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

Anyone experiencing the 2-3-4-3 beeps problems. You can reproduce those beeps while powering up your laptop with D + Power button.

Thanks
Nikolay

 

When its not Throttling, definately. I'm playing mass effect 2 maxed out, as well as Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age Origins. Crysis runs in gamer mode and Need for Speed shift runs at a fairly high detail setting.

All of those games are running in 1920 x 1080 as well. Definately a performer.

 

hey thanks a lot dude.. b/w i cant find "select/change a skin" under preferences.. any solutions??

 

I've been looking at the Studio XPS 1645 vs. the HP dv7t Quad. I'm leaning toward the Dell due to the smaller footprint and larger screen resolution but I'm definitely concerned about the throttling issue.

While I'm glad to hear that Dell is stepping up on this with the BIOS rev and 130w adapter fix, has anyone heard/seen a statement that new orders will get the 130w adapter at some point? I'm looking to order within the next 7 days, but I may delay that if I'm going to get a machine with a 90w adapter.

 

Bill has mentioned that orders placed around now should get cut in for a 130W adapter. Worst case scenario they send you a 90W and you PM Bill and have a 130W overnighted to you.

 

Mine is currently in production, so i'm hoping they will place the 130w adapter in there, so i don't have to wait an extra day or two in order to fully enjoy my laptop.

but if i do have to, its cool, i'll spend the first day fresh installing 7 and all of my other programs.

 

I wouldn't depend on Bill sending out adapters through PM indefinitely. I believe he said it will be turned over to tech support at some point, so you'd have to deal with those folks.

 

Sorry if it sounds stupid. Can someone tell me what a "PM" to Bill means? Personal Mail?

 

It's not stupid.

PM = Private Message

 

At this point the adapters have not been cut into the production cycle, and won't be until the updated BIOS is released. They could (pleasantly) surprise me and cut in the change over sooner but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. I expect there will be a certain period of time from the BIOS release date until the changeover hits the production floor. I don't have a clue what that time period would be, my experience with the production floor is pretty much non-existent.

 

Just to mention folks for the UK users, I filed a tech support issue with Dell about the throttling issue yesterday and they have immediately agreed to send me a 130w slimline AC adapter by courier which will be delivered Monday. So full marks to Dell.

 

Have been following this and related forums for some time now. Received my studio XPS 1645 about two weeks ago, and seems like a real winner. Haven't noted throttling because I haven't really looked as hard as lots of people on this forum (and my computing needs aren't exactly too demanding), but I called Dell this morning and, I'm happy to say, I had absolutely NO DIFFICULTY WHATSOEVER getting them to ship me a 130W adapter. Just wanted to let people know. Really appreciate everyone's input in helping to get this issue on the road to resolution

 

I have a question to those 1645 users who have also used the M1530. Are the temperatures on the two machines dramatically different? Because I am currently and have been using my friends M1530 for the past several hours and its been surprisingly cool on touch even on the bottom. Is this what I should expect when I receive my new lappy?
see sig for lappy details...

 

Have anyone noticed power adapter wiggles too much when plugged into laptop. Power adapter fits and holds in place well but when touched it feels kind a loose , like the connector inside is about to break.
It feels like the connector on motherboard is loose or something...

None of my previous DELL laptops had this problem.

 

Now that you mention this, I do notice that the power cord can jiggle if touched, which never happened on my inspiron 5140 or 6000....

Not too worried about it though....You don't put a lot of strain on it - unless you are moving around plugged in?

On another issue, has anyone had problems where videos will not play after certain reboots? It seems like on every 2nd reboot, all forms of video that use flash, java streamed video or windows media player will not load, although VLC media player will play them. Is this me needing to do a reinstall of windows? (uch...) or is there some update I should do - I updated to latest codecs, flash, java, etc....and no effect. Could it be the ATI drivers? Do I need to download those beta drivers for CCC?

any help/advice would be great!

Brandon

 

Just downloaded Bios A07

 

Is anyone here who has a 1645 a World of Warcraft player? The primary reason I'm looking at this is I want a mobile platform that can play WoW at decent frame rates. The only other things I need a laptop for are document editing, web browsing, and to VPN in to work. I'm a bit concerned on how the throttling issue will affect frame rates while playing.

 

hey just a question to all the notebook gods out there..... does the latest BIOS contain the updates of all the previous Bioses or its just a "NEW" BIOS???

 

Bios updates are cumulative.

 

THANK YOU......... and a new issue which i just noticed...
I use Batterybar Pro to monitor my laptop battery...

>>4 Days before THE BATTERY WEAR SHOWED "13.4% of 7650 mWh"
>>Yesterday THE BATTERY WEAR SHOWED "16.7% of 7650 mWh"
>>TODAy i see THE BATTERY WEAR SHOWED "20.1% of 7650 mWh"

i hardly keep my 90W adapter plugged in when shutdown and will charge/ discharge accordingly without charging too much (i mean plugged in when laptop is shutdown or something like that)

Any idea to why my battery is wearing out so fast????

 

This laptop runs WoW at pretty good framerates. ThrottleStop + 130W adapter will make it run just fine.

 

Hey guys, idk if any of you know, just thought I'd run it by the XPS communtiy before a long call to to dell. Can in production owners order the 130w adapter or must I wait for the laptop? I've asked this a while age before A07 was out but i'm curious what you all think?

 

Maybe you have mentioned this somewhere, but I couldn't find it. How long have you had your system?

I noticed my battery is already down by 11%, and I haven't had if for two months yet. It shipped on dec 22nd.

My guess would be this is caused by all the heat. Heat isn't very good for a battery's health.

 

i have had mine for a month now.. and its worn out so fast.......... any remedies to this??

 

I my 1645 was a warranty replacement for my m1530. Mine ran really hot due to the graphics card issues. My 1645 is much cooler but now with A07 its running a little warmer but the fan runs a lot more to keep it cool. I would say the 1645 is still cooler. But I dont use it on my lap that much. The 1645 is way cooler than the 1640.

As far as the battery issues people are starting to see I think dell is going to have some major problems with this. The battery in my m1530 died completely when it hit 45% wear level. Mine is already showing 9% and I dont use it on battery that much. Mine is also showing to be way below spec. It shows full capacity at 6924 and designed capacity at 7650. I will probably wait a couple months and then have dell replace the battery.

 

I had an HP laptop once that could recalibrate the battery by booting up while holding down some keys. I'm not sure if Dell has a similar procedure.

Mine shows as designed at 7800, and current full charge capacity 6973. I'll make a log of these values and see how things develop.

I had the same issue on my 9400 a few years ago. Batteries somehow seem to be left out of all these modern techno innovations...

 

I have the Studio XPS 16 w/i7-820, RGB LCD LED, 8GB RAM. I have been using this machine w/o any issue since 12/1/2009 mainly for editing large digital photo files (edit RAW files from Sony DSLR-A900 Full Frame 25 mega pixel camera). I also capture, edit professional video and burn DVD with Adobe Premiere / Encore DVD on this machine w/o any issue or frame drops.

I don't ever intend to play games or DVD movies on my machine. Although, I always keep up todate with the bios and drivers (running bios A07). As a result of reading post on this forum I have talked with Dell support and have a 130w power adapter on the way.

I would like to know how to recognize the Throttling Issue? Please describe what a Throttle issue would look like to a user like myself (crash, freeze, noticeably slow down, over heat)?????????????? Honestly, I feel stupid and hate to admit it but I wouldn't be aware of the Throttling issue w/o reading about it here.

 

Anyone notice slower start ups once you got A07? What about a more active fan?

The start up might just be in my head, but the fan I am certain is running much more now than before.

 

how do you guys find this info on your battery?

 

I'd suggest reading the first post in the throttling threads for a technical explanation, but in simple words it means the computer is being held back from performing like it could. If you are up to date with the bios, have a 130W power supply, and don't see any issues with what you do, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I have re-booted a half dozen times since installing A07. I don't notice more time for boot up but this is subjective (it would have been nice to time it before and after but too late now). As far as the fan running more I'm not sure. Actually the fan is a whisper low sound anyway and I don't have the best hearing (poor hearing is good in this case). Fan running more to me I think would translate to a cooler processor (everything being equal, that's good).

 

Thanks for simple words on this subject. I have a 130w adapter on the way and all drivers and bios up to date. I consider myself to be in good shape. Again, Thanks

 

Must be your batteries guys, or maybe I have a "good battery" of the lot, had mine since november 28th, and i have 7804 of 7804 remaining on the capacity with 0% wear..... I use it on battery on average 2-4 hrs a day, so not sure why you guys are seeing such a large drop? Are you doing a full discharge at least once every week or two?

 

I know this problem has probably been addressed before, but... some types of video cause my laptop to basically just die. When I inserted a normal video DVD, and PowerDVD started to play it, my screen went black and flashed several times, the audio became jittery and distorted, and the entire system locked up. I couldn't get it fixed until I held the power button to shut off. Ejecting the disc didn't fix the problem, only the hard power-off. I've had this same problem when I'm rendering video and have a preview window open - the computer locks up within 15-20 seconds of launching the video. Games work normally, but I'd like to be able to watch a DVD once in a while.

 

Didn't quite notice slower bootups, but I do see the fan running more. Earlier, the fan used to start and stop every few minutes, but now it keeps on running continuously at a medium speed. So the A07 bios has probably addressed the heat issue by a constant running fan(at a medium speed). I find it much better than before, as I used to get irritated by the fan starting and stopping every now and then.

Regarding the DVD ROM drive .. In my case, the drive makes a lot of noise when reading/loading media/ejecting media .. Does the same happen with you guys? Or am I struck with a defective drive?

 

I have been unable to get the 130W adapter from the Norway tech support. They say they have not yet received any such communication from Dell in this regard till now! Poor me..... I hope Dell issues me a 130W adapter soon!

 

Same here..but i had no temperature problems before

Anyone knows if it's possible to control the fans?

 

What version of the bios do you have installed? Updating to a newer version might help. I'm not sure, though.

Many of us saw this problem with playing Flash video in the browser, but your problem doesn't sound the same. For those of us with Flash issues, updating to the latest Flash beta solved the issue.

 

i charge discharge regularly.. i discharge completely atleast thrice a week..

my battery's total capacity has dropped from 7650 MWh to 5845 MWh.. and about the bootup after A07.. i think mine has slowed down too.. .. the bootup was quicker but now it takes over 2 min 30 secs and login takes about a minute.. ... i havent had any fan issues or noises/ continuously running fan after i flashed A07.. (Oh! thats 1 reason to be happy... )

 

Hi,
Is anyone using the 6 cell battery? Does it let the laptop sit flush?

I am thinking about getting one so my laptop will sit flush but want to know if there are any downsides besides battery life.

Thanks

 

oh yeah, quick question, Dell's site lists this laptop as having a 10/100 network adapter? are you kidding me? lol is it a typo or does it really only have a 10/100 in it?

 

Typo for sure. Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet in device manager.

 

It would let the laptop sit level as the battery is flush. BUT, did they ever sell a 6-cell with the 1645? I thought they were all 9-cell...

In any case, many have said that a 9-cell affords better cooling as it allows more airflow under your notebook. In my experience, I tend to agree. Plus, personally, I like having the keyboard at a bit of an angle.

 

Thanks Lancorop
I would prefer the laptop to sit flush but cooling is what has me worried. They do sell a 6 cell battery for this laptop. If anyone is using a 6 cell is there a noticeable difference in cooling?

Thanks.

 

ok thank you!

ordering one today with the WLED screen, blu-ray, bluetooth, 720qm, 128gb ssd, intel 5300, 4gb of ram.

we'll see how long it takes to build lol

 

Help: When I am surfing on the Internet I get a complete lock up three or four times per week. I have to use the power off button to shut down and then reboot. I don't know what is causing the issue (my software load or some driver that needs to be updated). Generally my computer seems to be running very clean and I have a high speed cable. Don't know what else to provide for diagnostics information.

I have updated to bios A07 but had the issue with back several levels (including A04, A05 and A06).

 

Does this happen when your watching flash video? Try updating to the 10.1 flash beta.

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

 

No I don't think Flash Video is the issue. Although I did uninstall Flash Player 10 and installed Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2. I will see what happens over the next few days and post a reply as to the success or failure to fix.

Thanks

 

I had the same type of lockups but it was mostly from watching full screen video on sites like youtube.
I installed the 10.1 flash beta and updated the chipset drivers. I have not had any lockups since.
I used the chipset drivers from the Intel website.

 

My machine was delivered 12/1/09 and is discharded maybe once per week. Attached image you can see it is still showing 7800 capacity and fully charges to that level.

I have also loaded an image showing my processor tempatures for those interested.