Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

Hi, guys.

Just replaced my 8800gtx cards and I'm wondering on drivers. I haven't changed them for a while, I was on the 185.7x series.


I use Vista 32bt, will upgrade to Win 7 later on, but no time soon.

I'm wondering what the most popular vista 32 bit driver is at the moment?

I wanted to go for 185.77 from laptopvideo2go, but the inf isn't available.

 

i was wondering the same thing mine gets kinda hot also?

 

BTW, I'm also an ARMA 2 player, so if any of you chaps are into this game then perhaps we could compare settings etc.

Cheers.

 

I have been using the 186.03 drivers and so far they work ok on my M1730< I used them when I had 32bit vista and now as well with Vista x64 and so far I have had no issues with them at all.

 

I've been down this road before. In some cases you can't do anything. You literally just nuked your MBR. That's the danger of Media Direct prior to version 4. Or having MD fail on you.

If you have the DVD for Win 7 you can try using the start up repair tool.

Most of the time you need a complete reinstall.

Spend some time researching MD with the version you have. Some people have instructions on repairing damaged partitions but in my experience they didn't work and I just wasted time.

 

I reinstalled. I am not sure what MD I have, but this laptop was built in June 2009. I can't believe it isn't working..

Oh well, I didn't have anything on the hard drive/os anyways. I won't be pressing it again lol.

 

I'm strongly considering selling my xps m1730. What do you think I could get for my system? (stats in signature)

I've looked on ebay but the systems don't really match up in one way or another. I just extended my complete care warranty for another 4 years. This makes me reluctant to part with the machine after dumping such a large amount into the warranty.

 

Well, I bought mine last week from Bobxx and we sold it for his asking price. Ripfire is also selling his, but his has a x9000 so hes selling it for 1700 which is a good price.

You have added additional ram, have a 2nd HD, and 4 years of warranty which is HUGE...I'd probably try for 1600.

 

I think I'm at the cap 60 fps - its ultra smooth the whole time in with just one GPU.

I've never tried SLI - might google it now to see if its supported...

 

blood, your system is worth $2k easy. whether you can sell it for 2k is another story, you'll probably have to shop around for a while for the right buyer who knows the value in the system. i know the extended warranties cost a lot from dell but it's not exactly received back once you sell on fleabay.

 

Yeah, the warranty extension alone cost over $500. I wouldn't be thinking about selling it unless I needed to.

It'll suck beyond all proportion if i have to get rid of this for the money I'm likely to get.

 

Why would you want to get rid of it? Looks like a real nice setup.

 

It's awesome. If anything it's pure overkill for my needs.

The real problem is it looks like I might be in need of the money in order to finish my degree. I'm hoping it's just a mistake.

I have two other computers, one desktop and one lappy that I could use instead.

This is the only computer that's worth a substantial sum of money.

 

Man that sucks. But a degree isn't as easy to get as a PC of any kind.

Good Luck

 

yeah, i accidentally pushed that button once, pain in the ....

 

Who uses DMD? I've deleted all partitions that come with the notebook initially and then I've created only two, one with the operating system (Windows7) and one for storage. Nothing more, nothing less. So, when I press that button, my computers boots to Windows7, not DMD.

 

Nice! I think the new drivers have some kinda' support for the game, but it's pointless. If it can run in single, and it ain't got competitive multiplayer, then single-gpu is great. The game isn't too demanding - you're right.

I'm gonna' give it a shot, once I get a decent replacement.

 

My new xps 1730 arrived today with the same specs like the one before, for me no more complains to the adress of Dell, production and delivery was going very fast within 10 days, they even don't ask about the old one, but maybe next week they will come pick it up.....

XPS M1730 CORE 2 Extreme X9000 (2.80GHz,800,6MB) 210-20586
1 17.0" UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife with 2.0MP Web camera 230-10134
1 Bone White 320-10171
1 Euro Ship Accessories 340-14750
1 Belgian Documentation XPS M1730 340-14754
1 Resource DVD XPS M1730 - (Diagnostics & Drivers) 340-14764
1 Eng, Frn, Ger, Spn Placemat XPS M1730 340-14893
1 4GB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 2G) 370-12401
1 Hard Drive 400GB Free Fall Sensor RAID 0 Stripe - 2 X 200GB (7200RPM) 400-14330
1 Optical Drive : Internal Blu-Ray RW (Blu-Ray, DVD and CD read & WRITE) Optical Drive with Software 429-12763
1 Euro 220V AC Adapter Power Cord 450-11558
1 AC Adapter 230W 450-11569
1 Primary 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion Battery 451-10485
1 No Carrycase 460-10041
1 Graphics : DUAL SLI 512MB nVidia GeForce 9800 GT 490-11031
1 Dell Travel Remote control 506-10024
1 TV Tuner- AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid NanoExpress DVB-T 506-10045
1 Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-PCI Card, EUR (FOR CORE 2 EXTREME) 555-11213
1 Belgian Internal Keyboard (AZERTY) 583-11664
1 Software Drivers XPS M1730 613-10521
1 Operating System : English Genuine Windows Vista SP1 (32 BIT) Ultimate including Media 619-12700
1 English - Microsoft Works 9.0 630-11001
1 Dell Support Center 2.0 640-10551
1 Dell Dock 1.0 640-10786
1 Software : English Adobe Photo+Prem Elements Bundle 640-10815
1 English McAfee Security Centre 10.0 - 3 Year Subscription 650-11877
1 Recupel 700-10295
1 Recupel 700-10297
1 1Yr Premium Warranty Support 754-10789
1 3 Year Hardware Support - Next Business Day

 

If they don't ask for the old system....you are very lucky...

 

Did this include the battery and the power brick as I've been asked to keep mine.

Also was this spec. emailed to you prior to delivery of you new 1730 as i've heard sweet f a about mine.

 

Did this include the battery and the power brick as I've been asked to keep mine

yes


Also was this spec. emailed to you prior to delivery of you new 1730 as i've heard sweet f a about mine.

i don't understand sorry? what do you mean?

 

Sorry I should have explained it better.

Before you recieved your new 1730 did you get an e-mail confirming the specifications before it was delivered.

 

i did not receive a email but i asked the customer and ordernumber.
You can check on the progress of your Dell order at any time by
clicking on this link _www.dell.BE / status with your Customer Number
but first you need the customer/ordernumber.

 

i called the support every day different times to complain and send printscreens and the results of hw monitor.
I didn't ask for a replacement of a M17x because i'm not so impressed of the results after seeing some of the benchmarks on youtube.
M1730 is really good gaminglaptop but i got my eye on the asus w90, so maybe i will sell my new xps1730, i'm not sure,...but maybe.

 

Be happy you are getting a x9000 and 9800M GT SLI - USA is out of luck when it comes to those specs.

Also, I strongly encourage you to inspect the entire machine upon receipt. Be sure it isn't a refurb labeled as NEW. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case.

 

I'd say! They were actually proposing to take mine away weeks before I got the new one. The friggin' idiots are becoming the absolute epitome of double-standards.

Anyway, I'd say that if they don't ask for the machine, don't even say a word. Keep both! Enjoy!

However, as everyone's already recommended, you should open it up and have a close inspection of the hardware. Make sure that they didn't give you a shiny casing of light-works packed with corrosive crap.

 

Anyway, I'd say that if they don't ask for the machine, don't even say a word. Keep both! Enjoy!


Right...except that they have your CC on file and can charge you for the old one at any time.

 

Now i'm still at work "nightshift" till 05.00u (belgium time), the box is still closed and when i get home the first thing i do is check if its really new or only new outside,.....and filled with refurbished hardware,... i don't think after all the calls and all the diffrent managers i talked this will happen to me, but after reading alot here on the forum everything is possible.
my "old" half roasted one will be ready for sending back if they don't forget, otherwise i can try to connect 4x sli 9800gt

 

What was wrong with your old one?

 

I removed the stock USB ports/board and switchboard from the Cryo LX and just plugged the fans straight into a fan controller from an old desktop of mine using an AC to 4-pin molex adapter (from a hard drive USB kit, so since hard drives and 4-pin molex connectors use 12v, I'm assuming it's 12v).

Anyway, using that and the fans on full, it still blew hardly any air (though it did get louder and blow more than before). I think I'm gonna replace all three fans with Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fans and plug those into the fan controller. Has anyone tried this? Do these fans hold up well and blow air well sitting in this horizontal position? Would anyone recommend a different fan more suited to the task?

I pulled each fan wire out the back and through an empty USB port into the fan controller, which is sitting with its guts exposed. I'll need to figure out a cleanlier solution.

 

Hello everyone!
I dissasembled my laptop to find out what happend to my video (lags in games) and that is what I found:



Tell me does it look OK for you? I was doubt about the space between heat sink and cooler isn't that too much?

 

Should I keep Powermizer on or off? I noticed that my temps in-game (Unreal Tournament 3) were abnormally low, and I saw that the GPUs were downclocking to 383MHz core, ~300MHz memory or so. So I disabled it with that utility, and now it's at constant 500/800, and temps went up about 2-3c but not much difference in-game. So was it okay for it downclock while gaming? Did it just not need that much power for that game?

 

Try blowing the dust out of that thing. There are clumps in between the heatsink and the exhaust fins.

That pic is giant for this thread by the way, can you fix that?

 

Its normal for it to downclock as soon as you ALT-TAB back to the desktop to check temps/clocks.

Bottom line, if you aren't seeing a performance issue, I would leave it alone. Don't mess with PowerMizer, its there to help keep your card cool.

 

Did not expect it's gonna be that big. I'll fix it. I've blown that out, what can you say about space between them? DOn't you think it is too much?

 

I don't know - is there any play in the heatsink? Not that I would suggest this unless you are prepared to apply new thermal goop, but does it look like removing the heat sinks would allow for a bit of alignment room? You could try loosening the heat sink just a tad and seeing if the heatsink had some play to it - meaning does it move?

Truthfully though, it doesn't appear to be that bad.

As far as the lag in games is concerned, have you been monitoring your temps? If so, how is the max reading after a gaming marathon? How about idle temps (and by idle I mean having the unit on for a couple of hours and just doing basic tasks - email, surfing, dvd playback, etc.).

Did you confirm your OS power setting is set to High Performance?

Which driver are you using?

Is the game you are noticing the lag in compatible with SLI? If not, try setting the NVIDIA profile for that game (located under 3D Settings in the NVIDIA control panel) to run in single GPU mode.

All of these things can play into lag - especially dust build up which causes excess heat.

 

It was downclocked during play, I had GPU-Z logging it to a file and in their little chart thing.

 

I could not move anything in the video even when I unscrewed those 3 screwes which hold the cooler. SO I just blowed everything out with vacuum cleaner

Alright, idle temps are: GPU1 55-56, GPU2 56-61 right now surfing the internet only;
Driver Nvidia 185.85
I tried a lot I mean w/o SLI, w/ SLI, w/o PhysX, w/ PhysX different combinations. But I'm gonna try now
I'm not sure but now after I blowed out all the dust it seems to be work better.
Thanks anyway, I used that disassemble/reassemble guide you gave me - really helpful thing.

By the way I found one 8800 gtx on ebay and the price is about £500 - quite much in my opinion.

 

Can they? I thought you have to have an agreement with the company on paying the additional charges. A.k.a, it has to be agreed upon as a transaction by both parties. So they'll have to confront him about the old machine -first- before they decide to charge or collect, depending on response. Right?

 

The replacement is new, i checked everything.
Oh btw next week UPS will pick up the other one, ...
Now i don't know what i'm going to do with this new one, sell it or not because i was thinking to buy the asus w90, but i'm not sure there will be much diffrence...

 

Stupid me, just noticed the gaming temps are higher with higher resolutions. It's weird... the fps doesn't change much in UT3 going from 1024x768 to 1280x960 even to 1600x1200... but the temps rise by as much as 10c.

This is all normal?

I'm assuming this is why it was underclocking at lower resolutions... still confused as to why it can't muster up the power to get through those low fps spots at low res with SLI enabled though...

This is pretty cool though, on an external monitor, I usually game at 1024x768 or 1152x864, so my temps can stay drastically low. I hate that 1920x1200 resolution on the screen, I imagine the card must get really hot at that res, I'll have to test it out.

EDIT: It also seems, although I'm still testing this, putting the laptop on the Cryo LX cooler somehow messes with powermizer which is what's causing the higher temps with the cooler. The underclocking behavior changes.

 

Guys,

I'm trying to sell the laptop that Dell sent me as a replacement to my XPS M1730 because I am now poor. Please send this link to anyone you know who might want to score a great deal on a very powerful gaming laptop:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=190322904682

If you configure it on dell.com, its about 4800 dollars after taxes... I'm selling it new in box for 3550, so you save like 1250 dollars... It also has 2.7 years remaining of a Complete Care + Accidental Damage Warranty, which you can verify using the service tag in the Q&A section.

I don't wish to get banned for doing this, but I've got 6 hours left and I paid for the really expensive pack that highlights and bolds my , and no one has bought it yet.

 

Round 2 - FIGHT!

So I came back from a short trip and fired up my laptop. I am greeted with a couple beeps and a message that states that the laptop is unable to verify theh wattage of my AC adaptor. This may or may be unrelated to the following issue:

My video cards are bad again. Vista keeps prventing the drivers from loading due to "a problem". I've tried multiple driver installs to no avail. I booted into XP, and HWMonitor only shows one video card! I checked the hardware monitor, and it shows both cards operating normally in XP. So I'm thinking that one of my two cards is fried, which is why Vista just doesn't load the drivers.

-OR-

Could it be that Vista is throttling back the cards or turning them off in order to save power because it's not getting the full 165 watts from my AC adaptor?

In either case, after an hour and a half on the phone w/a Dell technician in India, I have a new set of video cards, a new motherboard, and a new AC adaptor on the way...

 

Good to hear, mate.

I am thinking about doing the same, regarding my replacement. Sell it and get a W90. There's one being sold here with two-year Asus warranty. Thing is that it's actually not that bad from the price point of view.

W90 with the 4870 x 2 ATi is one amazing machine. The GPU is clearly in competition with the 280m, but due to the fact that Nvidia has greater market control and better drivers, somehow, in quite a few high-end games, the 4870 x 2 performs around the same level as dual 8800/9800m cards, which is puzzling. However, on paper, the specification of the cards is very strong - I believe GDDR 5 VRAM, which is very good. I think with the right drivers and support, the w90 can easily show some very promising results. People over at the M17x performance thread were already comparing results with W90 users over the Street Fighter 4 benchmarks; the dual ATi cards with their DX 10.1 support were chugging out significantly higher FPS-rates at high resolutions with anti-aliasing when compared to the dual 280ms. I've always liked ATi's products, but it's the lack of support that puts me off.

Anyway, I am thinking about doing the same, given that my faith in the M1730 and Dell has just about died out.

 

http://getsatisfaction.com/dell/topics/xps_m1210_battery_wont_charge_and_ac_adaptor_not_recognized

An interesting thread/blog regarding the AC adapter issue in case anyone else gets it.

 

Hey, guys.

Is the m1730 the last of the line from Dell in highend performance with the baton being carried by Alienware instead? I'm just wondering as to the upgrade path to take once my m1730 gets decommissioned. I'm kind of hoping it's not all going to fall on Alienware as they are far from competitive price wise.

Which way is the market heading?

 

Yes its all on AW now. Dell is done with gaming laptops.

 

I am about to buy a 1730 off ebay how do I check to see what screen it has(LG Sharp or Samsung)?

 

Ask the seller. The only real way to confirm it is to pop it open and check it out.

 

I have read of so many problems. Should I even bother buying this thing? Or get another product alltogether? Asus HP Toshiba?