Comments on: Dell Studio XPS 1640 Issues

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:49:14 +0000

Hi, my left hinge also frequently juts out of the laptop. I have the Studio XPS 1640 too and I have encountered numerous problems. My hardrive mysteriously “failed” and dell sent me a new one in Jan. Also, my sound doesn’t even work now, another problem for Dell to “fix” this week. I recommend everyone to stay away from this laptop.

By: agostinho pereira

agostinho pereira — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:01:18 +0000

i was to buy a dell studio xps 16 laptop but now has decided against it in view of whole set of complaints coming with it as a package deal. Thanks my friend for enlightening me.

By: lds

lds — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:12:14 +0000

Just have to ask why don’t we sue for such bad behavior from a company that does all of those illegal things…Is Dell just a so called legal thief…We have had problems with Dell and our warranties since I purchased only the one unit in 2007…I am ready to sue just to keep them from doing these things to more people…Because they are hiding in India does not mean they should get away with it…

By: Sophia Fennelly

Sophia Fennelly — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:35:27 +0000

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By: bob

bob — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:38:01 +0000

so what do u expect from dell another system or your money or difference of the amount ???

By: Karun

Karun — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:15:23 +0000

I’ve been using Windows 7 on the laptop since the early betas. I’ve not had many issues. For one, I’d suggest you don’t do an upgrade. I did so and ended up with the IDT drives wrecking all kinds of havoc. There wasn’t any update to those drives at the time unfortunately.

What I did is a clean install followed by a driver install for the trackpad (since I wanted an side scroll) and the install for FastAccess from the disc followed by an update to the latest Windows 7 compatible version which works great (Nice to know someone’s listening ;))

I actually didn’t need any drivers on Win7 at all. The 2 that I did install were for personal use. If you’re on Win7 x86 then the Dell website already has 32bit drivers for you. For 64bit users like me, the wait continues. Shouldn’t take long :)

You’d definitely have to install your softwares again. All your custom dell stuff will go away but I’m sure you can find replacements or I could try ripping them out of the OS and uploading them elsewhere (not sure that’s legal though).

If you want an easier way, you can simply pay Dell for the upgrade come October 22nd and you’d get a simple ghost image of Windows 7 allowing you a similar OOBE as you got with Windows 7.
All drivers, Dell softwares and goodies preinstalled :) I don’t think the upgrades are too expensive either iirc. :)

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:02:14 +0000

Hey Karun,

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I was able to figure it out when I looked up my router and found that I am using a 802.11b which only allows 11Mbps. I guess plugging in the wire won’t be much of a problem if I’m at home.

Also, did you upgrade to Windows 7? I’m not very good with computers and I was wondering if it takes many steps to do so like am I suppose to instal all the softwares and drivers again and what not. Or do I only do that if I do a clean install? So it might be better to just upgrade so all the software and stuff on your computers stay?

By: Karun

Karun — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:29:51 +0000

Hey Jason,

The Dell Studio XPS 1640 has an Intel 5300 which supports 802.11b/g/n. Check if your router/wireless access point supports ‘n’ because you seem to be using ‘g’. The laptop automatically shifts to the highest possible speed it can get. If a 802.11n network is available (144Mbps; 18MBps) then that’s what you will get. If you’re on a network like the one in my house (or most other networks out there) you will get 22Mbps (2.75MBps). 802.11b networks give you 5Mbps (640KBps)

Either way, the fastest you can get is 144Mbps (18MBps). On most home networks (such networks usually use 802.11b/g) will give you 22Mbps (2.75MBps) so if you want faster speeds and don’t want to invest in a faster router, you can temporarily move to wired transfers for larger files (HD Movie transfers/large data transfers) which in your case should give you 100Mbps.

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:23:52 +0000

Hey I have the same problem with you. I checked my laptop and I also have the Broadcom Ethernet card with a 10/100Mbit card, but I think my connection with my desktop is also 100Mbit so maybe there’s no problem there. My problem is actually with my wifi wireless connection. I have the Intel Wifi 5300 and the speed I get is only 11 Mbps. Do you know what I need to do to make the connection speed faster? I just want it at least to 100Mbps like my desktop.

Thanks.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:18:07 +0000

I also have a problem with my Dell studio xps 16. At first it was perfect but a few weeks later the computer stops recognizing discs which is a huge inconvienence considering I use this computer for gaming, so basically I have a $1700 typewriter that I dont even use for work. I have been on dell support twice and they can’t figure out what is wrong.. Considering the fact that I could have possibly messed up my computer, I do the only other thing I can without dell support. Restore to factory image, after that i go to install my first game since all my files have been wiped off my computer. Well my optical drive doesn’t read it, no surprise there because i knew I didn’t messed it up.. So I get on Dell support for the third time and this is all within a week, and they say they will send an on site tech to replace the optical drive. Thats where i’m at now so I have to wait for now. Im not too optimistic that this is going to work anyway. Also the heating issue with this computer, if you are getting this computer for gaming, which you probbly are considering its parcially a gaming laptop, you WILL NEED a laptop cooling fan.