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We purchased this laptop at the end of November 2012. All was going well – until I happened to notice on the Dell product support pages that the BIOS had been updated several times from version A08 which came installed.

Following the upgrade to BIOS version A11 we have experienced problems with the GT650M disappearing completely or finding Windows Device Manager only recognises the GPU as a Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. The GT650M does appear back for a short period following a restart of Windows – this is very annoying.

This is an ongoing issue…

Here are links to forum posts by other Dell 17R SE users with the same problem.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/19487244/20280273.aspx#20280273

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19498939/20331399.aspx#20331399

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/19478912/20241859.aspx#20241859

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19488440/20285686.aspx#20285686

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/19477072/20233445.aspx#20233445

It would seem that there are a whole host of other issues with the 7720 based Dell laptops – the majority of the forum posts on these 35 pages are mostly unanswered problems.

Link to 7720 related forum post list:  http://en.community.dell.com/search/searchresults.aspx?q=7720&groups=73&sort=default&wps=5

@DellCares have been looking into the issue, for over a month in our case, but it has become evident Dell have been aware of this problem for several months. A recent BIOS release (A13) seems to have made matters worse – for those who have been instructed by Dell to try it! Those users who have tried A13 are reporting a complete loss of the Nvidia GT650M.

Dell are actively working on a solution. However the Technical Support Manager I spoke with at Dell (UK) seemed oblivious as to what is going on. Just last week they wanted to collect our laptop for repair under warranty.

We are hoping Dell get all this resolved promptly. Meanwhile, if you are considering buying one of these we would suggest holding back until Dell have issued a permanent fix.

Link to Dell product page - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-17r-se-7720/pd

9th May 2013 : UPDATE

Following chat with a very helpful chap called Terry B – via the Dell support forum – a home visit was organised and an approved Dell engineer very kindly replaced the motherboard. Unfortunately this has not worked. Dell have released a BIOS version A14, yet early reports indicate this does not fix the problem either.

17th May 2013: UPDATE

Now the laptop keeps shutting down when any load is applied to the Nvidia GT650M Graphics Card – not a word back from Dell.

18th May 2013: UPDATE

Received contact from Terry_B – the Dell representative on their forum. It is looking like we have been unlucky enough to have had the faulty motherboard replaced with another faulty motherboard. The problem with the GT650M vanishing from Device Manager has slowed down – it is now only happening every day or so, which is a vast improvement over the hourly restarts from before. However, if any stress is now placed on the GPU the laptop is completely shutting down and will only restart into Windows once it has cooled down for a while.

If you are experiencing similar problems with this model please leave a comment below – we would like to get a gauge of exactly how widespread this issue is, especially as Dell are still shipping these ‘faulty’ models.