When will the XPS M1730 fully support Windows 7?

Hello,

I purchased my M1730 3 years ago (fully-equiped) and have had nothing but problems with it. I had the tech here several times, once to replace the memory and once to replace the video cards. After each time, it seemed to work well for awhile, but this was just because I was so paradoid to use it that I did most of my work on my slower, more stable machines! I paid $4000 for this thing and it is just so unstable! Now I want to upgrade it to Windows 7, since all the systems I use with WIndows 7 work much better but, as I am reading, they don't support it ? WhY???

I though I was the only one getting the randon video driver crashes and the system lockups, but I realise that it`s not me or my software but just that the system design is problematic! This is definitely my first and LAST Dell computer, not just for me, but for all my students (I am a computer programming teacher). This is a real dissapointment!

Tom Ansuini

I got my LCD working with the Logitech G15 'gaming keyboard' drivers, downloaded from the logitech web site, under support.

hi, it's an old question allready so maybe you allready solved it, but  I had the same problem, the newer physx version does not recognize the card without installing the original driver first, so you have to deinstall the physx driver/software, download the original (Version 8?) driver from Dell, install that first, and after that you can install the latest driver from Nvidea, it will give you problems though, with the newest drivers the video card will shutdown or crash sometimes to often depending on your video settings and cooling of the laptop.

Nvidia bought out Aegia. I checked concerning the PPU and any version past 8.. will not drive the Aegia PPU. Nvida, starting with the version 9 and up PhysX software, relies on the Card's GPU for PhysX processing, or in automatic the software may select the CPu, depending on load. If you want to use the Aegia PPU you will have to stick to the older versions 8 and below for the PPU and also the older versions of the Card's drivers which worked alongside the PPU. Any of the newer Nvidia PhysX drivers will totally replace the Aegia drivers when installing. Unless Nvida delevelops an application that will allow the use of the PPU, GPU and CPU selectively, the PPU will just have to sit there.

Yeah it's the card reader I can't get the 3D graphics to work aswell, such a pain. I trouble shooted  the "base system device" and got the Ricoh card reader to work.

Good news on the M1730 front.

I recently went through and reformatted the main start up disc on the M1730. Installed Windows 7 64 bit.

Only real problem I had was getting the LCD game panel to work. Found out the legacy Logitech software was the ticket. Version 3.067 or something.

This can be located on the Logitech website.

Also, just to report, after I had Windows 7 64 bit up and running for a few days, I upgraded to Windows 8 64 bit.

First time it failed, and reverted back to the Windows 7. Not sure why, but after verifying that it was still working, I tried it again. This time success.

Have been running it for 3 days now, with no problem. The current Nvidia drivers, some of the older 64 bit Vista drivers from the Dell site, and the legacy Logitech game panel software.

So, if you are patient and careful, you should be able to get the M1730 running windows 8 64 bit.

If you have any questions on how I did this, feel free to ask.

I am actually happy to have th M1730 running smoothly with Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. Both the 64 bit and the 32 bit had problems with the video card. I have to give credit to the Dell tech support. This technicial did not let go and kept at it for weeks looking for the answer and eventually he got it do work.

Is it worth upgrading, do you see amazing differences in speed etc.

Hello all, I too am somewhat surprised at the lack of support (at this point) for Windows 7 on our XPS M1730 laptops.  Being an IT guy, I have no fear of trying things though, and thought I would share my results with you. I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 on my M1730 last night.  I had replaced my original and slower RAID 0 (striped) 340GB 5400 rpm drives, with a pair of 500GB 7200 rpm drives, also configured in RAID 0 for performance. There were several items showing as unkown in device manager, as you have all witnessed.  However, using the Vista 64 drivers from the Dell web site, I was able to load suitable drivers for ALL unknown devices.  The unknown Base System Device is the Ricoh R5C833 listed under Chipset, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread.  This is for the  8-in1 memory card reader.  Here's the list of Vista 64 drivers I used, to make my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 device manager happy... Drivers & Downloads XPS M1730 In the order I did, or would install the drivers/updates... BIOS - Dell XPS M1730 System BIOS A10 (mine was already at ver A10 so I didn't update) Chipset - Intel Mobile Chipset Chipset - Ricoh R5C833 Audio - Sigmatel STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio (although I think Win 7 had loaded a working driver, I went ahead and upated with this one) Input Device Drivers - Creative Labs Laptop Integrated Webcam Input Device Drivers - Dell Touchpad - Pointing Stick Network - Broadcom 57XX Gigabit Integrated Controller Network - Intel (R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Video - Ageia PhysX Processor Video - nVidia GeForce GO 8700 GT SLI Driver Video - nVidia GeForce GO 8700M GT SLI BIOS (The BIOS on my video card was a bit outdated, so I updated. The download is an ISO which you must burn to CD, then boot from it to perform BIOS update on both video cards) I haven't had much time to put it through it's paces yet, but at this point, it's running without a hitch.  I'll keep you posted if anything out of the ordinary surfaces... Take care!

Hello mpwentzel,

@mpwentzel Thanks for the guide you posted I found it very useful, I just purchased Dell XPS M1730 from ebay. Running Vista 32bit, I want to perform a clean install of windows 7 ultimate.

My question is can I install Windows 7 ultimate 64bit version on my 32bit Dell XPS M1730?  Also if I do install Windows 7 ultimate 32bit will Vista 32bit drivers work for WIN7 32bit?

Suggestions & advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!

Your M1730 is designed to run either 64-bit or 32-bit OS. So install the one that works best for you. Mine came brand new with 32-bit Vista Ultimate, But have since upgraded to 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate. The Vista 64-bit drivers will work with the 64-bit Win 7 OS as well. Go to the Dell website for the M1730 and select the Vista 64-bit section. The M1730 was out of production when Win 7 finally was released. I think Win 8 will work with Vista driver as well.. You should get he Dell driver installation disk for the M1730 from eBay or Dell. It will have both the 32-bit and 64-bit drivers on it and a program to install them in the right place. A lot of them will require you to go to the Device Manager and install from there, by selecting Update Drivers. You will have to make sure you direct it to go to the root Dell folder sitting on the C drive where dell put the drivers.

Hope this helps.

@Aeromaster Thanks for the quick reply explaining what my pc is capable off, I will do a clean install of WIN 7download all drivers from dell website then next download and install Dell System  detect for any other drivers that needs updating not forgotten to update  nVidia GeForce GO 8700 GT SLI from Nvidia  website.

Will update you guys on my outcome :emotion-1:

Okay will do that too and you how it went cheers.

Don't forget Intel's site too. They should have the latest chipset drivers.

I have my laptop working very well with Windows7 32bit. I did have a problem just before my service plan ran out with the fan reving up and down. Dell exchanged a lot of parts without success. I traced my steps and realized that this happened after installing bios version A11. I found a copy of bios version A10 and reinstalled that and the laptop has been working fine ever since.

When I reinstalled Windows7 32bit to a clean install, I still had a Dell service contract and a technician helped me through the entire process with the drivers. The PhysX was the most difficult to install, but he did find a solution and installed it. He did have to go back a few versions to get it to work. I now have the AGEIA PhysX 100 Series PCI Express Card, AGEIA Technologies, Date 06/22/07 Driver version 1.1.1.12

After all these years, I am still happy with my M1730.

That's good to hear someone is still pleased and currently using M1730 laptop years after, I just purchased mine over ebay its yet to be delivered probably by Thursday this week .

In the mean time I read alot of reviews of m1730 yesterday, most of the time it was more of bad comments like overhearing,cost of graphic cards, maintenance etc.

@apkobl and all....Tell me from your personal experience using m1730 how is it been this years? I mean your own likes and dislike of your m1730?