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

They'll replace the motherboard only, you will keep your current CPU. Tbh, if you know for a fact that your motherboard is ok, you probably are better off refusing them to replace the motherboard. This is because it will be refurbrished, and they are prone to failing after a while.

 

Hi all not been on for a while. I got myself a X9000 cpu and installed seems ok but not impressed with temps.. Running at 2.8mhz on prime 95 i'm getting 69c is that normal... run it at 3.2 i get around 90c... I don't think thats normal...

Setting:
Core speed:2792.1
Multiplier: x 14.0
Bus Speed: 199.4
Rated FSB: 787.8

Cpu: Intel core 2 Extreme X9000

If anyone can advice me if this is right but I suspect its wrong. I have used Artic Silver 5 Thermalpaste so this should good enough. I have also done a burn in as well but temps are just the same. Any advice would be good.

cheers all.

Keith

 

I assume the fans/fan vents are clean? These temps are a bit high for X9000. while 69C is a normal temp for this laptop, 90C is alarming. You can try to undervolt the CPU. Guide can be found here. Should bring the temps down by up to 10C.

 

Reduced the voltage to 1.2 (vid in Throttlestop good tool) and now getting 75 - 80c. Using Prime 95. Cpu running at 3.2 with no hair dryer going on so thats a good thing and reduced temps so not too bad.

Thanks for the help

 

Have you OCed in BIOS? if so, the full fan blast should keep the temps very decent.

At 3.6 Ghz and 1.38V in ThrottleStop, I get around 70C max, after many hours of CPU torture, otherwise in the low 60s.

 

Hi everyone, i'm looking for a X9000 and i wan't to ask you if this model is correct for the M1730:

Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU x9000(ES) it's a Quality Sample stepping C0

It's the right model?

 

Yup! All M1730s take X7900 and X9000 max.

 

I know that support x7900 and x9000 but there are many model of X9000 and some of that are not supported.

 

Never seen people reporting incompatible X9000 on this forum. And there are a lot of people here using different engineering samples.

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

Hey,
So an additional problem surfaced with my xps m1730. When I boot up I now get a message that "The AC power adapter type cannot be determined." even though I have been using the same, dell branded adapter since I've had the laptop. I am guessing this is a motherboard problem or something. Is there a flash of the bios that can fix this or am I stuck trying for a replacement? I am out of warrenty by over a year so replacement would be rough.

Edit:
I went ahead and flashed the bios and there is no difference. So fairly certain its a hardware issue. I am guessing either something with the motherboard or the adapter itself. Anyone else had a similar issue? The laptop still boots and runs, but its just a bit slower since I don't think its getting the required amount of power to run at normal/full speeds.

 

Your adapter seems to be pretty much history, either get another one from Dell or eBay, the latter being far more accessible.

 

Hey everyone. I've had my 1730 for about two years now, and have noticed recently that only one graphics card is registered in the device manager window, and I don't get any SLI options in Nvidia control panel. I haven't noticed any performance hiccups compared to how it used to do, and it used to show SLI options and have both cards showing up and such.

I've installed all updated drivers and everything. Running Windows 7 64 bit. Is there something wrong with my computer? I just want it to work as best as it could. Thanks.

9800mGT sli btw, if that makes any difference.

 

Install the video driver again. That should normally fix it.

 

Any specific way? I installed it as usual again and no difference. Thanks for the help though.

 

this hopefully is not the case for you, however I had the second video card disappear one me, like you described twice, both times the second GPU was simply dead, the problem was only fixed by replacing the gpu, do you have warranty? I still have one of my dead gpu boards and when thats put back into the laptop I only get one gpu, put my good one back and I have 2. I noticed with my dead gpu that sometimes when booting into the bios, it would only display 512MB of video memory (as opposed to 1024mb) which would further back up one card had died, but this didn't happen every time.

 

It says 512mb of memory, but the fans for both GPU's are moving, so I know at least that they are physically working. Thanks for the help guys.

EDIT: And no, I've had it for about 3 years now so it's out of warranty.

 

the fans were still running on mine too One thing you can try, is flash the bios, so either upgrade to a11, or downgrade to a10 and then re-upgrade to a11 and this will sometimes makes the second card appear again, but for me it would only disappear again after locking up the system. sorry to be all doom and gloom lol. theres always the oven trick too, but thats temporary and may mess up your primary gpu which is working.

 

I have A11, and honestly I don't like it, lol. It makes the fans go all the time where they weren't before. Where do I find the old A10 bios?

EDIT: I believe when I did the bios is when the card disappeared. That may be it. I haven't noticed ANY performance difference, so hopefully it's just disappeared.
EDIT2: Didn't work. At least I got rid of that annoying fan ramp up like every 40 seconds though. Thanks for all the help guys. I'm not shelling out 500 bucks for a new card when I might be getting like 4-5 FPS lower. I'll just build a new gaming desktop

 

Hmm I have a odd problem, yesterday was the second time my M1730 "lost one GPU". What I mean is that one GPU wasn´t visible in the bios nor did I have SLI in windows.

First time this happened I reflashed to the A10 bios from A11 and the bios screen showed 1024Mb total video memory.

That first time happened pretty soon after I got the replacement GPU´s 9800m GT´s. I never had this problem with the 8800m GTX SLI GPU´s.

Now this occured yesterday again where the SLI option was gone in Windows and the bios screen only showed 512Mb of video memory.

However when I just switched off the power to the laptop the bios screen showed 1GB video memory again and SLI is there.

I think it´s an odd behaviour and called Dell about it, they were talking about eventually replace the motherboard once more or both the GPU´s and motherboard.

That would the 3rd time they replace my motherboard and 2nd time the GPU´s. I have not decided what to do, the case is open and the swedish Dell guys said he would talk to his superior technician in charge.

Anyone else had this "problem"? And I wonder why he would talk to his superior technician about it. Do they think it´s worth replacing the motherboard once more and the GPU´s once more?

 

I went in and scrubbed out the internals of my 1730 after getting the A11 Bios. That made the fans kick in less, as I had a few hairballs. The fan noise is kind of annoying at first but you get used to it. And it keeps your temps much, much lower.

......

Whenever I visit this thread I feel like the luckies 1730 owner ever. I've had my Beast for nearly four years without a hitch. I made a decision to build a kickass gaming desktop PC once this thing died - that was a year ago. It keeps on ticking. 8 GB of ram and a nice OCZ Agility 2 SSD and the thing runs great.

I've pretty much relegated it to being just a really small desktop though. It sits attached to an external monitor while I move around with my new Llano A8-3800 laptop.

 

Mag, this might be an indication that you could get another laptop. Honestly, 2 replacements are a big deal, and a third one would be proof that that laptop has pretty much lived its potential.

Glad I extended my warranty till march 2013, I'm getting screen tears and sometimes artifacts in games. Also, every once in a while, when fast forwarding in movies, the computer locks and using the mouse clicks results in loud BEEPS from the laptop, but that could have something to do with the CPU being an ES and all.

 

Yeah I also extended the warranty eleron to 2013. Will be interesting to see what they do if they decide to replace anything.

According to support history they made telephone contact today early, however I haven´t got any call to my cellphone.

 

Definitely faulty GPU
same thing happened here awhile ago with one gpu disappearing an reappearing sometimes no sli option in NCP, Dell's Bios showing 1024Mb instead of 2048Mb for 9800mgtx's - also sometimes Device Manager showing one gpu . Tech replaced gpus only , mobo still original.

Thats very poor of them giving you a faulty gpu replacement

 

Yeah and as of today they haven´t called me back. I called the Dell support this time I got ot the irish one and they just said have you installed other drivers. I said that isn´t the problem.

Well I will have to call Dell swedish support on monday again and ask why they haven´t called me back.

As of today the GPU´s are working just fine though.

 

Dudes, sorry to hear about the recent GPU troubles. As always, you guys are prepared with the warranty package so all the best on that front.

 

Just to be sure this CPU is fine for my m1730 right?
Here

This is a very good price but i whant ask if i get a noticeable boost with games (i've a T8300 and i think that i'm CPU limited with 9800m GTX SLI and this CPU).

Sorry for bother you and thank for the help.

 

Yep. And yes, you'll get a noticeable boost, especially in CPU bound games, such as racing games and console ports.

 

Yes I would say it´s a huge boost in 90% of the games out there. At least for me the boost at 3.8GHz is very noticable.

 

Thank you everyone.

 

Has anyone tried the BF3 beta with the M1730?

 

Does anyone know how to remove Ageia Physx procesor ? Thanks .

 

Hi there!
I bought my "beast" used for next to nothing just to mess around with it and have become quite enamored with its slightly dated gaming enthusiast design.

I've started to take it apart and clean the interior and re-apply thermal compound and I am wondering if anyone has had experience with replacing the physx chip/gpu memory thermal pads with thermal compound.

Specifically, can it be done or does it leave a gap between the surfaces? If so, should I just wipe off and keep the original thermal pads or look for better ones on the net?

 

@Consi Pit
Dell XPS M1730 - Graphics Card Upgrade to 8800mGTX - PART 1 - YouTube
The PhysX card is shown at about 8:05 mark. In order to remove it just remove screws holding it and pop it from the board. Very straight forward process.

@Modulor
There is no need to replace PhysX card thermal compound. In fact, the card is a dead weight (no drivers support, performance decreases in games), so you are probably better off removing it altogether. As for applying thermal compound to GPUs and CPU, lots of people on this forum have done it with success. Try searching for it in this and a couple of previous threads. I haven't done it myself (don't feel too comfortable disassembling the whole thing), so can't go into too many details here.

 

Hello,

Just checking in here after several months to see if there are any m1730 owners looking to sell their graphic cards

Tired of dealing with my 8800 gtx's needing bakes to stay alive.

Looking for 8700's or 9800's thanks

I'd even be up for trades... got lots of game systems, PC parts, graphic cards, mobos... monitors... etc

 

You would probably have a better luck on eBay, cause I don't think anyone would sell theirs...

 

Yeah, I wasn't sure if there were any folks with parts from an m1730 that broke down or something. Or if they just had an extra pair of graphic cards after doing an upgrade or something...

Anyways, just thought I'd check.

 

Does anyone plays Fifa 11 ? I have a dual boot now ( xp and vista due to gpu drivers ) . On XP I can play it max. 1920/1200 and 4xAA - stabile 60 fps all of the time . On Vista I can't play this game because of stuttering - na matter what settings and resolution I use . Similar problem with Alpha Protocol - runs great on XP and stutters on Vista . Also one question yet - if You don't mind . Is there any possibility to upload current sli profile to an older version of nV driver ? I think there is no - but I'd like to be sure .

 

Hello my cohorts of long distant pasts!! Good to see the M1730 still going strong and some familiar faces in here.

I have a couple parts, I don't think any gfx cards though. Shoot me a PM when you get a chance with what you're looking for.

 

Seems I have to ask, as ridiculous as it may seem.

Am I the only one that has choppy 1080p playback?
I'm using Media Player Classic Home Cinema and k-lite codec filters, and man, I and utterly pissed that even at 3.6Ghz and 2x9800M GTX I GET CHOPPY PLAYBACK AAAAAAAAAAARRRGH

How are you guys dealing with this? It's driving me bunkers!

 

I use the same software for playback, and I have experienced no problems playing 1080p .mkv, .wmv, .mp4 videos. They were pretty high bitrate as well. over 10k for sure. There are options in this software of hardware accelerating videos, try turning them on/off. To get there right-click anywhere on screen, go to options -> internal filters. And play around with settings there. Also try other players, like VLC.

 

@ eleron911, try Splash player, it does a hell of an excellent job with HD movies.

 

Just a quick question.
My friend got a M1730 with 87M SLI from ebay really cheap with 4 months warranty left on it.
Looks like the gpu is fried and its going for a depot service.
Now the problem is that the original configuration had 88M SLI and it looks like the seller changed the GPU.
So, would it be a problem with different gpu on it and void the warranty ?

 

Yeah I can't seem to find a working combination of drivers for the physx unit, oh well. I ended up polishing the copper shim and putting it back while doing a complete clean up with rubbing alcohol and using arctic silver 5 for the GPUs/CPU.

Now my only problem is controlling the temperature. I've tried all the usual programs and the only thing that seems to work on Win 7 64 is I8kfanGUI in perpetual test mode. Even though it's a rather primitive program with only two fan speeds (low and high) I have it configured to always blow in low fan mode while idle to combat the wide temp variance associated with bios control that has been the likely cause of gpu failure for so many owners.

After finally getting all of that straightened out there are still a couple of issues:

1. when the program kicks the fans into the "high" setting under load it will continue blowing even after the activity has ceased and the temperature has dropped. I have to manually go into the fan control and change one of the values and press apply (an improvised "refresh" function) to get it to acknowledge the decrease in clock speed and temps thus throttling down the fans.

2.



The second problem is that I'm not sure which monitoring program to trust. My gpu temps register in the 70s at idle in speedfan, gpu-z and everest (not pictured) but register in the 40s in I8kfanGUI.

Seeing as the laptop is essentially in better-than-new condition cooling wise after my overhaul and 70c is around what people report their average temps being UNDER LOAD I am inclined to agree with the I8kfangui assessment.


thoughts?

 

As far as I know I8xxxx does not support this laptop ( one of the gpu fan does not work ) . Did you tried A11 bios ? - laptop is much louder , but it is max 53 without load and max 70 under load .

 

Seems to be the case for most people. Then again, some people get Rivatuner to work or even the integrated Nvidia fan profile system (I can't). For me, I8 DOES activate both video card fans. I have visually confirmed it on numerous occasions after half expecting the card to melt from lack of airflow according to forum posts.

IF I8's temp readouts are the thing to go by, then with my current arrangement I am getting better than average idle temps. Until VERY recently I didn't have any games to test the laptops abilities (just a few cpu heavy applications). Left4Dead2 ran flawlessly maxed out, I'm really surprised. I don't think it could have accomplished that kind of performance if the Everest/Speedfan/GPU-z readings were correct and I am idling at 70c.
There may not be any validity in this line of reasoning but: If I take into account that I8 is the only program that can properly interface with my equipment, is it logical to believe its temperature readout is going to be the most accurate account of what's going on?

I have not. I got the impression from people using it that it continues the nasty habit of letting the fans turn off ALL THE WAY when temps are in the acceptable idle range and then turns them full blast as they steadily climb from the lack of airflow and that the "improvement" over A10 has to do with the frequency at which it activates the high fan speed over and over.

Maybe I should stop being scared and try it. It's not like I can't bypass it with I8kfanGUI if it's terrible. OR IS IT?

 

Ah ha! I should have seen this coming. I just installed the A11 bios and now I8kfangui does not work. Which explains the complaints from other people.

Now I don't have any way to test its competency against the A11 bios. I may have very well gone from a setup giving me 48c at idle to one now reporting 54c in SpeedFan/Everest/GPU-z. That is an improvement in temps compared to the 70c they read before but I am still skeptical of the accuracy. Despite the temperature drop, the fans aren't any more active than they were under the control of I8fangui. So it's hard to imagine the idle temperature dropping 16c without a drastic change in the behavior of the fans.

I'm not sure what steps I should take in order to initiate a proper investigation into these numbers short of removing the outer shell and frantically shining a laser thermometer at the GPUs.

Update: I tried Left4Dead2 again this time using the A11 bios instead of A10 + I8kfangui control and the performance is much much worse. I'm really trying to not fall victim to conformation bias here but things aren't looking good. The only explanation in A11's favor would be that it is now lowering my GPU timings in order to achieve the 16c temperature difference that I am seeing in Speedfan/Everest/GPU-z from before and that while using bios A10 & I8kfangui it kept the timings higher at the cost of temps.
Now the counterargument against this (purely from the observation of game performance) would be that if the temps were truly 70c at idle and presumably far beyond that under load it wouldn't have performed as smoothly and effortlessly as it did.

UGH I guess I should revert to bios A10 and document my under-load GPU timings to put this line of inquiry to rest.

You would think it wouldn't have been too hard for Dell to hire a software engineer to create an easy and effective cross OS fan control system (that performs better than the A11 bios) but alas m1730 owners join the ranks as victims of the standard capitalist practice of giving consumers the lowest standard of service quality the majority are willing to accept.

 

I'm starting to get the feeling that most of the information reported is inaccurate regardless of programs used.

-While using the A11 bios the temperatures are reported as lower despite max fan speed being used during my tests in both bios.

-While using the A11 bios there is a significant decline in performance.

So it seems logical to assume the cause would be the A11 bios lowering the core/shader/mem clock on my gpus. However...

-In both the A10 and A11 bios the GPU timings SEEM to be identical at idle and under load.

I'm not sure whether I want to take the performance hit by using A11 or wonder if I'm frying my card with A10. It would seem prudent to err on side of caution but A11 IS quite a bit slower and with no definitive proof of the temps in A10 actually being high it's just a nagging mystery.

One of my friends has suggested that the act of removing the original paste and applying new stuff regardless of the quality or the cleaning of the surfaces can raise the temps due to the low tolerances of laptop hardware. That the dried up thick paste actually performs better because of it. hmmm.

 

Any comment on this?

 

@spradhan01

Recently Dell have a tendency of replacing 8800M GTX with 8700GT GPUs. So, it could very well be that this GPU has been placed there by Dell. If not, it's highly possible Dell wouldn't pay attention to it. Give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is they'll refuse to replace GPU.