Top 10 Questions about the M1530

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Remember that important *30 days* return policy!


Cin

 

Hey folks, I think I know the answer to this but the Dell site shows conflicting info. Can the M1530 handle 8GBs of RAM? You can configure it w/8 but when you go to the tech specs section it only shows a max of 4. Thoughts?

- M

 

Yes it can handle 8GB of RAM.

 

Agreed. Mine has 8gigs of ram but you need xp 64 to support it

 

Is normal to have a higher core temperature when plugged in?
My m1530 is undervolted using RMclock and is roughly 34-36 degrees (according to RMclock) when plugged in and 28-30 on battery.
Is this normal or can you think of any reasons?
It's a 6 cell battery if that would have any effect.
Cheers

 

well could have something to do with your power management.
Could have 100% processor performance when plugged in as opposed to the power saving downclocking when its on battery.

 

whats the maximum memory speed supported? does the m1530 support pc6400 memory modules running at their original speed that is. thx!

 

it can support pc6400 (800mhz) memory but it will only operate at 667mhz speed. Dell strongly recommends kingston (eventhough my lappy comes with slow hynix memory).

If you use 800mhz, it will underclock at 667mhz.....but the gud thing about it is that it will run on tighter timings. My 667 2gb hynix memory has a 4.8 WEI index. When i put 800mhz 4gb Kingston mem on my M1530, it now has 5-5-5-15 timings on 667mhz speed but 5.9 on the WEI index. woot!

 

Any good deals on the XPS 15 at this time?

 

My monitor is a CPT Chunghwa CPT141F - Dell P/N: TM121 and I'm not kidding, this display is gorgeous, not grainy or anything. I really like the quality of this screen, movies and games look excellent, and this handles brightness well. Well I guess on HD movies the movement can look a little bad sometimes comparatively. However games like Crysis look brilliant.

 

Hello Everyone, i'm new on this forum.
Recently, I order an XPS 1530, in the costa rica's dell page(i'm from Costa Rica), and i saw a deal with a discount on the 3Gb of ram.
Does it really mean that, my new computer Wont be Double Channel? It will be better for my laptop performance to buy another 2gb dim, or it will not make any significantly differrence?
Thanks
PS.: As i grow up speaking only spanish, my english isn't good enough, but i hope you can understand what i write
PS2: IF THIS IS NOT WHERE I SHOULD ASK THIS, please, let me know where

 

While, there are two ram slots available on the laptop,
2GB= a 1GB RAM stick in each slot.
3GB= a 1GB RAM stick in one slot, a 2GB stick in the other
4GB= a 2GB stick in each slot.
There is a decent performance benefit with 3GB over 2GB. Same with 4GB over 3GB if you have a 64-bit version of Windows.

 

I'm a little concerned about the graphics card defect. It's been going on for a long time. My question it: what's the chance that mine will be defective?

 

It will be defective; it is an out of production card so they aren't going to be fixed. You should buy the newer model to avoid this issue.

 

It may or may not happen. If you have purchased an extended warranty then Dell will fix it. Dell has also extended warranties by 1 year to cover GPU failures.

A friend of mine has experienced a GPU failure on her 9 month old M1330. She purchased the 3 year NBD warranty and Dell was at her door the next day with a new motherboard. about an hour later she was up and running again.

 

You've posted the same, similar question in several threads now...I hope you have found the answer and reassurance you needed, now!

The short answer is: You don't know if *yours* is going to be defective or not. It's a chance you take, with everything in life. Mine hasn't been defective as has many other 1530 users with the same card.

Exactly... WB you!


Cin

 

I'm looking for a laptop to replace my old Dell Dimension 3100 desktop (yeah - rubbish i know). I've got my heart set on the XPS m1530. For £520, I can get it with 2Ghz, 3GB ram 250gb HD etc - but the offer runs out in 24hours!Presumably i'd get the 32bit Vista Version. Id this a good buy? I dont plan on doing much gaming other than abit of football manager . If i'm just wordprocessing - no wifi etc - will i get over 3hrs battery?

Sorry about the masses of questions,
Thanks in advance,
Ed

 

i have a question about the uneven base problem. do they replace the battery when they fix it? bc i notice that my base is only uneven with my 9cell not my 6cell

 

I don't think so..you can contact them and see..sound more like how the battery is sitting on your lappy, making it uneven. You never now how they would treat this one.


Cin

 

This is driving me crazy whenever I see a video on the net or downloaded, I see something like a line I dunno how to explain it going up and down kinda like that specially when the video haves fast movements. I dont know how to explain it. Its like lag or something. My M1530 is installed with XP home edition, it didn't do this when it had vista. HELP!

 

Hi . . .

Is there any solution for clicking noise for M1530 except for "hparm"?

Why dell dont`t have any solution for it ?

My HDD type is western.

help . . .


Thanks.

 

Hi hrbaban! I read somewhere that the problem you are having usually relates to the platters in the hard drive hitting each other in some way. At least that's what I read. Anyway it might mean your hard drive is failing. You better back-up your data and call or chat with dell asap.

 

It does not mean your hard drive is failing.
There is (or well used to be) quite an issue with the 1530 and in particular vista 'trashing' the hard drive.

Try changing the bios. Also there are some tweaks that can help too.

 

The reason I said this is because I've read in more than one forum that this has happened. I'd backup the drive just in case it's the problem I mentioned.

 

Okay I do accept that it may have been posted in other forums,
But given the way hard-drives are constructed (and that most laptop drives only have a single platter) it's not physically possible for platters to hit each other (if there were two or more).

 

It was a while ago when I read this in some forums. I probably should have mentioned that clicking can sometimes mean hard drive failures because of many other causes. Not just the reason I posted. Anyway... That's an interesting fact. I've only taken apart desktop hard drives and seen the two platter's in them. I should have realized based on the size of laptop drives that this wasn't the case. Thanks for another piece of information to add to my ever expanding brain !

 

Hello Out There,

My Dell Studio Laptop screen has rotated 90 degrees ccw, does anyone out there know how to fix it? You can email me at [email protected]

Thanks
HL

 

Just got my m1530.

Here are thoughts...

1. My hard drive is making a sound like someone is crumbling paper, it's annoying.

2. Dell Wireless N sucks, I'm about to call Dell and complain, this thing is awful. I'm gonna see about the intel upgrade.

3. Laptop runs wayyy cooler then my Acer Extensa 4420

4. I got the LG301 screen, nice... but only 1280x800 resolution.

Everything else is good, I got the Bluray drive and I'm trying to figure out how to do HDMI to my TV.

 

Hello everybody, I have a little bit strange question to the owners od XPS 1530 or 1330. Is the silver color of your keyboard absolutely the same as the silver color of touchpad buttons and the color of the plastic around the display? My keyboard is little bit lighter than the touchpad buttons and I don´t know if it is normal or not. Thaks for the answers...

 

Hey there!

On my 1530, the color of the touch pad is the same as the keyboard, and the palmrest is of a *smooth* look..So it all blends well!~
It works for me!


How long have you had your 1530? Is this something that is an annoyance? That, it would be worth for you to contact Dell and replace if it's bothersome? Is it working well for you (no troubles).

 

From glancing at the touchpad buttons, I would say that they are *almost* identical with the keyboard keys. By this, I mean that I can't tell if there is any significant difference between between them.

 

Can you send me a photo where the keyboard and the touchpad buttons are shown? Thanks

 

I'm curious. I went to Dell website to order Windows 7. I have XPS system from 25th/6/2008. When I entered this into the form which rejected it with big red X. Does this mean I can't get Windows 7 ??? Also there wasn't option to select XPS system. The option were Latitude and other hopeless systems. Why not XPS ???

 

See this site...for more info:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...s-7-consumer?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml

You can get Win7..but you would have to pay for it, according to this information:

https://win7.dell.com/Eligibility.aspx

So basically, those with purchase beging 6/26/09 going forward til 12/31/09 are eligible.

Cin

 

What a RIP OFF !!! Everyone who has purchased SHISTA should have right to free upgrade

 

hi,im attaching a image to this post,i cant get rid of those darn marks,Dell CS tells me that they are on the surface and the LCD will not be replaced,please advise

 

Ok, I've got a story to tell.

I got a refurb M1530 a little over a year ago as a warranty replacement for my E1505 that had a design flaw that allowed it to wake up of the screen was pressed on near the hinge. This happened to me while it was in my laptop backpack.....on a flight from Amsterdam to Memphis. Dell didn't argue.

So back to the M1530. I love it. Except for the failure rate of the 8600GT and theA12 BIOS "fix" that drains the hell out of my battery. I had the Motherboard replaced once for some cryptic sounding hi-pitched squeal that dell apparently knows about and just replaces the board.

So earlier this year, My 1680x1050 screen started getting a dark, yellowish area in the bottom-center of the screen. So I called Dell and told them about it. I opened a case, but I wasn't near the machine, so I let it slide until this month. So I call Dell again, they still have the case on file with all of my complaints (warped black plastic button/speaker cover, the machine getting very warm when playing accelerated videos or anything intensive, and the screen. The guy asked me if I could think of anything else, so I told him that one of my feet had gone missing and I would sometimes hear a loud click on the left-hand side of the machine. It wasn't the familiar HD tick of death, more like a fan abrubptly stopping.)

So they ordered all those parts (bottom chassis for the missing foot (yeah, really), new heatsink/fan, new motherboard, new plastic button trim, and new LCD. I had an on-site, so the guy came out. He pretty much built me a new M1530 out of the spare parts of the old one.

Now I've heard people about the supposed Samsung LCD grainyness and other issues, but dismissed it as nitpicking, as I had one and never thought it was really all that bad of the screen. He replaced it with the LG LPLF300. After we fired this new machine up, I was flabbergasted. It really was a HUGE noticeable difference in picture quality. I couldn't believe it. I never knew laptop screens could be so bright, crisp, and clear. It was like I had crawled out of the dark ages.

Not to mention, the laptop runs much cooler, has a Hitachi 320GB SATAII HDD as opposed to my Seagate 320GB drive, the new heatsink/fan assembly, which was manufactured in 2009 (old 2007) is hardly noticeable even at full speed.

Now if I can only somehow coerce Dell into providing IDT x64 drivers so I can run S/PDIF over HDMI in Windows 7.

Pretty sorry that Dell refuses to bite the bullet and replace the NV84 chip it uses with something that doesn't have the bonding/cracking issue though.

 

Great story!

Why is this thread still a sticky?

 

Why is this thread still a sticky ? This is a phased out model

 

Can anyone help me to restore my hard drive?

I got very lucky to recovered my XPS T9300 with in month with the help of Lojack and cyber detective which was stolen from my office. The burglar formatted my hard drive from Vista Premium to XP (buyer told me) and later when it recovered i found it has Vista Ultimate, which was installed by the person who bought it for just $250, actual worth of my system is almost $2300.

I have tried to ask Dell to restore and retrieve my old data which is very important for me; unfortunately, they are unable retrieve my hard drive cause it has been formatted twice.

Does anyone have any idea that it is possible to recover my old data..it seem to me that there are some possibility and challenge for the tech.

Waiting for the response..

 

Sorry, but there isn't a way ...You would need a Data Recovery Team. Even then, after 2 formats, it's more likely gone. Next time, try and be more Proactive. It's always good to *back up* Just in case!

Cin....

 

Buy active@partition recovery works all the time http://www.partition-recovery.com/

 

I think it's because this thread has been stuck for so long, they can't get rid of it!! lol

 

The top issue should be, remove as a sticky. Or no?

 

Well, I would remove the sticky part, keep the thread alive though and change the title to something like "Top questions about the M1530" or something like that.. the OP did make a lot of effort to intiate this thread, so I would keep it around. Lots of useful info., that could turn up in search possibly..

 

Your like so *on this*...............

In agreement here..there is a *wealth* of information here!!, And, even though the 1530 is no longer available at Dell's home site, it is still actively being sold at Dell's outlet, and is being serviced and warrantied by Dell & XPS Technical Support, etc! There are also a large amount of forum members that are Dell 1530 owners, that still come to the thread for information!

Also, Rhodan took a huge amount of time putting this thread together.
I think Rhodan should have some input on this, before anything is done to the thread.

Those are just my own feelings, of course.

Cin...

 

Does the MediaDirect have to be installed in order for the blueray drive to work?

 

lol I'm so on this! I just post in this thread because it takes a few days for people to respond... showing how it's not such an active thread. This was a great thread when the 1530 was what everyone was talking about.

I'm all for keeping it alive but when things are left as stickies for too long, it cheapens the value of it. It served well as a sticky. Most of us here like technology so let's keep moving forward, remove the sticky and create new ones!

*** I don't really care if it is removed as a sticky or not, it's just fun to post. Especially if the creator of this thread has a sentimentally attached value to this thread, then we can make him/her happy by keeping it

 

I need your HELP!

I own an M1530, great little laptop, but recently I've been getting screen artifacts/corruption when running certain programs and that's a sure sign that the GPU is going. My warranty is up, but I've read that the GPU is covered for an additional 12months post warranty expiration.

How do I go about getting my motherboard/GPU replaced? I called into the XPS hotline and it told me that my warranty was expired and that I would be required to pay for any sort of service. I'm located in Canada. I'd really appreciate any help!

 

quite a similar story here from India EGM.. had my MoBo ,Heat sink n keyboard replaced while i wasi n my 11th month of warranty..had some heating issues..now after 93rd days of replacement of the aboves,the MoBo goes cranky again..system does not turning on.. n XPS hotline made me a bill of INR20k which is around USD400 ,includes one year warranty also.

If u r sure about th GPU issue then "Cin'" helped me with this http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

hope you would get a better deal than what i had...

btw is there anyway to sue Dell for my MoBo dying after just 3rd days of its warranty getting over lOl ..i wish i cud get my money back..

cheers.