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

wah47: You basically described how Intel designed Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA) mode to work. When one core goes to sleep, the other core automatically overclocks the multiplier up to 13. When both cores are awake, they both use the 12 multiplier. This is going on hundreds of times a second. ThrottleStop reports a very accurate average of this using high performance timers within the CPU.

The beauty of ThrottleStop is that if your bios lets you disable EIST, you can usually use ThrottleStop to lock both cores at the 13 IDA multiplier even if both cores are active at the same time. somebody over at TechPowerUp taught me this trick so I just wrote some simple software to make it easy for users to access this.

If this is working for you now, try reducing the core voltage. You will need to enable EIST before you reduce the VID voltage and then either disable EIST manually or use ThrottleStop to lock both cores into Dual IDA again. After that, test full load stability with Prime95 or something similar to give your CPU a good work out. With some luck and a decent CPU, you should be able to run the 13 multy with a VID setting somewhere around 1.10 volts. That will improve your full load temps compared to 1.375 volts.

 

Thanks I'll give it a try.Now the max temp is 66C with 1.375.

 

In these games where is a good SLI support - a single 5870 will lose with 8800gtxsli imho .

 

Check it out.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Yes I know it well , but i believe you know that synthetic tests is not all. SLI with a good profile can give 40-80% extra fps in games . And then a single 5870 has no chance.

 

@Consi Pit
Yeh, but honestly overall HD 5870 wins.Also, you'll not have any SLI issues and no need to mess with SLI profiles

@Unclewebb
Now I understood this all.Basically, T8300 isn't overclockable and has a locked multiplier.But because of the behaviour of IDA we can get extra 200Mhz by this trick.It's difference from normal overclocking.(e.g: overclocking X9000)
So I'm running it with these.
Volts: 1.1125 Multiplier: 13x199
It's working fine

But after each reboot, multiplier returns back to 6.0.I have to start the TS again to bring it back.

 

guys where can i download the key board driver for my dell XPS M1730 running windows 7 ultimate 64BIT..as my keyboard back-light is not working

 

You do not need a driver for the lights. Try your Fn+right arrow key combination.

 

Wah47,

As someone who has both setups, I can say without a doubt that the single 5870m does have some solid advantages, but raw full-resolution edge still goes to the dual 9800m GPU configuration.

With a small overclock, I had Crysis benching at just about 28 fps on very high. A single 5870 makes it to a nice 20 after generous overclocking in my experience.

In your own links, if you look at those detailed benchmarks of actual demanding games like Metro 2033 and Crysis, the idea becomes more apparent.

Although to be fair, this is much more complex than just one being better than the other.

 

@Kade Storm
Agreed, However in Metro 2033 AMD/ATI cards show considerable better performance.In short, The comparison of these cards is very game dependent.

@Consi Pit
You wanted to see the performance of overclocked T8300.
It's about 7-10% faster in CPU benchmarking softwares.

In games, only CPU dependent games may have better performance with it.
Far Cry 2
Medium@1024x768
Built-in Benchmark "Small Ranch"
Stock: 35fps
OC: 37fps
Just Cause 2
Nearly High@1280x800
Built-in Benchmark "Desert Sunrise"
Stock: 26fps
OC: 26fps

Little improvement

 

Wondering if anyone had any help for me. I have an old XPS 1730 with 9800 SLI. I got this thing when it first came out how ever many years ago and i gotta say it has been a good computer. dell has had to replace the video card a couple of times through the years but warranty is gone now.

The computer will be working and then just go black screen. the thing is, the computer itself it is still working, only the screen is not displaying. I can then cut the machine off and the screen will stay black. But in the background it is still booting up. I can even wait and put my passowrd in and windows boots just fine. I will hear the welcome music play as i hit enter. I plugged the computer into another display and still see black so the screen itself is fine. I can then restart it a number of times and usually it will start working again where everything is normal. Then after a bit of time the process will repeat and I get the black screen again. I installed nvidia 296.10 drivers hoping that would help, but still have the black screen happening. I have sli turned off to in case that was the issue. I am not sure what is happening. Anyone know? Thanks.

 

Hi, when the screen is black have you tried pressing the Ctrl and F8 keys together to toggle between CRT/ LCD output? Worth a try.

 

I did try that one too. Did not do anything once it is black. It is a weird problem.

 

Hi guys,
Is it possible to replace cpu stock fan? I think it's too weak. Under heavy gaming temperature goes up to 90C and then cpu is throttling down. I've cleaned laptop inside and it's better but still not enough. I've got extreme CPU @ 3.4GHz

 

M1730owner do you run the CPU at 3.4GHz? If so you can easily undervolt it using Throttlestop to keep the temps down. The stock voltage for 3.4Ghz overclocking is quite high. I manage to run my x9000 @ 3.8Ghz and at 1.37v stable.

 

Hey all. Long time no post. Finally pulled the old beast out of the closet for another go round and it's still kicking. One thing though, I'm looking to upgrade to Win7 64bit, but I don't know where to get the drivers for it. I checked Dell's website and that was a no go. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

One more try - Alan Wake and Risen 2 on 8800gtx sli anyone played ? How it runs ?

 

I have 8700m GT SLI.But SLI never gave me any improvement.As long as the games work fine with single card, I can ignore SLI problem.SLI hardly gives me extra 6fps of avg and in most games works even worse.I don't think it's normal.Anyone who ever had 8700m SLI, can tell me about the SLI performance?

@Consi Pit
Alan Wake supports SLI now.I already have finished the game.So I didn't check it with new official SLI profile

@johnston12385
You can use Vista 64bit drivers from dell.Also, you can even leave Dell.Just download the drivers from real manufacturers i.e GFX from Nvidia, Chipset from intel, Keyboard LCD from Logitech etc.

 

Dell XPS M1730 - 'The Beast': XPS M1730 Vista Drivers (64-bit)
or
Dell XPS M1730 - 'The Beast': XPS M1730 Vista Drivers (32-bit)

I have mine on x74 Win7 and LOVE IT

 

Hi everyone,

Just purchased my first Dell M1730 and it will be arriving in a week. It's not brand new but it has the following specs:

X9000 Extreme Edition CPU
Dual 8800GTX SLI
4Gb ram
320Gb HDD in Raid 0
Wifi N
17" 1920x1200 Wide Gamut screen

Always wanted one but could never afford it back a few years ago but I purchased a house and a few cars for the missus now it's time to spend something on myself!

Kudos to sgheeter thanks for the driver updates you champ!

Will post pics if anyone is interested, I feel like a kid again waiting for Santa!

 

Congratulations on your new toy. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Hey guys.
i've been having m1730 since 2009. And ive renew my warranty three times due to graphic card issues on exactly 2 month after each 1 year warranty has expired. May 2012 was the last time i extend my warranty. Currently im in malaysia with the "refurbished" rig just laying inside my wardrobe cause im too afraid to use it anymore.
in this case, can i get alienware replacement? Or should i wait until my m1730 broken then i ask for replacement?



thanks

 

Hi folks,

A couple of things,

i have decided to up the workload of my xps and am going to spoil her with an 8gig ram uprade, new graphics card, etc.

First, can someone tell me what the very best graphics card for the old girl is please, at the mo she has the 8700m gt which is a pile of crap and i cant wait to get rid of it.

Also i want to use it for recording so i want to hook up firewire to it if anyone knows anything about this.

And lastly since batteries only give five minutes anyway it doesn't matter about the size of the drive so i was wondering how big we can go?

Thanks in advance
Howard

 

I have a problem, hoping for help.
I recently updated my m1730 from the 8700m gt sli to the 9800m gtx sli cards. (Purchased new.) Installation went fine.
After booting up and starting a game, after only a few minutes of steady game play I had a massive fps loss. I had Riva tuner's hardware monitor on in the background, and sure enough the fps loss coincided with my new cards down-clocking themselves mid-game at the same time.
Temps were 98c and I read on another forum that's the point these cards down-clock as an overheating safeguard.
Turns out only 1 of the 2 GPU fans is working, dell diagnostics utility confirmed this with a 3700:011b error code - fan speed is incorrect. It reported all speeds for 2nd fan as 0 (meaning not working?)
*My question* Would a disabled fan indicate a faulty card, or is it wishful thinking to hope the A11 bios update (from A10) might re-enable it? I'd rather not make matters worse as I also read others were having issues with that update.
Sorry for long post but thank you for reading.

*Update* I broke the laptop down and reassembled it, making sure the gfx card's "faulty" fan was able to turn in its housing. Ran bios diagnostic again and both fans were recognized and passed all tests. Ran 3dmark 06 and got a 12668 score with cpu @3.0ghz. Much better than the 9500 I got yesterday, which must have been due to overheating/under clocking itself.
Temps seem stable as well with a 63c idle and 80c max load. (Was 80/85c idle and 98c max!)

 

Sheesh if this thread was any slower they would shut it down lol

 

Ha, I think this thread has actually caused NBR as a whole problems previous. Hence we're on a multi-thread part!

 

Hi 72Hundred, anywhere else we can post then?

 

I have M1730 with 2x9800M GTX SLI. I just recently put Windows 7 64bit Ultimate on it. What are the right graphics drivers for this videocard that will allow SLI to be enabled? Currently GPU-Z says that SLI is not enabled.

 

No, no. It's fine to post here. Previously when this whole thread was contained as one it caused problems. But its fine in multiple parts. BatBoy keeps an eye on that I'd say!

 

Anyone tried Crysis 2 with a Core 2 Duo T8300?

 

I use the drivers form nvidia.

 

Sigh! a GPU fan failed on my 9800m GT, just one fan and the cards hit 95c. Well no problem but I told Dell about that. Guess what they replaced my 9800m GT SLI with the older 8800m GTX SLI. I said I wanted the 9800m GT but they didn´t have those in stock and I got the 8800m GTX SLI instead.

Well I wanted the cooler 9800m GT or they could just have replaced one fan, but no not at all. Just too bad since the 9800m GT´s runs cooler than my former 8800m GTX SLI.

However this is my second GPU change, if these would fail would they replace the GPU once more for the third time or would I get a new system? What do you guys think?

Strangely enough I got better 3D Mark 06 score with my former 8800m GTX SLI than I have ever got with my 9800m GT SLI.

 

I'm looking for stable graphics drivers for Vista 32 bit 8800 gtx. Those from the nVidia site cause some problems in SLI mode in some games (Skyrim, Dragon Age 2). I'm almost sure that this is a driver issue, because The Witcher 2 and many other games runs without problem on windows XP in sli mode . Also old Dell drivers runs with out any problems in sli , but with no sli benefit in new games ofc .... Can someone recommend me something ?

 

The 270.73 drivers is very good the Quadro Ones you can get off laptopvideo2go. I use these for my Win 7 64 Ultimate.

 

Hey everyone, just got one of these beasts on ebay (I had another one, but it was the base model).

It comes with the UJ-220 BD writer - but while it reads/writes DVDs and CDs no problem, while in Windows, it can't detect if a bluray is in the drive (I tried with Blade Runner and Lord of the Rings). Anyone know of any way to fix this - I'm pretty sure it ISN'T the drive, as if I leave a bluray in the drive while restarting, the laptop recognizes that there is a disc in the drive and tries to boot from it...

I have Cyberlink 12 ultra, as well as Nero 11....

Oops, forgot my specs...

Windows 7 64 Ultimate, nvidia 9800m GTX SLI (2gb), 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 750GB HDD, Intel X9000

 

v270.73 Windows 7/Vista 64bit | NVIDIA Quadro - 27x Series GeForce Driver release - LaptopVideo2Go Forums this one ? ( tomorrow I will install 7 ) and sorry - but how should I download inf file ? It is opens like this - http://laptopvideo2go.com/infs/270series/27073_win7x64/nv_disp.inf

 

What's wrong with the 301.42 drivers? Those are what nvidia recommends...

 

Consi Pit yes those ones.

 

Forget about it. Those BR drives are crap . I bought 2, both of them were terrible.

 

Default SLI Profile of Witcher 2 works fine for you guys? It's only working during cutscenes for me.Also, anyone noticed flickering water in Crysis 2 with SLI?

 

@ Magnus - thanks , these appear to be stable - it is too bad I don't know how to add SLI profiles for new games .
@ wah - I play W2 actually ( again - this time in the dark mode ) . I use 275.33 from nVidia . No problem with SLI . It runs under XP .

What are your GPU temperature in the games with the A11?

 

Well, I have win7 and 290.53 one.I'll try different drivers then.My 8700m GT is hot.It reaches even 79C.Mostly around 72-76C

 

I tried The Witcher 2 on XP-32 bit, Vista-32bit and 7-64 bit , and the best performance definitely is with XP . Maybe try a dual boot ?
You have bios A10 or A11 ?

 

I like to have a single OS.P.S not much HDD space.I have A11
A10 idle 68C
A11 idle 49C

 

So anyone tried Max Payne 3 ? or no one is interested in that game ?

 

I have the following problem with my XPS M1730.
When I switch it on no harddisk are detected, so no boot. I then enter the BIOS change a setting, save this change and when I reboot then both harddisk are detected and Windows 7 boots fine. Just entering BIOS and then rebooting doesn't work I have change a setting, no matter what, save it and then reboot. Anyone had this issue and fixed it, please let me know.

 

There's a local M1730 for sale, and I was wondering what you guys think its worth:

• x9000
• 8800M GTX SLi
• 2GB DDR2 667
• 1900x1200
• 9 cell battery
• excellent condition

Not sure on the HDD size, but I'd like to replace that with an SSD anyway.


In your personal opinions, how much would you pay for this laptop?

 

Dell XPS m1730

That's a bit better (has the 9800) and going for $750... so I'd say get yours for like $600ish?

 

Hi guys, Dell's local workshop has been struggling with repairing my m1730 (heat / performance issues) and have offered a replacement as it has 2y NBD premium service left on it.

They have offered to replace it with a:

XPS 702x
i7-2670QM 2.20GHz
3GB Nvidia GeForce GT 555M
6GB 1333Mhz DDR3
1TB 7200RPM

The m1730 spechs are briefly:

Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor X9000 (6M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI
PhysX card
4GB RAM

Was planning to eventually replace the XPS with an Alienware M18x but pushing for a replacement like that would of course be pushing it way off being reasonable.

What do you guys think about the replacement offer and spechs?

Cheers all~

 

Everything is better except the GPU.GT 555M is worse than 8800 GTX SLI.Are you getting a 17"inch 1920x1080 LCD with XPS 702x ? If not, then it's not a good replacement.