Im getting my laptop soonish (I hope) and I just wanted to create a thread to compile all the current updates and drivers for the Dell Studio XPS 16,
And I'm a complete novice at all this stuff so I was wondering if you saw this thread if you could please;
post The most up to date CPU/GPU/Video ect.. driver
The latest drivers and software packages are for Windows 7 x64 only. They are the absolute latest versions and many aren't even listed on Dell's driver page. There are some hardware items not covered here which you can find updates for at http://support.dell.com/
View 10 Replies View RelatedCount me in the minority, but I've actually been pleased with the A07 BIOS revision. I'm curious about other opinions since I'd like to have a better understanding of the latest round of complaints.
As I understand the current situation:
The CPU no longer throttles when stressed by itself. With A03, running Prime95 on my 820QM at max brightness resulted in throttling. With A07, that's no longer the case. I get a consistent 13x multiplier. As a software engineer interested primarily in CPU horsepower for compiling and virtualization, this pleases me.
Gaming seems to work fine for a limited amount of time, but at some point stuttering occurs with some frequency. Which games exhibit this? Does this only occur at max settings in 1080p? At least one person was testing for throttling by running Prime95 in tandem with the game. Is that a reasonable real world test?
Prime95 and Furmark still results in throttling. Again, is this a reasonable real world test? Moving forward as more applications become multi-core aware and work is off-loaded to the GPU, I imagine system load will approach this simulated load... but is it realistic? My thought on the matter is that at some point heat becomes a factor, even with the excellent drop in temperatures that I've seen with GC-Extreme. A single fan and shared heat pipes aren't exactly an ideal design for that type of stress. The question is whether the heat dissipation is good enough.
In the event of GPU throttling, I've seen RivaTuner as a suggested workaround. Is it possible to lock the GPU clock to the maximum possible using RivaTuner without the CPU being throttled as a result?
Is the GPU really only throttling at a certain temperature threshold? I saw someone mention 84C as the magic number. Does that mean that you can run, say Prime95 and Furmark without throttling until the GPU hits 84C? Or in a more real world scenario, does that mean it's possible to game without apparent throttling until the GPU hits 84C? Wouldn't that mean you could further reduce (or eliminate) GPU throttling with better thermal paste? (For reference I've never seen my GPU load past 70C). Obviously, if that's a workaround, it would have been ideal for Dell to do this at the factory, but let's put that aside for now in the name of discussion.
hows modern warfare 2 run?
View 8 Replies View RelatedDell has released their solution to the throttling issue, if you have updated to the latest A07 or newer bios, and recieved a 130w adapter from dell. Need to call the reps and get a 130w sent free of charge.
After more testing looks as if the A07 bios has indeed greatly improve the performance of the laptop. More testing will continue to see where the limit is at, as there may be close to the throttling edge perhaps.
Purpose of this thread is to educate those about the throttling issues with dell's laptops. Specifically to the xps 16 with i7 processors. Also to show community driven solutions as we wait for dells response to this issue.
This is an advancement from the power investigation thread, to summarize the thread here is a quick list. The 1645 is supplied and designed for a 90w adapter which is undersized and cripples the laptop under gpu + cpu stresses,
such as gaming and photo editing.Running on battery seems to let the laptop run more towards it potential.The problem severity varies and depends mostly on configuration and type of program being ran.A 130w or bigger power supply will not solve the issue alone, as the bios actively throttles to main 90w anyways.Through reps Dell seems aware of the issue. As of yet there has been no official announcement and is .....
I got my laptop back from repair and the papers that came with it said that they not only replaced the LCD screen, but also updated the BIOS to the lates version--1.24
I was messing around with my laptop and the various thermal monitoring programs it has while searching the net why the hell my by-core temps always gets stuck at startup. I kept reading on BIOS, BIOS, BIOS. So I went to acer.com.sg for hopes that a newer 1.25 or so BIOS would be available for my Ciel Noir.
Surprise surprise, they have only the 1.16 (came with my laptop when it was new) and the 1.23 BIOS (mine was presently 1.24, and they don't have it). I downloaded it anyway, and checked the readme. I noticed that the flash utility .exe was named JALA0123.exe and then I noticed through HWMonitor 1.14 that my motherboard was marked JALA0 so hmm...this prompted me to flash the BIOS.
Booted up, got into Windows, fired up HWMonitor and what do you know, now it's working!! HWMonitor reads a different TJMax though, so I adjusted it to be the same as CoreTemp's and Everest, and now it's showing (I hope) correct temps.
Now my question is this: Why does the BIOS that comes from Acer directly i.e. after purchase or repair makes the sensors not work? And why are these BIOSes not available online? Is it possible that they use BIOSes that are for different laptop models, hence rendering the addresses for the thermal monitors different from the actual ones? (I read up that thermal sensors depended on the correct addresses, too.)
Look! ...
View 10 Replies View RelatedI don't personally use it but I noticed a new driver for the facial recognition software dated 2/4/2010 and it lists Win7 in the changes.
So for those who used to use this and upgraded to Win7 to have it not work should be happy. Also noticed a bunch of hard drive updates I never noticed before .....
my cousins inspiron recently stopped working.
doesn't load the bios. the alternate boot gives the following code:
Flashing Num Lock, ON Caps Lock, OFF SCRN Lock
What I Was Doing:
All I wanted to do was install an SSD (SanDisk Extreme 240GB) as my primary drive using factory recovery created from Dell Backup and Recovery/Recovery Media from USB drive.... I was trying to update firmware on the SSD. It requires a download and the creation of a thumb drive to which one boots after adding it in the BIOS. Ever since I tried using that thumb drive during boot (on power up it was in a USB slot with the intention of opening BIOS and setting that thumb drive as a boot device to complete firmware update) things have been a mess.
The Problems:
I have run into a situation where no matter what key I press during startup, it has no impact on the startup. Main problem is that F2 will not open BIOS. F12 does not show Boot Order.
Here are the symptoms:
Cannot access BIOS or Boot Order during POST All partitions on the factory 1TB hard drive now show in Windows File Explorer whereas previously only the partition labeled C: OS was shown
Potentially Stupid Things I Tried:
I discovered that if there are no hard drives installed, the system will boot to a DOS-type screen with options for Boot Order (with no drives it lists only Network Boot), Setup, Diagnostics, and Boot Configuration.
Setup takes me to the BIOS (vA11) but obviously with no drives showing Diagnostics takes to me to a test suite which when run gives me an error on the video memory but all else tests OK (tests of the video memory from within the Dell Suite within Win 8 show no errors) Boot Configuration gives me Legacy, UEFI Secure and UEFI Not Secure
I also downgraded the BIOS from A11 to A08 and then back to A11 in hopes of getting back access to BIOS but no luck.
Dell Inspiron 17R SE 7720, Win 8, 1TB, 32GB mSata, nVidia GT650M/2GB
Anyone notice any difference going from A10 to A11 on an SXPS 1640?
Also, do BIOS updates have to be incremental? Can I say go from A10 to A14 when it's out, or I must go A10, 11, 12, 13, 14?
Picked up a 15-B137TU with a broken screen. I'm looking to install Linux on this machine but I cant see the POST, BIOS or the boot select screen over HDMI - the diplsay only comes live once the Windows login screen comes up.
The screen Im using is off my desktop and can show the BIOS and POST screens off that, so I know it is within the screens refresh / resolution range.
I've removed the broken panel so the internal monitor isn't pulgged in anymore, and I've tried hittng F4 / Fn-F4 to change the display but that makes no difference either.
Is there any way to get the BIOS and POST screens working over HDMI on this (or any) HP Notebook?
Just got my new FW CTO in the mail today and am loving it. I've spent some time downloading Windows Updates (I ordered Vista Business 64 with Fresh Start) and have been attempting to see if there are updated drivers for the HD 4650 1GB card that I have.
The version I have right now is: 8.583.2-090302a-076759C-Sony
Using Catalyst's "Update Driver" link (essentially a link to AMD's website) I was surprised to not see ANY Mobility HD 3000 or 4000 series drivers at all. Are there newer drivers than the ones that shipped with my laptop? If so, where can I download them?
Also, is it really very important to partition your drives?
Lastly, any chance that ArmaII will run on this?
Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz
4 GB RAM
HD4650 1 GB (with GDDR3 according to GPUZ)
320GB 7200 RPM
I just got a new Acer Aspire 5536 laptop for my brother and I'm doing the normal initial set up stuff. I checked and there's a newer BIOS on the website for this machine. But I can't seem to find any description of the BIOS revisions in the file downloaded or on the website.
where to find a change list for Acer BIOS revisions? I've got BIOS 1.10 and strangely the available BIOS revisions skip from 1.08 to 1.11, making me think there may be an issue with the 1.10 release.
no slow-downs, BSOD's or anything - not even a fan running high and hot. All of a sudden, video blanks, no beeps, no ctl-alt-del, etc. Then no reboot post beeps and no BIOS. LED power light comes on, HD light flashes once, stays off , and battery charge light works until battery is charged. Holding PWR button down forces "off", and PWR on repeats single HD light on to off. Is this the motherboard? Also, pulled HDD - needed business info from it right away, so it reads on other computers, scanned for both viruses and errors, and is clean.
View 1 Replies View RelatedMy daughter's Acer is 2.5 years old and it's running Windows 7. She recently rebooted it last week for a Windows Update and since then it starts up but hangs, with the hard drive light blinking slowly. I ran it in Safe Mode and it gets through CLASSPNP.SYS then hangs. According to articles this is usually a hardware problem. The only option I have with this OS is to bring up the Command Prompt. I've tried System File Checker - no go. System Repair comes back with unknown error and what looks like a bad Driver.
I was able to build a new partition (100+GB) and do a clean install of Windows 7 x64 Ultimate w/ SP1. This went through fine, though I would have to load the Acer drivers for the network card, etc. to finalize it. The point here is that this shows that the hard drive isn't the issue.
My fear is that Windows installed either some sort of driver or other update that has now caused the current OS on her laptop to be unusable. I went to do a System Restore and the only restore point it had was the Critical Update that she rebooted to on 2/13. Trying to roll back to that Restore Point didn't work.
One of the most troublesome consequences of downgrading your VAIO to Windows XP is not being able to adjust the screen brightness using the F5/F6 keys.
This tutorial aims to (i) resolve that issue, and (ii) retain the ability to adjust brightness when you update to the latest LaptopVideo2Go drivers. The below methods have been tested on VAIO FZ, FW, and NS laptops with NVIDIA GeForce 8X00M cards, and they are working flawlessly with the LV2G 190.15 driver.
Part 1: Enabling Fn Brightness Control
Skip this step if your brightness control is already working
In order to be able to use the brightness control on a XP-Downgraded machine, you need:
1. VAIO Event Service Hotfix (Which updates the VESConfig.ini file for the VAIO Event Service)
-> You can get this at[url].
-> If you have an FZ, you can use the VESConfig.ini I have attached
2. NVIDIA Driver with Customised nv4_disp.inf (Refer to Part 2)............
HP Pavilion dv6 1352dx, my son is a scientist who set up this his old (to him ) laptop for me as an gift,and it is now running an ubuntu os,can i download driver updates as if it were still on 64 bit windows ....
View 2 Replies View RelatedJust got a new SSD, reinstalled 7, and can't find the BT driver.
The drivers from Dell.ca's site for 1645 says that there is "more than 1 disc, please insert all discs" () and 1640 says incompatible,
just wondering if a driver exists, and if so, where to get it? I am a bit of a newb to mac and have looked around and found nothing related to my problem (resolution stuck at 1024 X768
View 3 Replies View RelatedEvery time I run the Client System Update tool and check for updates I get the error message "Check for updates failed"
I have a Dell Latitude E6430 running Windows 7 SP1 64 bit and I am connected to the internet...
http://support.dell.com/support/down...cnt=1&vercnt=1
According to this driver site for 1645, most of the drivers are all up-to-date. Could I apply updates for my XPS 1640 here ?
After a development version of the BIOS for the Studio XPS 1645 turned up, some people were concerned about reverting back to an older BIOS after flashing the X29 version. To solve this problem I extracted the WinPhlash utility from Dell's BIOS package and modified the settings.
Now you have several options:
- Simply backup your existing BIUOS
- Upgrade to any version you like
- Downgrade to any version you like
I compiled a package that contains the following BIOS versions:
A01, A02, A03, X29 and A05, A07, A08
This is as far as I know the order in which they were released. The X29 version was never officially released.
Just to be clear: I did not change anything to the actual BIOS files, just to the WinPhlash program settings. These are original, untouched Dell BIOS files, and the same program Dell uses to force-flash your laptop. I just changed a few settings (allowing us a choice of options).
Disclaimer:
I cannot and will not assume responibility of somehow your laptop is bricked during the flashing process. This can happen with Dells own updat packages as well. I myself have used the tool in my package, and others have too, with success. This is however no guarantee for succes.
Please also note that I do not have either a 1647 or a 1340, so I cannot test these files. The theory behind updating the BIOS is the same for all these machines, and the 1340 packages appear to use the same WinPlash64 tool.
The packages can be found here:
20100327_Dell_Studio_XPS_Bios_Tools.zip This package contains the flash tools and the crisis recovery bits.
I have put the different BIOSes in their own packages:
20100327_SXPS_1645_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1645, including the latest A08.
20100327_SXPS_1647_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1647, including the latest A05.
20100327_SXPS_1340_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1340, including the latest A11. The BIOS files for the 1340 seem to be smaller (about 2Mb vs 5Mb) than the 1645/1647 files.
UPDATE: I added the A06 version to the package. Also included Andrew's crisis recovery kit (see this thread for details). I have moved the package to my own server.
UPDATE: A07 is now also included
UPDATE: A08 is now included, and added packages for 1647 and 1340.
Hi at the moment i have a dell sxps 1645 and i wold like to know about the bios because im on the A01 bios at the moment and im not experiencing any crashes or anything else apart from the throttling ;( is it worth upgrading to the A03 or A05?
View 6 Replies View RelatedFor those who don't know yet, Dell has released a new BIOS for the S-XPS 1645 machine; A06. Since Dell wasn't very clear about what this system does other than:
Quote:
1.Enhance system stability.
2.Support new graphic card.
Dell has released A09 update for Studio XPS 1645 on 17-May-2010
The update resolves following issues:
*Features update:
1. Update Processor Power Management(PPM) from 0.60 to 0.63-1 .
2. Support 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS) and EN25F80(EC).
3. Update ME bin file in BIOS for 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS).
4. Modified flash part size to prevent BIOS crash in failsafe part for factory only.
5. Support over 230W adapter to treat as 130W(EC).
6. Update Clarksfield thermal table to V.03(EC).
7. Enhanced PPM RC code for P-state thread count.
*Issues fix:
1. Fix S4 long run failed on DC mode with BSOD 9F.
2. Paltrow freeze issue: Hang up when playing youtube HD film.
3. Fix unable to communicate with battery error under delldiag.
4. Fix ACPI_PSD error in "powercfg -energy" tool under windows.
5. Fix Micron DDR3 memory can not boot up issue.
ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/1647_A05.exe
ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/1645_A08.exe
Just thought I'd post some info on what I just went through. Ever since A06 bios release I was having internet connection issues (slow!) and a speaker problem. When I logged off, I got a message saying " waiting for logoff sound" and had to click the force restart/shutdown prompt. Then I installed A07 bios and after playing a mp3 file with windows media player and then restarting, I would have no sound at all!. I had to shutdown, wait a few minutes and restart and sound would come back, weird?
Anyway, I decided to try and solve these issues, so I uninstalled the IDT audio & driver and reinstalled from Dell download site hoping it was just a bad install. BAD MOVE, now my sound really went bad! All sounds played through only one speaker AND it was really muffled sounding. I tried everything to fix this with no luck until I rolled back to A03 bios and ta da, sound was normal again, no issues whatsoever PLUS, my internet connection improved significantly!
Now I am hesitent to update to either the a06 or a07 bios since machine is running better tha n ever on a03. My uneducated opinion is you need to run any updates released prior to a06 or a07 bios before you install these updates.
In conclusion, if you are having issues like me, roll back to A03 bios, reinstall or update drivers, problem solved.
today I bricked my new 1645 when I was examing the BIOS for the 1647. The BIOS release 1647_A00.exe released this month automatically begins flashing on an 1645
and does not seem to check compatibility or confirm with the user before it updates.
The BIOS is completely incompatible with the 1645 to say the least, so be very careful if you download it on to a non-1647 system.
Dell is building a new system due to this really sad event. Rip XPS 1645 - December 5th 2009.
I recently returned my 1645 after 2 months of struggling with random crashing and throttling back to Dell for a full refund.
I am in need of a new system and was considering HP Envy 15 as an alternative, but I still like the 1645 given that it performs as advertised.