Dell Studio 1557

I have the same machine. I detected sound card driver causing youtube to crash but it only happen if the sound driver itself crashed (no sound when playing video). If no welcome sound playing at windows welcome screen (logon screen), that means sound card driver has crashed. It can be fixed by simply restart the windows. It not bothered me much because it not happen frequently and it only happen when windows start. Updating the sound card driver can reduce the frequency of the sound card driver to crash.

I still use the pre-installed windows 7 home premium. Some pre-installed drivers caused problem and need to be updated:
1) Intel Wifi 5300 (I use driver from Intel - the one with utility, not drivers only)
2) Bluetooth
3) Ricoh firewire - revert to legacy driver (manually select while 'updating' firewire driver) - original driver caused slow transfer rate (produced paging error in event viewer) if you connected to storage via firewire.
4) BIOS updated to A03 - no problem with original BIOS but this new BIOS provide 'display dimming when idle' functionality.
5) ATI video - no problem with original driver.

kizwan

 

Occasionally i had problems with no sound at startup, I fixed it by loading up IDT and the sound would come back, no need to restart. So far since i've disabled hardware on flash, my PC hasn't crashed yet. Fingers crossed.

 

Guys I really need help with this, I'm getting nowhere. Dell have had 3 attempts at trying to fix this - a 1.5 hour Dell Connect session, an afternoon with a technician who replaced parts, and a further 30 minute Dell Connect session. The laptop is still crashing on fullscreen web content, it gets too hot and the fan is always on at least medium (noisy), even when the laptop is idle.

I don't want this laptop anymore, I don't care if they can fix all these problems anymore (which it's obvious they can't), this is just one awful experience and I've wasted a stupid number of hours on the phone with them, dealing with broken English with some. They're now saying they will come collect the laptop, fix it and return it within 7 days. They were meant to come collect it today and I just got a call saying it has been changed to tomorrow. I am pulling out my hair and I want to return it for a refund immediately.

Help!! :*(

 

Can I sell it on eBay/gumtree?

 

if you selling it, get rid of it sooner than later.

Have you tried reinstalling windows? What temp are you experiencing at idle? Around 50c seems to be the norm. If you have the 6 cell battery try raising you laptop (e.g. sit the battery on the edge of a book).

Other than the youtube crash i experienced couple of days ago, I haven't had any crashes....i've had it for a week now.

 

Thanks for the info. Which hardware did you disabled? I have turned it on (almost) 24/7 since I bought it, my laptop has not crashed yet and it has been a month now. Except a couple of bluescreen caused by software I use.

I noticed that GPU fan stuck at 30% even while playing games. When playing games, GPU temperature can increase to 95 degrees celcius. I use GPU-Z software to log the temperature. I use cooling pad.

kizwan

 

Flash Player: right click on a flash window and disable hardware acceleration, under settings.

 

Finally, a breakthrough. Spoke with a guy and his manager today and they've agreed to give me a refund, mostly based on the fact that I paid for Next Business Day service and they were unable to fix the laptop after the 2 dell connect sessions and the on site technician. However someone came to collect it for repairs today after a previous phone call and now they have to return it to me from the Service Depot, so I can then have it collected by the Warehouse. Red tape nightmare but at least it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully for you others, Dell will wake up to this and release the drivers to fix the underlying issue.

 

Guys, I dread risking being a false prophet-but I think I might have found the solution! I trawled all the forums and ended up finding something that's worked for Studio 1747 users. I followed what’s been done there and I'm delighted to say that it really does seem to have worked for me. There were certain videos in youtube that were guaranteed to crash for me before and now don't-after playing them again and again on battery only.



Better still, previously, before crashes, the picture was ever so slightly jumpy. That has disappeared too and the video is a joy to behold! I'm crossing my fingers that this lasts for me and that it obviously works for everyone else. Here's what to do:



1) Download the latest driver from ATI:



http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/9-12/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx?&lang=English



If you’re eagle-eyed, this is actually for DESKTOP ATI cards. This is no mistake. But it worked for these guys and it worked for me. I also noticed that there is a slightly newer version. However, my thinking was I would just do exactly what had worked for these guys. Again, it worked for me.



2) The files need to be modded BEFORE installation. Use this:



http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php



Follow the instructions exactly. For Windows 7 you DO need to disable UAC (it says you only need to do this for Vista)



3) Install Beta2 of Flash 10.1 from here:



http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/



4) Don’t forget to reboot



And that’s it. Works perfectly for me (with the hardware acceleration ticked in Flash). Fingers crossed it works for everyone else too (and that it’s not only temporary). Go forth and test!

 

Can you play this video? Of course with battery only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO_5HvnFEv0

EDIT: oops!! sorry, that video actually HD 720p. :wink:

 

Kizwan, I think my machine froze before a couple of times previously even at HD 720p. Anyway, tried that video and it played fine

 

Good to hear that now you can play HD (streaming) video with battery only. I hope this problem lies with the driver which you fixed it by updating the driver. But if I'm not mistaken 1080p video require more processing power to render it in fullscreen mode.

Which display do you have? Is it 15.6" Full HD(1080p)WLED or 15.6" 720p WLED display?

kizwan

 

I have the full HD 1080 WLED and it's the full screen 1080 videos that were mainly my problem-they all play perfectly now. I just played the one you suggested as a test specially for you!

 

I can report my system has not crashed on ati 10.1 driver. I've also tried the kizvan video (my code the girl was boring), it played fine along with other HD.

 

im worried, i have had no issues but it seems everyone else has!

 

Maybe with windows 7 professional don't have this kind of problem. After all this problem lies with drivers/software. Are you sure you have played HD video (youtube) in fullscreen & with battery only?

I have updated to latest drivers, version 10.2, using mobility modder tool. Still testing.

kizwan

 

How did you get it work with 10.2.Mobility Modder hasnt worked since the 9.12s.

 

I found this post:-
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardw...ns-how-install-latest-ati-drivers-laptop.html

Just need to add our Hardware IDs in the .inf file. Without this step, drivers will failed to install.

kizwan

 

Nice. Im using the 8.70 now so no need.

 

I haven't gotten any crashes since I updated my ati driver (8.683.2.0)...but VERY rarely (only happened a couple times in the last 2 weeks), when I unplug/replug the a/c adapter in the middle of a video, the computer will just....shut off. Literally just click off.

Anyone else experiencing this? Granted, I prefer this over the usual BSoD/freezing and twitching, but that isn't saying much!

 

here try the 10.3's out

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=461001


They work great.No need to Mod

 

I think the flash player 10.1 beta that fixed the problem. Because prior updating the flash player, it still crashed occasionally if watching (youtube) 1080p video in full screen even after updating to 10.2 drivers. Once the drivers recovered, I can resume watching the same video without any problem (same thing happen with original driver).

P/S: I know 10.3 beta has leaked out. Just can't let this go.

kizwan

 

The Flash Player 10.1 beta helps but it is NOT the solution. I updated to this and was still having problems. Only when I updated drivers did my problems melt away...

 

So far so good after 10.3 Only one small problem...the screen doesn't seem to turn off when the lid is closed.

 

Scratch that.. Now after a re-boot it does turn off.
These quirky things really bug me about this machine...

 

Regarding the latest Flash player 10.1 beta 2
Sorry if this is a dumb question but as they are listed on the site as separate downloads do I need to install both the plug in and active-x download options.
Also regarding the 10.3 beta video card drivers.
Do these install without having to use the mobility Modder program.

 

I believe you need to install the activex plug-in if you use IE as your browser.

No modding is required for the beta 10.3 ati driver

 

I can't find the download link for 10.3. The google docs folder is showing up empty.

 

i have conected a 23in lcd monitor connected via HDMI also the audio is transfered via de HDMI cable. but the monitor has crappy sound.
Can i have the sound via de HDMI cable AND the regular output plug??

i have managed to have one or the other. but not both at the same time.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PWCP4AZN

 

thank you

 

So, in summary, the throttling does occur, the overheating is still an issue, but there are a few software workarounds for people who don't stress the gpu to get acceptable performance out of their computer?

Oh, and dell gave me a full refund. Finally. Only took them a month to process it.

 

I don't think there is workaround for throttling issue except get replaced with new unit or full refund. This looks like more to hardware defect.

kizwan

 

fwiw, it appears that most i7-720qm machines with a decent graphics card (or a HOT one), has a throttling issue - either the graphics card, poor heat dissipation, a (under)voltage issue, or something - I'm going to jump on the i5 bandwagon.

 

If I were you (if I have enough budget), I would go with i7-powered desktop. i7-i5 laptop still new in the market & still have problem here & there. I consider myself lucky because I don't have problem with throttling. Honestly, I just bought dell studio 1557 because the price was within my budget & it support virtualization technology.

I hope you have better luck with i5.

kizwan

 

Well, I did go with a high end c2d machine, but there were so many things wrong with it (keyboard, deal pixels, hard drive noise) that I returned it hoping to order a replacement immediately, rather than hope it was 'repaired' properly - but newegg ran out of stock! So I'm pretty much stuck getting an i5 if I want a warranty and not a refurb. And asus warranties are awesome - 2 years + 1 year accidental? Can't beat that, considering the price of the laptop is usually lower than sony/dell/hp as well ...

 

Hi, I´ve read almost the whole 100 pages. I bought this laptop about 3 months ago and I´m worried about the temperatures. My cpu (i7 720) is about 48-50 degrees while surfing the net. I bought a notebook cooler http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2865

and I don´t know why, but the temperatures stay almost the same. I think that the problem is that the laptop is not horizontal when I use it on the cooler, and I think It´s designed to be horizontal. What do you think?
What can I do to lower the temperatures?
Thank you

 

48-50c is not bad while Internet surfing. If you are hitting a lot of pages which contain Flash animations, your CPU will hit some processing causing it to be warm. My Core i5 runs about 10c cooler but it's a smaller chip, pushing out less heat.

If you are really concerned, you could contact Dell or look at some of the other threads which talk about applying new thermal paste to the CPU and/or GPU.

 

50C is nothing. I'm running Debian Squeeze on mine (got it about 2 weeks ago) and according to the acpi output it is running at 64C idling. I can get it down to about 60C if I turn on Virtualbox running windows 7 in a vm. It never drops below that though. I turned it off overnight, turned it back on and it was up to 60C within 10 minutes. Fan goes strong about 75% of the time with it cutting back occassionally, but not often.

Sounds like 60C isn't that unusual from reading about Acer and Asus laptops with the i7 as well though.

Does this match up with what most people are experiencing? It's well within the spec but still not a fan of it being so hot.

 

Basically agree with Wildman comments.
46 – 50 deg are normal idle temps for the i7 720 and they will probably not go much lower even with a notebook cooler.
However I would expect the cooler to help when stressing your cpu where temps can go > 80
Stress your cpu and make a note of the max temperature then do the same test with your cooler, hopefully the temps should be a little lower.
Air is drawn through the vents underneath the laptop and then blown out of the vent at the back. Hopefully your cooler is blowing air into the vents underneath your laptop and not sucking the air out. Yes it does help if you can raise the rear of the laptop. (This is done naturally if you have the larger capacity battery) although you should not need to do this if your cooler is working correctly.
Finally, I have copper modded my machine and can confirm that it does help, particularly in reducing the gpu temps, although it is not for the faint hearted as you have to take the laptop completely apart.

 

The one thing that does concern me is that I notice the idle temp goes up by about a degree every 1-2 days. Any thoughts on that? Doesn't really make sense to me.

 

Something is wrong that should not happen.
Your previous post suggests your idle temps to be a little higher than normal, are you sure the processor is idle, cpu temps will increase by quite a few degs even if the processor usage is only 5-10%.
I would recommend that you monitor the situation over the next few days and if temps continue to rise I would contact dell for advice. It may be poor application or breakdown of the thermal paste, they may suggest changing the processor heat sink/fan assembly.

 

Yeah, it does seem very odd. I'll keep an eye on it for sure. I just got it 2 weeks ago so can't imagine its already breaking down though.

I'm wondering if its because of the video card more than the processor though. Debian's latest release doesn't work with ATI's driver which has the most power management and throttling support(they don't support xorg 1.7.4 yet).

Oh, and no doubt the processor is seeing at least 5-10% with a virtual machine running, so maybe the idle temps aren't that far off after all.

 

Hi To everyone!

I wanna buy a 1557...
but when i was speaking with the seller , he said the chipset(...) of this model will stop working . Because the configuration of this model is so high instead of its price. please if you are sure tell its not true. please say its only a gossip. if you have a one......
i wanna buy it as soon as its possible.
please guide me via email(immediately)
E_mail: [email protected]
i will thank you for this really.....

 

What do you mean by "stop working"? do you mean its not reliable and it will fail or its will be made redundant because it will be replaced by a new chipset?

I have not read about chipset failure yet, i have the PM55 chipset (my 1557 is about 2 weeks old).

 

Hi
I formatted my HDD and installed new win7. but now i want to use ""Dell factory image restore""
this is the instruction:

1. Step 1 Turn on your computer and immediately press "F8." This will take you to the "Advanced Boot Options" menu.
2. Step 2 Press the down arrow until "Repair" is highlighted, and then press "Enter."
3. Step 3 Choose the language you wish to proceed in, and then click "Next." If necessary, log in as an administrative user and then click "OK."
4. Step 4 Select "Dell Factory Image Restore" and then click "Next." When you get to this window, confirm that you want to restore the computer, and click the "Yes, reformat hard drive" option.
5. Step 5 Wait while the computer restores itself to factory condition. This can take roughly 10 minutes. You will be notified on screen when the restore process is complete and be asked to restart the computer.
6. Step 6 Click "Finish" to restart computer.

The problem is that I see this Page:

And there is not ""Dell Factory Image Restore""
What should I do?

 

You can't. It only available with pre-installed windows that came with your laptop. Unless you has created disk/flash rescue disk using Dell DataSafe Local Backup software before formatting your HDD, you will unable to restore your windows.

I haven't try this, but you can try to set the rescue partition bootable.

kizwan

 

Thanks for your answer. i did try to set the rescue partition bootable. It does not work.

Can I use someone's else ""rescue disk"" ?
if YES, does it exist on internet so I can download it?

 

Ok, I´m going to convert some video to mp4 format. That will use the 100% of the CPU. I will post the temperatures I get later. Could some else post his temperatures?

 

Yes i mean that it will crash(the seller said: because it gets hot to much and will...!!) and sth like this...
however if anyone has found any defects of this model tell it,immediately ,please

And:in this level (price of 1557) which Brand and Model do you think is better ro good ?(Sony fw series,....)

my email:[email protected]

however THANK YOU VERY MUCH...