Dell Studio 1555

Yes I was testing out the DVD drive and threw in Batman Begins.

So here are my Vista Index scores

Processor 4.6
Memory 4.9
Graphics 4.1
Gaming Graphics 3.8
Primary Hard Disk 5.7


Do those look normal?

 

actually ur graphics score is pretty good...
I have a HP business laptop with the P8400 and the same intel 4500MHD as urs and its gives a score of 3.4 for graphics and 3.6 for gaming graphics

 

Not trying to spam w/ a bunch of posts but is their supposed to be a little square hole right next to the HDMI port?

 

u mean a tilted rectangular hole on the left of the port??

if so thts the kensington lock slot..

 

I just connected my new laptop to our 50' HDTV downstairs through HDMI...Amazing. We've had the tv for 2 years now but appart from the Xbox 360, there is no HD connection. Well, that all changed when i got the laptop

You mean a diagonal rectangular hole wich you can see metal through? Yeah, that's the K-lock.

 

Alright thanks. Now I know why people were complaining about the trackpad getting hot.

Surprised at how good the speakers are. They really have a pop to them.

 

The speakers were the biggest let down for me. Sure, they get loud, but they just sound...wrong. Its hard to explain. Too hollow, or tinny. Weird, as it has two dedicated tweeters and a sub.

 

They're notebook speakers. And for notebook speakers, they're some of the best I've heard, but you still can't expect them to stand up to a good pair of desktop speakers or headphones.

 

I ordered mine last night and can't wait to get it! Here are my specs I ordered:

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 2.4GHz1066Mhz, 3M L2 Cache
4GB, DDR2, 800MHz 2 Dimm
1080p screen with webcam
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD HD 4570
500G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
8X Slot Load DVD+/-RW (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support)
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11AGN
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
6 cell battery
Windows Office 2007 (came in the "bundle I found online, no way to delete it and was actually cheaper to buy it this way!)
1 year standard warranty
Free Windows 7 upgrade
Black chainlink color

It came to $974 with all of that, which was the cheapest I could find online with the configuration I wanted. It was supposed to be $1307 but I found a link to get it $333 off.

Kind of wishing I had ordered the backlit keyboard but I don't think I would use it much anyways. It's supposed to be here (Michigan) on 8/13, hopefully it comes earlier!

 

anything possible to do vs misaligned stickers?

Mine are really erhm .. not-straightish

 

I thought that mine were non-straightish too, but its like a half a degree to a degree so i don't really care. How bad is yours?

 

I just removed mine and bought new ones from eBay for 99 cents. It came with the Windows Vista and Intel Centrino stickers, both pretty lopsided. I replaced them with (properly aligned ) Intel Centrino 2 (since that's technically what this laptop is) and ATi Mobility Radeon stickers.

 

Is using CPUID HW monitor 64 bit the correct version to use?

What should be some normal temps for the two cores? I seem to be hitting 60C-62C while watching an HD Youtube Video. Seems kind of high. My highs for both were 76C and 75C

And should the fan be going off during normal web surfing?

 

If you have the 64 bit version of Vista, then yes, HWMonitor 64 bit is what you want.

Your temperatures appear a little on the high side, but nothing dangerous. What are your idle temperatures?

If you're particularly adventurous, you can do what I did and apply Arctic Silver 5 or thermal paste of your choice to the CPU and heatsink.

 

No if its not dangerous i dont really mind. My idle is usually around 43C.

Two more quick questions. For the SATA/USB slot can I insert a regular usb stick or mouse receiver in there? Seems like its not designed for it. Also i noticed the trackpad getting warm. I am i guessing correctly that the CPU Dual 2 Core is placed underneath it?

Also can I d/l the 1555 drivers after Reformat and do a fresh install of Vista? Or will i need the intel 5100 driver to go on the internet?

Also if anyone wanted to know I have 66 processes running right now w/ only firefox and cpuid running as the only programs running.

 

Using speedfan, I've never seen the two cores go past 47C, although i admit I've never put a full load on and let them hit max temps. Your idle temp of 43 seems normal though.


My Delldock.exe CPU useage problem is still not fixed...I think I'll just uninstall it. With it on and gobbling up 15% of the CPU, my battery life (idling) usualy reads as 3:34, but disabling it makes it jump up past 4:07 at times (i also did some tweaking in power options, your readings might not be so high). Of course, those times would be much closer to each other if i was actuly doing something on the laptop and it wasnt idling, but any loss is a bad loss.

Are there any other docks that act just like it? I used Rocketdock on my old computer but the Dell Dock's functionality seems to be better. I noticed its made by Stardock, would their own dock software be pretty close to the Dell Dock?

 

Hi all! Got my laptop

Love the look of it. The fan has been running for awhile now.

I'm trying to figure out what type of monitor I have.

Also, what is the best way to stress test it? To see if it's working fine?

 

Get 3D mark 2006 (the free edition of course) and constantly loop it, the longer the better but if it works fine for half an hour to an hour than its most likely fine. Dont bother getting the newest version, Vantage, as they only let you run it once, and thats not enough. I never liked 3D mark as a benchmark, but it really stresses the CPU and graphics subsystem. Try it out.

Also i hear Prime95 is a good stress test.

Hope that helps.

 

Go to your Device Manager (right click My Computer >> Properties >> Device Manager)
Under Monitors you'll probably see Generic PnP Monitor.
Right Click Generic PnP Monitor and then Properties.
Then under Details tab, click the drop down menu and select Hardware ID.
It should say something along the lines of MONITOR\AUO10ED.

Thats what it says for mine because mine is made by AUO, if yours is LG, the prefix would be LG, and I think the Samsung's prefix is SEC.

Hope this helps you too Sonarav

 

Thank you Street

I have the LGD020B.

 

I've been a lurker on the boards for a long time, but I figured I'd give my thoughts on the Studio 15 I just got since I got so much great info from this thread in the past. The posts in here really turned me around into getting this over some other laptops, so I thank you all!

I got the P8400 with 512mb ATI card and immediately started stress testing this to see what the weak point was. Without doing anything, CPU temps were maxing at mid-high 60s. I undervolted my CPU down as far as I could while still being stable to .9500, and was able to drop my load temps to low-mid 50s. Pretty happy about that.

Touchpad definitely gets toasty, even when not doing a whole lot. Looks like the WIFI card sits directly below it.

I am a semi-audiophile, and was pleasantly suprised with the soundbar on the Studio 15. It is miles ahead of the DV7T that this laptop is replacing. Headphone jack is very clean sounding, if not a little underpowered for some of the higher end cans. I'll be recording some guitar tracks thru a PODXT with this, so we'll see if the integrated sound holds up.

Picked up the 900p screen and was pleasantly suprised. I usually use a Samsung BW223 desktop monitor with my gaming desktop computer, and had to calibrate the heck out of it to get it to look halfway decent (bad panel). Out of the box I haven't had to do anything to this screen yet. Colors seem pretty accurate and no ghosting / dead pixels. Only the slightest hint of backlight bleeding along the bottom of the panel (honestly about a few millimeters), but can honestly see this only if I am looking for it. Very even lighting all around.

Only real issue I've seen so far is when I fired up Half Life 2 to do some gaming stress testing (I know, that's not really that demanding, but I don't have something like Crysis). I had HWMonitor running in the background and ran thru a level or 2 of Episode 1. I was suprised to see the TZ02 temp maxing at 92C. The processor hardly moved from 50-55. Granted the ambient temp was about 75F, so that probably didn't help much. The fan during this time was running pretty fast, but it wasn't that bad noise wise, and I'm fairly sensitive to that kind of thing. I don't have a laptop cooler which could help with this, although I'll probably at some point pull off the heatsink and throw on some better thermal paste and see what happens. I'll have to keep looking around to see if there are any other options to cooling that down.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased. I bought this as a multimedia / mobile gaming PC as I travel a bit with my job and had wanted something that would do both well, and yet be portable. I had originally bought a DV7t from Staples, and was VERY dissapointed. Horrible backlight bleeding, noisy, and just generally not well constructed. I had considered a Studio 14z, but wanted a bit more horsepower for gaming. Besides the GPU / touchpad temps, this thing runs fairly cool / quiet and has alot of power behind it while staying pretty light.

 

Speaking of undervolting, how low have people managed to get the T6500 to run at?

 

Hi Guys,

I've been Studio 1555 owner for a couple of weeks.

I have some questions:

- Temperature shown by speedfan and hwmonitor is totally different. Speedfan is showing in the range of 35-40 and hwmonitor in the range of 50-60. Which one is accurate?

- Touchpad area getting really warm, I guess this is a know issue? Doesn turn off wifi helps?

Thanks.

Edit:

One more question - when I install Everest ultimate, the program hang once in a while, every few seconds. Is that normal?

 

Speedfan reports 40-48 for me.

If the Wi-Fi antennae is the source of the touchpad heat, set it to maximum power savings mode in power options. Mine barely gets warm, and there is no loss in speed/latency using power saving mode.

 

I am trying to do the Windows 7 upgrade program, but it is saying I'm not eligible. I'm typing in the 7 digit service tag from the bottom of my laptop too.

Does it matter when I do this? As I'm thinking about formatting the laptop and putting Windows 7 RC on it for now.

 

Thanks! Gonna try it tonight once I get home.

I think I'm setting my power option at balance, can't really remember the name.

 

you should be able to do it now - but I know that a lot of 14z owners are also running into trouble with it as well. I think if you call it in they'll set you up.

 

ive managed to find a workaround to the info not updating on dells site. just go to fedex or ups and input your order number as the reference and you should be able to find your order if its already shipped.

https://www.fedex.com/AltRefTracking?cntry_code=us
http://www.ups.com/WebTracking/reference

 

It took two days after receiving my laptop for my Service Tag to be in the system and eligible for the upgrade. I say just wait a couple of days then try again.

 

thanks for letting me know which monitor brand I had. Mine was also AUO10EE.

What about my HDD? It says ST9500325? what company is that?

Strange HW monitor says im at around 62C-63 for both cores but my fan isnt even on and as I touch the bottom of my laptop its only warm and not hot like before. HW monitors reading maybe wrong. I will try speedfan and let you folks know what I find.

 

alright folks one of these programs is for sure wrong.

Using HW monitor 64bit I get 63C & 64C but for speedfan 4.38 it shows 48-49C.

 

Exactly same as my case.... Even Everest refuse to run, hang once every few seconds.

 

Is this 3D mark 2006 software just to stress test your system for PC games or does it show you how well your system runs as a whole?

 

I believe it is made to stress your graphic card.

 

Alright, sounds good. Thanks for letting me know.

I decided to put Windows 7 on and it sure does run well. Love it.

 

Speaking of Tweaks, would it be interesting to share the tweaks that are effective for the 1555? like the WIFI power saving, undervoltage, ATI settings, etc...

They are all over the 2xx pages of this forum and not easy to get for newcomers. Maybe we could put them into a shared document!

 

Anybody able to install a 370 Bluetooth card in the 1555 with the correct screws? I keep seeing they give you the wrong screws cause the 1555 is a little different than other Studio 15's.

 

Well, on my SEC5441 720p standard settings it's dark blue when I'm in front of the screen but indeed it's lighter with 25° viewing angle from the top. From left/right, I don't notice much difference.

 

Thanks for checking. On my 900p screen, I've also noticed that if I have a totally black background and view it from a slight angle from the left, there is a kind of light gray halo on the left side of the screen. It is not noticeable from straight on or from a right viewing angle. I contacted Dell yesterday about the color issues and they are going to build me a replacement with the 1080p screen to see if it is any better.

BTW I had a really good experience with calling Dell about the issue. But I did ordered my Studio 15 through Dell Business instead of Dell Home. The phone call did take some time but everyone I spoke with was clearly in the US and they were all very helpful.

VVarwick

 

It tests gaming performance, a complete system performance tests would be PC mark. I only recommended 3d Mark as a stability test before in this thread, as it doesnt realy reflect real world gaming scenarios.

 

Your judgment there is as good as mine. So far most of my tweaks have been for battery life, the results look pretty good. Estimated battery life at idle went from 3:34 to 4:17, sometimes higher. Of course, battery life at load would be less of a change, but its a good start.

In power options, go to edit plan settings for your main plan (i always use balanced) and go to advanced settings. Go nuts there, like i said your judgment is as good as mine. I set the Wireless Adaptor setting to maximum power savings on battery, same with PCI-E link state power management. I also set the hard drive to shut off when on battery after 5 minutes of inactivity. Search and indexing of course i set to power saving. I left the maximum processor state at 100%, as a slower processor speed means it takes longer to complete everything, and it can always clock down to 5% (well, the lowest I've seen it is 500MHz, never near 5%). ATI setting was power saving mode on battery, max performance on power.

I have yet to under volt the processor, i will probably try that out within the next few days. How low have people gotten the T6500 to run?

 

Minor annoyance I've noticed, that could possible effect others with the edge-to-edge display options.

I noticed that there were many short (maybe 1cm) vertical marks on my display. I wiped the screen down with some special cloths I have for use on my plasma screen, and didn't think anything of it. I figured it must have been some residue left behind by the insert that was between the keyboard and screen when it shipped.

Then a few days later I noticed it again. I'm reasonably sure that it is just natural oils from my fingertips that transfers from the raised edges of the keys to the display covering when the notebook is closed. It is a minor annoyance, but it always catches my eye when I have a lot of white on the screen (ie google) and it refracts little rainbows through these "streaks".

 

I undervolted my T6500 but it cud only go down to 1.000v since there wasnt any option below tht for me...so I am waiting for u to do it so as to determine whether its just a limit for my T6500 or even for others...
After undervolting i got a diff of 5-6C under full load i.e around 65C from 71C...on standard use and idle there isnt much diff..As far as battery goes I was able to extract quite a lot more by mixing and matching with the diff multipliers using RMClock...for regular usage it doesnt make any diff for me..so ill be waiting for u to report in ur results..

 

So whats your idle battery life reading at? I already posted mine above, with very minor tweaking.

 

mine is a 9 cell battery...at idle it went from 5.45 to 6.05...but tht depends...but generally battery life may have gone up by 15 mins for me..a bit more when under load

 

Nice. So what program did you use to undervolt?

 

i used RM clock as per the undervolting guide...and trying to undervolt it further i used Crystal CPUID according to another guide which sadly wasnt of much use...one good thing after undervolting i noticed atleast for me is tht the heat around the touchpad, palmrest has become less and i can play games keeping the laptop on my lap/bed quite comfortably..

 

Hmm, lots of people seem to be mentioning the heat around the touchpad, but i havnt noticed that at all. Maybe its because my wireless adaptor is set to maximum power savings mode, in many laptops the wireless adaptor is near the front where the touchpad is. I'm not sure if thats the case with the 1555, but its the case for 80% of the laptops i've used.

Speaking of trackpads though, i LOVE the one on the 1555. One of my biggest pet peeves with notebooks is sticky track pads, this one does not have that issue AT ALL. Its like textured silk, i love it!

 

hey with the wifi card at max power savings does it result in any drop in speed or something?i use mine at full performance whenever plugged in, thus a bit more heat i guess..

 

Nope, I used Speedtest.net

14.5mb/s and 12ms latency before, same results after.

Power savings mode just lets your wireless adaptor "sleep" in between packets, so there is nearly zero loss in performance.