dell xps m1710

so does anyone on here still own a dell xps m1710 i dont hear much on them anymore ive had mine nearly 2 years now and its still going strong running a little hotter in games than it use to and have had a couple thermal shutdowns when playing crysis multiplayer but now seems to be ok but yes i think its a good laptop if you own one whats your experiences been during your ownership of the laptop

specs
core 2 duo 2.16ghz
2gb ram
nvidia geforce 7950gtx
250gb hardrive
1920x1080 screen

 

Ah yes i still have mine its almost 4 years old now and still playing games,its had a gpu replacement last year.It is the best laptop i have ever owned,it is a pitty it could not up grade to the 8800 gpus,as i still love the style of the chassis.Best of all was the sound out put better than any other laptop i have ever used.
Specs;
[email protected]
4GB RAM
GO7900 GTX 512 GPU
120 GB HDD

I am having a strange issue with it,i posted it on the dell forums but got no replys.When playing a ny game there is crackling coming from the front,i think the audio?But when playing a film or music theres nothing???

 

hmmmm not sure on that one i havent had that problem with mine maybe it could be a soundcard driver or something like that but i would of thought if it was that it would do it in movies aswell ill see if anything crops up with the same problem

 

Two years old for me, and it has held up very well...

The laptop goes everywhere with me, and other than a few wear-and-tear scratches, it looks and feels brand new...I've replaced the internal drive with a 640GB drive...and between that drive and a 750GB Passport, all the PC games on the gamespot page in my sig run at the click of a mouse...everything from Ultima 2 on a C64 emulator and Super Mario Bros on an NES emulator through System Shock under DOSBox and DukeNukem 3D under a Build emulator up to Prototype, Crysis, Dawn of War 2, Total War: Empire although I have to scale down the graphical options...

I've undervolted the CPU and get just under 2 hours on the (new, non-Dell) battery if I'm not gaming...

I usually leave the LED lights off, but people still do a double-take when they're on with the music playing...

I bought my m1710 used after I decided not to go with the older style Alienware m15x due to build quality concerns and opted out of the larger, heavier m1730...while the m1710 isn't as portable as my previous Toshiba 15", it's nowhere near the monster that the m1730 is...

No thermal shutdowns since my GPU was replaced last year...I do take it apart every month to clean the fans and vents...and I'm very careful about not playing on soft or fabric-y surfaces...

Although I'm not much of a Dell fan, I love the look, feel and performance of this laptop...I'm dreading when my internal clock (actually, newer games' more demanding system requirements) push me into buying a new laptop to play Diablo 3 at full resolution...

 

I get static/whine from the speakers when I'm on the battery...

And there are a few games that have static/popping on them even when I'm running on AC...Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was one of them...there was a driver for a Dell desktop that had the same onboard audio as the m1710 that eliminated the popping, but it made Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow play like a slideshow...so I live with the popping on GRAW and a few other games...I'm on my desktop right now, but I'll give you the driver number when I'm on my laptop (it may even be small enough to attach it here) and you can try it and see how it does for you...

 

cool so i see there is a couple of people with them still i prefer a laptop to game on rather than a desktop always been into the laptops ive built a few gaming desktops but never really liked them as much as a laptop

 

how easy is it to open this laptop,i tryed to before but only half way.I clean it
by vacume or compresses air,there must be lots of dust bunnies in there
but it is in my wifes hands now.So it mostly is used for dvds or facebook,so that should give it a stress free life for the next few years?
I use that fangui thing and it works wonders,keeps things nice and chilly,also found that i oc the gpu using ati tool.Gives it a nice boost when it does game,plays almost every game,gotta tone it down as its showing its age.
I always wanted a red edition one any way to change the cover?

 

I avoid using ik8fangui for fan control...I'll use it occasionally to see what my temps are doing...

Running the fans all the time can result in premature failure of the fans although they're not that difficult or expensive to replace...and although elevated thermal stress isn't good for the millions of 'transistors' on the die, cyclic thermal stresses can be just as bad...I trust that the thermal engineers at Dell/Intel/nVidia knew what they were doing more than I do...I would use it if I overclocked, but I don't...

If you go to Support on Dell's website, you'll find a .pdf on how to disassemble the m1710...it's fairly simple to get to the fans and vents...swapping the black cover for a red one isn't too difficult either if you can find a red one on eBay...I actually swapped from a black cover to a red cover because my previous display had a couple of dead pixels and I found an LCD that was supposedly from the better Dell LCD manufacturer with a red cover for real cheap on eBay...

 

I bet threre is a few more owners lurking on these forums,with a now classic modle of gaming notebook.I think it would be great to establish an owners thread,or revive it if there was one.
Because there is a wealth of user knowlage out there,wht u think?

 

Audio driver that fixed the 'popping' for me:

Sigmatel STAC 92XX 5.10.0.5511

I believe the most recent driver from Dell for the audio is the .5515 and the original driver included with the laptop was .4823.

The .rar I made won't fit here, but just do a search for the .5511 driver on dell.com. It won't show up for the m1710, but it works.

 

im going to set up a new forums called the dell xps m1710 owners lounge

 

Nice one mate i will keep my eye on it

 

heres the link to the dell xps m1710 owners lounge http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=450491