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

Just wondering what the average acceptable temp range is for this laptop? When should I start worrying its too hot?
Thanks in advance

 

I know it crazy but that is the way I shop and always purchase way more than I really need but then again I'm a little crazy myself so i guess that explains it.

As well I am Microsoft (MCDST Certified) and ComTIA (A+ & Network+ Certified) so I can't even blame it on (I do not know what I am doing.)

Crazy and Compulsive, not a good combination.

I do hope that it does work out for you and everybody else and thanks for all the time you spent troubleshooting the issue.

 

My laptop that originally had that license on it broke. As long as I have it installed on one system at a time, I think that's fine. And I got the license as part of the IEEE/MSDNA thing where you could get like 10 licenses for Win7 Professional. Of course they removed that option a week or so later because (I assume) of people making bogus .edu mail accounts and grabbing as many licenses as they could.

 

New owner here. I just wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this thread - lots of great information!

Cheers

 

Would you mind using PC Wizzard ( http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php) to find out who the manufacturers of each of your memory sticks is?

 

how many fps in GTA 4? Is it playable? And with what settings? Thanks

 

no; not to my knowledge. When I ordered my machine, I requested that they throw one in for free. They pushed back a little but agreed (I had to sign up for the dell preferred account).

 

Yes, I have Leather/Red and am in the US

 

Sure.

Manufacturers:
4GB module: Hyundai Electronics
2GB module: Elpida

I thought Hyundai only made vehicles, and I have never heard of Elpida. The more you know!

Let me know if there's any other spec or test you want me to check.

 

Just received my 1645, and other than having to remove McCrappie via safe mode, LOVIN IT !!! Not getting any throttling or overheating so far. Just have installed Tomb Raider Anniversary and it's running great on default settings. Am actually impressed with this laptop after getting 2 consecutive defective laptops, (Alienware m15x-defective express card slot-spring broken, and a Studio 1557-Blu-ray drive), this is performing well for me.

 

I just ordered my laptop on 12/2. Got a pretty good deal on it, along with the 20% Bing cashback. Started reading the threads on here and started to have second thoughts so I figured I would try and cancel and see if things get resolved or if something better comes along. Tried 2 times, and they wouldn't let me cancel since it was in production. However, the 2nd person I talked with said my laptop has been built and tested and is on its way to the states. Not sure if that is true or not, but hopefully it is, as my current EDD is 12/30/09. Not sure how long it takes for them to ship from Malaysia to the US.

Anyway, looks like I will most likely accept delivery, unless a good deal comes up on the Envy. I also was looking at the ASUS G51J-A1, as I currently have an ASUS V1JP and really liked it.

 

YEah, Dell's return policy is awesome so you don't have to worry really.

 

Does anyone else notice that if you place three fingers on the trackpad (not swiping or anything) that notepad opens itself up? Its kind of annoying and I see no reason why it should do that or how to change it.

 

mine doesn't do that

 

Erm....nope, doesnt happen for me.

 

TOO FUNNY!

That has happened twice with my 1557. Don't know what the heck it's doing.

 

Start>type in 'mouse'>enter>device settings>Settings...>Expand Application Gestures>Three Fingers Down>Uncheck

I like using it to open notepad. You can either change the program it opens, or disable it entirely

xoAmyox and nick,

If it doesn't do that for you (and you want that functionality), you need to download the latest driver for the Synaptics Touchpad.

 

Maybe I'm going crazy but I do not see "Expand Application Gestures" at all. Does anybody have a screenshot of this? Been playing around with the mouse settings for two days and have not found those settings

 

Well, it doesn't actually say "expand application gestures." I meant to say "Click the plus sign next to 'Application Gestures'".

Edit: I updated my other post with a picture of the setting. Sorry for the confusion.

 

hmm mine does also.. wierd

 

I honestly have no idea how to get to that screen in your attachment. When I get into the mouse settings, this is what I see.

 

Ah ok. So I guess this is the official Dell driver. You can try going to the Dell Touchpad tab and look around in there. I am not using that driver so I can't see the configuration options. I'm using the drivers from the Synaptics website rather than Dell's. Although I think when I did my clean install of Windows, windows update automatically downloaded the Synaptics ones for me.

 

That solved it. Thanks a lot bryan. Really is sad that Dell's drivers sucks.

 

this is interesting. I downloaded the newest drivers and tried to install it twice, but when i restart, it still has the old driver (from 6/09).

 

I had the same issue. Best bet is just to download the driver directly from Synaptics website that Bryan505 linked.

 

Yeah, I read your post and you didn't indicate that. You merely stated that you didn't run into any of the issues you saw in this thread.

It's fine that the computer does most normal things fine, but this machine is rated and designed to do so much more.

You have essentially, for lack of a better analogy, bought a Porsche and drive it only in suburban neighbourhoods, but never over a speed of 30mph. That's fine, and your prerogative, but that doesn't address the problem that your Porsche chokes when you try to hit 55-75mph...

What I intended to point out or even get as a clarification from you, was that you did indeed have the throttling issue, which you probably do.

It may not affect you because you don't game with it, but that doesn't change the fact that the machine IS flawed. As someone else pointed out, you could have achieved the same things with a sub $500 machine.

If you didn't have throttling issues, then I would actually be happier, because it would mean that Dell has some machines that actually do perform correctly.

EDIT: Sorry if I came across snarky, it's hard to convey inflection or tone over text.

 

Can anyone tell me if the screen size (15.6" or 16") effect the laptop size at all?

 

No sir, it does not. The shell is the same regardless of which screen you select.

 

Virtualsk: Congratulations on being the first in India to receive this beauty... But just wanted to ask u that have u faced any "throttling" issues while using it???

 

well, this laptop doesn't like hulu. locks up on full screen every time...

 

if other videos play full screen on your laptop, the issue is a software issue.

 

Can i just ask, how do you people test your machines for throttling? Is it a software that you have to download/install, or a utility that comes on the machine?

I am receiving mine tomorrow - loaded with Win7 Ultimate; and would like to find out if it suffers from this issue.

Thanks for any help.

 

You have no reason to be sorry, Its just that everybody has different reasons why they purchase something, Its like I stated in another post I always make purchases that go way beyond what I need, as long as it does what I want it does not matter, the throttling issue will not ever effect me and it hasn't. It is now also the second time that somebody has brought to my attention that I could have spent less money for what I do, I know this as I am a certified tech, money is not an issue, I saw it, I liked it and I bought it. Maybe next week I'll get the Alien Ware model, but I am not sure, I probably should donate to a charity that would be better and nicer.

FYI, I also am not insensitive to the issue that is going on and as I said before I hope that the issue is resolved for everybody else that needs it to work at its maximum capacity, I hope that you have not mistaken my posts in any way as I was just posting to let others know that if you want to purchase it and use it in a normal manner it works just fine.

Have a nice day

 

Apologies if this is placed in the wrong location. I am looking to order a XPS 1645 but am still confused despite various communication with Dell about what chipset is used for the 1645 (icore7) model is it the PM55 or the PM45 as listed on Dell's web site.
A screenshot of PC WIZARD's system summary
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
from a 1645 running a Core i7 720QM CPU would be very much appreciated

 

The chipset is P55

 

Thank you Bryan that clears that up perfectly. I have sent a note to Dell so with any luck they will add some clarity to their web site on this subject.

 

There are a couple of threads about issues with flash. I know that anytime I try to fullscreen anything that uses flash I get "lockups". I used the quotes because the machine is not actually locked up, just so bogged down and non-responsive that for all practical purposes it is locked up.

Try it in Firefox if you have it installed. So far I have not had this issue going to the same sites with Firefox. I have made sure that the latest version of flash and shockwave are installed in IE but it does not seem to help.

 

I actually had this issue with Chrome yesterday. I full screened a Facebook game and about five or so minutes later, my machine slowed to a crawl and redrawing took forever. I eventually had to force restart.

 

Fyi, I just checked out hulu and was able to go full screen on both IE and FireFox, no lock-ups at all. Flash seems to work just fine.

 

[Nevermind!]

 

Update on my blu ray issue:

I download and tested a few software which plays blu-ray. And I got my xps to play within 30 secs with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum. Just the initial load took a bit, but after that, it was smooth.

With the default Dell's PowerDvd DX 8.xxx, it took about 5 minutes to load my kung fu panda. Every subchapter screen, it would delay with a blank screen for a minute.

I have also try slysoft's AnyDvd Hd and it worked like a charm, I can play the mt2s files with Windows media player, but freezes my VLC player. But for some reason, the media player picks up the wrong language when playing the mt2s files.

I also tried PowerDVD 9, which also took around 4 minutes. Same issue as the version 8.

I also download the trial WinDVD Pro 2010 and gave it a shot. I put in the blu-ray disc and it told me that I had an invalid format disc. LOL, so, I gave up on this software.

Hope this helps someone else who had the same issue as me.

Now running on my machine, I have both the dell PowerDVD DX and the ArcSoft.

 

I have have the same "Base score: 5.9 (Determined by lowest subscore)"
darn harddrive.

 

I thought Windows Media Player could handle Blu-Ray playback?

 

80C is the maximum I hit on the i7-720QM. Should be similar for the i7-820QM.

85+ should be worrisome.

Realtemp GT is for Gulftown, six-cores. That's why when you open it, there is extra room for two more senors, but obviously there is nothing there because we have quad-cores.

Where did you get the idea it could handle BR playback? It definitely cannot. That's why if you buy a commercial Blu-Ray drive, there is usually software included. 7 can do Blu-ray burning, but that's far different from decoding BR for playback. PowerDVD DX (included if you get the BR drive from Dell) can work inside Windows Media Center, but you obviously need PowerDVD DX installed.

There might be free software, but none that I know of.

~Ibrahim~

 

Codec, maybe???

Haven't looked into BD playback on laptops yet (that's what my PS3 and 50" SXRD is for )

 

regarding BluRay playback.

i posted this a few pages back.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5591960&postcount=1192

 

it should play bluray otherwise it is false advertising and why would u have a 1645 with a bluray combo and not be able to play bluray.. ? anyway there are software but you might have to purchase it. *wink*. yes purchase it from the "website" and get your ball rolling. also if your system is bluray combo or burner inclusive you should receive the software preinstalled but if you did a full image of the system (clean install also) some utilities are not included in the CDs dell has so you need to go to dells website and go to support, model then the softwares but i dont think the facial recognition is included in those list so the software that plays bluray might not. i can play bluray with my old old old toshiba sat pro a210 with the right software so you should be playing it as it is a STREAM folder with media content.

 

I play Hulu full screen on Firefox. I've experienced the same extreme slow down issue. It doesn't happen right away, though. I've been able to play videos for a while before seeing the slowdown.

I haven't had much time but as soon as I can I'll do more Hulu testing.

 

How many so-dimm slots are in this machine?
I want to upgrade to 8GB but if there is only 2 slots I cannot afford to pay $300 for each 4GB stick.

 

Blu-ray playback on PCs is not in the best state, the only way I can play blu-ray discs reliably on PC is by ripping them first. I've tried all commercial player software, they all had at least one quirk that made them unacceptible.