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

[anilpalepu]

Ya i jus checked the comparison of gpus at ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 - Notebookcheck.net Tech ... and it shows that 540m is marginally better than 5730... and also ya check online at Dell site what gpus were they offering for dell xps 15.. and they had 525 and 540... so obv ill shoot for 540 with them... lets see what they will offer me on monday...

[anilpalepu]

So i got the call from Dell representative today and he offered me a Dell xps 15 L502x...but he was offering me 1366x768 screen res and a nvidia gt 525m... i declined the offer right away saying my xps 1647 had better configuration and a 1600*900 screen... i told him i need atleast nvidia gt540m.. he said he would check and get back to me tomo again with a better configuration.. Hope i can get a 1080p with a gt540 tomo...

But i do have to comment on Dells Support though which is GREAT... The day i complained about my laptop being overheated and all , the tech representative arranged a agent to come over to my home to replace my motherboard, heat sink and wat not the next day itself.. that was some rapid service ... and when that dint solve my issues, he was courteous enough to call me next day itself and find out how the system was .. so i told him it was same and there was no improvements ... and he was fair enough on his part to offer me a Dell xps 15....He was very responsive on the phone and well spoken and he seemed to understand well about the system and what my needs are... anyhow i jus wanted to say that i am having a great experience with Dell support..they are treating me well.. and i know not everyone is having or had the same experience.. i jus felt like sharing that..

Thanks guys.

[Shadow_Shooter]

So i got the call from Dell representative today and he offered me a Dell xps 15 L502x...but he was offering me 1366x768 screen res and a nvidia gt 525m... i declined the offer right away saying my xps 1647 had better configuration and a 1600*900 screen... i told him i need atleast nvidia gt540m.. he said he would check and get back to me tomo again with a better configuration.. Hope i can get a 1080p with a gt540 tomo...

But i do have to comment on Dells Support though which is GREAT... The day i complained about my laptop being overheated and all , the tech representative arranged a agent to come over to my home to replace my motherboard, heat sink and wat not the next day itself.. that was some rapid service ... and when that dint solve my issues, he was courteous enough to call me next day itself and find out how the system was .. so i told him it was same and there was no improvements ... and he was fair enough on his part to offer me a Dell xps 15....He was very responsive on the phone and well spoken and he seemed to understand well about the system and what my needs are... anyhow i jus wanted to say that i am having a great experience with Dell support..they are treating me well.. and i know not everyone is having or had the same experience.. i jus felt like sharing that..

Thanks guys.

Here is the total opposite experience of what you've had:
The WORST Customer Service Experience Ever

[orenzai]

OMG I'm sending a flying kiss all the way from Malaysia to you. Hahah Thanks very much for taking the time to write ALL of that. It shows that someone knows/understands what situation I'm in.

Yes, I'm using the 4670. I just checked my throttlestop log and can safely say that the CMOD% or Chip% are both 100% throughout.

The current firmware for my GC is the latest, .861 from the thread provided.

I did a test on Black Ops as per suggested with a 1280x720 res with NO other details on. I got an average of 30FPs. When I turned on AAx4 alone, it went further down to 26FPS.

So far, about 1 week into my fresh install, I have yet to experience the crashing problem. Great news actually. The previous time I did a fresh install, it crashed on the 2nd day. That was why it led me to believe that it is not a h/w issue.

Now that I've explained my problem, I shall share with you a bit of my experience with Dell Malaysia.

First off, my laptop came after 1.5months of ordering. So yes, that meant that it took a big chunk of warranty off me. It started crashing. I called them up and they'd suggest I do this test, yadayada and usually after all the troubleshooting which is about 30 minutes, they'd tell me to do a fresh install. Of course, I needed my data and said nvm maybe other day.

I beared with the crash throughout the year of owning my laptop. It has since DIED 2 times on me. What I mean is, I shut it down, and it wont boot up anymore. The system attempts to repair and repair and fail. I couldnt even get into safe mode. So I had to forgo my data. These was also the 2 times I HAD to reformat my computer without prior notice.

There was this once, I was busy writing a blog post using live writer. Crashed 1st time. I boot up and thank god there was autosave. Before I could start writing, it crashed again. And then again for the 3rd f***ing time. After 3 crashes, my autosave file of my blog post VANISHED.

I got so pissed I called up Dell at 12.30AM in the morning. Some foreigner speaking agent served me, which led me to believe that my call got diverted to overseas. Main point, the same routine. They did the tests and stuff and I got fed up. I told them to just send a technician over to check and see if its a hw issue. He said, "We could not send a technician over until we have identified that it's a hardware issue." This was the reason why I didnt manage to get the problem fixed within the warranty period. I could not identify the problem. It crashed randomly, and they couldnt send a technician over.

I LOATHE Dell. I pay RM5000 for this piece of trash and Dell couldnt do anything about it. I was younger 1 year ago(17). I didnt insist on Dell to fix the problem as I was scared it might have just been some software issue on my side and they could save the trouble of coming to me. Now I regret.

Lol @ flying kiss. Your welcome. I hear you on the "LOATHE Dell." That sounds like a troublesome experience and it sounds like Dell and their reps were reluctant to help. It's so strange because I feel like their customer service is more lenient about sending over a technician to repair/exchange parts, especially if you're under warranty. They usually are with me, but then again I wonder whether the tech support is different in the US than in Malaysia. As for your system, it's a good thing it hasn't crashed again since the last fresh install, but all those crashes were definitely something. I mean you reformatted several times and it still crashed so it can't be all software. Were all those crashes the same multicolored/fuzzy crash?

Either way your GPU is still under-performing because those are low fps for Black Ops at 1280x720 with no other details on. You didn't answer question's 3 and 4 from my last post, lol. It's probably because I wrote too much . Honestly, I still feel like it's a GPU HW issue, but then again I'm not an expert. Hopefully no more crashes of the multicolored fashion happen. I suggest that next time you install a new GPU driver you just try to do it the way I detailed above. In my experience with GPU drivers, I've noticed that how I installed them affected my fps.

Otherwise if you still feel unsatisfied, just call Dell and try your luck. As a last resort you can e-mail michael.dell@dell.com and see if that could lead to anything good for you. It can't hurt. Regardless though good luck and don't let the experience anger you so much because I KNOW it would anger me...lol .

Very sorry for the late reply. I must have missed it and thought nobody replied to my post.

Here is a REALLY great news that has taken me by surprise. I posted a "Dear Dell, F*** you and your XPS 1645." 2 weeks back when it crashed on me. I then received a DM from a dell rep. Must've been somebody monitoring the social networks for Dell mentions or smth.

After some short explanation on the situation, she finally agreed to make a one-time exception to replace my GC (as suggested by all you kind souls out there) as my issue was raised DURING the warranty period.

I just wanted to reconfirm if this REALLY is he GC issue, or is it most likely? Oh, and EDU, yes, after the reformat, it always crashed with the fuzzy screen followed by a BSOD and then a fatal error thingy when it has rebooted.

2 weeks into the fresh install now. No crashed YET. But again, it starts to acta bit weird. For instance, when I'm playing a YouTube video or playing a video on my lappy, it "jams & stutters" for half a second and then continue playing. I couldnt find a relation between the video codec and the flash player though. Am on K lite codec pack standard and Flash player 10.3. This doesnt happen when I'm playing audio.

I really hope my issue would be solved after they come and change the GC and all. I dont want to waste all of Dell's effort to come and have it replaced and then the problem recurring.

EDIT: EDU, my answer is yes to your questions 3) and 4).

[anilpalepu]

Here is the total opposite experience of what you've had:
The WORST Customer Service Experience Ever

jeezus man..i feel bad for you..im so lucky she is not handling my issue..
So what happened next???
I mean what did you settle with?? xps 15 or same old 1647???
what happened???

[Shadow_Shooter]

jeezus man..i feel bad for you..im so lucky she is not handling my issue..
So what happened next???
I mean what did you settle with?? xps 15 or same old 1647???
what happened???

Are you getting your replies via e-mail or is s/he also calling you to offer specifications? she will call me again. and im already tense about it. our every talk is like a war between us...

[E.D.U.]

Very sorry for the late reply. I must have missed it and thought nobody replied to my post.

Here is a REALLY great news that has taken me by surprise. I posted a "Dear Dell, F*** you and your XPS 1645." 2 weeks back when it crashed on me. I then received a DM from a dell rep. Must've been somebody monitoring the social networks for Dell mentions or smth.

After some short explanation on the situation, she finally agreed to make a one-time exception to replace my GC (as suggested by all you kind souls out there) as my issue was raised DURING the warranty period.

I just wanted to reconfirm if this REALLY is he GC issue, or is it most likely? Oh, and EDU, yes, after the reformat, it always crashed with the fuzzy screen followed by a BSOD and then a fatal error thingy when it has rebooted.

2 weeks into the fresh install now. No crashed YET. But again, it starts to acta bit weird. For instance, when I'm playing a YouTube video or playing a video on my lappy, it "jams & stutters" for half a second and then continue playing. I couldnt find a relation between the video codec and the flash player though. Am on K lite codec pack standard and Flash player 10.3. This doesnt happen when I'm playing audio.

I really hope my issue would be solved after they come and change the GC and all. I dont want to waste all of Dell's effort to come and have it replaced and then the problem recurring.

EDIT: EDU, my answer is yes to your questions 3) and 4).

Hey Orenzai. No worries about the late reply . I wish I could tell you for certain that it was a GC issue, but alas I'll repeat again "I'm no expert." Judging from all the "evidence" I could gather from your explanations, it sounds like a GC issue. The fuzzy/multicolored crashes, the less-than-normal game performance and the jamming and stuttering when playing videos -- those hiccups are all heavily related to the GC, so it stands to reason that it is most likely the problem. Sorry I can't be more certain but replacing the GC is definitely a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the only way one can know is by trying.

It's funny the dell rep said "one-time exception." I bet you she was mostly concerned that you (another customer) was about to bite the dust and you weren't going to even consider Dell on your next laptop purchase . Think of it as damage control on her part, lol. Though I guess overall it was nice of her to make this "one-time exception." I hope the GC replacement will solve your issue. I feel like even if it doesn't (which I hope will not be the case) the dell rep will still be kind enough to help you until the issue is completely resolved. The hard part was getting someone from Dell to listen to you in the first place without a warranty (which you've done). It would be kind of useless and strange if she just quit on you after one attempt at a repair. Hope you have her contact details. So don't worry so much about "Dell's effort," it's their job. Keep us up to date as to how the GC replacement goes. Oh and when it's replaced try to update your video drivers the way I mentioned before. Good luck .

P.S. Just wondering, do you have a program called something like "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB" installed on your laptop by any chance? It caused me some crash problems a long time ago when I first got my SXPS 16. Just curious...

[anilpalepu]

Are you getting your replies via e-mail or is s/he also calling you to offer specifications? she will call me again. and im already tense about it. our every talk is like a war between us...

The tech representative calls me daily ... he is not able to find a replacement yet to match my 1647 .. he was offering some low res and 520m in xps 15 which i declined .. jus waiting daily for his call and hoping to get lucky to find a laptop with equal or better specifications on it.. But the guy i speak to is very very supportive and friendly on the phone.. and seriously im so freaking frustrated with my 1647 due to overheating and all.. i jus wanna be a little patient to get what i deserve rather then jus settling for a lower config xps 15..
lemme know how it goes with your tech representative and what she is offering or suggesting... ill post back again after i get a call from my tech rep..

[anilpalepu]

yupieeeeeeeeeeee !!!
ok im jus over joyed....

anyways.. the dell tech rep called me up just half hr ago and informed me i would be getting a xps 17... wow....

here is my 1647 config :

i5 cpu, 500gb HD, 1600*900, ati 5730, 6gb ram, dvd rw, 9 cell bat, ....

here is my replacement :

Dell xps 17
Sandy Bridge i7cpu
1080p
2 * 500gb HD (1TB total)
nvidia GT 550 with optimus
8gb ram
Blu-ray drive

and i don care what else is in the laptop but these are the main configs...
im so happy that they will be sending my replacement in mail (1-3days)..so i should be getting it this friday or on monday...

I am really happy how the tech rep has treated me and how glad & lucky im that i dint get assigned to any weirdo (like how Shadow_Shooter is dealing with)...the whole Dell customer service was amazing to me.. i dint not spend more than 10mins on the phone with them... like everyone else i was having overheating issues with my laptop, i was so frustrated... i read this forum..and many suggested emailing michael@dell.com... which i did and the next day itself i got a tech rep assigned to me and he was taking care of me...in this one week i got the whole motherboard changed and all and still there was overheating..so he got me a new config dell xps 15 which i declined since it dint match up to my 1647...and the tech rep was kind enough to find me this xps 17, which obv is above my current 1647 config...i jus feel like Dell treated me the right way.. and im very very happy and satisfied with the experience.

Thanks goes to everyone who shared their experiences on this forum..

[Shadow_Shooter]

It's great that you are getting one anil! I was also offered a similar xps17 that I had to refuse because of the size.

Today I've been offered the following Lx502 and I accepted it.
PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
HD DISPLAY 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 & Bluetooth 3.0
BATTERY OPTIONS 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
SOUND OPTIONS JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
COLORS Elemental Silver Aluminum
KEYBOARD Backlit Keyboard - English
No Mobile Broad Band Selected
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card