The One and Only Dell XPS M1530
Here I will try to give information on wonderful tutorials on the web, support pages, troubleshooting tips, explanations, descriptions on Dell XPS M1530.
I will try to keep it simple in four different blocks:
< Laptop Information >
< Maintenance >
< Support >
< Useful tools, programs and utilities for monitoring the hardware >
Disclaimer:
- The views given here are entirely my personal, honest views. I don't work with Dell and I am just a normal customer, who is extremely happy and pleased with the way everything has been going with DELL - ITALY.
- The information on support and stuff I will put up here are information which I learned myself from various sources on the web, mainly Dell Support and reputed forums like NBR. I am not responsible for anything going wrong with your laptop if you decided to use any utitlities I have mentioned below or follow any troubleshooting steps - though everything has been perfectly fine for me and spot on. But I would still advise people to be sure about what they are doing and understand clearly what they are going to be doing. :-) If not please feel free to write to me or simply *google* and you will get any confirmation you are looking for :-)
- If there is anything you need to know or you need to tell me, please feel free to write to me anytime. Also please let me know if something is not right or if something is in violation of any copyright or anything, and I will rectify them immediately. Thanks for your help with this.
For now, I am just a very proud owner of the awesome "Dell XPS M1530", which I got in June 2008, from Dell - Italy (who by the way, have been great right from purchasing to technical support, till now :-)
System Specifications:
Dell XPS M1530
Tuxedo Black
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 2.60GHz
15.4 Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
4 GB (2x2048) 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
320GB SATA (5400rpm)
8xDVD+/-RW
Primary 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT
Dell Bluetooth
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N
Integrated 2.0 MP Webcam
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1< click for more
The XPS M1530 on the Zalman NC2000 Laptop Cooler
Laptop Information:
For starters, I would recommend anyone wanting to get a laptop, visit this site: NOTEBOOKREVIEW.COM and THE DISCUSSION FORUM
I decided on getting my Dell XPS M1530 after reading wonderful, honest reviews in NBR, and also following the numerous wonderful discussion threads. NBR is an incredibly informative place, with everything you would ever want to know about laptop' - particularly when you are on the hunt for a new one. I decided on the XPS M1530 after spending a lot of time on NBR and I must say it was a great choice. Further, even after I got this system, NBR has been helpful in so many ways to set it up, maintain it, troubleshoot any issues and so on. So all in all, NBR is a must visit place :-)
Don't forget to check out the XPS WIKI Pages - Wiki dedicated to the XPS M1530 and M1730 Laptop models. The XPS M1530 articles are Here and the general XPS Wiki Forums are Here. Many thanks to Lee & BatBoy :-)
So.. Whats this laptop about? Well, its a premium line from Dell. Its also a wonderful desktop replacement for people looking for one, has some real raw power packed in with the Core 2 Duo processors and the nVidia Video Cards. Its great for almost all kinds of usage, right from office work to student life to software development to multimedia to gaming and much more if you want to stress it out. All in all its a great system.
It has a very sleek design and pretty light weight (considering whats inside) - meaning its a nice portable too, apart from being a desktop replacement.
I am not going to do a full review here, because there are already some nice ones on the web.
But after using this laptop till now, I have not had a single problem with this system - right from manufacturing to the OS. The overall manufacturing quality has been great. No dents, no marks, no loose hinges, no faulty ports etc. Everything worked like a charm out of the box, and it still continues to do so, ~ 5 months on.
The screen is great, with some huge real estate packed in to the high resolution, widescreen display. The 2 MP integrated webcam sitting on the rim of the lid is nice as well, as is the Dell webcam software that came along with the laptop. It has some nice, fun things to play around with and my nephew found some of them amusing and nice. The keyboard is very nice and so is the touchpad. The overall metallic finish of the system gives it a great look. The slot load DVD drive is a bit noisy when loading/ejecting disc's, but its silent otherwise. But I think that noise is kinda expected for a sleek laptop like this and I think slot load drives anyways are known to have some click-clack noise.
The audio out of the laptop speakers is not surely equal to what you would expect from a home theater. But having said that, I find the speakers are good enough for a laptop of this kind (though I have seen many complaints around that Dell could have put in better speakers!). I find it nice, watched a couple of movies with the laptop speakers and for me it was more than OK. With the correct adjustments, both from within the OS audio/sound settings and the equalizer/audio settings on the video player you are watching the movie/video in, the sound was pretty nice and I enjoyed it. Its kind of tinny, but hey - its ok :) And I have a Sony Studio headset which I use more often.
I have the 9-cell Li-ion battery, which raises the back end of the laptop nicely, giving it a forward tilt - which serves two main purpose in giving more ventilation beneath the laptop, that aids in better air flow / cooling and have a very nice effect on typing too - its very comfortable.
The palm rest areas tend to get stained / discolored or whatever upon prolonged usage, but I haven't seen anything till now on my system. I anyway take extreme good care of the laptop, making sure I wash my hands particularly in summer to get rid of the sweat, and also make sure not to touch the screen so that I don't leave any fingerprints there.
Ah, speaking of fingerprints - The fingerprint reader is nice and its been working well, out of the box. I don't use it much but I have got in two finger prints of mine and it works well. Though sometimes I am just way too lazy to sit and place/swipe my finger in the right way to get logged in. I prefer typing in the pword and logging in - find it quick enough. LOL!
I have an external Dell USB keyboard as well as a wireless USB mouse from logitech (V220). But I don't use the ext. keyboard a lot now, mainly due to lack of space on my desk. May be I will figure out a better layout some time later.
The ports were all working fine, and they continue to do so. The headphone ports in front of the laptop could have been placed somewhere else. But its OK. No big deal :-). The only minor issue I had was that the headphone jack did not seem to *fit* perfectly into the ports, but I think this is more because of the jack itself - though I am yet to try it out with some other headphone. The USB ports (3 of them - 2 on the left, 1 on the right) are all fine, though the left, top USB port seemed to be kind of *tight* or hard to use at the beginning. First I thought this was some issue with my system make, but then figured out from the WWW that I was not the only one. It's probably because of the sleek, design that you had to kind of apply gentle pressure to get in the USB devices in this port. But as time passed, its gotten more easy to plug in / take out the USB devices now.
The wireless on/off hardware switch has been functioning well too, though I am like so paranoid that I might just pull it of the laptop any time.. LOL.. I know I am being too picky here, but hey - this is a premium laptop, and I think it deserves premium treatment and care ;-) Anyways, this wireless hardware switch works perfectly well, and so are the builtin wireless and bluetooth services. Connections were fine, and bluetooth devices were detected without any hitch. File transfers using Bluetooth were perfect and quick enough. (I have to test the wireless connection features, speed and stuff, in more detail some time later).
The laptop getting hot or the temperatures being abnormal has not been an issue either. Have tested it many times in different conditions / scenarios, and the temperatures have always stayed within the normal min, max and idle range. Mainly, considering the nVidia GPU mess these days, my GPU temperatures never crossed 72-74 deg C even under stress. The CPU and HD are also fine as well. I have got a laptop cooler too, the Zalman NC2000, which I use some times, particularly during summer, and I must accept it has been serving its purpose. It did bring down the temperature' by around 4-5 deg C, on average for all components measured (CPU, GPU, HD). Still there is the huge issue with the nVidia Graphic Cards (Haven't heard about it? Wow.. just google and you'll know!). So, for me, till now there has been no problem, no symptoms and such - and I am sincerely hoping it stays this way. But take a look here and here, to know about what Dell is doing regarding this issue. There are numerous complaints going around, as well as quiet a few failures of the graphics cards. But I guess I would just be patient and use the warranty to have a replacement, instead of going insane over this issue. Though, it would be nice if nVidia (the graphic card manufacturer) or Dell (the laptop seller who uses nVidia cards in some models) come out with more information / details on this issue. But till then, I would just prefer enjoying this wonderful M1530.
The after sales technical support from Dell as well as the Dell XPS Premium Support has been awesome till now, here in Italy. I didn't have any major issues till now, but some minor one' which were due to the fact that I was messing around with the system - not because there was something wrong out of the box. Anyway, the support has been great. Most of the time they took my number, called me back promptly and helped me resolve it.
In general, the sales, service and support from Dell Italy has been a great and wonderful experience. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it - even the purchase / order process went on very well. Considering there was the issue of language here, I wanted a laptop with *everything* in English and they got me that. Its not that Dell in other places dont do it, but for example, I called up HP and asked them if I can get a system with everything in English, and they said no, I can't have one like that, and I can have systems only in Italian - which in my personal opinion is a little absurd and ridiculous, considering how much people have started travelling around, relocating for work and professional reason' and so on. Anyways, Dell had no issues at all, right from the first call I made to them.
Maintenance:
Basically, Keep It Clean... LOL...
Well, there are many simple things we can do to make sure a premium XPS is clean and neat, but those are the same simple things we might also forget to do more often than not.
Anyways, I usually make sure my hands are clean at first, particularly during summer - free of sweat or anything. This helps prevent stains / discoloration of the palm rest, touchpad or the keyboard area.
Also I never touch the laptop display screen - once in a while I wipe it gently in circular motion, using a very slightly moist micro fibre cloth at the tip of the finger. (do not apply too much pressure.. keep it very very gentle). I must also mention that there are many commercially available display cleaning solutions and such, but for me, till now a clean moist micro fibre cloth has been doing the job just so well.
For the outer lid and such, the XPS material tends to love your fingerprints. So I do the same for that as well, and I figured that wiping them with a moist cloth or tissue removes the fingerprints.
Also, its better to keep the laptop as dust free as possible, in general. Keep it covered when not in use (you could use the laptop sleeve for this.)
Support:
Dell - Italy
Drivers and Downloads for the M1530
XPS Wiki Page for Vista 32-bit XPS M1530 Drivers
Some useful tools, programs and utilities for monitoring the hardware:
Some tools you might want to get in right away to check the temperatures, stability. *Please make sure you read about the tools and program', before using.*
<< For monitoring temperature of CPU, GPU, HD >>CPUID's HWmonitor<< CPU >>Orthos (my choice) Direct Download LinkwPrime<< GPU >>
RT HDR IBL, (a wonderful free utility to stress your GPU; I usually run it for 15 mins to check max temp')For benchmarking and stress / stability, the following are some popular choices:3Dmark06 (basic - limited free version) 3Dmark vantage Alternatively, you could also run the stability test from within the nVidia Control Panel. This is also pretty nice and reflective of your GPU performance / stability.
<< HD >>HDtune (free version available - stability, error scan, benchmark etc.)
******For the gamers and overclocking enthusiasts, there are numerous information and tips on undervolting, overclocking and such. I am not going to talk about them because I myself haven't done any of those and so I am not experienced enough to say much either. But may be I will just link to some popular sources of information and guides if anyone wishes to use, and use it under their own responsibility. :-)