While contacting Virgin Media support to get a killers deal on same Internet size L package I'm on and a Land-line for a £1 extra a month  just on the 11th November 2008 which was pretty sweet including some friendly discounts on the installation charge and other sweet talking about my 50MB web space the Support person let slip that indeed the upgrades will be going ahead as planned, so knowing this person clearly misunderstood my enquiry, I asked oh when? and the reply was the rollout was already in planning stages and it will happen soon and automatically for those on 20Mbps lines???? -cof what???

So I guess there will not be another service but an upgrade indeed, but not according to the official Virgin Media 50MB Speed Service Page  It's a New Service. What will that mean for the rest of us a more strict  speed capping? *unlimited downloads with a heck of a twist so much for fibre optic cable delivered Internet. they claim its to make all users not feel the system grind to a alt I understand but if you caps the speed then charge us less for that time we are capped??? How about that my Virgin? Oh I forgot all you see is money not customers. Its a common phenomenon amongst all companies that make too much money they forget about Customer service and a Fair deal. Boy I should refrain from contacting support I have to learn the lingo you know...

I feel excited but at the same time, I feel shocked at the speed caps and furthermore I feel outraged at the poor upload speeds come on... 50Kb pretty much the same or worst the when I was on 4Mbps!!!

512kb apparently according to Virgin Media what the supply to us the customer say that  the upload speed is dependant on the site receiving it? a sec that's archaic view not to mention IMO wrong! I would gladly sacrifice 1Mbps from the down stream and have it passed to the up stream... NO says Indian Support that cannot be done sir!... er! you mean you don't know how to do it right? or Better yet you could do it but really Neither Virgin Media understands that Not Only Downstream is important as is also Upstream's speeds. In Fact you cant even buy a customised service at same competitive prices © ... Ermm Mr. Branson that's my idea and though you cannot patent ideas, This is my blog and ideas here suggested are my copyright.

Anyway's thanks a lot Virgin I have to wait more than a month for my add-on service and after being with this same company for 7 years or more I feel like you know give us some more up power that's what it means sharing content over the Internet with your family wake up!! What comes down must go up. That's Newton's law... or was it the other way around, see Virgin you've confused me.

Unlimited Downloads eh?? You mean?

*Unlimited time waiting for it to download... At always maximum price. isn't that fair guys?

I think that would be more than fair if a user gets capped for 5 Hours so the price should you pay for your services Drop to match that capped speed offer after all we are not paying for half speed and limited downloads we are paying for the full speed and unlimited downloads. That's only fair or is it?

I read the TOS especially the part that addresses this issue of fair usage whilst I see on the downloading part and still not totality agree the amounts specified we look at uploading restrictions which are impossibly ridiculously low, not only in data amount but speed try working from home as or actually dare to want to upload a party video or anything else above the mere 700MB for the 15:00 to 20:00 as it is for me and a 75% cap I mean what???

So I guess I have to work on uploads at snail pace Start from from 6 AM so I don't get affected.  when will we ever sleep, I'm Planning personally on not only starting my own projects which will mean pretty close to that upload rate at any time but also since Its gfx we are talking about in this case forget it I best find me a best compressing tool ever... Anyone up to designing a compressor decompression for the .tib format? I guess Ill have to then... 

And another no new news thrilling shock.

Ok now you own a Dell XPS M1730 Laptop its a beast alright but like everything in life it has its good sides and bad sides.

When you having issues because your video card's are not working so well or your WIFI card is under performing or even you onboard NIC you expect DELL to keep up to date with latest developments in software and drivers for your machine let me give you the news you probably already know... Who you gonna call? No no no! Not the Ghostbusters they cant help you with this they way to busy fighting ghosts and stuff...Iand With Dell at permium service for software service, erm, its never going to happen this is why I hope this is going to surprise you and of course bookmark these links I'm going to post... or probably you all already beaten me to it hardly surprising  though some places I've seen not kept up to date like this one, since all you need to do is be able to Google and read. Of course some hardware knowledge and some wider computer experience in various components is advised so you don't end up frying your £4000 laptop. that part I kinda removed from the equation a serving it up as a guinea pig. not much of a challenge when who designed this is invariably never going to re-code it just because... This is why were able to take advantage of things like this and Dell got hopefully slapped with a massive bill for being so, so... ah who cares they very useless are they not?  

Software & Drivers be sure that you double check your downloading the correct drivers (e.g. OS XP or Vista) on the links provided and or look for the right drivers on there I don't have an issue with recommending these and I use them myself because I demand the best performance and stability I can get and Dell wont give it to us. Some are installed via normal installer some are done manually.

BASC: Broadcom Advanced Management Suite if that link doesn't work this is where to find it Version is ATM v11.3.13a plenty to keep a check and run some proper diagnostics though this is not a necessary software, unless your a geek like me.

WIRED NIC Vista: 32 bit NetXtreme Drivers or 64bit  NetXtreme Drivers for XP same page can be used to obtain these. far superior version and way more stable just look for them they are there 1.100 ATM

INTEL 4965AGN: Also other WIFI cards supported many one driver set will support a few cards in fact almost all if not all cards supplied in this laptop are supported by same set of drivers but just double check... for any OS this page is best there are no restrictions on the OEM vs RETAIL CARDS on this its all a pull over your eyes business keep us all in the stoopid box... cof, cof

Synaptic Pad latest drivers can be found here. Look in Forum if not latest than DriverVer=06/04/2009, 13.1.3.0

For the Ricoh you have to look no furter than on its simbling (NOT) AlienWare M17X Ricoh, Believe it or not it's the same chips :), install them have driver type.

I'll update more if I find them. or leave your own suggestion on post. 

One of the best addition to this laptop was that gaming LCD screen over the Keyboard once again looking at it from Dell point of view another major blunder and we have to suffer with half baked solution that provide least option and not updated as regularly if your familiar with the Logitech Keyboard G15 the software is not only better but more complete and supports a few other options that the Dell supplied software does not. The XPS LCD GAMING LCD: Software that will make your nasal overgrown hair curl and it works a charm since its the same exact technology and accessed the same way. This is far more customisable and supports a wider range of options overall as it should have been shipped besides you can go black on with or white on black background cool eh! Completely compatible...

SLI Video Drivers: I recommend a trip to Nvidia site for this task more up to date and definitely working way better that the OEM drivers. Nvidia has released CUDA 2 which really allows other GPUS to handle tasks as well as GFX really and in short the solution for math crunching using GPUS are like CPUS on steroids hand in hand and in the event your really bonkers mad about performance then there's only one place for "better"  (lottery draw on this one) drivers then what I suggest you stick to just in case your GFX cards are misbehaving there's also this great community of very smart people who dedicate their time and expertise to improving your experience. They are LV2GO I found them one time a few years back recommended by Nvidia support themselves, go figure! I just use the Modded inf with the latest released Nvidia drivers with excellent results.Outstanding job! Completely recommended. but I proceed with care I always backup my computers, laptops with Acronis True Image just in case I’m always covered.

AGEIA PHYSIX: Well Driver wise makes not much difference for the driver is the same in any software version so far,. The Software which in turn supports the latest games, Remember not all games currently are designed to take advantage of this magic hardware and don't be disappointed to find the card cant perform magic on its own however no better place to find these precious gems at the moment than at the place where they pull them out of the hat The Great 3DGURU Community! You will also find that Nvidia site is also by 3 weeks delay serving up the same software version as I post this. so it up to your where you get it from look further down on that page for the link Nvidia Physix System Sofware. 

You will need the latest DirectX to get that Ageia Physix/Cuda Sofware and drivers working at peek efficiency so remember to regularly update your DX components, still dont know why Nvidia still makes a big secret of the new software but its the best its ever been. Just hope they update the drivers soon.

I was not able to source better Bluetooth drivers yet but when I do I will post them here or if anyone finds them first please post them here as well over the comments and I will add it to the post.

I cant be bothered with support tools for dell they just fill up the drive with crap like the quickset for example who designed that? In total contrast the video camera was well though about the software included is great and the results are spectacular... Surprising they do some things right.

Disappointment so far are mostly with over heating issues due to yet again Dell being to stubborn to provide a decent cooling control for the laptop and while ATM there is no software designer out there that can make a miracle like the famous I8KfanGUI the source code is out there waiting for a talented coder and I have it on good authority Mr Diefer does not intend to let that project die, but it is anyways!

The Dock itself is a cheap knock off of the Stardock's object dock but I can live with that though the Dell Dock is buggy and the Stardock Object dock is not half as bad.. I also recommend Lavalys Everest for several reasons though not free it can monitor and use your LCD over the keyboard to display any information like temperatures GPU clock speeds CPU clock speeds and an massive 4 pages of useful stuff on the go... Monitoring your PC takes a whole new meaning...

Get Dell Media Direct 3.X including 3.5 Update recreate ISO and update file from multiple rar there are 11 files total burn the iso to Disk and keep update on your HDD. I am NOT providing instructions in how to upgrade or install this on your laptops. This Media Direct may not be compatible with other laptops but the DELL XPS M1730

Before you procede I STRONGLY suggest you backup your PC's Main HDD including all partitions with a Software like Acronis True Image 2009 my recommended form of backup. These Guys develop one of the best if not the best Backup/Restoring technologies in a most flexible. I have used it for so many years that even my customers have started using it.

Any contributions with further or updated software/drivers of other then the ones I post here is very welcome from any of the readers post your information as a comment and I will add it to main post with reference to the contributor = you! so post your name or alter ego name... hehe!