Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

What was the error you were getting on the BSoD? It's strange that SP2 or drivers are causing a blue screen...

 

I wouldnt even fuss with SP2 Zath. I'm running SP2 and have had zero issues with it. Its most likely a GPU issue. If you noticed tearing/artifacting and then a sudden rash of BSODs - then this is the most probable cause.

Any other changes to your hardware? New RAM? If not, note the BSOD error and if it references hardware fault then I would ring Dell ASAP and have them replace the GPUs. You can cite the tearing, etc.

 

Yes, the BSOD's cite hardware faults as well as errors in a file that has "nv" in it, so I'm guessing nv = nvidia.

No new hardware has been installed. While I had been having some occasional blue screens, it's never been this bad. Additionally, I noted that HWMonitor was indicating temps in the 70's C - so the cards are in no way overheating/melting.

As Vista boots, I've noticed increased flickering - as if the card is re-rendering the screen several times. It does this during the splash screen as well as during the welcome screen. The "welcome to vista" chimes and then I get a bluescreen - sometimes with a memory dump and reset, other times w/just a hardware error.

 

@ Kade Storm
I downloaded Cryostasis Tech Demo.
1280x800, DX10, all max, CPU 2.8, GPU no OC, 185.85.
Total time 1006.487s
Total frame count 9821
Average FPS 9.8
Minimum FPS 3.3
Maximum FPS 82.3
When I've time this weekend I'll put back my Ageia card and run it again.

 

Try uninstalling the driver via the device manager. reboot into safe mode and driver sweeper and reg clean using ccleaner and then check ccleaner's startup items tab. manually delete any remaining nvidia references.

reboot and install a default driver (try the 185.81 from nvidia). http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_185.81_beta.html

perhaps its some glitched nvidia file - so this should rule it out.

 

Didn`t feel that I did much of a wonder except maybe buying myself a few minutes of battery life and less weight( 100 g or so )

Disabling gave me a bunch of Hardware Interrupts that were eating up CPU cycles so I removed it altogether.

 

Cool article - thanks!

 

Like what I said.
If you want to have a well-performed sportscar: Remove all the heavy weight.

 

Whats the weight difference between a typical 2.5 HDD and SSD?

 

Thanks I'll try that one. By "default driver" what do you mean? Because I did try to download the latest driver from nVidia...

Also, what do you mean by check the startup items tab?

I have nHancer installed as well as an nVidia PhysX driver- should I delete these as well?

Also, stupid question - after I uninstall nvidia drivers in safe mode, it prompts to restart. Should I restart? I didn't originally - just went into driversweeper and then ccleaner. If yes, then I'm guessing I go into safe mode again, right?

 

Stelar. A few(houndred) measely grams or so

On the bonus though...
Much faster read/write speeds on the SSD, longer lifespan, less consumption, less noise etc. But more expensive...

 

No way! Woah. Hmm. Well, under Windows 7, I get an average of 30.01, using just GeForce physX; the Ageia card doesn't work properly with the tech-demo as you get blisttering fast frame rates for the first few seconds until the camera turns to the side of the character model, and then the SLi performance cripples. For you, I'd say that you should try to reduce the bump-mapping and normal-mapping to medium modes and you might just get good flow.

Anyway, thanks for doing the test. However, what I'm talking about is the actual playable demo of Cryostasis. Get that, and actually play out whatever you can of the game (you might like it), and then give us your thoughts on the performance under geforce, and use FRAPS for a general idea of your frame-rates during outdoor bits and bits where you're combating enemies (these tend to be the moments when the hardware demands become intensive).

 

Ok, I'll try the demo.
Just thought the Tech demo should give me a reliable result.
I like a lot of games, just have spare time.

 

With the help of everyone's input in this forum, I came myself to a final conclusion.
Vista isn't the system for gaming. DX10 was a financial argument for Microsoft in the first place. XP is one of the best OS's ever made. It wasn't without a reason it took so long to replace it. XP still is the most reliable system so far.
I still have a desktop system with XP and an Intel E6600 2.4 and an Ati X1950XTX which with DX9.0c can run a lot of games perfect till today. Crysis in DX9 runs acceptable and Oblivion runs even better without issues than on my XPS M1730.
I don't want to call Vista a fiasco, but it looks like that way. I hope Dell will have some Windows 7 upgrade program in the end. Because Windows 7 should be the real replacement for XP after all.

 

I don't doubt your point hasn't a valid reason behind it but I've never really had any issues with Vista, and I do enjoy using it a lot more than XP. Maybe W7 will offer some better features, but I still really like Vista.

 

Ernstig - DX10 may be faulty in some areas, but don't fault Vista. Most games [if not all through a miriad of tweaks] can be defaulted to DX9 even on Vista systems. Just don't make overarching statements like XP is better for gaming than Vista, unless you're talking old technology which Vista isn't meant to play.

 

Right. Yeah the thing is that the tech-demo and the actual demo are two entirely different things in the case of this game. Unfortunately, the game runs far worse than the tech-demo. So even if the physx effects are running nice and dandy in the tech-demo, in the actualy game or playable demo, your FPS might drop drastically when the water physics is running on screen. That's why it's probably better to give the real thing a try.

Vista was a load of issues, but seems to be coming around. Windows 7 is better, but even then, I'd consider XP to be the ideal choice at the moment. Keep in mind that XP didn't have that smooth a start either; we are at SP 3 now.

Unfortunately, I have to say that with some of these future--and more PC exclusive--games, Vista/W7 seem to be the only choice. It's mostly the perks of DX10. For example, advanced physics, volumetric fog et lighting, geometry shaders, and object motion blur. Then again, when programmed right, these very effects can be achieved under DX9. I'd rather play all my games on XP, but to get STALKER Clear Sky with all its glory and effects, I need DX10, ditto for Cryostasis, which I know has the potential to run properly once someone tweaks it up.

On the other hand, this generation, quite a load of good games have been multiplats. In essence, most games are going to continue being designed around the DX9 API as the games consoles don't have the DX10 specific hardware. As mentioned earlier on by Tuwa, PhysX isn't all that important because it isn't used in a lot of titles. Well, DX10 is even more obscure in usage. Very few games use DX10; fewer use the API and hardware properly, and even fewer use it effectively and efficiently without burdening the hardware.

Anyway, in my experience, Vista has come a long way.

 

Ok, I just finished upgrading my hard drives. I purchased (2) Seagate Momentus 500gb 7200.4 drives. Below are the steps I took upgrading from a RAID 1 configuration to a RAID 1 (I like protection).

1). As a precaution I did image my hard drive. Better safe than sorry.
2). I used the Intel RAID (Ctrl-I) at boot to break the RAID 1 by selecting option (3) Reset disks to NON-RAID. It may not matter but I selected the second drive then the first. I saved and then exit.
3). I shutdown the computer and removed the drive in slot 1. The hard drive cradle has numbers on the side (0 and 1). Put the cradle back in and connect the cable.
4). Boot into windows just to make sure everything is ok and then shutdown.
5). Remove the drive in slot 0 and put it in an external USB enclosure.
6). Install both Seagate drives into the hard drive cradle.
7). Turn on the computer and choose F2 to enter setup. Go to Onboard Devices and SATA Operation. Select from the "Auto Detect / AHCI" to the middle choice "RAID on".
8). After the BIOS choose ctrl-I for the Intel Matrix config. Create a new RAID. I gave it ARRAY as the name, RAID 1 again, left the other two as they are and created the new RAID.
9). I connected the hard drive enclosure than contains my old slot 0 drive. Turn on the computer. Put in the Seagate Drive Wizard Boot disk (Or Acronis True Image since I already own it) and boot to the CD. In Acronis True Image and selected the Disk utilities | Clone Disk. The steps are easy. I chose manual on the size and it allocated all the extra space to the boot partition c: drive .
10). After one hour and 15 minutes I was able to remove the CD and boot to my newly installed RAID 1.
11). Of course Windows installed new drivers and I had to reboot again. All is great.

 

i have a RAID 0. is there any point to partitioning a RAID drive since mine is striped? sorry, i don't know that much about RAID systems.

 

Partitioning is chopping the physical drive into other logical drives. Installing the Media Direct, OS and Diagnostic Utilities that Dell gives you are in separate partitions. In windows right click on Computer and choose Manage. Then choose Disk management. This will show you how your disk is partitioned.

 

Can you run HDD tune for us?

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

Be interesting to see how software RAID handles it.

 

Batboy -

I have done as you suggested. I restarted the computer after installing the drivers you supplied. The computer took a while and then finally restarted. Instead of showing the DELL post screen, however, the LCD screen is now showing various colors - the whole screen is flashing red, then green, then blue, then white, and then black. The hard drive indicator light is flashing - so it seems to be doing something....

As I type this, I heard the disc drive spin up again signalling a restart/reset - but again it's rotating through colors...

 

ok now the logitech screen displays XPS and the webcam has flashed blue - indicating that the beast has booted up somewhat. Though the screen is still flashing r, g, b, w, bk...

 

Hate to tell you this but I'm betting the GPU is about to fail. Have you opened up the beast lately? If so, try reseating the GPU.

Ring XPS Support soon. This isn't a good sign.

 

yeah I called tech support as soon as that happened. Since they were experiencing higher than normal call volume, I actually had enough time to clean up for bed and spend some quality time with the wife all while listening to Dell's elevator music on speakerphone. Gotta say there's a first time for everything!

The tech had me do a couple things and is currently creating a service order for the video cards.

A side note - a couple times when I started up, I was able to see some text and could choose whether to start in Vista or XP (I am dualbooting). No matter what option I'd choose, I would immediately start getting the flashing screen. Ugh! Just got a USB tv tuner today, too! GRR!

The beast has never been opened.

 

Greetings,

I have an m1730 with a T8100 CPU, 4GB RAM, and a 250GB 7200RPM HD. I just upgraded the DVD drive with a UJ-120 blu-ray drive and it's not working well. I get stuttering, in both video and audio, and the blu-ray DVD is unwatchable. Playback is smooth until the drive kicks in, which leads me to believe it's not reading disk or not transferring data fast enough. I did see some posts about not being able to enable DMA for this drive, which is something i do see in device manager. I'm using PowerDVD 9.

Has anyone had any luck with the UJ-120 on this laptop? Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

Vadim

 

HD Tune: Intel Raid 1 Volume Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 17.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 94.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 60.4 MB/sec
Access Time : 18.1 ms
Burst Rate : 63.0 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 4.2%

 

So after 30 minutes of waiting, 5 minutes of troubleshooting, and 25 minutes of doing other stuff while the guy sets up the order, a tech is going to call in 2-3 business days to come out and install the cards. yay.

Anything I should be looking for while I have the case open?

 

Dell replaced my 8800GTX card today. The SLI would not work. I do remember last month when I got the previous 8800GTX installed (Three in my system so far). The tech told me to hold down the FN key and power up. This put my system in a diagnostic state. The Num lock, cap lock and scroll lock light would flash in different patterns and then boot to a Hardware Diagnostic. My second video card two of the lights were steady on and one was flashing. Evidently that meant it was bad. Even now the tech broke my keyboard lighting. The cable from the keyboard is connected but the diagnostic says there is no cable connected. Dell is in the process of replacing that too. I am happy I got the 4 year + accidental.

 

Wasupdog - can't do it with a RAID-0.

 

Can't you do it with RAID0? It will be much faster.

 

I got my video cards replaced today - again. The engineer was cool enough to sit and play a 30 minute session of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 in order to test the card =-P

I noticed after he left however my keyboard wasn't backlit. I ran the diagnostic - same error. He'd forgotten to plug in the keyboard backlight cable - d'oh.

Currently on hold while he speaks to the 'service team'. Why that's required I don't know, it's a pretty straightforward issue. Hopefully this graphics card stays stable...

 

I believe you should be easily able to connect the backlight cable yourself. Removing the keyboard is a matter of 1 minute even for people who are not technically skilled. Just remove the hinge cover and then remove few screws from underneath of cover (5 i think?). Slide the keyboard towards monitor and then lift it slowly, mind the cable it's not very long. Connect any lose cable and that should be it? Unless there is some special wiring beneath motherboard that needs to be fixed.

 

Bunch of 404s lately.
Can`t seem to be able to post anything.

Have you guys seen the results on the new Clevos ?

 

Yeah Same issue.


@Tuwa: I could more than likely fix it myself, but I'm not willing to risk my warranty. Knowing my luck I'd snap something - and of course Dell wouldn't cover it =-P

With such an expensive machine I'm just going to play it safe and let them make all the changes. On a happier note though, these GPUs seem to be working!!

 

Yeah I'm also glad I got the 4 year + warranty. It was somewhat humorous when the tech guy asked me to do what you mentioned and asked me what was on the screen. I kept answering "Red, now green, now blue, now black, now white, now red..."

 

Lol they ask some seriously silly questions. I ran the Dell Diagnostics before I even called them up, and it started beeping and flashing saying that the keyboard backlight was not detected. The Dell Diagnostic should be the be all and end all.

Nope. He asked me did I go into BIOS and make sure it's on (Yes.). Then asked me did I try using quickset to turn it on (Yes.). Then asked me what else I tried and I was like 'I pressed Fn + Right arrow, which usually turns it on.'

I've spent £50 this week on phone calls to Dell =-(

 

I'm rather sure keyboard is considered as user replaceable part and thus doesn't affect validity of warranty, but i can understand your reasoning. Stupid things often happen when you least need/want/expect it. After all, you paid for comfort when buying extended warranty

 

I'm not overly worried about the keyboard lighting anyway, I can wait a few days for them to come out. However when they gave me two broken graphics cards, I was left with nothing more than a pretty looking brick. I'm glad to be able to use my computer as was intended =-D

 

Man I would kill for an app that gives full control of the fans.....

 

@ Eambo
Glad to hear that problem got served. So,did the tech guy replaced just GPU or motherboard too?

@ Eleron
Wouldn't mind to look at those new Clevo test results

 

Sometimes I don't even do what they ask - I'll just tell them what I know the result will be anyways .

 

Just the GPU. They'll be out tomorrow apparently to fix the keyboard =-P

 

I do not trust a RAID 0 yet. I would have to image my HD once a week.

 

I thought RAID 0 and RAID 1 basically have the same performance for read?

Given that, the results are very low...

 

RAID 0 is much faster because it uses (2) drives as one and divides the writes in half. The only problem is when one dies you lose both.

RAID 1 is just doing mirroring, so if one HD dies, I just get another HD and the degraded RAID will be re-built from the good one.

That being said, I have no problem running any game. Even Crysis runs very nicely for me.

 

So, just let it run at night (that's what I do), and 1Tb ext HD's are cheap now.

 

How many failures have you had? Data or Hardware?

 

I've had a pair of GPU's fail but they didn't effect the hard drive data at all.

EDIT: And no hardware or software errors in relation to the hard drives.

 

Well, I've been reading here and there on the Sager/Clevo forum and the 18 incher looks like a real monster with dual GTX280m and quads...