**OFFICIAL** Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, *Part 4*

Continuation of M1730 Owners Lounge - Part 3 is here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...21-dell-xps-m1730-owners-lounge-part-3-a.html


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Hi,

My laptop had a hard time today. (brought in march 2008)

Whilst having SC2 on background, and watching the tennis live stream, I think my graphics card died: the screen went black, then back to normal with a error message in taskbar (driver has crashed/restarted) and the screen had artifacting on it (just random pixels garbled/short horizontal lines that spazz out when you do anything)

Could a faulty motherboard also cause this (because I have a few minor motherboard related issues)

I think this means the graphics card has died however when restarting, all seems fine, I have called Dell and they are going to get me a replacement graphics card/motherboard.

This is the first time i'm having an engineer come around and I'm a little weary of getting refurbished parts, if it's just the motherboard thats faulty/causing problems then I would prefer to keep the current graphics card (8800m gtx, cause I'd imagine despite laptop being three years old, its probably in better condition than a refurbished version)

Of course I could be thinking too hard about this and it could be that both motherboard/graphics card are dead.

Anyone have any experience with the engineers Dell send to your door in UK, anything I need to watch out for?

 

Amazing they are still swapping motherboards and able to replace GPUs on this system. Best of luck with the repair - let us know how it goes. When the tech does arrive, don't 'watch him like a hawk' - let him do his job. If he botches anything or the replacement parts have issues, have him contact support ASAP (before he leaves, check everything). They should either arrange for a second attempt at resolving the issue with another round of parts or they can replace it with another system. Since you still have coverage, don't worry.

If you run into issues with support, check here -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...s-m1730-problems-dell-replacement-issues.html

 

Niceeeee... part 4, has any other laptop have this many parts???

 

I got my graphics cards changed for the 1st time about 2 weeks ago and its been fine since but I'm not holding out too much hope on these ones. Seems they are all re-furbished cards that are being fitted now so the reliability levels have got to be even worse than they were before. All I can say is I'm glad I still have 1 year + warranty on it. I'm certain I am going to need to use it in the near future.

 

Duke nukem is the bomb, man!

we've all been waiting for this for a long time

btw, long time no see, good to see some familiar faces

 

We're on part 4 already? Damn, until I'll get another laptop we'll get to part 6.

 

Just an update.

Tech came over today and replaced the motherboard and graphics card. System seems to be working fine, however.

In replacement for the 8800m GTX SLi, the replacement part is a 9800M GT SLi, checking Notebook check for graphics card ( Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech) the 9800m GT has exactly the same performance as the 8800gtx. (still 2x 512mb)

I guess it could be worse but should I say anything about this? About to check SC2 since the system is using different drivers now.

edit - It seems the gfx card makes a slight buzzing sound when it doing work (ie running a game), this could be the fan I guess, but something else perhaps?

 

9800M GT is rebranded 8800M GTX, so it is exactly the same card.
The buzzing sound you hear is transistors. I don't know all the technical details, but basically NVidia is using some cheap transistors in our cards (compared to AMD), which make buzzing sound. The loudness differs from unit to unit. One of my replacement units was so loud, I could hear buzzing over the fans that were set to high blast.

 

The buzzing isnt really an issue, its a common thing on our gpus.
Sometimes it gets louder and sometimes it doesnt. It really depends on how much stress is applied on the gpu itself.

Oh and btw lets look at the facts:

- the beast now is, what, 4 years old? It still holds his ground firmly
- its not afraid of newer games as long as it delivers eyecandy and performance
- Shift 2, Witcher 2, Crysis 2 performance are bold statements of the dell invention: a good system powered by great parts (x9000/9800m gtx) with sli
- xp friendly, seven friendly, probably win 8 friendly

Doesnt matter how you put it: it still a system that can kick some new gaming machines

 

Definitely Kingpin, every new game works really good on it with good eye candy and 1920x1200.

The 9800m GT do run colder than their 8800m GTX counterpart. The bios is more optimized on the 9800m GT? So definitely be glad you got the 9800m GT instead of the 8800m GTX SLI.

 

Hm good to know, only really play sc2 (mainly processor intensive) and watch streams simultaneously. Working fine now, and have warranty till 2014. Definately a very good system.

The tech actually said he seen a lot of these (xps m1730) and replaced a lot of graphics cards mainly due to overheating issues so was suprised that this was the first issue yet in 3 years (for me).

Can't yet say how much difference the change in gfx card has made, only the slight buzz I mentioned earlier.

 

Well I got lucky with my 9800m GT´s I have no buzzing sound.

 

My 8800's buzz too, but I can only hear it when all fans are off. This isn't an issue for me, even the CPU does some weird sound, some people call it "whine".

 

Mine runs like a champ and I have one of the lower end cards and CPUs. It is very nice and still has some life in it. I can though, see a difference in hard core gaming. Lower fps. Just biding my time till M18x money comes along. Anyone want an M1730 in my sig???

 

I've had my xps for quite a while now and I've actually never have had a single problem with any hardware on it. I make sure there is never any dust or debri buildup inside my computer and use the airduster if there is.

 

I don't suppose anyone knows what sort of temps are considered 'normal' for the 8800 and 9800 cards? Also, what temps are too high?



Also, I updated the BIOS on my M1730 last week from A10 to A11 and have since noticed the fans spinning erratically. It seems to increase in speed for a few seconds, then slow back down and repeat. Is this normal? Did they implement this on purpose to try and stop the graphics cards overheating?

 

Well my 9800m GT´s runs in the 70-75c range. The 8800m GTX SLI I had before run hotter, more around 80-85c depending on game during summers. I have 26 celsius in my apartment.

However I just ran the Duke Nukem demo Ultra settings and antialiasing and it runs really good. I think the game uses the UE3 engine anyway, seems so, so just adding the exe to the bulletstorm profile in Nvidia Inspector did it. The game runs really good in Win 7 for me with Quadro Drivers

 

Finally decided to give in and rebuild my desktop PC, this xps is great at games for a laptop, but I missed the way desktops just play all games with ease and theres a few games now which I just cant get my xps to play at decent settings . Desktop spec will be as follows - Core i7 960 (3.2GHz when @ Stock), GTX 570, 6GB Corsair Dominator Tri-Channel DDR3 1600MHz, X58 Motherboard, X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro, can't wait haha!

 

Yeah I know what you mean XPS M1710 I also built a new desktop and will SLI it soon with another GTX 460. However my single GTX 460 is enough for now with my Core I7 2600k CPU.

Now I play more games on the XPS M1730 than my desktop actually. I think with more tweaking of your system your XPS will play most game decently. My plays most games very well though it is heavily tweaked.

 

I'm sure of that, even though if my T9300 is keeping my graphics power in chains, anyway, the latest drivers seem to do a little better with limited CPU power.

Could you make a tutorial with all the tweaks (of some of them, the most importantly ones would be nice) you've made on your machine?
That would be great for us who don't know much about SLI machines, especially me.

 

Most important ones is actually the GPU driver and the chipset driver. Updating and testing different chipset drivers can do wonders to the beast of how the GPU´s run.

Also Win XP SP3 is really good for our XPS M1730 and most games for me runs better in Win XP than Win 7 64bit.

However I can write up a tutorial of what to update and such tweaks if you want.

 

That would be nice, thanks. Also, if you can, link me to a better chipset driver.
I think that's the first one I should install, right?

Also, I'm planning in keeping only Windows 7 as dual boot is giving me headaches, the latest NVIDIA drivers seem fine to me, but if quadros are better, I'll give them a shot.
Other than chipset and GPU drivers, what else are you using? Also, how about the OS? Have you made any tweaks?

I have a DIY version of Windows 7 made with RT7Lite (I've removed some useless features such as games, photos, themes etc, disabled some services and so on). It works great for me, but if you have some specific tweaks, please mention them.

 

With bios A10 I had 67-75 idle , and up to 85 in games ( depending of game , but most often it was 78 under load ) . Now , with bios A11 I have max 50 in idle , and max 69 under load ( Wicher 2 played during 3 hours ) .
As for the fan works - it is a little nervous ;] becouse it is kicks very often for short period in idle , and working very loud when gaming ( that is why I use headphones :] ) but something for something ;] .
Temperature more than 85 is too high imho .
edit : I have 8800gtx

 

Woohoo part 4

Duke Nukem runs ok but no sli profile yet..
The Dev's say the retail version will have more polished graphics.
my balls of steel edition shipped out today, can't wait to start throwing poop everywhere

 

Yes the OS is tweaked too, mostly my XP os is tweaked although Win 7 is tweaked somewhat too.

Yes I´ll see what tweaks I made to my OS and post them here.

Totostar for SLI with Duke Nukem just use the bulletstorm profile for it if you have Nvidia Inspector just add the duke exe to that profile and it works

 

Mine are usually around 75C tops in game. Got the back propped up on Gary Fongs Gups and repasted with ICD7. Seem good. Usually idle around 52-54C.

 

Hey guys I noticed my screen on on m1730 had a very small area where the pixel seems to be black/dead. I'm starting to notice that it got a little larger. My computer is'nt under warranty any more so is there a tool to fix that or is it a bad screen that needs to be replaced if it gets larger?

 

Thanks a lot Magnus i'll do that right away

 

Mag advice works ok, but if you want the original profile for the fullgame, here it is.
Just load it up with nvidia inspector.
Check attachment
NB: this is the official profile!

 

Thanks Kingpin, I´ll see if there is any boost in performance with the official SLI profile

 

Damn nice kingping

I'll be loading that right away !

Anyways, lots and lots of people were screaming cause the demo was the same thing we were seeing for more than a year now.
Gearbox replied saying it was not the final build, that graphics would be more polished etc etc...
So I got my balls of steel edition and... well it's exactly what we got from the demo, same graphics same everything.
Did gearbox lie? or have you noticed improvements?

Cheers

 

No i didnt noticed any improvements, beside a bit of polish here and there and some framerate polishing, but nothing much.
The demo was the same as the final build. Either you'll love it or hate it
Just a tip; dont take this game seriously and dont compare it to anything else. Play it as you played duke 3d (if you did) back in times, like running around the level to find the exit.
Its much better this way.

 

Luckily i'm a die hard Duke fan so yeah basically I am playing it as Duke 3d II so it's ok

 

I've had my xps 1730 for about 2 years now. The specs are
Core 2 duo @2.50ghz
Nvidia 9800M Sli.

about 6 months ago one of the video cards died, and i have had to have it disabled (from the device manager) for the computer to run and not black screen. Last night while watching a video, the screen dimmed like it was going to sleep and then started rotating through solid red, blue, green, white, and black screens. (not sure if thats the exact order).

After starting the computer I am immediatly sent to the same r/b/g/w/b rotating screens and not even able to see the typical dell loading or win 7 loading screens.

If i hook the computer up to a second monitor and close the laptop screen then I am able to get an image on the monitor but it is heavily pixilated. I was able to boot to safemode, but still the screen remained pixilated. I tried disabling both video cards and this didnt seem to help at all.

Anyone have this problem before or have a fix? I am guessing my second video card died. I browsed around google looking for people with similar problems and, besides ordering new graphics cards, havnt found many solutions.

 

Classic symptoms of dying/dead card, you could try baking them before resorting to buying new ones.

 

I really don't think I want to look into buying new ones, they just seem to pricey and from it sounds like it may just happen again.

On ebay I noticed two different repair services. I am wondering if looking into either of these would be worth the time/money, and whether or not they would be better then trying to bake the cards. Here is a link to one of them
goo.gl/7RYG8
Thanks for your response

 

Hi everyone , newbie on this forum so be gentle please.

I have an XPS M1730 with the 8800m GTX SLI GPU. Laptop was in sleep mode and when i went to bring it out of this mode (by pressing the start button) screen remained black for a while and then i got one loud beep and screen was still black. Held start button down and laptop rebooted into Windows but now have noticed that SLI mode is gone ? Have uninstalled drivers for GPU and re-installed with no luck. Uninstalled media direct software but made no difference. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Currently using Win7 ultimate x64. SLI worked from installation no problems and never had a problem coming out of sleep mode before.

I did notice once that when i did a cold start by using the media direct button to start the laptop that once it got into windows there was no SLI, but this was solved by shutting down and restarting using the start button.

Thanks

 

Andy: before we attempt to help you, boot your xps in a normal way, then go into device manager and check if you have two video adapters. If not then your second card is dead hence the no sli.
You can check this also by using nvidia control panel. Right click on desktop, choose nvcp, then check if you have the option Sli and Physx. If not you're running one card only as the second is probably dead.
Booting the laptop with media button enables only one card.

@Brotherhood: the eBay repairing service you're looking at is basically a gpu reballing + copper shim mod. It should fix any problems regarding bad soldering on both gpu and vrams. The process is similar to the oven bake method but it should last longer as the reballing basically reflow every solder point in place so it should be like new.
Definitely something I wi do instead of buying a new card. But make sure they Apply a copper shim mod on the sli bridge as that keeps your gpus away to failing.

 

Hi Kingpinzero, starting my xps in the "normal" way still does not enable sli, device manager confirmed this as it only showed 1 adaptor. Nvidia control panel has no sli options also.

I did read somewhere that media direct software sometimes is a problem but even without installing that there is no sli. I guess the deadly beep i got coming out of safe mode has condemned my sli.

Maybe it's time to post in the wanted to buy thread. GPU's for xps's in Australia are like rocking horse , they don't exist.

 

Got an 8800M GTX!!!!

 

Could this be my sli saviour ? Are you in the market to sell ? In Australia here .

Apologies if this is getting off topic .

Sorry but is the GPU the sli version ?

 

I have 2 cards-the one that came with the lappy 512Mb 8700M GT and the 1Gb 8800M GTX. I would have to send one of them back bc they are replacing the computer. But either one is for sale really. PM me and lemme know.

And yes-both cards are SLI.

 

I guess I might sell my pair of 8800m gtx as well.
I kept those stored in their box since I upgraded to 9800m gtx for "in-case" scenarios

 

Hi pmassey31545, interested in the 8800m GTX sli solution. I don't seem to have pm available to me so could you please email me with a price please.

Hi totostar, also interested in your 8800m GTX sli solution. Can you use the email address above to send details please.

Thanks guys, this is turning out to be pretty good hopefully. Going to post in the wanted to buy section for the 9800m SLI solution as well.

 

No PM's till you reach 5-or is it 10 posts. As far as price-I have no clue what is normal other than to check Feebay and ask other members here *hint, hint*. And obviously, I will charge less than eBay. I mean I'd like to make some, but not a killing.
And pretty sure you can't post your email address in the forums. Click my name and send me an email and then I will have your address.

 

Sorry about the email address, will delete in post. I now have PM access so PM's on the way.

 

I'm getting Duke Nukem soon, what drivers are you guys on? and a profile, if any, much appreciated

 

A couple days ago I came here with video card troubles and decided to bake the cards to see if that would help. It brought the card back to life (Both of the 9800's actually which was really nice). When I took the fans off of the video card, I was a little rough unplugging them from the 3pin slots (they were stuck). So now that they are back together, only 1 of the 2 fans works and the laptop gets quite hot.

Is there a way to test the fan if I took the card out again to see if the motor died or if the wire is just not making contact, or if something on the card itself is causing the problem?

Thank you already for the advice to bake the card, its great to have a functioning laptop again. Would love to just see if I can get this last part fixed.

 

Latest 275.33 are fine with a modded inf under XP, but nvidia updater will not work, hence you cant grab the sli update for Duke or Dirt 3.

The modded file was posted in the gaming section and i made it. As for the profile, if you have a dual boot, just update your windows 7 with 275.33, do the auto updater, then export the profile, load it up in xp.

Or ill post the profile for it if you need it.

EDIT: modded inf for 275.33 WHQL Desktop, Win XP SP3: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=91B11WJL
BTW these drivers ROCKS.

Mhm i had this problem before, all i had to do was to dismantle everything again, unplug the fans and reseat them proprely. The connectors are loose on the pcb...beside that , its crazy hard to find fans replacements. I tried to do that but trust me its a mess.

 

Hey,

Baked my 8800m GTX sli cards back in ... march or april I think. Havent used the laptop much but the cards idle around 55c and dont normally go over 70c under load.

Still working when I use it sporadically. Play mostly on a desktop...

Anyways though, was wondering if it's work installing windows xp 64 bit instead of running vista 64 bit. Or... should I consider Windows 7 64 bit?

Im thinking games should run better in XP but I may run into issues with drivers since XP is so outdated, thus the switch to Windows 7 might be in order....

Though m1730 doesnt "officially" support windows 7.

Ahhhh....

Im just tired of running Vista on here I guess.