Dell Studio 1557

feels good, right?

 

WOW!! What is that 3 of them now?

 

Have flashed bios twice without issue, bit of a worry for next time round. Why does this happen?

 

Successfully updated A02 to A03 without any problem. It happen when trying to update A03 to A04. Try it twice, always hung at block 67 of 80. I don't thing there is a defect with our BIOS, because if it is, recovery process will not be successful. I think it have to do with windows. I'm still using pre-loaded Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

kizwan

 

Sure does, i very much appreciate your help

Yeah i did everything i could to prepare, turned off and shut down AV, and services not needed, disconnected wireless and so on.

Same here, also flashed a good few work dell's at least 75 this year and had no issues.

Well when mine crashed and i flashed it while recovering. Why did you need to do it twice?

 

The first time it happen, I recover it with A03.

kizwan

 

kizwan;

I found two files in temp file (FLASHABL.bak and PHLASH).But i can't find BIOS.wph. How can i extract this file.

 

Please refer to my signature (link #2). I execute the BIOS update utility in guest OS (VMware). You should see BIOS1.WPH file in temporary folder.

kizwan

 

I have a wee problem with my keyboard and wonder if anyone can help. I mangaged to pick up a backlit keyboard for next to nothing and fitted it without problems today. I'm very happy with it and it everything works perfectly apart from what follows.

The function keys are a bit different. Instead of the 'switch screen' being on F1 it's on F8. Also, the playback keys (F8-F12) are not there. F10 is my disc eject key and I have 'num lock' where the eject key was before.

The laptop seems to be still configured for the old keyboard. Can I change the machine so it works exactly in unison with the new keyboard? I'm not overly bothered as I really like the backlit function and I can go into quickset and return the keys to the standard function key (ie not 'multimedia) settings. But it would be nice to have complete functionality.

I did start swapping the keys over from my old keyboard but the finish is ever so slightly different so I'd rather avoid that too. Advice appreciated.

 

Did you try uninstalling Quickset and re-installing with the new keyboard installed?

 

I was thinking about installing an aftermarket back lit keyboard, can get them online for around AU$30. Would appreciate if you let me know if problems have been resolved

 

Thanks for the idea. TBH, I actually prefer the original functionality-so I'm just going to swap the keys over. If I change my mind I'll try the uninstall/install

 

hey guys check this driver... http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1253/1/

 

hello, i just received my studio 1557 yesterday. When I played a online shooting game (very light, i got 100 fps) - the screen freezed several times and the pixels started to mess up terribly. I ran Win update, restarted the laptop, tried again and it still happened. can anyone give me a solution to this?

Win 7 64 bit
core i7 720qm
4g ddr 3
ati mobility radeon hd 4500/5100 (that's wat is is in dxdiag, i purchased with hd 4750)
bios a04

 

What game was.Did you notice a lot of heat coming from the computer before it froze?

 

it's Cross Fire. Here's the system requirements http://crossfire.z8games.com/downloads2.aspx
My 8-year-old pc runs it smoothly, so i dont know what really happen
the laptop was not very hot, i'm still able to surf webs while the game is running. it's only freeze while i'm gaming.

 

Yeah,It should play that game with no problem.

Have you checked for any patches for the game?

Are you using that latest 10.3a preview driver from ATI.

 

you mean this one?

i just tried it, still not working. The Catalyst Control Center didn't even open!!!
and after it freezes (usually after 20 mins gaming), the game is minimized to the taskbar but i still hear the sound going

 

I think just software/driver issue. You can try re-install windows or re-install ATI driver (make sure you do clean uninstall before re-install).

When I first got my laptop, I need to re-install/update preloaded driver because they seems to be buggy.

kizwan

 

hey guys any way we can overclock mobiltiy radeon hd 4570????

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=461001&page=13

 

Follow the instructions here http://twisted-reviews.com/overclocking-ati-mobility-radeon-hd4570-hd4650-hd4670/

 

My sony vaio F11 I7 died today. So again I am looking for a new laptop. I loved the F11 but got scare because of the defects. F11 never overheated and was always stable while it worked. Link to post where I explained what went on.

Dell 1557 was my first option: ( Costco Deal) but I got worried after reading about all those heating problems and video stability issues.
Have the heating issues been corrected by DELL?
Anyone has any idea when this model will be refreshed with heating dissipation improvements?

Thank you in advance.

 

hello umpire,
it all depends on the purpose u r using the laptop for...
core i7 720qm is having excellent application performance.
but as u can see when it comes to gaming mobility radeon hd 4570 is not the right card for this purpose.
the only problem which i find with the dell studio 1557 is it is a bit warmer than the laptops with c2d and core i5 series. but will surely deliver better performance than those one large applications.
infact when i say mobility radeon hd 4570 is not that great because its not bad but there are better alternatives than this. (if u are doing 3d modelling or editing then all the gaming cards have their own limitations and are almost similar in performance too )

bottomline : dell studio 1557 apart from its graphics card is a high end laptop and cheap as well.
if u r getting similar config with similar price and a better gfx card (aggestion ati mobility 5xxx series) may be a better choice if u want an extreme all rounder.

 

overclocking did work.. 3dmark 06 score increased from 4449 to 4600 with a small tweak.. wei also went up by one point on aero to 5.1.
what should be core clock to memery clock ratio prefferd?

note: new core clock 722
memory clock 850
band width gone up to 13.6gb/s

no notable difference in temperature though.. may be 2-5 degress

 

I´ve been reading dell forums and I´m really surprised because there is an incompatibility issue with this lapotop. Try to wath an Hd video on youtube with the laptop unplugged and full screen. It freezes!!!! I´m going to try to get a refund or to get the 1558, but I don´t know if it will be possibly. Try it and share your experiences.

By the way, the cooper mod lowers the temps when iddle? Can you share your experiences with the copper mod?
Thank you

 

Saw the posts about that. I saw somewhere that if you turn off Powerplay in the ATI control panel(as in turn off power saving mode) it won't die anymore.

No clue as I'm running linux and so far I've been lucky enough to not experience any crashes.

 

This is considered old news. It can be fixed by updating ATI Catalyst (to 10.1, 10.2 or 10.3a) & also by installing Flash player 10.1 beta 2. (Please read from page 101 in this thread)

Actually, when it crashed, the ATI Catalyst driver was crashed. Also, it doesn't happen in linux only windows. So, it is driver & software issue, not hardware.

kizwan

 

i know this is a stupid question but...How do you change the Fn key so I can have F1, F2, ... keys to be set as default?

 

If I'm understand correctly, for example, to increase volume, you want to use Fn+F9 instead just F9, right? If so, just change it in BIOS.

kizwan

 

go to windows mobility center. ( search in the start menu for windows mobility center) .and there u will find the options under the dell customized section.

 

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

beta 3

 

Thank you for the update. Beta 2 is working properly, so I'm not going to install beta 3 for now.

kizwan

 

To get to the mobility centre press the windows key+x, you can change it there.

 

Is this al lthe same for the 1558

 

Can anyone recommend a particular cooling pad that works well with the 1557?

 

So I got a response to my tech support email about system temps and they want to replace the fan and processor. My temps are averaging about 59-60C idle and around 61-65C just easy surfing, with up to ~70C when watching videos.

I'm thinking that is close enough to normal that it doesn't make sense to risk refurbed parts being put in my laptop. Has anyone had a system repair and gotten significantly better temps?

 

What core you got?

 

I think they are too high. I get an average of 50-52ºC when surfing and listening music. By the way, I don´t know how, but today I got the lowest temperatures in iddle I have ever got. The laptop was the whole day turn on. I went to the gym and I wanted to check my temps. Iwas just downloading stuff with the jdownloader. See what I got:

http://picasaweb.google.es/lh/photo/igz8T9G2gEW_iU71n4mNig?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.es/lh/photo/rnTyzNue6_1eF1jx68iK5w?feat=directlink

 

core i7 720qm. granted those temps are with the laptop running for a few days straight, but doesn't seem to matter as it quickly reaches those temps and stays there after starting. can't say i've ever seen it break 85C more than maybe twice.

With the above mentioned temps I have 5-6 apps open, but not actively doing anything(firefox, thunderbird, etc).

jaime, are you using a cooler or any mod'ing? My average room temp is 73F as well.

 

Dell studio 1557 is integrated with the DDR3 memory support having FSB of 1333; it comes with a 4GB extendible to 8GB according the requirement. Dell studio 1557 notebook has a great CPU performance, an HD display.

 

I ve got this one:

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?category_id=1667&product_id=2865

 

I have modded mine with a GPU and CPU shim.I used IC Diamond for my thermal compound.
All of my temps are with a room temperature of 70 degrees fahrenheit.I also did a clean install of Win 7 HP 64bit over the weekend after I did the mods.(I was having a grub boot loader problem thought I would fix that too )
Any way.....

On battery at full Idle.I keep my CPU at 30% while on battery.


On AC at full Idle..(CPU @ 100%)



I will update my stressed temps later tonight when I get time.

 

i had recently stressed my cpu and max temp was around 75 degrees

 

Hi OneCool, hope your mod went OK.
Did I read your post correctly when you stated that you have also shimmed your CPU.

 

I bought the 1557 a week before the 5470 came out on the dell website and have the 4570. I really love the machine and play mostly strategy games. What games are totally unplayable with the 4570? So far I have played supreme commander 2, a bunch of total war games and civ 4 and they all have played well with high settings.

 

Actually it can play almost all dx 10 or older games.In some games u may need to lower the settings.About dx 11,5470 is what 4570 was for dx 10.
4570 as well as 5470 are one of the best entry level gpus and i don't think there is much difference between 5470 and 4570 unless dell uses ddr5 in the former.
And ofcourse 5470 is a directx 11 card while 4570 is DX10.

 

did we ever get the subwoofer issue on 1557 fixed?

 

Hi, if my recollection is correct, when this issue was discussed way back in this thread it turned out to be not a common issue but was fixed by dell replacing the subwoofer on the users laptop.

 

any idea how to set up the subwoofer setting, like i can hear sound from the grill on the bottom...but now sure if i need a different setting for it... any help would be appreciated