---> OFFICIAL: Dell STUDIO 14z Owner's Lounge <---

Most likely it will fit, but do some research first.

 

thank you for the reply Zoofer.. I emailed him the other day. still awaiting a reply, does he generally take awhile to return messages? thank you for the swift answer great board overall

 

Ok I installed a new (blue) cover successfully. It's a difficult process and generally not recommended.

Unfortunately learned/confirmed (if not already known) that only those 14z's that shipped with "mobile broadband" (WWAN) will have the proper antenna setup inside the cover. So to add mobile broadband, you'll need the chip AND a new cover.

See this thread for details (and ongoing updates).

 

anyone know how to replace the HDD in the 14z? THANKS

 

Do you have any snaps of the new lid? Thanks!

 

Anyone try and put XP on a 14Z? I got it on mine but can't get the IEEE controller to work.

 

Not difficult at all:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1440/en/sm/index.htm

What are you putting there?

 

Can you please explain the reason behind putting XP on it? Just curious. Thanks!

 

thanks for the detailed comparo, PDS. not that i'm planning to get a inspiron 14 but do you know if the back-lit keyboard would fit that laptop or even work??

 

Any suggestions for a nice bluetooth keyboard and mouse? I placed my order with fabio and await it eagerly

 

2 quick things:


1) for people complaining about keyboard flex: my a04 update went bad and i had to get a new motherboard installed. in the process, the tech severed the power connector for my backlit keyboard, and had to order a new one and come back and install it. the new keyboard has absolutely NO FLEX WHATSOEVER, but the one replaced was like a rubber band. So for about 50 bucks you can order a new keyboard from dell and have a flex free keyboard.

2) anyone have issues with the gpu overheating? i periodically experience massive framerate drops in hl2, and i'm beginning to think its the gpu overheating. any ideas if this is the problem, or ways to keep it cooler? its maxing close to 80 C in hwmonitor (is this normal?)

 

No, the Inspiron 14 keyboard is different type and size (and not backlit).

PDS

 

Thank you! I thought I was the only one experiencing overheating issues. If I play any valve game (HL2, TF2, L4D), it will play fine for 10 to 15 minutes, then I will get massive framerate drops for about 3 or 4 seconds at a time every 15 to 20 seconds or so. I have troubleshooted it, and it starts acting up when the GPU gets hot, ~70C and higher. I've never had an overheating issue with a laptop before. It's very annoying. I wish I could find a solution. I thought the BIOS update would help, but it didn't.

 

I was about to get this Laptop, but I'm having second thoughts (keyboard flex, overheating issues, crappy touchpad)... the eBay seller I was getting it from is pretty awful and I have not received it yet, so I'll probably get a refund and get another model.

 

To give people some warning I had Winflash freeze my system halfway through the A04 Bios update on a Windows 7 x64 system. Off to Dell for new motherboard supposedly. I spend a fair amount of time on the phone with their support trying to see if there is a back door way to reflash the bios or get a backup installed but apparently there either isn't a way or they really didn't want to give it to me.

I believe it has more to do with Windows 7 than the actual bios but i can't confirm, has anyone else had issues with updating the A04 bios? if so what OS were you using?

 

fwiw I've seen a total of 5 14z keyboards, backlit or not, new or semi-new, and have yet to figure out the "secret" to a "stable" keyboard.

they ALL flex to some degree. some careful bending/shaping before installing sometimes helps. making sure the palm rest is secure and flat is key. the plam rest itself flexes (press down near touch pad) so that doesn't help.

you get used to it and the flex/bounce makes typing seem easier (imho).

PDS

 

exact same thing happened to me on win7 64

 

I've never used the Express Card Reader, but I have a Novatel Merlin X950D 3G express card plugged into mine and I can plug and unplug it anytime I want.

The express card slot is essentially USB 2.0 and PCIe x1 integrated into one connector. Both standards are support "hot plugging".

 

why do I want to install XP?

I'm mainly concerned with 3 things in a laptop, Battery Life, Startup Time and Performance. It may be a contradiction but I may be a bit spoiled with the
laptop I replaced with the 14Z. It was a Dell Latitude C610. The reason I kept it until this point was because it had 2 bays I could keep batteries in.
I could get about 9.5 hours of battery life with light web surfing and listening to music. The faults of the laptop that caused me to replace it was it would not boot to a USB drive, USB 1.1 and the Video card had only 8MB of RAM which made it challenging to watch movie files over 1GB.
In looking for a replacement I really wanted to find a device that had similar battery life. I looked at all the Netbooks available but they all came
with the Intel integrated video card that shares RAM with the system RAM and is a dog to run games on. Obviously all the Netbooks have this because it really does save on battery life. All of these non-Dell Netbooks run Windows XP Home. I have read alot of reviews that XP does save on battery life compared to Vista simply because it runs less processes and doesn't require as much hardware as vista does. Now I know I cant really get the same battery life from any Notebook/Laptop but I wanted to get as much as I could. I picked the 14z because of the NON-Intel graphics card and I could get a 8-cell battery that allegedly gets 6 hours of life. I also really like the backlit keyboard feature and could care less about a DVD/CD rom.
So when I got my 14Z I immediately took an Acronis image of the hard drive and then wiped the Restore/OS partitions. I then configured a nLite XP install
with the chipset drivers and then scoured the Dell site and the NVIDIA site for the rest of the drivers. I found all of them except for the 1394 IEEE Firewire drivers. I don't think they make them because I've spent a few days searching. During my search I found this site and was VERY HAPPY! So I thought I would see if anyone else had any luck doing it.

 

I'd like to request if a Studio 14z owner would please post or PM me the measurements of the LCD screen in mm. I'm wondering if the same LCD can be used in an ASUS UL80VT. Thanks in advance!

 

Hey, after looking through this thread for a while, not all 260+ pages of course but im wondering what other issues there are for the studio 14z? Ive seen that there is the over heating problems, keyboard, screen errors, fan noise, and spikes. Ive been eyeing this laptop for a very long time now and just been waiting to see if it atleast is a stable laptop to get. All these issues that are popping up are starting to scare me lol. Could someone tell me what other issues there are and if there are any solutions to this? Thanks.

 

Stumbled on this today...

Fresh from the oven, new IDT AUDIO DRIVERS...
IDT Audio 6255

Looking inside I see it supports the Studio 14z on Vista 32/64 and Win7 32/64. I've installed on my 14z, no problems.

I recommend you first "uninstall" your current IDT drivers via Control Panel (if listed).

 

After having Dell replace my motherboard due to the A04 bios screwing up during install the current bios on my system now is A01. I read the notes on A03 and it says it has updates for Windows 7 which happens to be what i am running, also i noticed that A01 take a few extra seconds to boot compared to A03.

I can't seem to find a dos version of the bios upgrades and I'm skeptical about trying the winflash in windows 7 again. Has anyone had any problems with the A03 bios with windows 7 x64?

 

Anyone tried overclocking the components of the studio 14z with ntune or similiar? The cpu,ram,gpu included. curious of the results if so.

 

so frankly people "who actually owns a studio 14z"
f the asus ul30vt was available at the time u bought the 14z would u still go for the 14z??
i am choosing between the 2 and the dell outlet have some amazing prices for some amazing specs, but still cant beat the asus

 

WARNING:

Do NOT update the BIOS to A04.

I basically bricked the computer, it doesn't start now, and I'm sending it to Dell to fix it (most likely replacing the motherboard). Stupidly, on the drivers download page it says that the A04 is "recommended". Good, that the repair is under warranty. I will be with my old Inspiron for a week while they are fixing it.

 

Hi,

most of those issues are very exaggerated. I have my 14z since July, and except for the touchpad, everything else is perfect.

Overheating: not at all, runs warm, but not uncomfortably so. No hotter than other laptops.
Keyboard flex: no flex or i'm not pressing hard enough when i type
Screen errors: what's that?
Fan noise: not at all, runs quiet
Spikes: what spikes?
Touchpad: yes, it's very crappy and annoying. Try as I might, I couldn't configure it to behave well. I tried every setting possible

To summarize: Studio 14z is a very nice experience that can be spoiled by one of the crappiest touchpads I have ever seen. The only crappier touchpad than on 14z is on HP dm3- model.

 

I have concluded that the 14z is just not worth the many troubles that comes with it. I really want this laptop to be the best one that I've had. But the truth is that it really has way too many problems.

I will not suggest this laptop to anyone. I will patiently wait until mine is completely dead so that I can move on and never purchase a dell laptop again.

I'm doing my best to have a positive outlook, but I've just run into so many problems that it's just not worth the headache anymore.

I know my way around laptops. I've taken this thing apart so many times that I can put it back together with my eyes closed. The only thing that I can imagine is the problem with my laptop is that the T6500 is a POS. I am not willing to pay an additional however hundreds of dollars to upgrade to the P8600.

The touchpad is absolutely horrible. I imagine it's primarily a driver issue that makes it such so bad, but I'm sure Dell doesn't care.

 

That's your personal experience, and shouldn't be generalized. I had a quite pleasant experience with 14z (until the BIOS update bricked it, that is). The Alps touchpad is horrible, that's true, but Dell is not writing drivers, Alps does. On the other hand, I wish this model had Synaptics touchpad, a huge difference. I'd say if you'll be using a mouse with it, then go for it, otherwise if you might be annoyed by a bad touchpad, think twice or wait for a better driver from Alps.

 

I've had a positive experience with my 14z so far as well. No problems here other than the annoying touch pad which I think I must have gotten used to because it doesn't really bother me anymore.

The fan is a little noisy, but it really isn't that bad. It is quieter than my old inspiron 6000.

Other than those two things, I love the computer and those aren't enough for me to say not to buy it.

I have had no problem with Keyboard flex or any of those other issues.

 

im using bios a04 with no problems

 

i dont understand how people think this laptop runs warm.
i leave mine on 24/7 on my bed and the air intakes are obscured, and still, when i touch my laptop, I can't really tell if its on or not because its at room temp. The only thing a bit warm is the exhaust.

the one thing i don't like about my laptop is that i got a stuck pixel
that's not really dell's fault though. that could happen with any laptop

 

What operating system did you install it on, Vista? Also, 32-bit or 64? Thanks!

 

on windows 7 64 bit.
the dell page for win7 64 links to a 32 bit version of winphlash, but if you dig a little deeper, you find a 64 bit version. perhaps you somehow used the 32 bit version, whose driver wont work?

 

No, I used the 64-bit version. Indeed, on the main Downloads page the "Download" button links to the 32-bit version, so you have to click the link below, saying "Studio 1440 System BIOS" to open a separate page, where it lists 2 links, one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit, but stupidly one is under a title "Non-packaged" and another one is under "Windows/DOS", w-t-f??? Anyways. So, obviously, I downloaded the 64-bit version, and ran it. It first showed that it will unpack the files to the Temp dir, to which I agreed, and switched back to the browser, giving it time to do its job (assuming that it's unpacking the files). But about 5 seconds later, I noticed that the mouse cursor became jerky. w-t-f? I wanted to switch to that bios flashing utility, but suddenly the fan went crazy, spinning loudly on the max speed. Obviously, the computer just froze. I thought, well, maybe that's part of the update Yeah, right. After half an hour of crazily spinning the fan, I knew that the bios update went wrong and wanted to turn off the computer, but the Power button did not react. So I pulled the plug and pulled the battery out. After I put it back and connected, of course the Power button did not even light up when I pressed it, and loading the system was out of question

I suggested the Dell tech support to pull the bios updater download off the downloads page, so that others can't download it, until the issue is resolved.

 

Yes, but - at least on mine - the exhaust is REALLY WARM! When holding it on my lap, I often find myself moving my fingers up and down the left side of the computer looking for a cool spot away from the exhaust vents. If I had it sitting on my desk, the really warm exhaust likely wouldn't be an issue at all. I'm happy the internal fan is doing such a good job directing the warm air out of the laptop.

KC

 

New (refurbished) Studio 14Z arrives tomorrow - what is the minimum bios required for Win 7?

My Studio 14Z arrives via FedEx tomorrow. It will very likely have BIOS version a01 on board. My intention is to do a clean install of Win 7 immediately after making sure the computer is functioning properly out of the box.

I'm in the process of prepping a 4GB USB Flash Drive to be able to boot Win 7. Before I start the process, what version of the system BIOS should I download and install? And for those who have already done a clean install of Win 7 on their Studio 14Z, what else - if anything - should I be aware of? Are there any settings in the system BIOS (besides the boot from USB setting) that I should select/deselect either prior to or after the Win 7 installation is completed? And should I download all of my Win 7 drivers now or wait until the installation has finished running.

Thanks!

KC

 

Where did you find this? I couldnt see it under 14z drivers at dell.com

 

Actually, I'm surprised that you will be getting it with A01. Version A02 - is the version that everybody got their computers with, and I'm pretty sure that nobody complained. After installing A03 some people reported issues with QuickSet. If you are not using QuickSet, then you will be fine, install A03. Do not install A04, as described in my previous post.

In BIOS the only thing you have to set is in Advanced page, change the behavior of the function keys (which are set to "Multimedia" by default). Other than that everything should be fine. You can download the drivers later, when Windows 7 is already installed. Have fun!

 

I've purchased three Studio 14z notebooks from Dell Outlet in the last month. Two of them came with BIOS version A01. I'll have to wait until this afternoon to see which version #3 arrives with.

I updated the BIOS on the first one I bought from A01 to A03, hoping it would cure a video issue I was having. I immediately started having the QuickSet issue, but didn't know it was BIOS related until you mentioned it in your reply. As updating the BIOS (and video drivers) did not cure the video problem, it was returned to Dell.

The second one (purchased for my wife) also came with A01. I've held off updating the BIOS on it so far, as I'm not going to install Win 7 on her's until I see how the Win 7 install goes on #3 (the replacement for the original one with the video issues). It certainly appears I could update the BIOS to A02 with no issues, or to A03 and deal with the QuickSet issue should it appear.

KC

 

Bios A04...

- I installed via Win7 x86 (32bit)
- No problems so far (using Win7 x86)

 

so would you guys recommend this laptop for an engineering student?
what are some pros/cons?
what are some problems that you have encountered?
and what are the best deals you have gotten with your config?
i am very interested in this laptop and it seems like a great deal. i just want to know what the actual users think.

 

Apologies if this has been discussed, but I couldn't find it through a search.

I got a 14z with the upgraded 900p screen. How do I verify that, and how do I determine the manufacturer? I recall reading a post that screens made by LG (?) tend to flicker, while those made by Samsung (?) don't. I don't observe any on mine, but am curious how one can tell the brand.

I looked under Control Panel, but the descriptions there are very generic.

 

control panel - system - device manager - expand the monitor tab - generic pnp monitor - details tab - on the drop down menu select hardware ids and then you can see monitor/XXXXX where the x's will be the initials of the company that manufactured your screen

 

Thank you. I got as far as the Details tab, but didn't know that there was a pull down menu with the info. I got "CMO1447" which I take to be Chi Mei Optoelectronics. I hope that's one of the better brands for this monitor. I only recall vaguely reading about LG.

How do I confirm 900p? At the highest resolution I get 1600 x 900 pixels. Is that what the "900p" refers to?

 

Yes, correct, that's the 900p screen (1600x900).

 

Thanks. It looks amazingly sharp and bright, and the resolution is great.

 

New Outlet (scratch & dent) Studio 14z arrived the Friday after Thanksgiving. Black Chainlink (perfect for examining your own fingerprints), T4200 CPU, 900P display (very nice), 5GB ram, 500GB 7200 HDD w/drop sensing, 8-cell battery, back-lit keyboard, Bluetooth, BIOS version A01 (held breath and flashed 64-bit version of A04 with no problem).

By the way, I have yet to locate the scratches and/or dents on this laptop. It arrived in like-new condition

The only issues I have with it are:

1) The battery life reported by Windows 7 is significantly less on this new machine as compared with my previous one. In power saver mode, Windows Vista was reporting between 5 1/2 and 6 hours estimated battery life after a full charge on the notebook that I returned to Dell due to video problems. Windows 7 is reporting only 3 1/2 hours on this new one after a full charge. I know these are only estimates, but a 2 hour difference makes me wonder.

2) There is a 'buzzing sensation' that is apparantly coming from the HDD that I can feel when my hands/fingers are on the palm rests. You can't hear it, just feel it. I did not feel it on the unit that I returned to Dell nor on my wife's 14z. It is a little annoying and may necessitate a service call eventually, but for the time being I can live with it.

Overall it's a very, very nice machine.

KC

 

For all those people who have upgraded their 14z BIOS to version A04, what method did you use to successfully update the BIOS? What version of the BIOS were you running before and what operating system?
What method did you use to create a bootable USB drive?

 

I upgraded from Vista Premium to Windows 7 with the free Dell upgrade DVD. I did this prior to installing the A04 BIOS upgrade, 1440AD4_64.exe, which I downloaded from the Dell website. The BIOS version prior to the upgrade was A01.

I copied all of the Win 7 upgrade DVD files over to a NTFS formatted 4GB USB flash drive. I did not require a bootable USB drive, since I ran setup.exe from the USB flash drive and it installed over Vista without any problems whatsoever.

KC