**Official Dell XPS M1530 Owner's Lounge**

Well, WOHOO!!!! My EXPRESSCARD SOUND BLASTER X-FI XTREME has shipped. oh wait, I don't have an M1530 to use with it yet. lol I called Dell today and although my ship date says estimated May 21st they said its already built and will ship in 2-3 days. Well, thats better than the estimate at least!

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Got my M1530 today, it's fantastic, screen is bright and crisp. The occasional noise is not a problem at all also.

I want to connect this to my LCD TV using HDMI, will a simple cable like this do the trick? Or can anyone link me to what I do need?

 

Yep, that cable will do fine. Any HDMI cable will/should work as they're all pretty standard. I've found no benefit in using the VERY expensive Monster brand cables, although I only have a 720p 60" Plasma TV. Its digital, it'll work or it won't and you'll know when you try.

Mine shipped today, I purchased it a week ago tuesday, estimated ship date of 5-21-2008 so its shipped very quick in comparison. I can't wait!!!

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

I've read in here somewhere on notebookreview.com that someone using the Sound Blaster X-Fi ExpressCard in the M1530 gives about a second or so delay when routing through the internal laptop speakers (read: no external speakers or headphones attached). Is this true?

Also, when using the HDMI cable to play video/audio through a HD TV (LCD or Plasma) if you have the X-Fi soundcard in the ExpressCard slot, does the audio that goes through the HDMI cable use the X-Fi card, or is the HDMI only using the built-in sound card ? I can't find any info about this.

I can ask Dell if no one knows, I just thought i'd ask it here.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

No audio is being sent on the HDMI output with the Geforce 8600, only the video signal

 

Got my XPS today. Mmmmm .... OK.

Sound is aweful low even at max. I think I read somewhere that there was a fix for this. Maybe turning it up in some control some where. Anyone know how to make the XPS louder?

 

Really??? That sucks. I guess i'll have to break out my Headphone to RCA cable again that I haven't used in a few years. I wont be plugging it into an HDMI receiver so its not gonna be better than stereo sound on movies anyway coming from this laptop, but dang... I thought the HDMI would at least do audio as well. Someone on another forumn said it would. I guess i'll see what I see on Tues/Wed when mine arrives.

Brian

 

I'm not running vista on the machine i'm at right now, but I know in XP if you double-click the sound icon in the systray you can adjust the master volume and the WAVE volume.... if its the same in Vista, Do that and make sure they're both turned up and let us know. Otherwise, one of the complaints i've seen most often is about speaker quality... never about loudness, just that they weren't as good as others they've tried so i'm not sure about that (i'll know in about 4-5 days when mine arrives)

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Make sure you right click on the speaker icon, go to Playback Devices and change it to HDMI for sound through the HDMI.

 

Does that just use the built-in audio to pass through the HDMI port then? Just curious where its getting the audio from. It'd be nice if the X-Fi ExpressCard could provide that audio for obvious reasons.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Is there a level / volume control for the onboard Mics?

 

there is no default sound for hdmi. hdmi audio and video both pass through the hdmi cable. to get the most out of hdmi you plug the hdmi into your laptop the other end into a high end surround sound receiver with hdmi. then hdmi from yer receiver to your television. Otherwise just use the VGA out you can get the same resolution but no sound.

 

Does anyone know where I can find an updated list of drivers? Thanks

 

Try This:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3106106&postcount=866

 

Anyone have any idea why after a formate / reinstall of Media Direct and Vista that now my Bluetooth is not working. The light is not coming on (next to WiFi) and when I try to load the driver, it does not find it.

 

Do you have any unknown devices in the device manager?
edit: Oh, and do you have the WiFi switch in the on position?

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Switch is on. No unknow devices.

Odd too.

I was there prior to the Reinstall of vista. I am checking dells site now to see if the Sys config online util can see it

 

Does anyone have the nice Black XPS Wallpaper they can upload. When I did a reinstall, It did not return my hard drive. Guess it was bloatware they did not ship with the CDs (as least I have not found it yet)

 

If no one gets it to you quickly, I'll have mine on Tuesday (according to DHL). I can send ya whatever you need. I got all the options except the AirCards and the Wireless USB adapter. I'll be dumping a complete ghost image of my M1530 as soon as I get it so I can put it EXACTLY back to factory anytime I want.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

One other thing, when you did the format/reinstall of MediaDirect and Vista, since I dont have mine yet I can't tell..... is it a restore disk that does it all for you (including all base drivers)? Or.... did you install Vista yourself ?

I plan on wiping mine within a day or two and do a fresh install of Vista Ultimate since I own a copy I haven't used yet so I may run into the same stuff you are.

Briain / ChevyNovaLN

 

Good thanks. I think you could probably upload the wallpaper here. It would probably be in the C:\windows\web\wallpaper

 

I found this one on the Dell Downloads and Drivers page for the m1530, but it is too bright. This one looks sorta like the nice black one I am looking for that comes with the XPS

 

That one looks good for now on my IBM A21 (800mhz, 256mb ram, 14.1 TFT, and the best... a fresh install of Win98 SE!!!!) that i'm stuck using while I wait for the M1530. Tick.. tock..Tick...tock.. going nuts waiting so now at least I have a bit of "XPS" on my laptop for now. haha Thx!

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

I used Google Image search and found a few cool Black XPS wallpapers.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d42/CTskydiver/XPS.jpg (1280 x 1024)

I like this one someone did custom (1920 x 1200)
http://nexdev.net/images/customxpswp.jpg

edit: This set is pretty good looking too:
http://docmars.deviantart.com/art/Dell-XPS-Shimmer-67825684


Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

This might be the one you were looking for:

http://www.thabloggers.com/xpsvista/wallpapers/XPS-gaming-wallpaper_blue1.jpg

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

No that is not the one. But that is sweet too - Thanks. I downloaded it.

I actually found the "stock" XPS wallpaper for the m1530 here on a Dell generic Wallpaper search. There are a few others too. But someone had alread emailed it to me.

BUT, also found this link with some Real Dell "Hotties". Someone may have linked me to these, can't remember.

 

MrM1,

If you happen to get bored this weekend, could you write up a quick overview of what you did when you formatted/reinstalled MediaDirect and Vista? I'm going to do the same thing you did about an hour or two after mine arives (first power on will be a BartPE cd so I can Ghost it before ever booting the OS for factory recovery later if needed). I'll then be reinstalling with a fresh install of Vista Ultimate 32-bit for now, until Dell releases support for 64-bit on the M1530 officially. I should be able to see if my bluetooth works or not afterwards.

I'll probably do it a number of times as I want to try and see about getting Ubuntu, Vista Ultimate, and potentially Windows XP (I may just make WinXP a VM within Vista, but we'll see). When I figure it out i'll be writing up a very detailed how-to as i'll be taking notes the entire time, each time.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

brian I pretty much did it exactly like the info the bloatware thread, except I had to use a differenet Dell Wireless network Driver than what was on my Driver disk ( R174292 - get it form dell before you begin the process) and had to use the bluetooth fix patch for downgrading from Vista to XP (??? odd as I did not do this) ... before my Driver disk would see my bluetooth. It appears that once you remove all the drivers from the bluetooth card, the dell lap top can no longer find it.

There was no Uninstalled divice in my Hardware Manager. It was like the BT card was not even there.

 

MrM1

As I don't have it yet and can't look myself, is there possibly something in the bios that may have gotten disabled due to a driver issue/conflict with whatever you were doing. I know some dells let you manage certain items in the bios from the windows OS.. I'm just wondering if something got disabled there without your knowledge.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Nope, tried all that. Bios said it was there and that it should be bing seen when you turn on the wireless deivce switch.

 

Brian, One other thing. If after doing the Vista Reinstall to remove Dell Bloatware .... AND after Vista downloads about 57 patches and fixes you might find one that will not install. It will download, but will fail in the install.

After doing some research I found it was due to having more than 3g of system ram. (I have 4). Here is the Patch name and MS paper on the fix. REMOVE MEMORY TO INSTALL A HOT FIX?? AH NO!!

And you don't have to. You can fake the Patch out with a command line that temporarily shuts down as much memory as needed until the update is done. Check out posts #1304 and 1305

 

haha. what a bunch of crap that is! Again, a good reason why Dell should just freaking support 64-bit now!

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Sorry for sounding stupid, but i have very less knowledge in computers.
Mine one is going to arrive appx. by Wednesday. I want to know if it is important to make a ghost image of my xps. How is it done and why is it done? I don't wanna take any risks with my new xps as this will be my first laptop.
Kindly advise.
Regards.

 

i would personally get rid of all the bloatware then do a ghost image or full backup
Use acronis true image for this , seems to be about the best backup/image software

 

i jst ordered a dell xps m1530!

 

What specs did ya get?

Briain / ChevyNovaLN

 

I ordered my 1530 on the 30th of April, but it's not due to get here until the 30th of May.

Hope it's worth the wait.
I got:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300
Windows Vista Home Premium
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
15.4" lossy widescreen (1440x900)
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
no blu-ray stuff; that's about it

This'll replace my hp desktop which i got several years ago. Out of curiosity I ran a 3dmark06 test. 330 3d marks...which would be laughable if it weren't so sad. I think it averaged less than 1fps through the whole thing. >_> Took all of half an hour, if not more (it has an old 6200 nvidia graphics card). lol

But that's why I'm upgrading anyway. I'm a little scared by all this stuff about the bent key boards and the bad screens and the leaking and the electric shocks and stuff though. :/

 

what problems did you have with your 1330?I was thinking of buying one

 

Hi guys.

I received my 1530 one hour back. All excited . But can open it only when the installation officer arrives. Not that i can't open it now but if i do and there are some damages to it, the company will not be responsible for it. So i decided to wait until tomorrow morning till the installation officer arrives and opens it.

In the meanwhile, can you guys plz help me out with the ghost image? How does it work and how to go about it?

Any and all help will be highly appreciated. Am a little cautious cause this is gonna be my first laptop and i intend to use it for at least 2 to 3 years. So guys please help.

Regards.

 

Does anyone know the visible physical differences there would be between a 1680x1050 LCD and a 1440x900 LCD. Would the Text be smaller on the higher monitor. I ordered a 1680 but they shipped it with a 1440. It is an LG and looks great ..... but for my eyes MAN THE TEXT IS SMALL on the 1440 :d (sucks to get old).

Before I complain, and request a 1680 (and possibly risk getting a grainy monitor) ... Is the text display of the 1680 that much smaller?

 

Yes, I had a 1440x900 and they switched me out to a 1680x1050. I think that the 1680 is pretty small compared to the 1440x900, although the extra working space is nice. I can't imagine how people read on the WUXGA on these things...

 

Agree that !

 

If you are finding the text on the 1400 res small, definitely stay away from the higher res, as it'll be even smaller. Although, you can get Vista to change the font size (of the desktop icons, etc)

 

Hey guys! I received my M1530 last friday. I uninstalled most bloatware and installed some games.

Anyway, do you think I should reformatt and reinstall Vista? (And then Install all the drivers again?) Will the system run faster?

Also, I can't seem to update to Vista SP1. I read it's something about the fingerprint drivers. Has anyone of you updated succesfully to SP1??

Thanks

 

I just got mine today and I have the 1920 x 1200 LCD. Yeah, too small. Currently I'm running it at 1440 x 900 and its actually pretty clear with little to no detectable distortion. I'll set it to 1920 x 1200 once I get some glasses, but until then.... hell no. I should've just saved the bit of money and gotten the lesser native resolution.

BTW, awesome laptop. First thing I did was boot off a CD and dump an image of the hard drive prior to ever booting the OS. Yay, I've got a TRUE factory restore image. Mine came with Bios A08 and i'm not having the touchpad issues some people have stated having. I'm currently messing with the Sound Blaster X-Fi card I ordered along with it. (hehe. yes, I stayed home from work so I could Work From home. yep, working real hard)

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

 

Yanno, had you not said that i'd say I thought it was normal. I just got mine in the mail today and although I don't notice it while i'm typing, when I look at it the top/center of the keyboard seems like its bowing out (up) just a little bit.

The top black piece (has the XPS | M1530 logo and all the buttons, on the left side by the XPS | M1530 logo it was bowed up too. I pressed firmly on it and it popped in 2 different places. Basically, snapped into place. Now it looks normal. Yay build quality. Everything fits nicely after I helped it along.

Briain / ChevyNovaLN

 

ChevyNovaLN, I'm going to give that a try tonight. I just got my M1530 on Friday, and it is great except for that (I think my bulge is located in the center instead of the left). I'd rather deal with that versus grainy screens (LG FTW!), shocks (3-prong power plugs) and other issues. Now, to try the SP1 upgrade and bloatware removal...

 

I just got my M1530 today.. I was wondering what version of laptopvideo2go drivers should I get.. for Vista 32bit

 

I hear ya. I hope I don't run into any of those other issues either. So far i've got about 3 hours of use on it (45 min to dump the Ghost image when I first powered it up) and the rest just exploring how its all supposed to work, so when I reload it I can try and get it back to that point. (just got done downloading the NIC and Wireless drivers, and am about to wipe the hard drive and try the 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate. I just can't run Vista without running Ulimate and was not about to pay another $150 to get it preloaded, as I already own the retail version i tried on a desktop that wasn't capable of running it properly and was subsequently removed)

I got the driverset that someone else pointed me to for x64, so we'll see what happens!

Wish me luck.

 

Couple of questions:

1) Are the bulges something you iron out just by manipulating the laptop? I remember reading a post where some users were attributing the bulge to underlying screws and cables that actually required some handiwork to remove the screw/rearrange the cables.

2) You're still getting shocks with a 3-pronged AC adapter? I was under the impression that only occurred with a 2-pronged one.