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

Hello! I have a beautiful, but unfortunately unusable, Dell XPS M1730 (XPS M1730, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz, 800Mhz, 6M L2 Cache).

Background: I bought the laptop in July 2009. Everything was great, I loved it, and it ran fine. Fast-forward to February 2012, and I started having issues. The laptop's display drivers randomly started crashing and only recovering 25% of the time, the monitor stopped turning on, and the hard disk indicator wasn't blinking. After a bunch of rigmarole with Dell, they told me that it looked like a liquid had been spilled on it and the motherboard, graphics cards, and the entire keyboard area needed to be replaced. Because they said it was a liquid spill, my warranty didn't cover it. I NEVER had food or liquids near the computer and argued it with them. They gave me a discount, but were still adamant that it was my fault. Desperate because it was my only computer and I needed it for work, I coughed up the money and got it repaired. They sent it back and, other than a damaged cover (which took 3 tries to fix because they kept sending damaged covers to replace it), it worked fine for a month or two.

Then, I started having issues with it again, but of course, my warranty had just expired and I was in no position to pay for repairs. I tried to live with it for a while, but couldn't stand it anymore. Thankfully, my job gave me a work laptop to use, so I ended up stashing my Dell away and I haven't really touched it ever since.

Recently, my job hours have become unstable, and I'm worried there may come a time when I don't have the work laptop to rely on anymore. Plus, I really miss gaming on Steam. So, I'm trying to resurrect the beast if I can.

Here's what's happening now: When I first boot up the computer from it being cold, it's fine. As long as I don't do anything too crazy, it'll run like that for about 15 - 20 minutes. After that, though, it starts stuttering/lagging. The screen will freeze for about 3 seconds, and then unfreeze for 3 seconds, freeze for 3, unfreeze for 3, etc. The mouse icon will get "stuck," too. For example, if I'm trying to click on a hyperlink, my icon might look like a cursor for typing. However, to click on something, the "focal point" of the mouse acts as if it's an arrow; so, I have to finagle it around to figure out where that is.

Then, if I keep going, eventually the display drivers will crash. Generally, they will recover the first time. Usually on the second or third time, though, I get the blue screen of death and the computer auto-reboots itself. If I let it reboot and continue trying to use it, the stuttering/lag and crashes happen sooner and eventually the drivers don't recover - it just goes straight to the blue screen.

Now, I'm not tech-savvy at all when it comes to the inner workings of computers. But, from all the research I've done on forums and help sites, I'm thinking the graphics cards might be overheating, causing it to eventually reboot itself because it gets too hot. Does this sound about right to anyone? Dell gave me refurbished parts when they fixed it, and I'm thinking they probably failed.

So, here's my real question....can I fix this without spending thousands of dollars? I REALLY don't have the money to buy a new computer, and other than this one issue, my laptop is perfectly fine. I don't need the latest and greatest for the few Steam games I want to play, and I know it can run Photoshop, all the Microsoft products, and everything else I need for work. I've read on a couple of forums that there are a couple of graphics cards that I could "upgrade" to that don't really improve graphics performance very much, but I'm hoping might stop the overheating issue (if that's what's going on). Or, I wondered if there's some sort of cooling thing I could install on it as it is now without having to replace anything.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Does it sound like I'm on the right track?

Thanks in advance!

 

1. What GPU does it have in it?
2. What O/S are yiou using?
3. What Nvidia Driver version are you using?
4. Last time you dusted out the cooling fan and fins and GPU?

 

1. I have NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT cards (I believe there are two) with 2032 MB "approx. total memory."
2. My computer came with Windows Vista Home Premium.
3. I opened the Direct X Diagnostic Tool to look for the driver (think that's where I should look?). It says the driver version is 8.15.0011.8621 (English) and the date is 6/16/2009. I believe I've tried to update these in the past and had issues. (I do know I tried to update the BIOS and the computer completely freaked out with the fan running constantly and hot. I had to flash that back.)
4. I've never opened the computer myself. I assume Dell gave it a complete onceover when they repaired it, and it started acting up soon after I got it back from them. Looking at it from the outside, the fans all look clean and clear to my eyes. As I mentioned before, Dell replaced my graphics cards, motherboard, and the entire keyboard area. So, I assume the GPU area should be especially clean.

 

You can almost be sure the problem is the video card. There's a shop in Poland selling refurbished 9800 GTX 2GB video cards on eBay at a very reasonable price. I would suggest that you get one of those and install it. Installing a new video card is not all that difficult if you take care and don't break any connectors.

From what you have written the 8700 video card is only 512MB. The 9800 GTX is a major improvement in video performance.

 

Thank you for the information! Do you think that will help with the possible overheating problem? I should mention that the stuttering issue starts with something as simple as opening and running Google Chrome for a few minutes to check my e-mail. It's nothing particularly graphics-intensive.

I've never really opened up a laptop before. (My experience with the inner bits of computers is limited to installing a CD burner into a desktop back in 2000ish.) When you talk about the connectors, are they something simple I can just plug in, or do I have to worry about things being soldered to other pieces?

 

That would indicate GPU problem or bad cooling fans not working on your GPU causing overheating and freezing. What CPU are you using? I got the Extreme x9000 in my system. Also this could be related to your A/V program or too many other programs running in the background could be Malware or too many addons causing system slow down and not having enough RAM can also cause stutter as to many resources are trying to use the same RAM. So now will need a detail specs as to what is in your system??

hmm...all this problems seems to point to a GPU problem I also have the 8700 and it works fine letting run and browse. You might be in need of a new GPU as that might been the old GPU in the system previous instead of replacing they probably used the same old GPU.

 

I'm not in front of the computer right now, but I snagged the following information off of my Dell support site for my service tag (ran a scan on 8/11/14 for the most current configuration):

Processor Information:
Manufacturer: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz
Clock Speed: 2.5Ghz
L2 Cache Size: 6144

BIOS Information:
BIOS Vendor: Dell Inc.
BIOS Version: A11
BIOS Date: 4/23/2010

Memory Information:
Available Memory: 45.44 %
Page File Size: 8,361.6 MB
Available Page File: 87.57 %
Virtual Memory: 8,361.6 MB
Available Virtual Memory: 63.97 %
DIMM_A: 2,048.0 MB
DIMM_B: 2,048.0 MB

I don't think it should have too much to do with the programs running because I'm pretty sure I wiped the system before I sent it off to Dell. Is there something I can screen capture or find in a specs list for the computer that would give you a better idea of what could be going on?

What would replacing the GPU involve, if that's the route I end up having to take?

 

My take I have BIOS A10 and the 8700GTS. Taking the dell apart isn't hard to get to the GPU that unit is pretty big and you will see how big when you remove it. But if you can find another 8700GTS that not expensive would be the route to go but a 8700 going bad is possible if that is the original GPU in the laptop they can go bad. I also have Windows 7x64 Ult Sp1 with Intel x9000 at 2.8Ghz 4gig RAM and 8700GTS like to go 9800GTX but have to save up for that purchase. Unless you can find another working 8700 to test out would be the only way to test whether or not the GPU is faulty but from what you describe just basic browsing seems related to GPU problem but without a good working 8700gts to test against that make diagnosing a little hard to do. Oh yeah you can also get the Service Tag number from the BIOS as well since you said they replaced the board it will have its own Service Tag number in the BIOS check with that to confirm if that is that case?

 

I have two Dell XPS M1730's and neither has had a heating problem. Both have the high performance X9000 cpu which produces more heat than the standerd cpu.

One has a the M9800 GTX 2MB video card and the other the M8800 1MB video card.

I have owned one of these laptops for over three years. When I purchased my first 1730 the GPU was faulty which I replaced with a brand new one. After about twelve months I noticed the GPU was heating up slightly. I completely dissambled the laptop and cleaned out the heatsink and fan. When it came to the GPU I completely dissambled it and cleaned the heatsink and fan. I slso renewed the heat conductive compound and replaced it with MX2. This is supposed to be better than arctic silver and is non conductive. For spare parts I have purchased several items on eBay. Copper shims cna be purchased in various sizes from China on eBay. There are also some larger shims specifically sold for the XPS M1330 which are also useful. I also purchased a sheet of heat conductive silicone which is also useful. You will need a special hex screwdriver to dismantle the GPU. These again can be purchased from an electronics shop or eBay.

The whole exercise takes about an hour to complete and is well worth the effort.

 

If you use copper shims in place of the original heat conductive compound, it is important to use copper shims of the correct thickness so that there isn't a high spot when the GPU heatsink is reassembled. There is one particular eBay seller in China selling a set of 30 copper shims in six thickness sizes. They sell for under $10 with free postage.

 

Howdy guys!

Dunno how many of the old bunch is still around...

Just dropped by to say that my XPS has finally decided it was its time. It was working fine last night, but now there is no more video input, basically I press the ON button, it starts, but no image on the screen. Now, it could be a monitor issue, it could be a motherboard issue or a GPU issue, but I can't know for sure. There was no warning sign before, it simply won't show anything on screen anymore.


... and after 3 GPU replacements, 1 motherboard, 2 chargers and 1 battery, all on warranty, I think it's time I put it to rest.

And with that I also say goodbye to this thread. It's been a blast. Hopefully, there are still among you with usable M1730, it was and still is a beast

Cheers!

 

That's a pessimistic view aren't we... Did you even try a ext monitor hookup? If it was a board issue you wouldn't even get it to start off. And since we have no history besides the components replacement you mentioned no one will even begin to know what failed or why it doesn't start.

 

Well seeing as its out of warranty now it mite not even be worth the cost of the repair, as we all know exactly how expensive the parts for these are.

 

But as anything is expensive to fix new or old...it's about how much value is it to you. Also not everything new is better.

 

True but what you get for your money new is a lot better and I must admit upgrading to my msi was the best move I made with mine. It's so reliable, powerful and great value. Every few months I was throwing a lot of money at my xps. At the end of the day it's still a Dell and when it comes to reliability they don't do to well.

 

There's some of us still knocking about... Haha!

 

Yer my old one is but has had another gpu since the upgrade to my msi.

 

That's is also dependent on the user themselves as well abuse the laptop and you can guarantee it will die sooner then later. No one computer is more reliable then that other as they most likely are made by the same company in China and shipped to each manufacture to sell as their own so your so called "reliability" is very flawed here.

 

Hmmm look at all the faults with the m1730 and compare it to any other and through experience in having my msi 2 years and really putting it through its paces is still going strong unlike my m1730 did. In the second year it needed a new gpu and ram, third it needed another gpu, forth motherboard then another gpu and game display so that was it. Enough was enough. Never mind all the chargers and batteries. You read through this thread and even people that have never played games on theirs have problems. You pay that much money for a laptop and its not what you want. Also it's a gaming laptop it should be able to be worked hard. Now if you ask me that isn't reliable. Also China may make all the parts but you get different quality and sadly Dell use the lowest to be greedy and pocket all the money they can and not worry about rep. Some companies want rep and and to sell good quality products.
You look at any old threads on msi and other good manufactures machines and people don't have a quarter of the amount of problems as Dell's machines do. So that in my eye's is a good judgment for reliability already.

I'll happily help anyone with an m1730 through their issues on here as Iv been through the Same thing but I would never suggest to anyone to get a Dell through experience and if there is a chance for them to change to something else I would 100% recommend it before more Money lost, inconvenience and frustration is caused as it never stops.

 

hi there
i took my m1730 apart to fix the gpu due to black screen ... everything seems ok now except when i move the screen even very slightly it will power off.
Obviously i have done something to the switch that turns the display off when you close the laptop .... is there anyway i can fix this or bypass it?
thanks
matt

 

Hi, I have an M1730 for years, and suddenly one morning it would not start.
It's as if energy is not left in the battery and the power supply is not connected to the plug.
The first time it was turned on but did not start windows, and gradually got worse until only the power light turns on for a second and then turns off.
I first test the power supply, then I changed the dc power jack socket, but still not working.
Anyone have any idea?

 

AFAIK for GPU fix you either had to reflowed the solder or get a remanufacture/tested GPU to fix the dying GPU problem. Also did you verify during dissemble and re-assembly properly? You need to dissemble and check how you re-assembled the XPS again.

 

This sounds more like a board problem...is that the original board in the system? If so could be a cause the board is finally going bad and maybe a board swap from eBay new/used could bring it back to life.

 

AFAIK this is you and not the rest anyone can make that statement reverse M1730 with MSI and you get your same statement as well so this analogy isn't a good test.

What else would they make a gaming if it isn't for gaming purpose built in mind....that's a odd posting....

This is subjective analogy....I have dell laptop and don't have problems your talking about.....like comparing Apples to Oranges again....

Remember not everyone has your selections of laptops where they live...remember this is International forum and you get what you get in your Region not what you want to get...need to keep that grounded in reality here...

 

The chances are is that your video card (GPU) has failed. I suggest that you source a new one on eBay. There's a guy in Poland selling repaired GPU's M9880 GTX at a very reasonable price.

 

I wouldn't trust it for a second. I got a repaired card off eBay and there wasn't even any heat sink paste on the gpu and that was from somewhere in the u.k never mind Poland lol.

 

Well this is why you check the picture and verify and talk to eBay to resolve problems. You may think that but unfortunately your in the minority when it comes to eBay.

 

I am from Poland and .... I do not advise to buy cards from Poland . Recently my cousin brought me the new 8700 sli from the USA in case if my 9800 gtx died . So I guess that my adventure with the Beast still will take some time ...(.since april 2008)

Greet to old xps m1730 users :hi2:

 

October 2008 here.

 

Still alive? How many parts replacements ?

Btw I was worked for all weekend , and I played a few hours on the beast. (Mass Effect 3, FIFA 11, Race ON)
I wonder how about the new games ? For example : Lords of The Fallen , Shadow of Mordor or DA:I ? or FIFA 15 .
Anyone tried may be ?

 

I had crysis 2 on mine and played pretty well.

 

I have had two video cards and a set of hinges, all under warranty. No warranty now though, if the video card goes bad now I may retire it.
The latest games I play is Battlefield 4, I think anything newer will need more power then this computer can give.

 

Hello guys! I'm starting to resurrect my old "Beast". Have you tried Dota 2 on the system? I may use the laptop in LAN parties. I'm using nvidia 270.73 drivers with dota 2 profile imported from the latest ones with nvidia inspector. I'm getting around 30-40 fps in game, but my cpu usage is around 95%. Is it the bottleneck in this game?

Here are my specs:
X9000 at 3.8
9800gtx sli
4GB ram
2x320gb raid 0

 

My x9000 used to run at full usage in all high performance games.

 

I bought one refurbished 9800m GTX SLI from Poland, worked for like a month then died. Now I see there is new ones from Netherlands better to buy that than those from Poland that is refurbished and reballed like they say.

 

Hello.
Is it possible in our laptop on the processor and graphics card to use Coollaboratory Liquid Pro?

 

I dunno about you guys, but my XPS went in a box. Still works (only on external monitors though), after a reballing... but after getting an Asus G751 with the 970m GTX... I could never go back. The cooling, the performance and the looks... it's just impossible. I will keep my XPS for memory purposes only. It was fun while it lasted

 

Mine was sold last year after I repaired it. Still fetched £800. Paid for most of my gt70, People like them.

 

I have a dell xps m1730 gaming laptop, some specs are 2.5ghz core 2 duo, 8700m gt sli cards windows 7 64bit freshly installed, looks like windows vista came with it originally not sure if it was 32bit or 64bit maybe someone in here knows.

I installed win 7 64but fresh and installed few drivers like the ageia physx card and the latest nvidia drivers from nvidia.com for the video card, during the installation of nvidia i chose to install the physx drivers as i thought it will update the separate ageia physx drivers.

I then went into nvidia control panel to enable sli and it ask to reboot the pc so i did but it wont get pass the Blue screen BSOD complaining about nvlddmkm.sys, I assume this BSOD was happening because enabling the sli, so I booted into safe mode and disabled the ageia physx card in device manager and reboot in normal mode. Windows will boot fine so far with sli disable anyone knows how to properly enable sli of this laptop without BSOD issues? Thanks

 

Basically I would like to know is is there a way to have the newest nvidia drivers installed and have sli enable and working without getting blue screen when starting up windows 764bit? Thanks

 

It shouldn't be doing that with the latest drivers. Try going for an older driver.

 

I think M1730 is too old to use the latest video drivers. I and others have had problems with the latest drivers.

The latest drive from Nvidia that I could use was 296.10, any driver after that I would have problems.

I have had good luck with letting Microsoft install their drivers for the card, they are newer then the ones from Nvidia that I could get to work.

The physx is no longer supported by Nvidia, so when you install the new driver it only sees your video card not the physx card. I have removed the card as it is no longer needed.

After installing the drivers from Microsoft and you enable sli and your computer shows a BSOD after you reboot then you may have a bad card.

 

Ok I will try an older driver like mention maybe i''ll try the 296.10 and go from there. So for now rather than physically removing the physx card can i just disable it from device manager and go ahead use only the nvidia control panel for settings right?

 

Try disabling the card for now. Some have said they had problems after disabling it though.

I had the physx card in for years with to problem. The last time I opened my computer to clean the video card fans I removed it to help keep the heat down.

 

Hello everyone, I have a problem:
Changed the video card NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI is now a black screen ... Put another 8700M everything works ..

 

With the 8800m in try loading windows in safe mode, if it works maybe just drivers issue.

 

Where did you get the card from?

 

Card bought in Poland it is not tested, I was told there. Perhaps it is defective? Just a black screen and all.

 

I'm afraid that would be your problem. All these cards coming from Poland etc that are apparently reballed and refurbished are no good. When I bought my so called refurbished 9800gtx it kept freezing under load and when I checked the card there wasn't even any new heat paste used. It was old heat paste all cracked and not even sticking to the heat sink. In the end I got a brand new 8800gtx from China. I went through 3 refurbished cards and they was all duds.

 

Well I installed the 296.10 drivers mentioned above and so far runs good, I first disabled the ageia physx card in device manager since all the newer nvidia drivers bypasses it anyways. I wonder if all i had to do before was disable the ageia physx when trying to run and enable sli on the latest newest drivers?

I'll probably just leave the 296.10 until I run across a game that doesn't run well, right now im playing bullet storm and settings maxed out except shadows at low its what i usually do in all games for years and years where i put the shadows on low. Resolution is at the native which is 1920x1200 game runs smooth. I know this is a older game but i never played it before. I think the game supports sli but i didn't see sli option in the game settings should it have been in there? How do you a supported sli game is running both cards? thanks

Ohh one more question bullet storm is set to 1920x1200 but theres top and bottom black bars, is there a settings in nvidia control panel to fill a games screen?