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

Well, even with the beast being almost 5 years old, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it handles some of the current games. Granted, they're not maxed out on settings, it's still a damn capable machine. Only thing I actually want to do now is put an SSD drive in it to speed things up a bit (never realized I only had 5400RPM drives in here). With a few tweaks in the nVidia control panel, I've got SWTOR running at a modest 40+ FPS (~30-32 in major areas). I have noticed that the screen is no where near as vibrant as my 24" monitor or my LED lit laptop, but it works wonders in a low lit room while gaming. And I personally feel it's a bit easier on the eyes with it being a bit dim.

At least I feel this machine will get me through to the next major release of hardware for gaming laptops. Maybe by then I'll sell this beast and move on to the bigger beast from another planet.

 

Thanks for the confirmation and the tip. I'll be sure to go for the WUXGA version, 1920x1200.

I had the same issue like you. Turned out to be the standard loose/melted/cracked solder joints problem. The second GPU was coming back to life from time to time with strange frequencies. That wouldnt be a problem because having a SLI is 0-40% only and since I am not hardcore gaming it didnt make a difference. However the screen would just go black randomly from time to time as the second GPU was switching on/off and freeze and crash the system. [Regardless of using Media Button to disable 2nd GPU]

If your 2nd is dead for sure I wouldn't touch it Let it rest in peace. However I baked mine in the oven [remove fans, heat sinks, VGA assembly (2 hexagon screws), metal plate for the 2nd GPU, plastic cover under VGA and 2nd metal plate, and (!) plastic cover around the middle chip (is it the SLI? Forgot this one and had to stop the baking to take it out - it was melting ), also level the card with chips facing up using alu folio to lift it so that components don't touch oven, 10 min at 200C preheated]

In case anyone of you guys is looking for a new one I've found a great deal on the european ebay - K650M VGA Card XPS M1730, 2GB SLI, Nvidia | eBay - 250 Euro for 9800M GTX SLI...they gave me guarantees that the card is brand new and not refurbished.

 

Try your resseting method twice. nothing changed... I'm just curious can it be non sli card version in full size card pack, with two fans, both spinning? drivers are recent , i put it, not sure which version: Nvidia control panel is 6.9.840.0 version, an device manager show 9.18.13.1070 date 13.03.2012 . Do your device manager show two same card ? Thanks spring 1898...

 

Mine also wasn't showing...until I baked it in the oven I did try 5 different driver versions before that, nothing was showing the 2nd GPU. It was fried.

PS: Also a 9800M GT...SLI. I kind of thought that the Nvidia termal issues were limited to the 8 series and 9 were free of it...

btw the previous owner of my beast did not update the BIOS of the GPUs. There is a bios update released by dell, check which version you have. Also the system BIOS was A08...after putting A11 the fans actually started working. That explains the fried GPUs in my case...

 

A11 bios here, run decently quiet, but can't turn fan off, which is one of main reason to get this Dell. I thought that is possible with I8kfanGUi or speedfan utility, but apairently not? That is my only dissapont... fans run 30sec in idle, than 60s off.. Any way to control it, that actually work? ...
Only one other issue is that camera work only at 6-7 fps? Your?
other than that,i find it best value for money right now!

 

My fans seem to run more frequently than they used to, but then again I'm basing this off of memory since it's been close to two years since I last used the beast. As far as my camera, I used it for an hour last night on Skype and everything was full speed. I don't have a link handy to the correct win 7 driver to use, but I remember having issues getting the camera to work under W7. Good luck though!


Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

Like I said before only the 8700m was offered as a non sli card for the m1730. Given that your card is the 9800/8800 there is a distinct possibiltiy that the card died, especially if it is the original. Those cards were the most prone to dying. It is possible as was mentioned to do a baking to try and get it to come back.
the device manager should show both cards.

Also what is your operating system specs etc?

The 9000 series is much better. With the A11 bios the 9800m gtx sli runs around 61C.
The problem is that the 9800 is a rebadged 8800m GTX and can still have problems.

I have never used the camera, but most webcams especially these older ones do look really choppy.

There is no way to control the fan system. dell left that option out. As long as your fans are not running full blast the whole time a little constant running is fine. it keeps the computer cool which was a problem early on.

 

fine Spring... guess one card module is died... but no matter with me , all games fly
I'm on win7 professional 64bit. sp1 ,t9500, 4gb, ocz vertex 2 ...
any hint on camera? trying whole day to get rid of motion blur 7fps speed , even in 320x240... like slow shutter ? even in full brigh day

 

what are your temps? That should not be enough to make the fans go full blast. if you have not turned on the computer in a few years it sounds like a device recognition problem

 

As far as my camera, I used it for an hour last night on Skype and everything was full speed. I don't have a link handy to the correct win 7 driver to use, but I remember having issues getting the camera to work under W7. Good luck though!

You will make my two days if you could help me with win7 64 drivers. (or send it to me) I even think to load win xp (temporarily) just to confirm that this cam can work as it should...

 

Some of the older drivers with windows 7 would not recognize the second card without being modded, although the ones that you have are the 296.10 and fairly recent. For the heck of it you could try the latest drivers which do recognize both cards. If it works great, if not it is one more nail on half of your card's coffin.
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/55125

I just powered up the webcam for the first time and got the same result. It acts as a typical older laptop webcam with a really low frame rate.

This article might help since the camera is a creative branded dell. I did what it said and in my cloudy lit room I got to 15 FPS. And the one below it just recommneds third party software.
Solution to webcam low frame rate inside - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community
How to get 30 Frames Per Second with your Logitech... - Logitech Forums

 

Spring, you are great! i will try all of this and report... In the meantime i tested beast in F1 2011 - FULL hd resolution, all settings to MAX , and its 31 average , (26 min ,very rare) . Can't hide my joy , what this machnihe can do even these days??... will report soon about cam...

nothing with nevest drivers you point... Still no sli..
Good news with camera thing: Can be improved with backlight compensation set on 0. as "darksch" pointed . Thanks to him.

guess last question for now is: Does SLI word show in bios? In my case is only 9800m gt and 512mb . no SLI word in whole Bios... Thanks again to Spring

 

So it's looking more and more like I'm going to be selling my two beasts relatively soon. As I progress in SWTOR, the stuttering is just getting unbearable. I even have all the graphics settings in game set to Low or Off and it's just not helping as much as I thought it was. It was nice to have the beast up and going again for a while here, but I think it may be time to part ways. Anyway, as fellow owners of said beast, how much do you guys think I could get for this setup?

Bone White XPS
9800GTX SLI
500GB RAID
4GB Ram
DVD/RW

I would have to just reformat the drives and have the buyer install his/her own copy of Windows as I don't have a copy to spare anymore.

Thanks!

 

In the bios it does not say that you have dual cards. At least not with my unit.
The fact that it register 512 though tells me that it only is recognizing one card even there. Another nail in the coffin. My 9800m gtx shows 2gb in the bios so it should show both cards' ram.

Other cards of this type are about $200. So baking it won't hurt if it is done right, and might give you a little more performance. Overclocking could help as well if you can keep it cool but if you already lost one card...

SWTOR is heavily CPU intensive due to the programming. What ends up happening (or at least it used to, as I haven't played in a while). Is that if you had lower graphics settings, the GPU would fly through them and send the info over to the CPU which would end up getting bogged down. Generally the higher the graphics settings you put in (minus shadows and other CPU using items) the smoother your game would run up to the capabilities of the CPU (check your CPU useage while playing and you will see what I mean). If you have an extreme version OC'ing can get you a little more out of it. I used to run max graphics with an Asus G51JX-a1. The m1730 puts out a lot more oomph graphically but the I7 of the Asus was better and so it performed better. So try that and see if it helps. If it doesn't you can always sell after.

Without an OS though, and I don't know what CPU you have, the system may not sell for much. $400, maybe more if you have an extreme processor. But even better machines (9800 gtx, x9000, 4gb, bluray 640, etc) aren't selling for more than $600. Honestly, depending on the price of an 8700 sli, I might consider buying one and putting it in, then selling the 9800m separate since the market for them is pretty high right now. $300 for a laptop and $350 for a card might get you the best.
These computers are becoming a specialty item. Newer gamers don't know they exist, and they see the flashy new things that aren't that expensive quite frankly. A far superior laptop only costs around $800.

I will try SWTOR again tomorrow, just to see what happens and let you know.

 

That would be awesome. I have noticed that the CPU usage is always waaaayyyyy up when I'm in swtor. I might play with the settings a bit more again but the big problems are major cities. When it's populated with lots of players, I notice tons of sow down. I noticed this with WoW too.

I currently have the T9500 processor in the beast. Would swtor benefit any from a slight OC on the CPU? I tried OCn the GPU the other night with no luck in SWTOR. Was using posted stable clocks on the forum.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

Essentially the T9500 can't be overclocked since it has a fixed multiplier that can only go between 6x to 13x. There are methods to get around it but they can be disastrous to the CPU and the rest of the system, in short.
That would probably be the limiting factor. Overclocking the GPU will only have a limited effect up to the point that the CPU can handle. I don't fully understand the programming that causes that, but that is how it was best explained to me.

X7900's are about $80
X9000's are about $200

These are the highest chips available to the M1730 and we have no support for quad core chips.

You can sell your T9500 for about the same as you could buy the X7900, although the 7900 will run hotter than what you are used to. Undervolting can mitigate some of that, but that takes some trial and error to figure out; there are probably some threads on the subject. If I still had an X7900 I would have played around with it to see if it would be worth your while, but unfortunately I don't.

But honestly, if you are planning on going further in gaming itself the m1730 has very severe limits. And you might be better off as you say going with something nicer. A Sager 6350 can be configured very nicely for under $1000. Just wait until a really good sale is going on.
Or you could go with the upgrade in the short term and wait to switch until the next generation of Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs comes out later this year.

My results from playing SWTOR are as follows. Best performance with 3.8 Ghz overclock was anisotropic textures (or whichever one does gratings and high density renderings like that) on low, AA on high, shadows off, bloom off, All other textures on high, trees and grass at 0.
There is still some stutter, and further adjustments could be refined but it is certainly playable at those settings.

For comparison I also played on my higher end machine, and even with that there was still some noticeable stutter at times. It is well known that SWTOR runs like crap even on high end machines, and as such the performance is expected.

In short, even buying a new system just for SWTOR does not necessarily yield perfect results, although they are certainly improved.

 

Spring, are you able to run the benchmark of Hitman Absolution? I assume you are with an x9000 + 9800GTX Sli....I was wondering what would the FPS be with that config. It might also depend on drivers, so please point out which version you are running...

 

I don't have the game, so probably not. Is it available for separate download?

 

No, thats a no go...nevermind Thanks anyway.

 

Hi all,just joined to get some advice.....
i bought my M1730 on ebay,it came with windows 7 64bit,ive upgraded the card to geforce 9800 M GTX sli,my issue is the display on the keyboard top right just displays "XPS" can i get it to show temp etc? as i have no idea how too,also can i change the colours in the laptop,its on constant red at the moe,doesnt move to the beat of music etc if it ever was able to?
many thanks for any help i recieve
Simon


XPS M1730
geforce 9800GTX SLI
SAMSUNG HN-M750MBB ATA
INTEL(R)CORE(TM)2 DUO CPU T7700 @2.400 GHZ
8 GIG RAM
WINDOWS 7 64 BIT

 

I believe the software is Everest, or soemthing like that to modify the game panel.
There are also drivers here, although they don't always work for Windows 7 Dell XPS M1730 - 'The Beast'
The colors program is part of the dell software package that may or may not work right away on windows 7 although I have seen it before. If you can't get the software to work (I believe it might be part of quickset) as stated you can do it in the bios, and with no software to change it otherwise, it shouldn't alter unless your bios resets.

 

I would start with the RAM. Put at least 4gb in it for a start. The CPU is fairly low end. You should be able to pick up a 2.6ghz for about $50 or if you want to go the whole hog a X9000 2.8 extreme for about $180. A ssd hard drive will vastly improve start-up times. A 256gb can be purchased for about $160-$180.

 

been trying to find the right drivers to get the LCD panel to work but cant,the laptop never came with intall discs etc.....is it worht putting it back to basics with vista so i can have it running as it should? or keep it as i have it now? also can i upgrade mine any further? many thanks
Simon


XPS M1730
geforce 9800GTX SLI
SAMSUNG HN-M750MBB ATA
INTEL(R)CORE(TM)2 DUO CPU T7700 @2.400 GHZ
8 GIG RAM
WINDOWS 7 64 BIT

 

Can upgrade the processor and thats it really. You need the old game panel drivers.

 

Th file you want is lgps306_64. Unfortunately Logitech have taken the old drive off their web site downloads. The new file doesn't work with the M1730 gamepad. If you set up a file sharing site, I will upload it for you.

 

That is the same file I use. It works great.

 

I found a link to the ftp Logitech web site for the G15 drivers for the XPS M1730 gamepad software.

The two files in question are:- 32 bit version lgps306.exe - 64 bit version lgps306_x64.exe.

Here is the link

Index of ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/gaming

 

XPS M1730 Blu-ray drive won't recognize Blu-ray disks (ps3)...picks up dvds though..the drive is Mata UJ220..I found a FW update 1.03 for this drive on the Vaio..is it safe to update the fw? And how do I know the current FW version.

 

id like to thank u big time fella ive been looking for this for months and not known where to look,have down loaded and installed it works perfectly,thank very much!!!
ive found this on ebay and wondered if they would work with the XPS M 1730?

16GB 2X 8GB DDR3 1333MHz PC3-10600S Dell XPS 17 (L702X) RAM Notebook Memory
16GB 2X 8GB DDR3 1333MHz PC3-10600S Dell XPS 17 (L702X) RAM Notebook Memory | eBay

 

The end of a troubled era:

I bought the XPS M1730 used in Summer 2008. It was manufactured Nov-Dec 2007. It had 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 8700M GT SLI.

I upgraded it to an X9000 (@ 3.2GHz) and 8800M GTX.

The 8800M unfortunately died in the fall of 2010. Several months later the 8700M GT died, and then the power adapter. You can look through my history to see the issues I posted about here. Here's what my signature said as of this summer (2012):

Not sure if that's 2 or 3 motherboard replacements because after the tech replaced it, it still wouldn't turn on so I shipped it to Dell, got it back in working condition and it ran until December 2012, 2 weeks after warranty ran out. Then the power adapter stopped. I got a new power adapter. The light turns on when you plug it into the wall, but goes out when you plug it into the laptop. Same symptom in the summer which couldn't be fixed with a complete swap of mobo/gpu/cpu/etc. Since that required shipping it to Dell and it was now out of warranty, and Dell wouldn't let me renew it anymore (saying that this is how long I should expect the laptop to last), it's done for.

R.I.P.

My new laptop is in my sig but I refuse to game on it (even though the CPU is apparently very fast and rated for 115 C or something crazy, I still think performance laptops, the new ones, are a scam after what I've heard of happening with the big gaming laptops).

Meanwhile my sister, who was using the XPS since the summer when it was reverted to stock (still fast and great for Win 7) is now back to using her ty HP Pavilion ZD8000 (from 2005!) which, if you'll Google/YouTube it, is one of the worst laptops ever made. The overheating has fried the CD drive, the keyboard, and several batteries (so it can't run on battery, only AC power), and it's gone through one screen already. I had to replace all the fans in it once too. And I added RAM, and replaced the hard drive. Yet it is still running Win 7 and working reasonably well, quickly enough for all her needs.

My aunt is using my old Dell Latitude D600 (Pentium M 1.8GHz, etc) from ~2005 as well, which is still running strong.

So, if Dell is to be believed, these new laptops are a step backwards in that that they last significantly shorter lifespans than old machines. I'll keep that tip in mind, Dell. The only thing about Dell which makes them an option for me, on any computer purchase, is their warranties. You get your money's worth if you consider all the repairs that will go into it. I don't know if newer tech that Alienware is using has gotten around the short lifespans of performance laptops but if not, Alienware will eventually go down, and Dell will have to find someone else to outsource their gaming laptops to.

I have a feeling even normal new laptops will have significantly shorter lifespans than the beastly machines from the mid-2000s which don't seem to ever die. The entire industry feels like a scam to me. I actually fly overseas to and from home with a disassembled microATX PC with the sensitive guts in my carry on luggage these days.

 

iv had a few laptops now and i must admit the m1730 has had a stupid amount of problems and been the worst but when its worked its been great. After my m1730 i wasnt going to bother with another gaming laptop and go for a desktop instead but then i found out that msi do gaming laptops. I knew they are very good for their desktop components so thought id give them a go. So far so good and havnt heard of any real problems either, maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel for gaming laptops. Also msi being made in america and not china is a big part as well.

raad11 how does your samsung benchmark compared to the m1730 i bet its still better isnt it? and i bet it cost less than the repairs to your m1730 as well?

 

This will not work. You need 8GB 2X4GB DDR2 200 pin.

 

ok....thanks for that,already got 8gb ram

 

I'll be honest 8gb is more than enough you will only ever use half of it.

 

^ This is true.

 

Anyone for help?

 

Drivers and software to play blu-ray

 

specify which ones? will it display ps3's bluray contents?

 

You mean ps3 games?

 

just installed 3D mark v3,gave me this score-45553.............is that any good?


XPS M1730
geforce 9800GTX SLI
SAMSUNG HN-M750MBB ATA
INTEL(R)CORE(TM)2 DUO CPU T7700 @2.400 GHZ
8 GIG RAM
WINDOWS 7 64 BIT

 

yea ps3 game contents n movies

 

You can only use ps3 stuff on ps3s hence why it's for ps3 but you should be able to play blu-Ray DVD discs on it.

 

Are you referring to 3dmark03?
I would recommend using at least 3dmark06 since that came out around the time the laptop did.
With that I would hope you would see between 11000 and 13500

 

Anyone managed to get Black Ops 2 running yet?

The game won't even launch for me, no error message, just the .exe running in the background. Using the latest graphics and sound drivers.

(Graphics 2x 8800M GTX in SLI; CPU T9300 2.5; RAM 4GB; OS: W7)

 

I had this problem with medal of honor airborne. Uninstall the game, uninstall your physx drivers then install the game agen and let the game install its physx drivers. This may work.

 

Tried you tip, but no change.

Thanks anyway.

 

Hmmm must be a hardware conflict or something.

 

let's get some more info out of you.

Did you acquire the game through steam?
No error comes up, you just click and nothing happens?

What all have you tried doing so far?

 

Hey guys, my M1730 has a T8300 CPU and 9800M GT SLI. Is it worth upgrading to the CPU to X7900? How much more it would perform in games? (DayZ mod for example). X9000 is a bit expensive, so the X7900 would be better.