Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

Lol, I don`t think anyone would sell them for that price...they`re just amazing

 

Yeah... I'm still very much enjoying mine. Although, for what I put into my system it's worth far more for me to keep it than it is for me to sell it... put about three grand into it all told, and could maybe get $1200 out of it all told... haha.

 

I know, I expect them to be over 1k which is fine....if anyone is considering selling...PM me

 

What temp is too high for the 8800M?

 

And how do you turn the 8800Ms' fans on permanently? At what temp does it turn on normally? Do the fans die sooner?

 

Also, what temps are too hot for a CPU?

 

Alrighty... as far as temps go, I think the thermal limits on the CPU and GPUs are around 100C. However, running at around those temps are known to drastically shorten the life of the components... cooler temps mean that your components last far longer. Personally, I try to keep my temps below 80C during load, with occasional forays to the 85C range being about the most I will tolerate.

As far as running the fans permanently, I don't think anyone has been able to make a decent fan control solution for the M1730 as of yet. If you have an X9000 processor you do unlock a BIOS option to overclock... 3.2 or 3.4Ghz settings will automatically run all your fans at full blast. With this I get great idle temps... usually 43-48C depending on ambient temps on the GPUs, and between 27-35C for my CPU. My load temps like this stay around the 75-80C range. As far as fan longevity is concerned, I'm not sure. I've had regular CPU fans work for many years without problems... my T21 is nearly nine years old and has never had any fan issues, and I have a 1996 vintage Acer Aspire desktop whose fan is a bit noisy but still works. I'm not sure how long the M1730's fans will last, but I have had this setup going for a couple of months and have never experienced any fan noise or other problems.

 

I hit about 80C after gaming for like 20 minutes with SLI enabled. The laptop was just sitting on top of a surface. Back at school, I have one of those zalman notebook coolers. Thing is, it also gets much hotter there, since that's in Asia... I guess I'll have to make sure to not play games if the ambient temperature exceeds 27-28 C.

AND one more question... can you ship compressed air cans like via FedEx? TSA now opens my luggage and removes them when I try to take a few with me... could I ship them to myself via FedEx? Trust me, I've been unable to find any over there.

Ok sorry, one MORE question. Can I overclock to 3.0GHz and undervolt? Will that also enable all the fans? Okay, I guess that's another two questions.

 

One thing I've noticed is that the CPU runs much cooler than the GPUs... and when I installed the replacement CPU, I used Arctic Silver 5 (even used Arctic Silver's thermal grease removal stuff on the stock thermal assembly before re-installing).

Is it possible to open the graphics card and use AS5 there too? I imagine it'd be good for a few degrees...

 

Hi everybody,

I'm contemplating buying a M1730. However, I'm no expert whatsoever and could probably use your sagely advice.

I'm no die hard gamer, but after using a stone age desktop for the last 6 years I finally decided I want a laptop that won't make me wait longer than 2 seconds before opening any program and can play every game of the last 3 years (just to give you an idea of what I've been using sofar: Neverwinter Nights 2 was choppy as a slideshow! I haven't played a more recent game than that because of it.)

On the Dell website I found a relatively cheap build for the M1730:

Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2,10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2-cache)
4.096 MB 667 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2 x 2.048]
Single 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8700m GT

Most of the reviews and comments I read are about laptops with at least dual 8700's or single 8800. How does a single 8700 compare to that? What can I expect when playing games such as CoD4 or Fallout 3? I'm not really expecting for it to do well on Crysis, but what are your experiences/estimations on this build's performance?

Thanks in advance!

 

@Zombie:

Personally, my suggestion is to save a bit longer (if needed) and instead of going with the M1730 go with the Alienware M17x.

Don't get me wrong, I love the M1730. However I do feel the configuration offered by Dell at this time is severely lacking and is no longer a sound investment. For me, I just can see dropping that kind of cash on a dead-end system. I would rather spend a bit more for something that is current.

The 8700 will handle some of the older games (again, in my opinion) but the rest of the system is 1.5 - 2 year old tech. You will be very limited with upgrades... The max CPU (the Intel x9000 or the Intel x7900) have become quite hard to find - even on eBay. You will also be very limited due to the chipset - 667Mhz DDR2 RAM only. In terms of GPU, you will only be able to upgrade via eBay and it will be pricey (the 8800M GTX, 9800M GT and 9800M GTX are rare as well).

Checking the EPP Dell site, I show the base config for the M1730 (T8100, 8700M GT SLI, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD) is $1115.00.

The base M17x (P8600, Single 250M, 4GB DDR3, 250GB HDD) is $1673.00.

Like I said, if it were me - I'd wait a bit longer, throw together the extra 500+ and order the m17x. At least by doing this you can look forward to expanding/upgrading your system in the future.

I'm sure 8700M owners will chime in on specifics you asked for (COD4 performance), I just wanted to throw out my general feeling on the m1730 currently available on Dell's site.

Now, if you can find one with the 8800M GTX or the 9800M GT SLI - it might be worthwhile if the price was right. But as it stands...

 

Thanks very much for the quick reply!

There's a bit more expensive version on their website with the 9800M GT SLI:

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T8300 (2,40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2-cache)
4.096 MB 667 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2 x 2.048]
Dual SLI™ 512MB nVidia® GeForce™ 9800GT graphics card

This would cost me € 1506,73 ($ 2107,92). Is it just me or is Dell still selling these things way overpriced on their own site?

 

Ahhhh... you are not in the USA. This is now a tough decision - if you can still find it with the 9800M SLI then it might be worthy if the price (local euro price) for a M17x is out of reach.

Hmmm - time to wait for others to chime in on this one.


------------

For those of you looking to upgrade to 6GB or 8GB, Newegg has the Crucial 4GB 667Mhz stick for 135.99 (USD).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148220

 

Oops, I forgot to mention that I'm from the Netherlands.

The 9800M SLI M1730 costs € 1506,73 ($ 2107,92)

The cheapest M17X on the site is € 1999 ($ 2796,60) and has:

Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9000 (2,00 GHz, 1.066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2-cache
Single 1 GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
4.096 MB 1.333 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2 x 2.048]

I seriously think this might be overkill for my needs, which besides occasional gaming include standard Office work, chatting/browsing, music/video collecting/playing/editing.

I'm looking for a laptop that'll still work nicely in a number of years, so not the bare minimum. The M1730 seems to be quite capable of tagging along for a good while. If I get the 9800M SLI version I should do fine with both general and game usage, no?

At the risk of getting OT: is it perhaps wiser to look at a different type of laptop, Dell or otherwise, which will suit my needs but at a lower pricetag?

I've also been looking at Dell's Studio 17 (2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHZ, 3MB, 1066MHZ), 4.096 MB 800 MHz RAM, 256 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650)

and

HP Pavilion DV7-1270 (2 Duo P8600, 4.096 MB 800 MHz RAM, GeForce 9600M GT).

Any suggestions? Also, let me know if I shouldn't talk about it in this thread. Newbie alert!

 

SO far M1730 has worked out really well, especially with normal work, web surfing. It's also very quiet doing that. Notice this laptop is 6.5kg with the power brick, its not too portable. I recommend getting M1730 with long warranty though; just in case something goes wrong with the investment, Dell can always replace it with model of equal of greater value (M17x).

Well, as for alternative - have you looked at XPS 16? the laptop ought to be updated with 4670 quite soon, which is a pretty decent GPU. The main reason to get that laptop is portability and the killer RGBLED screen-one of the best around.

Atm M17x looks too expensive, I'd give it a while before considering it. Its just a marginally improved M1730. The latter has almost all those features, if you can get it cheaper, you'd be a fool not to.

 

Technician from Dell was here today to replace my gpu card..............
pos. it is a 9800gt
neg. he didn't check after the replacement,...........................
the coolers in the notebook goes full power.
gpu's are now 95°C idle
The system works very slow....
i hope its not exploding.........
i ask for a refund and no more refurbished parts.

 

update:3dmark06: 3036,....................................Oh yes i love the xps (in the beginning)

 

Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

ACPI hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 38°C (99°F) [0xC23] (THM_)

Dump hardware monitor



Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 29°C (84°F) [0x47] (Core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 32°C (89°F) [0x44] (Core #1)

Dump hardware monitor



Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

GeForce 9800M GT hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 95°C (202°F) [0x5F] (GPU Core)

Dump hardware monitor



Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

GeForce 9800M GT hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 95°C (202°F) [0x5F] (GPU Core)

Dump hardware monitor

 

Bpat,
I offer you my sincerest condolences on the experience. I actually envied you when I read that they gave you a 9800m GT (correct me if I'm wrong, but did you get dual 9800 GTs or single? Because if you had 8800GTX SLi in your machine, previously, then a single GPU is a major no! You shouldn't even accept an M17x with a single GPU as a system replacement) . Anyway, I thought these updated 8800s (9800m GT) might have more stability, but clearly, yours seem worse. Sorry to hear.

I myself have been through dell with Hell, I mean, hell with Dell. Now I'm in a situation where my system will be replaced. They say the replacement will be of the same specification as my XPS M1730, but they say no more about the exact details of the system. Bpat, I think you should try to argue a refund from these guys, or somemthing along those lines.

By the way: I need some European, who has their legal-groundwork covered, to explain the whole 'equal or greater value' return/exchange concept to me in more detail. I'm just trying to make sure that I don't get screwed with this exchange because Dell are notorious for sending some very shoddy, dented and beaten up items that are actually a major downgrade from their original machines.

 

@kadestorm: thx for the condolences and right now i'm in the same situation like you, they talk to the supervisor and consider a replacement.
coolingsystem is also finished working.
it's a dual 9800gt.
temps now with hw monitor are 100°C
Technician also having problems with opening the xps for the replacement,...i aked him "is it a clicksystem" ? he answer me "no a breaking system", ....
this is a notebook from 4000 euro

 

Ah, damn it.

I get random artifacts on Vista x64 desktop, and stuttering when in NVIDIA control panel 3D image preview. Is this definitely due to the graphics card or could it be the driver? Both cards are running cool, in the 60s.

I tried running C&C: Red Alert 3, first time I played for like 20 minutes without a problem. Second time after I noticed the desktop artifacts I went to see what was up and clicked around randomly in-game and it locked up. Third time I ran for 15 minutes or so without anything.

When in the nvidia 3D image preview, I've seen it stuttering (the entire system pauses for like a full second sometimes) and artifacting. I asked the guy who I got it from if I can get it exchanged for another as he does have a return policy.

I've never known GPUs to do this unless they were overheating, so I'm thinking of uninstalling 186.03 and trying Dox 185.85. Anyone ever seen drivers cause things like this?

 

...My display driver randomly crashed and restarted automatically (Vista popped up a little balloon) twice just now. So I'm gonna uninstall this and try the Dox drivers.

Can this happen for a faulty card? Or is this definitely a driver issue?

 

I've just had a dell indian sales rep call me back regarding a warranty extension. (existing warranty was only for a year, and it runs out in the middle of september) Apparently there is a special offer on, and they were offering 3 years warranty for £160! I think this was quite a good deal, so went with it. The beast is now covered until september 2012

 

Just realised that was the first time I've posted in here! Been reading this thread (and the old 1,000 page one) for a few months

I originally had the dell xps m1710, 2.2ghz, 2gig ram and 7950GTX g/card.

I swapped it for the m1730 in my sig that at the time was 4 months old and £500. Think it was a good deal?

 

Artifacts are normally a confirmation that your GPU hardware is screwing up. However, I won't jump the gun.

Perform the full driver unsintallation, then run driver sweeper/cleaner, and then reinstall both the official Nvidia and Dell drivers. If both drivers produce similar errors, then simply call up Dell, and let them know that you've already tried their software and the cards are still malfunctioning. Hopefully, you'll get a good GPU replacement.

Link to BatBoy's XPS blog where you can also find other tested drivers for download: http://xpsm1730.blogspot.com/

No prob, dude. I hope your situation works out for the better. I myself am trying to keep an optimistic perspective about our collective outcomes, but sometimes, I worry that even the replacement will be some kind of bad joke.

500? Woah! That's a damn good swap price for anyplace, especially UK.

 

@raad11 artifacts was also for me the first warning that there was something wrong, i used every driver, sometimes with no problem, but then it started with BSOD's, my temps were also not extremely high then,..........but after the replacement with a refurbished card it seems everything goes wrong now with this "beast".
-typing this text goes very slow.

 

That was before or after the refurbished card?

I have the exact same problems. Thought the problem went away with 185.85 but got a BSOD while I left a game running to test it.

 

artifacts/Bsod's,... was before the refurbished card

 

The display driver keeps crashing for me too, so annoying.

 

Personally, I find that display drivers stopping responding is an issue with the drivers, not the hardware. I'd try and uninstall and reinstall the drivers cleanly before concluding the GPUs are bust.

After reading over the last few pages, sounds to me like a lot of M1730s are going down the drain fast. I personally think it's an outrage that Dell are even ALLOWED to refurb with dodgy, broken parts. Surely there's someone we could all go to? I'm considering something along the lines of watchdog, or consumer advice, after seeing all the issues here.

I got a rather strange issue too. With Windows 7 x64, CPU overclocked to 3.4GHz, whenever I put my computer on "sleep", the fans kick in every 5 seconds for 2-3 seconds while it's sleeping I've never experienced this before...but it's annoying that I can't sleep my computer =-( Anyone else experienced this?

 

i'm just finished with a fresh vista 64bit installation, ...nothing changed, it was my last hope.
-typing goes very very slow
-3dmark06= 3640
-hwmonitor: 98°C after the 3dmark06

 

bpat:

Putting aside the graphical issues, your cards hitting 90+ at all is a sign of problems. Give Dell a call, tell them all the issues, they'll probably replace your heatsink, fans and motherboard first. Then the issue will persist. Then they'll replace your GPUs.

They're annoying as hell to work with, but it's your only real option. =-(

 

I wrote a guide on how to open up the M1730's GPUs located here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=173512&page=1519

I would not recommend you doing this if your cards are really toasting themselves and you have warranty remaining. I haven't done it to my 8800Ms, but I did it to a previous set that had failed and it did seem to work marginally.

For the record my GPUs are running nice and cool with the stock thermal compound, and I'm at work... environment is a humid 83F(looking at the thermostat near me... A/C is not working all that well, ugh), and my cards are running at 46C with the 1730 propped up a bit. I don't think I'd want to game in this heat, but for general use my machine's working just fine. I do have the fans on max as I'm overclocked to 3.2ghz, and have had no overheating issues.

I'm thinking I won the luck of the draw with these cards... I hope.

 

Uh oh - need advice on possible Battery issue(s).

So my wife and I were headin' out to dinner. I went ahead and put my 1730 to sleep and we went to dinner. When we got back the battery indicator was blinking blue/out/red and the health is good with battery charge at 98%. The notebook will not run on battery and removing the AC turns the notebook off. I reseated the battery and now it is lit blue (not flashing). But, when I go to the battery status it shows that the battery is charging and healthy. So do I need a new battery and if so - where is the best place to get one without having to pay Dell's ridiculous price for a replacement? I've barely even used this thing except for sleeping. And I am past the year that Dell covers batteries. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance...


Later and thanks again - Mike

 

Mine has stopped twice in the last hour, and I was not doing any graphic intensive tasks.

Event 4101 with nvlddmkm

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756372(WS.10).aspx

 

Check the battery meter on the battery. When it's 100%, press it once, it should light up 5 lights. Try running on battery. Check the battery again when it dies. If it's 1 light then your battery is kerplunked.

I also think if you hold it 5 seconds it tells you advanced info, but I dunno what the codes mean. You should be able to search 'em


@ BigJayTee:

Try removing your drivers, run Ccleaner, and install them. I recommend 185.85 as they are the most stable I've come across, and you can be sure if any drivers will work: They will.

 

Seen a bunch of posts about propping up the back of the beast using cd cases, card decks, etc. Found these a while back an am considering a set. Stick on feet with adjustable height for lappy, like what's on a desktop keyboard. Wouldn't have to have anything extra carried along.


http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productid=14710

 

I don't have any lights lit on my battery. And I don't feel/see anything that I can push...


Thanks - Mike

 

Very nice for when you're on the go. Personally I use a laptop cooler, since I can actually use it on my lap.

When it's set down I have a bottlecap at the front, propping it up from the laptop cooler, for optimal coolage. Haven't had any overheating issues at all since I got my lappie sorted =-)

 

Propping it up actually does a lot of good. In my earlier post, I reduced my GPU idle temps from 51 to 46 just by propping the back up by about an inch and a half. That's a pretty good difference for no work, and about the decrease I get with my M1730 sitting on my NC2000 here at home.

 

There will be a exchange soon, i'm just waiting for the proposel of Dell, also make complains about all the refurbished parts they put in our NEW laptops, maybe it's Dell's policy, but i don't care, i made call's to diffrent institutions, also ask advice to my attorney, believe me i will play it hard because this is my 3th xps (first 1 x M1710, 2 x M1730) all expensive equipment.

 

Anybody? Light is flashin' BLUE & then RED four times - back and forth...


Thanks - Mike

 

wow tubeamped, what a coincidence but pretty much the same exact thing happened to me. my laptop flashes the same color and same thing, my battery wont work without the AC Adapter. im trying to get dell to send me one for free, it literally just died like overnight.

 

I Agree with you, I added some rubber feet on mine to lift it up above my Cryo NZXT cooler about 1/2 of an inch and also I am running the fans on the cooler at 12v with a power supply I got at Radio Shack and both my cpu and gpu's always hover around 65c to 70c depending on the game too but never go above 75c under load and they all run around 35c to 40c while on idle.

 

Yeah, even with a cooler propping your laptop up OFF the cooler makes a big difference.

My temps after hours of gaming:

Chipset: Min 47/Max 84
Core#0: Min 40/Max 65
Core#1: Min 41/Max 78
GPUs: Min 51/ Max 66

My chipset tends to get warm, but nothing I'm worried about. The warmest then is my processor, which is greatly overclocked, so still much cooler than i would expect. The system keeps very cool with a cooler and propped off it =-)

 

Eambo - My cpu temps stay below 70c because I am using RMClock to undervolt the cpu and at 3.4Ghz the voltage is only 1.2375vid so that helps keep it on the cool side. My gpu's never go above 68c what I also believe is helping too, is the fact that a month ago I did my semi annual cleanup of the fan exhausts too on all the fans on my laptop and helped a whole lot a well.

 

How old is your notebook? If yours is as old as mine, and you are successful, please let me know so I don't blow $90 or more for not reason


Later - Mike

 

Nice temps I'm kinda too lazy to undervolt my CPU - I spend all my time using it, so I don't have time to spend 30 mins or so testing each voltage drop =-( If the temps get too warm I'll do it but considering it can handle up to 105C, I think I'm safe enough =-)

 

Funny, I didn't even test the voltages, I just picked what seemed a descent number from other laptop cpu voltages I knew about and luckly it has been working for over a year now with no problems so far and it only took me about 3 minutes to setup RMClock.

 

Why did you use RMClock? Can't you set this stuff in the BIOS?

I have Vista x64 and the website says RMClock needs workarounds for that, but doesn't specify what exactly.

Also, how were your temps at stock voltage and speed (1.3v? 1.313v? and 2.80GHz) compared to now? I need to undervolt my CPU if possible because I'm going to be using it in a very hot climate.