Problems with vostro 1500/1400 - Vostro owners please post your problems here

Only issue i got is the headphones jack noise , don't seem to have any of those weird issues the rest of you get .
Monitor is seriously bright that i need to set it to 82% brightness .
Speakers are fine since i don't require some seriously head throbbing volume.
Since this was my first notebook , it seriously doesn't feel heavy at all . unless ur a weak light wieght lifting person .
Wished the 8600m gt was gddr3 ...

 

Okay - I've had my Vostro 1500 for two weeks now and here are my thoughts:

HOT ISSUES

* The synaptics touchpad: Install the driver for a Dell Precision M90 and you will get full functionality INCLUDING back/forward gestures which I thought you could only get on the Alps. On the downside, my touchpad won't scroll Indesign layouts with any of the drivers I've tried, and the mouse drivers also seem to be creating disappearing graphics when I scroll in CorelDraw. Tech support are looking into that for me.

* The nvidia 8600m GT video card: my old M60 with an Nvidia card used to work a treat with an external monitor. But apparently now Nvidia have deliberately disabled the feature that allows 'full screen mirroring' (full-screen playback on an external monitor) while you do something else on the laptop screen. Something about copy protection laws, BUT apparently the ATI driver does it just fine. And if you move the window over there and full screen it, it works. Very strange and a bit of a shame. Apparently the GPU features are da bomb though. I'm yet to sink its teeth into some full-on Avid Liquid video editing - hopefully I'll get some more bang for buck there.

* The screen: I didn't really think my Samsung screen was that bad until I got Dell to replace it with an LG. The difference was phenomenal. Whites are clear and crisp and don't look like they've got slightly discoloured 'jpeg artifacts' through them.

GENERAL:

* When Dell did the screen I also got them to change the screen back - when I pulled it out of the box the clips refused to stay clipped in at the side of the screen. All is well now though.

* Battery life: my old M60 had a 9-cell battery and I notice the difference in longevity to the 6-cell I have now. Still, the 2 or so hours is quite workable in most situations.

* Audio: I've had nothing of the audio issues others have reported, and I've been using the media player buttons more than I thought I would.

* Media direct: what a complete waste of time. I uninstalled it and reformatted its little 2.5GB partition.

* Heat, noise and weight: fine, fine, fine. The only thing is that the fan exits are on the left side and point straight at my mousing hand when I'm working on my desktop at work. I get a warm hand whenever Vostro is under load! Why, oh why, doesn't Dell do something about this...! They should have anticipated my desk layout and designed the air exits better. ;-b

* Keyboard: I love the feel of it and also the slightly lower placement. The arrow keys are taking a bit to 'relocate' in my mind, especially shift and up arrow which used to be on top of each other but are now next to each other. The other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is having to hold down Fn to get to the 'pause/break' key when you want system properties. In general, excellent.

* The integrated webcam - unbelievable. The facial tracking stuff is very clever, and the 'doodle' functions keep my kids amused for hours. The clarity of it is most excellent compared with my other external webcams. Pan and zoom are very handy, and the avatar thing where the little kitten follows your head and mouth movements is quite remarkable.

* Wireless and bluetooth - excellent. No problems.

* Tech support - really good. Next day part replacements, follow up emails, generally helpful even with the 'Indian accent barrier' that replaced my screen not because it was 'grainy' but because it was 'green'.

All in all I'm quite happy - a few issues to resolve and/or workaround but they're fairly minor.

my 0.02
John G

 

OVERCLOCKING:

bottom line, the vostro 1400 is MUCH better for overclocking the gpu (8400m GS).
On the vostro 1500, you can overclock max to about 670/530
while the vostro 1400 allows for clocks way higher.
keep in mind that in XP you can only use the new 167.26 driver or the old stock drivers to overclock.

 

I have problem with the sreen, every time I turn on my laptop I have wired artifacts, whet I turn it on for the second time then everyting is ok..

 

1. Whining noise in headphone jack (Not resolved even after a Mobo replacement. However noise is considerably reduced with BlueTooth always ON option and High Performance power settings. And this works only on AC power and not on battery, which is OK for me. Much prefered than using RMClock)
2. MediaDirect - WTH ? Waste of a 2gig HD space.

Happy with my WXGA+ (LG) screen after a replacement. All other features of the laptop are impressive. No doubt...

 

my Vostro 1400 has been damaged

there was never a fall or a shunt on it. Today morning, while i was opening my screen, i heard a cracking sound. When i looked, it was the corner near the VGA port that has been cracked.
I have no idea how this could have happened

What is the course of action i need to follow ? I dont have a complete cover. Only NBD warranty.

I never could imagine that this Dell is so fragile

pics attached. Someone please guide me. I'm from India if that helps

please help me. Thank you in advance

 

My Vostro 1400 I received yesterday

1) Headphone jack hissing. But when connected as a line out to a TV, no problems. Good thing I don't use headphones much, but connect it to my TV a lot.

2) There are two white/lighter spots on the LCD screen. They don't look like dead or stuck pixels. It looks more like imperfections in the glossy coating. (I have the AUO 1440x900 screen) Don't notice that much graininess, nothing that I can't live with, but it is there... what I can't live with are the two white/light spots! Also, vertical viewing angles are borderline intolerable.

3) What? No infrared port? On Dell's Vostro 1400 section of their website, it explicitly states there is an infrared port on the front, flanked by 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack. Instead I have 2 headphone jacks and 1 microphone jack. Can someone say false advertising?! NEVERMIND ABOUT THIS, I SHOULD HAVE READ THE SPECS ON THE DELL WEBSITE MORE CAREFULLY, the IR port is only for the optional remote, not a real IR COM port.

 

just recieved my 1500. specs in sig. only problem so far: headphone jack noise (tested with old headphones), which is not a problem at all for me because i use logitech usb headphones with 2.0 sound

 

I'm running Windows Vista Home and I noticed something odd. You know how you can set some power options to do certain actions when you:
1) Press the power button
2) Press the suspend button
3) Close the lid on the laptop
?

Well, I assigned the suspend button (both battery and a/c power) to hibernate. I press Fn+F1, F1 is the key that has the "crescent moon" icon on it, suggesting it's the suspend button, and I get NOTHING. However, when I press Fn+Esc, the laptop hibernates. Does this mean Dell labeled the keys wrong and that the "crescent moon" icon should be on the Esc key and not the F1 key?

 

im not sure if what i have is a problem or not.... anyways i had my cpu vostro 1400 for around 1 month almost 2 i guess... and i was wondering if having a 60 deg gpu is normal. usually this is the reading on my computers gpu when browsing internet... as for my cpu temp its usually 30 deg for both my cores. as for the gpu reading im using ntune, and for the core reading im using speedfan.

I know these reading isnt accurate but it what i usally see when i check it.