Dell XPS M1730 Review Purchase to Present

You can find my full Dell experience in 100% truth here:

http://dellxpsreview.blogspot.com/2009/06/complete-review-purchase-to-present.html

 

What's up with these recent troll attempts? Two totally new users with no other posts bashing Dell during one single day. Also this guy's blog site was created just recently. Coincidence? Or am i being paranoid? Or is it a same guy that for some reason hates Dell?

 

I am sorry if it seems this is a Troll. I figured this would be a good place to let others see my experience. My blog is true and I am not this other user who you are talking about.

If this is a bad place to post a review about my notebook, then please remove this post. I am sorry, I just wanted to help people on making a good decision.

My XPS M1730 has been nothing but problems. It is less than 9 months old. I hope you all have had better luck with yours.

I was a big fan of Dell until this year when I have went through all of this.

-Joseph

 

To be honest, from what I read there, you've had a pretty average tech support issue. You had one day where the engineer didn't come out, so then you decide to send it back instead of rescheduling? You have to understand the beast is a powerhouse, the system is bound to have heat issues.

I personally, and others I'm sure, have had worse experience with the tech support. However I certainly wouldn't make a massive deal out of it or call it a deal breaker. Dell warranty is one of the best I have ever seen - how many other companies offer to come out and fix it in house? I understand your frustration but it seems unfounded - no tech support is perfect. If maybe you had said you had 5 missed appointments and 4 replacement broken cards, I could see your frustration. But for now, you've had one (two-ish) bad experiences and are making a MASSIVE deal out of it. Just my two cents.

And I'm glad to hear you pulled through okay so far from your illness.

 

Sorry to hear about your XPS! Sometimes, like all electronics, it could be a Lemon. Especially Nvidia cards! There's lots of known overheating problems with the 8800M's and 9800M's. Though the XPS is a well built machine it could just be Nvidia's products that broke.

 

Another Dell support horror story...

Though he looks like a mis-guided user. You said yourself that 'This notebook is amazing', indeed it is. Most of the problems you listed could easily been resolved had you found this forum earlier. XPS support isn't exactly helpful, but after calling them so many times, didn't you get help from others? One of the trouble with M1730, if I can call it a that, is that you must configuate it properly to take advantage of its powerful hardware.

Your CPU temp could be resolved by undervolting, and given the high temperature, I get the impression you placed it on wooden surface? and not at least raised the back of the laptop, with a bottle cap or something? Consider the hardware, those engineers has done pretty damn good job on M1730, its almost silent in windows, and the noise is manageable in games, pretty awesome cooling. Also NV's temp reader may have mis-reported the temperature, without a screenshot and a pic of your setup, I just dont see 102'c.

Though for fans to work better, you need to raise the back a little, which for most of us here, seems a pretty good compromise consider the package your getting. Nowadays, the GPU driver features dynamic underclocking. If it indeed overheated, then couldn't you accept it and do something yourself? Consider you already spent that much, is a cooler really that much an extra?

But I must ask, you invested $3800, in a market which the products always depreciate in value, do you expect to get it from dell, and resell for profit a few month later? Plus I take it you didn't assest the investment, didn't even get a proper warranty for it. Whose fault is that?

I don't mean to flame, but the 'review' you posted is barely a review of M1730 hardware, more a critism of XPS support - in which case, I know most ppl dont enjoy the support from those call centres. They help you if something is physically broken, but if your looking for software support, google is your friend. My M1730 has been so far a great machine, working well thanks to the ppl on the XPS forum; who has been more kind and resourceful than I could asked for.

 

wow dude i feel bad for u

 

Yea, the problem I have is all the major repairs in less than 9 months of owning a machine. Motherboard replacement, Fans, Heatsink, GPU's. Its just terrible. I understand that a machine needs repairs, but this is a bit much.

I have always been a big fan of Dell and I have convinced many of people to buy Dell. I kept a good outlook about Dell the entire time, it just gets tiresome dealing with the 5 bad service reps to every 1 good service rep.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

@ QuickLite: While I understand that there are things I could have done to improve my machine now. A company such as Dell should not sell machines in a configuration that is not optimal for basic use. At least that is my opinion. Also, I have my notebook on a cooling pad elevated about 2 inches off a desk. I have an AC unit in the window that blows directly on the machine. I am not sure what else could be done. Like I said, I love the machine when it runs. I am just upset and a bit nervous about the next year with the machine.

 

I see your point...

Though for better or worse, XPS M1730 is the last of its kind, XPS gaming line has now moved to Alienware.

Dell is used to make normal laptops, perhaps they bite more than they could chew with M1730. I mean they had an extra HDD and GPU, etc to deal with on top of M1710.

Luckily AW has traditionally quite good rep, cos their machines are built for gaming.

 

Problem is, as others said, you didn't seek help earlier. It is quite possible that all those repairs you listed might not have been necessary at all. Overheating issue is very hard to identify precisely without long-term observation, therefore it is common that engineers simply choose to change every component that might have something to do with overheating, often resulting in changing healthy components as well. You can't always tell which part is overheating based on a phone call or short visit, so that's why so many changes. Seeking help online on forums such as these is much better for diagnostics, because with experience from others or specific procedures like undervolting you can eliminate certain parts with reasonable accuracy, thus providing more data to be discussed with engineer so he doesn't need to swap every single component. Saying my GPU is overheating is much more helpful than saying my system is overheating and games are locking up.

Dell XPS M1730 is a mighty fine machine and during my ownership i didn't have a single bad experience or overheating issue with it, and there's many other users with similar experience. There are also few which were not that lucky, but it seems to be minority, so publishing statements like "many users are probably having same issue as me" or putting out general statements about M1730 being sucky on public blogs, based purely on experience of one single person, is simply silly. You can get a lemon when you buy whatever computer, you can get it when buying a car, a fridge or even a house. Bad stuff simply happens sometimes, that's the consequence of mass production. The quality output control can't be as strict as with handmade stuff.

Also i must ponder your warranty choice. Buying a $3800 piece of fragile electronics which is supposed to be stressed a lot by gaming, and you get only 1 year of warranty? Extended warranty is not that expensive. It's saving money on one of the most crucial parts of any laptop, warranty and servicing. That's the first thing i look at when buying a computer, how long am i covered and what are the terms, because sooner or later something WILL go wrong unless you are very lucky, no matter whether you buy Dell, Apple or some fake piece from Vietnam.

Where is your AC blowing? Make sure it's not blowing on the rear vents, else you are not cooling it but rather making things worse by stopping the hot air from coming out. Best place is probably to let it blow on hot place above keyboard, but i guess you already figured that out.

In any case, sorry for not trusting you previously, it was just weird coincidence with this lawsuit forum troll, and i'm glad you made it over the illness. I just find it unreasonable to bash whole XPS line or Dell company for getting a lemon or by being unlucky. Things like that sadly happen, and Dell has still one of the better customer services, some companies are much much worse. Don't have personal experience with Sony so my opinion means nothing, but i heard horror stories and not a single positive feedback yet. And Acer can be rather dodgy as well, used to own one. Wish you a lot of patience and luck with your machine, hopefully it will settle. Stay strong

 

JoeR, after reading over your posts and most of your blog I encourage you to hit up the M1730 owner's lounge with any questions or concerns. Most of us (if not all) are more than happy to assist with troubleshooting...

 

@ Tuwa

I am glad you are having excellent experiences with your M1730. I am or was a big fan of Dell. I have recommended numerous people to buy a Dell. I am sure my machine is just a lemon as others have noted, it would be impossible to imagine others having all the same problems I have.

My AC unit is in the window directly across the room about 8 feet, it blows on to the front of the machine and my room is about 68 degrees usually.

I am sorry about the warranty confusion. I just found out today that I did in fact purchase a 2 year warranty, and the person who tried to sell me an additional warranty was mistaken.

I have been on the phone with Dell most of the morning about my machine and my problems. It seems they agree that it is a Lemon machine and because I am so upset and have had so many major problems they are sending me a refurbished machine. I hope that this new machine will be as good as yours. I am also extending the warranty for another 2 years probably when this warranty runs out.

Again, sorry if this first looked to be a troll. I am very happy to have found this forum and I am already learning lots of things.

Soon as I get the replacement I am going to learn how to undervolt the machine to lower the temps.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts

-JoeR