So upon reboot, I had the same problem, so I know it's not the RAM. Put both sticks back in, tried to boot - no joy. Had to do the same thing as before - unplug AC adapter, disconnect network cable, disconnect battery. Upon startup, both video cards displayed in HWMonitor. Go figure.
I'm thinking it's the mobo since disconnecting the power is likely resetting the cmos or something... though maybe I'm wrong?
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Hey Gadget, try turning OFF PhysX and see if that increases your performance a bit. Do you actually notice a difference with it off (effects wise)? Also, try enabling Ambient Occlusion and see what kind of a FPS hit you take.
With Left4Dead and ambient occlusion on I can perceive a slight shadow difference but also see a slight FPS hit.
@Zath: Aren't you in the USA? -
The games run at maximum settings smoothly by the way. So does Transformers , second version, the game. -
Batboy, I am indeed in the US. Why?
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Kade Storm The Devil's Advocate
8800m should handle ambient occlussion just fine, provided that it is coded properly into a good engine. Old, outdated cards render this feature just fine.
Arkham Asylum looks dandy, but runs horribly. And yes, the SLi bar is weak, meaning this game is not utilising SLi properly, at the moment. I ran it in single-gpu mode, and it was around 20-30. I switched PhysX off, and it improved a bit. I turned off AA, and it improved a bit more. I think a refined driver will resolve a majority of issues. -
A quick question
Before i did a reformat i used to get a graphic bar appearing on the desktop when i used the volume control buttons on the front of the of the palm rest, any ides how you reinstate that as its not showing at the min when i use the volume controls ? -
turned of aa in batman and also set details to high instead of super high get between 35 and 60 depending on level
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Kade storm try playing around with Nhancer. Since it is a UT3 based game Batman that is, try copying the profile for Gears of War and rename it so that Batman uses it instead. I did this for Mirror´s Edge and that game runs flawless now maxed out 1920x1200.
I have managed to get Armed Assault 2 to run pretty good on my XPS M1730 too through tweaking and tweaking with Nhancer, that at 1929x1200 resolution.
Although I did reinstall the older Xtreme G 180.84 drivers for Win XP and these has made a hell of a difference compared to the newer drivers I have tried, the 190+ drivers
Also another thing that gave me an boost in Win XP was to force install newer chipset drivers. Mostly when newer chipset drivers are released the automatic installer doesn´t think I need the newer ones so it never installs them. But manually installing them can improve performance -
Kade Storm The Devil's Advocate
Thank you for the tip, and I'll put it to use very shortly. You're damn right about this being a Unreal Engine 3.0 issue more than anaything else.
I did the thing with Mirror's Edge quite a while back, and it runs smoothly, and with just one GPU - lawl. Physx and all the jazz included.
Thing, I've been busy using your latest Crysis config, which is f'n dandy!
To The Stigg:
That volume control indicator you're talking about - Dell Quickset. Something that was mentioned a few-pages-earlier. Simply go to BatBoy's blog; access the drivers page, and scroll down to the Quickset section - everything you need to know about the installation methods, including the download software is available. -
I understand I've to install Xtreme G 180.84 (does it work aswell for vista.. ah no worries I'll find out...) ... any specific changes in nHancer? -
what has everyone found to be the best driver for 3d mark scores?
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I followed the steps but at this part "run the installer for v9.2.13. When running the installer, be sure to select Custom Install and set it to not install keyboard backlighting."
It didn`t give an option for any custom install, it just went to install now and installed it.
Is this what the end result should look like ? On boot up it loads on the desktop as a stand alone player, is that correctly installed. Thanks btw Kade.
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Kade Storm The Devil's Advocate
No problem, mate.
Umm. The rest sounds right, although I was able to get the custom install to work on two occasions. It is rather strange that the option wasn't available to you.
I'll give it another shot on my older system, but that'll have to be later.
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Everytime i have installed it I haven't been asked for the "Keyboard lights" or whatever. It just installs automatically for me too.
I think the easiest way test if it's working properly is to hit the volume keys on the front of the machine. The newer/better version of Quickset has the volume graphics as a much larger clearer bue and white graphic. (looks classier than the old style) Tho' beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....sic. -
I hate to add to the XPS m1730 doom and gloom but such is life. Dell replaced my graphics card back at the beginning of summer because it was over heating. This was a big mistake, I should of just cleaned out the heat sinks my self and not let them install an inferior card in my system. But oh well. This card failed about 3 weeks ago, artifacts in games and green lines running through the screen. So I get card number 3 installed plus a new motherboard, and the added benefit of my keyboard backlight not working half the time, sometimes works sometimes does not. And just today my card stopped working, massive failure see screens attached. The computer is fine after it starts cold but 2 minutes into just running the desk top the screen goes all crazy. I monitored the temps and they are in the 50 to 60 degree range. This is really frustrating. Have any of you seen this before. I called dell again and they want to replace motherboard, memory, processor, graphics cards lcd cable, and the keyboard. This seems just a little ridiculous to me. What is the point of doing this? Plus there is a new tec and he treats my laptop like dirt when he is working on it, I miss the old guy he was really careful with my system. And yes I have owned the system for just over a year. My advice never never never let them install a referb card in your system!!!!
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It looks like since the new AW m17x came out everyone is hating on the xps m1730 lol.
I bought my m1730 eight months ago from Dell, fully maxed out, for 3000$.
I did not have any problems wiht the system so far or overheating. I use it only 3 to 4 hours a day and have a great laptop cooloer to go with it.
Of course if you use your machine 5 to 8 hours a day non stop gaming eventually something is going to go wrong, it happens on desktops with a million times better cooling and it sure will happen on a laptop pushing SLI.
I like the look and specs of the AW m17x but after maxing it out on DELL.ca + taxes it came out to 7250.00$? ?
Don't get me wrong i can afford it if i really want to give a nice slap in the face of fortune but why?
I bought my m1730 because it was for 3000$ and i wanted to have a home laptop to play some of the games i play on my desktops on the couch =)
Don't get me wrong if you have the money do what ever the .... you want with it , i do=) I just traded in a brand new 2009 335xi coupe for an M3.
The dealer was laughing it me thinking i was crazy to loose so much money on my 335 but for me it was worth it.
But 7000$ on a freaking laptop????????
For 5000$ i can build a dream desktop with top notch components that would kill that m17x.
The purpose of a laptop is to have a mobile computing system to bring around with you for work , shool etc...
Are you guys actually telling me that you go out of your house to school , work etc... with that thing lol?
I sure would be ashamed to go to work with my m1730i would be the joke of the office and recalling a famous quote from an horror movie:
" they all going to laugh at you"
It's your money and do what you want with it but comon......
It`s funny to see this companys now days (nvidia etc.....) ripping people off, they have become like drug cartels.
The come up with technology that you can`t even find software to take full advantage of it and people go out and spend thousands of $ for it.
Let me give you small example...i bought this motherboard about 1 year ago for over 500$(canadians) http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4555038&CatId=3495
It was full of problems and took me weeks to get thsi thing to run stable and find the right DDR3 ram to go with it ( and dont even get me started on DDR3 ram lol) now it's only 189$. -
@gundam789 i'm happy everything goes fine with your xps m1730, but when the problems begin, then youre on a long endless way of troubles that never stops, it's happened to me and many others to.
The m1710 was in a way much better.
And yes i also share youre feeling of the M17x, it's a sort of hype but i'm not so impressed of the m17x first the look(i personally don't like it, a bit childish look) and second o v e r p r i c e d, and at least when you compare the benchmarks with other gamenotebooks from now its not worth to spend thousands of us dollars/euro's.
A Asus w90 for example is much cheaper and give the same results. -
My temps have always been low (never went past 83c and only at that temp for about 15mins in 6 months of use, normal peak temp is 79c) and I'd be lucky to avg 1 hr per day gaming and I've got what what appears to be GPU issues. New card arriving Thurs will hopefully resolve the issue. -
83C at idle or load wth are you talking about?
On my m1730 my GPU idles at 61C and i had load temp of 80C in summer time with no AC on, other wise in winter my max load temp is 75C.
My old 8800 ultra idles at 59C in a well ventilated CM Stacker and max load i had on it was 73C.
I played LOTR for 2 hours staright on my m1730 last night with no issues.
You are the one making a$$umptions here and speak for you m1730 not mine.
A 61C idle and 75C load temp its normal for this type of cards in a laptop.
You are insane or maybe you just want a free m17x lol
And i find it really hard to believe that even if you have a load temp of 83C that you machien can't average 1 hour of gaming.
What a pack of BS. -
My old 8800GTS died on me 3 months ago but i had pushed that card so much that i was not surprised.
I was playing DAOC ( dark age of camelot) on it for like 8 hours a day and dual logging 2 accounts on the same machine , eventually it was bound to happen.
All i am saying is that if a person games for 2 hours a day and one games for 7 the last one will run into trouble before=)
I been living in Canada for the past 3 years and it gets really cold here in the winter=) all i have to do is open the window a bit and will lower my temperatures. -
@Gundam
It's very simple.
Your assumption was -
What has to be understood is that this owner's lounge has seen quite a few 8800M GTX cards fail - this is the important aspect to all of this. Does this mean your card will also fail 100% at some point? No, of course not. What it does mean is that there is a higher than normal failure rate and it typically is associated with changes in the thermal range of the operating temps.
Oh and Gundam... just for your info - my operating temps were almost exactly like what you described except I NEVER went over 75-76c. No overclocking - average gaming time... good airflow. Well, look what happened after a year - *poof* card starts soaring into the 90c range and locking up. Replacement card was even worse - it failed in less than a week.
Food for thought. -
I've never had a desktop video card fail on me ever, and I usually buy used cards off eBay and overclock them. I keep the cards around to use in second hand systems for years afterwards. I still have my 8800GTS 640mb from 2007 lying around. I think I still have an old 7800GTX or two or even a Radeon X800 somewhere here that still works, despite the abuse of overclocking and many, many, gaming hours.
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moogleassassin Notebook Consultant
Well guys, not sure if you remember my initial post (p207) but I have just been told by Dell that they will not be sending out *another* engineer to replace even more of my poor little XPS1730 - instead they are giving me a full refund and letting me spec up an Alienware M17x.
I still love my 1730, but I just can't take any more failures from itthe 1730 is (in my opinion) a defective design as I've had 4 total replacements and the current one has been stripped of all its parts at least once.... that much change and still issues point to design and not component imo.
I'll be sad as well as happy to see it go tbh...
Off to spec up my M17x now. Good luck to everyone. -
Well im completly lost here , the m1730 had lot of good reviews now all of a sudden it's over heating , it has a defective design and much more...
This was from the main review here on this forum it sayd:
"Overall, Dell has done an excellent job of finding a way to cool down the beastly components of the M1730 while keeping the machine quiet."
Pros: Runs cool and quiet
I believe it's going to be like this for every laptop on the market, i bet in 4 years time the same crap will be sayd about the mx17 and so on and so on till the end of times.
What guarantees you guys have that this new AW it's not going to over heat?
A positive review? Because also the m1730 had a positive review and now this.
This laptops are not for everyone and i also think that most people that buy this machines , and i dont mean to offend anyone , are not true gamers.
Because any real gamer will know that playing games on a laptop it's not the same like playing on a desktop.
Sure you can attach a 30 inch screen , good mouse and keyboard to a laptop but then whats the point of it lol?
How stupid is that? the only thing i attached to my laptop is a mouse cause playing with a touch pad i feel like a retard.
If im playing games like wow or daoc then yes i can get away with a touch pad , but if i play a FPS like unreal tournament i would be playing like a retard using a touch pad and i would not be able to play at a competitive level.
This machines are small they packed with a lot of technology and i believe that eventually they will fail , definetly more so then a desktop PC.
Plus many people say they use top notch components ? What bran is the motherboard , GPU ,power supply etc... in this machines?
From what i rember dell makes theyr own motherboard and GPU and i doubt they gona be top notch.
So pretty much we are spending 6000$ on a machine that might do great or it might burn out with 1 year time and the components are questionable.....but they have a cool logo and they come in big black boxes .....Fantastic.
Well since you guys killed the nice vibe i had for my m1730 today, I'm going to call Dell and tell them that i want to exchange it for an m17x -
moogleassassin Notebook Consultant
I've always had issues with mine overheating, I've had 4 total replacements and the one I have atm has been completely stripped and had all its internals replaced previous to the current overheating issues.
I'm not just jumping on a bandwagon here, I love my 1730 despite all its issues - its a glorious machine...... when its working. As I said on the last post, I'll be sad/happy to see it go.
I might not be what some people call a "true l33t gamezor. kkthxbai" or some other crazy gamer sp33k.... but I attend 6+ LANs a year and help run a couple as well so I'm under no illusion I'm not running a desktop. The fact it runs hot has never bothered me, the fact it runs so hot it consistently turns itself off to prevent damage and eventually kills itself does kind of bother me
The 1730 from my experience is just not able to cool itself no matter what you do to help it. Sure it might have had excellent cooling at the start - I assume the intial review had 8700m cards in it (the 8800GTX I have came out about 6months after the laptop as I recall...) so did it take into account the updated graphics cards, etc?
As for the Alienware one - will it be any better? who knows.... only one way to find out. All I know is currently the 1730 is burning a hole in my desk, at least before it turns itself off anyway....
Its a shame. -
Nah the M1730 is a nice laptop. Go read the Alienware forums with the 4850 in crossfire, oh man 100 degrees for the GPU´s on load, the best I have heard is 92 degrees and worst 104 degrees on load.
Now the M17x and all other components in that little shell will surely take it´s toll if the GPU´s output 100 degrees alone. Sure ATI GPU´s can be hot, but this is go 7800GTX temps that I had with my older XPS2. I would personally be very concerned, those GPU´s are 15 degrees hotter than my 8800m GTX SLI. -
I like my m1730 i was joking about exchanging ,it's not like Dell would actually do it.
And i would not spend 7000$ on a system.
For the games i play, the m1730 is perfect for me and i like the look of it but i still would not bring this beast to work lol.
I'm glad to see that there are people out there that don't have problems with theyr m1730 and would like to see more posts on this.
Im sticking with my m1730 and by the way just now i turned the AC on took the temps again for my gpu and it was 58C at idle =) 3C cooler then my 8800 ultra.
Will it change over time? Maybe but for now with thise temps i don't see anything going wrong. -
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I was just curious more than anything if mine has installed correctly as it didn`t give me the custom install option. -
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@Stig:
Its best to uninstall and then manually delete the left over Quickset directory. Also run CCleaner and clean the registry. Once this is done, reboot and then start again.
I'm not sure why some get the prompt as I did and others (like yourself) do not. I have updated the instructions to watch for the prompt as it may or may not present itself. Bottom line, if the volume and brightness controls are displayed as well as being able to access all other settings you are good to go.
By the way, the one I see is this -Attached Files:
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Just to let you know what i did, i followed the instructions exactly as they were on the blog, i left my previous version of Quickset on as per the instructions which say to install over it, i then proceded to install the following versions in this order as per the instructions
v8.2.20 A09, Last Updated: 03/27/2008
v9.0.12 A00, Last Updated: 06/26/2008
After the above were installed i then ran the installer for v9.2.13 A05, Last Updated: 01/09/2009 and waited for the custom install to appear so i could set it to not install the keyboard backlighting lighting as instructed. This is where the prob was, the custom install didn`t appear for me, its just the basic install now button that appears then it proceeds to install it.
After installing v9.2.13 A05 i carried on following the instructions to install the last step which was to install v9.4.6 A00, Last Updated: 06/11/2009, after following the instructions this is basically what i have now.
I have the sound icon you referred to above, this one
On boot up the mobility centre control panel appears, this one with a blank box on the right
I have my backlit keyboard as normal and everything else appears normal, has this installed correctly then even though i didn`t get the custom install option for v9.2.13 A05 ? -
Not working logitech screen doesn't really bother me, but I'm still on the warranty, so might as well fix it as log as it's free
And here it goes....I sent them an e-mail 3 days ago, and still no answer....and that's suppose to be next business day reply....
On another note, I think some people get wrong impression from reading last 50 pages of this forum, which are all about people having problems with their laptops. I personally bought my laptop right after 8800M GTX came out, which was a 1.5 years ago. I have my CPU OC'd @3.0 GHz (so, no extra cooling). My GPUs are at 625/950/1550 constantly. It is on 24/7. Up untill few months ago I did a lot of gaming on it + watching Blu-ray films. And up until this minor issue with logitech screen I had 0 problems with my laptop. I personally am very happy with it. It is the best laptop I've had so far. And after 1.5 years it can handle most of the games out there all maxed out at its native resolution.
Oh, and about QuickSet installation. I didn't get promped to choose custom installation niether. But it works, so I just let it beMobility center opens up at boot for me too. I tried to disable it's start up through registery, but that just messed up the whole thing. It is good, that I backed registery up before doing that. Also tried to disable it through Autoruns...messes up QuickSet as well.
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@Stig:
Yeah thats all good. Not sure why your mobility center is opening @ boot. Never did that for me. Might want to check to see if there is a shortcut to it in the Start menu ---> Programs ---> Startup folder. If so, it can be deleted. -
Yeah I will write down the settings I run with Arma 2 here, although my XPS is not home until tomorrow. A friend borrowed it to review the new Wolfenstein game on it. That means I can probably put up screenshots of it tomorrow here
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DDT5 I have also had my XPS for over 1.5 years now and overclocked from the first day. Currently at 625/1512/950 but mostly at 625/1550/950 since any clocks over that and ATI tool displays deltas which is no good for any GPU, unless you overvolt the GPU in nibitor.
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New WOLFENSTEIN GAME?!!!!?!?! Do tell.
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Kade Storm The Devil's Advocate
Gundam,
I am going to go easy in my reply, simply because your name is 'Gundam' and that I spent a good amount of years in the far-east. Enough time to develop an appreciation of the Gundam series, from a purely writer's standpoint in understanding politics and motives behind war.
Anyway, bone of contention:
A gaming PC should ideally run for as long as you wish to run the machine. My Toshiba X205 SLi, with its 'suxorz on fire 80nm heat-monster 8600m GTs' ran for days, back when I had time to game. This machine, that you accuse me of 'hating' ever since the M17x came out, all driven by a mere, 'uneducated assumption', had its video cards die out for the 5th-time-in-three-months after barely being used for publishing *.doc files in word for three-weeks, and then one gaming session in standard clocks for about an hour-and-a-half, followed by one of the chips dying. NOTHING SHOULD FAIL THAT QUICKLY! My PS3, with it's outdated 90nm chip, that heats up the entire bloody ROOM, hasn't conked out since it was bought, a *long* time ago.
Get it? This isn't about M17x, or the Clevo, or El Nino, or little-green-men who like to touch large obese adults, or the next big obscure, and utterly senseless thing, not excluding little know-it-all-wannabes looking for their moment to shine as condescneding antagonists. It is simply about Q&A - quality and assurance. The same Q&A that becomes miles more important when one is psychotic enough to invest thousands of dollars into a mere laptop. The same Q&A that actually made me hate my original Alienware and become a convert to the Dell Inspiron 9100.
Fact: M1730 video cards are failing, and the old/new replacements or 9800m GTs provided by Dell have a very short shelf-life, and an even shorter life-span. . . at least for a signficiant number of peeps on this forum! In fact, here's a real puzzle: I got a replacement system from them that I hardly even use. Yesterday, I found artifacts on 'teh brand newz r0x0rz my b0x0rz 9800m GT SLi', for NO apparent reason. Where's the 8-10 hour use (Which most other laptops and machines can easily endure)? Because at this point, a handful of Dells aren't able to handle even a few mere hours on a weekly basis, and so the complaints of those owners is genuine. From your post though, it's more like, "Clearly there's -us-, who have our M1730s working just right. . . and then there's those green-belly punks who complain about hardware failures since the M17x came around--how I know that correlation to be fact - I don't know--so they must be lying. Even if they aren't lying. . . it doesn't matter, they're a minority or something."
Many people on this forum are having great experiences with their Beasts, and nothing beats that experience. I believe this machine has more life in it than most will be willing to give credit. Given the direction the games industry is taking, even a single 8800m GTS will run most of modern games just fine at the minimum HD resolution of 720p, if not better. However, when some of us complain, we don't complain about the product so much as a decline in standards, because we see other people with the same product, -not- having those problems, and having their product live up to its corporate and technological potential. Ah, but then we get generalised by certain holier than thou folks who label us heretics, because apparently, their personal experience and personal opinion can be used to make broad statements about other disgruntled XPS-users and factual-claims about the XPS M1730 engineering integrity, respectively.
Having that said: I am glad your machine does so well. Now I paid more than you for a similar system. Why am I not getting the same results? Either both I and my machine have Munchausen's Syndrome, which is a notion that is as ridiculous as it sounds, or. . . wait for it. . . maybe it's just the fact that people--individual investors--expect consistent Q&A, so they may enjoy their machines like their other fellow peers, who see Dell delivering the potential of the specification without faults.
Further note: And my complaints have been around from before the M17x, or even the official announcement of Dell incorporating Alienware. I actually hate Alienware, not only because I hate little f'n green men, but also because I've had two systems from 2005 that have made me suffer, along with their horrible support! I was a convert to the XPS machines, and I am sad to see them go in such fashion. But hell, it's more or less a change of name, because anyone who really looks at the M17x, will clearly see that it's more of a fusion between the Alienware-archetype and the XPS, branded as Alienware 'All Powerful' M17x. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a. . ." eh, nevermind.
Disclaimer: This rant/drivel was brought to you by the good people at Hell Corp. a subsidy of Dell Corp. by Michael Dell and his alter-ego, Satan. (Oh, no, I didn't just do that!) -
ahh i put a nightlight under the laptop to tilt it up and it works!
now while gaming, im hitting 70c to 75 max.
but you know whats weird, if i just let it idle, it always wait for the gpu to hit 75c before it kicks in the fan again.
arggg. i wish we can control the fans on the gpu. -
I never sayd that i don't believe that some people are having lot of troubles with theyr m1730 , what i'm saying is that for the time being i have no problems with mine.
Can you leave a gaming machine on 24/7? Sure why not but whats the point? Do you game 24/7?
I use my laptop anywhere from 2 to 4 hours a day and sometimes even more but once im done i shut it off.
I could have my car engine run all day long if i like but why would i do that if im not using it.
Fact: the more you use something and the faster it will go bad, it doesn't take a genius to figure this one out.
I guess some people are having problems with theyr machines and some are not.
Although i only had my laptop for a little over 6 months i consider my self lucky thus far.
So you can go easy on your reply all you like but the fact is that atm i have no trouble with my machines but if i ever do you guys will be the first to know =)
I am not blaming everyone here that this problems seem to have come out with the release of the m17x, but today i called dell tech support and i told them that i was experiencing problems with my machine ( all lies of course ) and then i asked them if i could have it replaced for the new m17x.
He pretty much told me that they have a 3 strikes policy , in other words if my machines get repaired 3 times for the same problem i will be eligible for a brand new m17x.
Now you see where i'm going with this? I have over 3 years of warranty on my machine im sure if i try hard enough in the next 2 years i will get my self an m17x
I'm sure in 2 years i can figure out a way of overheating my machine loooool
This is when dum tech support at Dell comes into play FTW. -
Though Kade may have been a little hard, I do agree with what he has said. I have had my M1730 for about 1 1/2 years. My 1st failure occurred well before I saw any mention of the M17x. I have had a subsequent 2 failures since (one within a week of a replacement being installed).
These never failed during gaming, they failed in Vista while idling... idling between 65-75C... ?!!! I loved my M1730, up till the 1st failure the machine was a champ. But having the entire innards replaced and still getting failures, and then having downtime which has equated to over a month waiting for replacement parts it becomes a joke.
Firstly, why are the GPU fans idling at 65 - 75C just sitting in Vista? On my own testing I found if was directly related to the CPU temps. If the CPU is being stressed and heats to around 45C all 3 fans kick in and the GPUs are cooled. The reason why the Intel Extreme OCed owners had the lowest failure rate in this poll. Look at the almost 50% failure rate on the stock C2D. However if the CPU isn't being stressed and sits in the sub 40C range the GPU fans don't kick in till they hit 75C. Why is the thermal threshold 75C for the GPUs?
Secondly, why are the GPUs failing at this tempurature. We've been assured by others that the GPUs are rated upto 100C+ (110 by some counts). There has already been failures on laptops with G84/86, is this the same issue with the G92s?
Note, if the M17x starts having the same issues you can bet on the fact that rants will start up in the M17x owners thread. -
Signature updated - they're sending me another motherboard and RAM. I actually had to delete some text in the sig because it was too long!
Gundam - congratulations on your 1730. If I can give you some friendly advice, do not turn it on. It'll last longer. My usage is the same as you - 1-2 hours a night, 1-2 hours every other night gaming. Of course that's not counting all the down-time when the Beast was down.
Regarding the Alienware M17X - only time will tell if it will have a similar fate. My laptop ran fine for about 9 months before the first major issue. It's been downhill from there. -
A gaming rig staying on 24/7 may well last longer than one going through constant power cycles. It may well still fail from the thermal changes when being stressed to idle, but these temps changes aren't as bad as going from hot (while on) to cold (while off).
Laptops are even worse in the fact that power management usually changes the power levels and subsequent tempuratures allot, and the fact that laptops usually go through allot more power cycles. A laptop left on AC power 24/7 with the same power management levels and stress level will likely last a very long time (provide decent ventilation etc...) or fail very quickly lol.
So not compare cars with computers, electo-mechanical is not the same as elecrical. The only moving parts in a PC are the cooling fans and the drives unless you're using SSDs. -
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Eventually i have to run the damn thing off
You sayd it idles at 65C just sitting in vista honestly i dont see this a huge deal with this cards.
ON desktop atm , using speedfan to measure it, my old 8800GTX inside an Armor MX case (wich is not a great case) is idling at 68C and my m1730 atm with no AC on is idling at 63C.
I think this are normal temp for this cards , unless you have a better case and some top notch fans or even better water cooling it just not going to go lower then this.
Could i get it lower? Sure i blast the AC or wait in winter time and i will idle in the mid 50C.
I use this 8800GTX to dual log two account on same PC many hours a day for the past 3 years no problems yet.
By the way im using windows XP on my desktops. -
I'm idling at 56 C right now. No air conditioning. Air is set at 80 degrees F.
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I`ll add to the debate.
I think the Dell XPS M1730 is very reliable, ive had mine now for a whole week and ive not had a single problem, thats reliability for you
Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2
Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by J-Bytes, Sep 27, 2007.