Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

Strangely, 9.6 is the version working fine for me...

 

Strange. I got PowerDVD 12 working with regular MKVs, but it runs my movies very slowly and skips. Why can't a non-free program outperform a free program like VLC? Sigh.

 

Finally the GPU boost bug gets some attention from Dell .

 

Old version is provided with the hope that user pays $ and upgrades to the new version..

 

I was planning on replacing the thermal paste with Arctic Silver as well. But what is Dell's official stance on doing such modifications? I have a 3 year warranty which I don't want to risk due to replacing thermal paste myself for a machine which should not be overheating in the first place.

Also, did you find a "thermal pad" when you opened the heatsink assembly, and did you remove it and replace with AS? Arctic Silver instructions say we need to remove any existing pad completely clean off the surface, and then only put the paste. If these instructions are followed it would be clear to Dell anytime in the future that the user has messed with the machine internals.

 

Hi there!

I've had my Dell 7720 for almost a week now. I have uninstalled McAffe (replaced with licensed ESET) and Dell Date Safe programs. I was wondering what other programs would you recommend uninstalling??? My goal is to try to keep my system as clean as possible without clogging it with all the extra stuff that it came with and is promotional in nature. Thanks in advance!

Nick

 

There are small thermal pads (4) on the GPU memory chips only. The GPU core and CPU have thermal paste applied directly.

 

Awesome - where did you see this?!

 

Do you have a link to the thread on Dell community forum about the Dell addressing the GPU boost bug? I would love to know where that is since I would love to be able to run games with 835 MHz all the time.

On a side note, I know the Quickset button bug for BIOS A08 is being fixed from Dell and they have a Quickset test driver for us to test with. So far one person has responded that the Quickset test driver fixed the issue. Check out the thread below for more information. I assume it will be uploaded to the Drivers page under Inspiron 17R SE fairly soon after Dell feels confident that enough testers have tried out the Quickset driver.

I am glad that Dell is working hard to quickly fix these issues. Hopefully they can address the Nvidia GPU boost bug.

Re: Quickset button - Missing function - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

 

you see everything here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-inspiron-dell-studio/690746-complet-photo-disamble-7720-a.html

ps. you dont void your warranty by opening the laptop (just follow the steps if you never done it before from DELL/support/manual)

 

Well, lets see what T&C say:

5.3 Under the Basic Warranty, subject to clauses 5.3.1 - 5.3.4 inclusive and clause 5.4 below, Dell shall repair or replace the Dell Product if it develops a material fault in the period of one year from date of delivery, on condition that: [...]
5.3.4 the part which develops the fault has not been previously modified or repaired by any third party.

and:

9.6 Dell shall not be liable under the warranties given in this clause 9 in respect of:
9.6.1 any defect arising from fair wear and tear, wilful damage, negligence, abnormal working conditions, failure to follow Dell's instructions (whether oral or in writing), misuse or alteration, modification, adjustment or repair of the Products and/or Software without Dell's approval.

If your CPU goes bust and Dell manages to find out you were messing with heatsinks and thermal paste, you will be out of luck.

 

I have noticed that left side of palmrest was a bit warm on my 7720. That's where primary HDD sits and it looks like it is running quite hot: 46C when idle and up to 56C stressed. That's slightly over the operating temperature limit of 55C. It passes SMART test and CrystalDiskInfo reports no health problems. The drive is Samsung M8. Anyone else experiencing this issue?

 

Here is a download link for the testing quickset driver: Download APP_Quickset_W7W8_A05_NY82X-Setup_ZPE.zip from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

Let me know if it's working for you as it did not work for me.

 

Mine's on it's way back (after all the unsuccessful engineer visits) and being swapped for a new one with slightly different spec (8gb of ram, illuminated keyboard but only a 1TB 5400 HDD). Since I also have a SSD in my current one with the operating system and programs on, I presume the HDD isn't an issue?

Or I could swap the HDD's over before they collect my old one and see if they notice......

I have had a look on the Dell website and noticed the specifications have changed and the prices fallen. W7 has i7 3610 or W8 i7 3630 and the 7200 HDD is less frequent.

 

Where!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Link?

 

X-dude, I tried with wifi on, no problems so far. The CPU is the power eater.To disable dynamic throttle, you have to create a bat file for Nvidia Inspector. Here's mine:

With this, the gpu clock will always stay at the given clock speed, even in 2d windows.

Bladteth , I don't overclock the memory too, it doesn't affect fps. The GDDR5 memory is fast enough for this GPU, more mhz will not boost its performance.

 

Is this the file that Dell-Royan S sent you via email? I know he had trouble sending me the file over Gmail so I wanted to make sure that this is the test Quickset driver.

EDIT: Just tested the Quickset driver in your download link and the Quickset settings button (gears button) is working with this test driver. I would advise you to uninstall your current Quickset driver completely, reboot your computer, then install the test Quickset driver. It should work flawlessly.

 

Sweet thanks! Will this .bat always function or will I have to activate it everytime I reboot which wouldnt be no biggie?

 

I got an email from Dell saying that they know the GPU boost bug and are working on it . But we need to push it real hard . Lets all post inthe thread on Dell community forums for this issue .

 

Can you post a link? The last time I visited the Dell community forums, I did not see a thread about this issue.

 

A screenshot of the email would be awesome!

 

well. what ive been saying about 1 month now

 

Check Here guys :

A reply from Dell engineering team :



Re: Dell Inspiron 7720 Gpu boost turning off - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

The engineering team is saying that GPS (GPU performance scaling) is controlled by Optimus; its function is activated by factors of total power usage and running thermal status.
There is no way to manually activate the over clocking or lock it into place. Due to the thermals and power requirements of the system you just aren't going to see the full over clocking performance of the GPU.
It is likely that once a trigger has been reached either via Optimus or the thermals to disable power boost, the system will need to be restarted to enable it again.
I wish I had better news for you, it is a difficult thing with a notebook to completely manage cooling and power needs and keep the size of the notebook to a portable size. It looks like the system is working by design though.


Please post your comments there ....

 

I'm running it every time I start Windows. Maybe if you put it in the startup programs, it will run automatically.

 

But this shouldn't have an impact on 3d models, because they don't seem to have optimus. Am I right?

 

Dang! Not that answer I was looking for. :O What about the gentleman who said he OCed his gpu to over 1000mhz?

 

Thank you sir! Do you have the 3d model of the inspiron or do you have the non 3d one?

 

Correct. Which is strange, since I have the 3D model and it exhibits the bug.

Temporary solution I've found: I use hybrid sleep (set in the BIOS to Immediate - where it suspends to the MSATA SSD drive and powers off completely when doing a Sleep under Windows ) so as soon as my machine sleeps, it hybrid sleeps and completely powers off.

I've found that if I start the machine up (plugged in) and hybrid sleep it (AC power still connected); then I can start up with or without AC Power and keep the boost regardless.

As long as I hybrid sleep from then on, the boost stays in place no matter what until my next proper reboot/shutdown.

I'm not sure if the same would apply for regular sleep.
This is under Windows 7; no 99% trick or anything else.

 

Well the information in the Dell community thread is, as expected, pretty inaccurate.

You can manually overclock the GPU and "lock" the overclocked state. This can be easily done with Nvidia Inspector and the mentioned .bat files.

The bug that Dell has not yet admitted to is the fact that once the GPU downclocks because of thermal issues, it will remain at the default clock until you power off, unplug and replug the adapter, and power back on.

So far, I've only read of this happening when the forced downclock occurs while CPU is running on turbo. Hence the often mentioned 99% CPU trick, where setting the max CPU frequency to 99% effectively disables the CPU turbo mode, and the GPU never gets locked down this way.

From my own experiments, running just the GPU up to 90C using MSI Kombustor does not lock the frequency, the GPU downclocks just to cool itself down and then boosts again, so the CPU state/temperature must somehow be involved in this bug.

 

how exactly do you do this inside bios ???

 

Is the CPU user replaceable ? Bcoz on the HP dv6 users are reporting that the CPU is user replaceable ..!

 

Yes the CPU is user replaceable. Just follow the documentation provided by Dell on how to replace the CPU.

 

Wow .. I didn't know that .. So we can replace the CPU with the next gen i7 processors when they gets released ?

 

First of all, HELLO !

(Sorry for my english i'm french...)

I rode all the topic before to buy my inspiron, now i'm on it and i like it !!!! I sold my Macbook Retina for money... so, nevermind...

I would like to know if someone could explain how to overclock the GPU... I don't understand somethings explained on the topic... I tried to use Nvidia Inspector but I can't... Terzer, could you explain me the .bat file ? How do it ?

If someone could do a Step by step, I think it will be great ! (CPU 99%, nvidiainspector, restart etc... all that things.) Thanks !

 

I have just ordered one of these from the outlet. It seemed a good deal for the spec. What do you guys think ?

 

I also just ordered one from the outlet. I ended up ordering the model with the anti-glare screen, but I'm of course having second thoughts without being able to see the anti-glare and the Truelife side by side. Anyone else other than KSMB seen the two screens side by side and have any opinion?

 

+1 Id love to know too so when I get the laptop Ill have some fun messing with it. Can't let all this useful info go to waste

 

lazy bum......... the True life screen has better colour gamut...better viewing angles.....better sharpness (thats why it cost £200 extra you know)

 

Sorry for the late reply.
So, just create a new text file (later rename the txt extension to bat) with the address of Nvidia Inspector exe, and

, in which forcepstate is the power state (important), gpu clock and memory clock. You just type in the clock yourself, save it and run it. You can copy my lines (change the address of the exe) and try it.
Step by step:
Disable CPU throttling - power options, change plan settings, change advanced power settings, under processor power management set minimum processor state to 98% and maximum processor state to 99% (plugged in), then just run the bat file and check nvidia Inspector. Its better to open an leave the sensor monitoring to check the temperatures and to make sure that the gpu isn't throttling.
Good luck!
My 7720 is a non 3D, without mSATA, but with 120gb OCZ Vertex 4 SSD (I bought it and installed it myself)

NOTE: The Gpu will still throttle down if it reaches 80* temp and it doesn't have enough power (cpu throttle, too many connected usbs, screen brightness etc) I lifted my laptop by 5cm and this brings down the temp by 5*
p.s. Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8g88ea9gg2ecad1
This is a bat file, which clocks the gpu to the boosted state (835mhz and 2ghz memory), it's safe that way. Just edit the address of Nvidia Inspector exe

 

It's referred to as Intel Rapid Start in the BIOS. You can find it under 'Advanced.'
For me, as long as 'iRST Support' is set to 'Enabled' and 'Entry After' is set to 'Immediate', the machine will go into Hybird Sleep (and completely power off, without the Standby light active) as soon as I do a sleep under Windows.

One cycle of this under Windows (with the power plugged in) causes the bug to disappear until my next 'proper' restart...

 

I have seen both. The truelife one is better only if you use it inside with artificial light. If you use a laptop outside or say in a conservatory, the reflections can get annoying and you would be better with the anti-glare.

 

Thanks.

I'm inside 99.9% of the time I'm using a laptop. The outlet ended up updating the day after I ordered (of course) with some options with Truelife that I liked which weren't there before, so I called and cancelled this morning and ordered a Truelife version.

 

......well, how many people sitting with its laptop in bright sunshine ????? (not me for sure)...i use my laptop for a lot of photo editing and was looking for a higher colour gamut screen with clean sharpness.

i replace the anti glare coating in a heart beat for better screen quality...even if it give me a glossy coating.
(sure it cost a bit more, but what is £200 if you going to use your laptop every day for 2-3 years)

 

Eh Thanks a lot Terzer !!!! I try it in few hours, i'll tell you Thanks again !!!

Edit : Erm... I tired and doesn't work I'm afraid... My GPU Core Clock stay at 745Mhz... What's wrong ?

 

Reasonable OC will stay locked no problems as long as CPU boost is disabled by means of 99% trick described in this thread. I have gone up to 970 MHz (upper limit in MSI Afterburner), but some folks went higher with no problems (overheating, artefacts etc). It looks like misunderstanding on Dell's part. The bug is not that the GPU clocks down when getting too hot. That is a proper safety mechanism and according to my measurements, if both chips are boosted, the total power draw might exceed power supply capacity. The problem is that the GPU stays locked at base clock and tinkering with said power supply is required to reset it.

 

How did you do ? I tried MsiAfterburner too but no result... The same way with nVidiaInspector, the GPU Core Clock stay at 745Mhz... Myabe my drivers? (FW 306.97)