Dell Studio 1555

The stage which I'm on now is, choosing the drive/partition to install Windows 7. I can see three - a very small oem reserved partition, a small recovery partition(which I'd like to leave it alone, considering that I've got 500GB) and a big 450GB partition. The last one is highlighted at the moment but the advanced options available are delete, format and load driver. The new and extend option are both greyed out?

What do I need to do? Please help.

 

Right, I took a brave step and deleted the 450GB partition, now do I re-create 3 primary drives in this unallocated space or use extended? What's the difference between primary and extended?

 

hello, im loooking at ordering a 1555 and am wondering which of the the 3 options for screen resolutions is suppoted by more games? im leaning towards the 900p but would choose one of the others if it would be better for games. thanks, tomh21.

 

funkystevie seems like you are having a lot of adventure enjoy .. i just saw 1555 at costco and i was glued to it , it was off dont know why i had to start it .. looks it it had been killed by someone or it crashed on its own .. but yes it looks too good .. i loved it. My wife had to drag me away from it .. literally Actually Inspiron too looked cool ... though looks like all dell laptops are starting to look the same ;-)

@tomh21 - there is another thread that has some discussion on your question - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=403824

 

Now you're crackin'. primary is what the OS is loaded on - extended is everything else.

 

Have 1 Primary partition where you will have your primary OS. Make it about 60-80GB. Remaining will be extended partition, which is also a primary partition, but it will allow you multiple secondary partitions. So maybe you can make 2 more there. Anyways partitioning strategy is totally your call, though now that you can always shrink and increase its fine. But if you lets say make your primary partition where you are installing Windows 7 very small (maybe 25GB), you will not be able to increase it and take from secondary, you can only shrink it. So i would recommend its better to have more .. i had a small vista primary partition in my old computer , and i struggled a lot .. it was just 30 GB and it was filling up fast .. thanks to the useless winsxs (side by side dll) structure of microsoft, which has lots and lots of dlls which are dupes. the windows folder size keeps growing everyday.

 

I have the WiFi Link 5300 and I connect to N networks just fine.

 

what dell studio 1555 laptop case/sleeve do you guys use/suggest?

 

I've got the Timberland Chamberlain messenger style bag.

http://www.ebags.com/timberland_reg...enger/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=125230

The notebook fits nice and snug in the padded compartment, and there is ample room for me to carry the power adapter, a bluetooth mouse (which I never use) a few magazines or thin books, etc..

 

He he though a bit challenging for a novice like me but I'm definitely having a lot of fun. I did get any reply last night(it was a Sat night I suppose!) so I went ahead deleting the big chunk of my hard drive and created an 80GB primary partition, installing Windows 7 OS on it and left the rest unallocated. Once logged in I then went to computer management and created new simple volume in the empty space. There was a warning about changing to a dynamic something therefore I can't something which I didn't really understand but things seem to be working how I want them to at the moment. My computer did force me to leave 100MB for 'system reserved' when I created my 80GB primary partition during OS installing which I think is compulsory? Also, the way it is now does it mean that when I come to do a fresh install again(I want more practice hehe!), I can just ask the OS to be install in the 80GB partition and not touch my other files?

 

Yep - just make sure you save data like music, movies, docs, photos, etc onto the other drives, and not the OS. that way you can just reinstall the OS onto that partition.

 

Whoopee! I did it...with everyone's help, thank you.

BTW, the areas next to my touchpad get a bit warm, the right side more than the left, for about 4 fingers width. Is it normal? What's underneath? How hot is too hot? I remember reading about using software to check these temp, are they accurate? Perhaps I should check? Has anyone got the link pls?

 

Download HWMonitor, it's a good temperature monitoring tool.

 

It is the WLAN that does it. It tops out at a safe temperature, though.

 

Correct. If you primarily connect via ethernet, you might opt to just disable WiFi altogether.

 

Does anyone know a laptop that is close in size to the Studio 1555? I want to order a skin for mine but skinit only has skins for the 1536, which is about 0.5'' less in width and bigger in length.

 

The Inspiron 1545 is similarly proportioned, although I don't believe you'll have much greater luck with that; 15.6" 16:9 laptops are relatively new.

 

Yup you might be better ordering one for a 17" machine and cutting it down to size yourself.

 

Thanks. I'll get HWMonitor and post back with results... Unfortunately I use Wifi all the time. Well it's not burning hot, it's just hotter than I expected.

 

Hey I just got the hwmonitor and did the check. What's the easier way to post it on here without having to type it all up by hand?

Is there somewhere I could get a ref as to what's normal/too hot?

 

The only way I know is to printscreen and crop with Photoshop, if there's an easier way pls tell me.

Here's what HWmonitor gave me:

 

your CPU temps r pretty low..my T6500 averages between 45-60C on normal use..

 

You can go into your Power Management settings and change the consumption of the WiFi card, just change it to Max Battery Life instead of Max Performance. That should cool it down quite a bit, I don't notice my touchpad getting warm anymore.

 

Agreed. It does seem to be the wireless cards that are causing the touchpad to be a little warm as far as I can determine. Those CPU / GPU temps etc are not hot at all. Try turning your wireless off completely for an hour and see if you notice any difference.

 

Well I got my new Studio 15 on Friday but was away over the weekend so have only had a quick play with it. I did a clean install of Windows 7 64Bit and it found drivers for everything - it all worked perfectly out of the box. I would recommend installing the latest ATI Catalyst drivers on it through and also the Synaptic driver for the touchpad for added functionality.
I for the p8600, ATI HD 4570 512MB, 4GB RAM & 1080P (AUO) specification and I love it. Screen is actually a good bit better than my previous Inspiron 6400 1680x1050 screen. Build quality is noticeably better too. I'm not keen on only 3 USB ports and the fact that all ports are down the sides but this I can live with.
Any recommendation on AV software? I have been using Nod 32 for the past few years but wantedto get peoples thoughts on other software on this machine under W7 64bit.
Let me know if you have any questions on this particular spec.

 

can someone please point me to the dell 370 bluetooth card driver for windows 7 32 bit?

 

The P-series CPUs use less power than the T-series (35W max vs 25W) so they generate a lot less heat too. It was a $200 option to move to the P8600 (and $300 for the P9X00), so I decided to pass.

 

Is there any way to determine what does TZ00, TZ01 and TZ02 exactly mean? I'd like to check my gpu's temperature.

 

yup..the P8400 on my other laptop produces less heat compared to my T6500...the P8600 was an approx 110USD option for me...but I let it pass for other goodies such as backlit keyboard ,a 9 cell battery and an unnecessary intel 5300 wifi under my budget..

 

I think TZ02 gives an approx GPU temp as its placed close by to the GPU...mine goes as high as 95C on intensive gaming..TZ00 and TZ01 r other sensors somewhere in the laptop I guess.

 

Thanks, that would be it.

 

Just get the 32-bit Vista driver; it should be fully compatible.

 

There you go.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5232317&postcount=41

 

It sounds like the HWmonitor only measures the temp of CPU/GPU... And mine, as suggested, seem to agree that they are pretty normal.

Okay. That sounds like a good idea. Any idea how this would that affect my internet connection for surfing the web, internet gaming and torrents?

I suppose I could try this to determine if the wireless was indeed responsible for the heat. Then again, I'd almost always need it on when I'm working. How do I turning the wireless off completely?

 

Has anyone tried Everest or Hmonitor (not HWMonitor) on their 1555s? Although they both recognize all the temperature sensors, they make my system freeze (with few seconds intervals of normal activity).

 

@funkystevie

I changed my power settings as soon as W7 was set up, and I haven't had any issues with my wireless at all. I can download files at full speed, youtube HD works fine, I have a low latency in Team Fortress 2... I'm not sure what the benefits are of going full-power if it works this well.

For what its worth I'm using wireless-G through a D-link DI-624 (or 524... I can never remember)

And you can turn off the wireless through one of the hot-keys, but it escapes me which one (I'm at work... don't tell the boss ).

 

Can anyone tell me how to start the recovery from the recovery partition?

 

Press F8 while booting.
http://www.faultwire.com/solutions/using_system_restore_vista.php

 

Thanks. That looks more like using System Restore to bring the system back to Last Known Good Configuration.

What I'm looking for is recovering the Studio 15 to the original state it came in, using the recovery partition on the system. I think that's something else. Or am I mistaking?

 

When I did the 'restoring system to Factory state'..I pressed F8 several times...went into advacned Boot options...selected Repair ur comp,,,followed the instructions and then there was an option 'Dell Factory Image Restore' and then followed the instructions...
it recovered the computer back to the factory state using the image in the recovery partition..

 

I think there is a program in the "Dell" folder on the partition that restores the computer to factory defaults.

 

I assume u want to restore ur pc to the factory default.
Heres how u can go about it.

1.If u havent made any change to ur partitions(deleted the initial dell Utility partition), u can follow this tut at dell site
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=336966

2.In case u have deleted the initial dell Utility partition, do the following
a.insert ur vista dvd nd boot frm it
b.Select "repair yout computer"
c.In the next window, select "command Prompt"
d.Type the following
"path f:\windows; f:\windows\system32" (here replace "f" with whatever ur recovery partition is)
"cd tools"
"pcrestore.exe"

That should do the trick.. hope that helps..

 

Thanks. That was a good link.

Thanks too.

 

Can somebody confirm which component resides underneath and immediately to the right of the palmrest? ... I mentioned a couple of pages ago that my palmrest gets warm but the side that I'm concerned about is the right side. The heat on the left side is pretty acceptable. Thank you.

 

^ It's the wireless card, nothing to worry about.

I'm so sick of waiting! 9 days production and another 4 for delivery? That's abysmal, come on Dell.

 

Are you absolutely certain that it's the wireless card? Don't want to sound paranoid but mine does get pretty warm/hot... How do I know if it's over-heating?

How's your 1555 coming along? Which stage is it at?

 

Wireless cards do. A simple test would be to disable wifi for 30 mins and see if it is noticeably cooler. This will confirm if the wireless card is the cause. If it performs normally with no adverse affects then I wouldn't worry about it. I assume you can leave your hand on it I.e. It's not too hot to touch?

 

There isn't much else in that area, the graphics card and processor are both under the keyboard. card reader and empty express card slot seem unlikely. People have mentioned the heat under the touch pad several times in this thread, the response was always wifi card.

It's being delivered, estimated arrival is wednesday after I ordered 11 days ago.

 

No. It's not too hot to touch Somebody else did suggest turning it off as well but I haven't done so coz I need internet access when working and I have no ethernet point near me. I ought to do so though to see if it was the cause of it. Thanks you.

BTW, how do I turn it off?

 

I see thank you.

Trust me I know the feeling... I was tracking my order process on a daily if not hourly basis. 13 days is indeed a long time to wait. I consider myself to be quite fortunate coz I ordered on the 10th and got it on the 19th Aug. Still, up until I got 'the call', waiting without knowing when it'd end was agonising.