**The Official Studio XPS 1645 Intel Core i7 "Owners Lounge" - Part 2

Ive been having a problem with the RGBLED screen on this laptop... At random times, more and more frequently it feels like, I lose control over screen brightness, the functions keys work and quickset pops up and slider moves but nothing happens. I've also tried going into power management and changing it there but nothing happens. By taking out the battery and putting it back in the problem is solved, but then it happens again later, any ideas?

 

I have emailed dell about this, they are sending someone tomorrow to where I am living. The tech will be changing my screen! I love their customer service. btw, do you think I should pay him gratuity or something? and if yes how much?

 

I paid $20 last time someone came. You're better off not paying if you plan to give less than $20 because they will likely feel insulted. They get paid by Dell to do their jobs, but still.

 

The guy who fixed my machine showed up dressed better than me sporting an iPhone, bluetooth headset, and driving a company vehicle. These aren't starving waiters, guys.

 

That is exactly why you shouldn't pay them unless you're willing to pay at least $20 to show your gratitude. They would feel insulted for anything less, imo.

 

I have had 4 dell techs out and never tipped one, Doing so has never crossed my mind.

 

I have a problem not sure if anyone else experiences this.

While gaming (Starcraft 2) I can play fine while power is plugged. But without it being plugged in, the game seems to throttle and becomes very choppy. Does anyone else experience this when gaming or doing anything else?

 

I am willing to pay that 20$, but the main reason behind my question is the moral issue. Some people will consider paying as an insult, others might consider not paying as an insult... And I am not from around here so I wouldn't know how to deal with it. I think I won't be paying anything, it is better if he thinks I am cheap than feeling insulted by me I guess...

 

Did you try the high performance power profile? Probably on battery the CPU/GPU or whatever are not getting the maximum power in order to conserve battery...

 

Did you try the high performance power profile? Probably on battery the CPU/GPU or whatever are not getting the maximum power in order to conserve battery...Does not work either. I tried that too thinking it could be a possibility. Thanks though, any other ideas why this might be happening

 

Doesnt seem to work either. Thanks for the idea, any other suggestions why this is happening?

 

I used to work at a machine shop and I got a tip there, once. A guy brought in a steel table that he want modified and I went above and beyond making it really nice. When the guy returned to pick it up he came back into the shop, found me, and gave me a cash tip. My boss and coworkers were stunned; they'd never seen such a thing!

That said, it never occurred to me to tip the service tech that came to replace the motherboard in my 1645. If one were to go above and beyond somehow, maybe with a free upgrade or something, I'd certainly consider tipping.

 

That's exactly why $20 or more. Don't just give to him. Tell him to go have lunch or something.

 

playing sc2 with my 5730 on all high. ultra is possible but small lag .

 

Oh i envy u!!!!

With the 4670, all are set to medium and shaders set to low works extremely smooth, but with shaders also on Medium there is a little bit of lag.....

Goddamn.... Why is it like this in the Laptop world.... The moment u thyink u have the best machine out there, comes out the upgraded beast..... ....

Dell.... Please replace all our old outdated laptops with the new one....

I am never again going back to laptops... Desktops here i come....

 

Hi all!! its been a long time since i last visited or looked into sxps 1645 forums. . (exams). . . now i'm back and voila it feels so nice to be back!! performancewise my sxps 1645 is doing good these days but i have few questions:

1) the network strength indicator (far left besides wifi n bluetooth indicator) in my laptop doesn work even wen i'm connected to my n seeries belkin router. . do you guys know wats wrong with it??

2)the fibre screen covering my RGBled has got a few scratches from keyboard keys n stopper (the thing the lcd sits on wen i close my lid) although these arent major scratch or something . . but i can make it out during daytime or whenever there is a reflection of light from screen. . . wat shud i do? will the Dell ppl replace the screen for such a small issue??

3)while playing games everything works perfect but there is this once in a while (every 15 mins or so) the game lags/slightly glitches 1-2 frames. . wen i monitored with gpu-z it showed the lag was due to gpu n gpu memory clock working at min level before returning back to full power. . . any ideas wat problem it cud be??

Thanks in advance!

 

Hello there!

1) Mine doesn't light up either, I just assumed it was for mobile broadband.

2) Try the Shaggymac screen protector. Everybody who has it recommends it and I'm one of them. ShaggyMac, Laptop Screen Protector & Keyboard Cover, Laptop Cleaner & Accessories Just go for the 16inch one, it fits nicely.

I think that if you have the advanced policy then they'll actually replace your screen. But you may not get the RGBLED (if you have that in the first place) and they might just have the WLED. Maybe try replacing the material that's scratched? It comes right off and I would have imagined you could just swap it for another. But the cheapest solution would be the shaggymac.

Hope this helps!

 

Hey, if you go with a ShaggyMac to help protect your screen, see this thread. I ended up ordering a Custom Fit one for my 1647, fits the screen/keyboard just "perfectly".
Here are the dimensions:
17"-19" Custom Shop Laptop Screen Protector (SPCustom17)
Color Alloy
Width 15 in
Depth 8 3/4 in
Make & Model Dell XPS 1647

And, here is a 10% coupon code you can use for extra savings: 080709RMN

Cin...

 

Hey can anyone tell me whats wrong with my XPS?
While playing music, the song will randomly skip. Its annoying and idk if its my HDD or something.

 

You are Correct

 

I noticed that Dell are now shipping their 1645's with i7 840. I got mine like a month ago and it came with 820. Is it possible to ask for an upgrade? will they do it for free (I know it's a long shot but..)? if not, how much will it cost and is it worth the upgrade?

btw, I always have around 50% memory use, especially with all those dell stuff running in the background. I think my 4GB should be upgraded... I am not having troubles with games though... is there a way to upgrade my 4gb to 6 or 8 by paying the difference to dell instead of buying the 4GB chips and throwing the 2GB ones?

 

My friend Mr. Manish is currently pursuing B.Tech in computer science and he has to buy a notebook for following purposes:
#programming in computer applications, web designing, advanced java, VLSI, and use of .net, visual studio, etc.
#use of softwares like nero 9, office 2007 and moderate use of photoshop
#watching hd videos and conversion of video formats (like from .mpeg to hd format)
#NO GAMING.

He is confused about these two options:
1) studio xps 1645 with i7-740qm, 4 gb ram, 500gb hdd (7200 rpm), 1 gb ati radeon hd 5730, win 7 professional (64 bit)
2) studio 1558 with i5-540m, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hdd (7200 rpm), 1 gb ati radeon hd 5470, same OS.

in my view the second option can easily serve his purpose but i want the opinion of you all, considering the fact of throttling & overheating in xps 16 and limitations of the graphics card in studio 15.

 

You won't get much of a performance increase with the 840, and Dell will charge you A LOT to change it.

If you're not using 4GB of memory then you don't need any more. Unused RAM isn't going to benefit your performance. Just wait until you start using 80% all the time and then you should think about an upgrade. (plus it'll be much cheaper).

 

I'm in the same boat - just saw that the other day. BlueRay seems to be standard as well now...

 

I guess you could easily warrant the blu ray upgrade if you need it. The CPU might be a bit of a faff though! And who know's what a Dell Techy could mess up if you don't install it yourself.

 

Hi, I would just like some general comments or advice on my machine, since I'm really new to it, and I'm not really sure what to expect. Ok, so I just got the sxps 1645 as a replacement for my troublesome m1330 (which needed hardware repairs about every 2 months). So far, i'm happy with it, it's pretty good! no extreme technical problems as of yet, though it did freeze once...
Thanks to the m1330 and the incredibly number of problems I had with it, my confidence in Dell and their products has eroded a little bit, and I've been checking online to see what kind of problems to expect out of the 1645 (though to Dell's credit, what I received does seem quite nice.) So far, the only thing that seems to come up consistently online is the throttling issue, which I don't think will be a problem for me, since the (refurbished) laptop I got also came with the 130w adapter. I've read about some heat problems with this model, but I'm not too worried about that, because it seems confined to a few cases and not too widespread.
I've also been trying to read through this thread, but honestly, it's too large a thread for me to glean any useful information out of it.

so, here is what I have basically:
sxps 1645 16"
i7 820Q
8gb memory
500gb hdd (7200 rpm)
1gb ati radeon hd 565v
blu ray drive
windows 7 ultimate 64-bit

 

Congrats on the new system.

As you have the i7 820 quad core you will find it gets hot on your lap when on high performance so consider getting a Zalman cooling pad if you use it on your lap. If you're on a desk then it's still advisable for longevity reasons.

Don't block the air vents, you might end up BSOD'ing which isn't great!

If you have the RGBLED then try calibrating it to get accurate colours. If not then you should be fine.

That's all I can think of! If you have a problem just ask and I'm sure somebody knows the answer! Enjoy the system!

 

Thanks!
I really am happy with the system so far. It runs like a dream, especially compared to the technical nightmare that was my old m1330. Don't know what dell was thinking with that system, and i'm glad i don't have to deal with it anymore. Getting use to the 1645 little by little and so far it's really great.

 

That's what I thought but seeing that lots of people are getting stuff changed by dell, I thought I might be able to pass this one through. I am happy with my system but a free upgrade wouldn't have hurt anyone I am currently not running anything on my desktop except that Dell dock which is nice, no need for icons anymore. and the memory is around 50%, I don't see any problems while gaming though, except gta 4 which I am playing with low graphics on 720p. Fallout 3, WoW, Crysis/Warhead, Prince of Persia, Assassin Creed,... all ran without any problems... Probably I will wait till next year to make the upgrade to 8GB. I am considering a fresh win7 install without all those dell's software, but I am not sure where can I get a win 7 dvd? any ideas?

If in case I decided to upgrade now, is there anywhere I can go where they can upgrade my RAM instead of making me pay for the 8GB and use the 2GB sticks as decoration in my room? Which RAM manufacturers do you recommend?

 

michom: Win 7 32/64 can be legally downloaded from digital river.
Here is Win 7 HP 64 iso: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

 

Thanks, but the link path says ms vista, are you sure this is win 7 hp 64? And how did you get that far, I don't have an account on that website. Is there any other way or at least can you show me the site to download from not a direct link to the ISO file?

 

That is the official W7 HP 64 bit by DR/microsoft. Go to google and search for "windows 7 iso download" and click on the first link which leads you to techpp.com with more information. Hope that helps.

 

I've used that same link to do a fresh install of Win7 HP x64 on my laptop, I assure you that it works.

After you download it you'll need this tool to make a bootable DVD or USB of it: http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe

You might be able to use a regular .iso burner, but microsoft recommends to use that tool, so I've never tried without it.

 

Since you said no gaming, the Studio 1558 should be more than enough to meet his needs. The graphics card in the Studio 15 is only a limitation for gaming. It's plenty fast enough to accelerate HD video, and video conversion/encoding is a CPU function, not a GPU one.

 

I agree with kez that you probably don't need more ram, at least not right now. Besides, Dell rapes you with amount they charge you to upgrade RAM. I only got the 6GB because it was the minimum on the EPP 1645 configuration.

You're better off waiting a while and getting 8GB on newegg. You can get this 8GB kit for about $200, less than what Dell charges you to upgrade, it's top-quality, and you can sell your old 2GB chips on ebay.

Newegg.com - OCZ 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model OCZ3M13338GK

 

So do you need to buy a serial number to install this iso, or is it free?

 

You have a Dell which the disc should recognize and install without needing to put in a key. That has been my experience. Otherwise the key should be on your Dell somewhere.

 

And here I was hoping to just install professional over my home premium...knew it was too good to be true!

thanks for the reply though!

 

You need your own license key. MS is providing you with free ISO to make your own disk in case you don't have one. This is useful if you don't want to install all that junk on the Dell disk.

 

I want to make a fresh install on my new SSD and plug it on a 1647 without paying for another license... Can I do that (legally) ? I want to use the license that i bought with my 1647 ! Also, is the Dell disk really full of junk ?

 

Windows versions that come with Dell are OEM and can only be used on the system they are purchased with "legally". There is a law that says MS can't do that and that once you own the software you can do as you like, but MS will make it very difficult on you.

 

So.. replace my hdd for an ssd = bye bye w7 ? : (

 

No, as long as it's on the same computer you're good. What you can't do is take the key for your Dell and use it to install Windows on a different computer.

 

How simple is it to simply swap over all the Windows 7 software from a HDD to a SSD?
I'm thinking about putting my 500Gb HDD in the Zalman 2500 Plus when it's available and using the SSD for my windows software and programs etc.

 

Thanks Led Zappa and seeker moc. +rep.

Check this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ll-studio-xps-16-upgrade-ssd.html#post6540164

I got a last question: im going to buy a 1647 (i said this before : P) with 4 gb ram and im thinking about upgrade it in a few months... So, how many ram slots does the 1647 has ?

Thanks.

 

2 slots, meaning you will have to replace the 2x2 with 2x4 and possibly sell your 2 2gig sticks on Ebay or whatever. My best advice is do what ever you can to get it with 8GB, since that is what you plan on doing shortly anyways.

 

You could start with 6GB(replace existing 2gb with 4gb) for starters. Ebay is loaded with cheap memory. I just got a Samsung 4GB 1333mhz module for under $90.

 

Could someone tell me why my music skips randomly? is it my HDD?

 

Maybe... probably not. grab a copy of DPC latency checker from HERE and run it - if you have red spikes it may be a driver or hardware issue.

Does it always skip or only sometimes?

 

Have you checked the settings of your music player or tried another player? also, does this problem occurs for a specific music album?
if all things are correct then you have got problems with either the drivers or your HDD.