nVidia's ESA software

[billybigfoot]

Has anyone here heard of/using nVisia's new (ish) ESA software. Its supposed to give you more controll of your system.
A lot of Dell's XPS 630i system are getting problems with it, I was just wondering if anyone who does not have a Dell
system have tried the nVidia software and how they are getting on with it.

[billybigfoot]

Ok so it's been about 16 days and no takers so maybe a more indepth reason for my enquirey.

I posted on PCPRO in respect of the Dell XPS630 (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=274481) on that forum I'm known as petesmart1. There have also been numerous posts on Dell Comunity Forum (DCF) by owners of the system experiencing problems with the Chasis lights/fans. With the nvidia ESA software we are supposed to be able to change the colour of the lights (not too important to some) and also control the speed of the fans, which is a great boon to overclocking. Also all 630 owners are getting the HD light "strobe" effect, where the light continually flashes. Two stickies have been created to cater for these problems, XPS 630 Fan running at 100%. Need your help. and XPS 630 HDD LED blinking all the time, both can be found here: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportfor ... h_Talk_XPS (http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=Tech_Talk_XPS)

The reason for asking for help is this, the 630 has the 650i motherboard which according to nvidia is not supported by its ESA software and Dell have made claims that nvidia's software is not compatable with the 630, and we should be using Dell only software. The problem with the fans only appears when users change either the lights or the fan speeds and results in the fans running at 100% and very loud. The only way we have been able to work around this is to use nvidia's software which gives us the ability ot flash the firmware on the proprietry Master I/O board, something Dell's version of ESA doesn't allow.

This is why I have been seeking a non Dell owner who has a system with a 680i or above motherboard and a nvidia graphics card who would be willing to download and test the current version of nvidia's ESA software for us.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Coops]

ESA as i understand it is a universal language that will allow all compliant components to be able to be controlled or monitored from inside a single piece of software.

However in order for this system to work your components must all be ESA compliant. For example if your ESA PSU but a mainboard that does not support ESA then you will not be able to communicate with the PSU and receive data from it and so on and so forth.

According to Nvidia Website the Dell XPS 630 is a supported system

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_cer ... ducts.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_certified_products.html)

[billybigfoot]

Coops,

Thanks for your reply.

As far as I can find out all internals of the XPS 630 with the exception of the power supply and mobo are ESA certified, which seems extreemly strange. Nvidia's own site clearly states the 650i chip set is not ESA compatatable and therefore not supported. As the mobo is the "essence" of any system, in my view, I can not understand how the whole system became ESA certified. As you can see from this link: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/nforce_600i_features.html only the 680i and above chip set's are actually ESA compliant. It seems clear to me that Dell have made BIOS changes to allow and/or direct command signals within the mainboard to allow a semblance of ESA. An example of this would be the PCI & HD fans are controlled via the MIO which is connected to the mobo via an internal USB connector, there are also connections on the mobo for these fans but when connected to the mobo directely no control is possible.

[Coops]

Do dell have there own piece of software for these functions or do they provide Nvidia Generic ESA Software??

[billybigfoot]

That's whats puzzling a lot of people, Yes Dell supply ESA software as do Nvidia. Dell tells us to only use Dell software one minute and then tell us to use Nvidia and then back again, but the ESA standard was developed by Nvidia. Dell also tell us that the software was created "hand in hand" as partners, but if this was the case then why didn't Dell know that Nvidia were not supporting the 650i chip set. All very confusing. Coupled with the fact that Dell has been economical with the truth when advertising this system has created quite a stir on the forum.

[djpc]

Just download and run the software and see what happens if it works it works if it does not then what have you lost in trying?

[billybigfoot]

djpc,

That's the problem, I own a XPS 630 and the software works when it wants. If I change the case LED's the PCI/HDD fans have the potential to run at 100% and very loud. A firmware update for the MIO has been test released but that causes more problems. The point is the 650i mobo is according to Nvidia not supported, it IMHO should not have been used. I'm trying to find an indipendant who has a supported mobo and graphics card to test wether ESA will work without Dell's "interference".

[djpc]

What I mean is have you tried the offical nvidia software as even if it says it is not supported sometimes it still does work or you can do a bit of fiddling to get it work :wink:

[billybigfoot]

Yes, tried both and a great deal of fiddling. Still get the problems. Been trying to get to grips with this since delivery on 14 March. Check out the links in my first post and you will see there are a great deal of people doing the same. As a measure of the thinking behind the fix's we are getting from Dell, some reported that the system temp in nvidia system moniter was showing 178c so they released a BIOS update that disabled the on board sensor, well helpful.

[billybigfoot]

Just an update to whats been going on.

Two people now have upgraded their 630's with a mobo on nvidia's supported list. One used the 790i and the other used the 780i. Both have reported that with these boards the ESA software works as it should, more proof that Dell has serious problems within their tech labs, they must know the 650i board is not compatable but just won't accept it.

A lot of My630i.com members are calling for a petition to get Dell to offer a replacement board because it's now come to light that the PCIe x16 slots have been intentionally restricted to x8. As I'm sure you all know on a retail board the primary x16 slot whilst running a single graphics card will run at x16, when running in SLI the slots are then switched over to x8. More evidence to support the false advertising claim, none of this is explained or even hinted at on any sales site.

[djpc]

Yeah make dell pay they are so ****

[billybigfoot]

Now they are trying to tell us the chipset doesn't have to be ESA compliant as it's the Master I/O board that makes the system compliant. So I've asked them to explain why 2 people have upgraded the mobo to one on the supported list, still use the same MIO and are not getting any of the problems we are. Wonder if a reply will be forthcomming or will they try to ignore it and hope it goes away?

[djpc]

Knowing them they will hunt down and silence them and you and quickly change the mobos in new ones and tell people that they hve just got dodgy ones :lol:

[billybigfoot]

They could so easily silence me, all the have to do is send me a 680i SLI mobo that actually does work the way they advertised the system in the first place.