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

No jumper modifications are required. This isn't a desktop.
The HDDs are stacked accordingly, and you just need to install them to their respective slots accompanied by the HDD cable.

See the Dell service manual for instructions on how to install your secondary HDD.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsm1730/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1109848

If you have installed the new HDD, you just need to format it first before use under the Computer Management on your control panel and assign a drive letter. (Or else it will not appear as a recognizable drive in My Computer)

PS, are you intending to do a RAID setup?

Pointless. It will downclock to 667Mhz effective due to chipset limitation. The M1730 uses a PM965 chipset. Only GM/PM45 chipsets can run up to 800Mhz effective.

Update to BIOS A10. 8GB RAM works as well. Of course, why 8GB over 4GB for me due to special needs.

 

I had these exact symptoms before one of my GPUs failed. After a couple of weeks my laptop would not start with SLI enabled.

 

Dude, no cheating, you changed your GPUs once

Did that. I`ll try a couple more drivers tomorrow, but I`m pretty sure one of them is at its end.

Yea, well, in SLI when it gets to the windows logon screen, the screen goes dark, not off, dark-like. And nothing.

 

Yep, had exactly the same issue. What I did was I went into the safe mode, deleted video driver. Then I reinstalled the video driver without enabling SLI.

 

felt compelled to visit this thread one last time ...

although the m1730 served me well, i parted with it. for my configuration (2.5GHz/4GB/200GB/320GB/8800M GTX), i think i did well selling for 1K & change.

it was a nice computer, except for video board and some other hardware failure causing BSOD, it was rock solid.

moved on to core i7 and ATI graphics, so far no complaints.

 

OK, LAJ01, your research on scaling instruction work. Thanks for all your help,
Instructions for configuring GPU Scaling:
To access the GPU Scaling feature within ATI Catalyst Control Center:

1. Using either method below, open the ATI Catalyst Control Center
- Click on Start | Programs | ATI Catalyst Control Center
- Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select the ATI Catalyst Control Center
2. Click on the “Graphic” pull-down menu and select Desktops and Displays
3. Right-click on the display icon that requires GPU Scaling to be enabled on the bottom left corner, select Configure and highlight the Attributes tab
4. For Windows XP users, expand Digital Panel Properties and highlight the Attributes tab
5. Choose the GPU Scaling method desired. There are three different GPU scaling modes that can be selected. Choose the mode that best fits your needs:
- Maintain Aspect Ratio
- Scale Image to Full Panel Size
- Use Centered Timings

 

Nah eleron what was the motherboard that got replaced, but didn´t have to actually since it starting working the day the tech arrived. He replaced it anyway. The GPU´s is still the same as the day I bought the XPS M1730.

 

Ah, cool then.

Well, I lose, lol since I`m going to try a few more things this time and I`ll see about getting them replaced...

 

eleron, I'm curious if you'll get a replacement.

 

Well, after several driver attempts, the second card is not even recognized anymore.
The device manager no longer shows a second 8800M GTX.

Is there a program with which I can test if it still exists? or in BIOS ?

Edit: went in BIOS, tried the latest driver, did a factory restore in BIOS, nothing.
It only shows one 8800M GTX.
Could the SLI cable be broken or something ?

 

And after a BIOS reflash, the second card appeared, but when going into SLI the screen either goes blank or the system locks.

Yup, SLI is dead...

 

It's not an end, but could be a new begining x).

 

No SLI cable with this machine, both GPUs share the same PCB and connection between them is done by soldering.

 

Sent an email to a tech company, but I won`t get any answer till monday.
Well, at least one card works...

 

Good luck eleron, keep us updated.

 

Mine broked today too Its been going blue screen for a few days, and now when you turn it on it cycles through the red green blue colours and thats it :|

Do we still get 24/7 support? I cant seem to find the number.

 

eleron I would have tried to flash the GPU´s instead using NVflash. I have done this several times on my GPU´s. You could use my video bios I currently use and I will give you instructions on how do to it. Only takes a few seconds

 

So while playing the Witcher Enhanced for about an hour with SLI turned on, I got some heavy artifacting. I quickly backed out of the game and fired up Core Temp and GPU-Z.

Core0 was 82 degrees
Core1 was 87 degrees
The GPU cores were both 74 degrees.

It's a hot day and my room is about 29 degrees.

Are these temps really bad? My CPU is idling at about 51 degrees. About 7 months ago I opened up the case and dusted everything out. My 1730 is propped up slightly in the back, about 1 inch...

Thanks.

 

Are all you guys running the 8800GTX SLI card now?

I may have a spare 8800GTX card for sale soon - Ive seen a system up for sale at a decent price and Im considering purchasing it to break it up and sell the parts.

How much do you think the 8800GTX SLI card itself would be worth nowadays?

 

Ok, I`m willing to try that. What does it involve and could it fix anything ?

 

GPU temps are fine. But they can drop drastically in a matter of seconds after gaming sessions are over. It could probably run nearly 80 or 90*C while you were gaming. Just to be sure, run HWMonitor at the background to get an overall temp result whilst gaming.

As for the CPU, theoretically those -max- temps are fine, but they are considered warm. The TJmax for majority of Core 2 Duo CPUs are 100-105*C. Are those the X9000 or just the normal 35W CPU temps? You could probably try undervolting and a thermal paste reapplication. With those you could probably shave off 15 - 20*C... Sometimes even more if done correctly. Those are the normal temps of my X9000 when OC'ed to 4.0GHz. It should run around 60 to 50*C when maxed for normal end CPUs.

BTW, 7 months ago is really a long time. I do my maintenance every 3 months. You can see how much dust are in there already.

I'd say 550 - $600. Ebay is selling them for 600 - 700. Or start a bidding on ebay and see how high it goes. I bet it can go higher than $500. I sold mine for 620 and bought the 9800M GTX SLi for $600 only.

 

These are X9000 temps. I should also say that once I quit out of the game, the same exact artifacts were appearing on my desktop. It looked like everything was pixelated... or more likely about 25% pixelated.

I got it up to 90 degrees after playing The Witcher again yesterday. I couldn't get the artifacts to reappear though. I tried to replicate the problem again today but it's much cooler... I reinstalled the NVidia drivers FWIW.

 

Hey gang....been away for a while (cuz everything's been working - til about a week ago).

I'd be interested in what BIOS you're putting on these, as well. Mine are 9800 GT's, and started acting up...mouse stutters, system lockups, the infamous driver recovery, etc.... Seems to be just an SLI issue...have flashed to latest nvidia bios, reloaded...fresh install of windows 7. Same thing. Was lucky enough to get my warranty updated for 3 years, so we'll see where this goes.

Btw...currently running ubuntu on it with no problems, but SLI isn't enabled. Anybody got an idea of how to enable SLI in Ubuntu 10?

 

What are you doing in Linux that could benefit from SLI?

 

Running A10 for now, but second card is dead, clearly. I have no SLI, and after any restart, the second card no longer shows in the device manager.
Problem is I have to wait till next Wednesday for service...

 

look at the bright side - you'll most probably get a 9800GTX

 

Testing my video card setup....LOL...I'm not trying to game, just want to see if I get a hardware failure in Linux. Last-ditch effort to rule out a "Windows" problem.

 

We'll see, hopefully, that will be the case.

 

On my first GPU replacement I had, they issued the 9800GTX, but on the second replacement when the damn field tech broke something else on the mobo, or the GPU itself, and required me to get another GPU replaced, it was back to 8800GTX.
The damn field tech broke the LCD hinge on the bottom housing in the process and I told him to call Dell himself and explain the situation and request broken parts.

 

I don't think SLI works in Linux. But I'm only 80% sure of that.

Maybe go to Main Page - Linux Mint and ask in their forums. Their community is usually really helpful.

 

Linux works great with nVidia cards but as far as I know, it can't handle SLI setups. Well, you don't even need such power so maybe this is the reason.
@Guys, how is Metro 2033 running with your M1730s?

 

Linux works great with nVidia cards but as far as I know, it can't handle SLI setups. Well, you don't even need such power so maybe this is the reason.
@Guys, how is Metro 2033 running with your M1730s?

 

does anyone knows or has the led blinking codes for it guys ?

 

The M1730 DCSE manual has the LED codes. I'm trying to find the download link for it. Probably BatBoy has it, but I think the link's dead ever since he took down his website.

EDIT: There it is... http://www.mediafire.com/?jblsqxr3ixds88h

 

Here is Magnus on his 1730
YouTube - Metro 2033 longer gameplay, XPS M1730, Core2Duo 2.4GHz, 4GB Ram, 8800m GTX SLI @ 625/1550/950

 

highly appreciated!
thanks!

 

What exactly do you need the led codes for?

 

got a buyer on ebay that i sold some m1730 parts to asking me to help him diagnose a faulty m1730 he has.
This guy buys cheap m1730 parts and assembles systems that he later sells for profit.

 

Hey guys,
Does anyone know if we can fit 12.5mm 2.5" harddrives in our beasts? I've just bought C300 SSD and would like to add WD10TPVT 1TB for a storage .

 

No, it can only accept 9.5mm height 2.5" form factor drives.

 

tx, buuuuiuuuuu. I guess nothing better than WD7500BPVT (WD 750GB) for storage. Still nice imho .

 

Well you can buy two of them and combine it in a RAID 1 fashion. That's 1.5TB of space.

 

Yeah, but I wanted performance + space .

 

A RAID setup will combine two harddrives together and will increase performance and reduce load times approximately 30 - 50% faster as opposed to a single drive setup. The differences are very subtle and in fact perform as fast as that. Tried and tested.

 

You mean RAID 0 then, not RAID 1. RAID 1 will mirror the data on both drives, increasing (read only) speed and reliability, but 2x 500GB drives will still be only 500GB.

Raid 0 will increase read and write speed and capacity by splitting data over 2x drives, with 2x 500GB drives making 1x 1TB logical drive. However, chance of hardware failure is twice as high with RAID 0, as if one HDD fails, the data on both drives becomes unrecoverable.

 

this + SSD will outpeform RAID 0 anyway, cause there is almost no latency and it's a flash memory. With C300 256GB SSD sata controller is a bottleneck in M1730 because seq. read speed of this beauty is over 300MB/s (seq. write speed speed ~200MB/s)

 

Yeah, the C300 is pretty awesome . I just can't see myself spending half of what I paid for my entire laptop on a hard drive .

 

well, it's an investment in the future as well. It's still going to be one of the faster drives in 2 years time (that's what I'm hoping for at least ). when I replace my laptop I'm going to put my c300 to the new one. Even if it's not going to be the fastest one it'll still beat regular drives by miles and SSD drives will not dominate the market anytime soon imho. So even after 2 years from now I'll beat most of the regular laptops . And as we all know, the slowest part of the computer is a harddrive so I don't mind spending extra $ on it , especially if a boost in performance is big enough to justify it. If I didn't have spare money I'd probably buy smaller size SSD for significantly lower price and it'd still be great for performance (and also buy another drive for storage)

 

Yes, I was referencing to RAID 0. My apologies for that. Anyway whatever harddrive you have in your setup, RAID or no RAID, you will want to do regular backups. Well an SSD is a good upgrade, but if someone needs space without the compromise of speed, the dual 500GB RAID 0 setup is what is needed. Which is what I have right now and it is important for other needs other than storage.

Good luck for your future upgrades!

 

Really? That doesn't seem to make sense.