1420 Is Here!! Pics Momentarily

Is this the 9 cell or 6 cell..or both of them???

Blech Still in "boxing" stage here.

 

i know my 9 cell is a bit wobbly, dunno about the 6 cell. i imagine they both suffer from the same issue due to the way both the chassis and batteries are engineered.

 

so only some people are getting those problem and others have fit tight?

or is it loose for everyone?

 

I have loose battery promlems. Purchased a 1420 received first 1 last week. Dell sent a replacement, received it today. 1420 had the same loose battery problem. Called dell again, they sending another replacement.

Dont know about everyone but loose battery is very annoying to me. If 3rd laptop has the same problem, I am considering canceling the order...

Also how are others dealing with this problem???

 

Well, I'm dealing with the loose battery problem by just accepting that's the way they designed it and moving on, really. Without a fundamental redesign of the battery case the problem will remain.

 

exactly, couldnt have said it better myself. the chassis and battery pack were designed and engineered this way which means that most likely you will continue to get batteries that are loose. i wouldnt waste any more time and just accept it and move on.

 

yeh, mine's a 6 cell... but to just say that you are accepting that that's how it was designed and moving on is a bit disheartening coming from you phobos.....

i mean, the fact that we paid for a lappy that while still not a ridicoulous amount of money, it's still a considerable investment. I am not expecting dell to redesign the stupid thing right off the bat but we are entitled to some kind of compensation because of this oversight.... i mean... what if the thing just overheated all the time would you just accept that? i know that that's a little extreme but it proves the point... manufactures need to realize that the consumer will not take whatever they put out... i mean we got what we paid for..... the lappy feels like the class that it's in..... not super refined or snazzy... feels plasticky (its a word in my world okay)..... but to have crap just wiggle about and what not???? what's next am I going to have to duct tape the lcd to the lid!?? sorry, sorry.... i apologize for the outburst.... and now back to your regularly scheduled program....

 

I just received the 1420 myself with the 9 cell. My battery wobbles a little as well.

 

Agreed... I will wait for my 2nd replacement 1420 and see. If it has the same loose battery problem... I will just return the system back... Go with other brands.

What is the return policy??? Is it 28 days from shippment date?

 

Dell Return policies

Unfortunately, this may be the price to pay for those off the first production runs. I am crossing my fingers given that my 1420 is scheduled for delivery next week.

Personally, this is not a deal breaker for me given that there are several simple solutions.

-LQ

 

Solutions???

 

don't get me wrong here guys.... this is something that i can easily live with... but....and there is a but, I expect to be compensated for it... I will not be letting them off of the hook so easily. I mean, it is only a small annoyance, considering I got a t7500 with discrete graphics for under 1100, that is a great deal... but the fact remains that somewhere along the line there was a break down in qc or just simply they saw it and didn't care... of course there are solutions... stick a folded piece of paper in there or something to take up the gap... done.... is it okay... no not really, does it take care of the annoying little rattle yes... i could have gone with the hp.... but at a significantly higher price... yes the build would have been better but hey like i said before, i expected this dell to be somewhat low quality but i didn't expect to get a tamborine/maraca i mean c'mon WTF!... and who knows... maybe if we raise enough of a stink they might change things up or something... stranger things have happened.

 

Just some common sense.... This isn't rocket science.

The battery is loose.......

So what do you do?

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&p=7298018

-LQ

 

Do whatever you think will make you feel better.

In the end, is this the "hill you want to die on"?

If it drives you nuts, send it back.

Who knows, when mine arrives I may be right behind you....

-LQ

 

The battery on my Inspiron 600m has been loose since the day I got it. It literally feels like it could fall out if I'm not careful (and it has ... but that's when I dropped it). But 2 years later it's still running and the battery really doesn't bother me at all. I never switch it out so it's easy to forget about the issue.

Hopefully, the new inspiron's batteries are a LITTLE bit better than the old build. But I can deal with a loose battery, no problem.

 

Can I just ask, is the 1420 basically a Vostro 1400? Are there any technical differences between the two?

 

Same here.

 

Why Dell is sending me 2nd replacement (3rd one in total) laptop then??

It seems like it is not a problem, it is only how these laptops are built.

 

Keep us posted on 2nd replacement. Hope all goes well.
We never know when something might go wrong and have to return.

 

As an engineer intimately involved in the design of new hardware my position shouldn't be disheartening at all.

It's very very likely that there was a cost/performance trade-off made here. It could be that to make the battery fit exactly right it would have had to cost $10 more, and on what is meant to be a lower end laptop, such a cost is unacceptable.

I am not going to say that I am jumping for joy that my battery wobbles. I'd prefer that it didn't. I'd also prefer that it be flush fitting but that's another form factor trade-off (though why they didn't design the 1520 and 1720 to use a flush fitting battery boggles my mind - but that's a definite cost savings they're trying to take advantage of).

Maybe if enough people complain they will change the design but I seriously doubt it. The engineering fix from my perspective is to just put a couple of pieces of the loop side of velcro on the inside of the laptop battery bay (being careful not to cover the SIM card slot obviously. After that there'll be no more wobble. That's the most cost effective fix.

 

I am very curious to see if the 2nd replacement continues to have this "problem". My instinct is that it will.

Do the 1520 and 1720 have this "problem" also? They should...

 

My battery is very snug in place. No wiggling at all.

Inspiron 1520

 

phobos,

Do you use the pre-installed copy of Vista? or did you wipe the drive? if you did, did you wipe all the partitions? did Vista install properly?

1520s have problem, if you remove the dell media partition, Vista won't install, does 1420 have the same problems?

Also Vista that came with your laptop, can you install it on other pcs?

 

None, only colour.

 

Can someone please describe exactly what they mean by this battery issue? Or can it be explained no better than "it just feels loose, and whobbles"

?

 

granted you asked Phobos, but i thought i would chime in on this subject since i did a clean Vista install upon receiving my 1420. i only wiped the actual Vista partition, all others i left as is. i put in my Ultimate DVD and installed with no problems at all. once i was back in Windows, i put in the Dell Media Center disk to "reinstall." now i dont know if i had to do that but i was doing some reading where it said if you had a new installation of Vista, that it was necessary to run that CD. the Vista version that comes with the Dells is what is known as an OEM version. it can only be applied and used on Dell systems up to a certain BIOS revision. for example, it won't work on say a Dell Inspiron 8200 from 2002 because there is a cut-off point. with that in mind, if you try to run that Vista installation DVD on a non-Dell, it may install but it will not be an activated version and you will have 30 days to input an independently purchased serial key.

 

that is exactly it. there is some looseness to it; there is room on either side of the battery for it to whobble around as it sits in the back of the computer. for me, it doesnt bother me. others have a hard time with it. there are easy fixes for it, one just needs to get creative and think outside the box a bit.

 

Well I have a 9-cell, honestly haven't even put it in yet because I'm waiting until I get a working x64 disk before I even work on it...but I'm not satisfied with the color (black), and I think there may be something wrong with the optical drive too. The color choices don't signify a difference between the black and other colors other than price, if I had known prior to ordering it wasn't Microsatin I would of chose another color - but I didn't know that until AFTER ordering. It really picks up fingerprints BIG TIME, big enough that I'm seriously considering sending it back for that sole reason...just wanted to be armed with answers so I can get them to accept it, and thought I'd mention the battery too...

 

None of the selections indicate microsatin, however anywhere you see microsatin finishes, it also mentions matte(or standard) black and glossy white...

 

get creative about fixing a $1000 brand new laptop??

 

I think it will have the same problem.

Any ideas what should I do?? Do you think maybe Dell would give me free upgrades?

 

Doesn't Dell include a serial number? a sticker attached to bottom of the laptop? couldn't you activate it with that?

It was the same thing with XP, it'd install on my dell without activation but on my other pc it'd need one, I'd just enter the serial number, activate and that's it!


Thanks Brian!

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread so as to use it as a troubleshooting forum, but I was hoping some people could provide feedback for some issues on my new 1420.

Regarding the battery "wobble" issue, I did notice a knocking sound when first handling my 1420 with the standard 6-cell battery. I thought it was the lid for the first short while of using it, but soon came to realize it was the battery itself that had just a tiny amount of wiggle room, if pushing it up from the bottom. However, this is such a practically imperceptible characteristic of the battery that I wouldn't have found it worth mentioning if not for some of you on here. The battery fits perfectly otherwise, perhaps even too tight as I have some difficulty removing it each time. I also received a 9-cell with my order but I have yet to test that one.

My first main issue is that the fan to the left of the keyboard seems to always be running at full speed, pushing quite a bit of hot air. This is actually my first laptop, but from what I have read in the past and even phobos' review here at NBR, I suppose I was expecting a much more silent experience. Is this typical of the Inspiron line, or is there perhaps something inherently wrong with my machine? It's rather loud, and as I said, always on.

Second, when I first received it yesterday afternoon, it started up fine and I went through the various Windows Vista steps. After the initial setup I tried closing the lid, which turned off the screen and put the laptop in some sort of sleep mode. Upon opening it back up, there was a strange dinging bell sound, screen flickered, and all of a sudden my resolution dropped to a much lower setting (I have the WXGA+ 1440x900 screen). I had to manually reset the resolution, and this has happened a number of times since then when opening/closing the lid.

I eventually tried the Fn+F1 function, which is supposed to hibernate the laptop. It did, and I left it as is for a number of hours. Upon returning, I could not get it to wake up. So I pressed the power button and the system went through its startup procedure but instead said "Resuming Windows", screen went black, and after a minute or two, eventually just completely shut off. Could not get Windows to boot. Called Dell this morning and they led me through a Safe Mode restart + system restore, which seemed to have fixed the problem. But closing the lid still occaionally causes the resolution to drop and I still get that strange dinging noise. Any thoughts?

Lastly, for whomever else here may have a 1420 in-hand, do you find the power button to be flaccid, with little to no tactile feedback when pressed? It almost doesn't even feel like a real button as there is no click to it.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place and will start a new thread if need be.

 

with regard to your other computer, consider yourself lucky that it worked. it is not supposed to. that is the idea behind OEM installation disks; they work only on that specific brand computer without the need for activation.

as far as Dell including a serial number on the bottom yes they do do that. again, from my experiences they are OEM specific related only. you could try to activate Vista on a non-Dell system with that serial but more than likely, it will not work. and if it does work, windows genuine authentication will most likely not pass verification.

 

Thanks Brian, I guess I'll just go with Vista premium then instead of the Ultimate.

 

okay, so it seems that i gave off the wrong impression.... i can totally live with the loose battery, in all practicality, it's not that big a deal if this was a used laptop. I understand that it probably would have cost a little extra for them to have gotten it right, i was going to be an engineer myself but decided to go a different route to say the least.... my point is that it is ridiculous that they did this... i am sure that they could have just strung together a laptop that doesn't fully close to save some money or something like that... you know? i mean everything works okay and everything it's fine, i mean you can definitely tell where they skimped... but to say oh the battery is loose, it's a flaw, deal with it and move on, is ridiculous. i will live with it but I SHALL BE COMPENSATED IN SOME WAY OR ANOTHER.... i don't care if it's simply Dell apologizing for their mistake, if they just admit to the issue instead of saying oh what? what's that you say? the battery? it shakes, that's impossible. That's definitely not our product, then you can bet that I will make sure that this gets plastered everywhere.... If you are going to put out a product, put it out right. Don't just say, oh, they paid little for it (which again, i have to say that even thought there are 2000 lappies out there this still isn't no bargain basement laptop from wal mart) so what will they care... i'm sure they have some duct tape they can use on it or something...

again, in all practicality, i really don't care about the stupid battery... you should see my old laptop... or the BEAST.... IT'S ABOUT PRINCIPLE!!!

I should apologize to you directly phobos1 I meant no disrespect or anything of the like. It's not like I really know you or anything, and I really didn't mean anything bad by what I said previously in case anything was taken the wrong way.

 

same for me...

 

Who told you that? I have the dell vista oem ultimate loaded on my hp laptop no problems. I just used the activation code from my dell to activate it. I have it running for 4 months already. So you are full of it.

 

me being full of it? you are a noob to the forum and you result to insults; quite nice of you. let me break things down for the simple-minded person here. by definition, OEM installations are designed to ONLY work on the specific brand of computer you buy. so a Dell OEM "should" only work on a Dell system with Dell hardware, an HP OEM "should" only work on an HP system with HP hardware, etc. however, that is not always the case as i said in my previous post. a good example, is that my 1st custom built desktop PC i had used a Dell OEM XP installation CD and it loaded up fine without need of activation. typically you will not be able to use a Dell serial on an HP machine due to OEM serial keys being specific to the brand of computer. to ensure the validity of said key and system, a check is done to verify that the system components accurately match the system in question. that is why if you change out enough hardware in a computer, when you boot back into Windows it will say that you need to reregister your serial because it is like it is a different system. read up more on OEM on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Original_equipment_manufacturer

 

Installing on multiple PC's would likely draw attention to you and possibly get your serial number blacklisted. Plus, they only way to do this and have Vista activate is by using SLIC emulation of the bios, which Microsoft will likely patch out eventually (not to mention its illegal).

 

That made me laugh.

What a spoiled generation we are raising these days!

Although, seeing reports of everyone else being compensated for small things does make a person feel "why not me too?"

 

Not to be contrary, but my 25 years of experience in this area (I'm 40), including 3 as a senior engineer at Microsoft, urges me to point out that OEM doenst really have anything to do with this brand-limited vista activation idea you are talking about. OEM just means, if you actually read the link you gave, putting a different name on the product and reselling it.

Now dell/ms -may- do something to limit installations from the cd they provide to only dells - but that has nothing whatsoever to do with the "OEM-ness" of the version of windows. Thats a separate concept entirely. Its not "the definition of OEM" as branj320 stresses.

So Im with Peter740 on this one. And branj320 looks a little silly with his insults.

 

Is your battery loose on your 1520???

 

i did not start with the insults, Peter did. i was simply stating the truth of the matter with his statement. if that labels me as being insulting, then so be it. and yes i did read that link, i have read it several times before posting and i know the nature of OEM. however, OEM CD's from Dell, Gateway, HP, Sony, etc all have the specific OEM related serial key embedded within the installation files of the disk so that when it is installed, the system does not have to go through with activation due to the license being specific to the computer maker; it is a way to cut down on the amount of time and number of licenses that would be needed to activate every single brand and model of computer. Dell, Gateway, etc all have unique keys related only to themselves which usually doesn't allow for an OEM CD to be used on another brand computer.

 

I think mtylerjr is talking about the OEM discs you can buy from sites like newegg.. Like installation CD's made for PC builders that don't include the retail box or anything. These discs can be installed on any type of PC. However the recovery discs included with a Dell computer are designed to detect Dell bios and if detected, provide the license key for you (Dell license key that many Dell computers share)

 

ah maybe that is what he is talking about then. since it was a Dell thread i thought he was talking specifically about the Dell install disks. maybe not. o well.

 

I did not wipe the drive - I have continued to use the pre-installed Vista Home Premium without issue. After writing the review I came across a few other things I wanted to get rid of - something like a Games and Multimedia launcher program Dell had in there, the Datasafe gimmick (I can back up my own data thank you very much), that sort of thing. Hasn't given me any trouble save for when I broke the driver verification tool temporarily (I entered a command in the console with the wrong syntax but rather than telling me I did so the stupid thing just accepted it - no fault of the laptop).

 

Awful lot of discussion on this battery issue. If you look at the battery you can instantly see what the problem is. Examine the slots for the laptop rails in the battery on either end, and then examine the actual rails on the laptop. The rails on the laptop are much thinner than the slots for them on the battery. Hence you have wobble. It was clearly designed this way.

I'm not going to jump up and down demanding a free remote because someone else said they got one and darn it I want one too. I think that sort of behavior is immoral but if someone else doesn't that's on them. I certainly have taken advantage of situations in the past but this isn't on I wish to engage on.

This brings up a similar situation with my motorcycle seen in my avatar. On the back of the bike you can mount a seat or a cover if you're going to ride solo (my picture shows the cover). Well, the covers don't fit that great, they leave a gap. If you look at it you can clearly see why - if you have the two pieces touching they vibrate and scratch each other. But plenty of people think it's a defect. So what did they do? They modified the cover to make it sit flush. They didn't call up Kawasaki and tell them that they owed them $100. And my bike was FAAAAAAAAAR more expensive than my laptop.

Food for thought.

 

I've never seen so many people so excited over a fraction of a fraction of an inch.

 

No doubt. I think one of the previous posters had it when s/he mentioned what a spoiled generation we have here. Never seen such a sense of entitlement before.