2.5 years later - Vostro

Guys,

I am new to the forum, but I have been a long time computer user. I figured the board might be interested in a review of my laptop, coming from a college student; I'll do my best to keep it clean.

Just a little background: I bought this laptop before graduating highschool in 2008. I am now a Junior at Purdue and this laptop has seen a lot: I guesstimate about 3-4 hours daily use over this entire span, pledgeship at a fraternity, long treks through rain/snow, etc.

CURRENT SPECS:

15.4" screen (free upgrade from their basic screen)
T5550 CPU - 1.83/667/2mb L2 (upgraded from T5270 1.4/800/2mb)
GeForce 8600M GT (256 dedicated)
4 GB Ram (upgraded from 2gb)
320GB 5400rpm SATA (upgraded from 120GB 5400rpm SATA)


BUILD QUALITY:

As I said, my laptop has been through a lot...but you wouldn't be able to tell from the outside. I've made a decent attempt to keep it wrapped in something during transportation...but some things you just can't control (spills, bangs, dings, "oh s", etc.) Although the Vostro's chassis is a little dull, they appear well designed and are built to be abused. I feel like the screen could use a little reinforcement around the hatch area, but it is no flimsier than any other laptop I've held. Overall, I don't know how many times it has been slammed against hard desks, dropped, or had drinks set on it...but it is way too much haha.

PERFORMANCE:

The 8600M GT really saves the day. Although many people have had issues with theirs, I have never had any problems with mine (and I have put it through multi hour gaming sessions with various games, like FarCry2, Fallout 3, Source Games, SIMS 3, etc...). The card isn't strong enough to push games to high resolutions, but it is great for modest gaming on the go.

It has also been nice to have the mobility but still be able to play HD movies through our big screen via the VGA port. No, there isn't a BR player, so don't ask questions

UPGRADES:

Highly upgradable. As you can see, I have upgraded the CPU (cost of $35), Memory ($45), and HDD ($50). Though $130 isn't chump change, it does bump it up to a reasonable performance level and extends the life of the laptop. Anyway, The Memory and HDD were a breeze. The cpu involved taking the laptop apart, but any one with previous experience would feel comfortable with doing it with the online service manual.

THERMAL:

For computer components, this is always a big concern. My 8600M GT runs at about 54deg celc at idle. I just played 2 hours of the Sims 3 with a laptop cooler and the card ran smoothly at 60deg celcius. As for the CPU, I do not know what the full load temp is but the cpu idles around 50deg celc. These numbers are very acceptable, IMO. I usually keep the power settings at Dell's Recommended settings and have never had heat issues or 2nd degree burns on my legs.

GENERAL CONCERNS:

The only failure I had with the laptop has been the power charger. Where the cord connected to the brick, the wire insulation pulled out of the brick leaving exposed wires. These wires would spark and short. I was able to buy a replacement charger from ebay for $20 (oem, china replacement) and have had no problems since.

One concern I have is with the CPU thermal compound. When I removed my old cpu, it was obvious that most of the compound had squeezed off the top of the cpu. Maybe Dell should consider re engineering the cpu heatsink/bracket.

Finally, why media direct ? What a waste of 5 GB of space.

OVERALL:

Whether it was the 6 hour long sessions of writing bull essays, watching morally questionable movies, "entertaining" the girls...(with music!), emailing the pledges their tasks, or just plain relaxing...my Vostro never let me down. Looking back, after spending the $1000's of dollars on books and tuition, I think the $600 I spent on this laptop has been the best money I've spent yet.

Looking back on it, I've seen numerous HP's, Toshibas, Apples, Sonys, and even Apples fail on campus. Even Dell's own XPS laptops...but I've never heard of any Vostro failures. I would recommend it to anybody who is looking for a new laptop. Here's to another year and half with this laptop and many more with the next Vostro I will for sure buy.

If you readers have made it this far, you surely deserve a medal. Thanks!

 

You never said what laptop it was? I presume it's Vostro 1500?

 

It's useful to get this sort of feedback.

1. The thermal compound should be the thinnest possible layer between CPU (or GPU) and heatsink. Anything thicker reduces the heat transfer. It looks as if Dell put on a big dollop and then squeezed most of it to the sides.

2. The potential weak link in your computer's longevity is the Nvidia GPU which has a latent defect. You have been fortunate that yours has kept running, probably because the cooling system seems to be doing a very good job at minimising the temperature variations (which is what causes it to fail). Dell gave a warranty extension for this component.

John

 

John,

I believe the Vostro 1500/1700 Inspiron 1520/1720 GPU were not affected by the bad chips as Dell used a proprietary GPU module that is removable and not soldered onto the motherboard. I have used my Vostro 1500 for over 1000+ hours of intense gaming, and has not failed me yet after 3.5 years.

If he is talking about the Vostro 1500, I absolutely agree 100%, it has serviced me well through college, and into today. Though not the ideal laptop to lug around for just web browsing, it is a powerful 15.4" laptop for the money. It serves me as a desktop replacement now.

 

Thank you for your first hand knowledge about this. The models you mention are not covered by the warranty extension. At the moment we don't know which model Vostro the OP has. I just happen to know someone with an M1330 who has had the GPU replaced at least twice.

John

 

Vostro 1500:
Vostro 1500 + "NVidia Geforce 8400M GS" GPU - Display gone, only vertical lines - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community
Re: Another Vostro 1500 and nVidia 8600Gt Problem - Laptop Video Forum - Laptop - Dell Community
Recommend Video Card - Dell Vostro 1500 - NVIDIA G84 Recall Related - Tech Support Guy Forums

Vostro 1700:
Vostro 1700 nVidia Driver Problem - 8400m card - Laptop Video Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Dell Vostro 1700 Video issue - Laptop Video Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Nvidia Takes $119.1 M Charge for Faulty GPUs

1700 on the list of affected notebooks:
The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Affected Models


I'm pretty sure every G86 and G84 chip is faulty, no matter if they solder it straight onto a motherboard or a removable card.


The reason why you don't see that many people complaining about the models you list as "not affected" is probably because those notebooks had better cooling so the chips had a better chance of survival.

 

None of those links had were related to defective Nvidia chips relating to the Vostro 1500/1700

One of them had the Vostro 1400 which is affected by the recall because the GPU is soldered onto the motherboard. Many of them are just bad drivers or people who don't know how to install drivers.

I have scoured Google for over a year, people may have defective GPU but not due to the Nvidia defect. They could have a bad motherboard, bad drivers or defective LCD/inverter but I have concluded the chips Dell got soldered onto the proprietary module were not affected by the recall. If you notice, every model listed on the recall had their GPU soldered onto the motherboard and not a removable module.

And again, I have stressed out my GPU for over 1000+ hours, it has been over 60C which is the supposed point at which the problems start happening for years and years.

 

Ok, just because yours didn't die doesn't mean that others wont.

It's not as simple as that.

I've scoured Google for over a year and let me tell you that problems which seem to be caused by bad motherboard, bad drivers or defective LCD/inverter can be caused by a bad GPU. And those problems go away after baking.

If you notice, the 1700 is listed and it has a removable module...

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/affectedmodels.html

 

The one I bought when they first came out is still going strong for the friend I sold it to.
The cooling design of the Vostro 1500 is unusual in the fact that the GPU radiator was cooled by the cool air from the fan before the cpu radiator [the opposite is almost always the norm], meaning the GPU temp varied little compared to the cpu, maybe this is the reason the Vostro 1500 didn't have a lot of GPU substrate failures compared to most others. I remember reading somewhere that it was the variation in temperature that caused the failures, not high temps.

Glad you got a great run out of your Vostro SlipTap, like John says, it's always good to hear long term usability reviews.

 

I have a Vostro 1400 that has the bad GPU. I wish there was a real recall, but so far, they've only extended the warranty for one year on GPU related issues and that has long expired too. Nevertheless, my Vostro 1400 is still running good. It has been through 3 hard drive upgrades and 2 memory upgrades. I have added the internal BT module and upgrade the miniPCI wifi too. The first 6-cell battery has already died a year ago, but I have a 9-cell second battery which is still running okay (~2.5-3hr run time). I think the key to keep this laptop running is to down grade (or actually upgrade) the OS from Vista to XP and reduce graphic activities. I've heard people upgraded to Win7 and got overheat problem. Even with that potential problem, I am about to upgrade the OS to Win7 soon and I don't care anymore if it dies this year. It has been almost 3.5 years and the second battery will not last for more than a year anyway. In addition, the backlight is getting dimmer and dimmer.
I have to say it is a pretty durable laptop as I use it everyday at work and at home. It almost runs around the clock most of the time. It would be an excellent laptop if I don't have that GPU time bomb in my mind all the time.