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

A lot of the refurbished cards and repair people on u.k EBay are no good what so ever. I went through 4 9800 cards that where all overheating and crashing my m1730 as soon as I put them in. In the end I got a refund and bought a new 8800 gtx from China as it was a hell of a lot cheaper and then sold the laptop as I had enough with it all to be honest.

 

Hey guys, what is the very best spec possible for the M1730?

My current spec:

4gb Ram
2 x 9800 GT SLI
120gb SSD
250gb HDD
T9300 processor

Put around £400 into it so far for everything

 

Whats in my Sig but if your thinking on upgrading from your spec it isn't worth it for what it will cost you.

 

I know it can take 8gb ram.

So the only differences are.GTX graphic.cards, x9000 processor and expanded hard drives but I.prefer SSD anyway as it's quicker

Sent too early:

Thanks

 

Sorry all I was really thinking of was gpu and cpu as they are the main things as yes your correct you can also have 8gb ram and ssd drives. Sadly when I had my xps ssd drives wernt available they are a lot faster.

 

It appears my brother's PC has a T8100. Is it worth to upgrade to a T9300? (That's the one I would buy, good price)

 

What sort of prices are they fetching second hand now? I've upgraded to the M17x in my sig and it's now time to send the XPS on to a better home! I'm a bit reluctant to use ebay from the high fees they charge.

 

Hi all

I've just picked up an M1730 from ebay, should be delivered tomorrow or friday, and wanted to check a few things. Below is the spec I know about can be more precise once it turns up.

CPU: not sure but they have said its running at 2.5Ghz
GPU: 8800M SLI
2x200GB HDD
4GB RAM
Vista 32bit

The seller says they have reset to factory settings so the normal Dell stuff is on there.

First and main question is am I better to just leave Vista on there or upgrade to 7? if I do I will be chaning to 64bit as I plan to upgrade the memory at some point.

If I do switch to 7 64bit its going to mean a fresh install as I cant upgrade from a 32bit version. Where would be the best place to get all the drivers? I can see Dells support pages seem to have everything but are there better options?

Re the memory upgrade I know for gaming 4Gb is fine but I do some 3d modelling as well, though on a very old version of Lightwave so the M1730 can handle it fine.

Thanks

 

I would say go for whatever OS you'd prefer. From this thread here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/487570-windows-7-64-bit-xps-m1730.html

Looks like you can use the Vista x64 drivers with Win7 and they'll work correctly. I don't have firsthand experience as I only ran XP and Vista on my old M1730. If you're having trouble finding something specific just let me know; I've got a driver disc I burned a while ago still sitting around. You could likely also find newer drivers supporting the 8800M SLI cards specific to Win7.

I would recommend bumping up to 8GB of RAM if you've got the budget. I lost two RAM slots on my G73 a short while ago and am definitely finding it a bit of a roadblock when doing anything moderately serious... lots of Firefox tabs and streaming Netflix shoots my RAM usage(was 8GB, now 4GB) to about 75-80%.

And, enjoy your machine! I loved my Beast when I had it. I'm thinking about getting another sometime to add to the collection, but for now I'm waiting on the new Precision I've got coming in tomorrow.

 

I had win 7 64 on mine and it ran great. Also you can use all the vista drivers on win 7 without any problems. Win 7 is a hell of a lot more stable than vista and doesn't use as much of your hardware as vista does either.

 

I have almost the same system as yours. Here is what I did:

- Purchased a $100 Zalman notebook cooler, been serving me for the past 4 years and working great
- Place the notebook over the cooler so that the GPU fans are on top of the holes of the cooler, for better air circulation
- Upgraded the Bios to A11, your fans will start running at 50% even when not gaming, but will keep the GPU below 55C, even below 50C if your room is not warm
- I play Skyrim as well and have tweaked the game a lot to look and run great on my 8700m, GPU is in the 60s while gaming

 

I have exactly the same system as yours, except mine has a 8700m SLI

I have been using it since 2008, with Vista, then Windows 7, and now Windows 8 is installed on my beast since the beginning of this year and running on it very smooth and fast without any issues whatsoever. Last Christmas I upgraded my RAM to 8GB ($150) and disabled my RAID-0 configuration to replace one of the disks with a 256GB SSD ($200). I think this upgrade made a big difference, and my Beast is faster than ever before.
Windows 8 automatic updates provides you with some of the Ricoh drivers (2 out of 3 were identified), and I got newer drivers for my ethernet and wireless cards from Intel and Broadcom websites.
I also keep my video driver up to date and play mainly Skyrim, which runs great on high settings after lots of tweak. I am very happy with Windows 8.
My Beast is now almost 5 years old, and I am planning to keep using it for 2 more years.
Last year I had a problem with the power supply which kept running my CPU at 0.5 GHz instead of 2.5 GHz, slowing everything down (unless I wiggle the cord before plugging it to the notebook) so I had to order another power supply for $50 which fixed the problem.

Good luck with your Beast

 

thanks for the quick responses and the info. I'll no doubt get windows 7 on it then, still iffy about 8 though have it on my home system.

With the video drivers dells site has drivers for 8700 and 9800 but not 8800. I know the 9800 is just 8800 rebranded so is it the same drivers? I've read a few things about modified video drivers as well. Are they a better option than the official ones?

 

Just get the latest drivers from the nvidia site then if you want a bit more power you can get msi afterburner and up your clock speeds.

 

Thanks.

Win 7 on there now and all my drivers sorted. Really surprised that Nvidia keeps there drivers up to date for older cards. I've always had AMD till now and with them they just drop them after a couple of years and you have to go trawling through trying to find drivers that havent been touched in years.

 

Well for the price tag on nvidia gpu's I would hope they keep the drivers up to date lol.

 

I never really cared about the drivers on the Dell website if I could find newer drivers on the manufacturer's website, or even when Windows Updates provide me newer drivers.

Below are some notes I wrote to myself when I used to format my beast with Windows 7, showing the order of installing the drivers
(By DVD I was referring to the drivers disk which came with the notebook)

Chipset (Drivers on the DVD)
Ricoh (Drivers on the DVD)
Audio (Windows 7 already has latest drivers)
Webcam (Drivers on the DVD)
Touchpad (Drivers on the DVD)
Auxiliary Display Application (Drivers on the DVD)
PhysX (Drivers on the DVD)
Blutooth (Drivers on the DVD but maybe no need to install)
LAN (Newer drivers from Broadcom website)
Wireless (Newer drivers from Intel website)
Video (Newer drivers from Nvidia website)

 

Anyone know of a good fix for the gamepanel LCD? ..It lights up but displays no info(sometimes it flickers). I reinstalled XP from 7 (both 32 bit) to see if I could get this thing working again and no luck. I've downloaded multiple driver versions as well as deleted and reinstalled my USBs from the device manager still nothing, XPS does not display when booting anymore....

 

It sounds like the LCD is going bad. You might try unplugging then plugging the LCD back in to see if it is not a bad connection.

 

LCD manager identifies the screen no problem (blinks when I click the identify button) I've disconnected the screen from the motherboard and checked all the wires for continuity. No problem there.

Think it could be the screen itself that has bit the dust? Also tried SirReals LCD applet...it shows up on my desktop and says the screen is unresponsive...

 

Sorry I wasn't clearer before, the backlight flickers (about once every 3 seconds) when I put the slider for the brightness in the LCD manager directly in the middle...

 

Try the very first Logitech game panel software for one of the Logitech LCD keyboards.

 

I went to logitech's ftp site and downloaded LCD manager 3.06.109. Screen is still blank.

 

I can't remember what one it was I used now but I remember I tried loads and only the very first game panel driver released worked. I'll see if I can find it for you.

 

They had it on the Logitech site last year but looks like they got rid of it. Try looking for a V.3.06 download or earlier.

 

If you do happen to find it please post it, I'm still looking.... Thanks!!

 

One of the guys On here must have it.

 

I don't have the time exactly at the moment but I burned a driver CD for the M1730 several years back; it might have an older version of the LCD software. I only ran it with Vista x64 but I never had a problem with the gaming panel. I'll check when I get home tonight.

 

Please if you could check for me that would be great!!

Currently, I found and downloaded game panel manager v 2.02.101 and it's still not displaying anything. This thing has really got me stumped. Here is shot of it with the top panel removed....

 

If the driver from Dell does not work, then the driver from Logitech will not help.
The driver from Logitech will just give you more options for games.
I use the driver from Dell with Windows 8. The Logitech driver will not work in Windows 8.
If you don’t get see XPS in the panel with no drivers installed then your LCD is bad.

 

I think I have the worst luck EVER. I was looking at ordering a replacement gamepanel assembly last night and the backlight of the 17" display went out...now I'm looking for a new screen too. I looked at a few guys online that have replaced/disassembled the lid/screen. Anyone have any words of caution or advice against this? .... Also, now my device manager says I'm missing a PCI device ...bus 15......could this be related? The little bit of searching i did says its physX related but I'm not sure where to go from there. I have 8700 gt cards with the latest drivers from NVidia.

 

That is some bad luck. The worst part is last month a friend parted out his 1730 on ebay because of a bad video card, and I know the other part worked fine.
If the PCI device is your physX card, you just have to install the drivers for Windows to see it.

 

Wow what a tragedy. Parted out over a video card...He didn't think it would be worth it to just replace it? I can only assume he is moving on to bigger and better things....i found some whole lid assemblies on eBay... Looks like 75-120USD for a new screen/lid... I guess it's the better option than trying to replace bulbs, the inverter, or the LCD panel itself. Pretty bummed but I suppose it could be worse, and it is going on 7 years old now

 

It's because the video cards On these are just as much as a new laptop and to be honest they can't really hack it anymore. Don't get me wrong the m1730 is an amazing machine but the amount of faults you have with them just lets it down completely.

 

If it is the aegia PhysX card, only the 8700mgt would benefit from it. The 8800 and 9800 perform better without it.
It sounds like you have a bad backlight. Definitely not uncommon on these old CFL systems. If you are handy with a set of tools and disassembling computers, replacing an LCD panel is not difficult if it includes the inverter and bulb as it can be replaced as one unit. Buying an entire unit is much easier though so long as it includes all your same antennas, otherwise you will end up opening up the lid anyway.

 

Hey guys,

I've recently purchased a second hand M1730. It's in surprising condition (everything still looks nice / runs well), and the specifications are as following:

T8300
4GB 667
8800M GTX SLI

Now I sold it to a friend of mine, and he's planning to put an SSD in it, which would help it's real world desktop performance a lot. The old 160 GB HDD in it is quite slow and I feel it's holding the poor machine back. I also feel that the T8300 that's in it at the moment is severely bottle necking the thing, as in games like Borderlands 2, we witness about ~50 to 70% GPU load spread amongst both 8800's, yet the CPU is at a permanent 100%. I suspect that giving the thing an X7900, or maybe an X9000 if I can come by it at a decent price would be an excellent idea to give it a bit more bang.

Would that be a decent idea? The price is not that bad these days, with the X7900's going for about ~$100, and we both think that the laptop is still quite worth it considering the really decent screen, and the overall 'cool factor' the machine has.

 

I purchased my M1730 about 12 months ago. I have always admired these machines. When I purchased it, I knew the video card was faulty. I replaced it with a brand new M9800 2GB GTX. I also found the hard drives to be a little slow and small. I replaced the two 160GB ones with a 256SSD and a Seagate 750GB hybrid one. This improved the boot-up times considerably. I also replaced the CPU (2.4ghz) with an X9000. This also improved the performance considerably.

The bottom line with upgrades is that it depends on how much money you want to spend on the laptop and how long you want to keep it. I also like the bright screen. I don't play games on mine. I just use it for general use and as a desktop replacement. It has a very poor battery life, but that doesn't bother me too much.
Mine runs 24 hours a day seven days a week. I have the laptop raised on a small stand to help with the cooling. The M 1730 has worked well for me to date. If I have problems with the hardware, I just source replacement parts on eBay. I liked the M1730 so much, I purchased a second one (originally for spare parts). It had a blown video card. I replaced it with a brand new 8800M GTX and new it too works fine. I gave the second machine to my wife.

 

Try Logitech's FTP site. You will find all the old drivers there. I posted a link to the site on this thread a few months back.

 

In the mean time we've stuck an SSD and a 7200 RMP drive in there. This made the laptop a lot more responsive and snappy in everyday use. The person using it now likes it a lot, and I feel he's planning on using it for quite a bit, so sinking a bit of money in it isn't that much of an issue. I've seen the numbers between the X7900 and the X9000, and am not completely convinced of the merits that the X9000 offers, at the price point it goes for.

We had a bit of a problem with the cracking and popping sound, but thankfully after fiddling for a bit with the wireless driver, this also seems solved.

Also: the 8800M GTX SLI that's in there at the moment runs surprisingly cool. Never hits more than 80C, and mostly runs at about 70 stressed, which I find impressive.

 

The beast is back in action! I replaced the lid only to find out the replacement screen i got had a handful of burned out pixels and funny spot and had tiny horizontal lines i could see across the entire screen...needless to say i wasnt impressed so finally gave in and swapped my old inverter for the new one, plugged into the old screen and SHAAAZAM! the old screen is working like new again! FYI, do yourself a favor and stay away from LG Phillips screens for your M1730 and get the Samsung if you ever have to get a replacement. WHAT A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! Also got my new gamepanel display in and it works like a charm!! nice to see it working again !!! Thanks for all the help everybody!! Will be upgrading the 8700M GT, RAM, and HDD soon!!

 

Good to hear you got it working again.

 

Incredibly, the beast and the thread still alive :thumbsup:. Has anyone used the latest nVidia drivers ? . I still have problems with the games in SLI on non-Dell drivers. So there is no benefit from SLI ...

 

I have always ran the latest from Nvidia Drivers. they work great.
My beast has returned been over a year since it quit working on me, finally took it apart and reflowed the video cards and now she powers back up.
I do have a question though; Drivers I need the ones like Quickset for all my lights and LCD I am now running win7. I had been running win7 before and had it all installed. But now i cant download Quickset from dell and the LCD program they have there is crap I had been running a LCD driver/program from Logitech but i guess the new version dont support us anymore.

I mostly want them to drivers/programs any help please

 

I Have this 2 website with drivers, hope it helps
Dell XPS M1730 - 'The Beast': XPS M1730 Vista Drivers (32-bit)
Dell XPS M1730 - 'The Beast': XPS M1730 Vista Drivers (64-bit)

 

Try the drivers from this link:-


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

The two files are:-

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

 

Well have to admit this helped get my LCD working. I bought the used M1730 and did a mistake and broke the LCD connector at the board and ordered a replaced board and it works and now learned from mistake look before taking apart and look again. But This driver did work I tried newer ones but those didn't work or failed to load at all but this order driver did work good for my M1730 so I am satisfied.

 

Hi Guys!

I recently bought an M1730. Since then we had several adventures, like replacing the T9300 with X9100 (pin mod + throttlestop), modding the wings from grey to black etc... Now I experienced some weird stuff with sound and I would like to know if someone else noticed the same.

The problem: There is a weird interference audible when using earphones plugged into any of the audio out plugs. I have to use a USB headset if I want complete silence. The weird noise in the audio ports changes with GPU load and screen content. (Eg. lot of whites on thescreen makes the noise louder.). Did anyone notice something like this?

 

@ Voltage84 when your using your M1730 in explorer windows can you do a Ctrl-A and highlight all the folder or no? I tried that and my computer just beeps and beeps if I try that.

 

Hello all,

First post here and I'm wondering if you can help me?

I have a Dell XPS M1730 and a few moments ago the laptop will not boot up to w7. I have these warning lights flashing which according to here means that "no memory installed". I have changed the memory but the problem still persists.

I have tried the screen test by pressing D and the power button and there seems to be nothing wrong with the screen. I then tried the FN + power button for the diagnostics test but the laptop will not perform this test.

:thumbsup:

 

Have you tried to remove the CMOS battery sometimes in Dell doing this will reset the memory read thus allowing you to replace your memory with a larger if going from 4gig on two banks to 8gig on two bank so it will recognize the correct amount.