Dell Studio 1555

In my studio 1555 I have a Seagate Momentus;
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=5fb658a3fd20a110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD

 

My current Studio 1555 has a Seagate Momentus as well, and my previous 1535 had a Western Digital Scorpio Blue.

 

I got my computer

I was amazed how nice it looked, the keyboard has no flex (all the reviews said it did?) the screen is beautiful, the keyboard is great, connecting to the network was a breeze, many other good things

It's a little toasty on my leg but, I wear jeans so its very tolerable. Touchpad is quite warm but not really an issue.


No regrets (except maybe a better processor... meh)

I'm gonna go buy GTA IV tomorrow and I'll tell you guys how it works.

 

Think this problem may start when you use another sound device. When I play something via HDMI and subsequently disconnect to use the laptop speakers again, there's no sound on the laptop speakers and the Quickset volume indicators won't appear (screen brightness ones remain OK). I have to reset the playback device to IDT High Definition Audio Codec, which gets the laptop sound back but still not the indicators. Only way I've found to get them back is a reboot.

 

yea my other buttons display fine and but my volume and mute buttons dont display even though they still work. Could VLC media player be the problem?

How do u reset the playback device to IDT? Seems my problem started happening when i downloaded the IDT driver so my middle audio jack would work.

 

Using the free version of HD Tune, it gives me these figures:
Standard: ATA/ATAPI-8 - SATA II
Supported: UDMA MODE 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
Active: UDMA MODE 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
CPU usage: -1%(!)

Sandra lists it as running in SATA II mode though

I have the WD Scorpio Blue 320GB 5400rpm (running at 43 degrees C)

 

Whatever they have lying around. Seagate, WD, Samsung, Toshiba etc.

 

can i use ddr3 rams for 1555?

 

Hello !

I am thinking to buy a Studio 1555 with a 1080p display, but I worry whether I will get used to the screen. Here we can choose only between 720p and 1080p displays and I really don't know which one would be the better for me. Are things really too small on the 1080p display or are they acceptably small? Does changing DPI (and maybe using NoSquint for Firefox) make things comfortable enough? I will be using the notebook mainly for programming and I would really appreciate the extra space. I will browse the web everyday. Also I will be using it for things like watching HD movies and playing games, but not so often.

Also do games with non-native resolution look too bad on the 1080p display or do they look normal? On which screen do they look best – 1080p, 900p or 720p?

Thanks

 

You ll get used to 1080 very quickly, even with out changing the dpi. Games will look fine on smaller resolution.

 

no, you can`t bacause ddr3 modul is physical different that ddr2. more/less pins

 

Right-click on the volume icon in bottom right notifications area, select Playback Devices, highlight the Speakers / Headphones option and pick the Set Default button. While you're there check that the volumes aren't muted by picking Properties and then the Levels tab.

VLC media player is perhaps a related issue. I didn't get any sound from it playing WMV's but I did if I played the same file in Media Player. In VLC Player, just found a fix by clicking on Tools, Preferences, picking the Audio button and ticking the 'Enable audio' check box. Could be that whatever event changed the default sound device also disabled the audio.

 

What BIOS version are you running?

 

Which OS are you planning on running. XP tends to look small and sharp but Windows 7 by default is very good at scaling its desktop to allow the taskbar and icons to appear large and legible while still making full use of the extra resolution for applications. You can of course over ride this to your own tastes as well by changing DPI settings.

 

Has anyone noticed a slight flicker effect with the backlighting on the screen when brightness is reduced? I'm running te 1080p (AUO) screen and full brightness looks great but from about two thirds brightness downwards I start to notice this faint flickering effect - mostly in darker colours on the screen. This happens on both battery and mains power. Its not a problem as I normally have the brightness up anyway but wanted to know if anyone else had noticed this?

 

Another vote for the 1080p screen, Zdravko.

With Firefox and NoSquint, surfing the web is absolutely fine. I love the extra space I get though I haven't yet tried any games on mine. I've seen the 720p screen in PCWorld and everything just looks too big and the desktop feels really cramp...

Personally, I use the standard 96dpi and find everything 'acceptably small'.

Let us know which you go for at the end.

 

Someone else did on the forums, he also made a thread about it. By the way, I think Bios A06?

 

I plan to use mainly Linux, but I will run Windows from time to time, most probably Windows 7. I changed the resolution of my CRT monitor so that it could be as small as on the Studio with 1080p. I tried changing DPI in Ubuntu and it did a good job, it looked fine with the few applications I tested. The biggest problem I noticed was that many interface icons stayed small. I hope it will improve. Another problem was that many sites use pixels for font sizing instead of respecting user’s preferences, but NoSquint should fix that if I can’t get used to the fonts. I could read the text on these sites but my eyes got tired quickly, though maybe this was because the resolution was much smaller than the default for the monitor and it was running at 60 Hz.

Thank you very much for the answers ! I think to get the 1080p one and I hope that I will really get used to it and that it will feel nice .

 

whats the easiest way to install the graphics driver and software on windows 7?

ive heard about this modder and other things??

 

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

-Download and run that until everything is extracted, then cancel the installation.
-Run mobility modder ( http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php) on the folder where everything was extracted.
-Run the setup utility in the files you extracted earlier.

 

thank you

 

So I got my Corsair P128 SSD today and things feel fast =)
Fresh boot of windows 7 was 35 seconds, so excluding the "studio" screen that leaves about 25 seconds, but the best thing was that it stayed that way after installing antivirus etc.

Bumped the windows experience index for harddrive up to 7.4, while the rest stayed the same, as expected (6.0, 6.0, 4.9, 4.9, 7.4 with p8600, 4gb ram, 512mb 4570)

For some reason windows 7 does not recognise it as an SSD, so I'm still in the process of tweaking it.
I get a max read speed of 194MB/s in HD tune, and it should be a little bit higher, I guess there's still some work left but I can't really complain either
Average read speed of 180 MB/s, access time of 0.1ms.

For the guy who was wondering about the cpu usage, it's still listed as -1.0% as it was with the WD disk, but it's now running in UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)

To do a comparison with the WD disk@5400rpm, the fresh boot time went from 2:26 fully bloated vista to 1:02mins fresh windows 7 to 35s with SSD. WEI went from 5.5 to 7.4
Wouldn't really be fair to compare HD tune results, but I can at least mention the access time... 17.5ms to 0.1ms, 175 times faster! That is something you'll definitely notice in day to day use

Forgot one thing: Sleep mode! I don't really use it, so I can't remember how fast it was with a regular hdd, but now it is in fact instant! This will probably be a show off thing for me

 

I thought I'd just pop in to say that, in part to the help of this forum, I've purchased the 1555 yesterday. First impressions for those interested:

-fast computer even on the T6500
-fairly quiet processor
-looks are great but not overly flashy. Pretty much exactly what I'm looking for
-mouse buttons have a perfect feel, very smooth to press down and pop up.

-mousepad has a good feel as well. only downer, is that it's sometimes a tad unresponsive to a "side of the thumb" tap.
-the feel of the keyboard keys took time getting used to, but I like it now.

-lack of a capslock indicator is both surprising and disappointing. I really don't understand its omission.
-the dell dock is pretty lame. The free Rocketdocket is superior in many ways

Overall, a good purchase -- one I would make again.

 

They didn't include a Caps Lock lamp, because, if you take a closer look, you'll see that there are no indicator lights at all besides the power LED. Dell went for a really minimalist design; this is a media laptop made for watching movies, who wants a couple of distracting bright LEDs in their field of view?

 

I usually don't watch movies with my capslock on, but that's just me!

 

I was thinking the same thing. I love that it does not have any other LED indicators, but would really miss the Caps Lock LED. I have QuickSet installed but the on-screen pop-up indicator for Caps Lock does not work for me.

 

The caps lock indicator doesn't work with Vista, or at least in didn't for me. It works with 7, though.

 

First off, I'm totally jealous
Remind me, what controller does Corsair use?


About the CPU usage...Am i the only one that consistantly gets in the mid-30's for CPU usage in HD tune? Can someone with a conventional hard drive check this out? Far as i can tell, there aren't any vampire services that are sucking my CPU cycles, so it must be the accessing of the hard drive itself.


Edit: found out the answer to the controller question i asked...The performance series uses a Samsung controller, the Extreme series uses the Indilinx Barefoot controller.

 

That doesn't really make sense though. Capslock is an important factor when typing passwords and even when doing graphics editing (though it would be simple to find out that caps is on). I was unaware the indicator light was omitted considering it was not only included but unobtrusive in the 1537. I hope this doesn't pose an issue when I receive my 1555.

 

After my failed attempt to buy the computer I wanted through Dell Outlet I just placed an order for a brand new Dell Studio 1555.

Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
Back-lit Keyboard
15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Speed: 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor
Midnight Blue
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
6X Slot Load Bluray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only)
High Definition Audio 2.0
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Card
85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
$25 Dell Promo Gift Card
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)

Estimated delivery date of September 14.

Total $1383
After EPP Savings of $309 and my EPP Discount of 7% the total cost of this laptop was $1,063 with taxes.

Seems like a decent deal.

 

The on-screen Caps lock indicator works just fine in Vista for me, 64 bit to be precise.

 

hey guys, i have a quick question.

when my computer goes into screen saver (i have it to go after 10 minutes of inactivity), the fans kick on and go extremely high. once i log back into my computer though, the fans settle back down and it becomes much quieter.

it even does this when i have no programs running in the background. does anyone else's studio 1555 do this? btw i have the picture slide show screensaver that comes with vista 64 bit.

 

I see Dell UK have tweaked their prices slightly - the 1080 screen upgrade is now £70, down from an obscene £105

 

How is your caps lock indicator working? I am running Windows 7 and not getting any type of notification that caps lock is on.

 

Hey, I have found an issue with Studio in that the DVD Burner seems very slow. Not sure if this is a firmware issue or media compatibility one yet but trying to burn a DVD at 8x which should normally take about 10 mins is taking over an hour even though Nero (version 7) is reporting the media as 8x compatible. One of the first things I did was flash the DVD RW drive to the latest firmware from the Dell support site. it is the TSST633A drive.
Any ideas or anyone else had an issue?

 

Hey I just found a free little (92KB) utility that works wonders if you are having issues with the Caps Lock indicator. This one is almost just a good as having an LED. It has a system tray icon that shows if Caps Lock is on or off. It also has an onscreen pop-up when you hit the Caps Lock key. On top of that, it plays 2 different sounds when hitting Caps Lock depending on if Caps Lock is being turned on or off.

There is a Vista Version folder in the download that works perfectly in Vista 64bit. Just make a start up shortcut so that it loads on boot and you are all set!

DKOSD

Here is a cropped screen shot of the pop up and systray icon. Notice it works with Logitech's mouse softeware loaded!



Hope this helps others out with the Caps Lock issue.


VVarwick

 

When it is on an icon appears in the icon tray.

 

Just a heads up. I tried ATI Catalyst 9.8 Display Driver for Windows Vista (64 bit) last night after running them through Mobility Modder. My framerates in HL2 dropped about 50 percent! I did not try any tweeking, it was with the default driver settings and everything in HL2 set to the max at 1920x1080 res. With ATI Catalyst 9.7 Display Driver for Windows Vista (64 bit) I get around 50-70 fps with everything maxed. With 9.8 drivers and the exact same settings I was getting 15-35 fps. I ever dropped all the settings down to low and the res to 1024x600 and made sure vsync was off and I still only got 15-35 fps in hl2 with the 9.8 drivers.

I rolled back to 9.7 and everything is fast again. Just a heads up for those that try to keep their drivers up to date.


VVarwick

 

Thank you

 

I'm seeing something with the CPU

 

My Dell Studio 1555 is on the way.. I got an amazing deal at work and the ability to have it taken out of my check for a whole year, like 15 bucks a check. I never owned a dell before and Ive heard good and bad things.. We were allowed to customize our laptops a bit and here is what I got:

-Midnight blue with edge to edge display
-Intel Core2 duo t6500 2.10ghz processor
-6gbs ram
-320gb 5400 HD
-15.6" 900p screen with 2mp cam with facial recognition
-ATI 4570 512mb graphics
-Intel a/g/n mini card
-bluetooth 2.1
-mcCaffee 15 month sub. (i wont use it)
-free upgrade to win 7
-vista 64 bit

Do others with similiar set ups run fairly well? Im coming from an Acer aspire so this is a huge step up and Im paying about the same price. my Acer had pentium dual core t3400 processor and 4gbs of ram (however only vista 32 bit) and an intel intergrated graphics chip.
Some people love dell and some not so much, Im however really excited about this computer.


Im disappointed that since I ordered it on the business side that I didnt have the option for a backlit keyboard for some reason and now I regret not getting a better processor, tho the default processor was the pentium dual core t4200 and i didnt want that. I also compared the t6600 vs the t6500 and according to cpu benchmark, the t6500 out performed the 50$ more expensive t6600 by a tiny bit so i seen no point in getting the t6600 and and the one above that didnt benchmark a whole lot higher for the price(2.4ghz).. what do you guys think?

For what i paid for this machine, I cant complain as netbooks cost the same price.... I cant til monday when I can pick it up.

PS I love that it has a slot loading DVD drive however has anyone had a problem with disc's getting stuck?

 

Hmm, never heard of this mobility modder...Does it work well? It sucks that Dell is still providing a driver from mid 2008. We should all e-mail Dell and ask that they update the driver!

I dont get it, what are you seeing?


And can someone else post their HD tune results? I still cant figure out why my CPU useage is so much higher than everyone else's for that test.

 

ya the modder works perfectly...I just got the catalyst version upgraded from 8. something to 9.8 without any problems on Win 7...

 

Cool, I'll try that out later...We should still all e-mail Dell and complain about the lack of ongoing driver support anyways though. I mean, this is a new laptop for crying out loud, and the driver supplied is from mid 2008.

 

Hey, here's my HD tune results...it was done while browsing on firefox...does tht make a diff??

 

My CPU useage is still much higher (how can you have negative CPU useage?) without doing anything in the background. Task manager doesnt show anything eating up my CPU cycles, but HD tune seems to consistantly show high CPU useage. I defragment often (switched to Perfecdisk 10 Pro, from Diskeeper 2009) and its free of malware of any sort...What else could it be? Does yours show up to be in UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA 133) under the info tab? Because I thought that Ultra ATA was for the older PATA standard, not SATA-II like our drives.

 

ya even I was wondering abt the negative CPU.!!...mine does show the same UDMA Mode 6(Ultra ATA 133)..how much is ur CPU usage shown as in HD tune?

 

mid twenties to mid thirties, even though task manager shows nothing else going on.

 

thts quite a lot...I did my test twice...both times it showed -1% CPU usage(once without browsing, and once with)...maybe tht is not to be trusted with...

 

Yeah...A processor cant have negative useage, its either working or not. Maybe its just HD tune thats screwey.