Things To Check On New 1530

I should be taking delivery of my M1530 tomorrow, and I want to ask which are the most common problems with the laptop that I should check for before being satisfied that I will keep it (and so reinstalling the OS, programs, defragging etc.)

I'd prefer to have the stock data on the drive if I was going to send the system back, although I hope it will not come to that!

I've heard about parts not being flush to the laptop, keyboard bulges? Bad displays (I've ordered 1440x900 non-LED) What are the potential problems I should check for.

Thanks in advance

 

Check the screen for dead pixels, backlight bleeding, and graininess. Make sure all the keys on the laptop actually work and that it's not budging. Make sure your drive works, your wi-fi, your bluetooth. Check the hinge to make sure its good. Just give it a through look. Also check the speakers, HDMI output, as I have heard of a few cases where these have been faulty. Also check the bottom to make sure they screwed everything in. Sometimes they forget a screw LOL.

 

I think if everything else is fine i'd be more than happy with a missing screw Can find those around, right...haha.
Thanks for those things to check, there's quite a few posts of people returning their notebooks on here, is pretty worrying...Also makes it difficult to spot all the things I should pay attention to

 

This what I checked for when I got my XPS m1530.
-Check for stuck pixels or graininess. Check who made your screen. If it's LG, then it's probably good.
-The keyboard bulge. If you're comfortable with working with your laptop, you can easily fix it yourself. You just need to take out 3 screws under the battery and two more screws to take off the keyboard. Then you realign the wiring underneath and it should be fine. I fixed mine and it seems fine to me.
-Check your CD drive if it's loud or not. From what I've read, the matsh1ta drives and the Teac drives are the quiet ones. If you got the optiarc, then that might be loud. However, I don't think they use those anymore.
- Check for any scratches or bumps on the lid or the palm rest. I am very careful when it comes to my lid, as it is probably the most fragile part of the laptop. Check for pre-scratches and whatnot.
-Check that the media keys work and that the power button is easy to press. On some of my returned XPS's, there was no sound when I pressed the power button due to poor alignment. You can always fix this yourself though.
-Save the stock drivers. Usually they are more up to date than the ones on the CD and even on the website. Look to those if other drivers don't work. You can let windows update download some drivers too, like the ethernet, and your wireless card.
-Check for squeaks when you move your screen back and forth. It should be silent and sturdy.
-Check for any unbalances with your laptop. If you have a 6-cell, you should be fine, but if you got the 9-cell, make sure all corners are touching a flat surface.
-I can't think of anything else, but to do a fresh format, and installing the things you like. Look to the vista tweaks thread to improve your laptop performance, and the undervolting guide to lower the heat on your laptop without any decrease in performance. It took me a good 4-5 hours to install everything and to update it to it's prime. Good luck, and enjoy your XPS

 

Wow, repped. Very thorough and helpful post, thanks alot I'm planning on using Les's guides for installation and tweaks. Although I consider myself reasonably proficient in Vista and installing OS's, there seem to be things which are different in laptops than in desktops, so that'll be really helpful. Hopefully all of those parts will be in good shape, I'll post back in case anyone's interested.

Thanks especially for the comment on saving drivers as I wouldn't have thought to do so otherwise

 

Another tweak I found that was also recommended by Les but is not on the tweaks list anymore is TuneXP 1.5. Les said that the average computer user really messed up their system for not using it correctly. I gave it a shot and I clearly saw a difference in bootup time. It organizes which startup programs boot up first. It works really well. Here is a link to it: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3945

You probably should do this last when you finished defragging and installing all your programs. I usually run after I install something so it could be reorganized. It's a long time to wait for it to finish and I highly doubt you will need to use this more than once, but I'm just paranoid that my laptop will start chugging down. So far so good.

 

@sg89: I understand your concern since you're just getting your laptop...but bear in mind that people with problems are far more likely to post on a community forum than those who have no problems. If someone gets their m1530 and is overly happy about it, most of the time they're not going to come to NBR to brag about their new computer. However, when people have issues, their first though is to vent and get support (which is what most people do here).

I'm sure your computer will be fine. As posted above, check the casing for any loose / bulging pieces. Check all of your keys, screws, etc. Decide if you think your screen is grainy (BEFORE going into device manager to look what screen you have, because that will make you notice things that probably aren't even there). Etc, etc. The rest has been said.

 

Yes, like Bauer418 said, the chances of actually having a problem is rare. People only come here when they have a problem and need to ask a question. I came here because I wanted to find out how the M1530 was according to people that owned it. I was a little scared after reading all the threads here, but my XPS M1530 came and I had no major issues. I have some small issues, but none that bother me too much. And some of the issues I have had, like the webcam's crappyness can't be fixed.

Overall its a solid laptop that offers great performance in a very portable package. There isn't really anything else like it out there that offers what the XPS M1530 offers in such a small and light design. Only Apple's MacBook Pro comes close, and it costs $800 more and has a whole bunch of quality control issues of its own.

 

Yeah, I'm not too worried about things being wrong, but with the amount of things on here, it's best to check for them all I'm not too worried about the webcam, as higher resolutions wouldn't be used much anyway.
Thanks for the comments guys! I'll check out Tune XP, ApocNarok - Hopefully it'll be running nice and fast by the end of tomorrow!

Thanks again!

 

Congrat's on the *impending* receipt of your new 1530...you will like it

Look's like the OP's have given you some good ideas

 

Came this morning, very happy with everything on it! Not sure how long it'll take to get used to the fingerprint reader though Can only do bad prints so far! Only disappointment is that I did not get the XPS resource leather book thing, cleaning cloth or headphones...
I have headphones already, but the book and cleaning cloth would have been useful! Do you think Dell would send me them? As i've heard people being unsuccessful there Thanks again for the help guys!

 

I would ask to talk to a supervisor and they should be able to hook you up. Also going through tech support seems to give better results. One more thing to check is that all of your keys work. One of mine didn't and when I called Dell they acted like it was not all that uncommon. With regards to the fingerprint reader you have to really press down as you swipe. I had a lot of bad reads and it was because I was pressing too lightly.

 

SG89, I wrote a letter to Dell head office after failed attempts with customer services phone/email and I had a rather rude letter back saying they no longer provide the extra accessories (ie cloth, headphones etc) as standard and I'd have to pay for them if I want them.

 

I just got mine yesterday with all the extras. It's been mentioned on here that some countries may not get them. Where are you guys from?

 

will the uk get them?

 

Here's a thread for the UK folks...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=227896&page=3

 

I think i'm getting the hang of the fingerprint reader now, but the unshipped accessories still bother me. I don't care about the headphones, i have sennheiser headphones and headset, but the cloth and the case seem useful

 

You ordered yours 1 day before me and the last I checked mine is still listed "in production". What's the next step after that, and how long did it take from that time to actually get it delivered?

 

Next step is usually "shipped" It takes a while to get a laptop built. It's not done in just one place. It's amazing how synchronized they have to be to get it delivered.