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

WOW! That's just.....wow!
Congrats.
On another topic. Does anyone know if AW m17x's LED screen is compatible with M1730? My screen became kind of dull in a past few months. I think backlit is starting to die. Not all that surprised though, since I've been turning the screen on/off quite often for the past 2 years.

 

Whoahaha, that's some economics...
An M1730, X9000, 8800M for £360 all together!!!
+ 1 rep for making me smile.

I must be doing something completely wrong.

 

Ah, thanks man, that's my first rep here If you get bored at work and spend far too long on ebay, you do tend to find deals like that

 

Get bored at work??
See, that's what I'm doing wrong!

 

Ah, I see

 

Lol i spent a lot of time on the internet at work, so much so i got sacked 2 weeks ago lol, but i got a better job paying much more withen 6 days, so maybe surfing on the internet at work is a good thing!

 

Awesome Often there are quiet days where I work, so you can do pretty much what you want. I've had two days in a row of doing nothing before, but it's been fairly busy lately

 

ye somehow i'm secretly wishing my m1730 is gonna fail, cant wait to get my hands on a 5870 m17x ;p

 

Alright guys, my M1730 1 year warranty is officially over, so much for that one year of protection... but well so far so good, running well and steady for the past 1.2 years. Gotta take extra care of my machine from now on.

PS, I'm thinking of selling the parts individually. I've got 2x4GB Sodimms and a 9800M GTX SLI card modded with ICD7 diamond comin' to the sale thread. Still not confirmed of my sale yet however.

 

I think a lot of people will be interested in getting 9800M GTX . Give us a shout when you will make up your mind.

 

Yep, if the price is right.

 

Hi guys, I have an asus c90s, and I'm happy with it (7k 3dmark06) but I have the chance to have an XPS 1730 on the cheap...it has an x9000 and dual 8800 GTX.
Do you think it's worth it? How abaut your benchmarks?? I saw ernstig01 15k 3dmark...but I'd like to know more abaut it, and how upgrdable still being the 1730...
I'm pretty sure you have the scores posted, but since the pos is 200 pgs long, I hope you understand the question...
Ps - it's MXM III rigth?
Thank you all

 

stock you will get around 11500 3dmarks, and you won't be able to upgrade much, just 8800 GTX to 9800 GTX, but it won't make that much difference

 

@phoenon
It'll be a huge improvement over the system you have at the moment.
MXM is standardized GPU slot, right? If so, then no, M1730 has Dell's unique design. So, not much possibilities for an upgrade.
As Psyloid said, you are getting maxed out configuration as it is. 9800M GTX is not that big of an upgrade, but an expensive one.
I got a score of around 13100 in 3d mark with CPU @3,4 GHz when I first got laptop (about 2 years ago)...never run it since tbh.

Excactly :yes:

 

Thank you so much, your help is very apreciated, I think I have to take it easy...but just two more questions, that scores are with the system OCed, you are able to OC processor and graphics stable? And what abaut the temps?
Thank you again.

 

Yes, I'm able to OC both CPU and GPU. There is a tool in BIOS that let's you choose from one of he following freqencies: 2.8; 3.0; 3.2; 3.4. You will not be able to OC CPU above 3.4. Also, note that at 3.4.
I'm able to OC GPU to 625/950/1550 from factory 500/800/1250 without any stability and heat issues.
Temps stay within 85C when playing Crysis. This is a very hot laptop. Even when compare to the likes of AW m17x. Hence, so many failing GPUs.

P.S. Hm...Dell have pulled out the option for CF 5870 configuration for AW m17x. No benchmarks any time soon, I guess

 

I would change my drivers and SLI rendering option. Mess around with that. And see if the problem goes away.

 

I got that score last summer running Vista Ultimate x64. CPU @ 3.4 and the GPU's @ 640/1600/950. nVidia drivers 185.85 if I remember well.
I also have Kingston HyperX cas4 memory. It helps also a little to push your score higher.

Also very important to lift the back a little to get rid of the heat. The GPU is very vulnerable for heat. With the fans at full blast this way it shouldn't be an issue.

hikkoo has also the HyperX and even better: the 9800M GTX. He managed to reach 15480 points.

 

What's special about the card with the mod ?

 

The ICD7 reduced temperature by nearly 8 degrees. The paste that Dell originally came with was just horribly applied - and it wasn't helping. So I had to something to it.

I wouldn't call it a mod but rather a change of paste.

 

I also did. I only used AS5 to do the job.
Now I'm just not so certain anymore if AS5 is good enough. I read a lot about Shin-Etsu to do the job better. Or what about ICD7?

I need to find out what's the best.

 

I have a burning question, does anyone know about a way to make a hotkey to disable/enable the touchpad for the m1730 under win7?

I hate to go into to the control panel when i want to do this

 

You can reassign the other buttons on the M1730, like the "home" button that's left off the LED's. If you google "reassigning dell buttons" +/- M1730 you'll come across what you need. Also I think one of the guys here, made a guide for it. Batboy perhaps?

 

Here it is.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...tons-functionality.html?highlight=mediadirect

 

Yea! I was right it was Batboy!!

 

sweet, gonna give it a try later,
Its the only thing that was really missing on the beast for me

 

Hi all. Another fellow M1730 owner signing in from Australia!

Stumbled upon this site looking for the best drivers for my GPUs trying to get Battlefield Bad Company 2 to run better...but since I've gotten distracted and have been reading threads on here for the past few days. Awesome repository of information I must say! (still not sure which driver to use)

Firstly, I am saddened/angered by all the horror stories of dell "support" and I wish everyone having to deal with them good luck.

Reading this site has got me worried though about my CPU/GPU temps. A little about my system. It was bought at the end of 2007 mid Dec. I guess you can call it the first gen - T7700 @ stock 2.4ghz, 8700M SLI, ageia physx card, 4gb ram, Vista 32. Unfortunately, I'm out of warranty too I don't think I can renew it, unless they offer recertification for this system...but I'm not holding my breath. I haven't had any problems beside my battery dying, and now my replacement battery being dead also, but I haven't gotten around to replacing it. So knock on wood/fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong!

Anyway, since I've been reading this site, I do think I need to clean out my system of dust and hit it with some ICD7. It's been sitting on a notebook cooler most of it's life (which now doesn't work) and it has previously been raised by bottle caps. Currently temps are with Firefox open and on High Performance setting:

Core#0 ~74 degC : Core#1 ~74degC
GPU1 67degC : GPU2 73degC
room temp is about 21degC

It increases significantly once I start playing games. What do you guys think?

Sorry for the long post, but may as well get it in one shot.

I wouldn't mind doing some upgrading either before I give up and move back to a desktop system. I can get my hands on an alleged OEM X9000 for about $400AUD - do you think it's worth it? I also wouldn't mind finding some 9800 SLIs if at all possible...

Anyway, hope you guys can shed some light on temps etc. Thanks for your time in advance, it's greatly appreciated.

 

@ Jeebsy
Your temps do seem a bit too high to me. At the moment running Opera and a few more programs on the background I get 47C for both CPU cores, 52/53 for GPUs. Not entirely sure what the room temp is tbh. If you haven't cleaned out your system for over two years, this is definitely the reason for your high temps. So, fully cleaning it (I mean actually taking the lappy apart) should fix it. Applying some thermal paste helps in most cases, but do it only if you are completely confident in your skills.
Upgrading to X9000 wouldn't do you much good in games, as your GPUs will definitely be a bottleneck there. If you are doing some other CPU intensive tasks, however, it would be a nice upgrade. GPU upgrade will significantly increase performance of your laptop in games.
As for the best drivers for Battlefield Bad Company 2, I found that all drivers after the release that added SLI support for this game perform about the same. But then again, I don't run benchmarks that often, so probably there is a difference that I just didn't notice.

 

Thanks for the reply DDT5, I envy your temps

Yeah, a full clean is on the cards definitely. That's what brought the whole upgrade options to the fore - if I'm going to open it up to such a degree, I may as well see how else I can improve it.

I do understand and agree with the GPUs being a bottleneck with such a CPU upgrade. I am yet to find anything in AUS GPU wise - what I've seen available have been either 1GB or 2GB refurbished versions of 9800M GTX sli's in the UK. I didn't know there were two memory types available for the 1730.

As to thermal pasting...in agreeance again. I've seen some youtube vids and it doesn't seem that onerous, as long as one is careful...

Thanks for driver tips too. I guess a recent one should do the trick, otherwise it's just trial and error with benchmarking imo. I think I'll see what I can do with my temps though first.

 

Just FYI, if you ring dell support you can usually pay for extended warranty, although it costs £120 IIRC. Definetly worth it if you reckon it's going to break though, most parts for that laptop are extremely expensive.

 

@ Jeebsy
No problem
Nah, 9800M GTX comes only with 1Gb VRAM. The guy claiming that there are infact 2Gb VRAM either doesn't know how SLI works, or knows a thing or two about marketing
In any case, I would check with them to clarify what card exactly it is that they are selling. Here are also a couple of 8800M GTX on ebay. 8800M GTX=9800M GT.

Edit: I think I know what two 9800M GTX from ebay you are talking about. If you look at their part numbers, you'll see that they are different. This is simply not possible. Most likely one of them is 9800M GT.

 

XM888 = 8800M GTX
F979M = 9800M GT

K650M = 9800M GTX

If you want the best bang for your buck:
DELL XPS M1730 1GB 8800GTX DUAL SLI VIDEO CARD PN XM888 - eBay, Motherboards CPUs, Laptop Accessories, Computing. (Eindtijd 25-mei-10 17:33:01 CEST)
But be careful it is refurbished.

 

Nice info there.

I'd be very careful with that eBay purchase is only 90days. Should be a year at least if it was something the happy with.

 

refurbished = baked?
i think so ... wouldnt buy it

 

Maybe cooked or flamed on the barbcue.
For sure I would be careful as long it's not marked new. They sold a few of K650M's two months ago. Only the price was holding me. I better put that money in upgrading my desktop.

 

Thanks again for the replies guys.

@DDT5 - yeah, those are the ones I'm talking about.
@ernstig - thanks for part numbers and link. Desktop option isn't sounding too bad I must admit

Yeah, i'm very wary of those refurbished cards, and hence why I haven't bit the bullet yet. Aren't the 8800s failing for a lot of people on here?

Thought I'd call Dell here in Aus to see what they have available for this laptop and prices. I didn't really get any answers. They took my details and a 'product specialist' will get in contact with me. What I was told though is that an X9000 isn't on the list of compatible parts, but it isn't on the non-compatible list either. They do have X7800s though, 2.6ghz? Didn't get to talk about GPUs...

Unless anyone here wishes to part with their GPUs/CPUs?

 

Hi all this is one great(long) thread. I'm in Aus and thinking of buying one of these units, just wondering if i buy off ebay can i get warranty through dell. I know there is a cost involved but not sure they will due to it not being sold here in Aus anymore. cheers

Do all units come with LightFX & Backlit Keyboard or is this a addon purchase from dell

 

Lightfx and backlit is standard option, so yes they all have them

Most units sold through fleebay come with dell waranty (which should be extendable) but you better check with the seller first

 

X9000 is compatible with M1730. I wouldn't put too much trust in Dell's support staff. X7800 was the first extreme CPU that came on the beast. Shortly after it was replaced by the X7900, which was just faster by 0.2Ghz. Then X7900 was replaced by X9000 adding a lot of new features. I'm not sure what the OC capabilities of X7800 are and if you are able to OC it at all.

Dell's warranty is transferable and international, so there shouldn't be a for seller to transfer his warranty on to you, if he/she still has one.

 

Hello,

My XPS m1730 has been working fine until very recently. When surfing Youtube, the PC frooze, forcing me to power it down and restart. However, after post, windows would not start; I got the black screen without mouse and hdd dead. The laptop has been problematic since then. Safe-mode with networking however works fine.

After leaving it to cool down for couple hours at least, it would start up again only to falter 5-10 minutes after login.

I tried reinstalling drivers, disabling services, checking for viruses, cleaning registry.. no luck

I have xps M1730 with t9300, 4gig ram, 8800m gtx sli, physix, vista home 64 (which I installed)

I am tempted to think that it is related to hardware (overheating) but why would it start in safe mode then?

All input appreciated

 

Thanks all. Do you think this item is fixable. what do you think the problem is

Dell xps M1730 17" 2.6Ghz | 2Gb | 250Gb NVIDIA 8800M - eBay, Laptops, Notebooks, Computers. (end time 04-May-10 15:00:42 AEST)

 

The problem could actually be a multitude of things. Considering some details are lacking. For example, when you try to turn the machine on after an automatic power down, what does it do? Can it go into the BIOS and stay there without powering off? Were diagnositcs run and what were the results?

If you can get the laptop cheaply, then its well worth it. Considering the issue, it's more likely to be the CPU. But the motherboard could be the issue, thus putting other components at risk. So you could be looking at a Motherboard and/or CPU replacement. But worse case scenario is you would have to replace the MOBO/CPU/GFX Card. It's not likely you would have to replace all 3. And it's rare for the Graphics Card to be the cause of a power failure. I've seen that happen maybe only once before.

I would only risk buying the laptop if you can get it for 500 dollars or less. Since all parts excluding CPU and MOBO of an M1730 laptop with 8800m GTX SLI cards should be worth it and could be sold seperately to recoupe any money spent as a last resort.

 

The seller won't even answer any of my questions so i'm giving it a miss. bidding on another fingers crossed and i'll be a member of Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge lol. If the laptop is out of warranty can i pay dell to get checked and add warranty here in Aus?? Sorry so many questions

 

If you buy one with no Warranty then your SOL. But if you buy the laptop with some time left on the warranty and you get ownership transfered to you in time, then you could extend or renew the warranty.

 

I don't think it's a typical 8800M problem. I've seen also a lot of 9800M GT's and GTX's failing and even some 8700M's. It only looks like the older models are performing better, but also I'm not 100% sure.

Everything in the end is fixable. It depends on what is broken. If you have spare-parts it's easier to find out. My guess it's the GPU. It's the system's heel of Achilles and the most expensive part.

 

It sounds like a real problem you have. Safe-mode no problem, normal start yes. Did you try the original Windows disk to repair?

It sounds like your Master Boot Record (MBR) is corrupted. If you don't have an image of your hdd which you can put back, you can try to repair.

Here is an explanation about the MBR:
JSKYs - Vista’s Master Boot Record

Here is some information about how to use the system recovery options in Vista:
What are the system recovery options in Windows Vista?

If this is not solving the issue, maybe your hdd let you down.

Also something weird is slipping my mind: like one GPU core is failing. Is safe-mode just using one core? Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Safe mode will work for you because it doesn't load the GPU drivers or use your discrete graphics cards. It will however, use the integrated VGA graphics capability on your motherboard which, btw can go up to 1920 by 1200 resolution at a greatly reduced level of performance (speed).

Probably, one or both of your graphics cards has gone to graphics card heaven.

Odds are that it's only one of them. If it's the second card you can frequently bypass it and use only the first card by pressing the Media Direct start button (the small button to the left of the usual start button.) This works very nicely if you've switched to W7 and dumped Dell's Media Direct altogether and eliminated the MD partition. MD will use only the first graphics card. Maybe you'll get lucky and that one will still work.

If your M1730 starts ok, go to the device manager and you'll probably see that only one graphics card is shown rather than the usual two.

 

Get the latest drivers from the Dell website. The ones on your disk are badly outdated.

 

Question... Modern Nvidia drivers incorporate PhysX as software. So are we actually even able to use our Aegia chips?

 

I ended up getting a reply re the price of an X9000 brand new OEM...and to say the least, the price is exorbitant, even the Dell techy agreed with me. Let's just say it's a 4 figure number for which I could purchase a desktop that would blow my laptop out of the water....I think $1,600AUD for a CPU is a smidgen too much ...not including the price of a GPU might cost. On the plus side, I'm out of warranty and was offered another year's worth, which I will take once I get another call back on Monday. However, this whole cheap faulty laptop ebay purchases have given me an idea if I can get something for cheap enough that has lets say a good X7900 and GPU of some sort...*shrug*

@ cebalrai - I'm not 100% sure but maybe those chips still do something. I just installed the new 197.16 drivers off of nvidia's site. The Nvidia control panel lets me turn physx on and off if there is a separate GPU for it...that's my understand anyway from the help description things that come up. I ran a couple of 3dmark benchmarks, one with and without physx on. With it off I got 7811 in 3dmark and with it on I got 7890. Take that as you will...

Anyone with 8700 SLIs got better benchmarks than that? I swear these new drivers are worse than the 179.14's I had...I think my 3dmark score was in the 8000s with old drivers. I'm open to driver recommendations.