Getting my SXPS 1640 tomorrow... Questions

My new laptop is due to arrive tomorrow, and I basically need to know what to watch/listen for while I'm using it. I got the SXPS 1640 with the C2D P9600 2.8 GHz processor, ATI Mobility RADEON M96XT GPU, 4 GB RAM, RGBLED screen, BluRay player, and Vista 64. I am by no means an expert on computers (compared to everyone else here, I barely consider myself worthy of the title "novice"), so I need to know the main issues to keep an eye out for when I take my laptop from the box and get it running. After reading tons of threads on here, these seem like the main ones:

1. Make sure the HDD doesn't make funny noises.

2. Adjust the brightness/saturation of the screen.

3. Make sure the sound from the speakers isn't crappy.

Are there any other major issues I'm missing? Are there any drivers that need downloading? Should I undervolt the computer if I'm going to be using it for Photoshop and stuff like that? What are the main bloatware programs I should delete right off the bat? Also, I'm not really sure how to transfer my iTunes library to another computer or use my iPhone with the new laptop - last time I tried connecting my phone to another computer it deleted everything on it, so I am hesitant about trying that. This is also going to be my first experience with Vista (I got my current laptop in 2005), so are there any important differences between it and XP I need to know about?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, I was about to post something similar since my laptop is coming soon too

-The proper way of using a new battery ? (When to discharge / recharge etc)

 

M96XT? Do you mean the 4670?
Anyways, you should also check your Screen for ghosting, I had some issues.

As to how to how to use the battery, you should never drain it past 7%.

Cheers

 

Ah, yeah, I mean the 4670... I just copied it from my order form and I didn't notice they put the wrong name. Did you get the RGBLED display, Chrusti? I've heard about the blinding colors on this screen, but your thread is the first I've read about ghosting on it.

 

Check for dead pixels . Next step would be format and install Windows 7 and enjoy your new laptop congrats

You should wait untill your screen is broken in before you start calibrating it .

 

Are dead pixels really an issue with these brand new computers? I find this perplexing because the Toshiba I'm using now is four years old and doesn't have a single dead pixel on it. I have seen some horror photos of screens with big black spots on them from physical damage - would it be related to that? How long does a screen typically take to become "broken in" (i.e., in terms of hours, days, or weeks of coninuous use)? Does this mean the screen naturally becomes less saturated with use?

Sorry for all the n00b questions!

 

screens do die out with time( long time!!! your eye wont even notice it and if it does then its a defect ). dead pixel has nothing to do with physical damage. its simply a very small black dot on a screen. tha would upset anyone. but dell tech will easily replace your screen if you get a dead pixel. most other companies have policies of at least 3 dead pixels in order for the screen to be swapped. They say its normal for lcd to have 1 or even 2 dead pixels. If I had that it would deff bug me a lot, plus its unfair for 2 ppl to pay same price and get different results. thats why dell is great on this part, plus how many companies you know will send you an on site tech to replace parts in matter of 2-3 days, instead of shipping out your laptop for months.

Enjoy your xps 1640

 

I agree, Dell is awesome when it comes to Service.

Even though my Dell Notebook had issues, they all got fixed after 24Hours.
Outstanding.

 

OK, well I'm using my new computer now... So far it's great, the screen is wonderful -no dead pixels and not too oversaturated like I thought it was going to be. One thing I've noticed, however, is that the CPU usage is always overing between 10-30% when the computer is idle, and then if I try to go to a webpage or something it will go up to about 65%. Is this normal? My aging Toshiba's CPU usage was about 1-2% idle and maybe like 20-25% when I opened a webpage. Additionally, navigating the system is not as lighting-quick as I think it should be... When I go to open something in the Control Panel there is occasionally a bit of a lag (nothing horrible by any means, but noticeable).

I've deleted a few programs I'm absolutely sure weren't necessary, but I still don't know which ones are considered bloatware and which are necessary/beneficial to the functioning of the computer. I haven't deleted McAfee yet, I'm going to do that after I download another program. Could that be the reason for the high CPU usage? Besides the CPU thing the computer is everything I was hoping for... I love the backlit keyboard and the facial recognition.

 

The CPU usage has gone down a bit since I made that post... Now it's like 5-20% when idle and under 50% when I open a webpage. Still not extraordinarily low.

 

If you want no lag, and no problems and other stuff, and you want it to idle at 1%, then install Windows 7 on it.

 

That sounds like a valid solution, hahaha. I've already signed up for the free upgrade to W7... Should I even bother with the beta version? It sounds like a lot of people are having issues when installing it and having to download drivers and other stuff I know nothing about in order to get to work optimally, so would it be worth it for me to download that or just wait till I get my upgrade? I am definitely looking forward to the new operating system and its 30-second startup/shutdown times.

 

No reason to install it now, with the release a month away. Since most people will be doing a clean install of 7, why bother unless you want to hunt around for drivers, etc to get everything working properly. I did a clean Vista reinstall all drivers on Dell's site, and then will upgrade when 7 is released. By the way, clean install of Vista is quick too don't expect some huge difference with 7, I ran both and hardly any difference.

 

do a clean install of vista with the disks that you gotten your laptop with. this will 100% take care of the bloat ware and after doing so if your cpu usesage is still 20% idle call dell for motherboard and cpu replacement, that helped me. i also had sudden overloads but idle it was normal, 1-5% but out of nowhere it got 80-100% just by moving mouse. so they replaced my motherboard and i helped

 

I think McAfee is a big part of it. A few minutes after I turned on my computer I saw that the CPU usage was about 30-50% when idle, and then I looked down and noticed that McAfee was doing one of its automatic scans. I cancelled that and now it's idling at around 5-20%. I know McAfee is still on and even though it's not supposed to be scanning anything, it still might be the cause of the the high CPU usage. My Toshiba would basically become unresponsive when I had McAfee on it and it was doing a scan, and even when it wasn't scanning the computer would run slow.

Thanks again everyone for all the help so far!

 

Ack! Help! I replaced McAfee with Avira and that didn't seem to help with the CPU usage much, so I went ahead and did a clean install of Vista. I followed the directions on the Microsoft website, but now my computer is messed up! The screen resolution is really low... When I first booted it after the install it was 800x600, and the highest it will let me change it to in the display settings is 1400x1050... It looks horrible! Why can't I put it on its native resolution? The computer is also not connecting to the internet at all. It can't find the wireless network or anything.

I think these issues might have something to do with me needing to reinstall the drivers from the other DVD, but there's one problem - it's not letting me eject the Vista DVD. It's as if the computer doesn't even recognize there's a disc in there now. Does it need the drivers in order to get the disc drive to work? How am I supposed to get the drivers if I can't connect to the internet or insert the disc?

Thanks in advance for any help with this. At least I got the CPU usage down to 0%!

 

OK, so I finally was able to get the Vista disc to eject. I have the driver disc in and I'm installing the drivers now... It seems I have to do them all individually? Will this likely solve the problems?

 

I installed all the drivers with check marks next to them using the Dell "LOB" program, but so far the problems haven't been fixed. I still have the 1400x1050 resolution and the computer still can't detect any wireless networks, even though I installed two drivers called "Intel Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 Rev:A01" and "Intel Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 Rev:A01" and restarted the computer. Does anyone know what I should do? Should I install the drivers that don't have check marks next to them?

 

The internet miraculously started working a while ago, but I'm still having the screen resolution problem. Does anyone know why this is? What can I do to fix it?

There are some additional issues I'm having as well:

-The computer is running kind of hot and the fan is on pretty high. I don't know why this is, since the CPU usage idles at around zero. It does seem to spike easier than before - when I get typing pretty quickly the CPU usage will go up to 25-30%, which should not be happening. It goes back down as soon as I stop typing. The fan has not turned itself down since I turned the computer back on. Also, just now it lagged for a few words while I was typing.

- The touch panel thing doesn't work now. The buttons respond when I touch them by lighting up, but they have no effect on the computer. That must have been why the disc wouldn't eject earlier. How can I get these to work again?

Does anyone have any idea with for how to remedy this situation? All I wanted was for my computer to run effectively, but now it seems I've messed it up even more.

 

You need to download and install the Dell 'Quickset" application, it will give the touchpad panel functionality including the cd eject.

The video drivers should be on the disk, if not download them from Dells drivers and download page. The ATI Radeon drivers for your video card. That should give you full functionality.

http://support.dell.com/

 

Make sure you select whether you have the 32 bit or 64 bit drivers.

 

Thanks for the help! I'm on the phone now with a Dell tech support rep and he's remotely accessing my computer to figure out what's wrong. It looks like he's downloading some video driver online to get it to work. For some reason they aren't on the driver disc I got with my computer. When I opened the Dell "LOB" program I noticed that there was a driver for the 3670 (I think that's it) GPU but I didn't see one listed specifically for the 4670. Maybe I got the wrong driver disc?

 

I believe both cards use the same driver.