Comments on: Dell Inspiron E1705/9400 upgrade. Replacing graphics card and installing more memory.

By: paul

paul — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:42:49 +0000

Hi,

I;ve recently purchased the new dell inspiron 1720, which is little more than a glorified netbook.
The graphics are terrible. and i was wondering if i can uppgrade my graphics card. (Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family. 780 mb)

Any advice greatly appreciated.

By: D Patel

D Patel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:12:01 +0000

Helo All Dell 9400 users Help

I have broken my screen it is WUXGA TrueBright, can any one tell me the Dell part number/s for the screen so I can purchase a replacement.
Wouls a screen from XPS140, M1710 be usable?
Many Many Thanks

By: coswiz

coswiz — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:32:01 +0000

After considering upgrading my 9400’s X1400 graphics card I think I’ve changed my mind. Mine’s been a well travelled work horse for years and have never had a minutes grief. I’m taking rakebacks comments to heart and leaving my 9400 (1920*1200 resolution) well alone in favour of buying a new laptop. I shall keep it as a backup/slave machine!
Budgeting for a new one every 2-3 years seems realistic to me, given the leaps in performance you can expect in that time.
Besides the 9400 I also have three Dell desktops and apart from the poor choice of CD/DVD drives none of them have given me any real hassle, even when upgrading. Having worked with numerous systems for several companies that are regularly crashing & burning, Dell get the thumbs up from me.

By: rakeback

rakeback — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:14:53 +0000

With the decrease in price of acceptable laptops i tend to think of them as throw away items now and buy a new budget one every year!

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:41:41 +0000

I was just wondering where i can get the “special “hacked” set” of drivers for the nVidia Quatro FX2500m 512MB graphics card used in this upgrade. Im seriously considering doing this upgrade, but i would like to know i have or can get all the drivers and parts required before i start. Thanks.

By: Ken Lemons

Ken Lemons — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:54:39 +0000

Where can I find two 2GB modules ?

By: vicki

vicki — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:10:57 +0000

i have an inspiron 9400 and took out an extended warranty. so far it has had three replacdment hard drives and three replacement video cards.

the last time it went back, a month ago, i heard nothing from dell which was unusual as they usually ring or text. when i rang them they said my pc had water spillage damage and they refused to replace the video card.

they offered to replace the ‘damaged’ hard drive, mother board and video card at a cost of £400.

i was absolutely furious and accused them of wriggling out of their extended warranty. i asked for the machine back with a report and the photographs they said they had of the interior of the machine.

i then took it to pc world for an independent report. there had been spillage according to pc world but it was not recent and had damaged the cd drive which is temperamental in opening. so it seems dell were using this as an excuse because they had replaced parts on four previous occasions without this damage being mentioned.

i got back to dell but they were just not interested.

i ran the pc in safe mode and the next time i logged in it ran perfectly so much for the £400 for the complete replacement of water spilled parts which dell claimed was necessary.

i have bought three dells in the past but never again. i feel i have been defrauded and i still have two years to run on the extended warranty which they have now cancelled without a refund.

By: Dario

Dario — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:00:43 +0000

Everyone’s having this E1705 bsod/screen-distortion video problem… and same here. Why doesn’t Dell just make it easy to replace? Every wronged/pissed-off customer is another lost customer, and another 30 people being warned against buying Dell.

By: technocracy

technocracy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:58:19 +0000

Thanks for all the great info! After ready some of your articles, I’ve decided to upgrade a few things instead of buying a new computer. Allll was going well until…

At restart, I get the blue Dell screen then display goes blank (where Windows XP would normally begin loading) and I have no control except powering off.

I have the laptop disassembled and am cleaning/checking components and connections. The cooling fans had a RIDICULOUS amount of dust collected! I also upgraded memory cards (both): from *512MB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz to *2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM 200-pin 667MHz cards that I got for under $50 total at RadioShack. They are distributed by company called Centon, but looks lik they’re actually Samsung parts. Haven’t gotten a chance to see them in action because of previously mentioned BSoD. Display is off hinges (not opened yet), keyboard off, hard drive optical drive battery removed. Now I’m stuck and don’t know what my next step is…

Checking to make sure all connections are correct and see if I can put all back and restart. Do you have any suggestion, or thoughts on why computer blanks out? Also, while I have this thing open, my onboard speakers haven’t work for awhile now. Is this a regular problem on the E1705 (was reading about 700m model)? Any suggestions on how I can test speakers? I actually think its a missing driver but havent had a chance check it out.

Thank you for any feedback and insight.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:57:33 +0000

That is a link to one for sale on eBay. You can replace the drive. 1 screw in the bottom of the case. Less than a 60 second repair. Good luck!