XPS 435 Owners Thread

I got a new 435 Wed. and I was supposed to arrive 6/04, was ordered on 5/2...

[quote user="DELL-Chris M"] rettenhu, Disconnect all USB devices except for mouse and keyboard. If it boots up faster, then some USB device is hanging on boot.

Chris,

The only other USB device besides keyboard/mouse was a printer.  I disconnected it and that did not alter the boot time.  However, I have been doing repetitive "Restarts" for the past half hour or so and on a couple of occasions the boot has been really quick.  In general, I have been experiencing a "black screen" that lasts for anywhere between 45 seconds and 1 minute and 15 seconds.  Here's the sequence of what I see...  System boots and Dell Splash screen displays followed by the Microsoft logo and about 5 sweeps thru the progress bar.  The screen then goes blank for about 10-15 seconds and the DVI connector symbol displays in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Then 20 seconds later a mouse pointer appears on the screen.  20 seconds after that the Vista Logon screen finally displays.  On a couple of rare instances when I did get a fast boot, the cursor displayed immediately after the DVI connector displayed and the Vista logon screen displayed immediately after that.  You could be right about a USB hangup, but I have seen the long boot time even after a full power down and reboot.  Any more suggestions would be welcome...  Thanks!

[/quote]

I've got the same situation you do. Slow booting. Dell screen is slow to move across the bar area. Stops a few times.

Windows booting gives me long periods of black screens and mouse pointers.

The is a I7 920, 8GB's of RAM, 4870 1GB video card, 750GB drive and a DVD and DVD R/W. Connected via wire to router.

I've been adding s/w and replaced the mouse and keyboard with the MX5500. They couldn't put it in the configuration so I had to buy it separately and install it myself.

MS Flight Simulator FX is STUNNING on this machine!

I've got the same situation you do. Slow booting. Dell screen is slow to move across the bar area. Stops a few times. Windows booting gives me long periods of black screens and mouse pointers. The is a I7 920, 8GB's of RAM, 4870 1GB video card, 750GB drive and a DVD and DVD R/W. Connected via wire to router.

I've been able to get a significant boost in boot speed. System Retore was taking a restore point on every boot. I disabled that and the booting now is very fast.

Irv S,

Hey Irv,

Did you shut off system restore entirely or just disable the boot restore point. If it's the second choice, tell us how?

Raymond

Hi folks,

I just got my 435MT on Friday.  Has anyone tried to downgrade it from VIsta to XP x64?  I'd like to take advantage of the 64 bit architecture but not use Vista.  I am having a hard tmie figuring out what LAN driver I should be using.

Thanks,

Keith

I'd like to take advantage of the 64 bit architecture but not use Vista.

Vista 64 runs like a dream on this machine and although a Vista naysayer since the original release, have to say it's finally hit its stride right before ye olde Windows 7's release ironically enough.  With some tweaking, something required of every windows version, Vista 64 SP1 is a pleasure to use and released from its memory and resource shackles with 6GB and up, mated with the Core i7 and a proper video card, it's kudos for an aesthetic and functional upgrade over XP.  I'll never go back to XP, only moving forward to 7 when the SP1 rolls around down the line. 

If really needing XP, I would go with a dual boot solution although realize you are itching for XP 64.

Ray,

 

Hey Irv, Did you shut off system restore entirely or just disable the boot restore point. If it's the second choice, tell us how? Raymond

I went to the Task Scheduler and found the SR task. Rather than DELETE it I changed it to occur ONCE a week at a specific time. I think SR normally is either automatic or called by programs that install to the system?

Like I said, once turned off on boot the boot up time was decreased significantly.

As you'll soon find out...good luck finding the correct XP64 drivers for the NIC and MOBO.  I went down this road a couple of weeks ago and I gave up after 4 hours of headaches.  I finally gave in to Vista 64 and learned to use it, tweak it and like it.  I can't say I love it because that's reserved for Windows 7, however Vista 64 works very well.   

Hi folks, I just got my 435MT on Friday.  Has anyone tried to downgrade it from VIsta to XP x64?  I'd like to take advantage of the 64 bit architecture but not use Vista.  I am having a hard tmie figuring out what LAN driver I should be using. Thanks, Keith

I figured it out.  It took a few calls to get TS to tell me what the onboard Intel LAN set was.  (Intel 82567LF Gigabit Ethernet) 

Once I had the info I was able to download a generic XP x64 driver directly from Intel.  From there it is mostly updating x46 to SP2 and rolling in updates.  I can't install ATI Catalyst until I have updated .NET framework in place.  I'll report back if there is interest.

Here I am posting from my 435MT running XP x64.

Hi guys,

There is a new BIOS out at of 5/8/09. Does anyone know what it actually adds?

Thanx:)

PC is flying now I fresh installed on a new smaller C partition using the Dell DVD and put all my documents / settings etc on a new F partition which with this linked up to Windows Home Server means I can reinstall Windows (C:) anytime without affecting too many of my programs. Am I right in thinking if I left the recovery partition (d:) as it was this enables me to use the Dell boot up recovery etc even though my PC now has smaller C and new F partition?

I used the recovery partition before.  If used, your system will be liked it was when you first received plus your data, which should still be in the system under "my documents."  However, you have to reinstall all the softwares all over again, as well as printer, internet connection, blah.. blah... blah...  As a matter of preference, I rather have an exact duplicate of my harddirve.  If something go wrong, I would use the backup hard drive, which only take a few minutes to replace.  After the backup harddrive is repalce, it would run as if nothing change. Having to install all the software would take too long.  the sofware that I use to duplicate my hard drive is Bounceback (cmsproducts.com).  After replace the harddrive, you should do defrag, just in case.

The only problem with this is that, if you backup trash, you got trash on the second hard drive as well.  Hopefully, the problem is bad hard drive, and not bad softwares.  I also a backup for the original system as it comes from Dell.  So in the worst case scenario, I still have the original Windows softwares and software that I already insntalled.

i-vol,

To use more RAM.

Although I always wanted to upgrade my HP workstation from XP 32 to XP 64 bit I never did because of all the stories about getting 32 bit software to run in 64 bit because no one had 64 bit software. Office - wont run on 64 bit till 2007 version / Photoshop till CS2 at least would not run on 64 bit  and on and on. I never made the switch and now hear it's immpossible to get a new XP 64 bit disk. Back then the only home/office machines to run loads of RAM and had special (standard) 64 bit software available was a macintosh / apple. I think it's always been 64 bit.....................

Now I love having 12GB (10.1 something actual) available for photoshop to use before writing to scratch disk and I'm learning to love Vista Ultimate 64 bit.......

Raymond

I'm planning on ordering an XPS 435T system in the next few days, but I have a few concerns about video card upgradeability.

I see Dell sells a system with an ATI 4870, but the 4870 is roughly 1" shorter and 1/2" less thick than the Nvidia G200 series of cards.  Is the XPS 435 capable of fitting the 10.5" Nvidia cards?

Also, what's the most powerful single card that can be installed with the 435T?  According to Tom's Hardware, the 4870 pulls down 283 Watts under load, while the GTX 280 is just 310 Watts.  I know Dell usually underrates their PSUs, but if anyone has already upgraded their system, I'd like to hear some advice.

Thanks in advance!

Sirrebus,

Dell Installs the 2 slot 4870 1 gb in the bottom most PCIe slot. Plenty of room above and below. Motherboard is tiny next to workstation extended boards I normally work on. Looks like it would almost fit in one of those shuttle cube cases with handle. Lenght of board should not matter. It will physically fit.....................I have 3 empty PCIe slots above it in mine. Wicked fast with the ATI 4870 though................

 

Don't know if it will run though and if you'll have the required power cords...............................I think I read earlier in the forum someone tried it. search.

 

Raymond

 see Dell sells a system with an ATI 4870, but the 4870 is roughly 1" shorter and 1/2" less thick than the Nvidia G200 series of cards.  Is the XPS 435 capable of fitting the 10.5" Nvidia cards?

Thanks RR Kirsteins!

A quick search shows that the 435T 475 Watt PSU  has 2 PEG connectors - one 6-pin and one 6-pin + 2-pin (for 8-pin PEG cards).

It's probably not possible to run a GTX 295, but a 275 should be fine.

 

Sirrebus, Dell Installs the 2 slot 4870 1 gb in the bottom most PCIe slot. Plenty of room above and below. Motherboard is tiny next to workstation extended boards I normally work on. Looks like it would almost fit in one of those shuttle cube cases with handle. Lenght of board should not matter. It will physically fit.....................I have 3 empty PCIe slots above it in mine. Wicked fast with the ATI 4870 though................   Don't know if it will run though and if you'll have the required power cords...............................I think I read earlier in the forum someone tried it. search.   Raymond  see Dell sells a system with an ATI 4870, but the 4870 is roughly 1" shorter and 1/2" less thick than the Nvidia G200 series of cards.  Is the XPS 435 capable of fitting the 10.5" Nvidia cards?