XPS M1730 – Windows 7 and 10

System Upgrades

Service Manual

Ensure you reference your service manual before carrying out upgrades:

The most recommended upgrade for this system is a Solid State Drive, here is my affiliate link to Crucial here. If purchasing a SSD or Memory Upgrade please use these links as I will get a tiny bit of commission which will help fund my guides.

SSD Drive Upgrade

Memory Upgrade:

This system supports 2 GB of RAM (2×1 GB Modules) unofficially 4 GB of RAM (2×2 GB) modules work in this system but the system maxes out at 3.25 GB of RAM. This can also be purchased using the affiliate link above.

Media Direct

Media Direct should be installed before the Operating System in order for the Media Direct Button to function correctly.

Operating System

Not all of these systems are 64 Bit capable. A 64 Bit Processor such as an Intel T7200, T7400 or T7600 is required for 64 Bit Windows 7. Note the system maxes out at 3.25 GB of RAM so there is in any case little advantage of installing 64 Bit Windows 0n this model. This configuration works with 64 Bit Windows 10 but it is on the edge of the system requirements, should Microsoft slightly up the system requirements for 64 Bit Windows 10 later down the line, this system will likely fail to meet the minimum system requirements and therefore 32 Bit Windows 10 is recommended on this model.

It is recommended to install Windows 10 on this system see Windows OEM FAQs and Downloads. The Windows Vista OEM or Windows XP Product Key won't be compatible with Windows 10 Installation Media however you can run Windows 10 Unlicensed. Windows 10 will have most of the system drivers required inbuilt however you can install the Windows 7 Drivers if you have any unknown Devices in the Device Manager.

Drivers and Downloads for Windows 7

Legacy BIOS

Video BIOS

System Utilities (Windows 7 Only)

Chipset (Windows 7)

Card Reader

Video (Windows 7 Only)

Communication

Input

Dell Wireless Cards

Audio (Windows 7 Only)

Install the Registry Edit and then the Audio Driver.

Registry Edit

HTML

Open up Notepad or Notepad++, copy and paste the above and save the file (as all types) ending with the extension .reg. Once done right click the reg file and run.

Add the entries to your registry before installing the Audio Driver.

Application

22 thoughts on “XPS M1730 – Windows 7 and 10

  1. My XPS has a black screen on startup. Should I hook it to an external monitor and reinstall Windows 7?

  2. Sir:
    Why is the 8800M GTX left off your site? Of course, my machine has that particular VGA controller. I am on 8.1 right now but need help! You gave me much needed assistance sometime ago onmy 6410…. Thank you for that!!!

  3. Hi, my dell xps m1730 has an 8800 GTX grafics cards with sli capable. I cant install service pack 1 for windows 7. After its installed windows stopped on black screen and dont go further. I tried lots of things but nothing forks for me. Can you please help me? Without SP 1 everything (except SLI) works ok. When I try turn on SLI system dont start. How can I diagnose is everything ok with hardware?

    Thanks in advance!
    P.S. Sorry for my poor English.

      1. Hi, thanks for fast replay. Can you tell me is there new bios version for 8800 GTX? On this tutorial you linked only for 8700 and 9800 grafics cards. My computer BIOS is in A11 version after fresh update.

  4. I think what people are asking is "Are there drivers for the 8800 GTX"> for Windows 8 or even Windows 7? (I prefer Windows 7) and if so, where are they?
    Does anyone know if there are drivers for that card for this laptop?
    A few people have asked this question but not getting answers…

    1. The nvidia driver I list is for the 8800M GTX but may not work with the Dell hardware. Bare in mind all of these driver sets are unofficial and I am just one person whos put them together. I don't have all the hardware to test them all out thoroughly myself and need to look at end user feedback to see if drivers work.

  5. Hi Philipyip,

    My mistake, sorry

    I never understood that you are doing this just as a help service to those of us out there who still have An 1730 still kicking along – appreciate your efforts and thank you 🙂

    Dell really should have kept things updated with these laptops, I paid a fortune for mine and a 1710 before that, never again will I pay top dollar for a Dell, twice bitten, infinitely shy now

    My 1730 has started making a fan growl, like the fan is starting to fail as it clearly looses speed and tries to get going. I think it's coming from the gpu on one side or it could be the case fan itself

    I was going to try Windows 7 on it but I think that after 6 odd years, it's time to let it go and bin it and enjoy the power savings of running a cheaper laptop, probably not a Dell now

    Thank you for your your comment explaining the driver situation and my apologies if I was wrongly critical of your efforts 🙂

  6. hi has anybody got an xps m1730 with a 8800gxt to run on 64bit windows 7. if so please share the drivers

    1. google nvidia drivers then choose the first link which will be dirctly to the driversr part of nvidias site. then look for 8m series and the 8800gtx drivers for xp, 7 , 8 and 10 86 n 84 with show up. pick the one you need. do not use the auto detect as it wants to install additional unneeded software and probably wont detect correctly anyway…which is what always happens to me.

  7. Brilliant page. I've successfully upgraded my XPS M1730 to Windows 10. Putchased it.
    All looks to be well. Got the Logitech LCD working eventually.
    Only thing I can't install are the older versions of Quickset that give the keyboard backlights and lights on the rear of the screen, i.e. the DELL insignia and it's panels.
    The latest version of quickset only allows me to change the speaker and mouse pad lights.
    Any ideas? The older versions just won't install, giving "not selected for install" errors, even though they are. I've even tried compatibility modes, still no joy.
    But overall I'm very happy, it's still a superb laptop. -) and Thank You

    1. i upgraded to 10 then restored back to 8.1 since my firewall is not compatible with windows 10 yet…i use corporate mandatory software, long story. but what i had to do to get the quickset running was to download all the versions fom dells web site. i do mean all the versins like xp 86 and 64, then vista and then windows 7 all 86 and 64. one point the dell site said that there was no win 7 drivers available only for xp and vista and a page refresh showed win 7 as available. go figure, its dell. but i ended up using vista x86 quckset for windows 10 x64 install that finally worked. i started with installing xp 86. the install would error then i would choose compatibility mode for xp and the thing would install but when launching quickset it would just error. i think the combination of all the quickset installs finally gave enough driver info that the damn thing finally worked and controlled the keyboard and other lights. even windows media player recognized it and flashed everything along with music. I run 8 g ram, 8800gtx (blew up my 9800 ), x9000 intel, 4965 (flakey)wifi card with tweaked drivers so that i can actually get 'n' speeds, two raided SSD's at 600M plus, and yet it still has trouble with youtube when using flash and firefox. LMAO its time to make a glass case and retire this puppy for a display only kind of thing.

  8. Has anyone been able to get SLI enabled on their m1730 Win 10 x64? I have everything working, including Quickset with all the functions working. You must install 4-5 versions in a particular order for it to work right. I have the files and order if anyone needs help. The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is SLI when I enable it and reboot everything seems okay until after the Win 10 logo/boot animation where it should be loading the lock/login screen it loads up the Logitech display and then freezes at a blank screen no response to any input. I've tried everything I can think of. Plus everything I have been able to Google and nothing seems to work. I always end up having to hard reboot and restore from a restore point to get it to boot back up. From what I can tell it is installing the drivers for both of my cards correctly but one of them seems to be missing some file that tells it what and how to connect to devices. When tinkering I set one card to run laptop screen and the other an external monitor. Control panel will then show two displays connect. But when looking at IRQ info and such it looks like only one card is running both displays. Under Win 10 control panel->system & security->Admin tools->System Info->components-:>display it will list both cards and all related info, drivers, etc that should match do, However the one running the laptop screen shows the resolution of my laptop, but the one running the external show unavailable or all zeros. I then tried to disable the card running laptop screen and rebooted disconnecting external before doing so to see if the second card would take over running the laptop display so that I could troubleshoot it. Laptop will not boot. I am able to start in safe mode and reenable the other card and it will boot fine. If anyone can help I would over joyed and thankful…

    1. Hi Dru, I've no issue running the laptop in SLI mode, I've got the 8800M GTX SLi Card and running it with the latest nVidia 341.81 driver. Is that the version you are using?
      Yes, it would help me a great deal if you could let me know the locations of the quickset drivers you used and the order you installed them. Thank you.
      Just a message to Jack, I'm running 8GB too, with a core2 extreme 9000 and don't have issues at all with YouTube or flash. I did however change the wifi card that came with it, can't remember what it was, but I now have an intel 4965AGN card, dual band 2.4/5Ghz.
      Hope that helps, as the original gave me wifi drops constantly. That maybe the same card you have already! Maybe it's an age thing with the card as they are small – swap it out maybe?
      Cheers

      1. Hey Evan goto this website http://xpsm1730.blogspot.com/2009/03/xps-m1730-vista-drivers-64-bit.html half way down you will see DELL QUICKSET. Follow the instructions and order it gives. If you have any version of Quickset installed uninstall, delete directories, reboot then proceed with steps. If memory serves 1 or 2 of the beginning files gave a "Program not compatible." error just continue in order it gives. First time I installed them everything went great. However the second time after a hard drive crash I had to install the last two in compatibility Windows 8. No clue as to why but it worked.

        On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 2:54 PM, The Unofficial Windows 10 Reinstallati

    2. Dru,
      I also get a black screen when enabling SLI. Were you ever able to get this corrected?

      – I never had issues installing QuickSet…

      – Could never get LCD to work properly… it flickers ON sometimes, but never stays… anyone have a specific install version/link?

      – Anyone know of a tool I can use to force-toggle CPU and GPU speeds? Since a couple Windows updates ago, I have a sluggish/choppy and high heat when I try to force performance… If I reboot quick enough, the BIOS will kick in fans at MAX, and it will stay ON until next time I turn the laptop OFF or have to restart… I would love a tool compatible w/ Win10 and Nvidia+CPU fans, so I can toggle when needed…

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