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

I have a bad problem with m1730 now i can't eject my dvd drive???
I tell you the story
i inserted a disc and in a few minutes ejected it and after some time when i tried to eject the dvd rom it gave me error "an error occur while ejecting the drive" i tried pressing the dvd drive button several times and restarting the laptop but failed so any idea? Well i can't understand it as i did nothing to it and it was fine a few minutes ago.

 

Hmm I didn't know about that. Also the tech I talked to on phone when the engineer came was like - 'you're not supposed to have a 9800GTX in that' and I had to actually shout at him for 5min before he acknowledged that it was dell who did that upgrade when the original card failed. (aren't these guys supposed to have all the past support details??) Even then he said I can only get the 8800GTX since its 'in stock now'.

And yeah, my power brick has also failed 2 times, I didn't include that in the original post.

 

I've heard some stuff about power bricks not being replaced after the first year, but I can't be sure. Simply heard this over the phone.

About the cards. Yeah, the engineer's place is not to question the cards. One time, when ONE of my 280m GTX cards failed, the engineer was sent with a replacement 260, which would obviously not work right. He didn't argue back, but he was puzzled why Dell would send him with an incompatible part. Anyway, you could opt to stick to your guns on this subject and ask for another 9800m GTX.

 

What i should do now with my dvd rom? Its not working no lights and i can't eject it by pressing button and from my computer by clicking eject i get this "an error occur while ejecting from dvd drive g:" and i tried rebootin and updating firmware but all is failed an it was working fine a few minutes ago when i inserted cod waw disk and than without doing anything i ejected it and after 3-5min than i tried to open it than i got this problem.Now i ejected it with the pin hole of the drive but after closing it again i saw that the problem is still there so ejected again with pin hole and inserted a disc and closed it but it didn't read the disk and no lights as well just a little sound which shows that something is going in the dvd drive but it does not read the disc? Should i need to get a new drive? But i did nothing to it? Any help please

 

Well, fortunately for you, some of the slightly older laptops such as your M1730 come without the gimmicky slot-load drive. So you have that tiny pin-hole that you can use to manually force-eject the drive by using the tip of a small paper clip or a pin and inserting it into the pin-hole. Try to locate it on the faceplate of the tray, and then use something that is of appropriate size.


On another note, I've been playing through Metro 2033. This time, I used the awesome nVidia FXAA hack, and ran the game at 1280x800. Benefit being that in this particular game, with the FXAA hack, the image is very sharp and almost as good as full 1200p resolution, with even lesser jaggies. Excellent experience at very high in DX10 with all the perks and very few FPS dips. I'd highly recommend that M1730 gamers who want to experience this game in its full DX10 glory, and want good frame rates, should consider this option.

 

now power brick is dead and there is no lights of power brick and its not working as well and beside dvdrom is not working as well after opening with pin hole

what is the price of charger(power brick) ? And is there any way to start xps without power brick? I got no waranty

 

Uh. A charged battery? But that won't last too long, and you won't be able to do any proper 3D gaming.

Your option now is to scour the internet/eBay for some deals on the power brick.

 

elen or mangus or anyone else, do you guys played these games on m1730

Metro 2033
Assassin Creed Revelation
Need for Speed The Run
Battlefield 3

if yes than what about fps and settings?

 

Battlefield 3 runs pretty ok, can't remember the fps though, mostly high settings, 1920x1080.

I have Metro 2033 but never installed it, Magnus however has videos of it running on youtube and it looks and plays awesome. Although he could have personalized settings for it and some OCing.

The Run should also play OK as long as you don't kill it with AA.

 

The run should play as good as NFS Hot Pursuit since it should be the same graphics engine.

Metro 2033 runs pretty good actually, that video I posted earlier was with my Core2Deuo 2.4Ghz and the game runs of course better with my X9000 now.

Assassin´s Creed I haven´t tried yet but will give it a go and see how it runs and if I can make an SLI profile for it.

I will give you eleron the SLI profile I made for SAM 3, but I agree the game becomes more demanding in later levels for sure.

 

Cool, thanks

Yeah... at that point I was actually gaming on an HDTV, who's res was at 1366x768, and at that resolution I could crank up the details without issues. The desert level for example looks absolutely stunning on a huge screen. Near life-like.

 

Can you max out everything on metro 2033? Well this game at max setting is hardly handled by even GTX 460.
Anyway i still beleive that i may run this game with my 8700m gt SLI since there is a youtube video running this game on 8600 GT 256mb.
Otherwise, with just an upgrade to 8800m GTX SLI, i may be able to run all the games @low/medium settings. RIGHT?

 

I've already posted about this, and Magnus has the game running at almost very high under DX9.

For this game at DX10 and in full very high glory, you need more than 512MB of vRAM, which the 8800m GTX SLi (9800m GT SLi), doesn't have. With a 9800m GTX SLi, you get the benefit of 1GB vRAM to handle the textures in certain games. Plus, with the aforementioned FXAA hack in the previous page, you can run the game at a lower resolution of 1280x800 with more FPS, but the edges and details looking almost just as sharp as full HD resolution.

As it stands, your present cards are too weak to handle it at full resolution and high settings. Perhaps you should try lowering the resolution to the 1280x800 range and running it on medium.

 

PhysX Card working for you guys? What actually is the adventage of PhysX Card? Well, many games use PhysX (eg. Mafia II) for different in-game particles movement and dynamic effects and such.We can set PhysX to any of our GPUs or the CPU from Nvidia Drivers or game.But all these things decrease performance and for boosting the FPS, it is necessary to disable PhysX. Well, can you tell something about this on M1730?

 

There are minimal advantages, only in games with specific design, though I can't remember any of them right now.

I've disabled it years ago (actually, I removed it all together).

 

I don't think NFS The Run is going to run on my 8700m GT SLI.
Because, there is a big difference in NFS Hot Pursuit and The Run.This game is using Frostible 2 engine(Battlefield 3) and the graphics are awesome! And the same way much more detail than the NFS HP.The second thing is only DirectX10/11 support and no DirectX9 support and the same way no Win XP support as well.So, it is not easy to run this game as NFS HP, my 8700m GT runs NFS HP @25-40fps with few fps drops.

 

What is actually Nvidia Quadro Series and AMD/ATI FirePro Series? I could not find a gaming benchmark for those cards.For what purpose those cards are? They seems powerful.
Are cards like Amd firepro v7900/8800 or Nvidia quadro 5000/6000 better than cards like Amd HD 6970/6990 or Nvidia GTX 580/590 ?

 

They have similar cores, but optimised for graphics rendering, like CAD and such. With the proper driver, they should provide near similar performance to that of their GeForce/Radeon counterparts.

 

Anyone tried the laste update for Skyrim? Man that patch made the game butter smooth on the XPS M1730

 

WOW, I haven't checked this thread in sometime. It's great to see you guys still using and pushing the 1730 with newer games.

 

Anyone tried Witcher 2? Although, it is a DX9 game.But still the most demanding game ever.

 

I for one am too busy with FPS and adventure games. And races.

Man, the best series I've played were the Prince of Persia and the Legacy of Kain, both epic in stories and gaming.

And then there's Starcraft 2, which I am waiting to expand already

 

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Fully playable at medium-high settings 1920/1200 T8300 + 8800 + no OC .

In fact . Especially in cities I have 5-10 fps more then before .

 

I don't like Prince of Persia much, though it's a good game.Ubisoft started a new series from this game.But it's completely different yeh "Assassin Creed".I like it the most.

Well, Starcraft is also a good.But i play such games only when i'm totally free .

@Consi Pit
Yeh! Nice to see that it is running fine on 8800.But i can't find 8800m GTX SLI in 100-200$.While we can get Desktop Radeon HD 6870 in just 130$.Upgrading a laptop is just useless.Getting a new one is better, which is not cheap as well.

 

Put it there, bro! The Legacy of Kain series is epic, if not for the sheer fantasy adventure element, then for the iconoclastic theme and how all the stories eventually converge together in the concluding title, Defiance. It certainly appealed to my inner Devil! Heh. Good stuff.

 

Yeah, I know. Defiance was absolutely epic, and did leave little room for a continuation, but one would have pleased me much. Amy Hennig is a god, for writing this game. For me, a series has never been more of a philosophical milestone than this one.

And yes, Assassin's Creed is also amazing, but have only played the first part. Should get the next ones and see...

And about the Prince of Persia series, Warrior Within definitely got me hooked. Ever since I've played all of them at least 5 times, while WW must have been played at least 10-15 times And the soundtrack is definitely one of the most suitable ones (not mentioning how energetic it is) for a game of this nature.

I'm a sucker for games with story lines. It's why Half Life has been a close one to my heart, and EP3 is still to be heard of...

 

Sheer genius how you've summed these games up, especially your take on Defiance. Even I'd be pleased with another title, but I think great writers always leave us with a proper conclusion but begging for more, whereby which the franchise remains fresh and appealing rather than tired and exhausted.

 

How many hours continuously i should do gaming on my m1730?

 

You mean, safely?

I averaged around 5-6 a day in my first 2 years, now 1-2 hours, depending on the day. The laptop is on 6-8h a day.

And I do a fan cleanup for dust monthly. Temps never go above 75-76C.

 

I need your suggestions with my laptop.I got this from my friend in January 2012.It has no waranty at all.I don't know when he bought it.However, it was just like new and i couldn't find a single scratch on it.Now there are some of them.My friend really didn't use it.But, in just 1 month i got two problems with it.One is strange DVD RW problem and second is power brick failure.I'm afraid about possible future problems.It has 8700m GT SLI and it can fail anytime.Wait.... What happened to your 8700m GT? If it was dead than in how many months? So, what should i do with my laptop? Should i sale it? Or what can i do?

 

Quick Question : I'm about to replace a failed Hard Drive in an M1730. The laptop shipped with Windows Vista - if I install Windows 7 64-bit onto the new drive, do the Vista 64-bit drivers on the DELL site all install OK ? I notice they don't have a "Windows 7" option on the driver download page for the M1730 !

 

win7 64 works great on xps m1730.
im using chipset, storage drivers from intel site, nvidia from nvidia.com, sound, card reader from dell.com, logitec lcd driver from logitec.com
i was able to find all the drivers for win7 64

 

Nobody can answer my question? Alright, I make it easy for you.

1. Just tell me if you had 8700m GT with m1730.What happened to your card?

2. 8700m GT is not a durable card? It is faulty and there are chances of GPU failure?

Any one can help please?

 

I've never had the 8700m in my M1730 -- which I owned over a year ago -- but there have been posts in the past that the card is prone to thermal-cycle damage. (Damage from heating up, cooling down, and repeat.) However, this damage is relative, and doesn't always happen. It is using an 80nm die compared to the 8800/9800 cards, which are at 65nm.

I would suggest that you keep the system as cool within reason, and give the fan vents a regular cleaning.

 

Great, thanks

 

Thanks for the help.Temperature never go above 75C.However, idle temperature is also between 68C-74C.While, gaming temperature is usually 64C-70C.

 

Maybe you should try A11 bios version . I have got 45-50 idle , and max 68 in games with it ( most of the gaming time around 60 C ) .

 

What is the price of the AC Adapter of m1730? I got mine for 51$.Is it alright? Shouldn't it be cheap?

 

Sounds about right.

 

Alright.I want to know if you guys can watch DvD movie on battery? I can't do this.The problem is with 8700m only or with every card?

 

Every card downclocks, so you shouldn't even try it, unless you can force the GPU/CPU speeds to max.

 

Greetings, I'm new here, recently bought a laptop, which was not new but looked like one.
Some specifications: T9300 2.5, 4GB ddr2, nvidia 8700M GT.
I installed win 7 x64 sp1, and the 285.62-notebook-win7-WinVista-64bit-international-whql drivers for nvidia. When I put an mkv video screen freezes, I can not play well almost.
The windows experience index gives me very low: Processor 2.4, RAM 2.9, Aero Graphics 5.3, game Graphics 6.5, HDD 4.9.
I think this should be problem drivers. I read on here that I can install version 195.62 but I think it's a bit old, any update? sure this has already been solved here.

Another thing is do not know if I have 2 video cards or one, because I think I have a single 8700M GT, and not two as normally come these laptops.

Help! Thanks

 

Download the latest display drivers from Nvidia and make sure that all the other drivers are up to date.Get them from intel or dell.For your card, you can simply check in the bios.If you have 512mb video memory than they are 2 or if it's 256mb than single.However, you can check this from Nvidia control pannel as well.If in the 3D settings a option for SLI exists than they are dual.

 

I found in XPS m1730 when the bios show 256mb means that 1 GPU has died . It seems that would be the problem of freezes. Which video driver you recomend me for 8700M GT card? I have the lastest 285.62 driver
Thanks

 

I also have m1730 with 8700m GT SLI and I'm using "Verde 290.53 beta" Drivers from Nvidia.com and they are working fine

 

Thanks wah47, could you tell me what is your windows experience index? I will try "Verde 290.53 beta" driver.

 

I don't remember.But my base score was 5.5 and that was because of my ram.Which is 2gb only.Everything other was either equal or more than 5.5.I'll have to run the test again to know the things again.

Here are my spec
Intel Core 2 Duo [email protected]
2Gb DDR2 667Mhz
256mb 8700m GT SLI
160Gb 7200rpm HDD
Windows 7 32bit

 

My score is about 2.4!!! thats terriblee!!
Processor 2.4
RAM 2.9,
Aero Graphics 5.3,
Game Graphics 6.5,
HDD 4.9

I install this chipset drivers http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20775&keyword=%22Intel%C2%AE+965%22&lang=spa#help

Please, tell me what drivers exactly do you have... I'm beginning to think I have a hardware problem

 

my T7700 gets 5.2

 

i got my M1730 new in Jan2009 i will have to say it is the longest lasting computer i have ever owned.
the only thing i have ever had to fix was the video card, i had to refurbish it. (did myself cause warranty expired in 2010) the chip-set was falling apart. still plays every game i throw at it, even MW3 max settings!