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

Anybody have any experience with their speakers going out? along with the lights on each side where the speakers are?

Audio is working through the headset, mic and web cam are also fine.

I clean installed Win7 a year ago and no longer have Dell Quickset.

Any suggestions will be appreciated!

On a side note, I had the video card and heatsinks replaced under warranty due to overheating issues. Also installed A11 BIOS. Gaming temp went down from 85c to 62c. The fans do work a lot, but I have my headset on anyway so the sound isn't all that loud, and am really happy the comp is running so cool.

 

My left speaker failed once and as I heard, there are some issues with those speakers. To fix this issue, Dell will replace your speakers and motherboard too.

 

That was a good Christmas present, but don't give too much credit. It's the only replacement GPU modules available and that's much cheaper for Dell than an M17X R2 upgrade.

But, in all fairness they did the right thing and honored their warranty. Dell does a good job at that, while some of their competitors (*cough* hp *cough*) do not provide good warranty service.

 

Yea, that's the good part about having the XPS, there are upgrades available, you`re not stuck to one type of GPU.
I`m extending my warranty in January also, till 2013, so I should be fine till then.

 

Btw anyone bought some steam deals? I got gta eflc and just finished lost and damned.
Althought gta its a quad core biotch, with some tweaks it can run with decent 25-40 fps.
Too bad that lost and damned isnt really optimized as gta iv,but running it on high with farclp tweak and only shadowdensity to 0 makes it fairly smooth.
I think its the only game up now that uses my 9800m gtx fully.

 

Got a question for those of you who watch movies with the K-lite codec pack installed, in the video properties, at the section for Picture Properties, I need some values for the contrast, brightness etc, cause all my movies look foggy, had this issue since forever, I can never get it to like really good...

Or ideas on how to improve the image quality so that it doesn`t add extra white or fogginess ...

 

On a side note, Wolfenstein runs maxxed out brilliantly, doesn`t go over 67C atm

 

From what you've described, it almost sounds as if the actual connections came loose. Have you taken things apart to confirm the speakers and LEDs are still physically connected as they should be?

 

Intel has just released the new version of the driver for the RAID arrays if anyone is interested. Haven't checked it out myself yet. I prefer to wait a couple of weeks before installing the kind of updates that can easily destroy the RAID array, and cause me to lose all my data. It is backed up, just don't want to go through the headache of restoring it

Anyways, backup before trying it out

 

I'm glad I found yall's site. My 1730 has been driving me nuts lately.

My biggest worry began just last night with the little battery/charge indicator light. The cycle that is looping through is this: flashing red 4, then blue once, then red 4 times..... I cant seem to find a good answer as to what this code means in my searches thusfar online.

My system is just a bit out of warranty and Dell wants to charge me like $60 just to trouble shoot over the phone, which is ridiculous.

Anyway, any help yall might be able to offer would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Hi fellow beast owner, and welcome aboard.

First, lets nail the problem: if the battery flashes red, then there are a few causes for it, you need to see whats more fitting for you:

- If it flashes red continuosly, but your performance doesnt drop (eg 3d full clocks while gaming, cpu full clocks while gaming, in other words NO throttling) then probably your battery is worn out, and it needs to be replaced;

- under bios, check if your power adapter is correctly recognized. If its not, it should display "unknown". Under the bios setup you can also see whats the battery status. If its unknown, probably the ac adapter is broken, thus theres no way it can charge the battery. This can mean that:
1. Ac Adapter, as i said, is broken and needs to be replaced;
2. Ac Adapter is fine, but out of luck, your mainboard is half broken or it will break soon;
3. The battery and AC controller on board is broken, and that can lead to a broken mainboard in the near future. This can mean that both battery and ac adapter are actually doing fine, the problem can be related to motherboard.

These are the possible scenarios. First of all i would try to check both battery and ac adapter status under bios. Then check the battery under windows, preferably using the Dell battery management software then report back to us.

Good luck mate!

 

Thanks for the response Kingpin.

Okay. I immediately, upon noticing the flashing led last night, checked the BIOS inquiring as to the health of the battery and it showed as being fine.

As per your request, I just checked it again and it shows as follows:
-> (from the Battery Info screen)
Idle
100% charged
AC Adapter = 230W

-> (from the Battery Health screen)
This battery is performing normally

And, just to clarify, the led is not blinking red continuously. It is blinking red 4 times, then its normal blue once, then repeating the cycle.

The LED on the "brick" is operating normally, meaning it stays lit its normal blue color. Unplugging it from the surge protector, and/or from the laptop itself, makes no difference.

Indeed, even when the laptop is powered down completely, the 4 red to 1 blue cycle of the batt/charge LED is ongoing. Even if I remove power via the AC adapter while the laptop is running, the cycle still continues.

I even shut the whole thing down overnight, unplugging the power from the AC adapter, and came back this morning, plugged the AC power back in, and the LED began its cycle again.

How would I check the throttling issues you described?

Thanks in advance again....

 

Questions:

Does your system seem to be functioning normally other than the flash codes? (If so, the codes are probably an indication of something wrong with the battery or AC adapter. If it is not functioning normally, please describe any problems you are experiencing.)

How rapidly and how sustained are the flash codes (4 fast, 4 slow, 2 long and 2 short, etc.)?

Are the LEDs on the battery itself giving any flash codes?

Have you tried a forced power discharge to see if this clears the LED flashing? Remove the AC power and battery. Hold down the power button for 2 minutes. Attach the AC power and boot into Windows. While running, install the battery. Wait about a minute, drop the battery, the pop it back in again.

With the machine off, while holding down the fn key, press the power button. Wait a few seconds. Do you receive any audible beep codes, or different LED flash patterns? If so, make a note of the beep and flash patterns (long, short, how many, etc.) and post them here if you cannot find anything online.

I am not finding anything posted online about the LED flash codes for the M1730. I found similar articles for other .Dell .products, which may be of some limited value:

Information About the Battery LEDs on a Dell? Portable System - KB Article - 299393 | Dell

Latitude 2100 No POST, No Video Troubleshooting - KB Article - 357640 | Dell

Battery LED Flash Code? 4 short amber, one long green... - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Alienware? M17x and M15x System LEDs - Hot Topic - 358462 | Dell

If the battery LED flash code patterns are the same or similar for most Dell laptops, then they may be useful.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ​

EDIT: I just located additional information in the XPS M1730 User Manual that may be useful.

Documentation

Check the battery status light —
If the battery status light flashes amber or is a steady amber, the battery charge is low or depleted. Connect the computer to an electrical outlet.

If the battery status light flashes blue and amber, the battery is too hot to charge. Shut down the computer, disconnect the computer from the electrical outlet, and then let the battery and computer cool to room temperature.

If the battery status light rapidly flashes amber, the battery may be defective. Contact Dell.

----------------------------------------------------------------------​

You can download both the XPS M1730 User Manual and Service Manual (which includes complete disassembly instructions) from the Dell Support web site.

 

Thanks for replying Mr. Fox.

I tried the forced power discharge method you described, and after completing all the steps you listed the led is still cycling, 4 red 1 blue. Though it should be noted that as soon as i removed the battery that led remained unlit, though the system booted and ran fine, sans battery, as I believe it should.

I also ran the diagnostic boot by holding down the FN key while powering up. I received no beeps on POST, and all diagnostics came up as PASS.

Like you, last night, I had also found the information about the led status indicator blinking to indicate that the battery was too hot, and thus needed to cool down--hence why I left the system fully powered down, and unplugged, overnight. But the problem resumed upon plugging everything back in, and rebooting this morning.

I'm hoping this is nothing more than a battery going bad as I just had to shell out some dough for a replacement keyboard as my "a" key is quickly going bad.

Thanks for the help thusfar.....

 

Also forgot to mention that the battery pack itself is not giving any unusual flash codes itself.

Though, I have just noticed that the entire system appears to have started running hot. The internal fans have, just since this batt/charge indicator led problem, begun to come on when they never did before--even cycling between medium and high speed.

This is happening in a relatively mild, as far as FPS's go, graphically intensive online game called Combat Arms--and like I said, just started last night at about the same time as I noticed the LED start flashing.

In-game, Speedfan is registering the GPU temp going as high as 67 degrees Celsius, with each GPU hitting about 55.

Out of game the GPU is registering about 50-52. And the CPUs register anywhere from 30 something to high 40's, depending on what is running.

I don't know if any of this is connected. But it is rather suspicious that both issues cropped up at the same time.

FWIW, I only have a single GPU, as I only have a single 8700 installed.

 

The LEDs not flashing sans battery, along with the fact that the machine works well without the battery, is probably an indication that the battery is source of the problem. If you do not require the battery, it might be better to operate without it until you can replace it on the chance it has an internal short. It may have a bad cell. Does the battery life seem any shorter than it used to, or does the battery seem to get unusually warm?

Your GPU temps seem to be within the normal range and are not high enough to be concerned. I remember reading somewhere on this forum that the new M1730 BIOS firmware will cause the GPU fans to run more. Did you flash your BIOS recently?

 

Wow...Thanks Mr.Fox.

Why yes, I just flashed my BIOS last night. Upgraded from A9 to A11. I didn't even consider that. Good catch.

So, there will not be any problems whatsoever running without the battery installed??

Now if I can just get my new keyboard in.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Glad to help. And, there should be no problem running without a battery.

The M1730 Service Manual available for download at support.dell.com will provide detailed instructions on replacing the keyboard. It's actually easy to do, just be careful to follow the instructions to avoid breaking anything.

 

Removing the keyboard is a joke.
Near the lcd theres a small carving,use something small like a flat screw driver to lift the bezel gently till it comes out.
It will expose four screws. Remove them,then gently slide up the keyboars and turn it toward yourself.
Now lift the small plastic connector that holds the flat to the mainboard and keep it lifted.
Put the new keyboard flat in place,push down the plastic lock,turn over the keyboard,slide it down firmly in place,screw back the screws,put back the bezel from left to right pushing it down.
Done!
So youre running a single 8700? I guess the second gpu has died?
Thats not a good thing..
Btw as already stated the fan cycle is common with A11 bios,usuallt they begin to spin around 50c.
If i may advice pull out your battery asap,because if its the palmrest zone that its becoming hot then clearly its a battery heat problem,it can explode.

 

Kingpin, thanks.

Yes, having removed, and replaced the keyboard on my unit several times, I agree that doing so is very easy.

However, re your conclusion about my GPU.... This unit has only ever had a single 8700. It came brand new from the factory that way. To make a long story short, this unit was sent to replace my m1710 that died, COD unknown--after 5 onsite visits from a tech no less. And since the 1710 series did not have SLi as an option, DELL probably did not feel compelled to send me a replacement unit that was so equipped.

Thanks again for the replies though.

 

I see, then its a real shame to have such a beast with only a card, moreover a single 8700m gt, which is really underpowered nowadays (even the bigger sister, the 8600m gt, doesnt quite do well).

I guess that you can switch to a better sli card like 9800m GT or our 9800m GTX in the future if you want to keep up the beast running, it really kills even newer laptops if configured with good parts, trust me.

 

Yeah....

I'm weighing maxing this beast out against getting a new Alienware system--which I just spec'ed out at around $5500.

I figure a dual 9800m GTX for this system will run me close to $800, and then maxing out the RAM I have yet to look into.

I just need to do some research into the performance comparisons, or "bang for my buck" if you will.

Those new Alienware machines in their anodized aluminum chasis' sure are eye candy though. Me likey....

 

Nice touch to the email signature. I may borrow that idea and include it in mine.

You can spend a lot of time and energy on that investigative process, and you should. The effort will pay off in bang for your buck. But, do so with the understanding that once you pull the trigger, you will never own the best and baddest for very long. In my humble opinion, the least bang for the buck is going all-out on the CPU. Unless you derive a lot of enjoyment from overclocking, going for the Extreme processor versus a close runner-up yields painfully small performance gains in terms of bang for the buck.

As a proud owner of the M17X R2, I can tell you that build quality is excellent. This thing is built like a Sherman Tank, it has a tasteful balance of bling, and it performs extremely well as a gaming machine. In case you find it helpful to know, the only part of the machine that is a huge disappointment from a hardware perspective is the touchpad. Its function is lousy to put it bluntly. But, most of us use an external mouse for gaming action and I can tolerate the touchpad for things like reading email and using Microsoft Office. There is also an inconvenient issue that the M17X shares with other products, including the M1730, and that is the " plugged in, not charging" situation. If there is one thing .Dell .should stop doing, they should stop incorporating a proprietary power system in their mobile computing products. (This is causing damage to their reputation with many customers and I think this is a "feature" that they could turn off with a BIOS update.) Other than these two things, I love my Alienware machine.

Having owned many brands of laptops, my experience keeps bringing me back to .Dell/Alienware because of the added-value available in their warranty and service options. Personally, I would find a way come up with extra money or downgrade a couple of components to make up the difference in cost to purchase the 3 or 4 year Complete Care in-home warranty. This warranty is unrivaled in the industry and the service quality is good. Even though the outsourced phone service can be challenging to put up with, the warranty has more than paid for itself in replacement parts, no shipping costs, on-site labor and free hardware upgrades as components become obsolete. I have not needed to use the accidental damage portion of the warranty coverage yet, and hopefully I will not need to.

Over the years, .Dell .has demonstrated to me, and many people that I know, that my business and customer loyalty are valued. I started out with an M1730, which was replaced, upgraded, and replaced with the M17X R2 that I currently own. Other than the initial cost and time involved in communicating with .Dell, there has been no personal cost and fairly minimal frustration to warranty fulfillment. The process has been mostly painless and convenient, with timely service provided by courteous people.

I could share some real nightmare experiences about customer service and warranty fulfillment with .Dell's .biggest competitor. After going through more than one hellish exercise with the unnamed .Dell .competitor multiple times, on several different models; it became clear that they did not give a rat's tail about retaining my business, (or preserving their reputation,) and I will avoid their products like a plague.

So, while doing the research, don't forget to read the fine print on warranties and listen to what multiple experienced customers have to share. The Notebook Review forum covers most of the competition and it is an excellent research tool.

 

There are rumours that Alienware M17x R3 will be announced at the CES 2010, which is a couple of weeks away. I'd wait till then. Even if you'll decide to stick with the R2, I'd imagine there'll be some big discounts.

 

R3 will sport Sandy Bridge architecture, and Engadget already had a finished prototype in hands.

Benchmarks are awesome: with just an i7 mobile+integrated intel HD it scored around 15k. With an ati HD6900 it scored 20k and with an GTX460m it goes around 16-18k mark.

I guess that the best moment to buy an R2 will be when R3 will be out on the market.

 

I would have to disagree with you, just wasted a year of my life getting my graphics cards replaced with Dell. Can't wait to sell my machine despite the huge loss I will incur.

I was told (after hundreds of hours and countless lies) that the reason my account was on hold was that I had too many replacements. I've been a loyal dell customer for well over a decade and I've had many replacements due to inherent design flaws of either a system, software or component.

I am still mulling over a lawsuit considering the number of problems that xps m1730 owners have had as well as the egregious treatment I have received by Dell. I should not have to beg and plead and waste hundreds of hours and over a year of my warranty period for a replacement of a component. Especially one that is known to have inherent design flaws.

I feel defrauded by Dell, not only is the laptop defective but their warranty service is equally suspect. Many users have experienced forced downgrades and have had to fight with Dell for weeks, months and in my case years to attempt to resolve matters.

I've wasted money on a laptop, money on an extended warranty and worse, my time and health.

Everyone has a different experience, many former xps m1730 owners now have Alienware computers, some have gone through several iterations of them.

Not everyone has been treated fairly or with respect.

At some point those with multiple exchanges may find themselves where I am.

I find their customer service abominable, their lies deplorable.

 

And your disagreement is justified based on what you have endured. I have watched the struggles you have been through with your M1730 to the extent you have shared that experience on this forum and anyone would feel the same way you do after such a fiasco.

I don't know why the experience is different from one customer to the next, ranging from horrible to excellent. Your situation is the worst I know about.

Am I remembering correctly that you finally--after an exhausting battle--had your defective video modules replaced? I see from your signature that you have the 9800 series. If so, I am probably not alone in being happy for you even though it does not erase the trouble you experienced.

 

Quick question, sometimes the Task Manager reports 3GB of RAM, othertimes, 3.2. (4 Gb installed)

I am using an Xp 32 bit system, and was wondering why the weird difference?

 

I don't know why the amount of RAM changes in the task manager tbh. But it acceptable for 4th of RAM to be recognised as 3gb or 3.2gb on the 32 bit OS.

EDIT: one reason I can think of for the fluctuation in the amount of RAM readings is if you turn SLI on/off.

 

This is completely normal. The fluctuation has to do with dynamic changes in physical address extensions and memory mapping, and the 3GB memory barrier of the WindowsXP x86 (32-bit) operating system. As DDT5 observed, enabling and disabling SLi causes slight variations in memory I/O mapping. Any component that uses memory address space in the system bus can cause these minor fluctuations in addressable memory.

Here is a Microsoft reference and a wiki article with more detail on memory limitations.

 

Thanks Mr. Fox

While I am grateful that Dell replaced the 9800 SLI about all it does is put me into the position where I can sell the laptop.

Considering all the affected people, various outcomes, inconsistent treatment we probably should have filed a class action against Dell. Especially considering the Nvidia lawsuit.

I find Dell's behavior shameful.

I've been thinking about writing to a ZD/CNET editor about this story because of the parallels it has with other Dell legal woes and poor customer support history. Probably one of the many actions I will take while I still have my machine.

I don't think I could get anymore than 800 or 900 for my machine so that really kills me in terms of getting an equivalent replacement.

 

You're probably right about the resale value of a used laptop as "old" (in computer years) as the M1730. I tried to sell mine before it was replaced with the M17X and there were not even any nibbles. It's conceivable that tech savvy people would know about all the problems and avoid purchasing an M1730. And, people in the market for a used laptop are often looking to steal something dirt cheap rather than paying a fair price.

My recommendation would be to hang onto it. One, if you take legal action you will be at a disadvantage if you no longer possess the evidence. On the basis of looks alone, it would be recognized as an expensive, premium grade computer. The trier of fact might find it easier to connect the dots that it was a defective product and never lived up to its reputation as Dell's flagship product. In my career, I have gained almost a decade of experience participating in litigation of civil matters from the defense side. (No, I'm not an attorney.) I can tell you that seeing and touching are very compelling ways of capturing the minds of judges and jurors.

Second, the nVidia defects, to the best of my knowledge, are not present in the 9800 series--which you now have in your system. And, other than the problems with the 8XXX series modules, it's actually a decent machine. While it is a tad behind the cutting edge of technology, it remains a very potent gaming unit. The build quality is outstanding and it still beats the snot out of some "high performance" computers that are being sold today. There are issues with the AC adapters failing prematurely, but as long as you still have a warranty Dell can keep on supplying them for free. Is your warranty still in effect?

I work in an industry where customer service is everything and people will be fired for not delivering it. The treatment you received was deplorable, but the thing that is most shameful is the fact that nobody in a position of authority recognized that or cared enough to take responsibility for fixing the problem and apologizing on behalf of the company.

There does not seem to be a middle ground or happy medium. I am fortunate to have had a great experiences with their service and I know a number of folks that have, but when things go wrong they seem to excel at screwing up, too. I had multiple points of contact with Dell Support and Customer Service personnel on American soil. Miscommunication was rare. They understood my needs and concerns. Maybe that is what made the difference? Not sure. The only points of frustration were times when off-shore personnel were involved, but I circumvented a great of their involvement through emails to Customer Service, the Unresolved Issues department, and face-to-face interaction with the Qualex technician they sent to my residence (12 times in less than 2 years). I was able to develop a good rapport and he became an advocate for me. In fact, when Dell agreed to replace my system with the M17X, it was while the Qualex tech was at my house and the conversation with Dell was on his iPhone.

I could be wrong about this, but I attribute the occurrence of shoddy service like you have experienced to outsourcing. While being soft-spoken and a strategic abuse of flattery won me a ton of points (cooperation) on the phone with the foreigners, that is the sort of treatment I should have received as the customer rather than a manipulative tactic utilized by the customer. The people providing the customer service need to have more at stake in their livelihood than checking a box. In the context of delivering superior customer service, being a good employee just does not cut the mustard. There has to be some skin in the game, with dire consequences for service failures. There is not much skin in the game for a third-party provider that exists only to help a company reduce its operating budget.

Your experience is similar in severity to the hellish tales that I can share about my experience dealing with hp support and warrant fulfillment on the two hp laptops I purchased in the past 5 years. NEVER AGAIN will I purchase another hp computer. That company is an absolute joke in terms of customer service, and I was never able to communicate with an American employee when dealing with them. They all had terrible accents and English seemed to be a second language for them. That made communication very frustrating and difficult. And, they came up with every excuse imaginable to explain their inability to assist me in a satisfactory manner. It all started with the first point of contact and never got better.

On one computer issue, hp refused to provide assistance until I faxed evidence of my extended warranty to them (even though the record was visible under my customer profile on their web site). Whatever two-bit outfit was providing technical support apparently had no access to that information, and I had to fax it and wait for someone to get back to me. I offered to email it while on the line and that was "not acceptable" to the "service" provider. On the other hp computer, the issue was an accidental damage warranty claim. They could not tell me if the replacement parts were available. They made me pay to ship the laptop to their service center and wait to hear if the parts were available and how long it would take. It took over a month to get my machine back, nobody could tell me the status between the time it left my hands and the time it came back. It came back with a nasty deep scratch in the plastic LCD cover. I tried to make a claim for that. It was denied as "normal wear and tear" even though it happened while in their possession. I was told it was not open for discussion and my complaint would not be escalated for consideration at a higher level of authority. Several emails to Customer Service to request intervention were never answered, even though I received system generated acknowledgements with reference numbers.

 

Outsourcing is a real sore spot for me and really shows how much companies really care about their customers since we have to spend twice as long on the phone with these people.

I used to buy Dell Desktops back in the late 90s when the Customer service was excellent. Over the years it has gone downhill due to outsourcing. Supposedly you would talk to an American if you bought an XPS type computer but I dont think they do that anymore. So thank you Dell now I will not buy one of your desktop computers (build my own) and as far as the notebook computer I only bought my M1730 because I got a real good deal from the outlet.

I really avoid Dell customer service because it can be a real frustration. A lot of times you may have to call different times to finallly find the right person who understands what you are talking about. Maybe this is what they want.........less people calling.

ANd forget about Tech Problems. Even if you do an enormous amount of troubleshooting before you call them to save time they will have you do the same troubleshooting all over again because they go by flowcharts.
It got to a point that if I had any type of problem after receiving a Dell computer my phone call to them would be to send it back. WHy should I go through the frustration and torture of trying to troubleshoot with someone who doesnt have a clue?

I have a theory that there is one big outsourcing company overseas that handles all of the US companies that outsource. They have flowcharts for each company in their database. SO when someone has a Dell problem they just pull up the Dell flowchart. When someone from HP calls just pull up the HP flowchart. WHen someone has a Chase bank problem just get out the Chase flowchart.........well you get the idea.

So supposedly these companies really care about the customer yet they let us spend twice as long on customer support issues and sometimes it takes multiple phone calls or emails to get a issue resolved........if at all!!!

 

I don't think I have ever met a fan of outsourcing. I'm sure the small group of people that are pocketing the savings are huge fans, but I've not met any of those weasels. The bottom line is that for many companies, profit is the only thing that truly matters any more. Keeping shareholders happy is the primary focus. Profitability is crucially important for any business, but eventually the lack of concern for customer experience bites you in the back-side when your customer base shrinks and CSI goes down, and company reputation ends up in the gutter.

Alienware phone support seems to be all American company employees. I've called twice with questions and was pleased, but the first point of contact for XPS phone support has been people from the East Indies every time I called. I think the superior native employee based technical support and customer service once devoted to the XPS line went out the window when the XPS laptop product line was displaced by the Alienware product line as the flagship product.

Regarding outsourcing in general, your comments about flowcharts is accurate. There is no technical skill involved until your case is escalated. The first tier of support is a joke. This is not specific to Dell, as outsourcing has become a common practice with many big name OEMs. There are a number of US companies that provide this type of low-budget resourcing. Sykes is one such company and it is a low-pay/low-skill job, reading from a script in most cases. (One of my sons worked there for a while.)

You're right on point about building your own desktop computers. I have been building my own since about '92 and it's definitely the best choice. What I have built for myself and a select group of people that I know (probably 25 or 30 systems in total) has never given any kind of problems and no technical support has ever been needed. Sometimes you save a few bucks, but your hard earned dollars often go a bit further on improving hardware specs even when you don't save anything. Plus, the satisfaction of saying it is "my creation" is worth a lot.

I tried building my own laptop twice from Compal white box units, but the build quality of the chassis was totally lousy and it did not yield any bang for the buck compared to a name brand.

 

Hello fellow beast owners/ex-owners. I have a slight dilemma that I would like the communities opinions on. I currently own a beast (known as Beast 1 from now on) that has been very good to me. Only one video card failure (8800MGTX SLI), was replaced promptly under warranty. I have acquired a second beast (Beast 2) from my father (video card died, was out of warrantly too costly for him to replace). His was an 8700GT SLI. Beast 1 performs flawlessly in what I'm playing currently (WoW, SC2). Since my desktop is giving me a lot of issues, power supply and video card related, I was thinking of getting either a 9800GTX SLI for Beast 1 and putting my 8800GTX in Beast 2to replace my desktop for now, or just getting a 9800GT for Beast 2. I know there are a lot less issues with the 9 series cards, and the GT would be much cheaper than the GTX. I just don't really want to put any money into my desktop seeing as how it is over 3 years old now, and I would have to basically build all new.

So my main question is... what would be the better deal for the time being? 9800GT or GTX? Thanks!

Also, I know that the Alienware is a beast, but if I were to put money into a brand new laptop, I want to make sure it has something better than the GeForce 2xx series. But like I said, the beast performs flawlessly for what I do with it, and the only reason I am thinking of repairing beast 2 is because Beast 1 stays in the TV room hooked up to my home theater equipment so it would be a P.I.T.A to keep taking it out and bringing it to my desk and vice versa. I'd rather just have Beast 2 on the desk all the time.

 

Man, it really is a bummer that your dad did not extend his warranty before it ran out. With the garbage 8700 and 8800 video modules, that would have been a very wise use of money and cheaper than buying new modules. Have you already checked to see if Dell would allow the warranty to be renewed even though it ran out? How long has it been out of warranty?

It's nice to see a happy M1730 owner. I am seeing a lot more happy customers now that Dell is providing them with 9800 video cards as replacements. It is a decent machine when it does not have 8XXX series graphics modules.

What are these 9800M GT and GTX modules selling for? I am only finding them on ebay and most of those are in the $600 range as used system pulls. Have you priced them new from Dell? From what I have heard, the performance difference between the 9800M GT and GTX is minimal and may not be worth the extra cost. I have not studied benchmarks on the difference in performance since it does not affect me.

Ultimately, this is something you would need to decide for yourself. It appears that the 9800 series modules are relatively trouble-free, unlike the prior generation video modules. $600 is a lot of money to spend on an older laptop and it's close to the used resale value of an M1730 that is in excellent condition. By the same token, you cannot buy another laptop with the build quality and performance of the M1730 for $600.

If you decide to step up to a new Alienware M17xR2 (or the soon to be released R3), you can get cutting edge AMD Radeon and Geforce video modules. I love mine and I doubt you would be disappointed in the M17X.

Here's another thought. For an amount appreciably less than you would spend on an Alienware M17X, you could build yourself a really nice home theater PC with gaming capabilities for your living room and keep Beast 2 for spare parts for Beast 1. If you are still eligible to do so, spend some of the money saved on the HTPC extending the warranty with accidental damage coverage on Beast 1. For the comparatively small cost of an extended warranty you may one day end up owning an Alienware M17X as a replacement.

 

There is someone on the Marketplace here that is asking if anyone is interested in a 9800m GT for $300.00.
You may want to check it out. http://forum.notebookreview.com/wan...543443-interest-check-9800m-gt-mxm-2-1-a.html

 

I checked out that post, but it's for an HP laptop not Dell. Thanks for the headsup though.

 

^ its not for an hp laptop guys, you need to understand the difference between mxm bus socket and dell proprietary dual gpu that its in our xps.

Long story short,the mxm is comparable to desktop pciex,and nowadays its mainly used in every laptop that is gaming oriented.

Anyway back on the question, best upgrade for keeping the beast going is 9800m gtx without doubts.
Basically its a gtx260m althought it uses 45nm instead of 55,so its a bit hotter than it.
It can run up to 600/1500/900 stable with no voltage tweaks,it has same shader count as gtx260m.

 

9800M GTX is 65nm and 260M GTX is 55nm mate. There are no NVIDIA GPUs with 45nm arhitecture.
You're right about their performance, 9800M GTX and 260M GTX are on about same level.

jjohnston12385, have you tried repairing your 8700M GT card? I would do that and then sell the laptop.

 

Hell, just noticed the typo. Thanks for the correction thought mate!
Writing on iphone doing work breaks is awkward lol.
The only thing that xps m1730 really misses is a quad core cpu....otherwise it would be pretty much on par with everything.
And still im amazed how well it does compared to "newer" beasts. So old, so awesome!

 

Quad would be great, but I wonder how would we cool a quad. In therms on installing we just need a BIOS mod, right?
cheers.

 

Nah,the cooling would be fine mate. The problem is the santa rosa chipset, that accepts only core duo.
When they dismessed the xps m1730 and launched the first m17x,they switched to montevina chipset equipping it with a q9xxx/qx series.
The top of the line was offering a sli gtx260m,which basically is a 9800m gtx with a lower wattage.
They didnt changed much in it, they realized that a quad really helps out.
Anyway nothing su much bigger in performance as an x9000 @ 3,8 can do his job perfectly.

 

had a m1730 for less then 48hrs and am already regretting it.
Have had nothing but problems with the 8800gtx cards. When i first got the laptop it froze at the start menu of dead rising 2 so i had to restart it, after which the, GPU's were stopped(Code 43) in the device manager. managed to get them going again, and was good for about 12 hours(did a bit of gaming no probs), then installed sp2 for vista and the problem has come back except this time I can't seem to fix it. I think it might be related to SLI but not sure, have tried the DELL gpu drivers and the Nvidia drivers, even a complete reinstall and they where still stopped.

Anyone have any ideas? the laptop is still able to function but i doubt i could do anything that requires the GPU to be under load.

Specs:
M1730
Vista HME PRE
8800gtx Sli
cpu: T8300

I bought it 2nd hand so i don't think there's any warranty left from dell, i'm gonna try and get it working otherwise im gonna get a my money back(I hate doing that)

EDIT: so did a little online research and if all accounts are right, one of my cards might be dead(Nooooo!!), I downloaded GPU-Z.0.5.0 to get some GPU stats and get some fishy stats from one of the 8800's.




4GB and DDR4!

 

hi lads

i signed up here for advice on my m1730..!

its overheating

last night on km player the program froze, wouldnt close down and windows would not reboot

so i shut down the system with the power button... naughty i know

then when i rebooted it just did nothing

so i felt the underside and it seemed it was 200 degrees.

this is just from general web usage and not even playing games...

so when it did boot again it said your system was shut down due to heat blah blah...

my specs are

T9300 @ 2.5 Ghz

6 Gb ram
Windows 7 /64bit
9800 GT sli

I just recently flashed the biuos to A11 also

is there any program I can use to control or monitor the fans.?

I tried everest but its bollocks, it doesnt work with the bios i mean you cant re boot windows and use it without manually loading it up each time it seems

ik8 has a problem it seems with the m1730.

anyone else with advice? mind you my warranty is good for 2 more years.

cheers

 

It sounds like that heatsinks and fans are dust-filled, or that they're not working at all.

To check if fans are working, download HWMonitor, open it up and see values of FAN1 and GPU FAN1/FAN2.

Also, probably the thermal paste has worn out. If you got warranty, then call them and state clearly that they system is overheating. They should repaste both GPUS and CPU, cleaning the heatsinks as well.

 

Yeah mate, one of your card is busted. You're with no warranty right? You can attempt to "bake" it into the oven, it should work fine after it for a few months.
If you do this, be sure to reapply thermal paste as well (a good one, mind you).

Btw its the worst of luck because it seems, based on the screens, that the first gpu is broken. The second one should be fine thought, but still, doesnt matter as the first one will be used anyway.

BTW the problem had to be there before you bought it mate, how come you bought it in this state? My one is a refurbished second hand too, but its working good. I did alot of questions and tests before getting it....im very sorry to hear this, fellow beast owner!

 

my fans are working, the 3 of them.. i stuck a little black cleaner thing under the vent and i heard the noise...

i also installed i8k.. the cpu temp is peaking at 80 degrees now and the gpu is at 60 degrees celcius

res evil 5 is playin in the back ground..

i think 80 degrees is a tad high...?

i looked under neath and the fans look free of dust.

what should i do, open it up?

or call dell and wait for ages...?

one more thing, i8k only has two fans, so this wont work with the m1730? also it wont recognise the on board sensor which is weird? i am sure this laptop has an array of sensors on the mobo..

cheers

 

Here are my suggestions in answer to your questions.

Go to the Dell support web site and enter the service tag number. You should then be able to determine if the machine has any warranty left. If it is still under warranty, look on the left side menu for the link to transfer ownership registration, do the transfer, and then purchase an extended the warranty (in that order). Do the registration transfer and extend the warranty before calling tech support.

If the machine is out of warranty, then you are probably going to be 100% SOL getting any free help from Dell. But, you should still attempt to register with Dell as the owner of the service tag number of your machine.

However, even if the machine is not under warranty, you may be able to make a claim against nVidia sometime next month to have it repaired. Visit The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Home Page for more information on that.

 

Is there a way that i could swap the working card from slave to primary.