M1330 Display Issue (Vertical Lines on Reboot & Crash & Vertical Lines)

I was just wondering if anybody had done the thermal cooling mod with the copper and still experienced this issue at all.

I've been thinking about getting a M1330...but this really turns me off about it, but I really like the size of the 13.3"

Perhaps this summer they'll relaunch it with a Montevina CPU and 9series GPU that'll fix all these problems. (Well I'm hoping since I start school in the fall and I can wait it through)

 

I may have not seen this discussed as I have not read the whole thread, but is there any belief among users that a Notebook Cooling pad could greatly increase the lifespan of these motherboards by reducing heat drastically?

Moreover, those of you who have had successful (though temporary) motherboard replacements, did you do a clean install of Windows afterwards or not?

 

You don't have rev A05.

There's no point in reinstalling windows.

 

hi,
no future.... It´s getting hot and hot.
I going to sell it.

thanks to all

 

Dell Japan has finally begun trying to get ahold of me for the past 3 days; however, I've been working and they haven't been able to. Dell is arranging for the on-base technicians to repair the machine as it's a bit hard trying to get past the language barrier and would probably take even more time. That being said, the technicians are planning on doing the copper pad mod to keep the GPU from overheating again. I'll let you guys know how that turns out.

 

I'm surprised they're willing to do an unofficial mod.

 

My experience with using a cooling pad with an M1330 with the Geforce card was that it did a good job cooling the palmrests and the CPU, but didn't do anything for the GPU. The only thing that helped cool the GPU was the notebook fans.

 

I'm impressed. That's more than the technicians in the US seem to be willing to do.

 

maybe if you guys provided the actual copper and AS5, maybe the dell guys would certify the mod LOL

I mean, its like...you got everything ready, why not?

EDIT Looks like the issue is fixed now? Check out the link...

http://julian101.com/2008/05/dell-xps-laptop-gpu-overheating-issue-no-problem-its-on-warantee/

 

"No problem. It’s on warantee!"

Ufffffffffffffffff


LoL Video. M1330 MoBO exchange by Dell technician.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYTV4Xs9DDw


"Ufff" again.

 

Is it me, or did he have a couple of screws left over?

 

Yeah lol, right... see 2:43 - Rep "leans" Keyboard against the panel...
...my rep took more like 50mins and I'm glad he did...

 

I dunno... although anything's possible, I find it really-really hard to believe that an older revision (A00) mobo is going to perform any better than the newer revisions (A01 & A04).

Actually, I've never read of anyone having an "A00" mobo up 'till now...

Regardless, I'm still adament that the HSF needs to be improved before the problem's resolved.

 

So true. It's getting really annoying having constant hangs. And as everybody else says, I'm worried in another 6-9 months I'm going to be in same position I'm in now. Except then I'll be out of warranty... unless I BMG a free year out of them... then when it happens again, I'll have to BMG again... vicious cycle of hatred toward xps design/build team.

Anyway, hoping in the next day or so, Dell will FINALLY give in and give me a new mobo. They decided to rule out the LCD screen as the issue... (duh - I kept freaking telling them anyway it was an overheating motherboard and/or video issue or maybe just a flawed mobo/video card) so after about 3 hours of stupid diagnostics testing, they are calling me again tomorrow morning... getting the results... and probably placing an order for the new mobo or video card (or both if they're together.. i don't know really).

I guess I'm happier than I was 3 days ago when this started.

EDIT: I also wanted to throw in, the guy tried to update my driver when I gave him access to my computer and I kept telling him they were all up to date. He finally checked my dell drivers folder and decided I was right. Waaaaaasting tiiiime.

 

My tech took at least an hour to disassemble and assemble mine. I offered to put fresh AS5 on the CPU and he let me do it. Otherwise he would have just put the heatsink back on without adding any/ cleaning the left over paste.

 

At least, your dell rep("Randy") didn't disable your wifi and made your laptop unsusable until you reformatted. The new mobo will have the "new" video card. Good luck! You'll be happy that the turnaround is great at least...

Dell's definitely losing money on the replacements...

 

I have the same configuration as you and
also purchased in october.
and today i have put my 1330 at the lab
(the importer's- I'm from Israel)
and they agreed really fast to
change my motherboard and LED screen.

 

Btw according to I8kfanGUI, my CPU and GPU temps are 48C and 58C respectively during normal use (i.e. web browsing/mp3/youtube etc)
GPU temp is never above 60C.
Are these temps normal?
I kind of recall my old mobo running cooler (below 50C) but that could be psychological issue

 

It’s been said many times but, I8kfangui needs to be tweaked. Follow to instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185107

Also depending on drivers you might have to add a +10 offset for the gpu temp. Always compare with something like rivatuner to make sure you can trust the readings.

 

I guess I'm gonna use Rivatuner. Its exactly +10C

 

Default Sensor values in Advanced Settings should be different unless you changed them in the past.

EDIT: Edited your post at the same time I was posting. If you want to keep I8kfangui just enter an offset of 10 degrees.

You can use rivatuner and add the cpu temp plugin. I8kfangui displays fan speed which is nice.

 

Yeah, you can trust I8kfanGUI.exe, it´s exactly 10Cº more. And it´s a great and easy software to control laptop´s fan.

 

In your opinion will underclocking my GPU prevent my XPS 1330 needing a mobo/GPU replacement every 6 months?
I'm not a gamer so I'm hoping the underclocking solution will fix this issue.
Traveller what do you think? I particularly value your opinion as you seem to have done a lot of research into this.

 

Hi, another point of view
Easy way to "underclocking" : Work with your laptop on batery, not plugin in AC.
Here are my results of 3dBench06 "on batery mode"

3dBench06 top Results stress with batery, (not plugin in ac)
CPU tmp max :58 Cº
GPU tmp max : 73 Cº

With this values, absolute safe mode for the laptop.

Sure it´s something about power management on Vista and Ndivia GPU, I can see how speed bus for GPU memory and Core on Batery mode it´s down.

Plug in AC Mode :
GPU Core (3d) Mhz : 400 mhz
GPU Memroy : 601 Mhz

Batery mode :
GPU Core (3d) Mhz : 168 mhz
GPU Memroy : 100 Mhz

That´s not best performance on 3d Graphics, but safe mode for ours MoBo.

Bye

 

I have owned my DELL M130 since November. I was getting very concerned with the heat being generate from my laptop (GPU and processor). The fan started to behave erratically and temperatures on the GPU and CPU were approaching 100C! So I looked around a bit and read that maybe re-seating the heatpipe and replacing the heat-sink paste may help. I followed this guide: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/en/sm/cpucool.htm#wp1084976 and now my CPU temperature doesn't go above 55C and my graphics card idles at 50C. I basically removed the old caked on paste on the processor and replaced it with new stuff. I did not touch the other foam pads.

Hopes this helps?

 

Hi mabawsa, wellcome

what do you mean with "replaced it with new stuff" ? ?
thermal pad ? thermal paste ? where did you get it?

Thanks

 

Do dell offer a 5 year warranty, or 4 years?

 

I posted on the Dell Community Forum. Hope they listen and come up with a new revision for the heatpipe assembly that doesn't use the thermal pads. They did it on the M1530. Odd that they didn't revise the design on the M1330.

http://dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=Tech_Talk_XPS_Laptop&thread.id=19301

Vote here
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10089711/Eliminate_M1330_heat_related_failures

 

Hi (& thx for the written "rep" )

We discussed the topic a few "pages" back and club-member ShellyEvans dropped the speed by ~10% and witnessed a 2C drop. It's not the most exciting figure, but every deg. counts...

I don't know if you have a 6 or 9-cell battery, but the difference between the two is again, 2C. So if one were to make both of those tweaks I guess -4C is an improvement and could actually make a difference.

Difference or not, there is still absolutely no guarantee that the GPU will survive. sorry, I'd love to tell you otherwise, but I can't...

 

I'm sorry but the numbers don't mean much w/o context (i.e., what tool do you use to measure the temps, what is your ambient temp, what tool(s) did you use to stress the CPU and the GPU, etc.)

I do believe that you managed to lower the CPU temps by doing a better job with the application of thermal paste than Dell did, so good news for you

 

Well done + repped!

I know that Dell knows (how could they not, when they are required to review the statistics reported by the Service dept. ...). And just imagine, for ever 1330 owner that posted on this thread there are probably 5~25 more that don't have the time (or desire or experience) to review / consult forums and threads like ours here. they just call Dell, go through the routine and Dell sends a tech over.

The problem is that we don't know the other side of the "Business Case" which includes, but is not limited to: cost of redesigning the HSF and possibly going over the published total weight of the 1330 (the latter being less of a "real" problem). What if you can design a better HSF but at the risk of problems at installation (or repair) time: The days of the many cracked Athlons from improperly-installed HSFs makes for a good case against low fault-tolerance cooling solutions.

And finally, for all the hundereds, maybe even thousands of R.I.P. 1330s, there are most likely 100-1000x time more units that have not experienced this failure...

 

Hi,

I just want to add to the tally here.. I've had to have my motherboard replaced twice already for the same issue. It just "froze" up again last night and I just emailed tech support to have my third mobo replacement *sigh*

Anyways thanks for keeping this thread and all the tips : )

 

It was me who extended the warranty in the UK. They offered 3 or 4 year extensions (to 4 or 5 years total) and I chose the 3 year as the 4 year was quite a bump in price when realistically in 4 years I won't be using the laptop.

 

Just had the vertical lines issue. Windows kept on freezing. After 30 mins of restarting the problem seems to have gone away. Tried to replicate the problem using 3DMark, everything seems fine. I have the 8400GS and the laptop is about 7 months old.

Is this something I should be worried about?

 

I shut the computer down for 10 mins. Pressed the power button and saw those same lines

 

Your video card is fried. Call Dell and ask them to replace the motherboard for you. Btw, the GPU is soldered to the mobo so it would not be possible AFAIK to change the chip only.

 

Has anybody had this issue with integrated graphics? I am not really interested in basically losing the ability to play any games at all, but I'm just curious about this.

 

Hi! Sorry it took awhile to reply-- I was travelling. And not thinking about this vexing issue. Thank god. I downloaded and ran the stress-test you suggested. Got temps around 80-82 running at 85% and 75 running at 70%. I've attached the results file (I think).

I gather you think there's not much value in replacing the thermal paste? I have some arctic silver left over from a desktop modification that I did last year, and would try it if it would make a difference. Sigh.

I'm just so discouraged by the unexpected jump in temps, even after I downclocked.

 

As far as this thread has gathered, there hasn't been any issues with motherboards that have the integrated graphics...Of course, there's always that .001%

Hope this helps.

 

Hi,

looking good Actually, your results are better than mine, as my 1330 "down-clocks" the cores as soon as they hit ~82C and that happens within a min. or two...

No, I wouldn't bother (with A.S.) as the CPU's temp is fine and it's only the GPU temp that will cost you (perhaps) another mobo and A.S. will not help you in this case... .

EDIT: Say, what mobo & BIOS-revision combo do you have now...? What CPU version? Thx!

 

Unfortunately i'd like to add to the ranks of people who have suffered this problem.

Dell have been out and replaced the mobo etc.

I came here looking for possible solutions but, and I don't fancy reading 69 pages, am I right in assuming that there is no easy fix to this (e.g new driver download)?

 

Yes, I'm afraid your assumption's correct, even w/o reading through 69 pages...

 

Read in another post about this new A11 bios that's been released which states it's a bios update fix relating to thermal issues. My question is what exactly does that mean with regards to what Dell could possible do with the bios in relation to our overheating problems and how could it really help this thermal hardware issue when its a design defect to begin with?

 

This is my own fix. Dropped the temp down by 10C at idle and 20C at peak. I'm trying to push for a Dell equivalent fix. But, I suspect it's a case of small ant trying to speak to the giant.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=250129&page=9

 

i have installed A11 today.
for my opinion the FIX maybe changed a little bit
the working mathod of the fan.
i think it work a more now, not noisy
but working more maybe.
but all i'm saying is just a feeling.

i want to do the COPPER MOD to the GPU
because i have just replaced my MOBO
and the TEMPS are the same.

 

Wow, hot out of the oven. (No pun intended) Will be trying it out to see if there's any further improvement.

 

Well it does make the fan spin faster now (noisy). When the GPU temp hits 65C the fan goes up to 37XX RPM, previously it took a lot more than that to make the fan spin up. I'm guess more aggressive settings in an attempt to prevent the GPU burnout.

Can anyone else confirm the same findings?

 

Yup. I put it in as soon as I saw it, and now my regular internet surfing temps are hovering at about 67 instead of 70, and the fan is running much more. Not to be too cynical, but I'd say that's more of a workaround than a fix-- any one of you overclockers could have done that by using rivatuner or similar program to force the fan to run continuously, or as soon as it hits a certain temp.

On the topic of workarounds-- I have stopped underclocking my GPU, because the gains I thought I achieved were not consistent. I ended up hitting my highest temps AFTER underclocking. At the moment, I'm leaning towards cancelling my extended warranty and doing KenHT's copper plate modification-- what is the point of paying an extra $300 if I am doing all the work myself?

And, finally, somebody earlier mentioned that when you run the computer on battery it runs much cooler. For those who are looking for workarounds, I can confirm that this is true. I ran 3DMark and got 15-20 degrees cooler on all tests, including deep freeze, which never went over 90. I'm sure that means throttling is happening, but, if you're not playing games, it's a guaranteed way to keep the computer cool.

 

Dell assure me that when a new system is built it goes through testing. Does that mean that they consider 80+ degree C temps as acceptable? hmm

The copper mod seems too much, you shouldn't have to do all that yourself when you paid all that money for your system.

Maybe they released a new motherboard revision? On a side note my desktop Sapphire X1950pro idles at 49 degrees C. So for this ****ty card to run so hot it certainly is unacceptable!!

 

Testing to ensure it turns on and run a few programs of course. This problem won't be identified by testing. It relates to electronic components being run beyond ideal conditions. In this case it is the graphics chip running at too high a temperature. Electronic components will run for a certain duration under these conditions, and they will ultimately fail.

Valid point here, but I sure as well will do it if all Dell will do is change the motherboard which will run for another 6 months.

If you have followed this thread, you'll realise that this has got nothing to do with the motherboard design, it relates to the inadequate cooling setup. Obviously Dell had to make compromises due to the small form factor of the M1330 but they made too many in this case.

Your desktop Radeon is no comparison. If you take a look at a similar desktop 8400GS card and see the temps that it operates at, it will seldom go over 50-60 degrees celcius and probably with passive cooling. Why? More space equals better cooling. What sort of cooler is on your X1950?

- Posted from a M1330.

Maybe your apparent skepticism will change if you owned one