FYI Dell released a new video driver for the studio laptops today. It said it increases compatibility with external monitors. I wouldn't know since I've never hookem mine up to an external. But I will dl just to stay up to date. You can find it here:
I just bought a used XPS M1330 w/ Nvidia 8400 for a really good price. It has 2 more years of complete care warranty. I game very rarely. Should I be worry about the GPU failure?
I am thinking about buying a new XPS M1330 with Nvidia card(can't be intel, must be Nvidia for me). But I have read so many reports on the GPU going out and the motherboard being replaced over and over(per a user). My question is, if I bought a new one would mine have this potential flaw or did they fix this iwith a re-design? Or is this issue not as big as it seems?
wondering if people have still run into issues with the M1330 with just the Intel X3100 card (overheating, motherboard, etc)? I really liked the XPS due to its looks and portability and wanted to hear people's opinions on purchasing this product with some features (such as 4 GB RAM, 250/320 GB HD, X3100 card, standard display, Core 2 Duo T8100) as I pretty much just use it for Internet, word processing, music, and watching occasional movies...I'm really in it for the portability factor as I occasionally lug my laptop around and use it in class (being a graduate student), but not every single day.
Since in theory you only hear from people with broken laptops and not the ones that haven't broke, I thought I would start a XPS M1330 with the Nvidia GPU success story thread.
If you have a M1330 laptop WITH the Nvidia gpu and the gpu hasn't gone out on you, please post in this thread. Let us know how long you've owned and and how often you use it!
My warranty on my computer expired in December and now my motherboard has fried for the second time. Every time I call dell they take my service tag and say how sorry they are but my warranty has expired. I try to explain to them that dell extended the warranty for all computers with the defective card for one more year and they reply by saying that it is not in the computer. They keep sending me to the out of warranty department.
I got a little e-shopping happy tonight, and purchased a refurbished M1330 on Dell Outlet. I previously had a M1210 and that thing was a tank, so I went ahead and went for the "newer line".
Anyhow, so I've been spending the past hours after my purchase (I know, stupid idea) on reading how the 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS and the GPU would be causes for failure and heat issues. I usually run heavy web-cam chatting programs, AutoCAD, and wanted to get back into some light computer gaming (hence the decision to purchase the NVIDIA graphics), but now grow concerned.
First, is it worth it to go ahead with my order? With the Dell Outlet coupon, the price I paid was pretty decent (around $700~), but with all the issues and the multi-page thread about GPU/NVIDIA problems, has me iffy. Yes I know there is a 1-year warranty, and yes I know there are some fix-attempts, but I just feel uncertain. The XPS line is suppose to be the best, and it should carry the comfurt of its class.
Second, since I placed my order with Dell Outlet after 5PM (PST and about 2 hours ago), and it has not yet been "shipped", is it possible even though my order has been "acknowledged and confirmed" to cancel it? And what would I be looking at in regards to getting my money back (since its already a "pending charge" on my account).
Any input is great appreciated. If I cancel the order on the M1330, I probably would be looking at a Vaio FW series I've been lurking on.
Hey guys, ive been banging my head against the wall for two days on this one and I need some help.
I installed xp on my M1330 over two years ago when I first got it, only ran Vista for about a month.
And ever since I switched to XP I noticed that there was no longer an option to switch to the HDMI output for audio, but I didnt have an HDMI cable so I didnt care
Dell XPS M1330 - nVidia GeForce 8400M GS - Copper Mod - Step by Step Guide
Dell XPS M1330 Notebook with nVidia GeForce 8400M GS GPU has an inadequate Thermal Cooling Assembly. It uses a Thermal Cooling Pad between the GPU and the GPU Thermal Cooling Assembly instead of a direct contact between the two with a Thermal Compound. This leads to overheating the GPU and damaging it along with other components. The solution is to replace the existing Thermal Cooling Pad with a Copper Sheet and a Thermal Compound.
Note: This Copper Mod does not solve problems arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of GPU. Their failure appears related to the combination of the interaction between the chip material set and the system design. The combination of limited thermal management and frequent power cycling is particularly challenging for the GPU. Dell is offering a 12 Month Limited Warranty Enhancement specific to this issue. However, this Copper Mod might help delay the failure by improving the thermal management.
I am in search of the driver number in the title. It came factory preinstalled from dell and I had the installation files on disk, but accidentally deleted them, defragged, and now they're gone (save for if Power Data Recovery can recover them, Recuva already failed at that ).
Does anybody still have these babies? I ordered my laptop the first of October in Europe, so anyone that has ordered or received their laptop in around now should have these installed. They said they were revision A08, but it's nowhere to be found.
These are the only current drivers that would allow hybrid sli stuff to work, so I really need those. They came with a NVDJ.inf and WHQL certificate. I believe the driver date was around 26/06/2009, and I have scoured the dell ftp site for anything released around that date or later, but found nothing. Also laptopvideo2go doesn't have them. Currently running the NVIDIA notebook drivers, but they don't support the hybrid thing.
i had to reinstall XP OS on my XPS M1530 machine. the previous nVidia driver(which was working perfectly b4 reinstalling) seems not working well as i have got couple of times BSOD problem.
then i have tried three different version which r 180.84,185.85_notebook_winxp_32bit_whql, 186.18_desktop_winxp_32bit_english_whql. none of them r good cause i can defference the video quality of the movies.
presently i reverse back to the nvidia_gfgo_17637_xp32, it seems bit better than those others but still i m not happy with the video quality.
I tried installing the latest 185.81 driver from nvidia but vista will not let it function.
I get a message while the driver is installing, something along the lines of "vista can only use signed drivers, blah blah, some devices may not work properly." Is there a work around for this? Or do I have to use an older driver?
Btw, I am using vista 64bit with SP1. Trying to get the drivers to run dual 9800gt's
Got my new XPS M1730 in December 2008 and all was well for the first few months till the graphic issues started and the Nvidia driver stopped working and has recovered problem.
So three new cards and after a long battle they eventually agreed to swap me out with an Alieware M17X R2.
I have two questions .....
what happens if i still have the old XPS in a box upstairs waiting to be collected and they have not collected it after 3 months and will they even want it back now...they did say they wanted it back and i would be contacted when this collection had been arranged ...
however three months have passed and im not going to phone them and ask them to come get it ....and also what can i do to get the machine back to working properly ... ie how can i find out if it definitly is the graphic card and what are my
options .... are the 9800 cards plauged with the same problems . As for the Alienware im not convinced i like it as much as i did the XPS ... fan noise during gaming is almost embarrasing ...
I just received a refurbished M4400 and had no problem changing it to the A03 bios.
When I tried to install the latest Nvidia 179.48 notebook gpu driver (for Windows XP -32 bit), I get the following message...
"The Nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatable with your current hardware. Setup will now terminate."
Can anyone tell me why this gpu driver will not load? Do I have to do something different in order to get this driver to be accepted by this M770 business gpu?
The Nvidia driver for my Inspiron 5720 does not recognize my card and won't install. It is the 630M.I did a clean format and set BIOS values to default. The latest BIOS is installed.The drive is from Dell's website.
i have windows 7 32-bit ultimate installed on my XPS M1330, and i discovered trouble on having the right bluetooth driver, i already check the driver using windows update, some of bluetooth driver from dell.com (exactly R226750, R159805, R140135) and none of them are solve my trouble, here some of the screenshot
Is almost close to a year now, I have not been able to fix up my drivers and get my SPEED mode to work nor install any Geforce drivers.
I have look around the web alot for solutions and being cautious (not to damage the notebook) I rarely try anything out.
When first bought end of dec'07, it was running well the first few months till the fan made rattling noise as if the whole notebook didn't had a screw in every hole and was going to fall apart.
I send it to SONY service centre couple of times to get it fix and finally the fan issue was gone till I had a BSOD somewhere in mid'08 and all hell break lose from here on