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

I didn't think you could overclock the t series. Wasn't the T9500 multiplier locked at 13?

 

Yes but certain software can change that. The only difference you have with the extreme processors is that they come with preset oc settings that can be applied in bios.

 

Hey guys, looking for some advice here.

I recently had my M1730 apart for regular dust cleaning, and for whatever reason, after reassembling it one of my 9800M GTX has disappeared. Sadly, my extended warranty ran up on the unit about 2 weeks ago. I've attempted driver/hardware reinstalls and nothing has changed, still only reading the single chip. So I've come to a last ditch effort, short of spending more money, and that is to bake the card and see if it recovers the second chip. Any thoughts, tips, suggestions? I'd appreciate any input anyone has on this matter.

 

Did it disappear from the bios as well? Reading only 1024 mb instead of 2048?

 

It had, yes. I actually got a little impatient and decided to go ahead and bake it. I'm happy to say the second chip has returned and I'm able to activate SLI once more. I figured since I was off warranty anyways, I really didn't have much to lose.

 

Good luck, hopefully you didn't just start the cycle of death for your cards.

 

Alright, thinking of a CPU upgrade. Right now I have a T8300. Is it worth upgrading to a T9300 (would I see a boost in games?) and is it possible to overclock it? Maybe you have other recommendations? The T9300 costs 56 dollars, that's with shipping.

 

You can get the t9500 for a little more and it's the next best thing to the x9000. Should play your games fine. It can also be overclocked with software like throttlestop.

 

But is it worth the extra 45 dollars? Also, can you overclock the T9300?

 

The t9300 can be overclocked. dale above could probably clarify it better since he probably has more experience, but from my understanding, due to the locked multiplier throttlestop can't overclock it by itself. I think in order to truly overclock it you need a dual IDA capable motherboard and bios, which I don't know if the M1730 has. Here is a link that explains some of it. Throttlestop Guide use CTRL-F to search out dual ida.

That will allow a minor overclock, but not much. There may also be otherways to overclock the processor as well that I am not familiar with. But in short it is not as simple to do with the extreme processors.

Depending on the games that you play and how CPU intensive they are would determine which would be better for you.

You can sell the T8300 for about $20
You can buy the T9500 for about $75
You can buy the T9300 for about $40
You can buy the X7900 for about $100

You would see more of a performance difference between the T9500 and the T8300. The t9300 would be between the 2 but slightly closer to the T8300.
Benchmarks are not the best way to determine absolute performance or differences, but for a reference of scale in 3dMark06.
T8300 - 2000
T9300 - 2200
T9500 - 2500
X7900 - 2500 stock
X9000 - 2550 stock

X7900 - 2750 @ 3.4 Ghz OC
X9000 - 2825 @ 3.4 Ghz OC

X7900 - 2950 @ 3.6 Ghz OC
X9000 - 3050 @ 3.6 Ghz OC

X7900 - 3200 @ 3.8 Ghz OC
X9000 - 3150 @ 3.7 Ghz OC
X9000 - 3325 @ 3.8 Ghz OC

All give or take 50 - 100 points. The x9000 did seem to have less variation at higher clocks.

dale advocates the T9500 for stock performance. I would even suggest that route if you were only going to use the bios overclock on an x7900 or above.
My M1730 background includes a lot of tweaking and overclocking, which is nice if you are willing to spend enough to take advantage of it.

The extreme processors only really shine if you are going to demand higher overclocks constantly. And then the only real difference between the X7900 and the X9000 is ultimate temperature, with a slightly cooler x9000. It is certainly possible to run both CPU's with long term stability at those clocks (although I would recommend sticking with 3.6 with the X7900). Look up Magnus72 on youtube and this forum to see what a high end M1730 can do with OC and tweaking.

But again the X7900 is a bit more expensive and the X9000 way up there at around $200

One last thing I will mention is that the price of the X7900 has gone up recently. I sold my last X7900 about 6 months back for about $70. And just recently the T9500 and the X7900 were identical in price on Ebay. So basically if you are willing to wait any of the above processors may come down in price. There are plenty of T9300's up there to keep the price stable for a while. So if you can wait, you might want to see if the T9500's come down a little bit to make the price more palatable.

 

Before I installed an X9000, I could overclock my T9300 about 200mhz to 2.70ghz from 2.5ghz using Throttlestop. An X9000 makes a big difference in processor speed and overclocks easily thru the bios (watch out for heat.).

 

That is what I have heard, that you can basically move the multiplier up one notch. And you were able to do that strictly with throttle stop alone?

 

Yes. Although I couldn't see any difference in practical processing speed. The only game I play is Mirror's Edge and after increasing the T9300 by 200mhz using Throttlestop, I couldn't notice any difference in gameplay.

200mhz as a percent of 2.5ghz is just too small an increase to make any noticeable difference. At least that was my experience.

 

Agreed, you will see benchmark difference, but overclocking seems to give diminishing returns anyway, so the only way that it appears to be worth it is with an extreme processor, taking it to the max of 3.6-3.8 Ghz in this application at least. Even with the diminishing returns that is a 28-35% increase in clock speed. Which is actually quite impressive in a laptop now that I stop to think about it.

 

I can't believe this thread is still alive. Had my beast for 3 years straight, it was the only notebook that I kept for so long. That's how much I loved it.
Last year it broke down (fortunately still in warranty) and the reseller gave my money back. The only major issue that I had was with the GPUs, the well known suicidal cards.
Can't believe how good it looked even after 3 years of heavy usage, almost like new.

Well, rest in peace my friend.

 

I'm surprised myself that this thread is still alive. As are both of my M1730s. They are certainly starting to show their age (one of them is basically just used on a desk to do basic stuff and play a few older games), while the other is still handling most of the gaming tasks I throw at it. I'm getting to the point of having to start dipping below medium settings in some games, so I'm beginning my search for a replacement gaming laptop (both a "portable" and a stay at home rig). I must say, even though many users have had issues in the past with this particular beast (myself included), this machine has certainly floored me as far as the test of time. Even though I'm looking to get a new gaming rig, I'm going to keep this M1730 til it is absolutely dead. I have thoroughly enjoyed this machine and it has treated me well over the past ~5 years.

Thanks for all the help in the past!

 

This thread has been pretty active the last couple months.
They were fun and quirky machines to say the least.

 

Even with my new beast I think it was a great machine to have but sadly its had its day now.

 

Hi to all, I installed win8 Pro 64Bit, but I can not find the quickset to manage the colors of the LED, mouse pad and speakers.

Have you found a solution?

hello and thank you very much.

ciao :thumbsup:

 

Can be done in bios.

 

Hello,
I use the one from Dell for Vista.
R182249 is the number.

 

What I saw, thank you. But I thought there was an update sw to handle it on Win8.

thank you anyway

ciao :hi2:

 

Go here: Driver Details | Dell US

I have been using this with my Windows 8 64Bit with no problems.

 

Hi guys, wondering if there is any way to watch HD videos on battery? HD videos work fine when GPU is downclocked at 325MHZ and on battery at 182mhz, it should work too at least 720p ones.But it doesn't, there is something else other than clock speeds.

 

:thumbsup:

 

Hello all

First time poster here, ive seen many people have gotten some really good help from people here so thought i would post my issue.

I have a Dell xps m1730 with the following specs:
Intel core 2 duo extreme X9000 2,8ghz
Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
4gb Ram
2x Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX in sli (512mb each)

Anyway the laptop has been performing fine. Running all the games with no issues. Playing 1080p movies with no difficulty.

The laptop was working perfect with no issues yesterday.

Today i turned it on and attempted to watch lord of the rings extended in 1080p and noticed the video was VERY laggy.

I then loaded up Mafia 2 (which used to run FLAWLESSLY) Now i can barely move in game with so much fps lag.

I uninstalled nvidia drivers, booted in safe mode, ran driver sweeper and removed anything that was left. Re downloaded the nvidia drivers and installed and this has still not fixed the issue.

Im not a pc techie, but im guessing my graphics card hasnt been burnt out, as i have not got a black screen or anything, and the resolution on the desktop is fine.

Can anyone help me out/give me some advice on what to do? Or are the graphics cards need to be replaced?

If they do need to be replaced can i get anything better than the 8800GTX?

Or is there a way i can fix this?

Any help is much appreciated

thanks in advance

as an update

some 720p videos seem to run fine (21 jump street, pirates of caribbean etc)

But games are not running nowhere near as smooth.

1080p videos are big no no (Lots of green colour keep coming up and very laggy)

But as said, 720p runs fine, my resolution and colours are all okay

anyone know what it could be? Or any help on what i could do to try and rectify it?

 

Check in Device Manager under Display adapters and see if you see both cards, if not then you video card maybe going bad.

 

You can also download Dell Support Center (with Win8 I've 3.2.6032.125) and run PC Checkup and select the customized analysis and launch of the 8800M GTX and see the result.

ciao :hi2:

 

I'm looking to do some upgrades on my M1730 to before passing it along to my kids.

Here are the current specs for my Sapphire Blue XPS M1730:

Intel Core Duo Extreme X7900 @ 3.0GHz
4GB Ram - 2x2GB DDR2 667
Dual 8700M GT SLI
128MB AGEIA PhysX
200Gb HD
160Gb HD
8X DVD+/-RW DVD
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WiFi Wireless
Win7 64bit

I've bought, or will in the near future, the following items:
Panasonic UJ 220 2x Blu-Ray BD DVD Burner (To replace the DVD)
128MB SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series SSD (Replace 160GB HD for the OS)
1TB Seagate SSHD (Replace 200GB HD)
8GB G.SKILL (2 x 4GB) DDR2 DDR2 800 (Upgrade memory from 4GB to 8GB)

I'm not sure about is what to replace the dual 8700M video cards with. Should I go with the 8800M GTX or the 9800M GTX video card?

Also I'm not sure what, if anything, I can replace my current Intel 3945 WiFi Card with?

Comments/suggestions greatly appreciated!! Thanks

 

Video cards are very expensive. Out of the two the 8800gtx is a wiser option.

 

How much of a performance boost to you get with the 2GB 9800M GTX vs the 1GB 8800M GTX?

 

It is a bit better but not enough to be spending £200 more than a 8800gtx. My honest opinion after all the money spent to upgrade one of these machines your better off getting a more up-to-date machine.

 

Hi everyone, I've got a huge confusing problem with the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook card (SB0710). I can't seem to get this working properly on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 without my m1730 freezing or crashing. Won't work with default drivers that auto load once you connect the card labeled "Vista" in parenthesis, windows update drivers don't work, and neither does the supposed Windows 7 driver from Creative's site, which is displayed on this list: Creative Worldwide Support
Is there anyone out there who's got this to work on this beast with Win 7 64-bit? And if not, can you guys recommend a better sound card? I love this machine and am pushing it to it's extreme potential. Any help is appreciated.

 

To be honest the internal sound card is more than good enough and you may find the problem is caused by the internal card and drivers clashing with it.

 

I really liked the internal sound card on the M1730, if only for the reason you could switch the headphone jack outputs. I was able to run my 4.1-channel speaker system natively(it used two 3.5mm headphone jacks for output to front and rear channels) without any issues. IIRC it could do 6-channel output if you didn't mind losing the mic jack but I never tried that out. I wish they had similar setups for more modern notebooks.

 

Yer the software for the m1730 will allow u to run 6 channels and then if you want a Mic a usb one is a good option. I had the g35 headset and when I used the the latest software I had the same issues as you but then I installed older software and it worked so try older software and drivers for your creative device. To be fare on new laptops you can do a lot with the jacks. I have 4 on the gt70 and I can choose what I want each one to do.

 

So you recommend I uninstall the internal Sigmatel audio drivers completely, disable the device, then install the x-fi SB0710 original drivers and software off the disc it came with? Can anyone confirm this has worked?

 

Can only try nothing to loose.

 

Hi guys,
I have a problem.My m1730 producing a lot more heat than it used to be.Slowly slowly as the months are passing, the max temp for gpu&cpu is also rising.In games where it used to be around 70s, now it is around 80s.It can even cross 90C which is horrible.What could be the reason? any idea? fans seem to be working fine.I don't clean it.So this can be cuz of dust? So I better open and clean it? ever happened to any one of you?

 

Get it open and give it a nice blow job, clear it out it's prob in need of it to be honest.

 

Just found out my PCMCIA slot is no good, which could be the reason why my sb0710 sound card was glitching so much so as soon as I replace it I'll test the original drivers and software off the disc and confirm whether or not they work on windows 7 64-bit.

 

Ok I've got this baby running my 9800M GTX gpu at about 40 - 42 degrees celcius and the CPU is about the same in room temp at about 60 Farenheit. Here's how I setup my M1730 for maximum cooling and I guarantee you will get similarly awesome results! First you buy incredibly effective thermal paste like "Prolimatech PK-3" (which is what I used) or IC Diamond, buy the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 chip as when you adjust CPU overclock settings on the bios, all the internal fans significantly increase in speed. Then lastly buy an exceptional laptop cooler like the one I've got "ZALMAN ZM-NC3000U".

Now for the adjustments... clean out your CPU and graphic card GPU thoroughly; removing all dust and thermal paste on chips. Replace thermal paste with your new paste, put everything back together but leave the memory door on the bottom plastic removed so that the laptop cooler can blow that nice cool air inside, and finally change the cpu overclock settings for the X9000 to 3.40ghz for increased internal fan speeds and WALA! You're good to go!

 

I thought you was running it through usb but yer that should work once replaced.
P.s in the u.k loose is the correct spelling.

 

I have a Dell XPS M1730 X9000 8GB 98000M-GTX-2GB SLI Vista x64 Segate Momentus XT 1TB Raid 0. It works fine but when I try to play WOW or run 3DMARK Vantage it freezes completly. No blue screens or dump files. What can be wrong?

 

Wah47, do two things:

First, take your laptop outside, take a deep breath, then blow really hard into the ventilation grills at the back and underneath of your laptop. This will dislodge masses of dust.

Second, raise the rear of the laptop from your desk by about 5mm by adding packing material to the rear rubber feet under the laptop. I use a couple of rubber stoppers fixed with superglue.

Works for me and is completely free.

[J]

 

Sounds like overheating.

 

I use a vacum cleaner to clean the fans every 2 to 3 weeks both under and the back and I've already raised my laptop 10mm. I'm thinking it might be my GPU who might me faulty... I have my old 8700M somewhere, maybe I try a swap? The GPU-Z log shows when I played WOW on ultra the GPU was from 80-95 deg C. No OC.

 

It's def overheating. Bit of advice though never ever use a Hoover on computers because Hoover's produce a lot of static and one day you will end up killing something. Anyway a Hoover wont get the dust balls inside the best thing to do it take your card out and give it a real good blow out.

 

Also, if you can, replace the thermal compound. Just make sure you are using some good thermal compound.

 

I did put in my old 8700M and the freezing is gone. The graphics sucks tho compared to the 9800M. So what can be wrong with my card? It has been hot durig playing max 96 deg C. There are a lot of GPU repair guys on ebay, are they any good? I've order a new 9800M and and a cooler build for the M1730, both from the UK. My thermal paste HTCP PLUS is also made in UK. I plan to use the paste on my new GPU when it arrive. The cooler has 4 fans place direct under the GPU and CPU intakes. Maybe I will remove the mem cover and place a fifth fan blowing cool air in the mem slot.