Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

Yes, I had to approve the replacement offer from Dell (was either sign and fax back the attached document or reply to the email saying I accept this offer).

 

God I am really going to let Dell have it. I hope my memory kicks into gear while I'm doing it so I can remember and record the conversations here. I'm not settling for anything less than a maxed out M17x. Dell has been giving me the run around WAYYYYY too much. As far as their knowledge goes, I have been without my m1730 working for over a month now (I toasted my cards in the oven 5 times to recover them), and I lost my job because of it (I didn't). I'm going to punch them in the proverbial throat.

 

Need a quick answer - I have been offered a P8700 processor w/the M17x which is 2.53 ghz but with a 3mb l2 cache

My current machine is a T9300 - 2.5GHz, 6MB cache, 800Mhz bus, Intel Core Penryn T9300

Is the 3mb l2 cache that much of a difference for me to argue over? I need to know this NOW as I am in contact w/Dell

 

ok crisis averted perhaps - I have been promised to have a tech come out and install a T9600 chip once my M17x arrives. This way he doesn't have to re-do my order (which I think is quite nice IMO). Don't want to take a chance I lose stuff - such as the silver color or windows 7 upgrade. One question: are these the 260M or 280M graphics cards?


1 320-0762 SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (NB10E-GTX1)

 

Yep, that's a single 8700M GT. If you had an SLI setup, you've been gypped.

Definitely return it for an SLI setup, as I think it benched about 5300 3DMark06, and that was with me running an X9000 with it.

 

thats one sick setup... congrats...

As for 3Dmark06, the score of a top end M17x could get to 17k+, thats with CPU, GPU OC'ed. A bit more than 15.5k of M1730 with dual 9800m GTX, and 14-15k of 9800m GT. The difference is in Vantage though. I managed 11k with my M1730 (T9300+8800m GTX) with physX on - apparently a M17x could fetch quite a bit more.

 

When my Inspiron 9100 overheated (loved that laptop, had a pentuim 4 3.0ghz), Dell replaced it. However the brilliance was Dell ended up sending me two Inspiron 9300,s. Sold both of them and ended up getting a maxed out xps m1710. Who knows you might end up with 4 m17x lol

 

280M GTX SLI
Zath, check your PM.

 

My M17x replacement was processed on September 7th and was delivered on the 16th. So in other words you should get it in less than 2 weeks.

 

That's what I'm posting on right now. The 9100 has given me zero problems since I've had it. I still have the plastic guard on the cover!

 

Hello everyone. I'm newly registered on this site but have had the great fortune to find you a few days ago when I was having problems with my old XPS M1730 video, etc. I too had the same trouble with my 8700 GT video card that many of you reported with your 8700 and 8800 video cards. I would like to personally thank each and everyone of you that took the time to report on this site what you went through and how you handled it with Dell. It really helped me in my current successful dealings with the Dell Dragon if you will and obtaining my own Alienware M17x replacement (please see my signature for the specs on the new replacement I'll receive in a few days). The ole Dell Dragon tried its best to rear it's ugly head and force me to accept a mediocre XPS 1640 as a replacement for my much Superior XPS M1730 which had the following specs:

XPS M1730 Laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4 GHz/800MHz FSB/3MB
120 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
17in Wide Screen WUXGA True Life LCD
Vista Home Premium 32 bit
8x DVD +-RW w/dbl layer write capability
256MB NVIDIA 8700 GTS
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz


Replacement Laptop Specs:

Alienware M17x Lunar Silver
Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Intel Core2 Duo P8600 2.4 GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M (NB10E-GT1)
17.0 in, WUXGA, LCD, 1920 x 1200
250GB 7,200RPM HD w/Free Fall Protection
Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon 64bit
Microsoft Office 2007-Basic English
Windows Vista Home Premium (64

Because each of you cared enough to share your stories, I was able to IMHO obtain a much better replacement system than what Dell was willing to initially offer. Thank you again to each of you who posted!!!! Kudos to you all. In return, I'd like to share how I was able to expedite the replacement of my XPS M130 with the Dell Dragon!!! I will post this information in my next post for each of you to use as you see fit!

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I'd like to give back to you all by sharing with you what helped me to get faster response to my replacement because I too was being given the run around by Dell XPS Customer Service.

I sent what is known as an Executive E-mail Carpet Bomb to many of the top Execs at Dell in order to let them know that I was serious and not happy with how their so called Customer Support was treating me. The following are the E-mail addresses I sent my E-mail to addressing every detail of what happened including each and every Dispatch number and the outcome of each repair, etc:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

I even went so far as to copy and paste the Dispatch information Dell had recorded under my Service Code into a word document. I thanked them in advance for whatever help any or all of them could provide in lieu of me having to go to my State Attorney General's Office to file a complaint for help. Remember that Dell just finished spending alot of money defending itself and settling out with 34 State AGs' recently and probably wouldn't like to draw more ire upon itself from them anytime soon. I received a phone call from their Customer Escalation/Resolution Department within 2 1/2 hrs of sending that E-mail. At first the guy on the line from India's so called Corporate office wanted to try and strong arm me into believing I had no choice but to accept the 1640 but I pressed on and advised him that not only was this not a gaming laptop, but that it was 2/3 the power of my current system and only 16inch screen to boot. I told him that it was not my fault that Dell decided to discontinue making the XPS M1730 prior to my warranty expiration. They should have thought about making a back up supply just in case they had to replace any of these systems that are still under warranty. He tried to use the line that Alienware was not available to him to provide as a replacement but I refereed him to online blogs such as this that stated to the contrary that others have and are receiving the AW M17x as a like or better replacement for my XPS M1730. He told he call back in 24hrs with a reply. He called today with not only my approval for the AW M17x but the order number as well. It should be shipping out in a few days time. Thank you all again. I hope this information will help others as it has helped me!!!

 

how come you got a free office 2007??!!

gratz anyway..

 

no way man i had my qx9300 oced to 3.2(via multipliers and fsb) and gpus gtx280 to 600 core 1000 mem 1500 shaders and i got only 16.5k++.. no chance of hitting 17k. on vantage it hit 12.2k+..

i must say the main performance difference youll see is mostly in games and not in benchmarking. since the 8800gtxes arent exactly ty cards and the gtx 280s are exactly their desktop counterparts either

 

rubyboy79,

I'm not sure why. However I did notice that someone else who posted either yesterday or today got the same item for free as well. It suites me just fine not to have it. I've been using OpenOffice.org 3.1 which works just as well. I really hope what I posted will help some of you out there!

 

o.o really? then i must be unlucky cos i dint get it with my replacement T.T

 

I too also want to say thank you for this forum. If not for it, I would be still swapping video cards..

I've had nothing but issues with my m1730 after the first year, Ive swapped the video cards twice, mobo once, and 4 harddrives, and SLI was still not working correctly. After dealing with Hell Computers on the phone for over a month, they are sending me an Alienware.

Old:
M1730
T9500 2.6ghz
SLI 8800 GTX
2x200gb 7200rpm
BD-RE
Physx
Bluetooth
Intel Wifi N
Red

New
AW m17x
T9600 2.8ghz
Crossfire 4870's (he offered me 2xgtx260's, I asked for CF and he said "OK", who am I to argue )
2x320gb 7200rpm
BD-RE
Bluetooth
Wifi N
Black w/ Blue keyboard

Only sucky thing is, ordering the ATI is delaying it by 3 weeks.. eek!.. oh well

 

Oh, yes. One more thing.. to all the people who got an exchange for an AW, how do you find the build quality? is it on par/better than the 1730? what about tech support? is it the same ? e.g still calling india?

 

I got my exchange m17x today, and my first impressions are it is a solid heavy piece of equipment, just installed my ssd and now re-installing the os etc. i think you will be very happy with your replacment

 

After the long running saga ive had with my M1730 the dell technical manager has suggested to try and replace the laptop with another M1730, a refund isn`t an option for me as that would have been my preference without any question, because i bought my M1730 from a Dell re-seller i would only get what the re-seller paid to them and i`m not prepared to take a big loss and i shouldn`t have to do.

He needs to run it past people higher up first, the escalation department or customer relations i think he said. My only concern is with M1730 being discontinued i would probably end up with a laptop thats been thrown together from spare parts across the factory where a customer may have used a motherboard for a year as an example from a returned machine.

I`d be interested to know how they will replace my Extreme X9000 processor because from what ive seen and heard they stopped them as an option a long while ago due to them having no more, knowing Dell based on my experiences so far they will probably wait till my laptop gets returned and use the processor from this laptop lol

Anyway, i`ll wait to see what he comes up with, ive told him it must be a like for like replacement and as gesture for all the inconvenience ive had i asked him could i have Vista Ultimate 64 bit instead of the Vista Home Premium 64 bit which i have now, for the inconvience ive had its hardly asking for a lot since ive had 3 engineers fail to show up and ive lost money through taking time off work each time due to me being self employed, ive also had managers fail to call back when they said they would, 2 replacement parts yet the same problem still persists etc etc.

 

The_Stig,
They don't even have 9800m GT as an available GPU. Be patient; you'll probably be getting an M17x, soon.

On my case:
I am tired, and my case-handler's a joke. So I've sent another e-mail to Dell corporate, letting 'em know that their 'manager' responded to my e-mail that I sent to them last month, and that there's been zero progress to-date; she only wasted my time, and that it seems like they're stalling, which implicates them in a very negative way. Shame on them. M1730 models aren't even available with mid-to-high specs any longer. We know they're offering M17x as replacements for the phased-out M1730s here in Europe. So if they don't act quick, and immediately on my case, I will pursue the matter further on a variety of fronts outside Dell.

 

@kade, next week they come to pick up my xps m1730, maybe they wait to swap my x9000 in youre system No after all i hope everything will workout fine for you also for The_Stig and all the people here that are dealing with that support now.

 

Grr!

So my case manager called me back today, and says I can't get a BD-RE drive here in Canada for the m17x replacement. What do you guys think I should get in lieu of it? I was thinking of pushing my luck and asking for 2x256gb SSD's...


Thoughts?

 

@Kade, i really wish you the best of luck, from my own experience i know how poor the Dell aftercare is and how poor their so called managers are. As a customer you feel like your a dog chasing its tail with their customer support as you just go round in circles and don`t actually get anywhere.

Am i entitled to exactly the same service with me buying from a Dell re-seller as someone who bought direct from Dell ? I have a 4 year 24 x 7 NBD warranty.

As an example, if they have no 9800m GT Nvidia cards or no Extreme X9000 processors then do they have to replace my system with like for like which is a later model seeing as the M1730 has been discontinued ?

 

Thank you, Bpat!

Bahaha.

Also, thanks for the gesture, Stig.

Listen, you are entitled to everything. Bpat's also a second-owner, and so am I, technically speaking. Dell have what's called warranty and ownership transfer. Regardless of what people might feel and thing, this is a 'freemarket' world - I can buy something for a million, and sell it to you for a thousand - my problem, but you're the legit owner.

Dell have the warranty transfer, and if the transfer was done and the machine is in your name, you'll get the same perks. They will annoy you a bit on refunds of actual money, but getting full refund in the amount of vouchers, or getting a new system replacement will still be amongst your rights, which are essentially the same. They cannot discriminate on these grounds.

Mikey00,
I'd just wait it out for the BD-RE. I am sure it will be available soon. No problems.

 

It's been awhile since I've browsed these forums. I read back a week or two's worth of posts and did a search but didn't get any results. Anybody playing Champions Online? Just wondering what kind of fps and temps you're getting. I'm posting from work so I wouldn't be able to list the exact settings I'm using for CO. System stats should be below...

Off the top of my head at max resolution and settings (maybe not AA) with SLI enabled (if that's even doing anything with this game) the fps is in the mid teens. Dropping shadows and some lighting effects I'm in the low 20s and both of those situations are just standing around. I'm using the latest nvidia release drivers.

 

@ Kade

Did you buy yours from a Dell-reseller or from a person that originally bought their M1730 direct from dell as brand new meaning you have brand new rights ?

I bought mine from a Dell re-seller, technically they are classed as refurbs even though they are customer returns for various reasons like a change of mind once they recieved the laptop because they thought it was too big in the flesh or their finances have changed and they can longer afford it etc. As you know refurbs from Dell resellers are usually spot on and they are normally just re-package customer returns.

Now this is the part i need to know, Dell have said to me previously that because i bought mine from a re-seller and its classed as a refurb then they only have to give me a refurb as a replacement, what concerns me is the fact that the M1730 has been discontinued, will they start throwing together M1730 laptops from parts that are left lying around the factory from broken customers machines to give to customers like myself that have bought from a re-seller where they class us as refurb customers ?

Do i have rights and if so what are these rights and where do i stand, what sort of things can i refuse etc ? I don`t want any old thing thats just been thrown together from odds and ends that are lying around if you get my drift.

 

are the Crossfire 4870's better than the gtx260's? im not too happy with nvidia cards but i have no real experence with ati besides an x800 i had in my desktop like 4 years a ago and the x300 that was in my inspiron 6000. neither ever failed on me but every nvidia i have had has failed i think... wow, yeah, every laptop nvidia has failed... scary

 

Oh, my bad. Sorry about skimming through.

I just don't quite understand how they can have two different warranty classifications. It's. . . baffling. I guess it's also accurate. You pay for a refurbished unit, you are then entitled to get equal or better for what you paid, which is refurbished.

Then again, even the refurbished M1730s with your specs will be disappearing soon. Just look at the EU/UK Dell outlet - they have nothing at this point.

What I'm trying to say is that maybe, your entitlement might be limited to refurbished/or returned items, but you still stand a shot at getting a better system. They won't downgrade you - no! They can argue that you get refurbished parts or replacements--hah, all of us get those--but they can't say you won't be getting anything under an X9000 or a 9800m GT SLi. So really, you're safe.

Wodstock,
I personally favour ATi over Nvidia. Also to keep in mind, the 4870s support DX 10.1, which while rarely used, really brings about some cool features at very little performance cost.

Unfortunately, the sheer power of these cards, which is a lot--perhaps even in direct competition with the 280m--just doesn't come out well with the poor driver support. I'd like the Crossfire solution, but I'd favour the SLi simply because of its mainstream perks.

 

Can any of you tell me the part number for the 8700 gt sli card? since the single card is the hr106 i was wondering what the sli cards was


NVM found it its the rw331

 

Yes, they're even better than the 280Ms, GDDR5 memory, and supposedly 10-15% faster.

 

oh... might go that route... i know eventually i will need to duke it out with dell over getting a replacement...

 

Might I point you to this thread for a review and benchmarks of the 4870x2 in the Asus W90:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=370294

Just trying to be of use, as I spent quite a few weeks just lurking in the Asus, Alienware, and Dell boards here before registering and so have made note of where to find benches of what (though I still can't seem to find an adequate amount of benches of the Dell SXPS 1640 with 4670 anywhere at high resolution).

Cheers.

 

Roasted my cards back to health for a 6th time today. It appears the oven only provides a week long period of restoration, as I think this is the third week in a row they die after 6-7 days.

 

thats theoretically.. i dont know but i like nvidia cards cos of the digital vibrance.. cant live without it . also if youve noticed alot of games are more optimised with nvidia cards (sli or not)so you might have some reduced performance with ati cards in crossfire even though they are more powerful.

you also lack the physx support and to me catalyst driver releases take ages so if you run into a bug, ull have to wait a loooooooong time for a new one to come out to hopefully solve it

 

lol it has become a routine thing hasnt it.. you can try putting a cake or lagsane in at the same time to maximize oven usage

 

It has, unfortunately. Bugged the hell out of me this time 'cuz last time, it just had minor artificating while doing light IE browsing, and I knew if I restarted the machine, it wouldn't be anything on the screen. This time, it froze on me while on IE and BSOD'ed, and I couldn't restart with any visual. Sooo, 40 minutes later (9 minutes in, 10 minutes cool off with door open, 20 minutes cool off outside oven), I had a working computer again. Just 'stress tested it' off a fresh reboot (probably shouldn't....probably should go through some warming up cycles first, but I was impatient 'cuz it's Friday night) with some DoD: Source gaming for four straight hours, and it works like new.

But seriously, I shouldn't have had time to roast it 6 times. I am GOING to get that m17x. A guy from Corporate called me earlier in the week, but he had an Indian accent, and I was like "WHAT!! NOOOOOOOO!" Even their corporate office is in India?!! COME ONN. I'm more prepared now and will lay the smack down this upcoming week.

 

Well its been a month now since mine fried and a manager from customer relations ? phoned me yesterday to say that it would defiantly fixed by Wednesday if not they would replace my system . I asked for email confirmation but he just sent me the case number saying that is sufficient ,should i trust them? After that i get a call from the customer incident centre giving me the same spiel about "a worldwide shortage of cards" (heard that a million times now ) so now i just wait until Wednesday. I cant help the feeling im being strung along though .

ps I heard somewhere that they are getting a stock of 8800m`s sometime around the 6th of October anyone know if this is true? if it is i suspect they will stall me until then .

 

Hankarron why do you keep cooking your cards? I think im missing something lol

 

@drfxeelgood

cos they taste good with chicken =D just joking.. cos the cards arent properly soldered so cooking them melts some of the stuff and rejoins them when it cools.


id never try to do that though.. the effort it takes to unscrew everything and put it back, id rather call dell to scream at them

 

Thats crazy that he's having to do that everytime. I agree i would rather call dell and give them a bit of an ear bashing then cook my cards in the oven.

 

you can't compare that unit because it doesn't have gddr5. the w90 has gddr3.

plus the m17x with 4870 are xt models so it's factory overclocked higher....

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385973

I'm cooking them because they have failed 6 times. They are 5 times overdue. I cannot give Dell an "ear bashing" because they do not have any 8800 GTX's left. I don't know how this wasn't clear before. I am not going to wait for cards to come on the 5th of October (the third date I've been given now, pushed back a month from the old promised shipped date), so I'm temporarily fixing them until something else comes...minus that I'm not waiting for the 8800's, I'm waiting to talk to a specific person I tracked down in Customer Resolutions to EAR BASH them and get an M17x because I'm tired of this outdated piece of crap that overheats and fails every couple of months, and plus I'd like a quad core.

 

Hey all,

This is my first post on here. I Love the site and have had alot of useful information with regards to my 1730. Here is my story, you may not beleive it or judging from some of the horror stories you may beleive it too fast and that may be the sad part (for Dell anyways).

I purchased my 1730 A while back from Ebay and was pleased to find out when I received it that it had a warranty (complete care package with next day on call) that was good until 2011. I started contacting Dell chat for assistance and the first conversation was a little rough but the rep was able to transfer the ownership of the system into my name and address. I received confirmation from dell Tag support and started my, what has turned out to be a rollercoaster of a ride with Dell support. At first I would call up and after refusing to accept their usual mumbo jumbo about my issues being caused by software I had numerous parts replaced. I have never spent less then 2 hours in a chat with tech support. After replacing a couple of parts I had an issue where I had to deal with a "RESOLUTION REPRESENTITIVE" AKA "go F your self rep", After that interaction and the rep gave me a reduced price on a blu ray burner for my 1730 I had to call back only to find out that they decided to not recognize me as the warranty owner any longer. I spoke to several support people including the ownership transfer team and explained that I had emails of the chats and actual confirmation emails from dell informing me that the ownership was transferred, on top of that I had had the in home tech come to my home and replace numerous parts. They would not accept anything that I had to prove that this had been done before and basically told me I was S.O.L. I threatened to take them to court and I was informed to have fun with that. I left it alone and vowed to never get another Dell and tell anyone who would listen my story. Two weeks ago my Laptop just started flashing RGB colors when I would boot it (GPU Failure once again) I felt soo upset because I had paid over 2400 for this machine a under a year ago and now had a paper weight.

I read an article about Dell being sued for failing to make good on their warranty support and such issues and tried to contact them once again to see if they would finally support my issue. I spent time on the chat with a rep who offered to send me a new mobo, gpu, lcd kit and processor ( basically everything except the case) then he asked me to verify the address and again the "your not the owner" crap started happening once again. Immediately after I was contacted by a supervisor who wanted to have more information, I explained the situation and offered to send him all the proof that I had and he agreed to look at it. After looking over my proof and contacting who ever he had to, once again I had my warranty (big sigh of releif) I was told all my parts would arrive on the 23rd, I received 2 confirmation calls that the parts would be there and the tech would call me. On that morning I received a call informing me that my parts had been back ordered until the 5th of October. I contacted the chat support and wanted to know what part was causing this delay and they had no idea and asked if they could call me back. the guy called me back 2 days later instead of the next day as agreed, atleast he called me back, and informed me that the date of the 5th was accurate. I wrote my supervisor and informed him that that wait was incredible and if something could be done to expidite the issue. He checked with some other dept and called me up and let me know that I could either accept an exchange for a 1640 or wait until the 1730 parts are available, I mentioned that after reviewing their site I felt only the AW would be comparable to my system and he chuckled informing me that he had no control over what they are going to send me, it could not be the AW but in my case he usually notices that they are replacing 1730's with refurbished 1640's . I agreed at first because I was not aware of the specs on a 1640. After I hung up the phone and looked up the specs I thought to myself "ohhhh helll to the naaaaw" even the most maxed out 1640 can not compare to the power behind my beast and was basically an unfair downgrade. I immediately contacted my supervisor VIA email and broke down the specs to him, he called me back and let me know he would cancel the previous dispatch and inform the exchange dept that I was requesting an AW but he could not commit to that actually happening. My current supervisor has been nice so far so I did not want to get "FIRM" with him and just said that my only wish is that I receive a comparable system. So, now I wait......

My current xps 1730 (paperweight) specs

Dual Nvidia 8800M gtx SLI
Ageis Phys x Processor
x9000 2.8 extreme
dual 160 GB hdds @ 7200 in raid 0 config
Blu Ray Burner
17 inch display (1920x1200)
4GB running win7 64(RTM)

Thanks for reading guys I feel better now that I spilled that out on here ,

 

I just got Operation Flashpoint 2 to take some pictures off to a friend who reviews the game. I can´t put up any screenshots since I am not allowed to do that. However I can say the game runs really smooth maxed out at 1920x1200, fps ranges from around 35-55+ when gaming. I did have to make an SLI profile for it though using the GRID profile since the game uses the same graphics engine. That worked super

Compared to ARMA 2 it isn´t as good looking, however it´s more fun than Arma 2 and runs a hell lot of a better. Very good optimized game and really fun.

 

deeznizzels, no matter how nice the supervisor is, you should be firm on what you want and not say you wish to have a m17x. if you give them the feeling you arent firm and demanding, they would try to rip you off. give him a list on the specs you expect. dont tell him to work it out for you.. work it out yourself then give it to him and ask him to get it approved

 

I'd also suggest you contact them to get an order number for the replacement system 2 days after they gave you a dispatch number. By then the specs should be up and you can review them while still in contact w/Dell. If there's any problem, they have to cancel the order and re-do it so be sure you are nitpicky!

 

deeznizzels

Your not on your own, a lot of people on this forum including myself have experienced very similar to what you have, shoddy Dell aftercare where you feel your getting nowhere.

Ive had engineers not turning up when they were supposed too, Dell managers not calling back when they said they would and failed promises etc.

This is Dell`s premium service at work, i dread to think what the cheaper non 24 x 7 budget service is like

 

deeznizzels - I actually built the system I thought was a fair replacement, then printed it out to a PDF file. I emailed it to them with a firm rejection of the SXPS 1640 they were trying to push on me. They pretty much gave me what I put in my build.

 

I felt compelled to share, I see that I am not alone and that at least gives me some comfort. I am a little worried about being firm because the last time I was firm the Resolution rep cut me a break and then deleted my information with regards to even having a warranty, atleast thats what i beleive happend ( I may have been too firm). Dell has me dellstitutionalized, lol. STIG it appears you have the same system as I (maxed out 1730) cept I have the 8800 gtx none the less I will let you know what they offer me I know I will not rest until I get something with atleast a similar processor