Finally, my XPS 1530 being replaced due to GPU fails!!

Wow that's some bad news. Well, this current system hasn't had any actual service to it despite being the result of a service.

My logic that I've tried to explain several times to them is that if a brand new replacement M1530 with all-new parts has the same problem as my old one, then replacing a few parts won't do much outside of a possible temporary fix. They don't listen, though.

Now my thinking is if at least I get this one service, and if it turns out to be anything less than the 8900M GTX I was told (which would go in my favor), then I have some solid "proof" that this system needs to be replaced. After that point I will actually have some personal talking points and experience instead of just "based on my research / based on others' experience".

 

Sirhcz0r summed it up quite nicely,
"Dell lies when it's convenient for them" LOL!

@keebz, I'm sorry but the "8900gtx" lie made me laugh a bit. LOL. I really don't think that card has ever existed, or will ever exist. Unless Dell is now modding Nvidia cards to suit their needs. I am almost positive that you are getting yet another 8600m gt, that will almost postiviely overheat yet again...

For the fact that you've had one replacement already, you can really push your case. The key is to be firm, and not give up (keep escalating to higher reps as was already stated, the number of lies drop exponentially the higher the rep, LOL). Really express how this laptop has fallen far below expectations and product standards in general (defective). Tell them you don't want this anymore. If not, they will keep you in this repair cycle for as long they please really, which could be a while. Be firm, Good Luck

 

Thanks for the heads up. Since the technician request is already processed and they'll be calling tomorrow, I will wait on this one. I really did not believe this 8900m "GTX" either. When this replacement goes through and I see it is not an 8900M GTX and I have the same or greater heating/throttling issues, I will call them.

I actually am quite angry right now that this could be a lie. If that's the case, I will push to speak with a manager or something, and through the phone as I can put them "on the spot", so to speak.

Either way I am still hoping this whole 8900M GTX thing is true (I did read up on it online while waiting on the phone, but it's not listed on Nvidia's site) and the issue gets resolved. Otherwise I hope if I do get a replacement, it's an m15x as that system seems to be capable of handling high performance without throttling and overheating. I'll just have to be firm when trying to request the m15x model instead of whatever "unnamed" system they are sending.

 

^^Be sure to get Names/ID Numbers of those you have spoken to, and a Case Number for reference for each conversation (you should have that e-mailed to you w/each convo' on conclusion).

Yeah, escalate..escalate on this (as stated before)...Sorry, of what is potentially happening here.

Ask them what they can do to keep you a happy & loyal Dell Customer because you really feel something was certainly "amiss" in your conversation and what you were told last night ~ and Dell has always been on a positive for you, not negative..etc. : )

Cin...

 

I feel bad for you,, I really didnt have any major issue getting them to swap my system, twice, I was courteous but firm with Dell letting them know I was not happy

 

4 business days response time for Dell Unresolved Issues. Let the waiting begin.

 

Did you send it off today, then?


Cin...

 

Yeah. I kept putting it off. Shoulda done it right away but I finally got it out.

 

The tech came today and replaced the Motherboard, Fan, Heatsink. As you guys suspected, the new video card on the motherboard (soldered to it) was not a 8900m GTX but just another 8600m GT according to device manager.

The old fan was clogged up but was replaced with a brand new one.

I just now got online so I haven't been able to test out WoW or anything intensive. I'll be reporting back again based on the new temperatures. I suspect it'll be cooler but not by a lot and it's only a matter of time before the fan clogs up again or something else happens. At this point I'll just have to wait and if I see close to 90+ Celsius graphics card/processor temperatures, I'll call them and request a replacement system somehow, m15x preferred. I just don't want to come off as someone that's just calling to get a new system; this is an actual issue affecting performance.

At least now if the temperatures are hot, I have personal experience/proof that the system isn't working as intended:
1) Original M1530 replaced (high temps + hard drive failure on original one)
2) New M1530 has had heatsink, fan, entire motherboard/video card replaced
3) I'm not the only one with this overheating issue
4) Based on others' experiences, have heard you can replace the system with a current model (1645 or m15x)
5) Was given the wrong information regarding replacement of video card - did not receive a "8900m GTX"

 

Lol, Dell Hell problems.
I got a crappy 1640 for my 2 years of suffering...
God for me I'm selling my computer and moving on from Dell...
Perhaps I come back one day to Dell, but when prices are cheaper...
Good luck, Follow Cin's advice, go to unresolved issues.

BTW, if you just started battling, strap yourself. I battled for 3 months straight.

and got crap.

Goodluck!

 

Yay! My system shut down from overheating today...while playing Madden 08. UGH! What the hell. Still waiting for a reply from Unresolved Issues.

 

Glad you were able to get it out!

And, now that your system has shut down from overheating. Have you heard anything back this evening?

I am wondering if you should wait that full amount of time for a reply...

Well, par for the Rep..to give you misinformation..of course.. At least now, you have it documented going forward ~ which absolutely helps your case.

Yes, be sure to keep a "diary" of your temp's logged. Unfortunately, it's prolly only a "matter of time" before your 1530 starts to overheat, once again.

Hey Ben! Sorr's the 1640 didn't work out for you. I hope your able to find another Brand/Model that will suit you better and proves more reliable for "you"

Cin...

 

so i finally got dell to push through a replacement after hours on the phone. The guys said i might get an m1530, is that still possible? He then went on to list the specs of a 1640 replacement that i might get too, so i was a little confused. Do the service reps that put through your replacement order actually know what you're getting? Also what are the chances that i get a 1640 with only a 3670?

 

I'm going to wait until Monday which is more than 4 days but whatever. Then I will email again.

BTW, your new pic scares me.

 

anybody have any info for me? I also remember he said that i would be upgraded from a t7500 to the corei5 and im pretty sure that this would mean that i wouldnt be getting a 3670 as the corei5 is the newer model. is this correct?

 

Ok so some random Asian guy from some computer company called me and left me a voicemail asking if I was still willing to go ahead with the mobo replacement. I never consented to it.

 

I don't think you will get the replacement 1530 (at least hoping), and I would hope that you would get the ATI 4670. You can call them back, and request that you receive the 4670 vs. the 3670.

They say they don't know what your getting, til go's in for the final approval...

Well, tomorrow is Monday you can finally e-mail (and I changed my Avy back)

I wonder if it was the On Site Company/3rd Part Technician they use to replace your Mobo. Did they leave a number for you to call back?

Cin...

 

Yeah I get to email them tomorrow. And yay about your Avy. Lol. I listened to the message again. It's the same guy I had the email conversation with. He says to email them back so they can send out a dispatch.

 

Yes, e-mail them for sure on Monday.

So, he call's leaves no return phone number, but states to e-mail him back..lol. nice... (Would have been nice if he coulda left a phone number, also).

Are you going to reply?

Cin...

 

cin,

when i receive the specs, am i allowed to comment on them and perhaps get them changed before they ship the laptop? Or if i get the 1640 and it has the 3670 do you think they would ship another one or change it if i made a reasonable argument for it?

I am a little cautious about calling because apparently i will get the same guy who i originally talked to as he is now attached to my case. I already asked him about the 4670 and he said it couldnt be done since its a replacement.

thanks

 

I'm not going to reply. I'm first going to wait until I hear back from unresolved issues. If that's a negative, then I'll decide what to do from there. Today I hit 100C while playing Freecell and Youtube on the side.

 

I kept asking for a 4670 with my 1640, but in short, wasn't able to get it. If they won't give you good enough components, ask for a refund (what percent of the money you get back depends on how long you used the 1530; I had mine for a year or so and got eighty percent back).

They gave me a 1640 with a T6600 and 3670, which I got a refund for (well, the refund was technically for the 1530) and purchased an M11x instead.

 

Was that temperature the cpu or gpu? My 1530 would've crashed long before that on the cpu.

Get Furmark for fun and see if it explodes. Link.

For additional fun, try out Prime95. Link.

 

ah so i guess it really is just luck of the draw. and t6600 and 3670 would be worse than my current m1530!! i would not accept that. I think i may have some fighting ground as the rep said i was gonna get a core i5 (after explaining that i might get another m1530 too lol) and im pretty sure the core i5 version can only come with a 4670. so hopefully i can argue for both of those things.

 

The highest my GPU went up to that I know of so far was 97. I was once playing Madden 08 and it crashed so I don't know how hot it got that time because HWMonitor doesn't save records automatically. But right now I looked in HWMonitor and I saw this...
GLITCH?

 

So I have some good news to report. After they replaced the Motherboard, fan and heatsink, the computer has been running great again. I saw the fan when the tech took it out - it was literally clogged up. Before I couldn't feel the fan in the back blowing air out, now I can. When he put in the new fan/heatsink, I also saw the old heatsink and it looked weird, with the old video card and old processor having dark spots smeared on them (burn marks maybe?).

I played WoW today and the very same stuff that got me to 102 Celsius kept me below 75 today and not once did the game have stuttering FPS. Before I used to go from 60 to 5 to 12 to 20 to 51 to 19, you get the idea. Now I'm getting literally 140+ just running around outside and while I'm in-combat in a resource-intensive fight, everything feels smooth ~60.

To the left of the touchpad, it isn't absurdly hot anymore, just very mildly warm. The bottom of the laptop is just warm or so now, nothing crazy like before where I couldn't leave my hand there for 5 seconds without burning it.

I don't think I'll be calling them back just yet. At the very least I'll wait until summer break. This doesn't solve the issue that the fix is just temporary and either the heatsink will be "used up" or the fan will get clogged. But then I think don't all laptops have issues where the fan gets clogged or the thermal paste/heatsink gets used up. Mind you I couldn't open my laptop up without the proper equipment so it was the same laptop since last Jan/Feb 09. Fan lasted longer than an entire year without any internal cleaning.


A big problem though that I will need to either call Dell again about or the technician. The media buttons don't work. It's an annoyance when I want to do a quick mute with the mute touch media button but it doesn't work. The light comes up but it doesn't fade in/out now and its very quick, and the mute doesn't actually trigger. Bigger problem is the CD Eject. Think maybe a wire didn't get connected correctly again, tried to open the panel but I couldn't and don't want to break it.

 

Woooo, got an email about UPS redelivery so i thought id check my account. Sure enough, after looking a little bit i found an order number and a customer number and here are my beautiful specs: Quantity Item Number Description Unit Price
1 224-7375 Studio XPS 16 Notebook $530.00
1 312-0950 9-cell Battery $90.00
1 313-8545 HD AUDIO 2.0 with SRS $0.00
1 313-8874 8X DVD+/-RW SLOT DRV, XPS1640 $0.00
1 317-2361 i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz, 8MB Cache) $239.00
1 317-2364 4GB,DDR3,1333MHZ,2 DIMM $0.00
1 320-8330 15.6 1080P FULL HD WLED LCD, W/2.0 MP,IN $100.00
1 320-8350 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670 1GB $0.00
1 320-8351 Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish $0.00
1 330-5460 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS 1645 $0.00
1 330-6222 Windows 7 OS Label,CNB $0.00
1 341-8989 500GB HARD DRIVE,7200RPM,M1640 $250.00
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0,MLANG,I/S/X NB $0.00
1 410-2090 MCAFEE SAPPHIRE MUI,15MTH,XNB $39.00
1 420-6436 PC-RESTORE, DIM/INSP $0.00
1 420-6576 DELL WELCOME,SW,DIM/INSP $0.00
1 420-7938 DELL CONNECT 2.1,DIM/INSP/XPS $0.00
1 420-8051 MS WORKS 9.0,ENGLISH,INSP $0.00
1 420-9100 DELL DOCK CONSUMER,INB/XNB $0.00
1 420-9352 DELL,SW,WILD TANGENT INC GAMES I/S $0.00
1 420-9691 DATASAFE LOCAL BACKUP 2.0 BASIC $0.00
1 421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG $0.00
1 421-0187 DELL SPRT-CTR SW,64BIT,2.0 $0.00
1 421-0188 FACIAL RECOGNITION $0.00
1 421-0323 WINDOWS LIVE SEARCH,MUI,CSMR NB/DT $0.00
1 421-0757 SKYPE VOIP SOFTWARE APPLICATION,CNB $0.00
1 421-1010 Dell Webcam Central v1.4 $0.00
1 421-1361 MOD,SW,RXO,EZCD,10.3,DE,FI $0.00
1 421-1582 CYBERLINK POWERDVD 8.3 DVD PLAYBACK,CNB $0.00
1 421-1737 WIN 7 HOME PREM, 64, ENG,S/XNB $40.00
1 421-2086 EBAY-WEBSLICE, CNB $0.00
1 430-0762 MOD,CRD,NTWK,6200,CNB $30.00
1 430-3605 INTEGRATED NIC $0.00
1 465-8687 PLEASE CONTACT ME WITH MORE DETAILS $0.00

Is this for sure now? I cannot believe i got so lucky! THIS IS UNREAL. i am too happy to study for my last uni exam of the year thats tomorrow lol. Its status is "in production" but it the ETD is tomorrow! does this mean its new or is it a referb? To be honest i dont really care, these specs are too great. thank you dell, you have definitely made a loyal customer out of me even after all the trouble.

 

^^^Grat's You have some nice specs there. Yes, I believe you got "new"!! Now your gonna be on "pins and needles" til your lappy's arrival!


Cin...

 

haha i know. oh why did they have to tell me the day before my last exam, makes it that much harder to study! but at least i got all summer to look forward to playing with my new baby. oh and PS: my m1530 got so hot last night underneath it that it burned me! i will be glad to be rid of it in a few days.

 

Well, this will give you the motivation to only study harder!!! XD
Then, when your done with your last exam, you get to know that your new lappy will prolly be waiting for you!

I know, been there with the 1530...you will miss it just a little, when it's gone though.


Cin...

 

lol yea i guess i will a little. Do you know if they still ship the 90w adapters that throttle (been reading lots about this)? If i get one, should i just call and request a 130w one?

 

Any news today? : )

I got a 90w..I haven't asked for a 130w, yet. Wait, and see which one you get. Then, if you get the 90w, contact and ask for the 130w (at least that is what I would do)

And....Did it arrive today?

Cin...

 

Or you could have them ship one out to have an extra : )

 

Not bad idea...as long as you don't have to fight for it!
Maybe I will hop on chat tonight (if it's working) Tanks! XD


Cin...

 

No response yet. What should I do? Unresolved Issues again? They called me again today while I was in class and left a voicemail. He went over the same stuff that the chipsets had been upgraded, blah blah blah.

 

What I did rather frequently was just get on Dell chat and start complaining and arguing lol. Just keep bothering them, and just keep asking for managers. There really isn't an easy way to do this.

 

I think you should do Unresolved Issues, and also..now send an e-mail to Upper Management (ie..M. Dell & his Team)..That way you have got your bases covered all around. I believe I did that my 2nd to last time... before I got my replacement, at my *near end level of frustration*.

And, "meh" on those "chipsets" being upgraded...bull..bull..bull.

Here are some e-mails for you, if you want to go that route, along with e-mailing Unresolved Issues, again:

Michael Dell
Chairman and CEO
[email protected]
Donald Carty
Vice Chairman and CFO
[email protected]
Ronald Garriques
President, Global Consumer Group
[email protected]
Michael Cannon
President, Global Operations
[email protected]
Mark Jarvis
Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer
(Dude, You're Getting An Email!)
[email protected]
Lawrence Tu
Senior VP, General Counsel
[email protected]
Susan Sheskey
Senior VP, Chief Information Officer
[email protected]
Andrew Esparza
Senior VP Human Resources
[email protected]
Paul Bell
Senior VP and President, Americas
[email protected]
Stephen Felice
Senior VP and President, Asia
[email protected]

*You don't have to do the whole list maybe the first 6-7..some of them will *bounce*

Cin...

 

Alright I'll be doing this tomorrow. Right now, I relax and enjoy some basketball. Lol

 

Good And, play yourself some bball..and hopefully after you send out your e-mail(s)...maybe this week, you will finally have some resolve.. *fingers crossed*. It's been long, enough!

Cin...

 

I hope so! Thanks for all your help.

 

Nope, it didnt arrive yesterday or today! Now my EDD is unknown lol. Im a little worried but im sure itll all work out. Even my last exam that was so hard to study for went well, so i can be patient and wait it out .

 

This morning I went to use my M1530 and the screen wouldn't turn on. I could ping the IP, and I could connect through RealVNC to see the desktop, running applications, etc. I've tried fully powering off the laptop, removing the battery, powering it back on, etc. It boots just fine but the LCD never turns on - not even the backlight. I'll call Dell in a bit, but what does this sound like to you? Is it the known M1530 GPU problem, or does it sound more like my LCD bit the bucket? I just bought an XPS 1645 and was about two weeks from selling the M1530!

 

Try plugging in an external monitor. If the display comes up on that, it's probably your screen. If it doesn't come up, then it's your GPU.

 

update: called dell today and apparently my EDD is may 10th, so far away!! I knew when it said april 26th it was too good to be true! And i dont know why they couldnt just put that online, wouldve saved me and them a phone call.

 

Picture is displaying to an external monitor through the VGA port. Sounds like the screen. Thanks

 

OMG my warranty expires on SATURDAY! Wow, talk about "good" timing.

 

LOL "good" timing is right. Now stop wasting time and get on that phone to Dell

 

Already done, it's tech support that told me it expired in two days lol. I thought I bought the laptop in July of 2008.

 

I just want to post my SERIOUS disappointment with Dell support. I e-mailed/called/chatted with Dell at least six times before the system replacement got here and told them I wanted to be sure that they told me what was sent before they sent it. They never sent anything.

After I received it, I realized that the computer wasn't THAT good to make up for its ugliness (subjective). I called and told them about it, while asking about being upgraded to the GTX 260m, and to my surprise they offered me a refund. They told me they were going to get back to my about the video card, so I said I would wait until they found out until deciding about refunding.

Needless to say, my warranty ends in 2 hours. I've called 5 times in the last two weeks, each time I've been transferred five or six times before I hung up. 10+ minute wait times each time I was transferred, I was pissed. Customer care says, "XPS technical support issued the system replacement, so we cannot offer a refund." XPS Technical support says, "We can't process refunds. Besides, your warranty is now an Alienware." And so on with Alienware tech support. Yesterday, I was told they would call me back within four hours. I never got a call.

I think it was because they knew my warranty expired so soon, but I'm not sure.

As I was typing this, a chat representative refunded me. Lesson learned from this: Use chat.

 

You got online chat support to work? Wow. I gotta try that again.