M1730 Laptop GPU Lifespan Poll

Heh guys, after my 3rd GPU failure I though I'd run a poll for my own curiosity.

This is only for those who have had their M1730 for more than a 6 months, or have had failures regardless of time owned. So if you're a new owner feel free to leave comments but please don't partake in the poll. Cheers

It's not too detailed, i.e. I haven't gone into GPU configs (8700, 8800, 9800 & SLI etc...), but would be interesting to see what the results are.

 

I've got an ES X9000(Q174) and an 8800M setup here.

I listed no failures as I've never had a GPU outright fail on me. My M1730 had a single 8700M originally, and my first 8800M purchased was DOA. No luck getting recourse from the seller, so I ended up pinching pennies and getting a new replacement.

Four months of pretty heavy use and it still works like a charm.

 

Yeah, I was contemplating just making it an open vote, but then I knew it would skew the results with newer owners voting. My laptop experienced it's 1st failure at around the 1 year mark.

Maybe I should open it up to the 6+ month owners as well.

 

Hmm... well, considering as I'm in it for the long haul(I bought my M1730 secondhand and when its one-year warranty expired I pretty much maxed it out), I'm still very interested in the long-term life of this rig. If my GPUs fail(which I really hope they won't) I'm highly considering giving them the oven treatment. It'll be worth a shot.

 

Since you didn't have an option for 3 failures... I voted 2 failures.

 

Mine is a T9500 with 8700M SLI I have had two motherboard failures in 15 months but no problems with GPU's so I voted accordingly.

 

No failures on my end. Using an QS 174 X9000 and an 8800M GTX SLI card. I apply MX2s them too. Powermizers disabled, no coolers. Highest temperatures recorded is 75*C while running furmark with Xtreme Burning Mode for 3 hours.

Average temperatures idling in the 40s.

 

Same here i've had 4.

 

I had the laptop for 5 months now, but I still voted. No failures and I hope they will last at least two years and a half without any problems.

 

so dual core like me either get no issues, or get more than 2! good job i got the 4 year warranty! Alienware in 3 years then!

 

Mine was built in June 09 and no issues as of now.

AverageForm: You must have some kind of skills to get them idle at 40C....that is amazing. Mine idle at 60-75C (depending on the fans)

 

He's running one of the Extreme processors overclocked at either 3.2 or 3.4Ghz. When you clock up to those speeds all your fans (GPU as well as CPU) go to full blast... it keeps the M1730 nice and very cool.

My idle temps are always in the low-mid 40s, as well.

 

I had it at 2+, any lappy with 2 or more failures is pretty indicitive of a serious issue so I didn't bother looking for more anything more than that. 4 is just scary

 

Hmm im assuming that since my c2e doesnt have a thermal sensor diode on it, it wont trigger the fan, is that correct?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5164046&postcount=97

Someone just tried it on an 8800M and it worked. I'm in the same boat as you. Got a refurbed 8800M off eBay, it was bad, but I bought from a highly rated powerseller who refunded me. Second card was bought from some shady guy, but thank God it's working alright. If something goes wrong, I have my 8700Ms for backup and I'll try the oven fix.

Sorry to hear you couldn't get a refund on your bad 8800M. Why don't you try the oven fix on that one right now? You could wind up with two working 8800Ms

 

Eh, I ended up selling it as a bad card and got a few bucks off of it. The original card I purchased was secondhand and working correctly, but it turned out that it had a bad fan controller... the second GPU fan was completely dead. So, no warranty and I ended up eating the cost.

Either way I have my single 8700M as a backup so I won't complain too loudly. If my GPUs do go south, then I'll bake 'em.

 

I have my spec's in my sig below. Rig is from Jan 09.

I am currently having what I beleive to be GPU issues. Until the issue is resolved I won't/can't vote.

When i run 3d Mark 06 in Sli I am getting device lost warnings. I have tried new and old drivers but the issue returns. For instance I went from 167.55 (which was failing 3d Mark) to 185.04 or some such and it ran fine for the very first time but not after that..... It seems when i update the driver it will complete once, but not always. Either way the failure is always fails at CPU1 or CPU2 testing. The frames will stop and then it will only display 1 layer of the frame (ie just the lights of the little vehicles or just the background hill outlines). In non Sli it completes 3d Mark without a hitch.

Dell is sending me replacement 9800GT's and I have demanded 9800GTX when they become available. They have agreed that the 9800 GT are a downgrade in an email to me and that they will "update" their training manual. { sure they will....}

FWIW my temps have never got past 83c and when they did that was short bursts and didn't happen all that much as they soon after enabled powermizer. Since powermizer my idles hover around 60c most of the time and get up to 78c gaming.

 

That is worrying. Those temps are normal. How long did you go without powermizer?

 

Yes! If you ask me, the fans are like built-in mini notebook coolers on the M1730. I admit though when I first got my system 6 months ago the temps were really high idling in the mid 50s even when the fans were on full blast.

I realised the default paste that Dell used was not applied properly, all of it was "squashed" to the side of the cores and not even a paste in the middle was in contact with the heatsink and the core. tsk tsk tsk tsk. Not good.

That's where I cleaned and applied MX2s on em'. It's now cool as it is.

 

I think from memory powermizer was 1st optioned thru 166.04? Can't remember now which driver 1st eanbled it. Maybe 2 months after getting it. Even without powermizer my temps were always good. They averaged 68c and would sometimes get up to 75c and then the fans would kick in and it would come down again.

But yeah heat was always a concern for me so I was proactive.

PS 190.04 didn't compl;ete 3d Mark in Sli even once.....

 

185.66 (and up) correctly implement PowerMizer on the mobile cards. By correctly implement I mean they will automatically downclock depending on load (2D vs 3D) while on AC Power. Prior to the 185.66 release, PowerMizer would not function at all while on AC Power (clocks would be locked @ max factory setting). It was only when switching to battery mode did the card(s) downclock. With the release of a functional PowerMizer feature, wwe now can enjoy the benefit of lower overall temps.

The behavior which Slammin describes is exactly what we saw prior to PowerMizer. The constant GPU temp increase until fan activation and then cooling until fan deactivation was a definite stab to the GPU in my opinion. This little cycle of 65c+ until 75c then fans on was doing exactly what we didn't want to see - heating the GPU then cooling, then heating, then cooling... Think G84/G86 solder bump nightmare.

I think slammin is referring to the 190.40 series - not sure what happened there Slammin. You might need to reinstall the driver, works for me. With 190.40, saw very good runs in 3DMark06 as well as Vantage. For instance, here is a screenshot of the Vantage results I had from a couple of runs...

XPS M1730 Config: T9300 CPU, 8800M GTX SLI (OC'd - see GPUz screenie), 4GB of MEM, PhysX enabled on the GPU (thanks TimeWriter)
Vantage settings: Performance @ 1280x1024

One thing I found interesting is a M17x owner with a T9550 2.66G Overclocked to 3.33G and 260M SLI had a score of 11118. The 8800M GTX SLI overclocked beat out his 260M SLI on GPU score.

OK sorry for getting off topic here...

 

Batboy sorry I should of prefaced that. This is an issue I've been having for the last week or so. I can run everything fine on single GPU but Sli I'm failing to load or complete anything. I've tried all the new series of drivers and old ones too. I have an open service case with Dell and 9800gt's on order.

 

Ouch bud. That does not sound good at all. Curious here so here are a couple of q's:

1. Does HWMonitor see both GPUs or just one with SLI enabled?

2. NVIDIA System Information? Show 9800M GT for both GPU's?

3. Did you recently use that ROM flash from Dell? If so, have you tried reverting back?

If you want, PM me back so we don't hijack the thread. Sorry all.