** The Official Studio XPS 1640/45/47 replacement thread **

[lovsn]

The replacement parts are refurbished, nothing to get excited about

They're all nice and shiny though

The monitor is a big improvement

The guy was saying it's a pretty large design flaw on behalf of Dell that the backlit keyboard uses a bit of power, which makes it run hotter, which makes the fans kick dust up, through the holes of the backlit keyboard, and, because it's so hot, the dust basically burns onto the LCD. Also, the cooling vent emits straight up onto the LCD, which makes the problem worse.

He reckoned that the improved power unit may help keep it a bit cooler and reduce the problem.

[anodize]

The replacement parts are refurbished, nothing to get excited about

Every refurb part is tagged as refurb regardless of new or not. I had at least 15 laptops repaired in '10 and I got new parts 90% of time.

[symmi]

Hello, i do have the same problem with my current XPS 1645 what u do have guys. my system gets throttling when i try to play games at maximum level and it is very annoying. i have read that most of you have been able to get replacement laptops according to this issue. can you point me any way where i should look for the replacement laptop? or whom i should tell about this issue and demand replacement.

[arunshariharan]

What was the problem dude ? Why are they replacing your system ? I am also from India, and would certainly like to hear from you in this regard...

First the Games started to act as if I had a Radeon 9000Series card and playing crysis at full details, but actually i was Playing Plants vs Zombies LOL.... Then, Throttling Issue, ur system gets slower after 20-30 min usage ( well, any video played can stutter in 30 min or so, if so, you can state this as an issue and ask for replacement).
They changed my Motherboard, alas, The system dint want to boot up at all.... The Engineer dint know what to do and reported that I should ask for Replacement. So I called them up and requested to replace and I strictly mentioned not to talk about replacing any other parts as I was " Disgusted with the parts and bad design for a Costly Machine"

Hence they had to.... ( I repaired my system myself after the engineer had gone and was using till they took it for replacement though) ..

If you see any fault in ur system, just as for replacement...

You might experience these...

1. Slower System, occasional unresponse from desktop
2. Stutter while playing videos off DVD or HDD
3. Games play very sluggish irrelevent of game
4. Battery donot charge, instead it would show that Wrong Charger in place, and pl replace it... LOL... It was a comedy for me.. I had 1% battery remaining for almost a week, without getting shutdown nor charging
5. Unlimited System Crashes which would make you kill your system before it dies



Anyone of above Isuue, + Overheating, you are right in asking for a replacement... You might get a GOOD XPS 15, since it is WAY better than 1645, even with a lower graphics card, since the implementation is better and good airflow. I am playing most games with high- very high details @ 1080p





Config : i7 740
GPU : GT435M ( default : 650/800 ; Overclocked to 735/1370/890 )
HDD : 500 GB 7200 RPM
RAM : 6 GB ( 1x4 GB in slot 2, 1 x 2GB in slot 1 ) 1333MHz
JBL 2.1 Speakers ( best ever )

[Camelhmpz]

Dell has now sent me a total of two mother boards, three heatsinks, a thousand thermal pads, all new plastics, vents, bottom cover, and laptop base, three adapters.

For over a week I couldn't get anyone to call me back. Everytime I went into chat is was the same thing... lets send a tech, lets mail some parts... finally a tech randomly called and said it didn't make much sense to keep replacing parts. They wanted me to send it to some "depot" that would take a few days, I declined. I know this throttling isn't going to be an issue for some guy testing for an hour or less.

So he offered to send me a XPS 17, then said no shortly after I agreed... then said he would send a replacement 1640. He sent me the specs, and they are all generally the same, however I wanted RED and it was BLACK. For about five minutes he continued to tell me my only choice was the BLACK or send the laptop in. Then out of the blue he had a RED one, with upgraded RGB LED screen... so he sent that one. It lacks blue tooth an the backlit board, however he said after my replacement arrived to email him and he would mail the parts... we shall see. He did however give me a real email unlike the first dip with a noreply BS email. The hard drive is larger, but RPMS are slower... so I think I will just attempt to keep my smaller drive, or buy my own if the system doesn't throttle. I saw in the specs it was arriving with a 90 watt adapter and he said just to keep my 130 watt.

I hope this gets resolved soon. I have pleaded for a refund, and have been denied. I just want to change models, even though the appearance of this machine is very modern. The look does me no good without the performance to back it up.

[E.D.U.]

^ I know what you mean. Hang in there. Hopefully this replacement system works out for you (You'll like the RGB-LED ). If it doesn't work out, try pleading for a refund again, they will have to break sometime. Or you can try for the different model again (the XPS 15 or 17). The XPS 15/17 generally have better luck performing as advertised compared to the SXPS 164X's they replaced (aesthetics aside). Good luck though.

[Camelhmpz]

Got my replacement today. I am VERY displeased. I knew the laptop would be refurbished, but most of the time they take the time to make em look like new. This one has awful scratches, chips, and gunk in the port holes. I am very very disappointed. There are actual nicks on the "glass" on the screen. The leather is very worn and has a groove. Mine looks brand new, I take care of my stuff, the resale on these are already low... I dont want to further destory any chances of selling this by having one that looks this used.

I emailed my "supervisor", been five hours, nothing yet. We shall see. He should have just sent the XPS 17 like he started to. This is utter BS. I am at least checking the throttle on the replacement now... if it works, I will attempt to swap all the parts over to it... the RGB is nice however...

[Raether916]

if you dont mind me asking, why do you have 2 of the exact same laptop?

Sorry been offline for a bit - busy with work

The XT2 is my Travel machine-

The 2 XPS's I share with my 2 daughters, so which ever XPS is available I will use. On the white one now. I wanted two to be identical that was the other reason I kept the 1647 over the xps15

My Wife uses the Vostro, - Which will be replaced with an XPS14.

[Camelhmpz]

Well, this drama is over for me. The replacement 1640 throttles just like the original. It did take a few minutes longer however. My supervisor called me the other day to check up and I told him I was very unhappy, that my sales guy picked this laptop out for me knowing what I would use it for, and I am unable to use it like I would like. He's a nice guy, told me to give him a day... he called back and cleared the way for a full refund. So he told me if I wanted a new Dell to look and see what I wanted and he would get me the most discount. After a few days I emailed him, to which he called and said he would call a sales member, who called within hours and gave me a very nice deal, with extra warranty on a Alienware M17x... I liked the RGB so much I ordered it with this one.

The XPX 16 was a nice looking machine, and for everyday use like internet, email, and word processing, its more than fine... even playing DVDs... just not any long time gaming or use of a graphic filled program.

Good luck to all... thanks for sharing.

B

[E.D.U.]

Well, this drama is over for me. The replacement 1640 throttles just like the original. It did take a few minutes longer however. My supervisor called me the other day to check up and I told him I was very unhappy, that my sales guy picked this laptop out for me knowing what I would use it for, and I am unable to use it like I would like. He's a nice guy, told me to give him a day... he called back and cleared the way for a full refund. So he told me if I wanted a new Dell to look and see what I wanted and he would get me the most discount. After a few days I emailed him, to which he called and said he would call a sales member, who called within hours and gave me a very nice deal, with extra warranty on a Alienware M17x... I liked the RGB so much I ordered it with this one.

The XPX 16 was a nice looking machine, and for everyday use like internet, email, and word processing, its more than fine... even playing DVDs... just not any long time gaming or use of a graphic filled program.

Good luck to all... thanks for sharing.

B

Very nice end to your story. The M17x should keep you going for a while. However, as for the SXPS 16, it sort of depends on how lucky you are. With some work (using thermal paste, BIOS A09, cleaning vents, using 130w adapter, etc) and some purchases (notably a Zalman NC2000 cooler) I can game on mine for as long as I want without trouble. GPU temps average around 81C on all games. So it really is a coin toss. Enjoy that Alienware though (RGB-LED is always a good choice)...maybe some day I'll step up to one of those.