XPS 435 Owners Thread

I have been dual booting Vista and Windows 7RC for months, using the freeware EasyBCD 1.7.2, which allows you to choose at boot up. You can set either one as the default boot OS. It's very easy and straight forward. You can download the software Here

Bob N.

I got the Win7 upgrade disc today.  Haven't had the chance to install it.  Has anybody else gotten it and upgraded their XPS to Win7?  I'd like to know how it went thanks.

I got the Win7 upgrade disc today.  Haven't had the chance to install it.  Has anybody else gotten it and upgraded their XPS to Win7?  I'd like to know how it went thanks.

Check this thread out, http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19301447/19578725.aspx#19578725, I've done it, works well so far but some stuff had to go.

Well I went to my Oncology Physical Therapy Class and when I returned home the replacement for my old Studiao XPS 435T came, the old system was:

DELL Studio 435T i7 965 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition, 9 Gb RAM, 1.5 Tb SATA and a Patriot Warp V.3 256 Gb SSD, DVD/RW and Blu-ray/RW combo drive, 1000/NIC and 1505 wireless, X-Fi Extreme Soundblaster, Bose Surround Sound 5.1 speakers, LifeCam VX 3000 VidCam, Logitech Wireless Desktop Kb and Mouse, Bamboo Pen Tablet,  ATI Radeon 4870 1024 driving a Vizio 37" HDTV using  Optical Toslink from the X-Fi Extreme Sound Card  on Vista 64 Premium also have Pioneer SE-DIR 800C Wireless Dolby DTS Headphones the new one will be listed in my sig line momentarily.......... I can't believe this machine!

My computer hasn't work right since I received it, a tech replaced the motherboard three times and the memory twice. They say they're going to sent me a replacement, well today I noticed that one is production for me and its all wrong a total downgrade, wrong video and power supply not to mention no card reader. When I called and asked about it csr said he didn't see a problem, are you kidding me.

If you don't post your current configuration vrs. what Dell is offering, I'm not sure anybody can comment accordingly...  Components that are not exactly the same as what you currently have may not be a "downgrade"...

[quote user="dcheck"] My computer hasn't work right since I received it, a tech replaced the motherboard three times and the memory twice. They say they're going to sent me a replacement, well today I noticed that one is production for me and its all wrong a total downgrade, wrong video and power supply not to mention no card reader. When I called and asked about it csr said he didn't see a problem, are you kidding me.

If you don't post your current configuration vrs. what Dell is offering, I'm not sure anybody can comment accordingly...  Components that are not exactly the same as what you currently have may not be a "downgrade"...

[/quote]

You're right, I have a 4870 video card and there giving me a 4350 as replacement, also I have the 475w power supply and they're giving me a 350w supply.

[quote user="rettenhu"] [quote user="dcheck"] My computer hasn't work right since I received it, a tech replaced the motherboard three times and the memory twice. They say they're going to sent me a replacement, well today I noticed that one is production for me and its all wrong a total downgrade, wrong video and power supply not to mention no card reader. When I called and asked about it csr said he didn't see a problem, are you kidding me.

If you don't post your current configuration vrs. what Dell is offering, I'm not sure anybody can comment accordingly...  Components that are not exactly the same as what you currently have may not be a "downgrade"...

[/quote]

You're right, I have a 4870 video card and there giving me a 4350 as replacement, also I have the 475w power supply and they're giving me a 350w supply.

It sounds like you definitely have a case and issue with the replacement configuration . My 435T has the ATI 4870 card in it.  Dell had issues with this card/driver pair in the past and they switched to mostly nVidia cards now.  Still, I'm surprised they offered a 4350 which isn't a straight-up swap for a 4870; nor is the power supply.   If you can't get  satisfaction with the CSR, work it up the ladder to a supervisor.  If you can't get satisfaction there, ask for your money back and go elsewhere.

Hi bbertha !  I'm curious about your comment on the "disappearing media card reader" !?  My 435T has

suddenly stopped acknowledging any media cards from the front panel (I've tried both SD and CF, and

neither shows up in My Computer).  I have a second 435T that I tried those same cards out on and they

work fine.  Have your experienced this, or is it a software issue?   All devices appear to be "enabled"

in my system, and the drivers are up to date.

Please advise.

thanks//

Richard

Just got home saturday from vacation and found Windows 7 upgrade waiting. I installed it sunday. Today I spent the day backing up my data and doing a complete wipe and then install. Had too many problems mainly pc locking up when it went into screensaver, C++ errors when accessing large folders with video files, and things like that. So far, after a clean install everything is working fine. I have not yet downloaded any drivers from Dells site. In fact, it even upgraded the sound driver using Microsoft Update (all 363mb of it) which before this would cause a bluescreen even after I upgraded vista to windows 7 ultimate. I would suggest if you have issues after upgrading windows 7 over the top of vista doing a wipe of the c drive and doing a clean install.

So far on my brand new Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000 which cost well over $2000 Unisys has been out and a dead BluRay reader DVD/ROM. Tomorrow the come to replace a MOBO because of a dead PCI slot. The tech wanted me to go buy a different PCI card and try the slot because she said the TWO I have tried must be defective not the Dell MOBO. I got really angry and said I paid for a working computer and a HUGE amount for an extra three year warranty. So the she want me to test MY PCI card in another computer so I drew her a scenario. Hello, Best Buy, just ignore me while a take a display computer apart a test this PCI card because Dell told me too! She finally relented and in a second I had a MOBO on the way, BUT the second day in home servicing I paid dearly for called at an unearthly time this morning, the second day to say they have no part and hope to be there tomorrow, the third day. WOW DELL REALLY KNOWS Customer Service. Better to build junk and hope they work, that quality like HP and never have them break down or when they do send a replacement part with a smile. I have never had trouble with HP. Today Logitech replaced an out of date Harmony remote that failed, a $400 remote for free as they believe in Customer Service!. Dell is the GM of computer manufactures. Still waiting for my Win 7 Upgrade disk. I called on why and the agent actually tried to get me to take a Win 7 Ultimate. I thought isn't that nice, finally some service. Then she asked how I was paying the over $300 for the upgrade to Win 7 'Ultimate"  Wow Dell just never stops with the horrible service

HVROA I hope you see this post

Richard,

Hi bbertha !  I'm curious about your comment on the "disappearing media card reader" !?  My 435T has suddenly stopped acknowledging any media cards from the front panel (I've tried both SD and CF, and neither shows up in My Computer).  I have a second 435T that I tried those same cards out on and they work fine.  Have your experienced this, or is it a software issue?   All devices appear to be "enabled" in my system, and the drivers are up to date.   Please advise. thanks// Richard

See my tale of woe in this thread, http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19290218/19563534.aspx#19563534.

In a nutshell, I had it happening, quite often. Dell replaced the device, cable, motherboard and it didn't stop the slots from disappearing. The USB port ALWAYS worked, just the card slots disappeared. Basically, just reseating the cable 'fixed' it it turned out. That is why when the device, cable, or motherboard was replaced it started working again. The 'fix' was NOT discovered until I installed Win7. Win7 reported that a USB device was not working properly on booting the system. Showed all USB devices and didn't identify which one though? I knew which one though. The suggestion Win7 gave, remove and reinsert the cable and if that didn't work, replace the device. Of course that fixed it.

I had a program, DVD Flick, and under Vista is caused occasional BSOD's. I never made the connection, but I can guess when that happened, it was the time I lost the card slots. Under Win7 DVD Flick BSOD'ed all the time and on boot, Win7 identified the USB problem. Vista never put up an error message about the USB device.

I've removed DVD Flick, which upon searching the web on it, it seems it has a problem with Dell's and the IASTOR.SYS Dell puts on its systems. I replaced that file with Intel's latest, but it still BSOD'ed. I got tired of opening the case to get the slots back so it is gone.

To fix, open the case after removing the power card. You'll see 2 white connectors on the motherboard at the left front/bottom assuming the case is laid down with the top to the right and the front to the bottom. These connectors are on each side of the video card (in my case at least). Not sure which is for the card slots and the other for the 3 USB ports on the top, but I've been pulling and re-plugging both. Close the case, put the power cord back and re-boot. Problem should be gone.

I assume this is a BIOS problem of not initializing the USB device properly. Dell, well, they said sorry, they may not fix it. The phone tech obviously had no clue what the real problem was or that the case needed to be opened to rectify the problem. The response was unplug and replug the cables to fix it. They closed the problem and will not replace any more parts for this problem.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded the following benchmark tool to see how my 435T would perform http://www.passmark.com/download/pt_download.htm .

I was shocked and somewhat concerned to find that in comparison to 2 other Core i7 2.67GHz configurations (Ausus P6Tand LZR7i7), my 435T performance was miserable, and didn't come close to the performance of either of the other two configurations.  Here are my results.  While i didn't expect my 435T to necessarily be the fastest, it was the slowest in all of the categories tested and it wasn't even close in any category.  I would appreciate any comments and  feedback on test results achieved by others with a similar configuration to mine.  This will help me determine if it's my 435T that has some issues or whether the benchmark comparisons to the Asus and LZRZi7 are somehow "flawed".  Thanks!

Benchmark Results

System information - This Computer

Rettenhu, how did you get those results to show? I'm running Win7 but I can't get those? I've uploaded my results but I can not find even the computers you have to compare?

I did save the results and they are here :

-----------------------------------------------

PassMark(TM) PerformanceTest 7.0 Evaluation Version (http://www.passmark.com)
Results generated on:  Sunday, November 15, 2009


Benchmark Results

Test Name: This Computer
CPU - Integer Math: 2089.8
CPU - Floating Point Math: 2481.7
CPU - Find Prime Numbers: 998.1
CPU - SSE: 15.4
CPU - Compression: 7323.3
CPU - Encryption: 23.2
CPU - Physics: 378.1
CPU - String Sorting: 4581.4
Graphics 2D - Solid Vectors: 1.5
Graphics 2D - Transparent Vectors: 1.4
Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors: 116.9
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 197.4
Graphics 2D - Windows Interface: 87.4
Graphics 2D - Image Filters: 289.6
2D Graphics - Image Rendering: 513.6
Graphics 3D - Simple: 2649.1
Graphics 3D - Medium: 856.7
Graphics 3D - Complex: 61.3
Graphics 3D - DirectX 10: 26.9
Memory - Allocate Small Block: 5096.4
Memory - Read Cached: 2266.8
Memory - Read Uncached: 2153.2
Memory - Write: 2375.1
Memory - Large RAM: 4096.4
Disk - Sequential Read: 76.8
Disk - Sequential Write: 67.0
Disk - Random Seek + RW: 6.3
CD - Read: 5.0
CPU Mark: 5766.9
2D Graphics Mark: 346.9
Memory Mark: 1756.2
Disk Mark: 542.8
CD Mark: 613.3
3D Graphics Mark: 1897.2
PassMark Rating: 1752.4

System information: This Computer
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Number of CPU: 1
Cores per CPU: 4
CPU Type: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
CPU Speed: 2908.9 MHz
Cache size: 256KB
O/S: Windows 7 (64-bit)
Total RAM: 8183.0 MB.
Available RAM: 5582.3 MB.
Video settings: 1600x1200x32
Video driver:
 DESCRIPTION: ATI Radeon HD 4870
 MANUFACTURER: ATI Technologies Inc.
 BIOS: 113-B50708-100
 DATE: 9-23-2009
Drive Letter: C
Total Disk Space: 171.6 GBytes
Cluster Size: 4.0 KBytes
File system: NTFS

---------------------------------------

Some minor differences though, but most are similar.

I just can't see the systems you see to compare against nor get the same result page?

Ispalten, After the test finished, I selected the Compare Results Button on the left side of the Passmark window.  Then you get the option to select a system(s) to compare.  The two systems I selected were available as Core i7 systems.  When I Uploaded my results, I identified my system as a Dell XPS 435T.     I ran the same test on my XP laptop and it shows different systems to compare against. 

You're right about most of our results being similar, so the benchmarks of the other 2 systems are suspect---maybe they were over-clocked systems which our BIOS won't let us do... ???

Thanks for taking the time to run the test and post your results back...  Let's see if others post similar results...

 EDIT:  Just found this---Under Baseline/Select you can download different baselines to compare against