Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

@kadestorm, Hey, after calling to Dell "again" i have now the ordernumber and customer number to follow it up, the system is now in production and will be delivered 24/7, i hope it will be with the same specs, if not I send it back.
I noticed my cpu's are now going high temps, from 47°c to 103°c my gpu's are working fine again, don't understand any more,....no problem, will be replaced next week.
grtz

 

I would echo the reply from jesse; I have done GPU/CPU maintenance twice since '08, my M1730 also sets on a CryoLX. My temps for GPUs range from 44c to 74-75C during game play. I use the NV profiling to OC the cards to 600,900 &1550 during gameplay only.
My X9000 is undervolted also, here are is screen of my current settings at 3.2 GHZ. @3.4 the voltage is 1.3875 CPU temps range from mid 30's to 78-79C during gameplay :

 

LOL, it's probably the Alienware board. It is going nuts since the M17x release, I counted 15 different M17x threads just on the first page.

 

I am running the cpu at 3.4Ghz and 1.2375V core voltage using RMClock to undervolt it. I am not sure about using an ac adapter on the Zalman cooler, it worked on the Cryo cause they use 120mm fans that are rated to work with 12v. Alos about 8 months ago I did also remove the cpu heatsink and lapped it to an almost mirror shine and also used AS5 on it which also made a hughe difference in temps went from 92c to 72c without using RMClock or the Cryo cooler, but with the cooler and RMCock both core never go above 75c under load and both gpu's run from 63c to 74c under load depending on what game I play but never go above 74c either.

 

You can get a good ES X9000, but you have to be careful at what to look for. Only go for the ones labeled Q174, as these were preproduction samples and pretty much just retail X9000s stamped ES. I have one of these running a stable undervolt at 3.2GHz and it is stable, cool, and hasn't given me a single problem since I put it in five months ago.

Not all X9000s will give you stable results at 3.4Ghz; this goes for retail as well as the higher-quality ES ones. It took me getting down to 3.2 in order to get the stability and temps I was looking for.

And, I'm chiming in as another person whose 8800Ms haven't failed. They still work awesome. Idle temps of about 43-47C depending on ambient, and even with heavy, long gaming sessions they don't get past 75-80 or so, depending on the game. I really just think I lucked out and got a good card, considering the numerous people having problems with them.

 

I tested all these possible settings at CPU stress test a month ago:

* 17.0x 1.2750V 70ºC

* 16.0x 1.1875V 59ºC

* 15.0x 1.1375V 61ºC

* 14.0x 1.0750V 55ºC

* 13.0x 1.0250V 52ºC

* 12.0x 0.9750V 48ºC

* 11.0x 0.9250V 44ºC

* 10.0x 0.9250V 44ºC

* 9.0x 0.9250V 44ºC

* 8.0x 0.9250V 42ºC

* 7.0x 0.9250V 40ºC

* 6.0x 0.9250V 38ºC

It took me something about three evenings to get these results.
I have a boring socially life.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. What sort of DC adapter do I need to use with the Cryo LX? Do you just plug it in, or do you need to modify anything?

 

After I just set my X9000 to 3.2 GHz in the BIOS, the CPU fan turned on full and has stayed that way... even at idle. It's loud. At 3 GHz, it did not do this. Is this normal?

 

Nice, thanks!

What temperature is worrisome for the X9000? If it goes over 75-80c, should I be worried or can it handle hotter?

And what temperature value is correct, HWMonitor's or RMClock's?

 

I agree totally with you on this one Kade mate,

I have thought about it a hell of a lot today about my situation and I actually thought that the balls firmly in my court now.

But...I have a feeling this is going to be a long drawn out battle to get what I feel is a worthy replacement.

I was supposed to get a call from Dell yesterday at 6.30 pm but no call was made so I called them up at 8pm and I was promised an e-mail today with an offer, of course no e-mail has been sent at this time so another call 10 minutes ago I was told by a tech that he is trying to contact the guy dealing with my case and again I have been promised some sort of correspondence from them soon.

I have have kept a log of all correspondence to dell and will use it as weight in claiming a worthy replacement.

P.S

I had forgot that I had a Physx card in my M1730, thanks for reminding me KADE!

 

Also, shouldn't I change the RMClock values on battery to disable the faster speeds in order to conserve battery power? Or should they remain equal to the AC values?

 

does having physx turned on in nvida control panel use one of the video cards when running sli? and does this make our sli not sli but just one card and physx card

 

This is completely normal. At 3.2/3.4Ghz, the fans come on full blast as to help cool the machine at those clock speeds. I'd highly suggest undervolting your machine(search around for instructions). It takes a while to stress-test a stable undervolt, but you will have drastically improved temps.

The GPU will also run much cooler with the fans going on full-blast. It's how several of us are getting very good idle temps on the 8800/9800 cards.

 

I did a quick 20 min stress test now and I can get 3.2 GHz @ 1.200v at a max of ~65c in RMClock (67-68c in HWMonitor).

Won't having the fans on at full blast also kill the battery? Maybe I'll stay at 3.0, that 0.2 can't have made a whole lot of difference.

 

The overclocking settings are only meant to be used while the M1730 is plugged in. Actually, if you start the machine up on battery power it will revert to stock 2.8GHz operation and won't run the fans full-blast.

However, considering the most I've ever gotten out of my M1730 on battery has been about an hour, this is a machine that really can't stay away from a power outlet for long.

If you're worried about keeping things cool, I would keep the overclocking settings. I've ran my M1730 for three months at these settings and haven't experienced a hitch... and my machine stays on nearly all the time.

 

When i was in the Dell XPS training class they said, "We support overclocking on our XPS systems so if the computer dies from overclocking we fix it." I wonder if anyone has more information on this, because i dont know if i dare OC my Cpu just yet.

 

Unless you have a X7900 or X9000 cpu, you wont be able to overclock it.

Dell will support OCing the x9000 cpu on the M1730 since they offered it with the system. If the system experiences an epic failure due to OCing, they will replace it.

 

do you think they will be able to know if i oc my T8100 if it frys i want to clock it to around 2.4

 

You can't. The multiplier is LOCKED. It is not possible to OC a non-extreme processor on a Dell mobile system.

 

Yes, you should. It starts becoming unstable there.

There is no reason it should ever get that high unless your room temps are extremely high too.

If you are overclocking, use RMClock to lower the voltage to something sane -- start at around 1.4v @ 3.4, and lower as far as you can while maintaining Prime95 stability. Dell's default values are so high they can physically damage the CPU or surrounding area with heat.

 

My new battery works awesome and finally all that ordeal is behind me.
Just opened up the beast yesterday, did a fan cleanup and now max temps are again 75-77C

 

I got a Radio Shack AC Adapter Cat. #: 273-029 and I believe is an "H" tip (they categorize their tips by a letter assignment) that is what fits the Cryo perfectly, so no you do not need to change anything on the Cryo at all which is the cool thing about it. The Ac adapter is adjustable between 3v and 12v with 1 Amp of current which is more than enough to power the 3 fans on the cooler.

 

This looks very close to the settings I use in mine.

 

Thanks!! So you're running it at 12v with the fans on full? I hope nothing burns out, I won't be able to replace anything from where I'll be.

 

Btw, RMClock unnerves me a little... I wish there was some way to set the voltages in the BIOS. To make matters worse, while stress testing earlier, I accidentally reset the RMClock settings and it shot up to 1.4v and 86c until I could fix all the P-State settings again. :|

 

I have decided i am going to get a Q174 (X9000 es) for my beast, but i have no idea what a good price is, i don't want to pay to much, and i am open if someone wants to sell me one here.

 

Yeah I am running them at 12v and don't worry the fans are designed to run at 12v anyway, I have been using the cooler for over 8 months and it is still working just fine. I just clean out dust and dust bunnies out of the screen on the cooler and the laptop too every 3 to 6 months just to keep a good air flow going to cool things down. Also RMClock is fine I have been running it since June of last year and it works fine too, if anything it should help lengthen the lives of our X9000 cpu's.

 

RadioShack no longer has this listed. =\

Can I just get any 12v 1000mA AC adapter? (or is it DC adapter?)

How about this one:

http://www.overstock.com/Electronic...rsal-AC-Adapter-Set-of-2/2262666/product.html

 

For all of you X9000 users with temperature issues, use RMclock and UV that X9000 to the lowest voltage possible; probably @ 17x with 1.2625v which I got. I once got my X9000 running at 90*C. Dropped to just a mere 65*C later and with MX2 installed. That should fix it.

The X9000 hitting at 70-75*C is actually alright. The down-throttling (Downclocking) will occur when it reaches 85*C and above.

I use a Q174 QS X9000 Chip for my M1730. Runs great. It's the "higher quality" ES chip if I must say. Bought it for just $300, but that was over half a year back. Not so sure about its current pricing.

@Quicklite - you mean those purple thermal pads that was placed all over those black chips around the 8800 cores? Yep. It came with it. I just applied MX2 on the two 8800 cores.

 

I paid around $450 off of Feebay in February, although prices may have dropped a little bit right now. Keep in mind that these are highly desired, somewhat rare ES processors so they might be tough to find and a bit expensive.

Personally, I think the upgrade is more than worth it.

 

Prices have gone up actually because they're so rare. I've heard alarming things about the ES chips coming out of Shenzen, China where most of these sellers are, so I waited until one of them put up an OEM SLAZ3 chip and wound up paying even more for that than the ES chips were going for. However, mine works great and from the feedback, so do the ES chips apparently. The dude's english sucks but he's helpful and ships quickly.

 

So I thought I would share the details of my service call with all of my fellow 1730 owners... This is a long read - so if you aren't interested just skip it.

A couple of days ago I noticed my GPU temps had spiked higher than normal after a Left 4 Dead session (only about 2 hours). Temps had peaked close to 90c which, to say the least is quite abnormal. My previously recorded temps were a max of 73-75c. In fact I can't really remember seeing it hit 75c. Idle temps (desktop, surfing the net, etc) were normal but gaming temps were through the roof.

I called Dell and spoke with XPS Support - after about 15 mins the tech agreed with me that the GPU needed to be replaced. A Dispatch was created and the parts were shipped out NBD. Checking the FedEx website I confirmed the parts had arrived @ my local FedEx office this morning. Lunch time rolled around and no service tech nor phone call. This is a bit out of the ordinary as they usually will call to confirm I am available.

I called XPS Support with the intent of having the rep contact the service tech and find out what time they would be out. This is where the Dell 'Hell' nightmare started. I dialed the number and sat on hold waiting for a tech to answer for over 40 minutes. I have never had this happen before - since this was an EPP purchase and an XPS to boot, I have always been routed to a US based call center and my call is usually answered within 10-15 minutes of hold time.

A rep finally picked up my call and I proceeded to explain the issue of no call from the service tech. The rep said he would contact the service rep and asked me to hold. Hold time was 20 minutes. Unacceptable. He came back on the line and said the tech would not be able to make it out until Monday. This was when I BLEW up on him and started giving him grief about Next Business Day + Night and Weekend coverage. The part was sitting at the FedEx location as of 9:30am my time and there was no reason why a tech couldn't be out. He put me on hold again since I wasn't budging on it and said he would call the tech's office and speak with a manager.

The rep finally came back on the line and said I needed to contact the tech's office as they had additional info pertaining to my service call. Again, I blew up and asked him why I as a customer should have to contact the service tech's office when it was Dell's responsibility. @#$%!! He again repeated I needed to call them - so I abruptly ended the call and called the tech's office.

I spoke with a rep there and they told me that Dell had failed to have the part to them by 8:30am local time and the tech for my area was already out on service calls. At this point I had basically had enough and was not about to argue with the service tech office.

I phoned Dell back and again sat waiting for a live person for close to 30 minutes. Finally getting another rep I explained the issue and he looked up the dispatch. I told him there was no way I was waiting until Monday and if Dell didn't make this work I wanted a refund of my warranty cost. He placed me on hold and after another 30 minutes came back on the line and indicated a manager from the tech's company would be contacting me in 5 minutes. I explained to him that if they could not come out today I wanted to pick up the part myself and do the repair. He said if we couldn't arrange a tech this we could do this however if anything went wrong it would not be covered under warranty. you can guess my response. I ended the call and waiting for the tech manager to call.

The tech manager called back a few minutes later and apologized and indicated Dell should have had the part sent directly to my residence or they should have sent it out for pickup with Priority Overnight and an 8am delivery time. He said he would contact the tech again and see if he could reschedule another service call.

The tech finally called me and said he would be at my location within the hour. Now here is where it really gets lame. The tech arrives and proceeds to bad mouth Dell. The guy is totally careless with my system and really doesn't appear to no anything about the M1730. He removes the keyboard and then the P screws. LCD is removed and then he flips over the unit and removes the bottom chassis screws. Of course he misses one (the screw inside the hard drive enclosure) and is trying to force my laptop apart. I tell him and explain he needs to check the Hard Drive bay and that there is a screw in there holding the chassis together. He looks at me like I'm a noob and then sees the screw is still there. He finally gets the lappie apart and removes the GPU.

The 'refurb' 8800M GTX is in the bag and I pick it up to hand it to him and I notice the #$@%&*$ fins on the heat sink are bent to hell. At this point I told him to call Dell and have another replacement card sent out as this thing was not going in my system. He said "I can fix that" and wips out a flat head screwdriver. I look at this guy and cant help but think he has lost his mind. I told him he still has to call Dell and get another card or I will... Card is put in.

After putting 'The Crippled Beast' back together, he goes to power it on... He depresses the LOGITECH button a couple of times and says, "Hmmm - did I put the battery in?". I wanted to throw him out at this point - I reached over and hit the power button and he says "Oh. I see".

He then calls Dell and we both speak with the rep - he explains the bent fins and a replacement GPU is dispatched. I instructed the rep to have it sent directly to my residence this time.

Come Monday when this part arrives I am calling the service tech's company and telling them to send another tech. This guy was a complete idiot. My nephew could've done a better job.

Lessons Learned (for US based service calls):

1. Have Dell send replacement parts Priority Overnight with an 8am delivery time.

2. Have Dell send the part directly to you if possible.

3. Don't call Dell on a half charged cordless phone or cell phone.

4. Be patient and ready to toss out a noob tech.

Sorry for the long read all - but I thought you might find this amusing... Dell Hell - I hate it.

Oh and for what its worth, this P.O.S. refurb card is idling at 65c. Max temp so far is 75c (no gaming yet). It is only scoring 10980 in 3DMark06. Epic Failure DELL.

 

@hikkoo... LOL! yeah, seriously this guy rolls up with his music thumping in front of my house and looks like hes been smokin all afternoon. The card was sealed but you could see the damaged fins - it looked like someone had taken a blunt object to them and just applied pressure at an angle.

I took the machine apart tonight and checked everything out to be sure all was put back the way it should be. Looking at the card more closely, it appears that one of the heat pipes is screwed up as well. The black non-conductive coating on the flipside of the GPU (the side that says PUSH HERE) is torn in two places. I'll take it apart tomorrow and pull the card and post some pics of it. Horrible.

 

damn batboy that sucks.thanks for the advice.

 

. . .Anger. Is. So. Much. Fun.

BatBoy, I've already told you my thoughts. I don't even know who should be getting a whipping over this, seeing as the Dell reps are well, reps - P.R. folks only eager to please and appease with apologies and extra-polite rhetoric. We could just take it all out on the junkie/tech, but uh, meh - the part's Dell's fault.

As a customer, BatBoy, you've shown them equal, if not more professional regard, and you've been profoundly graceful in how you conducted yourself. I'm shocked that you actually wasted so much time and phone-credit on these people. However, I am glad that you also put them in their place, and I hope that they don't give you a screwed up part again, because, well, the words of a rep mean nothing to me, because the products still end up shoddy if one doesn't hound 'em enough.

 

Feic it BatBoy that's an ordeal alrite.

EDIT: Woot - 1000th post

EDIT2: Wow, my first edit looks stupid...

 

@72:

LOL - 1000 posts and you have post#1200 of this thread.

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

Heads-up to everyone else: I posted a quick update to my driver blog. Intel Matrix Storage Manager and a Sigmatel (yes, you read that right - a SIGMATEL) audio driver update. The Sigmatel driver is a higher version than the final posted under the 1730 dell download page. If you are interested, give it a try. Seems to be more stable in Vista 64 - less STWRT stopped responding messages.
http://xpsm1730.blogspot.com/2009/07/driver-updates.html

 

Thanks BatBoy!!! and hey I hope you make through your gpu replacement nightmare. I read your post earlier and man I cannot believe Dell has stooped so low, I understand your pain and anger at Dell.

 

Guys, check the new nVidia driver version, 190.38. It has a new and improved power management system, it completely shuts down the 2nd cards when running with battery. The power consumption (when idling) has decreased from 50W to less than 35W! Now my battery lasts for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Great, really great!

@BatBoy, and here is even a newer Sigmatel audio driver.

 

Thanks Time... I'll look into the 190.38 tonight. Which INF did you use for the 190.38 install?

The IDT/Sigmatel driver you linked to is newer however it does not support the M1730 Sigmatel Chipset - at least not the one I have. Checking the driver's INF file, it does not have an entry for the correct device which is:

DEV_7616& SUBSYS_102801F7

Were you able to install it? If so, perhaps you can shoot me over the STWRT.INF and the STWRT64.INF files you used.

 

OMG, I just bought a 1730 and was worried about using battery, this is excellent news!

 

finally got one.

added another hd to do raid 0 250gb 7200 x2 but its a pain to install xp.

i have used the f6 thing(external floppy) with the driver(for intel matrix) from dell/intel and from various searches and i still get the blue screen of death.

i have switched to ata and every other possible config and im still getting no where.

can somebody point me to the right direction.

thanks in advance.

 

I used Nlite to slipstrem the raid drivers and also sp3 onto the installation cd when I used XP on mine a while back, Nlite is very simple to use as well it also allows you to burn the image to a new blank cd so you can simplify the install process.

 

I uploaded pics of the warranty replacement 8800M GTX. I should have the second replacement Monday or Tuesday. More to follow... Pics

For full size image, click image and then click the ALL SIZES link for the full size page (little bit more detail).

 

Unbelievable Batboy,

That is why I have made a complaint to Dell about the substandard replacements used in our M1730's.

If I were you I would press for a complete replacement of the laptop.

I still haven't heard from Dell regarding my replacement yet, I keep telling myself that patience is a virtue.

 

I wont demand a replacement yet - not enough ammo (yet). I'll contact Dell Monday AM and inform them of the tech's behavior/comments total disregard of customer service. request that a different tech is dispatched to complete the replacement. Hopefully the next card isn't a POS. If it is, on the phone again.

Hang in there Chief - the issues you have are legit.

Prior to my closer examination of the replacement card I was quite amazed at the number of issues people have been experiencing with the 8800M GTX. Now I see why.

I also am wondering now if I should be concerned with a CPU max temp of 70c. Any thoughts? T9300. It hits 70c in-game. L4D is a CPU intensive app. My ACPI max is 71c so far.

 

I just escalated my case now by e-mailing all the Dell company executives as I have still not recieved any response from them.

If that doesn't get things moving then I don't know what will.

Batboy, when I play L4D my cpu never goes above 54c (X7900) so maybe you have an issue there mate.

 

This one.

Well, I still haven't tried it yet, didn't knew it doesn't work.

 

Wonderful. Now I am concerned. Can anyone else who plays Left 4 Dead @ max settings post their max CPU temp? Might need to have them change out the CPU and CPU fan as well.

 

70c max when running a stress test doesn't seem to be abnormal at all, a lot of people report similar temps with C2D chips. From the posts in this thread, I've been advised to just make sure they stay under 80c. But I don't know the situation with that game. With other games, my CPU temps are nowhere near their stress test peak.

Where did you get the executives' e-mail addresses?