Am i taking a big risk buying a used M1330?

Is the GPU meltdown inevitable? Would i be able to avoid this ever happening with the copper mod? It would be for music and multimedia so the cooling set up i read about here sounds like it would handicap the laptop too much. Also, is there a way to check the history of the laptop? Cheers,

TJ

 

So, it seems that there are a few people who's M1330 crashed even with the copper mod. Just go through the discussions. A list of discussions is presented in my contribution (link below).
What you probably do with the copper mod is to slow down this GPU failure ... hopefully for a long time ...

Cheers.

 

Don't do it

 

Depends on how old it is, if dell allows you to purchase the extended warranty I would say Definitely YES.

If it fails completely hardware replacement, New 1340 etc.

 

Ok thanks. I think i'll pass! I'm not buying a system and setting it up for audio if there's a good chance that it's gonna fail at some point, it's just not worth it. Shame cause i'd read good things about the XPS till i came across this! Cheers.

 

I'd stay away from the M1330 unless it has the Intel card.

 

find one still under warranty, have dell replace it maybe with a newer studio 14

 

Very succinct and to the point.

 

As stated above, unless you can guarantee you're getting the Intel version, be very careful. Honest sellers will tell you the system is on it's last legs, but MANY sellers lead you to believe all is well then you're stuck with it.

 

May be worth looking at the Dell outlet - filter by M1330 and 0MB graphics to get the ones with the Intel graphics that cannot suffer from the NVIDIA chip problem. (Not sure how competitive the prices are with the alternatives but I picked up a second M1330 this way with the SSD disk after a lot of searching - the list of machines gets refreshed approx every 15 mins)

 

Due to the removal of the 1340, it is likely he'd end up with either an M11x or Studio 14 (not that either of those are bad).

 

I think it's quite old cause it has a c2d 1.5ghz processor in it. I'll see if i can get the dell service number. Which leads to my next question...

 

So Dell will honour the warranty even if it's not bought from the original owner? If my back is covered then i will probably go for it.

 

It's ok, the sellers are friends of mine. It's a business in my city that buys and sells electronic equipment anmd musical instruments. The gear usually comes with a warranty and if it did flake out they would not leave me stranded. My concern is a new system takes a bit of setting up and i'd hate to have to be doing it again in a couple of months.

 

It's got the intel graphics. It's a couple of years old and seems to be the base spec apart from the TrueLife screen. I already have 2gb ram and a faster hd so all that's left to do is upgrade the processor but just how slow is the T5250 compared to a T2330?

Also can the graphics be upgraded? Cheers.

 

Graphics, no. You have to swap the motherboards between Intel and nVidia to change the graphics. Stick with the Intel.

Look here to compare the 2 CPU's you listed. http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=32432,30786,

 

I thought my T2330 had the same cache and fsb. The T2330 is not a bad little processor and has served me well. Just found this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=218511

And i thought my T2330 was a c2d! So it looks like this will be an upgrade on all fronts. Nice.

 

Take a look at the T7100. I had one and it worked fine for what I needed.

 

Warranty can be transferred. However, if you do not have the orginal owner's name or a order number Dell may give a hard time.

As long as the it has the Intel graphics you need worry about the whole nVidia failure problem.

I have that processor in my M1330 and have never had any problems. But all I do is light surfing, office, DVD, etc.

 

It's for audio so i need a fast processor. I didn't think the T5250 would be able to handle things at all but it looks like i will do just fine!

 

I checked all the info but i couldn't see any reigstration info for the previous owner. Where would the order number be? The warranty ran out in 08 anyway.

I didn't realise the graphics card was optional, i thought it was standard with the laptop haha! I actually wanted an XPS so this has worked out rather well.

Does vista run well on this laptop? I normally use XP for audio but i have been running the Win7 rc which is about to run out so i'm getting a vista recovery disc, hopefully the laptop will have an oem key on it...

 

Order number would probably on the receipt, packing slip, etc. In other words it is unlikely you'd have it. But if the warranty ran out on '08 it doesn't like it matters much. Still want to transfer the ownership over to your name after purchase and don't have the previous owners info just put "no information" in the required fields and leave the rest blank. It worked for me.

I wish my M1330 had the Intel video card now. I wouldn't have to worry about it dying on me if did. Consider yourself lucky!

I never had any trouble with Vista on my M1330 even in the early days. Always ran smooth. I installed W7 this fall and it also worked well for the most part.

 

I totally agree, Vista is pretty quick, I had never a severe speed problem. - I think this 'higher speed' of Windows 7 is just a huge hype!

Cheers.

 

Don't feel too bad, mine hardly works! It's throttling down to 1ghz but the system is very slow. It takes ages to complete anything. Like the cpu is maxed out but it's not. I had the same behaviour with two different drives/OSes (windows 7 ultimate and vista home premium). I thought it might be the bios which hadn't been updated but that hasn't made any difference. I read about the T5250 been slow but it can't be that. It's acting like a PIII!

As for the throttling, i can't work out whether it's rightmark or something else. I played with the settings and the clock speed returned to 1.5ghz but then for some reason it went back to 900mhz! I'm using the drive from my old laptop which is a 7,200rpm sata wd scorpio black and i put 3gb of ram in. Has anyone had this issue with the m1330? Seems like there's a fault. I can't do anything cause the systems so slow.

I need to figure out if it's a fault or not.

 

You maybe right. Vista sure took a bashing but i never had a major problem with it. Windows 7 is much more stable on release though, not a service pack in sight.

 

I forgot to mention the fan is running constantly and at full speed even when i'm not doing anything. It's actually changing speed in the bios. It was 1.5 when i rebooted but once in windows it's dropped to 1ghz. Why is it doing this and how do i stop it?

 

What version is your bios? There were some fan issues with some of the old versions. You need to have V14 or V15.

I am not sure about the processor. Are you plugged in? I believe C2D will clockdown when on battery to save power.

EDIT: Usually when a system is running slow it is due to bloatware, background applications, etc. You might check and see what is running. Another totally off the wall thought, but sense you have an integrated video card the CPU has the carry the extra load of rendering video. You might try disabling Aero in Windows and see if it helps.

 

BIOS: A15

I'm plugged in and profile is set to high performance. Somehow i'd created a rightmark profile and activated that so i switched to hp and it made absolutely no difference, the processor is still throttling to around 1ghz.

Windows is taking about 5 minutes to boot and the longer i use it the slower it seems to get. There's definitely something wrong here. The drive is tweaked for performance but it is a drive i just plonked in there from my old laptop. Surprisingly 7 automatically installed most of the drivers for the new laptop. Anyway i'm giving the drive it came with another try. It seems slightly better overall but it is still slow. I thought the T5250 was a better processor than the T2330 overall but it's struggling with the most basic tasks. :|

 

Really weird. In vista the cpu is constantly hitting 100% and idling around 70. Possible virus? There'sa lot of apps installed on there from the previous owner but it's mostly utilties. I've checked the cooling fan and there was very little dust. I even switched the profile to balanced but it made no difference. I've shut it down before it melts. It's throttling because it's overheating but i'm not pushing it especially hard. The fan kicks in as soon i turn it on. How could it overheat so quickly?

 

My XPS M1330 had the copper mod and, yes, it did run a bit cooler (actually it ran a little less hot). I would avoid the XPS line completely, based on my unfortunate experience. As I have said before on this forum, my XPS M1330 has had 5 different motherboards (including the original) since March 1, 2008. In addition, the heat took out my hard drive which failed 3 months ago. FYI I have also had a keypad go bad. Tech support from Dell is stellar. Customer service is horrible. So, if you buy it without a warranty, be prepared to pay for a motherboard at some point.

 

Very strange indeed. I had Vista booted in under a minute on my M1330 (same CPU, less RAM, slower HDD, nVidia card). Assuming you don't have any files or anything on there I would try restoring the laptop to original factory conditions or do clean install of Windows. I am not totally sure how to the first, but it should be in the owner's manual.

Everything you say is right, but this has the Intel video card, not the nVidia so it doesn't really matter in this case.

 

Since you have the Intel graphics, GPU meltdown won't be an issue. Regarding your other issue, I would do a fresh install (format during the install) and start from square one. There is really no telling what is going on since it belonged to another user.

 

Thanks for the advice Cliff. Why the CPU is running at 100% all the time is what i want to know!

But it's ok, it has a 3 month warranty with the place i bought it from and they have a 24 hour return policy if there are any problems with the gear. They're good people and will not leave me in the lurch.

Anyway i have one of those griffin stands so i've put it on that which has made a big difference. I've also installed I8KFan and it's running normally now; the cpu isn't maxing out and i can perform multiple tasks. The thermal paste is old as well so i'lll get some arctic silver and see what difference that makes.

As it is it's a nice little machine. I was fixing to take it back but if i can get the bugs ironed out i will probably keep it.

 

It's much better now since i installed I8kfan, thanks to the info on this forum.

Vista is OEM but i have a recovery disk should i need it. There's also a recovery partition on the hd which probably restores the OS to it's factory state. I've removed most of the software and tweaked the system anyway. I couldn't even open a window earlier! Unfortunately I8kfan doesn't work well with Win7 but maybe some thermal paste will sort matters out. Btw, what's the best thing for removing the old paste?

Yeah I8kfan has sorted it. Current CPU Load = 0%

I just followed the tips here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453580

 

Yeah i probably wouldn't have bought the laptop otherwise. Still i'm having a lot of problems with this one so i think it will be going back. These are the readings i'm getting running I8kfan:

CPU 40c
GPU 67c
Mem 38c
Chipset 43c

This is when idle. Overheating much? The issues begin once i start to put any kind of load on the cpu. The system slows down and eventually grinds to a halt. I've had to force shutdown a few times now.

I'm going to try undervolting it if it's even possible!

 

I forgot to add, this is with the other drive. When i first boot windows everything is performing normally, i can open programs etc but gradually the cpu load starts to increase and ends up hitting 100% constantly and everything either freezes or becomes unresponsive. I've tried with I8kfan controlling the temps and without. Maybe undervolting will help somewhat but i need to know why the cpu load is affecting performance this way.

Anyway overall it's not really worth the hassle. if i upgrade the processor will i have more problems etc etc... So to answer my question i'd have to yes, there is a big risk buying a used 1330!

Does noone think those temps are tad high?

 

I wouldn't buy a new m1330 much less a used one (i know, they don't sell it anymore but thats beside the point). I'm planning on getting dell to either give me a refund or a replacement when this one dies (which should be soon given the temperature its been running at lately) . After 5 motherboard replacements and LED screens and others I'm ready to get rid of it.

 

Did you try the intel graphics as well? What was it that caused the mobo failures? This system is 2 years old and looks like it's had some use but i don't think it was heavy, although the bios hadn't been updated and most of the software installed was from 2007.

I don't know what's going on with this machine; one minute it's performing well and the next it's ground to a halt! I'm running diagnostics anyway. The first
message i get is 'LCD cable not detected' but i assume that's cause it's LED. Scrap that, diagnostics would have taken hours!

I rolled back the bios to A14 and the fan is a lot quieter than it was but stil the problem remains. I'm gonna try undervolting and if that doesn't work it's going back. Unless anyone has any suggestions?

 

Re-install Vista, make sure you delete ALL the partitions during the install. You will end up with a formatted HD and a fresh OS. I recommend doing a quick format of NTFS.

 

I've had the same problems with both drives, even in preboot diagnostics. I've put the original hd and ram back in and now it's flying through the diagnostics! but this on first boot, before the laptop had been on for a while. Now it's starting to slow down as i type this... Yep, back to normal.

Overall it's better for me to take it back and reverse the deal, maybe upgrade my old laptop in the short term. I just wanted something with a better spec and a decent screen but i need a good solid system for music production. I like the xps but it's got too many issues and i've invested a lot of time just trying to get it working. In vista now without anything running the cpu load is constantly 100%.

 

I just came across a post on the dell forums about the m1330 running slow and chewing up 40-50% of th cpu (which is what's happening here) and it turned out to be caused by an SQL app. What is an SQL app and how would i determine this and disable it? Thanks.

 

Haven't read all the posts... but... worst choice I ever made and the worst laptop I've owned... bought in 2007, failed 10mths later ,after 2 new screens and 3 motherboards they still couldn't sort it and sent me another, that failed 10mths later and got a new motherboard, just today started getting funny pixels on this screen too and the webcam has disappeared... Utter Sh!te...

Even the guy who came to fix it for Dell (also does Sony's) said they are terrible, watched him replace the screen and the connection to thge motherboard's held down with tape !

My 4 yr old could do a better job...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

Chances are he used a third party application which managed/created/used an SQL database.

 

That sounds very likely. But off the top of my head I have idea what program might be causing it. Try downloading a program like Startup Manager and disabling some of the bloatware.

 

If even Dells repair guy is saying that then things must be bad! I'll take it back tomorrow. What did he say about Sony?! They have a Sony VAOI that i could swap it for which is tempting but i think i'll just reverse the deal get my old system back and upgrade the processor.

Well, i hope this thread serves as a purpose to anyone considering one of these! I'm surprised the previous owner did nothing to resolve the issues with the laptop as Dell would have probably extended the warranty from what i've read. I would have tried to get any problems fixed before selling it. And assuming they knew of the issues, shame on them!

 

I'm confused..... You do not seem to want to re-install Vista. Is there a particular reason why? Anytime I buy a used machine, and I do from time to time, I ALWAYS format the HD and re-install the OS. You can NEVER know what was installed, what is running, what is in the registry. Uninstalling programs just will not get you where you want to be sometimes. I know the M1330 can be frustrating at times but I love the pair I have.

Just to give you an example, when I started at my current job, they gave me a D620 that used to belong to a DBA that was terminated. For legal reasons they need to leave the machine intact and exactly like your situation the CPU is pegged all the time. Since they won't let me gut the thing and get rid of whatever Oracle and SQL apps he put on there I just leave it locked in my desk.

 

Ah ok i thought i SQL was something specific to Dell.

 

??? SQL has nothing to do with Dell. It's a database language.

 

Thanks. There was something called dscactivate which i've disabled. It's some kind of remote support utility. Maybe i should use it to call up Dell support tomorrow and see if they can offer any solutions!

 

You make a good point.

Like i say i've tried with 2 drives. The other drive is from my old laptop so i know it's clean and functioning well... Keep in mind i was getting the same issue in preboot diagnostics and upon rebooting windows, the only thing that helped was shutting down the laptop and leaving it for half an hour.

Ok, i'm reinstalling Vista from a recovery disk. I thought i would need to create a vlite installation for the sata drivers but it has worked. A clean install should all but eliminate any software being the cause. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware issue anyway.

I could risk keeping the laptop and upgrading the processor and at the same time applying some good quality thermal paste but given the apparent failure rate seems a risk too great! Or just buy some thermal paste. Then again the vista install seems to progressing at normal speed and that must be pushing the processor quite hard...

All i can say is watch this space. I'll update when i've had a chance to test things with vista.