound right, but this is some person who doesnt know you from a hole in the wall so why should they help you?
Not saying that you do, but to everyone out there, there is no point in venting/acting out to a person probably making min wage litsening to computer illiterate people whining about breaking off their coffee cup holder (dvd tray) all day long. Which unfortunatly many people do and think its gonna get them what they want. Wrong, thats how the "accidental" disconnections happen.

 

My vid card temps regularly tend to idle in the 70's and go into the 80c and upper 90c's under load and I have yet to have any issues with them (crossing fingers). I think its in 100C+ territory you need to be concerned. I cant remember the forums but mobile video card forums can sometimes give a little more insight to that and have more precise specs.

 

Have any one tried to undervolt it?

 

Ah, so here's what might have caused me to freak out...when everybody was saying 70 degrees, it was 70C not 70F!!!! I was thinking that 70F was the norm. PHEW!

 

i will give you this benchmark

Iv had my system for a month, on a clean surface, dust free and lifted slightly at the back, maybe 3 cm's


Team fortress 2 Highest resolution 1920 etc, plus all the recommend options. no aa or vertical sync. 2 hours continuous play on a 32 player server

Under this load the gpu's hang around the 66'c, sometimes go down as low as 58 and as high as 69, however these highs are lows are rare. The cpu's never get hotter then 62'c

Of course there will always be the odd exception when you suddenly run an intensive program all a sudden from idle and the temp might creep 1 or 2'c over normal

Open these bad boys up and clean them well

 

If more people made the right contention like Zolutar, my ulcers would stop bleeding out.

Actually, this whole deal with seller-to-reseller is unfortunately lock-tight by word of law, Stig. Sorry, buddy. They only owe to the customer what the customer paid. Your reseller is legally liable, but it won't be worth the shot and will only complicate matters.

Mine was bought directly through a company-contact, but under their company. Fortunately, the refund is a very decent amount since there was no 'reselling-for-profit' involved. Unfortunately, Dell waste a lot of time and make you exercise the effort of acquiring a consent letter. In my case, the refund option will yield me the best result.

It is true that many people have benefitted from the warranty, some have cheated. I guess it ain't that cut-and-dry or simple. However, Dell should accept responsibility in a matter they created for themselves, and becoming downright stubborn jerks isn't the way to execute 'damage control'. If they're so busy picking away at files, then they should study case history and determine who should get what. . . refund works for some, and replacement works for others. Unfortunately, some of us get neither because of all the 'red tape'. Refunds are not nearly as easy as you think they are; even once they say you are getting 'x' amount, you will wait and run about for many. . . MANY weeks before you achieve any progress.

And yes, this is an issue of Dell being at Nvidia's mercy, but so what? They're a big company, and perfectly capable of biting the bullet with a somewhat 'loss-based' contingency plan. Therefore, I can't bother getting sentimental for Dell's predicament - I will always sympathise with the much weaker customer-base, who are currently paying the price for this mishap through money, tolerance, and patience. Granted that a good few of cheated this policy and taken advantage of the system, but the greater onus of being responsible falls on Dell, so this is just playing out all wrong.

 

You dont have to take a refund unless you want to. They have to under the warranty replace the part for the same or better, Plain and simple. A warranty is a warranty, does yours say refurbished warranty or reseller warranty? Probably not. If you dont want to deal with the hassle of finding a decent person that is not angry cause his job sucks then take the refund otherwise like it has been said here before, keep calling up and if you encounter someone who is not willing to help then kindly thank them for their time and keep trying.

Dell does have a good warranty when you can connect to someone who will not act like you are taking food away from their child if they actually honor it.

Why do I feel like this mysterious stranger with so much to say is a Dell employee? For the record 80 C and above is high 100 C is going to catch on fire temps

 

The only issue I have with the laptop is the 75C threshold for turning on the fans. If they would start at 40-45C for example, those temps of 90C would be inexistent. Once it reaches 75C, all the air inside the laptop is already hot and 3 measely fans can`t fix that...

 

Recalling from memory, the fans were actually quite decent, despite the high threshold - once they start to work, the temp goes down pretty quickly. It's probably possible to have lower threshold, but the fans would kick in earlier, and have more load as result.

 

Well, think of it this way. Isn`t it easier to prevent overheating by turning fans sooner and not letting hot air build inside the laptop and heating all components? there are only 3 fans, and they don`t cool for example the mainboard that gets hot or any other components close...

 

With all the discussion about wanting to keep the fans on by forcing high temps, I wonder if the better question to ask is if anyone can OVERVOLT it thus leading to higher temps, which leads to more fan usage and cooler GPU's...

 

I extended my warranty yesterday and that was from the customer service rep.

 

Okay, about the whole 'lowers temps quick' argument. Guys, we're digressing.

There is no doubt that the fans do a good job. Problem is that our cards--all made from the original G92 core--have an inherent design flaw with the soldering. The thermal cylcing (temps going up and then coming down) actually exposes this problem. We aren't complaining about the power of the fans, or their ability to bring temperatures down. Rather, our complaint deals with the issue of these cards not being able to handle temperatures going up and down at such levels.

Sure, the fans work and lower the temps, but the fact that they've gone up so high and then come down plays havoc on these poorly-pieced chips. So I'd go with Eleron's contention: Why let it heat up in the first place? And especially with these cards, such a rhetorical question becomes just that much more important.

 

I second Kade's post ^. It is the roller-coaster ride the temps go on that ruins the soldering in the video cards. This would explain why today I have needed to toast my cards for an 8th time back to health. This seventh toasting lasted 9 days this time around! A new record!

 

There has to be some way to work on tha BIOS and just make them kick in faster...I can`t believe nobody on the forums or anywhere else can`t desciphre that BIOS and just redo it to suit lower temps needs ...

Its sad that one of the best laptops of its time is crippled by such low tolerance to heating. Well, that being said, temps of 100C on other laptops still make me feel better...

 

Well, after I got Dell to give me a service request to give me a replacement on my M1730 last Thursday (10/8), I decided to call them back again because, as usual, I hadn't heard anything back from them. Not that I expected to, but I don't just want to wait for three weeks thinking they'll do everything right--I know I'm gonna have to stay on their about it (and that sucks).

So when I initially called, I got this rude sounding voice basically yelling "Our phone lines are down call back in two hours ahhhh!"

Three hours later I called back and got someone. When I gave her my dispatch number and asked about the status of my system replacement, she told me first that it would take around 15 business days for the system to arrive at my door. I asked if I could confirm the system that I'd be getting and all she would say at first is that the dispatch team would be "looking for" a system that is "equal or better" than my current M1730.

Then I went ahead and brought out the M17x bomb and asked if that could be my possible upgrade. I was told pretty quickly that that was not possible and that only a new XPS system of equal or better spec could be sent. Then I went on about that the highest spec of a new XPS Dell offers isn't anywhere close to the specs of the M1730, etc... blah blah, and she then asked me if I could give her the specs of an M17x that I would want for a replacement, so I went down the list of what I wanted and she said that she added it to my order or profile or whatever, but I kept getting the suspicion that she was just trying to get me off the phone. She said that "they" or whoever would look at that spec when they get to that stage. Or whatever. Gah, I just don't know if I should sit back at this point or keep calling every couple of days.

 

@ Eleron, Kade, Hankaaron, Zath et al.

At this stage we are in agreement re bios. I'm going to call service and make the suggestion... again.

I also suggest we make a concerted effort to hit Dell's dream cloud or whatever that users suggestion site is. I'm also going to hit the emails of Dell's exec's and point out the stupidity of this situation.

Fingers crossed.

 

http://www.ideastorm.com/ideaView?id=087700000000Z7vAAE

The more votes the better.

 

You got my vote all the way.

 

Added my vote as well.

Look at this one: Aug 29, 2008 Sound familiar?