Dell Studio 1555

In Europe we have black matte option for 1555 called 'Jet Black'.

 

Haha, quite sure.

- T6600 2.2GHz
- ATI Radeon 4570 256mb
- 4GB DDR2 RAM
- 250GB 5400 RPM HDD
- 1080p LED display
- 9-cell battery

Interesting. Maybe my 1555's native to Europe then?

I may be mistaken, but I think Dell sells lids separately as an aftermarket upgrade. Maybe you can get your hands on one of them "Jet Black" 1555 lids?

Thanks for the info about the subwoofer...I was wondering where that thing was! I'll check it out when I return home in a week. But based on my somewhat limited memory, I'm quite certain there's less bass on my 1555 than on the woofer-less HP Pavilion dv4t which I owned briefly. Hopefully my subwoofer is disconnected .

A note for those of you debating between 900p and 1080p: keep in mind that many of Vista's DPI scaling issues have been addressed by Windows 7. Read about it here. If fonts are a little too small on a 1080p, NoSquint Firefox and Windows 7 DPI scaling should solve most problems. That said, while it does take some getting used to, the 1080p resolution is well worth the investment in my opinion.

 

a note to those who are not legible for a free W7 license upgrade. W7 Home E and Professional are available on pre-order (UK) for a very special price http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx Proffesional edition which is the one to buy (if you can live without Bitlocker and 35 languages) is 90 icl. VAT

 

Is there some sort of magic spray that will make my black chainlink fingerprint proof? lmao

 

If thats true its probably indicative of this generations increase in graphical power. What was the last generations (1535's) GPU? How do you know its not the northbridge under that aluminum block though? I would think that the northbridge would produce the least heat and so would be the one to not have a heatpipe in the last generation model.

 

I was also wondering if there was a way to improve the quality of the integrated microphone? I think i have the latest driver and all; but yeah,it sounds sort of static-y

 

The 1535/1537 had the ATi Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256MB.

And I know it's the GPU under that aluminum block because it has "ATi" laser etched into the die. The northbridge is on the same heatpipe as the CPU, on the part with two metal anchors.

Not really much to be done, I'm afraid. You're better off investing in a good headset or external mic. I got the Plantronics .Audio 510, which I've been using as my gaming headset for some time now, for $20. It's unavailable from that store right now, but here's one for $30 with free shipping: http://cgi.ebay.com/Plantronics-Audio-510-Headset-USB-Gaming-Headphones-New_W0QQitemZ350224808974QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518b067c0e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1205|293%3A1|294%3A50

It's still great considering the headset originally retailed for $70.

 

lol, alright..i guess i'll just be going to an EB games or something to buy a headset...didnt think the quality would improve by much anyways.

And using those glasses cloth actually works! I'm like mad wiping the laptop ever so often now, lmao. If only Dell could produce a glossy look without without being a fingerprint magnet, lol.

 

EB Games is one place I would not buy a headset. Their PC accessories tend to be overpriced and underperforming.

 

lol how bout future shop or best buy? I was thinking of picking up a cooling fan for the laptop anyways.

 

Never been to a Future Shop; they don't have those around here. Best Buy isn't too bad. It'll be slightly marked up from online prices, and they don't carry great stock, but no blatant rip-offs, either.

 

Weird, all the newer desktop GPU's I've seen are now labeled "AMD" instead of "ATI" on the die. Hopefully they arent embarassed of their mobile GPU's

 

Futureshop is now owned by Bestbuy. They are both scams of stores... always overpriced. I hate them both. Junctioned, check out NCIX. They are the best computer store in Canada. They often have good deals and have pretty reasonable shipping across canada.

 

lol, i have no idea where the closest store is.

By the way, I did a bit of gaming today. I could play Warrock on highest settings with good FPS, which is a MAJOR MAJOR improvement over my desktop.

However, Vista's still being annoying with all the security crap. Took me an hour to figure out how to fix the problem that stopped the game from launching.

I''m not gonna do anymore gaming till i get a cooling fan; cause after 20 minutes of gameplay, the fan started turning on full blast; and i'm weary the laptop will overheat!

 

It should be ok.... that happens on my 6400 ALL the time... haha Even now, it runs at medium speed almost all the time...

I dont know if you have an XS cargo near by... it's like a glorified dollar store... but they had USB cooling pads for $10.

 

Lol, i was gonna go to best buy to pick one up for 30 bucks. I checked some reviews and they were all favourable; so yeah.

btw, i'm taking my battery out while i'm using AC; that's good for the battery right? (I took it out at 100% battery though)

Oh and never heard of XS cargo

 

It's fine for the battery... I head that if you really arne't going to use it for a long time, store it at about 33%... but really as long as it's out of the computer when it's charged... it's supposed to increase the battery life. (as far total life)
Lots of the reviews for the cooling pads aren't too great.... you can always build your own... get a small wood base, buy some super computer fans and attach them to a power source of some kind.... Make shift I know.... but it would work.

Check this out...
http://www.shopxscargo.com/product_...ategory_1_id=57&category=Computer Accessories

In stock pretty much nation wide.... I'm sure there would be a store near you...(in ontario) Not sure the brand, but normally they have surplus stuff from some decent manufactuers... or else really crappy stuff... but yea.. worth checking out

 

I was actually gonna go get this one:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10107790&catid=28240

It had alot of favourable reviews; and I like the fact that its not super loud as well. But i'm skeptical about having only one fan instead of two.

BTW, using the vista tweaking guide to see if I can speed up Vista. I'll let you know when it's complete! =)

 

yeah, so i got the cooling pad i mentioned in the last post, and it's great! (as of now). Not super loud, nice design...but no off button (i guess i just yank it out of USB lmao)

 

Good to know... How is the computer working? any pics?

 

it's working wonders, especially after some tweaks from that Vista Guide. Props to Les for putting that together!

Err, what pictures do you want to see?

 

BTW, i was wondering if anyone can reccomend a temperature monitoring program for the laptop? My laptop seems warmer than usual, and its bothering me...I tried downloading speed fan, but i don't know if its accurate. It says my temp3 is 63C? Is this normal?

 

You could try Core Temp or Everest.

63C CPU temp under load would not be strange.

 

I recommend HWMonitor. It's free and there's no installation.

 

Does anyone here know how to get the original Dell Studio 1555 wallpapers? I did a clean vista install and am wondering how to get them back without getting any bloatware

 

Thanks, that was the program I had in mind.

BTW, is it possible/good idea to overclock? I have never done this before, and wanted to see if it was worth it.

 

It is probably possible with SetFSB if you know/can find out the clock generator.

Good idea? Only if you need CPU intensive programs to run faster. The majority of games will not run faster. If you keep monitoring your temps there's not much harm in overclocking.

 

hey guys, this is my first time using windows vista (just got my studio 1555 yesterday). i've been noticing that even after uninstalling nearly everything and with minimal stuff running (for example just firefox right now, windows defender, and AVG free which i know are relative memory hogs) my memory usage is higher than i would expect it to be.

i'm running vista 64-bit with 4 gigs of physical RAM and it's showing my RAM consumption is about 37%. is this normal? seems pretty high to me...

 

I'm getting about the same for ram consumption. Seems normal for Vista 64bit.

 

That's just fine. SuperFetch, Vista's dynamic memory management system, is much smarter than you think, and over time it will become even more efficient with the way it handles your RAM.

 

Try doing a clean install. Originally with all the bloatware, vista was running quite slow for me. After the clean install, it got alot better

I have Firefox, MSN, NOD32 (antivirus) on right now and i'm between 10-20% all the time. Also, Shroom mentioned the few boots makes vista more laggy. (in the beginning when i was installing software, updating, it would constantly be in the 50-60%)

And thanks Phil for the feedback on overclocking; i guess i won't do it, dont want to risk frying laptop just to get better graphics on a game,lmao.

 

Hey Phil, you said in Europe you can get the 1555 in matte black...do you know of any way to get that option here in the US? Or at least, anywhere to buy that lid and install it myself?

 

hey guys, ive been reading this forum for a while now, it actually influenced my decision in buying a 1555 which i recieved yesterday but i have one little problem that im sure someone here knows how to fix. I bought mine with the intel 5300 mini card cause it was only $5 haha, when i first turned it on it had a little program in the tray which allowed me to broadcast wifi but since i reinstalled vista and redid all the drivers i cannot seem to find that program anywhere, does anyone know where to look in my disks or on support.dell.com? thanks for your answers in advance

 

Another question regarding HWMonitor. What do the different temperatures represent?

There's one for TZ00, TZ01 and TZ02 (what are there?) I'm assuming HDD = harddrive?

Also, when I am gaming, I get to a peak of 67C, this is normal right? What temperature would it be so it's not normal?

Thanks.

 

Hm, Does any1 think its possible to switch the side of which the USB/ESATA combo plug is? like remove the esata top plug on the left, replace it with the usb on the right, and put the esata on the right :O?

 

Not if you aren't REALLY good at soldering. Those ports are on the motherboard itself.

 

Damn :\ that sucks

 

Does anyone know how I can get the original 1555 wallpapers? Or can someone send them over? I clean installed vista and I no longer have them.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=25&fileid=282242

It's from the Studio 1535 download page, but it's got the same wallpapers.

 

Thank you Just what I was looking for.

 

Just took delivery of mine on Thursday, probably going to have to return it though...

 

got my 1555 yesterday.

what is the maximum usable space on the 250GB hard drive? i deleted all partitions and its only showing 239GB of free space. Is that about right? Is there a hidden partition? I deleted the system and data partition.

I know there is always a little unusable space, but 10 GB seems like a lot.

 

Yes that's normal.

 

thanks!

wanted to make sure, before i do this reinstall process and 6 months down the road learn i had more space somewhere.

 

wow... how do things like this get past QA?

 

hey i had a doubt...when u guys say "ill be sending it back to dell" because of any prob/defect/etc...how is it done?..do we have to bear the cost of sending it or will it paid by dell?..and to whom to we send it back to?

 

Dell pays. It's actually pretty simple. You just call and report the defect and they should send you return labels and instructions on how to return it.

 

hmmm...so if dell sends u the return labels and then u hav to send the laptop back..Damn..it must be taking quite a few days for the whole process to be done!!

 

make sure they dont replace that laptop with a refurbished one.

 

Unfortunately that is probably the case. I ordered my system on July 5th, received it on July 16th.

No idea how long it will take to get a new system, if I do at all. The same system will cost me at least $150 (US) more if I ordered it today.