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Post by TRow on Jun 9, 2004 1:47:24 GMT -5
You really can only get away with a Few Mod's that will still Honor Your Dell Warranty. 1. Moving Your PCI Card FURTHEST AWAY From the AGP Slot. 2. Rotating your Rear Fans To Position the Thermistors Closer to Heat Sources. 3. Adding a HeatSink Fan and Powering it from the PSU.  4. Replacing the 80mm Front Intake Fan, and powering the New Fan off the PSU. Then Taking 80mm Stock NMB and Installing it on the Heatsink.(Cable WILL be an Issue) 5.Or Living with HIGH OPERATING TEMPS and Limited Optimal Use. *If I forgot some configs, which I did, Please Post away. Thanks, T.RoW |
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Post by Techknow on Jun 10, 2004 8:18:51 GMT -5
5. <------Totally Me until Warranty expires, thou I have thought of the Heatsink fan idea. Your Right thou, the Factory Fresh Dell XPS Temps are Unbelievable. My CPU Diode says 42c Idle, and 58c load. To me thats unacceptable.
Techknow
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Post by Murdock on Jul 5, 2004 20:05:49 GMT -5
My warranty doesn't end til 06'.  So I'm stuck doing this. |
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Post by TRow on Jul 7, 2004 18:31:01 GMT -5
My warranty doesn't end til 06'. So I'm stuck doing this. What fans/parts did you plan on ordering? T.RoW |
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Post by Murdock on Jul 8, 2004 14:10:59 GMT -5
I was going to the whole mod til I noticed it would void my warranty. Then I just gave up on it, I'll probably replace the fan thats blowing on my cards and place a new one in and place a PCI slot fan under my video card.
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Post by dano104 on Jul 8, 2004 14:30:26 GMT -5
As long as you DO NOT cut, you will not void your warranty. Just for the record, I've been dealing with computers for almost 10 years now, and I've never run into a problem that I couldn't resolve. Of course parts have failed on me, but nothing younger than 3 years old, so it probably should've been replaced anyway. What people fail to recognized is the tendency of components to fail when they have had prolonged exposure to heat. If anything these mods will help you avoid running into any warranty issues. --- To this day I remember the first thing I did when I received my XPS. 1) I cracked her open to see what I could improve on. 2) I reformatted her……. Maybe it is just in my personality to improve things………  |
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Post by bubbadubba on Jul 8, 2004 14:55:02 GMT -5
I totally agree Dano,
The first thing I did was to put my system at full load and "burned in" my system for 48 hours. They supposedly did that at the factory before it gets shipped out but I wanted to see how stable my XPS was.
IMO, if IC's and circuit boards are going to fail, they're going to right away. After burn in they're going to be fine for their life span. Hard drives, with their moving parts, are another story.
I just figured if I'd copy what T.Row had done, (or at the time was doing), I would get the same results, and that would mean less stress on my system.
I'd would say to anyone with a XPS Gen 1,2 or 3 if you don't bring down your temps then your going to need Dell's warranty, and your going to need it sooner than later.
To each his own..........
Bubbadubba
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Post by Murdock on Jul 11, 2004 10:53:41 GMT -5
I called tech support and they said they wouldn't support me if I placed a new fan in the computer. I should've made my own computer. |
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Post by TRow on Jul 11, 2004 13:19:07 GMT -5
What Dell doesn't know, won't hurt them.
The Stage 1,2,3 Mods from the Install site are all completely reversible. The only reason I cut the Front Metal Mesh was for airflow. That is completely optional. When it comes to fan failure errors at Boot Up, those are erasable log files thru the Bios as well.
To summarize, so long as you dont physically manipulate,damage, or leave ANY evidence when you Install these Stage1,2,or 3 modifications, They will never know. And what Dell doesn't know.....
T.RoW
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Post by avsforsberg21 on Jul 12, 2004 18:18:37 GMT -5
Ditto that Trow. I recently purchased my Gen 2 XPS with standard warranty. I just finished modding the rig and it will prolong the life. I also power all the fans off the PSU rather than the motherboard. No need to take a chance a fry the puppy.
Keep all your original parts in a box and if you need to ship back for warranty work, it's easy to swap everything back.
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303dreams
Freshmen
Bill C / 303 Dreams
Posts: 20
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Post by 303dreams on Jul 19, 2004 1:25:36 GMT -5
im under lease/monthly payments for my xps... about 2 years left on it LOL but i say screw it, im modding this sucka, with load temps of up to 58-59c it wont last that long untill the lease and warrenty are done LOL.. besides, i had a dell dimension v350 before the xps.. was a great system, only thing i ever had to replace was 2 keyboards i "wore out".. just called dell.. played stupid "it dosent work, it was fine yesterday" and they sent another no questions asked lol... i also upgraded that system in the second year of the 4 year lease.. grabbed the powerlink upgrade to turn the p2-350mhz into a nice celeron 1.2 Ghz  then when i had about 6 months left, i decided i was tired of the pci powercolor tnt2 i had upgraded to get away from the on-board rage pro (LOL).. and went about bought a asus tuv4x mb, slapped the celleron in there with a new case (it cost me like 150 bucks for a case and the mb), and that game me like 2 years more life with the remains form the v350 gutted into the new system.. (which i still use, 2 years later as a dvd burning box now) got the xps back last june.. so im about due for the first mods LOL |
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Post by Musabi on Aug 3, 2004 4:06:29 GMT -5
My warrenty is up in 1 month, screw this! Im modding this sucka! Thank you for this site! I was going to go out and buy a new mobo, case and psu! this will do everything that that would have done! w00t!
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Post by devnull on Oct 12, 2004 12:34:04 GMT -5
Musabi -- dude, water cool this case. I totally think it has the potential for it. It is a massive, massive case and could probably host a radiator within it. Honestly, I think I am going to do it when I start looking for a new computer. If ATX is still a viable standard when I upgrade, I really wanna see what this case can handle.
Honestly, guys, I think dell would even honor TRows case if he had in-home support. The guy that comes to my dorm room to fix my gen 3 (hopefully on a less-often basis that he has come lately) couldn't care less that my box has a few mods on it. Dell is paying him, Dell is holding up their end of the deal and I am getting parts fixed. Therefore, I think you all should be in the clear with an @home warranty. w00t
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Post by Snare on Oct 13, 2004 7:27:54 GMT -5
would a silencer for the video card void the warranty?
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Post by devnull on Oct 13, 2004 11:17:13 GMT -5
If you are just unscrewing the original cooler and slapping on the vga silencer, you should be in the clear. you can always put it back on. they aren't going to run a material analysis to see if your thermal compound is the same as the stuff they put on, so use some nice AS5
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Post by welshy on Jan 22, 2005 14:52:00 GMT -5
just curious as to what i would get back if my computer "accidently" fried itself ... my warranty runs out next august so would it be beneficial to get a new 1 before the warranty runs out ? ;D
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Post by TRow on Jan 22, 2005 17:08:29 GMT -5
Chances are you cant fry everything, as a precaution I recommend you purchase a UPS/AVR.
The parts you have would make for a VERY nice custom built, not to mention overclocking and fan control. Instead of Buying a new one, Build a New one. The information is available, and you have an excellent Box to part out.
T.RoW
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Post by welshy on Jan 23, 2005 5:05:13 GMT -5
very true but wot i meant was would it be beneficial to purposely damage the pc so that a new 1 could be obtained from Dell... would i get exactly the same spec back or would i recieve newer parts than what i already have ?
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Post by TRow on Jan 23, 2005 11:03:34 GMT -5
very true but wot i meant was would it be beneficial to purposely damage the pc so that a new 1 could be obtained from Dell... would i get exactly the same spec back or would i recieve newer parts than what i already have ? I like your style  If its under warranty, chances are they would send a Technician with parts, before they would RMA the Entire system. If they dont have the part instock, its not unheard of for Dell to ship"beefier" parts instead. Though at times Dell has been known to ship a part of lesser value as well. If for some reason the Entire system had to be RMA'd, then chances are you would get a XPS Gen 4 in its place. Then there's the chance that they would say it was negligence or fraud, and send you back nothing. Just a thought, T.RoW |
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Post by welshy on Jan 23, 2005 11:15:02 GMT -5
hmmm... ive also heard of people gettin "lesser" replacement parts but obviously this would not be ok.. i would complain straight away... If the pc was untouched and free from mods but just all of a sudden went "poof" in a puff of smoke then surely they wouldnt be able to say no to giving me either replacement parts or a new pc... Im not 1 for fraud but i paid £1700 for this PC when i could have built 1 for around £1000..i didnt have the cash so finance was my only option otherwise i would have built my own...dell must make Millions so im sure if a few of us had little accidents with our pc's it wouldnt hurt their bank balance too much ... or maybe after my warranty is up do a fiddle with the house insurance lolol ... nah.. im very happy with this pc.. just ordered 1 of those artic VGA coolers for my X800 and a logitech MX1000 mouse aswell hehe... totally out of money now until the end of the month.. but hey.. PC's are King .. Ill let u all know if the artic cooler allows my X800 to overclock without crashing my computer. D |
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