Dell :: M1730: Lower Quality Or Defective LCD Panel?
May 21, 2010
I purchased a Dell M1730 laptop a couple of years ago. A few months after I received it, the original LCD panel was shattered in an accident.
I shipped it back to Dell and they replaced it with a new Samsung panel (not sure what it had before) which looked just as good, except that after a couple of months it developed a one pixel wide red vertical line 80% of the way up from the bottom of the screen near the left side.
Because the line wasn't very distracting (only showed up on certain colors like dark grey and dark red) I lived with it for a while, but I recently decided I should get it fixed since my warranty is running out this year.
I emailed Dell recently and they sent a technician to my house while I was at work (my wife was at home) and he repaired the M1730 so that the red vertical line was no longer present.
I'm not sure what the exact nature of the repairs were, but he did mention to my wife that apparently when my panel was previously replaced, they had only used 2 of 8 screws .....
I'm looking at the configurators for the 32bit and 64bit Precision M4400s, and the almost the exact same configuration (difference is 64bit has 4gb ram vs. 2gb) costs about $50 less and comes with a free monitor (not really necessary...but getting rid of it doesn't result in any price drop).
Is this an error on Dell's site, or are they actively pushing 64bit and lowering the price of the system overall intentionally?
32bit: [url]
64bit: [url]
options: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9800 Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate 15.4" UltraSharp™ WUXGA 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M 4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM (2.0GB for 32 bit model) 250GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD 6 Cell Battery Intel® WiFi Link 5300 Internal English Backlit Keyboard
I got my Studio 17 on Friday and have fiddled with it since then loving almost everything it has to offer. On the flip side I'm deeply disappointed by the screen.
First of all the brightness is borderline acceptable. I didn't opt for the LED backlight since I assumed the brightness would be on the same level as the HP Pavilion I owned.
With this being said I urge all of you potential buyers to choose the LED backlight option other else disappointment awaits.
But the biggest dismay is the quality of the screen, it's so disastrous that I can't enjoy watching any movies on my laptop. My Pvilion has absolutely extraordinary image reproduction, the screen quality was second to none while the Dell has a screen I would expect to see on an Acer. It's pale, contrast isn't good enough and colours don't look alive and vibrant. I'm glad that I bought a Sony V4000 32 inch TV two weeks ago which is what I use as a display, and it's light years ahead of the Studio in image qualitly.
More over there is a horrendous leakage of light on the lower part of the screen making the taskbar and the blacks look pale. Lastly the viewing angle is embarassing, the screen has to be tilted in a certain angle or else the image looks terrible. My HP looks spotless from pretty much any angle and the same applies to the Sony TV as well. I'm very disappointed by this, especially when dell equip their laptops with Bluray which isn't justified on such a screen. I feel that they are making the standard screen sub par on purpose so that people are forced to opt for the more expensive options.
Yesterday, after just a month of ownership, the display panel on my ThinkPad Yoga S1 became defective. All of a sudden, when I undocked it (after shutting down normally), the only thing that appeared on the display was a whitish image containing a dark grey vertical band (left), which happens to be the Lenovo splash screen background! The laptop runs perfectly fine when docked because it attaches to an external monitor. I tried fiddling with the Yoga's display panel, rotating through its various configurations and, after a while, a partial windows screen did appear although it flickered and, even still, nothing displayed properly in that left most vertical strip! Undocked, the laptop was and is completely unusable...
Been looking for some pictures comparing the different display panels HP offers with the Envy 15, but I haven't found much.
So I'll just ask those who own it; is there a quality difference in the 720P and 1080P display panels?
For gaming, lower native resolution would be optimal (performance/quality), but if the low-res panels are crap I'd get a full HD display, turn the resolution down and suffer some downscaling side-effects rather than playing with a crap native resolution..
I reinstalled windows xp on the m1730 system, the game panel (this is the little lcd panel above the keyboard on the right side) worked for a bit and now doesn't come on, I have downloaded and installed all the drivers from the dell website but it still doesn't work,
I'm planning on buying a gaming laptop sometime at the beginning of the year and I was wondering if I could get some insight as to the quality and performance of the XPS M1730. And also as to Dell's customer service.
It was all fine last night. but switched on the beast today, and the gamepanel now only shows fraps and the media player sidebar! And the LCD manager doesnt show any other programs!
Can anyone confirm if that the correct product code for my Original Quote which stated "17 inch Wide Screen WUXGA RGB-LED LCD for M6400 (320-7312)"..
i'm guessing that its the RGB backlit display i'm expecting. its NOT the covet model.. and I didn't go with the E2E because I wanted more of a matte display..
My other question is:.. is it just me or does the LCD Housing seems to be very flimsy and has lots of flex when lifted from the corners..
I am getting service on my xps m1530 to get my 8600m gt replaced... I have heard about all of the issues nvidia is having with these and am wondering if I am going to get another bad one that will have to be replaced again or will get one that is fixed?
I'd like to know if anyone sent their notebook in for repair because of the defective Nvidia GPU problem? What was your experience, how many repairs, did Dell replace the defective parts with the same and did anyone get a replacement?
I've got the Vostro 1400 and I'm headed down that road. Would like to hear how it went for anyone with any of the other affected models also.
I'm from Singapore and this is my first post in this forum. =]
I own a m1330 with an 8400M GS. I've heard a alot about the defective GPU with all the vertical lines and crashed and whatnot. I've had my fair share of BSOD too.
I've also heard that this problem only affect those laptops shipped to the states, and I'm from Singapore, so am I spared from this nightmare?
i just had my motherboard replace coz not getting any display and the tech support was trying to convince me that is not the issue with the 8600gt on my m1530 cuz im not getting any vertical lines.
furthermore, they told me (which i called 2 other tech rep to confirm this, which added up total of 3) that dell has asked dell to make them new non-defective 3d card on new material
I'm considering purchasing a Lattitude E6400 with the Nvidia 160M card, but I've read about Nvidia's problems with mobile chip failures cause of bad bump materials.
Does anyone know if the problem is fixed for the 160M or are those cards prone to failure as well?
It doesn't play DVDs. I try 10 times and then it successfully plays a DVD, but the first few tries it freezes up after 1 preview.
It makes a clicking noise on the inside at any given time during use. It makes me think it's sitting at a bad angle, so I move it around. I don't think that's the problem; I sit it flat
I've got a Vostro 1500 and the specs for Dell's charger/adapter can be found here: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...html/specs.htm
Dell's charger: 90W, 19.5V, 4.62A
Is it ok if I use a 90W, 19.5V, 3.34A charger instead? I'm using it right now, charger getting hot though. What do you think? Is it safe to continue using this charger with lower amp rating?
I get idle temps of 65-70 CPU and 70-75 GPU and gaming temps of 76-80 CPU and 85+ GPU when gaming.
Right now i've been leaning toward the method of spraying all the vents with compressed air, is there anything else I can do that doesn't involve taking apart the laptop?
add Dell to the growing list (HP is another) who doesn't care about Canadians nor Canadian customers as they restrict the options compared to Americans and what is available to U.S. customers.
E.g. M4400 has way less options for Cdn customers compared to U.S. customers. American customers can order 15.4" WUXGA TrueLife RGB LED display (1920x1200) while Canadian Dell customers are limited to only a 15.4” WXGA (1280x800) LED Display.
I have a 2ghz P-M, 2GB RAM, 7800GTX equipped XPS M170 and never really took attention to this. It has CPU whine, and when you scroll webpages, it slows the scrolling process and emits the higher pitched intermittent whine until you stop, then it resumes a lower volume whine.
It's not really noticable unless in a quiet situation, but it's very annoying to me in such situations, especially because it limits the scrolling speed of pages and things in programs.
I've reformatted several times and i'm pretty sure its either the CPU or GPU whining. Gaming eprformance is unaffected.
Can I call Dell and have them do anyhting about this? I don't have Bluetooth, as some other topics have said works, but I don't think I should have to buy a module to have my CPU stop whining.
Unlike most of you here (probably), I'm an old guy who doesn't run his displays at native resolution. I typically selecting something lower so things are easier to read. My 4:3 machines at home and work are set up at 1024 x 768.
I'm considering an Inspiron 1720 with anti-glare 1440 x 900 display, 128MB NVIDIA 8400M GS card and the standard Dell driver which, according to Dell Downloads, is 174.31 for Vista-32bits. I assume that's the driver Dell would install if I ordered this machine on line today.
I tried chat will Dell sales but, after repeating the question several times, they finally admitted the only thing they could tell me was that I could configure it with 1920 x 1200 glass, the opposite direction from which I wanted to go. They suggested I contact Dell Tech Support, but one can't get through to them without a product code for an in-warranty notebook.
So, here I am asking whether anyone has an Inspiron 1720 configured this way. If so, does that combination of video card and driver permit selecting 1280 x 800 and/or 1024 x 640? I don't want to get stuck with a resolution that results in distortion because it isn't in the screen's native 1.6:1 aspect ratio.
I've discussed this machine in other threads, but it wasn't until now that I found out that a restocking fee was charged.
The machine in question had problems with a wavy keyboard and an eject button that would stay lit, then go off and eject a disc at random. This happened multiple times. I also had a problem at boot up, where the machine made a ringing noise for over one minute, then booted up. Given these problems, I called Dell to return the machine after having it for two days.
The machine was a "Previously Ordered New" Inspiron 1537 from the outlet. I think it's not too much to ask that it be free of defects out of the box. If there are multiple problems, then one should be able to return it within 21 days for a full refund.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, my advice would be to make sure someone in Tech Support logs in the system the problems you are having. I didn't realize that this was necessary .....
I have a dell xpsm1330 and the video card i have is the invidia 8400 video card. this is the problematic video card much talked about already.
dell had since replaced, under warranty, my video card and the attached motherboard twice already.
i was told by the technician that the new invidia video card has a model / reference no. 686 631 A2. The old defective vid card has model no. 686 630 A2.
Nvidia apparently has a solution to the problems faced by many in their notebooks powered by GeForce 8M series, that is, to encourage the OEM/ODMs to buy their new problem free chips. Of course, this doesn't solve the issues faced by current users and there won't be any replacement for them.
Nvidia has come out with a new GPU called NB8E-SET which is essentially NB8E-SE with the new underfill. NB8E-SE is used on many notebooks most commonly advertised as GeForce 8700M GT, GeForce 8800M GS or GeForce 9650M GS. NB8E-SET (G84-751) uses the new Hitachi underfill and is clocked at 625MHz core and 128-bit 800MHz GDDR2/3 memories similar to the current NB8E-SE.
Here's a note from Nvidia to their partners :
NVIDIA is committed to providing our customers with quality products that push the edge of technology and also continuously improve product quality and reliability. To help improve the product quality and ensure smooth and uninterrupted product supply during the current “end stage” of life cycle, NVIDIA strongly recommends that customers transition to this latest revision of the NB8E-SET GPUs as soon as possible. These latest revision units utilize “Hitachi” underfill packaging material that improves product quality and enhances operating life by improved thermal cycling reliability.
I received my Studio XPS 1640 laptop in July. I didn't open it and wanted to send it back because when I had submitted my order, literally new options for upgrades appeared. I called Dell and the lady I spoke with offered me credit for keeping the laptop, I declined and said I want to reurn it so she said a restocking fee of $343 would apply. I quickly said nevermind.
Later I called back after I OPENED the box and took the laptop out and it was defective, even my friend confirmed it. I spent like $2,700 on the laptop. The next person in the returns department didn't mention any restocking fee, understood I had a defective computer and sent me a returns label. Next day came, and the label didn't come as he said it was. Called back and told the lady in returns that I didn't get the label and she said "I will resend it" and she did. Then the label appreared in my inbox and all was set...at least I thought
I checked my Dell account on Dell.com today and noticed a "new" order being processed in the amount of $343 and the description stated it was a restocking fee charge! I quicky called Dell and the lady I spoke with said I was told I going to be charged a restocking fee, I corrected her and told her my defective computer was never mentioned to have a restocking fee attached. She checked her records and the only thing she would say is that "the restocking fee is non-refundable, I do apologize". Yeah right! I kept telling her what was said to me and I also told her that according to Dell, brand new defective computers DO NOT get charged a restocking fee. She kept saying "the restocking fee is non-refundable, I do apologize". I asked for a manager/supervisor, and she said she would do it but I would get the same answer, to which I DID get the same answer. I hung up!
Ordered a 160GB G2R5 SSD to replace the 500GB 5400rpm drive in my 15" MBP and received the drive yesterday. Opened up the MBP, removed the 500GB and put in the 160GB Intel SSD. The SL installation started fine, I used the disk utility and formatted the drive (MacOS extended (journaled)) and the installation began...
When the bar was almost at the end (said 10 min remaining), a big yellow exclamation point icon appeared on the screen and said "OS installation encountered an error, please contact the software manufacturer (something along these lines)". I was surprised of course...
I re-started the machine, initiated the SL installation again, started disk utility and it took about 10 minutes (spinning beach ball) to detect the Intel drive. Once it did, I formatted it again and initiated the installation. This time, the installer quit a lot earlier (about 25% in) with the same message.
Thinking that this could be a SL related issue, I popped in the Leopard DVD and started Disk Utility. The drive was detected immediately, but it showed up as "8MB Intel SSD". I tried formatting, etc, but it never reverted back from that 8MB stage. It was detected as an 8MB drive with the SL installation DVD as well....
