Did you look at the fans when you replaced the GPU,if not try cleaning them out.

What driver are you using?...driver 174.31 seems to be working well on my E1705,never had a problem with games or lock ups at all(except when my 7900gs) was replaced,but not a problem since.One other problem,if you are running fans at high all the time,that could be causing problems,if they are constantly on high the system will hang and freeze up.

Problem seems not due to overheating for the original 7900GS or a problem with the video board..The case design for the E1705 is not a problem. The BIOS controlled fan control program is a problem, but not a severe one. I didn't like the profile on my wife's because it allowed too much temp swing and the fans cycled too much. I8kfangui allowed me to set a much better profile.

Were you and are you currently using Dell video drivers or Modified desktop drivers? Did you monitor temps witht he original configuration?

You could have a problem with the system board, system RAM or other possibilities. Have you ever done a complete diagnostics?

I'm currently using desktop drivers 179.13 (w/ modded INF) that I got from www.laptopvideo2go.com.  I had actually encountered the same problem playing "World in Conflict" using the standard mobile Nvidia drivers from www.nvidia.com , and also the one from Dell's support webpage (the version #'s elude me at the moment though). I am more than willing to uninstall the current (179.13) and go back to a more stable driver but I don't know if that will help at all.

Also to note, does anyone have any idea if I8KFANGUI temperature monitor displays an accurate reading? I've read something about compensating and adding a few degrees, if someone could shed some light on that I'd appreciate it. Also I realize all laptop's are different and will run at varying temperatures but what is generally the same operating range for the CPU/GPU?

To answer another question yes I've done a complete diagnostic, the only issue I had was the video memory and that was with my old 7900 gs which I swapped out.  There is an issue though, since then I've upgraded my Ram/Video Card/CPU/and hard drive, and I neglected to copy the diagnostic partition to the new HD, all I have now is the boot up diagnostics to use.

Thanks,

-Mike

Where did you get 174.31, is that a modded driver or the mobile version?

When I installed everything recently I made sure to clean out as much dust as possible from inside the case including the fans. At the moment I'm idling at 24C C - CPU and 37C - GPU. I dunno if that is in the realm of reason or not.

Also I generally run the fans at high speed all the time, I realize that will wear out the fans prematurely but I monitor their RPM's quite a bit and will purchase new one if need be. You're saying that running the fans at high constantly will possibly cause hang ups? I was unaware of this issue. But since I run them on high during other games and while just surfing the web it doesn't happen suggesting it might not be the fans.

Thanks for the help, I'll keep experimenting with the drivers hopefully it'll work I'm kicking myself for spending more money on this thing when I could have almost purchased another laptop designed for gaming with the upgrade money.

Thanks,

-Mike

Driver 175.32 is the latest driver that should work with your E1705/7950GTX system if you have Vista. It's an official beta driver from Nvidia. The site is HERE.

The 174.31 is available from Dell in both XP and Vista flavors. You will not see it with the E1705 drivers, but must go to the drivers page for a system that used the 7850GTX originally, such as the M1710, LOOK HERE.

I8fangui is low by ~5°C for the GPU temp and right on for CPU temp for me. Use several other programs to decide what the real temp might be and then you can enter a correction factor in the program.

Ok well I'll see what I can do about adjusting I8K, I've been playing around and I got the driver that was suggested 174.31. I also decided to run WoW in Opengl mode, it reduces the frame rate quite a bit but im still bouncing off the Vsync limit so I don't really mind, I also turned the graphics down to mid settings. The temperatures stay lower (about 43-50C without correction) and I can play for as much as an hour or so but sure enough it'll eventually crash. I see it's a fairly common problem with any dell utilizing a 7900 card (7900 gtx, 7900 gs, 7950 gtx etc), but I'd still like to fix it.

I'm gonna keep researching this issue.

On a side note I will never purchase another Dell, although it's a beast when operating correctly it's been nothing but problems once I hit the 8-12 month mark with the original video card, and even today after all the work I put in I can't get it to run in a stable manner with a game that doesn't even test the capabilities of the card.

Thanks,

-Mike