Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

I think you misunderstood. What I meant is that M1730 will run windows 7 just fine. It's just that Dell won't support it. That means two things:
1. No windows 7 compatible drivers for M1730 on Dell's website. We'll just have to find them ourselves elsewhere.
2. If you'll contact Dell about a problem, that could have something to do with software, they will ask you to install Vista, which is annoying.

As for X7900 vs. X9000. 6 Mb of L2 cache gives little performance increase over 4 Mb (10%). And it is fully utilized only by video encoding software etc. as far as I know. It is new instructions used by X9000 that, if utilized by software, can give up to 50% performance increase over X7900. When X9000 came out, there was no such software. I don't know for sure if there is any out there atm. I guess there is....

Hikkoo, keep up the good work Actually, check out the new Batman game. It got pretty cool PhysX effects. I get around 25-30 fps at 1920x1200, no AA, all maxed out, PhysX on max, Ambient Occulusion off.
Most intense PhysX I've seen so far in a game actually (not taking in account games from Nvidia packs), judging by the fact, that PhysX card can't handle it. I all other games I got better performance by letting PhysX card do all the calculations, but Batman performs better when GPU's do all the calculations.
Oh, and you better update your PhysX driver before trying it out. According to release notes, it is optimized for the game.

 

Good point, but I'd say 10% theoretical is just as meaningful as it is meaningless, because the same can be said about the differences between the 8800m GTX and the 9800m GTX. And of course, with GTA IV, it is CPU so something's doing some magic with an X9000. Maybe Hikkoo keeps his system clean?

 

I bought it 1 month ago (outlet). And I had high temperatures since buying. From outside, notebook was clean - I didn't see the dust. Is possible to sell notebook from outlet with dirty cooling radiators?
And what about opening? Owners can change RAM or HDD etc. but I heard that changing GPU may do serviceman - I don't want to lose warranty. Maybe its like - "you can but don't tell it anyone".

 

you are right, my M17x replacement was just processed today. Only thing i am going fight for is sli, since they just gave me a single 260m gtx. Or do you guys think i should ask for the 280m gtx sli? My previous graphics card on the M1730 was a 9800m gt sli.

 

You need to call them back and demand that they give you the same as before, which in your case includes sli setup and you should accept nothing less than 280m or 260m sli setup and I would say demand the 280m sli setup.

 

I will give them a call first thing tomorrow morning.

thanks

 

You don't need to pull it apart to give it a clean, though it would be more thorough job if you did. Just insert something thin and hard in between the blades to stop the fan spinning and use a can of compressed air to give it a good flush. If not much dust is dislodged then your heat issues may be related to other things.

Make sure you have good ventilation at the back of the laptop (i.e. give a decent gap between the back of the laptop and what ever is behind it) and raise the back of the laptop up an inch or so, so the intakes at the bottom have decent air flow. If you're in a warm environment even a small desk fan blowing from the side of the laptop can help allot.

 

Hey guys and gals? maybe?

whatevs.

anyway...i have this beast sitting in front of me and it is running like a emachine. I cant believe this is what thousands of dollars got me only a year or so ago. I see that some of you have gotten dell to replace their 1730 crap box with a new alienware. Will they do so if I just keep on them about how it cannot even run world of warcraft well? let alone any other game that requires it to not over heat.

i have the accidental warranty on it...so there is always the oops i tripped down the stairs way...just looking for some suggestions thanks.

 

LOL yea im sure u can say OOOOPS i fell down the stairs and my xps shattered into pieces but i think youll have to do it in a way it looks realistic. i mean im sure dell techs have seen real cases and if yours looks more smashed up than it should be or doesnt look like it was damaged from a fall or whatever u stated, you could void your warranty and that will leave you saying oops i did bad

on the other hand u can just keep whining about it over heating and after 3 strikes demand a replacement.

 

you SHOULD get the sli 280s. i have the 8800gtxes and i got the 280s. the only thing i paid for is the qx9300 cos my old processor is a t7700 not the extreme one. if im not wrong the 9800s cost more than the 8800s when they first launched so you should just ask for the 280s. and if all else fails at least get the sli 260s not a single one cos that would be a total rip off

 

or they can play it like they did with me, everytime a replacement and when it fails again, then 3 repairs,....here in belgium it's not posible to replace the m1730 with a alienware,...not yet

 

im sure it is just that you havent demanded it from the management teams. here in singapore every one of them said its not possible either but when i escalated the case the higher ups were willing to listen instead of just saying NO WAY ITS AGAINST OUR POLICY

 

C'mon people. it is consumer affairs department in your country that sets the LAW forget some desk jockey's feeble grasp on reality in regards to "policy". "Policy" = what we feel we can get away with and still show a profit.

I'm in Australia and there is the "Lemon Law" and also "Merchantable Quality", while the former is mainly there for the auto industry it does provide a precedence that an item has to meet quality and safety standards. I know right now that if I take Dell to a small claims tribunal at a cost to me of $80 and to Dell of 2 lawyers plus ancillary case work it will be $5000 minimum. The arbitrator WILL award the case of refund to me because the item didn't work and they were given 3 chances to fix it. NOT 2 GPU's and 2 Mobo's etc etc but 3 faults FULLSTOP.

We need to remember we are dealing with a multi national company here and if they feel that due to time constraints or naivety they can "pull the wool over your eyes" of course they will. Dell may believe their "policy" is above the law but they are not.

 

funny i tried so what everything to get my full refund or a deal for a replacement of a alienware, i spend more than 100 houres on the phone my friend with the dell support, trust me they know my name over there.

 

lol then like slammin said, time to go to small claims.

 

Welp, they wouldnt upgrade me to alienware as the cost difference was too crazy. So full refund due! So that means a computer i bought on 5th december 2006 got upgraded to M1730 for all of 27 days.. Is that a record from new to busted?

Looks like i7 overclocked 4ghz and GTX 295 desktop for me now guys. Shame, as i always wanted an M1730! But £2800 for an sli GTX 280 alienware is just far too much!!

 

Been a few days since my last post ( page 243 ).

I got a call back from Dell.. the first time they called me instead of the other way around. They told me the promissed Studio XPS 16 laptop was idd not an upgrade at all since the gfx card difference is too big. The only gfx card in the studio 16 is an Ati Radeon hd 4670.

This card is ranked nr 29 in Class 1 gfx cards,
The 8800m GTX in SLi is ranked nr 9 in Class 1.

Even though they upgraded almost everything, better CPU, larger HD, same amount of RAM but with a faster FSB (667 to 1067mhz ). It still has a performance difference.

I asked them for a refund. And... they accepted.

This means 2 years of bad repairs, technicians not showing up, or replacing the wrong parts has come to an end. woohoo!

I had to write a complaint form though. Which will be accepted in 2-3 days from now. Getting a total of 2144.60 euro's back.

Meaning, another pc! But I have to admit, no more '' gaming laptops'' . The amount of performance from a laptop with that price tag, compared to an ultimate gaming rig with I7 extreme 975 , 2x 295GTX cards, 1.5tb hd, 6gb 1333mhz ram and 2 Benq T2400 screens, is just to big. ( the specs above costs about 2400 euros ).

I'd like to thank everyone, even though it has been a short time, for the replies, and hope to talk to you another time... on a desktop.

Araghius

 

I got a call from dell confirming the exchange and the rep does not want to budge on the 280m gtx sli. The rep said that the best he can do is 260m gtx sli. I tried telling them that 9800m gt sli graphics cards were the top of the line graphics cards for the m1730 and that the 280m gtx sli is the top of the line graphics cards for the M17x. He said he could not do it because of the price difference. The rep said the best he can do for now is 260m gtx sli, and will reconfigure the M17x by Thursday. I guess that's good for now right?

 

Rubyboy,
QX9300 isn't worth such a price, in any territory.

Everyone's getting ripped off one way or the other, some more than others.

 

Well, even the 260M GTX is a little bit better than 9800M GT, is even better than 9800M GTX -wich was the best GPU option for M1730- (speaking for SLI setups only), so I guess is a pretty good deal.

 

Yeah i thought so too. I was afraid to push the issue because i had a feeling the dell rep might just cancel the exchange process and give me a refund.

 

9800GTX>9800GT (9800GT is basically 8800GTX)

By the way, see if you can argue for 260m GTX in SLI (if thats available) seeing as your previous system was a gaming SLi machine, and you want like for like

By the way, my m1730 is coming up to 1 year old now, although I don't game on it anywhere near as much as I'd like to it has had some intense sessions and no problems yet!..... Touch wood

Temps crept up to 90degrees at their worst, mostly though they sit in the low 80's whilst gaming, 55-70 at idle.

 

HAS ANYONE FIXED THIS PROBLEM ????????????????

 

yea i know.. last time the x9000 was an extra 1100 sgd for the upgrade from a basic processor and ebay has one for 950 sgd. im sure its around the same price range for the qx9300 but as ive said before i dont really trust ebay sellers especially if shipping is needed so i guess ill have to be ripped off by dell

@skatehouse

well at least now uve got sli 260s instead of a single 260

 

TheExpert,

I have the same problem. I usually have my M1730 connected to my dell wfp2407. I only see the lines when the monitor is connected and am viewing vivid colored images. I see it most in wolf 2 and sins, sometimes 3ds max. And no I do not have a solution, but you are not alone on this issue. I know it is pointless most of the time but did you ask dell maybe they have a solution though I doubt it. I had my video card replaced several times and it did not fix this issue. Best of luck figuring this out. I will post back if i figure it out.

 

Funny, I also have the WFP2407 as well , But I only use it for my desktop system.

 

That's correct. Why trust ebay? I would've put Dell over the barrel, instead.

Heh.

 

the best of the best so far:
I told the support about that green issue with my screen.
They will replace the screen and gpu again for the second time this week, when the problem is still there he says " then you have to live with it" then i start laughing and put the phone down, this is realy unbelievable.

 

Hmm where are the old XPS M1730 users like me on this board nowadays? Never heard any problems when the old thread was alive. But beginning with this thread I can read though only problems with newer users registered.

eleron your XPS M1730 is still up and running nicely I assume just like mine? Anyone with temp problems it´s time for cleaning your notebook and raising it in the back. Sounds like you are just unlucky with the GPU´s, motherboards etc etc.

 

Thanks for your post. Knowing that you have had the cards replaced helps me a lot because I won't even waste my time pursuing this.

And thanks to the couple of other folks who also posted to tell me that they have the same problem. It helps me understand that I am not alone and that my machine is most likely not "broken" as much as "flawed".

I can only assume that the design is flawed. I have ordered a refurbished ASUS G50 for $739 from tigerdirect and will be selling my 1730. I will probably take a huge profit. I'm finished with this huge pile of FAIL and AIDS. The 1730 is a disaster.

 

AMAZING!

My advice to you:

Make them take that piece of back and demand your money back. All of it. Then go buy yourself an ASUS G51 or G71 or something similar and pocket the difference. The machine will be similar in performance and cost half as much at least.

I am *not* an ASUS fanboy. I have always been a Dell fanboy, but I have recently discovered that ASUS is making machines almost as fast as the 1730 for 1/2 the price and 1/8 the drama.

 

i've had my beast for about six months and have had no problems, i love it.there are good ones out there

 

Ut - oh!!

I think I've broke it

Software issue though I'm guessing. Its one of two things. Last night I upgraded the quickset controller thing with the one batboy posted up, but I didn't reboot though as I was downloading stuff at the time.
Set the laptop to turn itself off at about 2am.

This morning, turned on, starts loading up windows (vista 64) and BSOD! It restarted immediately and flashes up so quickly that I can't read the error message.
No problem, i'll boot into safe mode.

No I won't, BSOD at exactly the same point when booting into safe mode

Tried 'last known good config' no joy, same thing.

Luckily I have a dual boot option with an old copy of win 7 which loads up fine without issues (and without any drivers, as I never use it, lol) which pretty much confirms its not a hardware problem.

So, any ideas on how to uninstall quickset without booting into the OS? Oh, I don't have a vista CD handy either to try repairing it great.

 

I dont know about a "huge pile of fail" I have had this system since the 8800s first came out and I love it. Only problem was when they replaced the cards, which did not need to be replaced just cleaned out. I can live with the flickering for now maybe they will find a patch sooner or later.

On a side note is there anything that can be done about people posting with the question “how can I get dell to replace my system with a M17x” and “can I say I dropped it down the stairs” These morons are just going to make it harder for all of us that have real issues to get the proper support form dell. I mean to say its hard enough already

 

Hey Magnus, I'm still around, systems over a year old now, and I've never had an issue, systems as good as the day I bought it, guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

 

Sounds good Shiandy, good to hear positive about the M1730 too, still up and running strong here

 

Well, I managed to download a vista 64 recovery iso (only 180mb) and burn it to disk.

Quite impressed how well it worked, I was able to get into vista and do a system restore

I'd have been screwed though if it wasn't for having a dual boot, came in VERY handy!

 

Mine was older, and screwed.

But, even this one lasted longer than the 'replacement' Dell sent me. Sloppy out of the box, artifacting within the week.

Magnus, I jest you not; their new units are--generally speaking--of rubbish quality and faulty build. It's not worth the constant cleaning and raising the back. I've tried all that, and with my new machine, I didn't even use it - got it out of the box just under ten times for various tests.

I had half a mind to take my refund and get a new unit with the X9000 - automatic way to keep it cool and running. I would really like an M1730 design, but then I get no X9000 option anymore, either. However, I think I want to steer clear of Dell. I -might- still have a chance at getting refund in funds rather than Dell vouchers. If I get vouchers, I am stuck with the Dell management for another 4-years. I can't take this anymore. I fear getting an M17x, simply due to the management.

 

Yes that´s too bad Kade Storm, seems like the latter units is of bad quality. Maybe because they are phasing them out, sloppy workers in the factory building them.

 

Well, I did learn that they've switched their factories for UK customers.

My original machine had a 'Made in Ireland' tag at the bottom. This was the case for most of the early-to-mid 2008 units. Now with these 'new' ones, you'll find a 'Made in Poland' tag. I don't know what that says about the quality, but it does get me thinking. Forget the locality, but consider the sole possibility that they did switch factories.

Magnus, I am curious to know; where was your XPS M1730 made?

 

FWIW, my original M1730 (invoice date: 6/20/2008) was built @ their Malaysia (Penang) factory.

 

Ah, Penang. . . Nice place!

I gather that quite a few of the U.S. laptops get built in the far-east.

How about your Alienware, Batboy; where was that built?

 

Actually, I seem to recall the Penang plant was for sale last year and that Dell had cleared out. Could be wrong though.

The M17x is assembled in China. Not sure exact location. I believe its being handled by Flextronics.

 

Well, Dell offered a Studio XPS M1640 as a replacement for my 1730.... what? How is that even close? I immediately told them and the management team that was totally unsatisfactory. Tomorrow I am supposed to hear more.

 

Turn over your M1730, there is an ellipse-like indented sticker, that blends pretty well with the unit, very small (located beside the battery latch to be exact), and this sticker, well it tends to fade over time. It should be read "Made in Malaysia" yes, the Penang factory. I've been to Penang many times and I've passed by and seen the factory in person. Mine too, is made in Malaysia, so shipping to Singapore is fast and easy on my end.

EDIT: Oh yeah, you already returned your M1730 for an M17x replacement.

PS, and for those issues with ebay, I fail to see anything wrong with ebay. You just need to be careful what you're buying and whom you're buying from. Reputable sellers with very high committed feedback ratings with good warranty/return/refund issues are easy to spot. And vice versa, it's also easy to spot fly-by-night sellers.

And for those of you wondering, yes I raised the back of my M1730. I find it runs cooler and keyboard's comfortable to type on. Yep.

 

Mine was also built in Malaysia.

 

Indeed it is, and it`s over 1.5 years already (since March last year) , and I only changed one battery, nothing else. True, I clean it once a month , sometimes twice, use a side fan to blow the hot air from behind it and keep it raised at least 2 inches in the back for airflow...
Other than that , I don`t move it but very carefully, I use a special Slappa bag for transit and have external keyboard and mouse...

 

Mine's also Malaysia. Dell's resolution center (allegedly the highest up you can go with Dell reps) called today, but I was frankly too sleepy to talk, so I pretended to not be me and say I wasn't there. They're going to call back tomorrow in regards to my dissatisfaction with replacing my 8800's. I'm going to psyche myself up and give them an earful - plan to fill it full of swearing and irrational behaviour. Let's hope they crack before I do.

 

this one here is made in Poland.

 

And mine is made in Irland... My both Dell laptops are made in Irland.
The battery is made in Japan although...